Difference between revisions of "Mush Play"

Revision as of 23:47, 17 January 2014

Main article: Mush. Here's various tips & tricks for Mush Play, starting you off with some advice on how to begin your conquest of the human crew (and race). Check the main articles on the Mush as well as each of the Mush skills for more detailed information.

General Advice

First and foremost, communicate.

Mush is a social strategy game. If you're alpha mush (one of the first 2) and don't work with your partner, mush are severely limited. If you're not one of the alphas, you still need to coordinate. You should probably also talk with the humans in general chat too, as they do tend to get suspicious of active people who don't say what they're doing or try to work together.

Tooltips are dangerous.

Tooltips tell you some possible mush actions. However, they don't go over any of the ramifications, and following them as they appear is very likely to get you killed as an obvious mush.

Know what your skills do.

Don't be that person who asks in general chat, "Should I take Phagocyte?" Find out how they work, ideally before you even pick them.

Don't choose your skills immediately.

Many mush skills are situational. By keeping skill slots open, you can level up some for better skills, and take what you need when you need it. Saving a slot for anonymush is particularly useful for making the humans think that there are only 2 mush when there are in fact more.

The mushroom button under your list of mush skills lets you pick your human skills.

Choose your human skills quickly so as to give you more ways to look useful while saving your AP for strategic mushery.

That mutate button that costs 3 AP? Don't click it to find out what it does.

This changes you into an obviously mush berserker. You will drop all items you are carrying, be able to do more attack damage, and no longer be able to communicate on any channels other than the mush channel. This is an endgame tactic, and will result in either you or the humans being dead shortly thereafter.

Do not create a spore in front of other people or cameras.

If you create a spore in a room with another person or a camera, everyone who comes into that room will be able to check the logs and see that you're mush. Make sure you are alone and no camera on the wall before you make spores, always.

Remember that Mush are people too: alone means completely alone.

Coordinate with other mush regarding spores.

There are lots of limits surrounding spores. Only 4 can be made a day, 2 after antispore gas, by all mush on a ship. Each mush can carry a maximum of 2 spores, which do not take up inventory slots. Any given mush can only infect one human by direct "spiking", once, per day. So if you're sporing different people or if one mush is making all the spores a ship can make, you aren't playing effectively. Coordination is a must.

Be prepared with a reason why you're dirty.

Making spores will make you dirty. Being dirty without a reason is likely to get you killed on an active ship, especially if you are a character who should never get dirty, like Finola or Paola. Best method is to pair your spore making with a legitimate human activity that has a chance to make you dirty, and say that's why.

Do not stay dirty for extended periods of time.

This is a good way to get found out as mush. You will take 4 points of damage when you shower, so putting it off as long as possible is good, but within reason. Saying you don't have the AP to shower only works for so long. Some characters can get away with staying dirty easier than others, depending on how dirty your role about the ship is.

Also, remember that Finola's "Germaphobe" makes her lose morale each turn she's dirty, so if you're a Finola Mush you will raise a lot of suspicion by staying dirty.

Do not shower a lot.

This might seem a bit contradictory after the not staying dirty tip. However, showering does do 3-5 points of damage to you. Even if you're using phagocyte to mitigate the damage by eating spores to heal, picking up and putting down the soap shows in the room logs. An observant crew may start to wonder why you're showering as often as you are, if you're not a character who should be dirty a lot.

Do not sabotage things in rooms where people don't often go.

Example: You go into the center alpha storage and sabotage the O2 tank there. It's found and fixed, and you're the only one who's been in the room, right around the time when a broken thing appeared, so now you're suspect.

Food does not nourish you

Eating any consumable will make you Fully Satisfied, but you will gain none of the benefits of the food, coffee, fruit or pill.

Beware the food test.

Mush become Fully Satisfied after eating, no matter what they eat. Humans do not become Fully Satisfied after eating a banana/pill/coffee unless they have just become able to eat again (satisfaction decreases by 1 per cycle, with a level of more than 3 making you "full"). If humans try to make you eat two bananas at once, you are being subjected to the food test.

Mush cannot become sick.

If humans eat food gone bad, they have a chance of becoming sick and throw up. If someone eats food 3 days afer it was fresh, and does not become sick (90% chance), that person is most likely a Mush. Also you can't receive illness or mental illness from killing or being witness of death. If you are turned into Mush and have illnesses, you will lose all of them at the beginning of the next cycle.

Specific Guides

• Enfilade's Way of the Mush
• Ageni's Art of the Patsy