Skaphander: Der Auftrag/Gameplay

User interface

The six displays in the Skaphander's cockpit: (A) Score, (B) Compass, (C) Inventory, (D) Vehicle Status, (E) Data, and (F) Energy.

The cockpit displays along the bottom of the screen are divided into six sections. From left to right:

• Score: Score affects your pay at the end of the level, being multiplied by 5, 10, or 50 based on the chosen difficulty level. Neither pay nor score count for anything other than bragging rights, and they can be gamed with some actions that can be repeated indefinitely, but they are still useful for tracking your progress through a level.
• Compass: The compass shows the Skaphander's current heading and is useful for orienting yourself with respect to the HUD map (which is always shown with north at the top). The compass letters are from German, so "east" is shown as "O", for "Osten".
• Inventory: The inventory screen shows what tools, if any, the Skaphander has in its inventory.
• Vehicle Status: The vehicle status display shows the condition of the Skaphander, mainly whether or not it has any shielding, but the vehicle's wireframe also does change orange and then red as the vehicle takes damage, so it can be useful to keep an eye on its color. Jump jets, accessible with a cheat code, also show up here.
• Data: Data represents the vehicle's health (see below). It ranges from 0 to 400.
• Energy: Energy represents the vehicle's fuel/ammo (see below). It ranges from 0 to 300.

The main screen shows the view from the Skaphander. Overlaid on that view are the currently selected weapon(s), a targeting reticle if the weapon(s) can be aimed, and the HUD map if it is enabled.

Resources

The Skaphander relies on three resources:

• Data: The game's equivalent to health, Skaphander's data protects Victor's brain from destructive feedback through the HMD—if it reaches zero, then Victor suffers brain damage, and the game ends. The Skaphander begins the game with 300 data and can attain a maximum of 400. An auditory warning plays continually if the Skaphander's data falls below 50. Data is lost to impact with enemies or terrain (even driving over an uneven floor too fast can damage the Skaphander), to enemy weapons, or to contact with corrosive Matma. Data is regained by collecting data refreshes or by connecting to a repair station.
• Energy: The game's combined fuel and ammo resource, Skaphander's energy allows it to fire reusable weapons and to move forward or backward—if it reaches zero, then the Skaphander will still be able to turn and strafe slowly, but forward and backward movement will be almost imperceptible, and reusable weapons will not fire. The Skaphander begins a level with 300 energy, which is the maximum it can attain. An auditory warning plays continually if the Skaphander's energy falls below 50. Energy is slowly consumed by moving forward or backward and more rapidly consumed by firing reusable weapons, with heavier weapons requiring more per shot. Energy is regained by collecting recharges or by connecting to a charging station.
• Shielding: Shielding is provided by a protector and absorbs damage from Matma or barnacles and halves damage from other viruses. The Skaphander begins with 0 shielding and can attain a maximum of 1500. One unit of shielding is lost for every unit of damage that is absorbed or reduced. Crucially, though a white overlay shows on the vehicle status indicator when the Skaphander has shielding, the exact level of shielding is never visible. A warning message does appear when shielding runs out, however.

Items

Resource items

The Skaphander can renew its data, energy, and shielding by collecting resource items:

	Data Refreshes (Spanners/Wrenches): Data refreshes are shown on-screen as blue or gray spanners/wrenches in one of four styles. Collecting a data refresh will increase the Skaphander's data by 25 (6.25%) up to its maximum of 400.
	Energy Recharges (Batteries): Recharges are shown on-screen as pink battery cells. Collecting a recharge will increase the Skaphander's energy by 25 (8.33%) up to its maximum of 300.
	Sixpacks (Batteries): Some recharges come in sixpacks, which must be collected all-or-nothing. Collecting a sixpack will increase the Skaphander's energy by 150 (50%) up to its maximum of 300.
	Protectors: Protectors appear as blue box-like devices covered in radiators. Collecting a protector will increase the Skaphander's shielding to its maximum of 1500.

(Ranged weapons also add energy when picked up, so a ranged weapon that has already been collected can still be valuable as a large reserve of energy.)

A big part of Skaphander strategy is leaving resources in place for when they will be needed later, so it is important to avoid collecting these items when their benefits would be lost to the Skaphander's resource caps. As a corollary, it is usually better to secure an area before topping off data or energy; the items might be worth more after spending resources on a fight.

Weapons

For more details on weapon configuration statistics, see the tables in the appendices.

