Super Lifesteal Void

From the guy that showed you how to kill the Clucker Army and explained just about every detail of the plot comes a build guide containing the wisdom and experience of over one hundred hours of gameplay and more recursions than most would consider reasonable or sane.

Most build guides for this game amount to little more than someone saying "look at this overpowered combination I discovered, and a build I made around it". This guide will follow suit with what is quite possibly the most overpowered function of all: Super Lifesteal Void.

Void(Purge, Tap)

In addition to the standard Void goodness of damage amplification and lowering enemy damage (the latter of which half of you probably forgot it even did because the amplification is just that good), it also inflicts damage over time and lifesteal. The key here is that the lifesteal triggers from the damage over time. In other words, you'll be getting more health than you know what to do with.

The function can be seen at its weakest here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--7-yePoRVQ
It's not the fastest killing tool in the world, but it really doesn't need to be, because you simply don't die. As an added bonus, it doesn't rely on Turn(), allowing for truly potent real-time builds (in fact, you really don't even want to use your turn, because it means leaving yourself vulnerable afterwards).

Particularly astute readers will note that I specified the video showed the function at its weakest. At it's strongest, you will not only not die, but will laugh at death. The rest of this guide will be about getting there.

The first step on the road to bringing out Super Lifesteal Void's true potential is to support it with Passive Crash and Passive Bounce. These two functions reduce the amount of damage you take, thereby indirectly increasing the healing efficiency of Super Lifesteal Void and making you even more invulnerable.

In fact, you are now so insanely powerful that the only way you can possibly die is through massive quantities of user error (in other words, by screwing up big time). Assuming you are a skilled player, this is unlikely to happen often. However, since it's the only thing that can kill you, it is something we should try to guard against.

So, how can we minimize user error?

If you said "by ending the fight more quickly", you win an internet cookie.

Obviously, the best complement to a Void that makes you practically invulnerable is a big damage function that you can throw onto an enemy when your health is high and they are near death. This will speed things up and therefore make it less likely that you'll screw up somehow.

But, which big damage function should you choose?

Here are a few options:

Cull(Load) (Classic Cull)
Statistically speaking, this is probably where your mind went to first. And indeed, Classic Cull does certainly get the job done (it's not the classic big damage function for nothing!). But it is not the only option (or even necessarily the best).

Tap(Breach, Get) (Scorpion Tap)
You might be familiar with Tap as an alternative to Cull (it has a higher damage to turn cost ratio). You might also be aware that Get is supposed to increase Tap's damage (and will even reflect that while being planned during your turn), but doesn't actually give the extra damage due to a bug. What you probably don't know is that Breach overrides this bug, allowing you to have up to 375 damage Taps at a range nearly equal to Void's. It does slightly less damage at close range, but even then it's a lot (180+ minimum, and in practice usually 190+), and certainly still more turn efficient than Classic Cull. In addition, having the benefit of range allows you to keep a safe distance from enemies (compounding your already overwhelming defensive advantage) and prevents you from having to spend time running up to things to kill them (allowing you to instead spend that time Voiding for yet more healing). It is also good for gathering large amounts of cells at a time (though the sluggishness of this makes it a poor choice for gathering individual cells). This makes it a good counter to Youngladies (so that you don't have to fight as many Badcells when they die).

Oh, and it heals you, too.

The primary disadvantages of Scorpion Tap are that it costs 8 memory (Classic Cull costs 7) and is unable to destroy white walls. The latter may seem like a minor issue, but there is one section of the game where a bunch of them must be destroyed in order to advance. Technically, Super Lifesteal Void can destroy them, but it takes such an absurdly long time that if you bring Scorpion Tap (or any other variety of active Tap, for that matter) you'll probably want to make sure you have a backup function that can destroy white walls.

Don't forget to say "Get over here!" in your deepest voice when you use this one.

Tap(Crash, Get) (Taplock)
Taplock doesn't have quite the punch that Classic Cull or Scorpion Tap has, so it's not as good at the whole "killing things quickly to minimize user error" thing (its damage amplification doesn't work on itself), but it is cheaper than either of them, and can stunlock things. Like Scorpion Tap, it cannot destroy white walls.

