TGMC:Runner

This page is a part of the TGMC wiki. TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase.

UNDEFINED XENO
Runner	Difficulty: Medium Rank: Hatchling (Starting), Young (10hrs), Mature (25hrs), Elder (70 hrs), Ancient (175 hrs) Duties: Pick off lone marines, harass pushes, dance around marines. Guides: This is the guide. Quote: THAT IS A ROUNY.

The Red Menace

The runner is a very fast caste that excels at hit and run tactics and close quarters combat (especially in one on ones), but suffers in terms of durability and recovery with its low health, armor and plasma regeneration. It has the tools to support a glass cannon-esque type of gameplay, and in the right hands, it can be one of the deadliest xenos in the hive, enough to instill fear and make marines retreat just from seeing their visage.

Before you start running around, take a very close look at your age, then at your armor values. You'll notice that you're quite literally tissue paper (there's a table with the armor values further down if you're lazy or if you don't know how to access this information).
With this in mind, take the liberty of sitting down until you become Mature -- then you can finally begin the process of human obliteration.

Note that, as a Runner, you're nowhere near useful in a FOB siege (or against barricades of any sort, for that matter). Your best bet is staying back and letting other castes take care of the FOB, and only apply pressure when you think you can get away with it or slashing unguarded barricades.

Dancing with Finesse, or "THAT ROUNY IS DOING THE MATRIX!"

Dancing / WASD Dancing, in action. Notice the distinct lack of a mouse pointer.

As a xenomorph, you'll realize you have two ways of attacking: by clicking the target, or by bumping into them with your movement (commonly referred to as bump attack). For all intents and purposes, dancing around a marine (or WASD dancing) refers to moving around them, while using bump attacks to cause damage on the move -- this is what makes a Runner deadly; you never stop moving, you never stop slashing, and marines will sometimes refrain from shooting in fear of attacking their fellow man, which translates to free damage.

But this is easier said than done. There'll be times where you'll get shot anyway while dancing, there'll be times where you'll lose most of your health just trying to get to a marine. Luckily, Runners have a set of abilities that allows them to ease the process. Let's take a look at them.

TL;DR: Use Evasion, run into enemy marine, dance and savage pounce, run away when Evasion runs out (use pounce as an escape tool if needed) and wait for the cooldown. Rinse and repeat.

Maturity Statistics and Evolution Paths

A Runner can evolve into a Hunter or a Bull.

Maturity increases stats as follows.

• Slash is the melee damage when the xenomorph is in harm intent and slashing marine. In the code, it's melee_damage.
• Melee, bullet, laser, energy, bomb, bio, rad, fire, and acid are soft armor values, not hard armor, which means that they reduce damage by a percentage rather than a flat value.

Age	Health	Plasma	Slash	Melee	Bullet	Laser	Energy	Bomb	Bio	Rad	Fire	Acid
Young	175	100	soon	5	5	5	0	0	0	0	5	0
Mature	200	150	soon	10	10	10	10	0	3	3	10	3
Elder	225	200	soon	15	15	15	15	0	5	5	15	5
Ancient	240	200	soon	19	19	19	19	0	7	7	19	7

