Cyborg
Alert
Combat
Resource
Type
Power of Bionics
Equipped with Additional Pods
Setup: Extract three pods and display them in your nexus as your “attachments.”
As an actor, after contact, you may use this power to scrap the primed encounter pod and replace it with one in your attachments.
At any time, if you have fewer than three attachments, you may extract pods to display in your nexus until you have three attachments. You may discharge support pod attachments as if they were in your cache.
Legacy: When eliminated, extract 7 pods and display them as your cybernetic remains. When drafting pods, aliens may choose to draft from your remains.
Once a meek and ineffective prey on their home planet, the Cyborgs’ ingenuity with machines allowed them to enhance themselves into the dominant species. After seeing the result of their technological revolution, they became dedicated to sharing the joys of bionics with the Cosmos. Once they take over, everyone gets a free upgrade.
Actor: Contact
Optional
Wild Flare
As an actor, after contact, you may discharge this flare to add might to your side equal to the number of cards in each exhaust.
Actor: Contact
Super Flare
At any time, you may discharge this flare to add a fourth attachment to your nexus. If this flare is snatched or scrapped, scrap one of your attachments.
Any: Any
Modifications
- The original Wild Cyborg has the ability to play the top card from the discard pile as if it were in the user’s cache. My version of Cosmic has no discard pile, so this needed to be changed.
- Cyborg’s legacy essentially creates a new showcase for aliens to draft from, creating a temporary resource to pull known cards instead of relying on luck. Aliens that need specific cards can take advantage of the legacy, and aliens with drafting powers can get to it more quickly.
Tips
- Cyborg’s power is highly flexible due to its timing. By having attack attachments, Cyborg can freely send an envoy and then outfit it into a brigade to avoid a massacre.
- Take note of Cyborg’s attachments since they are public information. In order to win against Cyborg, you need to be able to win against all of their attachments. Similarly Cyborg can outfit a brigade into an envoy to avoid a massacre.
- Cyborg simply having strong attachments can deter other aliens from playing stronger pods. It can be worth forcing Cyborg to use the strong attachments even at a loss, as it takes away Cyborg’s ability to intimidate.
- As the Cyborg, it can be worth using the power when already losing just to get rid of a weak attachment, in hopes of extracting a stronger one.
Development Notes
- Cyborg as a power is comparable to Chosen, especially the original version of Chosen that isn’t dependent on enemy count. While it can’t add its attachments to its total like Chosen can, it can do the same replacement ability. The primary balancing difference is that Chosen’s pods are hidden but random in both value and amount, while Cyborg’s pods are public and always has three to choose from. Chosen is a stronger overall combat power, but it cannot make use of support pods. It makes Cyborg more general purpose, while Chosen is more specialized for combat.
- Thematically, I like the idea of the Cyborg having “extra parts” it can use in combat. They act as one-time consumables that the Cyborg has at its disposable. It feels a lot like a Swiss army knife type of design, which reflects a cyborg well. It reminds me of how Mega Man’s hand can change back and forth between a hand and the hand cannon, in addition to gaining the other weapons from the robot masters. Cyborg also constantly getting new upgrades as it loses them also feels fitting to the theme, since a species based around enhancing its body with technology would also be driven to replace its features after losing them.
- One primary issue with the original Super flare design is that the Super flare can end up as an attachment and only make up for itself taking space in the nexus. This isn’t an issue with my version since flares go to the cache after discharged, but the Cosmodex does propose a house rule that the super flare isn’t considered to take up a slot, which works just as well. I prefer having flares go to the cache so other players can affect them, as there isn’t much they can do if any flares are in Cyborg’s Nexus. It adds an extra level of strategy for Cyborg as well, since it can keep a flare in reserve that others can’t touch until it’s used (unless they deactivate Cyborg’s power).
- I really like the elegance and design of Cyborg’s original wild flare. The top card of the discard pile is public for all to see, and it can be disrupted at any time by someone playing a support pod. But then the user of the flare gains access to that support pod in exchange. I definitely would have kept it in if my Cosmic has a discard pile, but it’s not worth adding it in just for this flare.