OPUSCONFIDANT Orientation - SCP Foundation

Disclaimer: The following guide was created by Harmacy and Dino--Draws for the SCP Foundation's 2023 April Fool's day event. It is not meant to serve as an official guide to any current on-site policies, but it might help you better understand any "OPUSCONFIDANT Metagame" articles you see. Please enjoy!

OPUSCONFIDENT Orientation

A New Trainer's Guide to Capturing and Battling SCPs

Howdy there, trainer! You must be new here. On behalf of the OPUSCONFIDANT staff, I'd like to welcome you to the metagame. It seems like you've already picked your starter and avatar, so I'll give you a quick rundown of what this game is about.

OPUSCONFIDANT is a worldwide metagame played by millions who seek to capture, train, and battle the oddities they see in the world. We refer to these entities as "Secured Combatative Peculiarities," or "SCPs" for short. This is an open-world universe where you can choose your role, anomalies, and mission, but most gameplay centers around player characters within the SCP Foundation. We'll discuss that part later.

This OPUSCONFIDANT site was created in 2008 to archive all known SCPs, and it's grown to serve as a hub for some of the most proficient and renowned metagamers. This page is designed to help new players catch up on the metagame's heavy lore and history.

Currently, we are in the metagame's eighth series. Since not all 8,000 anomalies have been cataloged yet, the starters for this generation have yet to be revealed. We recommend players start with one of the earlier series to learn the game's basics, before engaging with the more narratively complex generations. While you may face backlash from more experienced metagames for picking a starter from an earlier series, there's nothing wrong with starting small and working your way up!

Every SCP generation, or "Series" as they're most commonly referred to, has had its own starters. The most popular starters are those from Series I, being Shutterbug, Legoliath, and Squishmaster. Chances are your starter will have a "safe" containment tier, as these are generally the easiest to handle for new players, and the least likely to turn on their trainers.

Your starter should be easy to train and contain using your pre-equipped snacks and home site. Once you contain an SCP, you and your companions will always spawn at your default home site. If you aren't a fan of Site-19, you can unlock new locations to set as your headquarters as you progress throughout the game.

All that said, let's get started with discussing some of the game's deeper lore.

Determining your Affiliation and Team

Although players all start out at the default home site at a standard level-one position, and you can work yourself up by individually containing and battling anomalies and in-game enemies, one of the fastest ways to maximize your stats and gain XP is by joining a team.

MTFs

If you wish to stay affiliated with the main Foundation player base, your best option for this is to join a Mobile Task Force, or "MTF".

Each MTF has a specialty and purpose. Some are created to exclusively track, contain, and train one SCP, while others oversee several Foundation tasks and projects. As a general disclaimer, you are unlikely to get to keep the anomalies you contain while on an MTF mission, though you'll likely receive in-game rewards and items.

Some of the best-Voted MTFs for new players are as follows:

MTF Alpha-4 ("Pony Express"): Team tasked with intercepting anomalies being sent between non-Foundation players. Shown to add a maximum of +25 Perception stats to the player character, and gives players a 1/15 chance of keeping the anomaly they secure. Will provide players with the "Formal Apologist" achievement should they recover a particular letter.

MTF Theta-90 ("Angle Grinders"): For those metagamers seeking to learn about anomalies capable of altering topography and spacetime. Missions regularly end with in-game mechanics breaking, so high CPU is recommended.

MTF Zeta-9 ("Mole Rats"): Deals with tracking anomalies and phenomena in enclosed areas, often underground or in uninhabited regions. Greatly increases courage, speed, and perception stats. Allows players to participate in initial exploration logs. Carries a 23% fatality rate per mission.

MTF Mu-65 ("Clever Girls"): Great for players interested in prehistoric entities. Serving on this MTF for an in-game period of five years allows players a +10 bonus whenever trying to contain Nature-type SCPs. Also gives players early access to Site-403.

View the Task Forces guide to see all MTFs currently accepting new members.

