Abomination

Sometimes, me eat whole. Sometimes, me chew.

Abomination is an unusual racial mutation with a number of unique mechanics, and has the dual distinction of having the highest number of prerequisite mutations of any mutation in the game (three), and being the only mutation in the game to require another racial mutation as a prerequisite. It is an unpopular mutation; HellMOO's metagame and general climate have left it out of favor for many years. Abomination requires Hideous Freak, Ripper and Fuck Machine.

Location

Abomination is located deep in the Sealab, where spoilers abound!

Effects

Abomination has the following effects:

   Passive: +1 Endurance
   Passive: +1 Brawn
   Passive: -2 Brains
   Passive: -2 Cool
   Passive: +3 Fish
   Passive: -2 Pistols
   Passive: -2 Rifles
   Passive: -4 Focus
   Passive: -6 Persuade
   Passive: +4 - 10 beat resistance
   Passive: +6 - 9 slash resistance
   Passive: +4 - 10 stab resistance
   Passive: +8 - 10 bullet resistance
   Passive: +1 - 4 acid resistance
   Passive: +100% strung resistance
   Passive: Cannot overdose on most drugs
   Passive: +100% radiation sickness resistance
   Passive: +100% suffocation resistance
   Passive: +80% nutrition resistance
   Passive: +60% nanite resistance
   Passive: Armor thickness capped to 4
   Passive: Ripper claws replace with Abom claws
   Passive: Semen becomes acidic, and can impregnate with chestbursters
   Passive: Constantly irradiate other mobs/players on one's tile
   Passive: Cannot be defibbed. Corpse will explode after death
   Passive: Cannot be medically treated by anyone besides freaks and Empath soothe
   Passive: Paging/chatting is a queued action and takes time to perform
   burrow ability: Log off safely in any outdoor tile with soft ground.
   devour ability: Cannibalize humanoids whole for healing and nutrition.
   Hunted by Hawthorn

As an unlisted effect, Abominations are also the only type of player mutants that other players are incentivized to hunt. There is an Abomination killing contract sold in Rough Trade that rewards the killing of player aboms. This sounds like a downside, but is totally negligible; Abomination is so unpopular that many people don't even realize that the contract exists.

Advantages

• Generalist soaks. Abom soaks are roughly equivalent to wearing early mid-game armor, for free, at all times. This is very convenient, as it also comes with no dodge penalty.
• +1 Brawn, +1 Endurance. These buffs are small, but they do help, particularly as they lend themselves to abom's two most popular weapon choices: Brawn-Spears and Fists.
• +3 Fish. An entirely useless buff, just for flavor (since Ripper allows fishing with one's claws).
• Can't overdose. With a few exceptions (like catfish sandwiches), aboms will never OD on drugs, no matter how high they get. They're perfectly capable of inhaling 8 lines of cocaine in succession and strolling on. This makes drugging easier. No micromanagement is required, and aboms can just cram everything up their noses.
• Can't get strung. Aboms will never suffer the "strung" effect of drugs, which means that they cannot get drug-induced heart attacks. This makes most drugs totally safe to use, which is something that non-aboms can never be completely sure of.
• Immune to radiation. Aboms can move through radioactive zones without having to worry about radiation suits. This is largely a matter of convenience; any advantage that could be gleaned from armor thickness optimizations is dulled by the thickness cap.
• Suffocation immunity. Underwater areas are very rare in HellMOO, and the ones that do exist aren't very useful or important, so this is a negligible upside. This is doubly true when abom builds are considered; suffocation immunity would be good for drown-proofing, but almost all abom builds have superb swim skill.
• Abom claws and fangs. For a weapon that is free and always available, these are strong. They scale with brawn for respectable slash damage, are easy to speedcap, get a +1 to-hit modifier, and are PC0.
• Acidic/Chestburster semen. This is far too slow and unpredictable to use in combat, but farming chestbursters is a utility that crafters appreciate (they are guaranteed to drop a rare craft part). Carebear abominations have chestbursters completely disabled due to abuse potential.
• Constant AoE radiation. This is usually a hindrance, but is sometimes useful for shenanigans, such as slowly irradiating problem mobs to death.
• Burrowing. Another convenience ability; Abominations can log off almost anywhere, at any time. They are never too far from safety in this regard.
• Devour. This is a good source of healing that is often quite available. Anywhere that there are humanoid corpses, an abomination can heal very quickly. In isolation, its numbers are underwhelming, but when compared with an abom's inability to be healed by most others, terrible medic skill, and mediocre focus, it's a big advantage.