The Skaphander can equip a variety of reusable energy weapons for use against viruses:

	Debuggers: Debuggers are reusable light guns with low recoil that, unlike all other weapons, can be dual-mounted. An individual debugger consumes 1 energy per shot to deal up to 100 damage (depending on the range of the shot) at a maximum rate of fire of 1.6 shots per second, but, being side-mounted, its recoil is asymmetric. Dual-mounted debuggers get a +20% bonus to damage and stagger their shots by 1/16 of a second, so dual-mounted debuggers can both finish an enemy and hit one behind it with a single trigger pull. Besides doing damage, debugger fire can also activate switches, activate pillars, or detonate explosives remotely. For such utility use, it is better to switch to a single-mount configuration to conserve energy. Each debugger comes with 120 energy.
	Double Eraser: The double eraser is a heavy gun with more range and stronger recoil. It consumes 6 energy per shot to deal 300 damage (depending on accuracy and range) and can fire 2.7 shots per second. Besides doing damage, eraser fire can also activate switches, activate pillars, or detonate explosives remotely, but it is less suited to these tasks than the debugger. The double eraser comes with 200 energy.
	Interrupter: The interrupter is an even heavier artillery weapon, similar to a ranged version of breakpoints (described below). It consumes 20 energy per shot to fire an exploding projectile that moves at speed 98 and does 1100 damage to viruses at its center and slightly less as splash damage out to a radius of 40 (about one terrain tile); because of the large blast radius, it can be used to destroy multiple viruses at once or aimed at walls to damage enemies around corners. On the other hand, an interrupter blast is indiscriminate and can harm the Skaphander itself (doing up to 40 damage), making it ill-suited for battle in tight spaces, and the recoil is so bad that the weapon is virtually unaimable when its pitch is not locked, so it fares poorly against enemies not at eye level. The interrupter comes with 100 energy.

The Skaphander can also deploy single-use breakpoints:

Breakpoints: Breakpoints are non-reusable proximity bombs shaped like underwater mines that audibly tick when their proximity sensor is armed. Using the fire key/button while a breakpoint is selected will toss it a short ways (about the length of its blast radius) onto the ground in front of the Skaphander and arm its sensor. An armed breakpoint will detonate for 1600 points of damage at its center plus splash damage when any virus enters its blast radius of 40 (about one terrain tile), and even unarmed breakpoints will detonate when shot or set off by another nearby breakpoint—it is possible to chain these explosives to make a "fuse". Breakpoints are indiscriminate and can harm the Skaphander itself (doing up to 215 damage). The Skaphander can only carry as many as five breakpoints at a time, and uncollectable breakpoints act as obstacles, so sometimes it is necessary to drop one breakpoint in order to collect another in the way.

And the Skaphander can carry one mêlée weapon that can damage the environment itself:

Separator: Being a side-mounted saw, sustained use of the separator can cut through weak barriers (like chain-link fences) to open up new passageways. It does not meaningfully hurt most viruses, but it can harm barnacles attached to the Skaphander's windshield, dealing 160 damage to them per second at its running cost of 1.6 energy per second. Unlike all other weapons, separators cannot be carried between levels.

Weapon pitch

Weapons are normally mounted at a fixed angle on the Skaphander, but they can be unlocked by pressing  PgUp / PgDn  (or, equivalently,  Num 9 / Num 3 ) to adjust their pitch up or down. (This is also useful just for peering over ledges or up shafts.) However, while unlocked, the weapons swing much more freely, and so it is difficult to maintain aim when the suspension rocks or a shot causes recoil. The Skaphander will also automatically relock weapons in their default position after a few seconds of no pitch adjustments, so to maintain a nonstandard pitch for any length of time the player must periodically tap these keys to make fine adjustments.

Level-specific devices

The Skaphander can also carry various level-specific non-weapon devices including a sublight scanner and various tools, the latter being shown on the inventory display. Tools in particular let Victor interact (using the "manipulate" command) with corresponding switch-like objects that otherwise would be unreponsive. Unlike most weapons, these level-specific devices cannot be carried from level to level.