GoIs

Not all metagamers have found themselves wanting to play on the Foundation's team! Several have deserted and formed splinter organizations, known to main base players as 'GoIs'. Rarely are GoIs on positive terms with Foundation, and deserters might face hostility from Foundation-affiliated players.

Below are some of the most important GOIs to learn about and consider joining as a new player.

Serpent's Hand: Perhaps the most well-known and joined GoI, the Serpent's Hand and Wanderer's Library are romanticized by several metagamers for possessing so much in-game lore, worldbuilding, and knowledge. Accessing this location provides players the opportunity to maximize their intuition and wisdom stats, though this comes at the cost of relinquishing one's ability to contain SCPs, given the GoI's focus on anomalous rights.

Wilson's Wildlife Services: WWS focuses on elements of the game relating to SCP conservation and caretaking. This group is ideal for those who enjoy tap or clicker games, as players can simulate rescuing and tending to the needs of fantastical creatures on the mainbase map without having to worry about Foundation-affiliated players challenging or attacking them. In fact, main base players may relinquish lower-stat SCPs to WWS for the purposes of safekeeping. WWS is also known for housing the SCP feeding and cleaning minigames.

Marshall, Carter, & Dark: MC&D are represented in-game by three elderly balding men in sunglasses and gold suits. They have a 1/20 chance of appearing at the end of a battle or mission to challenge players for any rewards or anomalies they have collected. Players have the option of relinquishing their anomalies to MC&D, or partaking in a 1v3 battle to keep all their items.

Please note leaving the primary SCP playerbase makes it impossible to rejoin, even with maximized charisma stats. You will likely need to create a new in-game character.

Double-Dipping

Some players have been rumored to successfully moonlight as a mainbase player while participating in a GoI. The most notable of these are some residents of the Wanderer's Library. Several high-profile mainbase players, such as Rounderhouse, UncertaintyCrossing, and meltedbee have been accused of participating in a separate metagame for their GoIs, unaffiliated with the Foundation site. Thus far, Mr. House and his associates have declined to comment.

Metagame Locations, Maps, and Questlines

With how diverse the metagame has gotten, different player-made plotlines and maps have naturally diverged. Unlike many other games, there is no solid boundary between maps. However, some SCPs can be restricted to one area of the metagame if their players' headcanon can't justify their existence outside a particular "Map".

Maps

A "Map" can refers to a specific "Canon", "Series", "Reality", or "Dimension". Some metagamers struggle to understand the difference between "Canons" and "Series". Canons are considered Open-World games that anyone can join, while a Series is restricted to specific metagamers and requires an access code.

Some of the most well-known Maps are as follows.

Broken Masquerade Map: Perfect for metagamers and anomalies who'd like to game without worrying about veil-breaking consequences. However, the civilian interference factor and GoI capture risk are significantly higher.

War on All Fronts: Minor spats between metagamers regularly evolve into fully-blown kaiju fights. Game devs have thankfully banned most kaiju battles outside of this map, but be careful where you spawn.

As of 04/01/2023, the in-game betting system on kaiju fights was removed.

Stealing Solidarity Map: This map houses several metagamers enthused about the presence of canonical catgirls within the SCP universe. Many users regularly report seeing metagamers basirskipreader, Prismal, and Insanitz dressed as an npc catgirl hybrid and "nyaaing" at surrounding players.

5000 Ways to Die Game mode: One of the most difficult Maps in which the player must single-handedly defeat the entire mainbase team. Considered by most metagamers to be an “impossible troll level” by devs.

Players aren't restricted to one Map, though their ability transport SCPs between different maps depends on their headcanon.

In order to be able to participate in a battle, two players must agree on a headcanon for their SCP’s presence in the map they've scheduled to compete in. Bringing up technicalities or concerns about the plausibility of the battle and its attacks has historically made the in-game referees incredibly upset.

We recommend new users stick to battling people from the same baseline canon before exploring new maps or trying to create their own.

