Reactor

Alert

ReactorBorderless

Support

Resource

Destroy

Type

Power of Radiation

Makes Other Aliens Go Super

Setup: Abduct all tethered flares except your own from the forge. Shroud those flares in your nexus.

As a sponsor, if your leader wins an encounter, use this power to gift your leader their tethered flare from your nexus (if present). 

As a bystander, if you are not commissioned during rally, use this power to start “radiating” until upkeep. If one or more leaders lose an encounter while you are radiating, you may either claim any or all losing leaders’ tethered flares from your nexus, claim your own tethered flare from your nexus, or vaporize any or all losing leader’s tethered flares from your cache.

If another alien scraps a tethered flare, use this power to abduct it and shroud it in your nexus.

Legacy: Every alien claims their tethered flare from anywhere, unless it is vaporized.

After the revolutionary invention of flares, the Federation invested heavily in  a device capable of neutralizing their power. As luck would have it, the machine ultimately proved so advanced that it developed self-awareness. The Reactor only agreed to assist in flare control in exchange for representation in the Federation.

Sponsor: Encounter

Bystander: Rally

Any: Any

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As the defender, after arrival, you may discharge this flare. If you win the encounter, establish a base in any system. Burnout.

Defender: Combat

Super Flare

While you are radiating, after using your power, you may discharge this flare to ravage a base from each alien whose tethered flare is not in your nexus.

Bystander: Encounter

Modifications

  • Slightly tweaked Wild Reactor to reveal the flare before encounter pods are selected, preventing it from being able to blindside enemies when it shows up in a match without Reactor.
  • Original Reactor only scraps flares from its cache with its power, not vaporize them. The stakes were slightly increased to offset Reactor losing its alt-win condition.
  • Original Super Reactor provides an alt-win condition. Changed to instead add an additional punishment
  • Reactor’s legacy gives every alien their super flare. If done at the start of the match, it greatly incentivized aliens that can protect their caches and aliens with stronger super flares. Aliens like Porcupine and Benefactor may not like this legacy as much, though most aliens can appreciate having their super flare. If Reactor was eliminated, it harshly punishes aliens whose super flare was vaporized by its power, since every alien Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

  • Reactor cannot choose whether to gift a flare or not, but it can choose if it is willing to do so.
  • Once an alien obtains its flare from Reactor, it is completely immune to Reactor’s punishment until either its flare is scrapped or Reactor goes super. Similarly, Reactor cannot gift an alien their flare once it enters Reactor’s cache, but it can still leverage the flare with the risk of vaporizing it.
  • Reactor can only radiate if acting as a bystander. 

Development Notes

  • Reactor is a unique alt-win type of alien that specializes in flares. It is one of the first aliens themed around flares in the FFG version of Cosmic, alongside Aristocrat and Medium. Reactor carves out its own niche by specifically focusing on tethered flares, which neither of the other two touch. While it is the weakest at gaining additional flares to use for itself, it is perhaps the strongest when it comes to leveraging the flares socially. 
  • Reactor invokes the same sort of prisoner’s dilemma that I attempted with Yinyang, but I like how each design plays with the idea. If one or both aliens commission reactor, Reactor can only use the win-based clause of its power, and only if it sponsors the winner. Yin-Yang gets to sponsor both leaders, and both leaders will receive rewards. Reactor punishes only the losing alien if neither side commissions it, while Yinyang gets no effect if neither side commissions it. Yinyang’s ideal is for both aliens to commission it, but it still enjoys having only one to sponsor. Reactor likes either both or neither sponsoring it, with one sponsor giving it the least choice. Reactor never has a truly bad result as a potential sponsor, as it will either get commissioned or grab a flare (unless there’s no losing leader).
  • The original premise of Reactor is based around attempting to remove all of the tethered flares from its nexus except its own, allowing it to discharge its own flare and win the match. Since I don’t allow alt-win aliens, I took the idea and gave it a similar twist. Super Reactor can dish out a punishment to every alien whose super flare is not in the reactor, ravaging one of their bases. It allows Reactor to still have leverage over aliens even when it doesn’t possess their super flare. Super Reactor doesn’t mind if everyone else is super, since it will either have guaranteed sponsorship or the ability to harshly punish every losing alien.
  • If Reactor is deactivated, the flares in its nexus become locked out to everyone until Reactor either gets its power back or is eliminated. It creates something of a disincentive to attack Reactor if it still has your flare.
  • One aspect that’s interesting about Reactor is how its power is entirely centered around how much an alien cares about getting their flare. With Super Reactor lurking in the shadows, it’s questionable how much one might even want their super flare, but if everyone else has theirs, it’s going to put you at a huge disadvantage.
  • The way I retooled Wild Reactor, the flare still has burnout whether the defender wins or loses. Therefore, while it can be used to gain a base as the defender, it also carries a risk in using it. The user needs to wait until they are confident they can beat their opponent. I don’t like the original flare’s ability to be used to sneak out a surprise victory and catch everyone offguard in a match where Reactor doesn’t even participate.
  • Aside from Reactor’s complexity, Super Reactor justifies the power being red alert on its own. Players need to be aware from the beginning the danger of receiving the flare from Reactor, as it can almost be like a monkey’s paw sort of deal.
  • The core of Reactor’s power is to deprive other aliens of their super flare, while easily obtaining its own super flare due to the burnout effect. Reactor can even use the wild flares of other aliens for its own purposes, giving it a secondary use that prevents it from just being Parasite+. Reactor’s strength can be dependent on the strength of the enemy flares, as well as the aliens that commission it. Even if Reactor doesn’t sponsor anyone, it can’t use its power as long as at least one leader commissioned it. 
  • Reactor’s theme is based around that of a nuclear reactor. The flares have a vague nuclear implication behind them, so it’s fitting that Reactor’s main idea is zapping other aliens with nuclear energy to make them go super. Having the tethered flares act as the reactor’s “cores” is also apt. The aliens receiving their flares from Reactor might be designed as an abstraction, but the specific mechanism behind flares is vague enough that I could also imagine the nuclear radiation lets the alien pull their flare toward them like Reactor itself can do.
  • What I like about Reactor’s theme is how it is treated almost more like a utility than a fellow alien. Commissioning reactor is like hooking up a nuclear engine to their ship. If they win, they get supercharged with the nuclear radiation and go super. If they lose, the engine is damaged, unable to power them up.
  • If a cataclysm occurs while Reactor is not invited, Reactor can grab both flares. It’s somewhat humorous that an alien called Reactor is incentivized to hope for a cataclysm.
  • One unique aspect about Reactor from a flavor perspective is that it isn’t technically a race of aliens, as there is only one. As a sentient machine, I imagine Reactor can control all of its ships remotely. There’s some thematic overlap with AI, but AI has more of a focus on its capacity to learn and grow. I imagine Reactor barely passes the threshold for what could be considered sentient life. If someone wanted to maximize the roleplay factor, this could be the one alien incapable of speech. Or maybe it speaks in something like Morse code through beeps.
  • I imagine the Reactor attracts the tethered flares using the same mechanism linked to burnout flares. It’s very convenient for the theme that such flares work as they do.
  • I acknowledge Reactor as a destroy-type alien simply because it is designed to obtain its super flare. Also, it vaporizes flares through its normal power.
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