Zilch

Alert

Essence

Control

Type

Power of Zero

Zaps Various Aspects

At any time, when the timing is appropriate, you may trigger a “zero” in your nexus. Then, your power is zapped.

Legacy: A Cosmic Zap is manifested in every alien’s cache.

The Cosmic Zap is one of the greatest mysteries in the Cosmos. None understand quite how it works, and its connections to other aspects of the Cosmos such as the warp and the gate remain unknown. The Zilch have channeled a power close enough to gain a mere fraction of the zap’s true power, and even they don’t fully understand how it works.

Any: Any

Optional

Wild Flare

As a leader, after contact, you may discharge this flare to transform all attack drivers with positive values into negative values of the same value. Burnout.

Leader: Contact

Super Flare

When your power would be zapped, you may discharge this flare to prevent the power from being zapped.

Any: Any

Zeroes

Null – When a sponsor uses an optional power or an aspect that has sponsor timing, zap that aspect. If it is a pod, vaporize it.
Void – When a leader uses an optional power or an aspect with leader timing, zap that aspect. If it is a pod, vaporize it.
Nix – When rainbow destiny manifests, zap the invader’s original choice, forcing them to target a different alien.
Zip – When an alien becomes a sponsor, zap their sponsorship, rebounding their committed ships.
Cipher – When ships are committed to the gate, zap those ships, rebounding them. Ships from different valid location(s) must be chosen and the number of committed ships must be different (if possible).
Scratch – If an aspect targets a planet, zap that aspect. A different valid planet must be targeted.
Nothing – Zap a primed driver, sealing it in stasis until the end of upkeep. The leader may prime another driver to replace it. The sealed pod returns to its owner’s cache during upkeep.
Blank – Zap a discharged feint pod, sealing it in stasis until upkeep. Then it returns to the owner’s cache.

Modifications

Zilch is the name of another alien from Eon and FFG Cosmic that I repurposed into Angel. The mechanics of this power are Negator, which I modified to reflect the power of zero.
Originally the power to “negate”. Changed to the power of “zero” to reflect the essence and the alien name.
Original Zilch can use its power once per invasion, with Super Zilch being usable twice per invasion. Mine is effectively the same, but the power self-zaps after use instead to avoid having to remember past information. It provides Super Zilch a small bit of Cosmic Zap protection in addition to letting it use its power twice per invasion.
The original Essence for Negator had very basic names that did not adhere to any theme. Null was “Main Player Action”. Void was “Ally Action”. Nix was “Destiny”. Zip was “Enter Alliance”. Cipher was “Choosing Ships”. Scratch was “Hyperspace Gate”. Nothing was “Encounter Card”. Blank was “Non-Encounter Card”. Nix also had a specification for when an alien manifests their own destiny, which generally cannot happen in my Cosmic.
The original Null and Void require the user to specifically be a leader or sponsor. I made the effects inclusive, meaning “any” effects and actor-only effects also count if the user happens to be a leader or sponsor at the time.
Zilch’s legacy manifests a Cosmic Zap in the cache of every alien, making them much more prevalent and threatening in the match. With each alien having a zap on-hand, powers that activate only a few times like invader-only aliens become much more difficult to rely on. However, since the zaps are pods in caches, they can also be stolen via compensation or other aspects that snatch pods. Mesmer and especially Vulture can take great advantage of this legacy, while aliens whose powers activate quite often like Bandit and Zombie won’t be significantly harmed by it. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Aliens with actor-only timing are vulnerable to both of Zilch’s zeroes that zap powers. Aliens with mandatory or bystander-only timing are vulnerable to neither.
It is important to keep track of which zeroes Zilch has already used and which are still on the table. The most impactful two are likely the ones that zap powers, as these zeroes can also zap flares and artifacts if the timing is correct.
Null and Void are inclusive effects, meaning they include any effect that can work with the declared timing, rather than only ones that must work with that timing. If a flare activates during any phase and you use it as a leader, Zilch can trap it in the Void.
With Nothing still available for Zilch to use, be wary about being too reliant on your attack pods. It can feel like fighting against Chronos, where the first driver you choose shouldn’t necessarily be your strongest.
Nix effectively protects Zilch from rainbow destiny. Since there are only two in the pool, Zilch may be able to cycle through its essence pool to obtain it again before another rainbow destiny manifests.