Notable In-Game Locations and Departments:

Each map should have mostly the same sites, departments, or minigames. These locations can be set as one's home base:

Site-58:An ideal location for player characters possessing anomalous properties to go about their tasks without facing npcs and other metagamers. Location possesses the only doctorate program open to anomalous individuals. Completion of the program will grant the character "Researcher" status.

Site-58 also houses the popular "Squonk Catcher" minigame.

Site-403: Currently only accessible to members MTF Phi-2 ("Clever Girls"). Despite the site containing functioning npcs, metagamers entering this area report several "Dinosaur-shaped holes" inside its containment chambers. It is believed the developer responsible for this site's implementation has yet to fully code it.

Site-666: Not suitable for players under 18 years of age.

Department of Unreality: To access the Department of unreality, you'll need to purchase an Alex Thorley skin for your character. This may have some odd side effects on your character, such as a 1 in 7 chance of being dude-washed, multiple encounters with oneself, and repeated exposure to bagels.

Fire Suppression Department If you intend to change MTFs or abandon the SCP playerbase entirely, we recommend doing so early on, prior to completing any missions involving the Fire Suppression Department. If you ever encounter this department, you're best off keeping your head down and getting back to work.

SCP Types and Stats

Stats:

So! The basics, ey? Let’s start things real simple.

Every SCP has stats, which determine its capability in combat! There are six stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. All of these combined make nearly every SCP unique in their abilities.

Stat
Description
Examples

HP
Determines how much health your anomaly has
Me- has one of the highest health stats out of all SCPs.

Attack
determines damage an SCP can do with physical attacks. A higher attack stat boosts the base damage of a physical attack
Cold Iron Sword, Megabyte, and Flail

Special Attack
came into play during the physical/special split of Series Two- when moves were split into two categories. Special attacks can be seen as the more mystical or ranged ones
Boomburst, Spoopy, or Dragon Dance

Defense
CP’s resistance to physical damage. An SCP with a high defense stat - even if its HP stat is relatively low - can shrug off a physical attack like it’s nothing!
N/A

Special Defense
Similar to Special Attack, as it came into the meta during Series Two as part of the same split. This defense stat relates solely to damage done by special attacking moves.
N/A

Speed
Determines the turn order of the battle, the higher the stat the faster you are! If you have the highest speed stat on the battlefield, then it’s your move first, player!
N/A

There are special items within the games- called memetics- that can be used to increase different stats in your SCP! They’re a little rare, often expensive, but can be quite useful!

SCP Types

There are nine SCP types that exist within the game- each one relates to the moves that the SCP can learn, and most importantly- its strengths and weaknesses.

Type
Super Effective Against
Weak to
Resistant too

Mortal
Mineral
Divine, Humor
Mortal (Immunity), Dread

Dread
Humor, Mortal, Divine, Metal
Divine, Humor
Nature, Auto

Divine
Dread, Mortal
Auto, Mineral, Grimdark
Divine, Meta

Auto
Divine, Humor
Nature, Meta
Mineral, Humor, Auto

Mineral
Nature, Divine
Mortal
Auto

Humor
Dread, Divine, Humor
Humor, Auto, Grimdark
None

Nature
Auto, Grimdark
Mineral
Dread

Grimdark
Humor, Divine
Nature, Meta
Mortal

Meta
Grimdark, Auto
Dread
Mortal

Many SCPs are what’s known as dual types! This means they stack the strengths, weaknesses, and resistances of two types. Both weaknesses and strengths can be amplified, such as a dual-type Dread/Divine being 4 times weaker to Humor. However, if the two types have both resistance and weakness to the same type, these effects will cancel out, and your SCP will experience only neutral damage.

SCP Battle Guide:

So, maybe your mission requires you to fight an NPC. Perhaps you encountered a wild-type SCP that you need to fight. Maybe another metagamer pissed you off and you impulsively challenged them to a duel. Either way, it's time for your SCP to battle. What do you do?

