User blog:Willbachbakal/Co-Op Plasmids: Presto



Hello there. To conclude with this part of my co-op suggestions, let's take a look at my final new Plasmid: Presto. Of all the abilities at your disposal, none let you completely manipulate the physical environment around you. Granted, certain Plasmids like Decoy, Hypnotize and Security Command let you control the NPCs around you and Telekinesis lets you throw bits of the scenery around, but none let you add to the environment itself. Enter Presto: as its name would suggest, this is a "conjuring" Plasmid, i.e. it lets you summon certain items out of thin air to temporarily aid you in combat. However, since for the moment you know nothing about this Plasmid or how it works, I'll shut up and let you read for yourself:

Level One
Description: Casting this Plasmid will deploy a large vending machine at the target location. The machine is half-transparent, letting you see through it as well as pass through it unharmed but blocking enemies and their attacks (basically, it's intended to work as deployable cover). The vending machine itself works like a cross between a Circus of Values and a Health Station, letting you buy First Aid Kits, EVE Hypos and random consumables as well as recharge your health and EVE. Although you cannot hack this machine, it offers its products at a lower price than the baseline for other vending machines, although it's still higher than that offered by a hacked one. After a certain amount of time, the machine will disappear into thin air. Also, the added modes below are separate from the main one, and can be accessed by using the side arrow keys (or tilting the thumbstick to the side, or something).
 * Upgrade 1: Gun Stop. Grants the machine the ability to sell normal and rare ammunition for all weapons, and adds side panels to the machine to increase its cover range. Although you get a discount for purchasing normal ammunition (less than for a hacked machine, though) you don't get one when buying rare ammo.
 * Upgrade 2: Gene Station. Grants the machine the functionality of a Gene Bank in addition to its normal abilities. In addition, injured or idle enemies will be lured into attempting to use the machine. If they try to heal themselves they'll be poisoned, as with a hacked Health Station, and otherwise the machine will drop a small bomb akin to that in the BioShock 2 multiplayer, dealing heavy damage to the victim.
 * Upgrade 3: Workshop. Grants the machine the added functionality of a U-Invent. Also allows you to purchase "combat options" at a cost in money or U-Invent components, allowing the Presto machine to aid you in combat. The options are as follow:
 * Detonate: Turns the machine into a time bomb, causing it to detonate after a set amount of time (which you can adjust) and dealing moderate damage in a very large radius, also stunning nearby enemies.
 * Assist: Adds two Miniature Turrets to the machine, which will attack enemies until the vending machine disappears.
 * Support: Adds a fixed tripod to the machine, which you can access and exit at will. While doing so you will be unable to move, use Plasmids or change weapons, but the one you're using will have greatly increased accuracy and damage. To complement this, the machine will also convert your ammo into a single clip while using the tripod, removing the need to reload.

Level Two-A: Summon Explosive
Description: Charging up Presto will spawn an exploding barrel at the target location. Barrel will disappear if not destroyed after a certain amount of time. Can only lay one explosive barrel at a time. Also, the explosion from the summoned barrel cannot affect your partner.
 * Upgrade 1: Chain Reaction. Upon exploding the barrel will expel several miniature explosives which will detonate upon impact.
 * Upgrade 2: Minefield. Allows you to have up to three explosive barrels deployed at the same time.
 * Upgrade 3: Surprise!. Pointing at an enemy while casting Summon Explosive will attach the barrel directly to them. Destroying the explosive barrel will deal them massive damage, and killing the enemy will cause the explosive to detonate.

Level Two-B: Jet Spray
Description: Charging up Presto will allow you to fire a continuous stream of water from your hand, draining your EVE in the process. Enemies hit by the water will be wet, and will take extra damage from Electro Bolt and electrical attacks and will be stunned for longer (they won't take as much damage as if they were in a pool of water, though). If frozen, they will stay frozen for longer as well. These two elemental effects also propagate through wet scenery as well, so shocking or freezing someone on a portion of the floor covered in water (or simply shocking or freezing the floor directly) will also electrocute or freeze anyone else in contact with the wet floor. If the floor is connected to a pool of water through Jet Spray, shocking anyone in contact with the water will deal them critical damage, as with every enemy in contact with the water. Water created through Jet Stream will disappear after some time.
 * Upgrade 1: Splash. Hitting someone directly with Jet Spray will spray water all around them. In addition, firing Jet Spray at the scenery will splash water all around, allowing you to cover a greater area in water in a shorter amount of time.
 * Upgrade 2: Arc Spray. Shocking a wet enemy will cause them to project electrical arcs at a wide distance, shocking up to three enemies in range. If one of the secondary targets is also wet, they will propagate the effect. The same applies to Winter Blast, although the target will emit ice shards instead of electrical arcs.
 * Upgrade 3: Accumulation. The more wet enemies you shock at the same time through the use of Jet Spray, the more damage you'll deal to each one of them. The more wet enemies you freeze at the same time in the same way, the longer the stun time for each one.

Level Two-C: Solid Fuel
Description: Charging up Presto will allow you to continuously fire a black jelly-like substance, akin to napalm, which will stick to enemies, objects and the scenery. Setting the goo on fire will cause it to burn and remain aflame for much longer, and will cause the fire to spread to the entirety of the flammable substance in contact with it. Enemies covered in goo will take much more fire damage and will remain on fire for longer. In addition, small to medium-sized objects will stick to the goo, and so removing any object from an enemy with Telekinesis will deal them a certain amount of damage based on the size of the object. The goo will disappear after a while.
 * Upgrade 1: Gunk. Enemies covered in Solid Fuel will have their movement speed reduced. The more Solid Fuel you covered them in, the slower their movements. In addition, enemies covered in the goo will stick to each other, and will have difficulty removing themselves from the lock.
 * Upgrade 2: Sludge Trail. Enemies covered in Solid Fuel will leave behind a trail of the stuff.
 * Upgrade 3: Gunpowder Goo. Setting the goo on fire will cause it to explode, covering the surrounding area in flames. Enemies covered in goo will take serious amounts of damage if set on fire.

Done! That's it for the co-op Plasmids. What's your opinion on them? Which one's your favorite, and why? Also, does anyone have any preferences for what I should do next. I could do the weapons, flesh out the story or even update the enemy roster. You decide!

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