Development Notes

Negator/Zilch reminds me of an attempt to make Martian work as an effective power, since the original from CEO is basically a non-power. Simply zapping the opponent as a leader doesn’t even affect a good number of powers, particularly ones that activate as a sponsor or bystander. Zilch’s essence gives it much more flexibility to zap powers, pods, and much more.
The power of zero is an interesting concept to capture as an alien power. In math, zero as a number simultaneously has no value and great value. Though a single zero equates to nothing, its use as a placeholder number adds greater values to other numbers. The concept of “adding zeroes” to a commonly used to refer to making the value on it bigger, as the difference between 10 and 1,000,000 is simply a few zeroes.
Zilch is another term for zero. To match the theme, all of Zilch’s essence names are also synonyms for zero. They capture the idea of something coming from nothing, by using the second meaning of each word to relate to its in-game effect.
Null refers to combining two or more signals that cancel each other out. In the context of the power, Zilch’s null signal cancels out the leader’s aspect, reducing it to zero in a straightforward manner. If it is a pod, the signal vaporizes it entirely.
Void is the partner of Null, referencing the phrase “null and void”, which renders something invalid. When both are used together, they can zap both a leader and a sponsor, potentially disabling the whole fleet. Void is the name of another alien famous for its ability to permanently vaporize ships. I opted to add a vaporization clause to this effect as a result to give a nod to the name of origin, giving it to Null as well to keep it symmetrical. A “void” refers to an empty space, so my thought is that the effect traps the target in an empty space, possibly the Void itself. If a pod is sent to the Void, I imagine it is lost forever, while an alien cannot lose itself after leaving the void.
Nix is an archaic word used to signal that someone with authority is approaching, such as “Nix! The cops are here!” In the context of Cosmic, I use it to allow the redetermination of rainbow destiny, providing forewarning to the potential defender that prevents an invasion in that system.
Zip is another synonym for zero in the same vein as Zilch. In this case, it serves as a reference to my Zipper, with its power to Zip. That power allows Zipper to prevent all aliens from sponsoring a leader of choice. Similarly, the Zip essence is a one-use ability that cancels one sponsorship with one leader.
A cipher is a dated term for zero and also refers to a secret message or code. This essence puts a cipher on the message to commit ships, resulting in the message becoming difficult to understand and causing confusion. As a result, the ships come from the wrong location and the wrong number of ships are committed.
Scratch refers to a handicap of zero in golf. It also refers to physical scratching with claws or fingernails, which can be used to re-aim the gate to a different planet. To “start from scratch” is to start again from the beginning, or to start from zero.
Nothing is another term from zero that refers to the absence of something. This effect turns their driver to nothing, turning their fleet into a stooge while allowing them to prime a replacement. In this case, the driver turns to nothing only until the end of upkeep for balance purposes.
Blank is a term to zero that refers to something empty or devoid of content, such as a blank page or a blank canvas. In this case, the pod of a feint value becomes blank, resulting in it having no effect until the end of upkeep. I think it effectively distinguishes itself from nothing due to the fact that a blank driver would have a default value of 00, producing a different result.
It could be interesting to give this alien the power to “zap”, since all of its essence zaps something in some regard and it even zaps itself when using its power. However, having an alien based around the power of zero is a great inclusion to mirror the numerical aliens Ace (1), Deuce (2), Volt (3), Macron (4), and Pentaform (5). Zilch is able to zap all of these aliens to return them to zero. Also, I think it works better that no alien truly has the power to “zap”, keeping the origin and function behind the Cosmic Zap more of a mystery that no alien can monopolize.
As with Librarian, Zilch is one of the few aliens that distinguishes between mandatory and optional powers. Being unable to zap mandatory powers distinguishes the effect from the typical Cosmic Zap and opens the door for other aliens to zap powers in different ways, such as Martian.
Zilch’s power reminds me of Golden Experience Requiem from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. That power has the ability to return any action to zero, resulting in nothing happening at all. That power is effectively invincible, since no action taken can do anything against it. Zilch captures the spirit of that idea by zapping different game aspects, but it is balanced in that it also zaps itself, preventing it from being as overwhelming as the Jojo power. As a tradeoff for setting something else to zero, it sets itself to zero too.
I designed Zilch’s appearance based on something like Giygas, where its form is too incomprehensible to perceive. Its view from the directory has a face made of stars, evoking the idea of creating something from nothing.