Hideous freak

Do you like hurting other people?

Hideous Freak is one of HellMOO's "racial" mutations, and is one of the most game-changing mutations a player can take, with several big mechanical changes. The mutation revolves around Focus and Stress.

Effects

This mutation grants:

   +4 senses
   +1 endurance
   -3 cool
   +4 torture
   +3 focus
   +3 sneak
   -2 persuade
   100% resistance to vampirism
   90% resistance to toxic exposure
   Acidic blood
   All stress changes reversed
   Cannot reclone in Panopticon Prison or the Cube
   No aggro from Necropolis junkers, freaks, aboms or specters
   Can hire a posse of freaks and one abomination as bodyguards
   Can live in the Freak Tunnels
   Easy access to Necropolis Gate
   Hard cap on number of installed implants
   Permanent stars in several communities
   Refusal of service in many shops
   Inability to live in some apartments
   High chance of gaining single or multiple mentals on reclone
   Aggro from Necropolis FCEF troops
   Can't enter Southern Necropolis
   scare command: inflict fear on enemies and frenzy yourself!
   Incompatible with: Chromemouth, Chud, Vampire and Zombie.

Advantages

• +4 Senses. This is the largest single focus bonus available in a mutation, tied with Vampire.
• +1 Endurance. This is a modest bonus, but Endurance is a very high-value stat, so it's still a good contribution.
• +4 Torture. This equates to a substantial crit rate boost for freaks.
• +3 Focus. This is a big bonus, and can bring out the highest power levels that focus can offer.
• +3 Sneak. This is supposed to help with rushing past FCPD cams without getting caught, but Sneak is an almost useless skill, so it's mostly just a number.
• Stress reversal. Probably Freak's most important feature: all stress damage becomes stress healing, and vice versa. This allows you to spam cooldowns that cost stress (like focus abilities and grab) with zero cost, and removes the stress downsides of several mutations altogether.
• 90% Toxic Resistance. This is mostly for picking up bleach from the Toxic Dump for implant reasons - see further down. It also makes some fringe situations easier, like exploring Diablo Seco and eating basilisks.
• Can't clone in prison. If you get killed by cops, you'll reclone safely in your regular tank.
• No aggro from Necro mobs. Junkers, fellow freaks, specters, and abominations will leave you alone, which makes the Necropolis a lot less dangerous in the early game.
• Use of scare. Scare is a situational cooldown that can be used for both combat and pre-fight buffing; see the section below for details.
• Easy entry to Necro. If entering from the east, Freaks can get past the deadbots by going west past them, and down through the tunnel.

Disadvantages

• -3 Cool. Cool is a relatively low value stat for everyone who isn't Blades, and it's even less of an issue for freaks, who mostly ignore Cool's stress mitigation because of their stress reversal. It is still a downside for some situations like extended climbs, however.
• -2 Persuade. This is almost a non-downside; almost every single situation where persuade is useful (lawyering, scamming) is off-limits to freaks anyway. The most this will do is hurt your haggle in the few freak-friendly stores.
• Acidic blood. In theory this is occasionally advantageous; in practice it's a total pain. Acidic blood on the body inflicts acid damage every heartbeat to a random body part. This must be either soaked or removed quickly, and lingering blood can still damage worn armor even if the damage is soaked. This also adds extra micromanagement to Bleeder.
• Doesn't reverse Empath. Stress from Empath isn't turned into stress healing, so there's no unholy freakpath synergy. See the Empath page for more information.
• Clone with mentals. Every time freaks leave their clone tank, they will usually gain a mental illness. Some of these are more problematic than others; some are benign because of Freak's stress reversal. Other times, a strong medic must be sought to fix the illness.
• Implant limits. Freaks can never have more than four implants, no matter what. They also must be under the influence of bleach to accomodate more than 2, which involves extra micromanagement.
• Aggro from FCEF. FCEF troopers wander the Necropolis, often wielding guns, and sometimes equipped with the Jammer mutation. They can be very dangerous if their targets are caught off-guard.
• Cannot enter South Necro. Freaks can't get past the electric grid without getting zapped. They can technically land a plane or take the train in, but this is not a good idea. South Necro's security consists of FCEF empees and sarges, who swarm fast, use guns, and generally shred any freak visitors.
• Permanent 20 stars in many places. Several civilizations in the game with police forces, most notably Freedom City, will automatically deploy to kill freaks who are sighted on camera.
• Can't use many shops. Shopkeepers will outright refuse to serve freaks in many stores, though some remain accessible, and any that don't require a storekeeper to use (like the kiosks in Maas Neotek) are fair game. Players who highly value independence will be frustrated to discover that they must rely on corpmates and friends to buy things for them from shops; some important items can only be purchased in shops that are not freak-friendly, such as many weapon mods.
  • Dr. Nick in Freedom City will not install implants on freaks, but Dr. Stigg and Meatwad in Weezer will. Both are more expensive than Nick.
• Apartment restrictions. Freaks can't live in Sweaty Palms, the Innsmouth, the Helliday Inn, the Final Rest Home, or Burbclave. The Helliday is the biggest loss, as it has the best security in the game.

