Chemist

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Chemist
Crew Member
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A crew member role. Can use various stim packs to buff their captain and other crew members.

Chemists are a crew member role for player ships. Their uniform color is yellow.

Chemists have 4 sub jobs; blue chemist, green chemist, orange chemist, and yellow chemist. The type of chemist will determine which Buff they will give to their captain. It is possible to tell what sub job a particular chemist has before recruiting by looking at the stim pack that they are carrying; the color of the stim pack matches their sub job. Chemists never carry red stim packs because Medics already fulfill the role of healing the captain.

Chemists can be recruited the same way all other crew roles (except Outlaw) can by completing procedurally-generated NPC quests, which will give the quest giver a chance to turn into a recruit-able crew member with a 1/7 base chance to choose the Chemist class, with an additional 1/4 chance to carry a specific stim pack. However, there are a few ways to increase the chance for an NPC to become a chemist:

If a friendly NPC or a Tenant is a scientist or researcher of any kind, they have a 100% chance to become a Chemist. The type of stim pack they carry is an evenly split chance, so each stim pack has a 25% chance of being selected.

While on the player's ship, Chemists give a permanent buff to everyone on the ship, including other crew members. When the player beams down to a planet, this permanent buff transfers into a temporary buff, even if the chemist is left on their ship. The temporary buff is also given whenever the chemist is engaged in active combat and is close enough to their captain.

Chemists use either a Shortsword or a Pistol to fight, but never both. If a chemist chooses to use a shortsword during combat, they will never use a pistol, even when beaming back up to their ship; the only way to swap weapons is to fire the current chemist and look for a new one. However, the inability to use multiple weapons can serve as an advantage in that it helps chemists focus on a particular fighting style. Chemists using shortswords can hunt down enemies in melee combat, while chemists with pistols will always stay at a safe distance and will never approach enemies to a close distance unless they are forced to do so.

Unfortunately, this also opens up weaknesses in Chemists. For starters, they are already limited to one-handed weapons which hinders their overall damage output. Furthermore, while the inability to swap weapons can be beneficial, it also leaves chemists vulnerable in certain situations. Melee chemists, while able to lunge at distant enemies, can only travel so far with their lunge. Any enemies directly above the chemist, across a decently-sized gap, or simply too far for the lunge to reach, will be out of range, and unable to be attacked whatsoever. The chemist will complain that they cannot reach their target if this happens. Should the target choose to attack with projectiles, the chemist will not take any action to protect themselves from said projectiles, making them sitting ducks for your enemies. Meanwhile, the inverse is true for ranged chemists; they will still be able to fire at targets in melee range, but NPCs cannot fire pistols as quickly as they can swing shortswords. Because of this, ranged chemists struggle to defend themselves from enemies in melee range, and become at-risk of dying.

With all said, Chemists are able to provide helpful buffs to their captain at the cost of effective combat support. While they can perform rather well in combat, they usually require some form of player intervention to successfully defend against threats. Because of this, chemists are best used for giving buffs to their captain, and as a result, the ideal weapon for a chemist to use should match their captain's play style: Melee players should bring a chemist with a Shortsword to keep them close to their captain, while ranged or magic users should bring a chemist with a Pistol to remain distant from their enemies, but close to their captain.

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Role Ship Status Effect Traveling Status Effect
Blue Stim Pack Icon.png Blue Chemist Status Jump Boost.png Jump Boost (persistent) Status Jump Boost.png Jump Boost (temporary - 30 seconds)
Green Stim Pack Icon.png Green Chemist Status Run Boost.png Run Boost (persistent) Status Run Boost.png Run Boost (temporary - 30 seconds)
Orange Stim Pack Icon.png Orange Chemist Status Rage.png Rage (persistent) Status Rage.png Rage (temporary - 30 seconds)
Yellow Stim Pack Icon.png Yellow Chemist Status Glow.png Glow (persistent) Status Glow.png Glow (temporary - 90 seconds)