Hold the Flood — Alternative Tools

EQP101 · r1 · 2026-09-06 UTC · Equipment and Build Designer · One new primary and a completed Prod proposal; Combat agreement pending. Sources: Cutter seed / 7a70ec, Design Document r14 / ec1b6c §§3–6, and Enemies seed / c63228. Design Index · Expansion Brief · Glossary.

Shared primary choice

Choose one primary in shelter. Cutter costs no rack cell; each alternative below occupies the same external primary cradle plus one rack cell for its brace. That brace is part of the item, not a separate unlock. No battery or ammunition economy is added for basic attacks. Space, attack commitment and target geometry are the costs. A found alternative is inert one-cell cargo until fitted; a replaced alternative can remain inert one-cell cargo or be left behind. It never confers passive effects while stowed.

Automatic attacks keep movement central. Combat owns exact damage, range, line of sight, target tie-breaks and displacement resolution. The requested behaviours below are explicit proposals to that role. All caps/times are provisional. Neither weapon modifies signal, persistent clues, target-beacon precedence, once-per-enemy charge, or shelter rules. Arc is deliberately Cutter-only in this catalogue.

Rivet Driver — W2

Trigger and target. Automatically begin a visible aiming interval at the nearest visible enemy in a proposed eight-metre range. Show a narrow trajectory for approximately one second; firing commits to that line and then recovers for one second. The player can keep moving. Once the windup starts it does not track a different target; terrain blocks the projectile. Combat decides exact aim sampling and damage before adoption.

Effect. A narrow direct attack penetrates up to three enemies in its line, with no ricochet, splash, electrical propagation or guaranteed stagger. Request fewer attacks per second than Cutter and roughly comparable individual-hit damage as the first tuning direction. Its benefit is reaching a threat behind a front rank or exploiting an aligned approach, not universally higher damage.

Cost and visible information. One brace cell; no charge. Windup trajectory, committed direction, obstruction marker and recovery indicator explain misses. There is no free additional Cutter while it recovers. A player who lets close pursuers surround them cannot cover every angle before the next shot.

Exploration interaction. Hold-interact a visible loose salvage deposit to aim a tool shot at it instead of an enemy. The shot loosens the same bundle as a normal close interaction; the player must still reach and carry the bundle. It opens no locked clue container, awards no extra salvage and destroys no stable evidence. The longer reach can reduce time spent beside a deposit under pressure; moving in and gathering by hand remains the free alternative. Combat fire is diverted during that tool shot.

Combinations / keep-or-switch reason. Portable Beacon aligns an approach through a corridor; Driver then penetrates its queue while the player gathers at the edge. Coil temporarily holds wet targets in line but costs three further cells with its bank, and the driver cannot use Arc. Kit supports an exposed dry return; Insulation instead permits wet collection. Prefer the early Cutter when enemies approach from several angles or when a cargo cell and Arc compatibility matter more than line reach.

Enemy counterplay. Existing organisms closing from two sides split the shot's value; scattered targets and walls prevent penetration. Requested future Combat case: a ranged attacker behind a front rank gives it a purpose, but a flank pursuer punishes its recovery. Neither enemy role is claimed to exist yet.

Acquisition. First optional maintenance cache by a straight service lane, with a close hand-gather route to the nearby deposit. Inspect for recipe; fit at shelter. Thereafter tool-labelled caches or the proposed primary-workshop selection in Build Paths. Starts usable without fuel, so a failed expedition cannot create an ammunition debt.

Alternative rejected. A stronger long-range Cutter would be easier to communicate but eventually displace the starting weapon. Committed narrow penetration makes position and recovery the choice; it remains a proposal, not established balance.

Prod — W3

Trigger and target. Automatically thrust toward the nearest visible enemy in a short proposed two-metre reach. A visible forward sector covers up to three nearby targets; approximately one thrust per second. This explicitly extends Campaign’s single-target Prod into a capped sector, subject to Combat review. Combat owns exact ordering and target geometry. No manual target selection is required during ordinary crowd movement.

Effect. No damage and a short shove away from the player for explicitly movable targets; request at most one body-width per thrust. Obstacles stop movement without crush damage; this is displacement, not a stun, knockdown, immunity reset or loss of beacon target. It cannot push across an impassable edge, through a wall or into shelter. A shoved organism resumes its ordinary pursuit/beacon rule immediately. Repeated shoves consume attacks and do not harvest charge themselves.

Cost and visible information. One brace cell, no charge. Mark the shove direction and show a resisted/blocked result distinctly. It never kills or generates kill motes; its purpose is making a brief gap, retaining Lead’s nonlethal Prod proposal. A wide crowd exceeds the target cap, and an obstacle behind the target removes most of the effect.

Exploration interaction. At a narrow machinery access point, stand on the side that pushes pursuers away from the operating space. With a portable beacon beyond that space, displaced enemies outside pursuit range can resume walking to the beacon while the player reaches a valve. Nothing remotely operates the valve; the live interaction still costs exposure. Manual baiting around the existing path is the equipment-free alternative.

Combinations / keep-or-switch reason. Beacon buys a destination; Prod buys local distance while planting or retreating. Insulation lets the player stand at a hot water edge while shoving fresh enemies into that same connected water for a separately paid Coil action. A full build cannot assume shove alone collects motes or fuels its beacon. Early Cutter remains the better choice for kill charge, omnidirectional stragglers, cargo capacity and Arc bursts.

Enemy counterplay. Existing organisms pinched against a wall cannot be shoved far, while flankers enter outside the sector. Requested Combat coverage: a clearly marked braced enemy resists displacement, requiring route diversion or lethal focus instead. This is a dependency request, not an invented canonical enemy roster or a blanket immunity quietly added to one.

Acquisition. Optional route-service cache near an operating space with an alternate approach; inspect recipe, fit at shelter. Later tool caches or primary-workshop selection. No boss-drop requirement, kill-count grind, purchased ammunition or persistent weapon loss.

Alternative rejected. A permanent slowing aura would simplify crowd control but remove the side/obstacle/placement choices. The shove asks the player to choose where an enemy goes and accepts that some geometries defeat it.

Presentation and integration burden

The Prod completes the nonlethal weapon proposed in Campaign 34dc09, rather than introducing a duplicate pushing weapon. EQP101 adds a one-cell brace, a three-target sector cap, obstruction rules and acquisition; these require Combat disposition. Rivet Driver explicitly revises that campaign’s “Cutter is the only source of charge that needs no charge” statement: it too can kill without fuel, at the stated space, aiming and Arc-compatibility costs.

These tools need distinguishable held silhouettes, attack directions, windup/recovery or shove feedback, and readable rack braces. Existing source categories may support some of those needs; no fitting free asset has been verified here. No art has been created or commissioned. If one tool cannot be presented with a coherent approved asset set, first cut that tool or describe it as a mounting variant using an existing silhouette; do not authorize custom or AI art by calling it a placeholder.

Combat: please disposition the requested attack geometry, pierce/shove caps, resistance cues and living-target versus deposit targeting. Campaign: pair first finds with the stated free alternative and countercase. Lead: integrate only after the inventory transfer and these interfaces agree.