	Sublight Scanner: The sublight scanner allows the Skaphander to see and interact with hidden items at the cost of color vision; everything appears as some shade of red while the scanner is active. (Because the red coloring is the same effect used when under Matma, there is a game bug that can be triggered by repeatedly toggling the scanner under Matma to make these visual effects reverse so that the scanner has to be active to see in color.)
	Screwdriver: A screwdriver is the most common tool. It lets the Skaphander repair broken objects, though some repairs are only safe when the broken device is powered down.
	Jumper: A jumper can be placed on circuit boards to reconfigure their operation.
	Processor: Some circuit boards are missing their processor, which must be placed before they can function.
	Weights: A weight can be used to move weight-sensitive lifts in order to rearrange the terrain. The weight's mass is indicated by the number on its side.

Bugs

Besides viruses, which actively resist Victor's incursion, the network is also plagued by passive bugs, which are represented on screen as beetles. The Skaphander can squash bugs by driving over them (similar to how items are collected), but some bugs are booby-trapped to release enemies. Starting in the level "Rael", there are also invisible bugs that can only be squashed with the sublight scanner active—without it on, the bugs just act like invisible obstacles.

	Minor (Silver) Bug: A minor bug is silver-colored and is worth 50 points. Silver bugs are more likely than gold bugs to be invisible and/or booby-trapped.
	Major (Gold) Bug: A major bug is gold-colored and is worth 100 points. Gold bugs are less likely than silver bugs to be invisible and/or booby-trapped.

Cheats

One further item is available via a cheat code:

	Jump Jets: Jump jets are down-pointing thrusters that make it possible to fly the Skaphander up and down ledges, across gaps, and over enemies. Their thrust is engaged by holding  Home . Jump jets may have trouble starting up under liquids like Matma or green pools if the Skaphander is not moving; drive forward to help them get going.

Enemies

For more details on enemy statistics, see the tables in the appendices.

Setting aside the puzzles set by major viruses according to the narrative, the main opposition Victor faces comes in the form of lesser viruses of various standard types, described in their default forms below. Keep in mind, however, that individual virus stats may vary from the defaults for their type. For example, there are several spiked viruses that have three times as much health as a normal spiked virus, so the description of spiked viruses below should only be taken as the usual case. The same is true for other types.

Mêlée viruses

Spiked viruses

A spiked virus looks like a gray Christmas tree ornament.

A spiked virus is a common, low-level enemy that appears as a floating spiky gray ball and flashes red when aggravated. (One contemporary review jokingly called them "Christbaumschmucke", or Christmas-tree ornaments, perhaps not realizing that their internal name really is "XMas Virus".) Spiked viruses ordinarily have 350 health. They have no ranged attacks but can still do damage by ramming the Skaphander with their spikes (which hit for 10 damage) and by pushing it into hazards or off ledges. Normally they stand guard at ambush points and do not move until they detect the Skaphander. They particularly like to surprise Victor from above or below, but their vertical speed cap is much lower than their horizontal speed cap, so sometimes they get themselves caught for a bit on ledges or overhangs.

Spiked viruses have a number of tactics that they might employ:

• When far away with a good line of sight and no incoming fire, they simply charge the Skaphander, easily matching its maximum speed.
• When far away with poor line of sight to the Skaphander, they will look for corners of walls to hide behind in ambush. They always converge to their target's altitude, so once they engage in a fight they are usually stuck on the same plane as the player.
• When being shot at, they will make rapid lateral movements in hopes of outpacing the Skaphander's turn rate.
• When close by, they will attempt to dart behind the Skaphander and attack it from behind, again exploiting its slow turn rate.

Blobs

A blob looks like a primary-colored bouncy ball.

A blob is a late-game mêlée virus that appears like a pulsating, primary-colored bouncy ball. It sacrifices almost all of the spiked virus's maneuverability in exchange for more health (400–1500, depending on the variety) and harder hits (80 damage maximum but with unusual inconsistency for a virus). Their behavior is not particularly interesting, as they mostly just approach, soak up damage, and ram the player, but they can be a serious impediment when blocking hallways or doors or on levels where energy is hard to come by.

Barnacles

A barnacle in red with blue arms splits in half to reveal its two mouths.