Abilities

Ability	Description	Plasma Cost	Cooldown
Toggle Bump Attacks	This ability allows you to toggle bump attacks on and off. If for some reason you want to avoid them, toggle this off. The red arrow means it's on; the green arrow means it's off.	N/A	N/A
Rest	This ability is used to rest and get up, with a short channel on getting up. When resting on weeds, health and plasma will regenerate faster, especially in the presence of healing pheromones in regards to health. You want to make sure you're in a safe spot when you're resting. If you see a marine headed to where you are, don't stick around to find out how it'll go; get up and find a better spot.	N/A	N/A
Regurgitate	Regurgitate does exactly what it sounds like: expels the contents of your stomach onto the current tile. To consume someone, grab them then click on your sprite, and stand still. Note that you can headbite and devour at the same time, so if you time it right, you can waste less time than if you did them separately.	N/A	N/A
Headbite	This ability is used to remove the brain of a dead marine, which makes them permadead. Mostly used for putting bodies in resin silos. Very lengthy channel, make sure that you're in safe spot when you do this. Do note that as a Runner, your plasma reserves are very limited and using this ability will leave you with little to spare unless you're Elder or Ancient.	100	N/A
Hide	This ability lets you hide underneath other objects on the tile you are on (such as tables). Useful for sneaking around and surprise attacks.	N/A	N/A
Pounce	A short burst of speed with versatile applications. When targeting a marine, this will let you pounce on them and knock them down for roughly 5 seconds, making them drop whatever they were holding and allowing you to get in some free damage. When targeting a tile, this will let you dash towards it rather quickly, which can be used as an escape tool in a pinch or just to maneuver. Note that Pounce does not work on resting targets. Has a plasma cost of 10 by default. With savage on, landing a pounce on a marine increases the plasma drain to 95, but having that much plasma is not a requirement for its usage.	10 (95)	13 secs.
Savage	This toggle ability, when active, adds an action to your pounce. Note that, as of currently, your current intent decides what this action is. Help and Grab intent will do nothing, whereas Disarm and Harm intent will attack. Oddly enough, despite a savage pounce taking 95 of your plasma (in total), the requirement is actually 20 plasma. Savage has its own separate cooldown and plasma cost from pounce, so make sure it's ready to be used again before going for a savage pounce (or consider a normal pounce instead).	85	30 secs. approx.
Evasion	Your bread and butter. Your main ability. The reason why Runners are so feared and hated. On use, allows you to avoid bullets for six seconds or until you avoid 250 damage worth of bullets, as long as you're in movement. This, in turn, allows you to safely walk into marines and even groups to dance around them unscathed. However, you cannot dodge projectiles landed through point blanking, or if you're standing still. If you see a marine with a shotgun (especially with buckshot), be very careful.	20	30 secs.

Tips & Tricks

• As a Runner, your armor and health are quite low (see the table further below with the stats). If you drop below half health, consider retreating and recovering your resources. If your plasma is too low, consider normal pouncing instead of savage poucing, to conserve plasma.
• Runners can vent crawl (alt+click on a vent or a scrubber). Useful for scouting and surprise attacks.
• As a hit and run tactic: you can use Evasion, run into the enemy, dip when Evasion's out and wait until it's off cooldown to come back and do the same. This is a very safe way of playing, albeit a tad bit less engaging.
• Don't be afraid to walk into fire if you have access to Evasion. Just watch your health and dip when it drops low enough.
• If you're hit by a mine or a grenade, don't risk it and fall back to recover.
• If a marine is resting and you want to attack them with Evasion, you can constantly move up and down while using your mouse to slash them. It's easier said than done, though!

How to fight a Runner

• Flamethrowers (or flame tiles in general) will limit the space in which they can maneuver, and maybe even cause them to walk into it if they're reckless enough. This will scare off some, though not all (which may get them killed), and make them retreat sooner.
• Mines and grenades can stop a Runner dead on their tracks, and cause them to fall back -- possibly with a wasted use of Evasion.
• Point blank shotguns, namely those with buckshot shells, are a Runner's worst nightmare. To put it into perspective, a T-35 Pump Shotgun with buckshot shells and a bayonet attachment will instantly crit even an Ancient Runner if you're lucky, or leave them heavily injured at worst.
• Shooting the runner is not necessarily a wasted effort. Successful shots, especially in a group of marines, will quickly deplete their Evasion and cause them to fall back (or die if they get too reckless).

TGMC Roles
	TerraGov Marines Ranks	Command	Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Transport Officer, Mech Pilot
		Vehicle Crew	Assault Crewman, Transport Crewman
		Engineering and Supply	Chief Ship Engineer, Requisitions Officer, Ship Technician
		Medical	Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Researcher
		Marines	Squad Leader, Squad Smartgunner, Squad Engineer, Squad Corpsman, Squad Marine
		Civilians	Corporate Liaison
		Silicon	Combat robots, Synthetic, AI
	Xenomorphs Playtime	Tier 0	Larva, Minions
		Tier 1	Drone, Runner, Defender, Sentinel
		Tier 2	Hivelord, Carrier, Hunter, Wraith, Bull, Warrior, Puppeteer, Spitter
		Tier 3	Gorger, Defiler, Widow, Ravager, Warlock, Behemoth, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler
		Tier 4	Shrike, Queen, King, Hivemind
	Others		Zombie, Emergency Response Teams, Sons of Mars, Survivor