Preparation:

Pack all your essentials: You'll need enough food and water for both you and your SCP to make the journey to the battle site. If you can afford it, pay a specialized transport crew to take your SCP there, so as to not expend unneeded energy before the fight.

Healing Items and Powerups: Healing potions and XP boosters are the most helpful items you can have during a fight. Healing potions will restore your SCP to full HP while XP boosters amplify damage for the following round. These items are hard to come by, so take what you can get.

Provide rest the day prior: There's no bigger risk for an SCP battle champion than being overworked. Don't have your SCP train or fight at all the day prior to the scheduled battle, as this can stunt the growth and shorten lifespan.

Bring a backup: If you can, don't show up to the fighting ring with one SCP. Even your reigning champion can fall ill or injured. Besides- it'll be nice for your combatant to have a teammate for moral support!

Combat Behavior:

Thankfully for you, all SCPs- wild or contained- abide by the same rules when it comes to battles. Here are the known phases of a battle researchers have observed in SCPs, both in nature and in human-controlled environments.

Phase I: Intimidation: SCPs will circle, size each other up, and put on an intimidation display. SCPs are normally unwilling to risk injury, but higher loyalty towards their trainer decreases the likelihood they'll be scared away by their opponent. These displays can last for several minutes, and in the wild, the weaker SCP will often retreat. But this is rarely the case in human-owned SCPs.

Phase II: Battle Rounds: If a fight seems inevitable, or at their trainer's prompting, an SCP will attack their opponent. SCPs with higher speed stats are more likely to strike first, after which SCPs will naturally take turns in launching attacks. Trainers have little control over the fight, other than verbal prompting. Each SCP's individual moves can be seen on its designated page.

Trainers can interfere to give their SCPs health potions, powerups, or other XP/HP modifiers, but this costs the SCP their turn.

Trainers can almost always use a "heel" command to end the fight.

Phase III: Retreat: SCPs rarely fight to the death, and they can sense when their HP has run dangerously low. Some SCPs, such as Shylet, almost never reach low HP due to their regenerative abilities, and will require trainer interference to end the fight. But for the vast majority of fights, one of the combatants will ultimately retreat.

Phase IV: Territorialism: Several SCPs, especially non-sentient or feral ones, will enter a territorial state after their opponent retreats, during which they will appear highly agitated. They will show aggression to any surrounding individuals, including their trainer. SCPs are likely to pace around and mark the surrounding areas. This phase can last from several minutes to several hours. Do not approach your SCP when it seems to be in this agitated state.

Upon completion of your battle, provide your SCP with sufficient reward, rest, and reassurance. See the "Caring for your SCP" section for more information.

The Highly-Debated Rage State:

Although it was a popular trait in Series I SCPs, several metagamers have argued against the inclusion of "Rage states" within their contained anomalies.

For reference, a "Rage State" refers to behavior similar to that shown in Phase IV, except it would arise during a battle instead of after it. The Rage state reportedly causes an SCP to be impossible to control and has historically resulted in several in-game fatalities. Some SCPs in this state have gone as far as attacking nearby civilians.

However, others argue that the rage state should be preserved, at least in older anomalies, to serve as a reminder of just how ruthless and violent SCP-based Combat can be.

Evolution:

Let's say you've managed to capture two of one SCP. What are you supposed to do with your new friend? Sell them? Train them? Release them? All perfectly valid options, but perhaps not the most effective.

Feeding your new friend to your original buddy can not only level them up, but is likely to allow your SCP to evolve into its next form! It's as simple as locking both little guys in the same containment chamber and allowing nature to take its course.

SCP evolution is a highly debated topic since it's so rare for a trainer to catch two of the same SCP on one map. There aren't any catalogs or guides keeping track of SCP evolution. There are even doubts as to whether there's a limit to how many times you can evolve the same SCP. One theory goes that Resistile is simply a Busiguana that was evolved one too many times by its trainer. Pretty sick!