A barnacle—or perhaps a pair of barnacles—is a biconical virus that splits itself into two hemispherical suction cups. It has 600 health, but can do no damage normally. Instead, its real danger is that when it touches the Skaphander, it can attach itself to the cockpit glass, obscuring the player's view and draining first the Skaphander's shielding, then its energy, and finally its data. The cockpit glass is too close to shoot with any ranged weapon, so getting rid of an attached barnacle requires more creativity. Some levels provide green pools that will destroy barnacles that are submerged in their liquid long enough, and Matma can also be used in a pinch. Other levels include a separator as an available weapon, which can grind a barnacle off, or, if all else fails, a repair station has a mode where it spends its reserves to remove a barnacle rather than to heal the Skaphander. Barnacles borrow general tactics from clamps even when those tactics make less sense for a brightly colored mêlée virus:

• They charge the player head-on when near.
• They charge obliquely when far away.
• If they are heavily damaged, they may try to retreat and hide.

Nonetheless, because of their high health, undesirable attack, and one trick clamps do not have—a tendancy to jump upwards when hit, possibly taking them out of a locked weapon's line of fire—barnacles still pose a serious threat.

Ranged viruses

Clamps

A clamp appears as a gray vise with a top-mounted camera.

Clamps are floating vises that can open up their pincers to reveal two machine guns. They are extremely common. Clamps have 1000 health, and their machine guns can do up to 20 damage apiece per shot (depending on accuracy) at a maximum of four shots per second (so, 2 guns × 4 shots/second/gun × 20 damage/shot = a maximum of 160 damage/second if unopposed). However, taking more than 40 damage makes clamps flinch, and taking more than 75 damage spins these viruses around, interrupting their attack as they can only fire forward. Like spiked viruses, clamps can also ram the Skaphander either to do direct damage or to push it into environmental hazards. Many clamps have patrol routes that they follow until they become aware of the Skaphander. They move slower than spiked viruses horizontally, but can change altitude more quickly.

Clamps also have several tactics that they may use:

• In normal circumstances they will charge the player, relying on their high health and damage output to ensure their survival and eschewing lateral movement in favor of maintaining gunfire. They may approach obliquely when still too far away to target the Skaphander.
• If they are taking damage, especially in close quarters, they may try to make short lateral movements before charging again in order to avoid the player's fire.
• If they are heavily damaged (causing them to appear burnt or with "corrupted" graphics if very near death), they may try to retreat and find a dark surface to hide against.

Unlike in the 1997 game's opening cutscene, in this game clamps cannot grip the Skaphander. However, they can pin the Skaphander against a wall, which is fatal under Matma because the clamps, unlike the Skaphander, are immune to the corrosion.

Turrets

A turret looks like a stack of cylinders with pegs out the sides. It is much larger than other viruses.

Looking like a cross between a top and a fishing bobber with many pegs off their sides, a turret is an extremely strong ranged virus. Turrets boast 2000 health and can fire speed-80 homing artillery shells for 50 damage per shot and the longest enemy range in the game, though this power is mitigated by their slow rate of fire, the fact that they cannot fire while taking damage, and the fact that their artillery shells can be shot down. Turrets like both to float over depressions or pits where they can duck down and to take the high ground and fire from above. Either way, they often force the player to rely on pitch controls (and the associated recoil issues) to score hits.

Special viruses

There are also a couple of one-time or otherwise special enemies:

	Devil: A floating face, called "the devil" in the code, appears beyond a Matma pool in the first level, "Michelangelo". It deals no damage itself but it also ignores most attacks, only succumbing to weapons fire from a range of 20 or less (very short-range, about half a terrain tile). Defeating it causes the Matma pool to freeze.
	Blob Mother: A late-game virus, the blob mother features anywhere from 1000 to a whopping 4200 health and can slowly spawn 400-health blob sons to defend itself. Fortunately, blob sons have their speed capped for a while after being born and, even at their best, can only deal 20 damage per hit, one fourth of what a normal blob can manage.

Terrain

Steps, ledges, and pits

The Firms's red-and-yellow two-headed snake logo marks escape shafts, distinguishing them from other pits. Any resemblance to the oP Group's real-life logo is strictly coincidental.

Besides damage from enemies, the Skaphander also takes damage if driven recklessly. Because of its armor, impacts with walls do not hurt it, but it is instead the vehicle's underside that is vulnerable. In particular, where the terrain changes in steps, the Skaphander can be damaged by driving (or being pushed by an enemy) over those steps more quickly than its suspension can handle, and more serious falls will hurt it even more. There are four common categories of changes in ground level:

1. A small step is the most common fixed change in ground level, one that's the same size as the depression in the middle of the game's first room, the chapel in the "Michelangelo" level, but not so thin as the red "rug" at the entrance to that room. Small steps are generally safe to drive over unless the Skaphander is somehow above its normal top speed (e.g., it is using or has recently used turbo, it is coming out of an acceleration tube, it is sliding on frozen data, it is being pushed by an enemy, it is bouncing off another step or wall, etc.) or is tilted by high acceleration (e.g., breaking hard). Descent does slightly more damage than ascent.
2. A large step covers anything larger than a small step up to twice that size. Crossing one can damage the Skaphander even at normal speeds, though not if the Skaphander traverses it slowly. Again, descending a large step requires more care than ascending one.
3. A ledge is an even larger change in ground level that the Skaphander cannot ascend, one that deals damage unless the Skaphander drives extremely slowly, and the drop is short. An early example would be jumping down from the ledges encircling the chapel, which at normal speed will deal about 60 damage.
4. A pit is an area of ground with effectively no bottom. Driving into a pit will certainly cause the Skaphander to be destroyed unless that pit is an escape shaft, the exit to a level, also sometimes called a "transmitter" in game. Escape shafts are distinguished from ordinary pits by the Firm's two-headed-snake logo.

If the Skaphander is approaching a small or large step at speed, it is possible to brake with reverse thrust to reduce or eliminate any damage that might be taken when the vehicle crosses.

Curtains and doors

A motion-sensitive door has seams so that it can pull apart into the four surrounding walls.

Curtains are barriers that block vision but not physical objects like the Skaphander, viruses, or weapons fire. The may share a texture with nearby walls, but have noticeably lighter coloration. A virus will only cross a curtain if it knows from earlier observation that the Skaphander must be on the other side.

Doors between rooms are motion-sensitive and will open when the Skaphander approaches. Sometimes it is possible to end up in front of a door, but not by approaching it, in which case the Skaphander must retreat and reapproach to trigger the motion sensor.

Closed doors block both viruses' line of sight and their movement (viruses cannot trigger the motion sensor), so it is possible to lure an enemy into a room and trap it there.

However, in the earliest demo versions of the game, closed doors did not block viruses' movement, rendering that tactic ineffective. Still, a virus would only phase through a door if it knew from earlier observation that the Skaphander must be on the other side, so, in those demo versions, a door was still useful cover to avoid aggravating an enemy in the first place.

Discs, fans, and acceleration tubes

Various terrain types can apply horizontal forces to the Skaphander and its enemies:

	Discs: When spinning, discs rotate the Skaphander at high RPM, making it almost impossible to navigate back off of the disc if the surrounding space is crowded. Discs can be toggled on or off with a button or switch. They can also be escaped using the jump-jet cheat code.
	Fans: When spinning, fans apply a mild force to both the Skaphander and viruses in the path of their outflow. Many fans can be toggled on or off with a button or switch.
	Acceleration tubes: Acceleration tubes apply an overriding force to the Skaphander equivalent to driving with turbo in the force's direction. All acceleration tubes have orange stripes, but their direction of force can be deduced from the other coloring of their walls: Blue tubes fling the Skaphander west, Pink tubes fling the Skaphander east, Silver tubes fling the Skaphander north, and Gold tubes fling the Skaphander south. Some pink and blue tubes can be flipped to the opposite color with a switch.

Below is a visual guide to the color coding of acceleration tubes:

• Acceleration Tube Wall Color Meanings
• 

  Westbound acceleration tubes have blue walls.

• 

  Eastbound acceleration tubes have pink walls.

• 

  Northbound acceleration tubes have silver walls.

• 

  Southbound acceleration tubes have gold walls.

Lifts and pillars

Lifts and pillars are terrain tiles that rise, sink, or alternate rising and sinking, normally based on the Skaphander's location, but very occasionally when triggered by switches. Most begin moving to the other end of their vertical range when the Skaphander drives onto them, when the Skaphander uses the manipulate action on them, or when they are struck by ranged weapons fire. But others feature a variety of movement rules—some move in different directions based on where the Skaphander sits on them, yet others are triggered once by switches, and still others might be enabled by switches but only respond when the Skaphander is in a certain location.

Because they are solid underneath, the Skaphander cannot end up below a lift or pillar, but some pillars rise all the way to the ceiling, so it is still possible for them to crush the vehicle with upward movement.

