Overview
In this guide you will learn everything about wickedness mechanic in Red Algorithm
What is Wickedness?
At some point in Red Algorithm you might have noticed that some kind of “wickedness” is mentioned, but what is that exactly and why should you care?
This guide covers all aspects of this unusual mechanic.
Wickedness is basically a metric (a number) that measures how good or bad you are. You can think of Karma in Fallout or in other games (or in real life). Of course, in Red Algorithm it’s implemented in a very simple way, but it’s there for RGP fans and it might be expanded later.
Here are few examples of what this number might mean:
- Wickedness from 1 to 25 means that you are kinda bad / evil
- Wickedness from 26 to 50 means that you are bad / evil
- Wickedness from 51 to 100 means that you are very bad / evil
- Wickedness from -1 to -25 means that you are kinda good
- Wickedness from -26 to -50 means that you are good
- Wickedness from -51 to -100 means that you are very good
Now that you know what it’s, let’s move on and see how to see it in the game.
How to see my current Wickedness?
You can see it on the left side of the main interface (25 on the screenshot below):
Wickedness value is shown as a red pentagram if it’s larger than 0 (when you are evil), and as a yellow cross when the value is actually negative (when you are good).
You might not see it in many cases because by default it’s shown only “when important” in settings, so you can go ahead and set it to “always” if you wish.
“When important” in settings means that wickedness will be displayed only when it has some practical game implications (more on this below), which is the way you usually would want to see it in a regular game and as a regular player.
What affects it?
In the current version of the game (version 1.1.1) there are 4 things that affect wickedness:
- Weapons
- Perks
- Cursed or Blessed status of your weapon
- 1 weapon update (Life Recycling gives +25 to it, it’s an evil thing)
Later there might be more things that affect it.
With weapons it’s quite simple, you can see how a particular weapon affect wickedness by expanding its stats when you choose it, here is an example:
You can also visit the official game website ( redalgorithm.com ), go to the weapons section there, and explore all the weapon stats if you wish to do so.
On the screenshot above, Shaitan launcher adds 25 to your wickedness, as “Shaitan” means “an evil spirit” in Arabic / Islamic culture. Other examples of “bad” weapons are: Shark (+25), Phobos (+25), Vandal (+50), and Diablo (+100). Here are a few examples of some “good” weapons: Genesis (-25), Malleus (-75), and Saviour (-100).
Ok, so what about perks? How do they affect wickedness?
Unfortunately, this information is hidden at the moment. The only way to figure this out for a player right now is to watch how your wickedness changes every time you pick a new perk. However, you can kinda predict what perks are good and what are bad.
Here is the internal file that shows how perks affect it:
Note that this might change in the next versions.
Why a certain weapon or a perk is good or bad? it’s subjective. It’s based on the developer’s feelings about this particular weapon or perk, and partially on its name / design.
Lastly, the cursed or blessed status of a weapon can change your wickedness. A blessed weapon subtracts 50 from it, and a cursed weapon adds 50.
Practical Implications
In the beginning, there were only 2 practical implications of wickedness:
- It affected the power of heal from Paladin perk
- It affected the power of fireballs from Demonic Possession perk
With Paladin perk it’s quite simple, its healing power equals your wickedness. So, if wickedness = 75, that is how many HP you will heal with it at a time.
The whole idea of wickedness actually grew from the Paladin perk, because I thought it would be funny if instead of healing you, it will damage you if you are an evil person.
Perk Demonic Possession gives you the ability to launch fireballs from two tentacles that are added to you (inspired by Sarah Kerrigan…) every few seconds. So, the damage of each fireball equals your wickedness in this case, making an evil person stronger.
A bit later in the Version 1.1.1 two more things were added:
- Diablo’s damage equals wickedness
- Malleus’s (hammer…) damage equals negative wickedness multiply by 3
So now there are two weapons that are clearly good and bad. It’s still in the testing stage and can be changed in future updates, I just want to try out this idea. In any case, as Diablo is pretty much unusable in 99% cases (except if you are doing Lord of Destruction achievement with it, or if you pick it at level 30), and Malleus is not very popular either, this stays kinda a niche thing.
When wickedness is set to “when important” in settings, this is exactly what it means, the fact that you have either Paladin, Demonic Possession, Diablo, or Malleus. Those are the only cases when you will see wickedness by default.
Future Plans
I am definitely planning to expand the use of wickedness in the next game updates. For example, I think it would be fun to add it to the Virus damage calculation (and, of course, keep the Osiris bonus too), as it can make generally weak and limited bio build stronger. After that, something that gives benefit to a good person should be added as well, and so on.
Wickedness, like many other things in the game, is not static, it’s an evolving mechanic. And the way it evolves depends, among other things, on players’ feedback.
Don’t hesitate to share your ideas on the discussion board in Steam community or elsewhere on how to make this mechanic even more interesting and fun.