Tap(Mask) (Ninja Tap)
This is the cheapest Tap yet. It's gimmick is that you are masked while preparing the attack. Like Taplock, its damage leaves something to be desired.

Flood(Mask) (Ninja Flood)
Flood is a deceptively efficient damage function. Like Ninja Tap above, the Mask upgrade causes you to be invisible most of the time while using it. Combined with the high fire rate, this makes you close to invulnerable while attacking. In fact, if you get the fire rate high enough, you can actually confuse haircuts into floating in place harmlessly. In addition, it is also very cheap. Unfortunately, it really doesn't kill very fast and often misses because of the sluggishness of the projectiles' speed, so it isn't great at its actual intended purpose. Also, maximizing the fire rate will give you carpal tunnel unless you're tapping both the number key and the right mouse button.

Try not to go crazy with Flooding and forget to Void things when you use this one, okay?

One of the few things that can give you a hard time are Cheerleaders. It isn't really their ability to protect other enemies that is a problem, but their ability to occasionally protect themselves while they do it. As it turns out, there is only one thing that can penetrate that shield, and it is Switch. This is convenient, because it lets you take the shield off of the thing you originally wanted to kill and put it onto yourself (not that you care about the latter, since you don't die and all).

Unfortunately, Switch is not a good active for you, because it is too slow. However, if it were put on a quicker active, it would be possible to charm things between Voids.

Ping is the fastest active, but Get is actually a better choice, because it can also be used to grab lone cells. Furthermore, with the Breach upgrade, it will be able to penetrate white walls and enemies (a feature you will be glad to have, since things have a tendency to get in your way at the least opportune moments). As yet another bonus, Get is good at destroying white walls (which is great if you brought Tap as your big damage function).

So, your utility function will be Get(Breach, Switch). It lets you counter self-shielding Cheerleaders, charm multiple enemies in rapid succession (should you so choose), and even grab cells (all without caring about what is in the way at the time).

It happens to the best of us eventually. We're all human, after all, and humans make mistakes. You didn't see the haircut coming until it was too late. You failed to pick up the cells a few too many times and now you've got twenty Cluckers shooting you at once. The Speedy Man dashed in front of your face and you didn't react quickly enough.

The point is, you're in a bad way, and Super Lifesteal Void takes a second or two to get results. What is a young woman to do?

Why, hit her panic button, naturally!

That is, of course, Mask.

In practice, you should almost never need to actually use it (since you would have to mess up a lot for the need to come up), but it's there for you, just in case. And if you're awesome enough to not need it for that, you can always use it as a damage amplifier.

Note that Passive Mask (or anything else that makes you invisible, like Ninja Flood) will hinder the recharge of your Panic Button (since Mask cannot recharge while you are invisible). This might influence which big damage function or passives you ultimately decide to go with.

Also, if things are going really badly, you can use your turn as a back-up Panic Button (but try to avoid doing so, since it forces you to leave yourself vulnerable afterwards).

You've got some memory left, so let's look at some ways you might spend it.

Ping on your Big Damage function
More turn-efficiency is always good if you can spare the memory, since it means slightly lower turn recharge times. The increased attack speed is also nice (especially if you're using something like Ninja Tap).

Mask on Cull
Cull doesn't really need more damage. The highest hit point total you'll ever see on anything other than Jerks and bosses (all of which have abilities that prevent you from killing them in one hit anyway) is 1200 (and then only with ten limiters). A triple-voided backstabbing Classic Cull already hits that mark, so there's no reason to spend more memory on damage that you'll almost never benefit from.

Ping on Mask
Less recharge time for your Panic Button. Nice.

Crash on Mask
Stun and damage amplification on your Panic Button. Not the worst choice out there, so long as you remember that Crash's damage amplification doesn't work on Tap.

Get on Mask
This is an interesting one, because it lets you use your Panic Button to ball up enemies (if you're willing to put in the time to gather them). If you gather too many, you might end up getting surrounded and trapped, but don't fear, because you can use some turn movement to get out. Note also that the pulling effect doesn't work if your lifesteal is going off, so you can put Get on Mask without it interfering with your ability to use Mask as a Panic Button.

