Overview
Some tips for the Close Encounters DLC. Also Chasm 24 map.
Unwanted Visitors
The Close Encounters DLC introduces Aliens.
These pesky beings are disguised as your regular Patients. They will clog up your Diagnosis queues, barging their way to the front. If they get a full diagnosis, they will switch clothes and appear as a new Patient.
To get rid of Aliens, you need to send them home. First you need to spot them. Here are some hints:
Aliens make a distinctive “fzzt!” noise. If you hear this, you know there is one in the vicinity. If you are blessed with a good ear, you might be able to pinpoint them by sound alone.
This is the most obvious way to spot an Alien. Their disguise will flicker, showing the Alien briefly. This is accompanied by the “fzzt!” noise.
Aliens will pick through humans’ litter out of curiosity. Any Patient who takes the bag out of the bin is an Alien.
Unfortunately, Aliens can also use rubbish bins normally as well. So a Patient using a bin normally does not rule them out.
It appears that only a specific “breed” of Alien is interested in the trash. This breed of Alien also frequently drops litter on your floor, a la Jumbo McNally. The “vanilla” breed of Alien seems completely uninterested in bins and never drops litter, no matter how long I watch them. I do not have enough data on my Alien test subjects to say if this is definitively 100% true. Regardless, be highly suspicious of Patients who seem to be prolific litterers.
Aliens do a full-on swap of name, appearance, disease etc when they reach a diagnosis. However, they can also do a cosmetic switch at other times as well.
In the photo above is an Alien of the “litterer” breed, dropping its rubbish on my floor and looking smug about it.
And in the second picture is the same Alien, after switching cosmetic appearance.
And the third shot is the exact same Alien again, having switched back to its original colour. It is showing it’s “litterer breed” instincts by going straight for the bin. And dropping more rubbish on my floor.
Get out of here, you filthy creature.
Besides the disguise malfunction, this is the most reliable way to catch Aliens.
Aliens pick Diagnosis rooms at random and can skip the GP. A Patient who is queuing for Cardiology, yet has zero diagnosis progress, is an Alien. This is one of the most useful ways to scan your hospital. All you have to do is look at the Patient list. If a zero diagnosis Patient is in any room other than Reception or GP Office, you know they are an imposter.
In the image above, see that this Patient with zero diagnosis is headed right for General Diag.
They are of course an Alien, because this behaviour is impossible for a normal Patient. Every Patient must go from Reception to the GP – unless they are an Alien. Use the Patient list like this to quickly eliminate Aliens.
A Patient who leaves a diagnosis room and doesn’t then head to the GP, is also an Alien. Normal Patients cannot go from Cardio to Fluid Analysis without visiting the GP in between.
Check a Patient’s log if they are suspicious. Any skipped GP visits will confirm it’s an Alien.
Aliens have a probe which they sometimes whip out. The animation isn’t too obvious however.
In the picture above, the Alien is using their probe. They are also skipping the GP and headed to General Diag. Note: your staff use wooden magical wands in a similar idle animation. The two are not to be confused. The alien probe looks like a Playstation Move.
I cannot explain what happened to my Robo-Janitor in that picture to cost him his legs, but I am not ruling out that Alien probe being responsible.
Aliens force their way to the front of the queue. If you see queuing Patients suddenly getting demoted in the line, an Alien has barged in. Patients almost never get demoted otherwise. (The exception being for VIP Patients, or if that Patient is obviously off to the loo.)
Aliens can mimic any disease. They can use any object. They can have all the statuses associated with Patients. They can appear to be in low health, to be thirsty, hungry, etc. What they won’t do is die, but this isn’t very helpful to you.
Aliens can also appear – briefly – to have a diagnosis. They will change skins before going into any Treatment room however.
One guarantee is that Emergency Patients will never be Aliens. Nor will your staff, touring VIPs, or the guest lecturers.
More Alien Info
You can lure Aliens by exploiting their curiosity for bins. Put your bins in groups, where you have a good line of sight to them.
Because Aliens barge to the front, they are somewhat more likely to be either the Patient in the room, or the Patient at the head of the queue. Direct your suspicions there first. This does not guarantee that the Alien isn’t the one who is third in the queue however.
It’s harder to spot an Alien in a swirling group of people. If you can keep your Patients standing in orderly lines, this makes it easier to see who the imposter is.
It’s a real nuisance when Aliens are in the Ward, because apparently the Nurses won’t let me in the Ward. Instead I have to wait a looooong time until it comes out again. If you spot an Alien but don’t have time for it, make sure to name it ALIEN MEATSACK or similar before you go. Then go deal with that fire instead.
Aliens will never normally be seen around the Treatment rooms, so you can safely ignore the Treatment wing of your hospital.
It’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to see this in motion, but Aliens can end up with less diagnosis after using a Diagnosis room than when they went in. You’ll probably only spot this if you’re already tracking a suspicious Patient.
In the above example, an Alien has gone from General Diag to Cardio. Not only have they skipped the GP, they finish their Cardio session with less diagnosis than before. (Note the dates.)
Another downside to Aliens is they don’t actually pay you for anything. However, all the info at your disposal in the Finance and Log screens will show them as paying. So this sadly cannot be used as a means to track them down. That is, unless your hospital and bank balance are still small enough for you to clearly see the discrepancy in your available cash. With large hospitals and large outgoings, this becomes pretty much impossible.
Aliens can change their mind about what room they want to visit. Aliens headed to the GP can suddenly change track and go to the Ward instead. You’re unlikely to spot this unless you’re already tracking a suspicious Patient.
On the plus side, Aliens do actually leave your hospital, eventually. They appear as having “no appointment” when they decide it’s time to go.
Under normal circumstances, Aliens will not go through treatment. As seen above, they will deduct diagnosis. If they do naturally get a full diagnosis, they will change name, disease and appearance shortly after.
The above shots show an extremely rare case of an Alien not transforming after diagnosis, and actually getting as far as the treatment room. This is likely because the Alien was being actively spied upon and manually sent to treatment. Rather than go through treatment, this Alien sneaked out of the hospital instead.
Above is an example of an Alien actually going through Treatment, which is phenomenally rare. Aliens cannot die, so treatment always succeeds in these anomalous happenings. Like the other example, the Alien was manually sent to treatment and in view the whole time. The Alien proceeded to leave the hospital like a normal Patient.
Regardless of the above, it is safe to say, you can completely ignore the treatment wing when Alien hunting.
Chasm 24 map
This very large and rather challenging level features disaster stabilisers. These are a pain in the butt, requiring your Robo-Janitors to constantly supervise them. The big problem is that if one machine fails, it damages the others, leading to a chain of disaster after disaster.
The above totally-not-to-scale map shows which stabilisers are where. Do yourself a favour by avoiding unlocking the very damaging ones. The Earthquakes are probably the worst for setting off chain disasters. On the other hand, Frogs and Ghosts are completely negligible.