Disadvantages

• 4 thickness cap. Probably the most crippling abom downside. Despite abom's intimidating appearances, this trivializes abominations out of many fights; even with optimized mutations, abom soaks simply cannot keep up with many damage outputs. In PvP, guns have been the meta for years, and a Lithodermis abomination has 11-16 bullet soak. This is totally insufficient, but aboms can't wear any good bullet armor, and their dodge penalty advantage means nothing against guns. It's also very problematic in endgame PvE, which largely relies on dodge totals that aboms will not have or hyper-strong armors that they cannot wear.
• Exploding corpse. Another hefty downside; aboms get the worst of both worlds here. On the one hand, this prevents defibbing, which is very bad, and also destroys any implants that the abom was using (meaning that most aboms don't bother). On the other hand, this is also useless as an ace-in-the-hole in PvP: The explosion has a delay before it takes place, in which enemies can freely butcher an abom's corpse, and when the explosion does fire, it is weak.
• -2 Brains. This adds some trouble with feint, but most abom builds already have poor brains and brainy skills anyway, especially because of Ripper.
• -2 Cool. This isn't much of an issue for freaks; as a fully-fledged abomination, it's a total non-problem outside of very long climbs.
• -6 Persuade. Again, this means nothing to abominations. Freaks may at least get some niche use out of persuade, but aboms will never need it.
• -2 Pistols/Rifles. While there are some exotic freak guns builds, abom has nothing to offer a guns build, so the penalty of -2 to gun skills means very little to the mutation.
• 80% nutrition resistance. The wording of this is somewhat confusing; in practice, it means that food is only 20% as filling as it is for a non-abom. This is not generally an issue, since devour is easy to use and quite filling.
• 60% nanite resistance. Nanites are good, but for aboms, this is pretty meaningless. Most abominations take Iron Liver and Hyperimmune anyway, so nanites are already useless to them.
• Medical restrictions. Aside from the defib problem, this isn't such a big deal. Aboms can maintain their own health well with devour and mend; only severe brain damage must be fixed by a reclone.
• Queued paging/chatting. Depending on the abom's playstyle, this can be quite obnoxious: An abom must stop everything they are doing just to send a quick page. Pages and chats from an abom are also rendered in a garbled filter, and anything beyond very simple messages is difficult to read.
• Constant AoE radiation. This makes aboms naturally anti-social, which is very bad for high-end PvE that requires parties. In these circumstances, an abom will slowly irradiate their entire party by simply existing.
• Hawthorn. Depending on how far an abom has progressed in the game, Hawthorn can be a mortal danger or a trivial nuisance, but he is certainly never helpful.

Which Weapon?

Abominations are most definitely encouraged to be Fists users, due to constantly having Claws and Fangs. Because of this, an Abomination should almost always have maxed out Brawn, as Fists weapons, bar Tesla or Edison Gauntlets, all scale in maximum damage based on Brawn. However, don't neglect technology! While Abominations spawn with a good weapon already, having a non-Freak buy you Jawbreakers can make you even more lethal, as many a victim of these relatively easy to get but powerful weapons will attest to. For PvE it is also possible to have Tesla Gauntlets or Edison Gauntlets crafted for your use; these weapons are slow but deal the rare Electricity damage type in high amounts. Other Fists weapons tend to pale in comparison to your natural one, however. Fists have the advantage of often being one-handed, despite having no parry class, making them an extremely good class for grabbing someone and beating them down.