Location

The mutation spot can be found at the old burned out victorian (Vi on the map) at the Necropolis Gate. This area is a red zone, and contains many dangerous mobs. The mutation spot is two tiles down from the victorian.

Appearance

Freak adds "On top of all that, %N is a hideous mutated freak." to one's appearance, after all other mut appearance modifiers.

Scare

Scare is an exclusive Freak ability. While not terribly powerful, it can be useful in certain situations. In most situations, it gives those who hear it a dose of fear, impairing their stats. And for every person who gets fear, you gain a dose of frenzy adding +1 to brawn and senses, up to a max of +4 each. Frenzy does, however, lower your focus more for every dose you get. Another not instantly realizable feature of Frenzy is that it lowers your chance of being feinted. This is extremely useful when fighting those pesky FCEF troops as well as your fellow brainy inclined players who also use feint.

Strategy

The loss of cool makes it hard to become proficient at blades and guns, that being said guns don't need as much to-hit and the cool debuff can be easily dealt with. However, non-cool-based weapon classes are perfectly reasonable to utilize, such as spears, whips, fists, and clubs. With whips being the preferred choice for regular freaks, and spears and fists being preferred by freaks planning on becoming an abomination. Bling can also be worn to give you up to +4 cool. Cool can be ground up, but this isn't recommended as your gym IP could be used for much better things. Unless your build involves Cool based weapons, in which you would be grinding Cool to deal with the Cool loss, you filthy plebeian.

The easiest way to deal with police is by not going to Freedom City, however, by the time you become a freak you shouldn't have any trouble dealing with K-9s or C3s, just watch our for McBain. If you're speedy enough, or have decent sneak, you can get through Freedom City with ease. For a Freak, one of the main attractions to Freedom City is to install implants, however, with the help of a brainy friend you could have them install your implants using the implomatic at the hospital in Slagtown. If you went to Nick, K-9s may reach you while installing implants. If this happens, kill the fuckers and bust on out, being able to blink makes this process easier, but noticeably less exciting. A particularly fast Freak may be able to get two or three implants in during a run. Nick is racist now RIP

Freaks can benefit from grinding up their Sneak skill. If your Sneak is high enough, you can avoid being seen by the cameras, and thus avoid the 0 stars that mean hunting you. In fact, if you aren't seen by a camera, you can even chill with the law enforcement in the same square as you. A good amount of Sneak can be invaluable in getting implants put in. Note that a Sneak checks are not a one time occurrence per square. When you enter a square the initial check is made to see if you are detected. If you succeed this check, a few seconds later another check will be made, this one harder. As you succeed the checks for being in a square they progressively get harder, so don't dawdle!

Every now and then, your cloning location, no matter where you set it, will reset to the clone tank in the Necropolis, usually after you've run out of or acquired police stars in a jurisdiction. Check st religiously because being surprised to a Necropolis clone tank can be a headache, especially if you cannot blink. This does not seem to happen of late, but it is never a bad thing to be safe.

Ask other players to buy things for you. If you're in a corporation you can just have corpmates buy and sell for you. This does not mean a Freak is without resources, however! In Slagtown alone, Freaks can buy scanlocks and damaged trading cards from Sargo's Discount Warehouse. Freaks wishing to sip on some sweet delicious bugshit can stop by Round Corner and hit up Rayray. Those who prefer more pedestrian cocktails can get them from Heath at the Wide Stance. Freaks can also purchase goods from the player-run Slagtown Galleria. Camp Benjamin in Necropolis sells to Freaks Camp Benjamin hates you, but Furst in Village of Lurleen will sell to you, as will Basil. Maas Neotek is also open to freaks. This means you can purchase implants from Neo You and buy contracts there. You can also go to the Tree of Life in Botany Bay, which provides cocoons to protect your gear as well as basic medical supplies. Weezer is also open to freaks, most notable being the implant store: 'Better Life' which sells implants cheaper than the Kowloon Wirehead or Neo You, but with a randomized stock.

When you clone, you're likely to wind up with at least one kind of mental problem. The effects of these are many, varied, and occasionally annoying. You can counter this problem by partnering up with someone brainy, who can analyze you, to potentially cure your mental problem. There is a cooldown of ten minutes, regardless of psychoanalyst. An important thing about mental problems is that they build up over time. From experience, a mental illness can take even the greatest of medics two or three tries if you have let it build up over time. For this reason it is important to be analyzed as soon as you spawn.

Hideous Freaks can only wear up to two implants before they start degenerating. This is a very obvious and quick process, with a random implant of your's condition being steadily lowered until it breaks, and this process repeats until you only have two implants left. However, while you're actively drinking bleach you are able to have up to four implants in. This is because the bleach is absorbed into your bloodstream and makes your blood less acidic and also because fuck you. However, this effect only lasts as long as you are drinking bleach. To compensate for this, freaks suffer much less damage from the bleach, and that is easy enough to just mend away.