Mask on Mask
There are probably better ways to use your second Mask, but if you live life on the wild side and like to use your Panic Button as a damage amplifier, this can work.

Passive Tap
This might seem like an auto-take because it makes you tougher, but it isn't as good for you as it first seems. The reason Crash and Bounce are so good for you is because they improve your healing to damage taken ratio (the key to your invulnerability). Passive Tap doesn't do that (it only gives you more hit points), and therefore doesn't benefit you nearly as much. It's still a good choice, though.

Passive Jaunt
As a general rule, the only times you want to be using your turn are against Stealthy Men (who are very hard to kill in real time) and Royce. Unfortunately, turn recharge means going without your invulnerability and risking death (or at least forcing you to use your Panic Button, which you would much rather save). Reducing the time it takes for your turn to recharge is therefore surprisingly useful to you.

Passive Mask
The same reasoning for Passive Jaunt applies here too. Indeed, the two synergize together well. In fact, if your Big Damage function is efficient enough and you have both Passive Jaunt and Passive Mask, it is possible to get your time spent vulnerable during turn recharge to two seconds or less! And it can also trigger in real time, as well. Just don't forget that Passive Mask will not trigger from things killed by damage over time (ie, your Void).

Passive Void
I'm not sure where you're getting the memory for this one, and you really don't benefit much from more damage (unless you're using one of the weaker big damage functions, but even then, if you're willing to invest 4 more memory to get them up to Classic Cull or Scorpion Tap's level, you're probably better off just taking one of those two to begin with). It's not a bad choice, per se, but you can probably find a better use for 4 memory.

Passive Spark
Enemies tend to ignore this, and therefore, so should you.

Passive Switch
Enemies usually ignore friendly Badcells, and they don't do any real damage because of their poor AI. They can stun things on death, but that is a minor benefit. This really only becomes useful if you're fighting Youngladies, and even then it isn't incredible. Note that it triggers on corrupted cells as well.

Passive Breach
You don't need more turn (you barely ever use your turn to begin with), and using more turn means more time spent vulnerable, which is a big no-no.

Passive Ping
If you're doing a ten limiter playthrough and trying to kill Royce with the Get(Breach) method (to be described later), this is helpful. Otherwise, this isn't a good choice for anything other than using up your last bit of memory (and even then only if you can't find a better choice among your other 1 memory functions).

Passive Flood
You're unlikely to notice the benefit unless you often find yourself masked at low health.

Passive Get
You shouldn't need this, but it can be helpful if you're running Ninja Flood, because then you're likely to destroy the cells' shields by accident (the result being that you won't have to use Utility Get as often).

Passive Load
This is an interesting (albeit unconventional) choice because Super Lifesteal Void makes a relatively stationary playstyle possible, which maximizes the benefit of Passive Load. You can even set off the packets with Void!

Passive Purge
Inflicting 10 damage when you get hit is not worth 2 memory; heck, it's not even worth 1 memory.

Passive Help
If you're seriously considering this, you really do need help (of the professional variety, that is). Scorpion Tap can do more damage for the same turn cost, and be used during real time (which is when you'll be using your big damage function 95% of the time), and is reliable. Most importantly, though, is that the only time you should ever need your turn (besides Royce) is for Stealthy Men, and the reason you want to use your turn on them is because your window for attacking them in real time is too short to stack Voids and throw a big damage function onto them. Since Passive Help replaces your build, you can't use it to stack Voids on a Stealthy Man and kill them in one turn like you can with one of the other big damage functions. So, Passive Help is useless to you.

The basic strategy you will want to employ is to repeatedly Void everything in range to minimize enemy damage and maximize your healing, pausing only to grab a cell (usually with Utility Get) or throw out the occasional big damage function as a finisher to kill things slightly faster.

What follows is threat-specific advice:

Cheerleaders
If they're protecting themselves, charm them. If they aren't, kill them.

Cluckers
They can outrange you, but you don't really care, since you'll always either have something around you to lifesteal or be free to chase them down (Passive Crash makes you immune to their slowing trails, and your Voids can slow them to a crawl).