Like ledges, both lifts and pillars present some environmental danger to the Skaphander. Just as with any other steps, driving between a left/pillar and a surface at a different height can damage the vehicle depending on its speed and tilt at the time. Worse, if the Skaphander straddles the boundary between a stable surface and a lift/pillar, the rise or fall can tip it, not only destroying vehicle's data when it contacts the ground, but possibly sending it sliding at high speed into other terrain or over a ledge. Then too, there is the possibility of being crushed against a ceiling, which can do hundreds of points of damage in an instant.

On the flip side, lifts and pillars can also be used strategically to block or relocate enemies. And some under-Matma lifts even provide immunity to corrosion.

Matma

Matma is highly corrosive and deals continual damage to the Skaphander.

Matma is a red corrosive liquid with a lava-like appearance, usually confined to pools. It acts as a "energetic defluctor", which in gameplay terms means that any unprotected contact with it damages the Skaphander continually, the amount of damage increasing the deeper the Skaphander is submerged. It does not hurt most viruses, but it can harm barnacles, spiked viruses' and blobs' strikes lose their impact due to the viscosity, and clamps are unable to fire their guns when they are immersed. But the last effect cuts both ways: the Skaphander's weapons also cannot be fired when they are submerged in Matma.

In some levels, matma can be neutralized by freezing it, leaving behind frozen data.

Green pools

A green pool, "for cleaning without soap", can be used to remove attached barnacles.

Green pools look like opposite-colored Matma. They slowly damage viruses like attached barnacles, but they do not harm the Skaphander itself. As with Matma, mêlée attacks in pools are ineffective due to viscocity, and weapons cannot be fired when they are submerged.

Frozen data

Frozen data is slippery, makes driving difficult, and amplifies the effects of impact and recoil.

Frozen data is a slippery, blue-and-white, ice-like surface. On its own it poses no danger, but fighting on frozen data can be difficult, and it is very easy to build up too much speed and take damage by running into steps or falling off ledges.

Switches and buttons

One major way that Victor affects the environment is by flipping switches and pressing buttons:

	Switches: Switches are devices that the Skaphander can toggle from nearby with its manipulate action or from afar with ranged weapons fire. Their purpose varies by level, but sometimes there is signage nearby to describe what they do when toggled. They appear as pink circles in pink squares, the upper or lower half of the circle shaded darker to indicate their state.
	Buttons: Buttons are variations on switches that can be pressed in the same way that switches are toggled or also by ramming. Unlike with switches, there is no way to "unpress" a button, though a button may become unpressed automatically or in response to other events. Buttons appear the same as switches except that a whole circle or a quarter circle is shaded according to their state.
	Eyeballs: Appearing in the eyeball room of Parity, eyeballs act like three-way switches and can be toggled from green, to orange, to red, and back again. For colorblind players, their state can also be distinguished by the arms on the splat: a green eyeball's splat has inward arms, an orange eyeball's splat has outward arms, and a red eyeball's splat has 12 arms rather than the usual six.

Stations

Stations are larger, wall-mounted repositories of data (a repair station), energy (a recharging station), or information (an info station).

When the Skaphander makes contact with a resource station by driving into it and is at least 10 units below the resource maximum, it becomes magnetically attached, and the station slowly transfers its resource until the vehicle reaches its resource limit or the station's reserve runs dry. This makes stations useful for topping off, since they only provide what is needed, and nothing goes to waste. On the other hand, because of the magnetic attachment, the Skaphander is nearly immobile for the duration, and because of shaking from the resource transfer, aiming is also quite difficult during that time, so stations are much less useful than resource items in a fight. There are two types of resource stations:

Repair Stations: A repair station, which contains data, looks like a vertical tube of pink liquid with two arrowheads pointing at it, the arrowheads blinking orange and pink. Vents and lights appear on the sides, and blue spanner/wrench icons are shown at the top. As a special case, a repair station automatically operates in an alternative mode where it spends its pink liquid to remove an attached barnacle when a barnacled Skaphander connects.

Recharging Stations: A recharging station, which contains energy, looks like an electrical panel with hex sockets and strain insulators, the panel being below some vents, next to some blinking lights, and flanked by two vertical tubes of blue liquid. A black lightning bolt on a yellow ground appears in the center.

In both cases, the height of the liquid in the tubes indicates the amount of resources remaining within the station. In cramped quarters, it may be necessary to pitch up to see the level in the tubes.

Info stations, on the other hand, work differently:

	Info stations: An info station, which looks like a PCB-mounted LED blinking red and white, provides an on-screen message related to its topic when driven into. The message is given instantaneously, with no magnetic coupling.