Should you be planning to make it into the endgame, or even just survive the random attack from Hawthorn, a secondary weapon type is encouraged as an Abomination. The most popular choice is Spears, as having a parry class of ** is extremely useful in combating Hawthorn and other players. For the uninitiated: each weapon has a parry class and may parry weapons of the same class or below it. Thus, a Chainsaw lance wielding Abomination has a parry class of **, allowing it to parry the Shiver Sword, also **, as well as the Crime Stick, which has a parry class of *, and Jawbreakers, which have a parry class of 0. However, the Crime Stick can only parry weapons with the same class or below, meaning they will rely on Dodge when fighting against the Shiver Sword or Assegai user. All weapon choices here were generic, but they serve to illustrate a point: the parry class on a weapon is important, and Spears happen to be ** all around the board. In addition, Spears scale with Brawn as well, being very useful in that regard as an Abomination will have a higher maximum damage than many other Spears users. You may ask yourself- why not just use Spears then? As has been stated, you are preparing for a multitude of situations. Fists weapons have the advantage of, for the most part, being one-handed, especially the ubiquitous Jawbreaker. You will have to unwield your spear of choice to grab, lowering your damage potential which, in a PvP situation, may not be enough to get past armor. For this reason, opponents you wish to grab you will often use Fists against, while opponents you want to parry you will often use Spears against. It pays to be prepared!

However, do not discount the usefulness of clubs! Clubs have their own two-handed weapons with a ** parry class, namely the Combustor Hammer and Piston Hammer, as well as Crime Sticks, which allow you to grab in a similar fashion to Fists, but also have a parry class of *! In addition, unlike Spears, Clubs can break bones, lowering their Brawn and Reflexes. While not many Abominations choose to take this path, clubs should still be considered for its versatility weaponry-wise, and also just for fun!

Hawthorn

The hunter of Abominations, Hawthorn is a Chainsaw Lance wielding maniac who chases down Abominations wherever they may go. Hawthorn is characterized as having decent health, good soaks, and a extremely damaging weapon that is liable to kill you in two or three hits, if not in one hit outright if you suck complete ass. For this reason, many Abominations take Spears as a secondary weapon class to aid them in their fight against Hawthorn, as the Chainsaw Lance has low Hit in comparison to other weapons, making it a bit a lot easier to dodge or parry. However, Hawthorn has a funny tendency to ambush players while they are gymming, fighting against other monsters, or just idling. It is not uncommon for an abom to come back from idling with a broken wristpad at his feet.

His ability to one-shot players has been noted hilariously exaggerated, as has his high capacity for punishment strength in general. Should you choose to fight him although the Chainsaw Lance is supposed to be slow (it has a very high speedcap dunkass) Hawthorn swings it surprisingly quickly. He also has decently-high skill, enough to parry most some of the attacks you throw at him, so the fight may stall out. Hawthorn does not receive stun from a powerattack very well (you know, like nearly every other NPC), so landing one can easily turn the tide in your favor. His Brawn makes grabbing a risky proposition at best, as he will break out instantly, and you cannot afford to be stunned and unable to parry. Should you win, his Chainsaw Lance may drop for your own use! It is a great weapon that scales extremely well with high Brawn and when you're on enough drugs (which you should be) it gets insanely fast. Clubboms will usually not mind Hawthorn, because he is knocked out rather easily, and they can take his chainsaw lance from him. Whipboms will laugh in Hawthorn's face because his shitty tohit means nothing when you have decent dodge.

Necropolis

While Necropolis becomes a safe haven for regular freaks, it is even more awesome for abominations. You can buy crank from Drucilla in the drug hut, and cocaine from Basil. The sky pirates in northeast Necropolis drop assegais, which are extremely useful for most abominations. The best part about Necropolis is that health almost rains from the sky. The only things that aggro you are the FCEF and sky raiders, so you are safe from most creatures, and zombies are everywhere. What's so special about zombies, you ask? Well, as an abomination, they can't even hurt you, and you can devour them by the truckload. Also, Hawthorn does not enter Necropolis because he is a pansy.

Others

The additional Cool penalty means that you would have to work harder to get a good Sneak score. An abomination is less likely to be able to hang around Freedom City than a normal Freak. It is still possible, however, to make quick runs. While Implants are less appealing, due to the insta-gib nature of an Abomination, they are still a valuable resource if used sparingly. Because Abominations have an additional Cool penalty, you may have difficulty telling Nick you want the implants put in. In this case, just input "nod nick" and there should be no problems. Nick is racist. Meatwad underneath Weezer is not. He's your only option.

