User blog:Willbachbakal/Singleplayer Enemies: Pharma Splicer



And now, for something completely different. After shooting, freezing, whacking, cremating, shocking and exploding so many Splicers, you'd think that by now they'd start having doctors around. Well now they do. Introducing: the Pharma Splicer!

Research Bonuses

 * Level 1: New Gene Tonic (will be added later)
 * Level 2: +Damage
 * Level 3: Medical Expert 3 Gene Tonic
 * Level 4: ++Damage
 * Level 5: First Aid Kits always bring you back to maximum health.

Description
As you'd expect from a medic, these Splicers heal other Splicers, and themselves if alone and not under attack. This is how they heal others: they always run around with a syringe in hand, filled with a murky green liquid. If they see an injured Splicer, they'll feel compelled to run to them and stab them with their syringe, causing the Splicer to heal a bit of its damage over time. After that, they'll pull another syringe from their infinite stock, conveniently housed in a satchel they carry on their side.

You're probably chuckling after reading this. Splicer medics? Really? What use is that? I'll just shoot the doctor, since they can't fight back. Which is where you'd be wrong. Not only do Pharma Splicers fight back, but they come up with a nasty surprise. If they're not busy healing someone, they'll play darts with their syringes. On your face. If you get hit by a syringe, you'll get poisoned. Two things happen when you're poisoned: first, you take damage over time. Second, your vision gets the BioShock equivalent of an acid trip. You'll be seeing colors, the scenery will warp around you and, to top it all off, everything's blurry. Thankfully, this lasts only a few moments, and you're more or less immune to the poison effects for another few seconds after that. You can also stop the effects instantly by visiting a medical station (but not by taking a First Aid Kit). You can also pick up and throw the syringes with Telekinesis, giving the doctor a taste of their own medecine.

On a more technical note, these Splicers are fairly fast, but can't take too much damage before biting the dust.

Evolution
As with all other enemies, these guys get a makeover at the midpoint. The first thing you might notice is that they don't have their trusty syringes anymore. Instead, they've gotten their hands on a plasmid that lets them fire healing beams from their hands, allowing them to heal two targets at once, and at a much faster rate than before. To attack you, they just fire one of their beams at you, poisoning you continuously. As long as the beam's on you, the pain won't stop. Oh, and every Splicer close to them gets a healing factor. Kill them as fast as possible, or you're in trouble.

So, what are your thoughts? And yes, I ripped the photo off Dr. Steinman's page. It was the only photo I found where there wasn't a doctor-type Splicer with a weapon.

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