Stealthy Men
These are the only enemies besides Royce that you'll ever want to use your turn against regularly, since it's difficult to kill them in real time (especially if they're also Sturdy). Be aware of your situation before doing this, since turn recharge is the only time you're really vulnerable.

Sybil
Be sure to charm the Cheerleaders away from her (or kill them). Other than that, she's a glorified Jerk (in both the mechanical and conventional sense).

First Canal Clucker
The first Clucker you see in the Canals (the one you can't normally attack) isn't actually a threat because he can't hurt you, but if you're like me and can't stomach the idea of not being able to kill every single thing that can be killed, pull him up to your level with Utility Get and finish him off.

The Clucker Army
If for some reason you want to kill them without exploiting the bug that makes them disappear, you'll probably have to settle for using Breach(Get, Switch) as your utility function instead of Get(Breach, Switch). It won't do it's other jobs as well, but it will be able to pull down every Clucker on that roof if you get the right positioning.

The Spine
More like "the stick". Void it to death.

Grant and Asher
Enter the room.

The Younglady Room
Stand and fight like a (wo)man. This place poses no threat to you.

Royce
First, be a good sport and let him attack you. Then, laugh at his pathetic attempts to hurt you and beat that motherclucker down with sheer brute force. Insult his fashion sense. Call him a son of a fetch. Tell him that you've seen Operators move faster than him. Inform him that you've had more challenging fights with Badcells. Try to make the experience as excruciatingly painful and humiliating for him as possible. He deserves it.

If you have that pesky memory-limiting limiter on, you'll have to scale down your build. Obviously, Super Lifesteal Void and Passive Crash are staying (which is 11 out of your available 20 memory gone already). You'll also probably want to keep Mask, which leaves you with 8 memory left.

After that, you're going to have to make some sacrifices.

You can forget about bells and whistles like Passive Jaunt or Passive Tap. You can technically use Mask to wait out self-shielding Cheerleaders, so you might be able to drop Switch, as well. Passive Bounce is a borderline case; you might be able to survive without it, but it'll be risky.

In the case of big damage functions, Ninja Flood and Ninja Tap really come into their own when you're running ten limiters, since they're just barely cheap enough to fit in if you drop things like Switch and Passive Bounce. In fact, if you want to go even cheaper, you could use Ninja Spark (Spark(Mask)), as it is like Ninja Flood but cheaper (it's also longer-ranged and more reliable, but it's not quite as good for defense and is even worse at damage). Just don't forget to bring a backup function for destroying white walls if you're using Tap as an active (Get works).

Utility Get is still useful to you, and can even serve as a Discount Damage function (150 damage before Void is nothing to sneeze at). It's multipurpose nature might even let you fit in Passive Bounce. You might need to drop either Breach or Switch though.

The only indulgence you're likely to be able to afford is Ping on Mask (which is nice, since you're more likely to need your Panic Button).

When fighting Royce (against whom lifesteal isn't very effective for some reason), if you're going without a real damage function, you can still win (albeit slowly) using Get(Breach) by standing at one end of the battlefield, using your turn when Royce gets within 2 pods' distance, hitting him with one Void and Get(Breach), running past him to the other end of the battlefield with the rest of your turn, and then repeating the process. If you have Passive Ping, you can triple void him and still pull this off. You could even try this without the Breach upgrade, but you'll have to run up to him a bit during your turn before using Get.

Here's a video showing how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQzsAgKT6VI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKBvokDTZNc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbmFJIF_S0

I claimed at the beginning that this guide would follow in the vein of other (relatively inflexible) build guides, but in truth, this transcends that. The power and convenience of Super Lifesteal Void is such that it can be inserted into many different builds alongside other powerful strategies and tactics such as conventional massive damage builds, Switch abuse, defensive passives, and more. It doesn't require duplicates or level 30 (though such things certainly help), and it really does make just about everything in the game trivial to defeat.

You now have everything you need to stare death in the face and laugh. So, get out there and show those Processes just how much of a joke they really are.

After all, what could be funnier than fighting a Jerk in melee and not only winning, but coming out of it with more health than you started with?