The focus penalty nullifies the direct bonus given by Hideous Freak. However, you still have more focus than normal humans by the fact that you have an additional 4 senses and 2 endurance. That works out to +3 focus as opposed to the +6.5 of a Hideous Freak. Abominations can still reliably Blink, a great mutation to shorten distance, especially with reversed stress gains.

The lesser Brains of an Abomination are made even bigger of a problem by the requirement of Ripper. You will not be competent at many, if any, Brains-based skills. Feinting can also be a problem for Abominations in both PvE and PvP. If you have high focus, you can utilize screech to lower your opponent's Brains. You may also want to look into the Hooligan mutation, which increases your resistance to various stuns, including a feint stun, at the cost of 3 focus total. Getting into a frenzy before fighting a high Brains foe may also help change the tide of battle, thanks to the added feint resistance. A high dose of frenzy can be achieved not just via using scare on a group of enemies, but with the function of the Bleeder mutation as well.

Money for an Abomination is mostly spent on recloning. They aren't going to need to spend as much money on armor like a typical Hideous Freak, but Deathsheads are expensive, should you want them. Money not spent on recloning could be spent towards buying contracts as well as weapons, if you do not specialize in fists. The newer breeds of Abomination, however, tend to actually need money to support their secondary weapon type of choice. Still, Abomination is a great mutation for hoarding money as it is often worry free in regards to thirst, hunger, and stress.

Since only Freaks can treat your medical issues, you should aim for becoming as independent as possible. The Salamander mutation will help a lot with broken bones and healing. Hyperimmune helps with most else. The only times you'd actually need a player to treat you is brain damage or mental illness, and you would need another Freak only to treat brain damage. Since there is a scarcity of freak medics, suicide may be the only solution the majority of the time. However, you can still receive psychoanalysis from humans, so it is still recommended you seek out medical attention to fix mental issues upon respawn.

With the limitations on skin mutations, it is generally recommended that you take High Density or Snakeskin in tandem with Firewalker and Rubberskin, as Abomination does not provide soaks for non-physical damage.

Take advantage of your inability to become addicted! This ability is overlooked by many Abominations, but the rewards are mind boggling. Because you suffer no ill effects from drugs, they make an extremely useful buff with no downsides. The two big drugs from an Abomination to use are Crank, which at max dosages that would kill an average player give +4 Reflex and Endurance, and Coke, which is even more dangerous for a regular player, but gives +5 Reflex and +4 Cool. Scavenge in the Crack Mansion for Rocks of Crank, and have a non-Freak buy you the Coke- you won't regret it.

This is the infamous fine print. Abominations generally have a endurance build and the problem with the current system is that, at higher endurance, your ability to shrug off drugs is crazy high. This means you might be blowing off $30,000 worth of cocaine just to get high. Frustration will be part of your journey as a coked-up junkie abomination. No. Just no. Endurance isn't that big of a deal when it comes to drugs. Just get crank from Drucilla and a pipe. When you buy cocaine, be sure to get someone to make you crack (Cocaine + baking soda) so you're actually getting a reasonable amount of doses.

You could also purchase custom "abom meals" from players that contain full doses of drugs for a rapid drug bolus. These meals typically doses you with the maximum amount of drugs in a single bite, so maintaining high systemic drug levels is fairly easy.

Mutations
Racial Mutations	Abomination • Chromemouth • Chud • Empath • Genetic Purity • Hideous Freak • Vampire • Zombie
Focus Mutations	Carrie • Chiller • Fuck Machine • Salamander • Screech • Writhing Smoke
Movement Mutations	Leapfrog • Phaser • Clairvoyance
	Flight • Blink • Medium
Soak Mutations	High Density • Firewalker • Rubberskin • Snakeskin • Yeti Skin
	Lithodermis • Solar Sponge • Silicone Skin • Eelskin • Yeti Fur
Miscellaneous Mutations	Billygoat • Bleeder • Bloodhound • Brainslug • Brute Strength • Camelfat • Enigma • Fibrocartilage • Hooligan • Hyperimmune • Iron Liver • Junkrat • Mule • Nimble Fingers • Plant Whisperer • Ripper • Stench • Twitchy Nerves • Superclot • Xray Vision
Joke Mutations	Cat Ears • Caucasian • Third Nipple
Defunct Mutations	Jammer