Assistant

Alert

Essence

Resource

Info

Type

Power to Help

Assists Other Aliens

As an actor, after arrival, if you have any allies, use this power to gift an “assistance” essence from your nexus to one ally and gain a boon. That alien may either display or shroud it in their nexus.

Any alien may trigger an assistance in their nexus whenever the timing is appropriate. When they do, use this power to help that alien as instructed by the assistance in a private voice channel. If you are zapped while using your power, the targeted assistance is vaporized.

Legacy: During warpfall, the invader may revive another alien’s ship instead of their own to gain a boon.

Everyone needs a helping hand now and again, and the Assistants are here to provide it. As the official secretaries of the Federation, they receive proper compensation so that they may perform their services free of charge. As they say: Sometimes the best way to help others is to help yourself.

Actor: Arrival
Any: Ayy

Mandatory

Wild Flare

At any time, if you have a home planet without a base, you may discharge this flare to revive up to four ships and establish a home base with them. Burnout.

Any: Any

Super Flare

When an assistance is triggered, you may discharge this flare to replace it with an assistance in your nexus.

Any: Any

Assistances

Lost Territory – At any time, if you have a home planet you do not occupy, Assistant will establish a base on it using three ships of your choice from either the warp or your bases.
Ship Scarcity – At any time, Assistant will revive all of your ships and move them to your bases as you instruct.
Messy Cache – When you receive a resupply, it will first go to the Assistant. The Assistant will scrap any pods as you instruct and then gift the remaining cache to you.
Messy Bases – At any time, Assistant will jump your ships between your bases as you instruct.
Wanted Pod – At any time, Assistant will claim a pod from the forge as you instruct. If it exists, Assistant will gift it to you.
Unwilling Ally – After any arrival, Assistant will override another alien’s sponsor’s choice of leader and committed ship count, as you instruct.

Modifications

Originally the power to “be helpful”. Changed to give it more of an action verb. Changed to “help” instead of “assist” to avoid redundancy.
Needed Card essence was renamed to Wanted Pod. Originally it only targets exhausted pods. Mine can target any pod in the forge and will fail if it can’t be found there, creating more of a risk and reward. Also, the pod received is public information in original Cosmic, but it is private in mine.
Animals’ legacy encourages sponsors but also discourages powerful sponsors, as taking on at least 2 sponsors gives you a free pod but also gives it to the ally. With aliens like Cavalry or Philanthropist that can assist with pods as a sponsor, there can be a strategic advantage to inviting them. Aliens that greatly benefit from pods like Virus and Merchant can be risky prospects unless inviting them alone, but you miss out on getting the pod yourself if you don’t meet the minimum number. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
There is no limit to the number of assistances that can be given to one alien, aside from the maximum pool size of 6. This means that there is nothing stopping Assistant from playing favorites and giving all of its assistance to one specific alien.

Tips

Assistant can avoid commissioning aliens in order to avoid giving out assistance. However, it is incentivized to use its power as much as possible to maximize rewards.
Assistant works best when it has reliable allies it can work alongside. In this way, Assistant’s power acts as a win-win instead of having to begrudgingly help others for rewards.
Assistant is attractive as both a leader and a sponsor. It’s also notable that a leader may wish to sponsor Assistant alone, to ensure that Assistant won’t choose to help someone else.

Development Notes

Aliens that help other aliens have historically been difficult to balance. General is generally perceived as superior to Animal, as while both powers provide pods to others, General provides more to itself. Daredevil is also perceived as weak for providing rewards to its allies when it pulls off its stunt. While it’s in-line with my design philosophy that every alien power provides itself some clear advantage, I think there’s more to be gained from a power than tangible resources.
The primary instinct of Assistant’s power would be to position yourself such that you stand to benefit from your reward more than the alien you are helping. For instance, giving an alien like Zombie your Ship Scarcity assistance, or an alien like Masochist your Lost Territory. While such strategies can be employed by Assistant, I think a more honest Assistant strategy can be just as potent. Assistant’s power makes it an attractive ally as both leader and sponsor, to the point that many leaders may want Assistant by itself to ensure it can’t choose someone else to help. If Assistant gains a reward from its power and then helps its ally to win, both aliens can benefit even more than one can alone. Assistant may be more inclined to shared wins than solo ones, but the rewards it earns through its power still give it the potential to strike out on its own after serving as a loyal servant the whole match.
The theme of Assistant is something like a secretary or personal assistant. One who works tirelessly to help their boss and handle all the menial labor. It’s similar in theme to Butler, only with a guaranteed paycheck instead of tips and no obligation of politeness. The key difference is that Assistant’s jobs are more varied, while the Butler is specifically tasked with preparing the gate.
Lost Territory can be incredibly valuable for an alien that is struggling to keep their power. It is one of the few effects in the game that can grant someone their power back after they lose it, which is a fantastic defense against elimination. Assistant will likely want to save this assistance until the endgame to become more valuable as a potential sponsor.
Ship Scarcity is a free warp key for one particular alien. Aliens that both consume and value their ships prize this one the most, such as Amoeba or
Messy Bases is one of the few methods aliens have of quickly moving ships to their foreign bases. It can be incredibly dangerous if given to an alien like Disease, though it normally only serves a purpose of reinforcing certain bases against powers like Grump or Shadow.
Messy Cache provides an interesting means of cache pruning. Since the target doesn’t get to see their cache, they have to provide broad instructions about what types of pods to scrap, such as “any attack pods with 04 or less might” or “all negotiate pods”. Even if Assistant ends up scrapping nothing, Assistant gains the information of seeing the target’s cache before gifting it to them.
Wanted Pod gives aliens the option to either take an exhausted pod they can see or gamble for an unrevealed pod they cannot. It’s an interesting bit of risk and reward, as the amount of information the user has can better inform what pods might remain in the forge. Since the information is private, taking a charged pod from the forge will avoid revealing which pod you received, as retrieving an exhausted pod will reveal it to everyone. If the showcase is in effect, Assistant can take a pod from there as well.
Unwilling Ally is the only assistance capable of punishing an alien completely unrelated to the one gifted the assistance. The effect is highly flexible, capable of getting an alien into the fleet they want by siding with the opponent or even forcing Disease to only commit one ship. Even though Assistant cannot be forced to move its own ships, it can still be directly punished by this assistance by having its own allies forced to swap sides. Since Assistant cannot zap itself, it is reliant on one of its allies to do so instead.
It’s funny to imagine that as the official secretary of the Federation, Assistant has the power of the admin password.