Skaphander: Der Auftrag/Gameplay

User Interface
The cockpit displays along the bottom of the screen are divided into five sections. From left to right:
 * Score: Score does not affect anything, but it is useful for tracking your progresss through a level.  (In fact, some actions can be repeated indefinitely to increase the score until it overflows.)
 * 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).
 * Vehicle Status: The two-part status display shows the condition of the Skaphander, which is mostly not relevant until late in the game. However, the Skaphander diagram does change orange and then red as the vehicle takes damage, so it can be useful to keep an eye on its color.
 * Data: Data represents the vehicle's health (see below). It ranges from 0 to 400.
 * Energy: Energy represents the vehicles 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 two 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 a level 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 (see the section below) 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, but forward and backward movement will be extremely slow, 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 (see the section below) or by connecting to a charging station.

Resources
The Skaphander can renew its data or energy by collecting resource items:
 * Data Refreshes (Spanners/Wrenches): Data refreshes are shown on-screen as blue spanners/wrenches. Driving over 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. Driving over 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. Driving over a sixpack will increase the Skaphander's energy by 150 (50%) up to its maximum of 300.

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, you should usually secure an area before topping off data or energy; the items might be worth more if you spend resources on a fight before picking them up, not after.

Weapons
The Skaphander can equip a variety of weapons for use against viruses:
 * Debuggers: Debuggers are reusable light guns with low recoil that, unlike all other weapons, can be dual-mounted. Each debugger consumes one energy per shot to deal up to ten damage (depending on the accuracy and range of the shot); a debugger's maximum rate of fire is two shots per second.  Because debuggers are side-mounted, a single debugger causes asymmetric recoil, the direction depending on which side it is mounted on (normally the left).  Besides doing damage, debugger fire can also activate switches, activate pillars, or detonate explosives remotely.  For such utility use, switch to a single-mount configuration to conserve energy.
 * Interrupter: …
 * Double Eraser: …
 * Breakpoints: Breakpoints are non-reusable proximity bombs shaped like underwater mines that audibly tick when 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 it will detonate for hundreds of points of damage when any virus enters its blast radius or when it is shot with a debugger or interrupter.  Breakpoints are indiscriminate and can harm the Skaphander itself.
 * Separators: …
 * Sublight Weapons: …

Bugs
Besides viruses, which actively resist Victor's incursion, the network is also plagued by passive bugs, which are represented on screen as silver (minor) or gold (major) beetles. The Skaphander can squash a bug by driving over it (similar to how items are collected), and doing so will often unlock items or other parts of the level.

Steps, Ledges, and Pits
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 over (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 has used turbo, it is sliding on frozen data, it is being pushed by an enemy, etc.).
 * 2) A large step is twice the size of a small step, and crossing one can damage the Skaphander even at normal speeds, though not if the Skaphander traverses it slowly.
 * 3) A ledge is an even larger change in ground level that deals damage no matter how slowly the Skaphander traverses it.  An early example would be jumping down from the ledges encircling the chapel, which 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.

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.

Doors
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 early 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.

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.

Lifts, normally striped in hazard yellow, always begin moving to the other end of their vertical range when the Skaphander drives onto them. Because they are just a platform, a lift can crush the Skaphander from above if the vehicle somehow gets underneath one.

Pillars, often colored blue on their sides, have a variety of movement rules—some may act like lifts, others may move in different directions based on where the Skaphander sits on them, yet others may be triggered 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 pillar, but, unlike lifts, 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 step, driving between a left/pillar and a surface at a different height can damage the vehicle depending on its speed at the time. Worse, if the Skaphander stradles the boundary between a stable surface and a lift/pillar, the rise or fall can tip it, not only destroying data when the vehicle 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 floor or ceiling, which can do hundreds of points of damage in an instant.

However, pillars can also be used strategically to block or relocate enemies. Some lift-like pillars also start their movement in response to the "manipulate" action and to weapons fire so that the player can trigger them manually or with a low-energy shot from a debugger.

Matma
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 contact with it damages the Skaphander continually. It does not damage viruses.

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

Frozen Data
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.

Repair Stations and Recharge Stations
Stations are larger, wall-mounted stockpiles of data (a repair station) or energy (a recharge station). When the Skaphander makes contact with a station by driving into it, 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.

A repair station, which contains data, looks like a vertical tube of pink liquid with two orange arrowheads pointing at it. Vents and lights appear on the sides, and blue spanner/wrench icons are shown at the top.

A recharge station, which contains energy, looks like an electrical panel with hex sockets and strain insulators 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 quarteres, it may be necessary to pitch up to see the level in the tubes.