Insect

Alert

Type

Power to Molt

Gains Powers from Flares

Whenever any alien discharges a flare, you may use this power to either scrap an untethered flare from your cache or, if you do not have a flare in your cache, manifest and scrap a random untethered flare. Add the tethered power of that flare to your nexus as an “exoskeleton”, replacing any existing “exoskeleton” in your nexus. Your exoskeleton becomes a sub-power.

Legacy: Whenever an alien discharges an untethered flare, that alien’s power is scrambled.

Due to their naturally short lifespans, the Insects struggled to accomplish much until discovering that the radiation from flares could increase their longevity. The molting process they use fuses the powers from the flares into their new exoskeleton, allowing them to either permanently or temporarily gain any powers they come across.

Any: Any

Optional

Wild Flare

As a leader, during payoff after losing an encounter, you may discharge this flare to scrap your cache and gain a free resupply.

Leader: Payoff

Super Flare

Whenever you use your power, you may manifest and scrap a random untethered flare even if you have a flare in your cache.

Any: Any

Modifications

Originally the power of Metamorphosis. Changed to the power to “molt” since I changed Chrysalis to the power of “metamorphosis.”
In FFG Cosmic, Insect’s “exoskeleton” is called “new flesh”. I went with exoskeleton to feel a little more insectoid.
Insect was an original alien from the Eon era with the ability to copy the opponent’s power directly. It was the first power to introduce the idea of having multiple copies of a power in the same match, which led to several rulings issues that demonstrated why it is a problem. Powers like Insect helped me to avoid such issues when designing my own meta aliens like Mask. This power is based on the FFG retrain.
Insect’s legacy forces every alien to reroll their power if they discharge an untethered flare. While this protects the ability for aliens to use their own super flare and enemy wild flares, it makes other flares unusable if aliens want to keep their current power. Aliens who don’t like their power can use flares to keep rerolling each invasion until finding one they like. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Though unlikely, Insect has the chance to get back a power it throws away. Since the flare it scraps enters the forge, it can potentially obtain that flare again.
Insect’s presence will add many more flares to the forge over time. Even if it is not holding a flare, it can generate a new power by manifesting and scrapping a random one. Having a specific flare in your cache will give you the advantage of knowing the power ahead of time.
Insect can discharge a tethered flare in order to use its power, scrapping either another flare in its cache or manifesting one. This factor means that every flare is potentially useful in Insect’s possession.
Insect’s power is optional, so you cannot force it to lose its power by discharging a flare. Once Insect gets the power it wants to keep, it can keep it forever.

Development Notes

For the longest time, Insect was one of the most requested aliens to be added to the FFG version of Cosmic. It was finally added in the Cosmic Odyssey expansion in 2022, though its power is much different compared to the original. While the original power is simple in concept, its execution makes it incredibly complicated. It is the prime example of why having two copies of the same power in the same match. While many powers like Macron, Spiff, and Clone are completely isolated and can work together in the same match with no issues, aliens like Oracle and Magician can cause conflicts, rendering its power unusable without some sort of exceptions specified like the Special Matchups section of my design page. What happens when two Losers use their power? How do two Lawyers split up the compensation? What happens if two Knights pick two different options? The scenario is not conducive to the design since it means every new power designed also needs to take a matchup against itself into account.
Mechanically, Insect can be compared to other meta aliens focused on gaining powers. Reincarnator, Plant, Chrysalis, Pentaform, Changeling, etc. Of the existing meta aliens, I would say it is most comparable to Reincarnator and Chrysalis. Like Reincarnator, it can swap between random powers with a different activation condition. However, it is never forced to change powers, allowing it to keep a power it likes. Like Chrysalis, it has the option to lock into one power forever and can gain it much faster, but it doesn’t have as much choice in which power it gets and isn’t granted a free super flare along with it. The power can also be compared to the Venture Galaxy’s Geek, who can manifest random powers as well. Like Reincarnator, Geek can be forced to scrap its existing power as well, but only if it fails the trivia challenge.
Though unlikely (about 1 in 300 chance), it is possible an alien could use a wild flare with Insect’s legacy to gain the power of the flare they used, giving them a free super flare that also prevents them from using the flare to reroll their power. If they were previously holding their super flare, they can use it to reroll their power.
While several aliens in FFG Cosmic convert flares into powers, since it’s easier to shuffle and move around pods than alien bios, mine generally just use the powers themselves due to the digital format. The exception would be my Chrysalis, which uses flares to narrow down its power since Chrysalis actually obtains that flare and adds flares to the forge through its power. Insect uses flares to activate its power, so it makes sense for Insect to also maintain the conversion of flares into powers.
The updated version of Insect is designed to be able to use flares to gain new sub-powers. Due to the timing of the power, Insect cannot simply discharge a flare to gain that alien’s power directly. It would either need to discharge another flare in its cache or wait until another alien discharges one. This factor means that Insect benefits from having as many flares as possible.
When it comes to aliens whose theme is a superset or subset of an existing alien, I tend to only find them distinct if they can be divided into unique concepts. Roach is already an insect, so how do we differentiate Insect’s theme? There’s a similar issue with Gecko and Lizard. I can take advantage of the fact that these are all disparate alien races who are not actually related. Roach is an alien, not an insect, and it encapsulates the “hard to kill” property of the roach that generic insects aren’t really known for. While insects aren’t particularly known for molting, they are known for having notably short lifespans in comparison to most other living species. The relatively short amount of time Insect spends with one sub-power can be interpreted as Insect shedding its old skin to extend its short life. The Insects could be heavily dependent on the nuclear power of flares in order to live.
Molting is the process where a creature sheds its skin, hair, shell, or other body part in order to grow a new one. Deer shed their antlers, crabs shed their shell, and insects shed their exoskeleton. Insects are required to go through the molting process to grow, since they become too large for their old skin.
It’s interesting to consider how the wild flare works with Insect’s biology to make its power work. Normally a wild flare only contains the energy to grant an alien’s power for a split second, resulting in the wild flare being a version of the power that matches the idea. Either the power is weaker than the original or it is a completely different effect since the user doesn’t have time to use the power in the same way as the original. In Insect’s case, the energy from the flare is absorbed into Insect’s new skin, granting it that power on a more long-term basis. The only trade-off is that it requires another flare to trigger the molting process, suggesting that the effect is triggered by radiation.
With Mimic, I imagine the alien power taking the form of an alien while maintaining its original color scheme. With Insect, I imagine the inverse, where it keeps its insectoid appearance but gains the color scheme of the target alien.