Regardless, do your own research for evolving SCPs, and let us know what you find out!

Stat Improvement:

Aside from cannibalism, there are three other known ways to improve your SCP's stats.

Memetics (Skill-Boosting Items): These include toys and food items that can be collected as rewards from missions. Note that different items have different effects on different types of SCPs. For example, the "Tomatality" food item, given out as a reward during the "WOULD IT BE BETTER AS A -J?" Categorization Tournament, has been shown to increase the speed stats for Mortal-Types, increase strength for Dread-types, and permanently decreasing the HP of Humor-types.

Daily Training: Nothing beats consistency. Regular training with your SCP can give it +1 to +5 stats per day. Just be careful you don't overwork yourself or your companion!

Automation & Enhancement: Metagamers with connections to the "Anderson Robotics" or "Church of the Broken God" GoIs have an in-game option to automate themselves or their SCPs. Note that these procedures are often risky and come at a hefty cost, but can provide great gains in the short term.

Caring for contained anomalies

Of course, while they’re is a lot of focus on the meta and battling, there are some funner ways to interact with your SCPs to help bolster their battle performance. These are based primarily on the "Friendship Mechanic."

The Friendship mechanic was introduced in Series II, and for a time it existed solely for leveling up Humor-type and Mortal-type SCPs. Almost all SCPs came with a base 70 Friendship, and any hatched would start with 120 Friendship. In-Game actions such as grooming, training, feeding, and leveling up would increase friendship stats.

However, friendship stats could be lowered through the negligence of an SCP, such as overworking them, not providing consistent care, or giving them an HP-lowering item.

Series V through VIII have given us more add-ons to the friendship mechanic.

Series V: Higher friendship would increase the likelihood of: dodging attacks, critical hits, and surviving a 1 HP blow.

Series VI would introduce the bus minigames that would reward you with D-Snacks! Feeding these to your SCPs would increase their affection.

Series VII brought the post-battle-care minigame. Did your SCP get hit with a mineral-type move? They might be all dusty now! Take a brush and clean it all away, and your SCP will be feeling much better! Status effects can similarly be removed via this mechanic.

Series VIII's minigame friendship mechanic additions have yet to be released.

Discovering and Capturing Anomalies

Capturing Pre-Cataloged SCPs

Here's the good thing about on-site SCPs: once you've caught and cataloged one, it becomes much easier to find and contain more of its kind. It also helps you, as a new player, know which SCPs are and aren't worth your time depending on the stats you're looking for and the team you're trying to build. Generally, an SCP's containment procedures will include directions to finding and capturing a wild type, but here are some general tips we'd like to recommend.

Use D-Snacks for trapping carnivorous SCPs. As is commonly said, the "D" stands for Delightful! And your new buddy is sure to enjoy the little meal. It's the perfect bait!

Don't be afraid to use lethal traps on regenerating SCPs. We get it, you don't want to hurt your new friend, and you're afraid they won't trust you anymore if you hurt them! But here's the thing, if you hurt them once and don't catch it the first time, that beastie is gonna recover back to full strength. And when it does, it may or may not be pissed that you just tried capturing it. It's better to take things slowly once your SCP is contained than risk your life to not anger your new friend just slightly more.

Search for invasive species. Human interference in the SCP ecosystem has resulted in several anomalies ending up where they wouldn't naturally occur. In the aforementioned "Broken Masquerade Map," local ordinances are likely to offer monetary rewards for each invasive SCP a metagamer can successfully contain.

Discovering a New SCP

Once in a blue moon, a metagamer may manage to capture an as-of-yet-undiscovered SCP. You'll have to run your own experiments to determine its stats, type, and most effective way to contain it. But once all that's said and done, you're going to want the glory of discovering the new beast. There's just a tiny problem, though-

The metagame has been infested with Lepidoptera Scavenging Swarms, and they love to feast on the blood, sweat, and tears of new metagamers. Neither the site nor the discord catalog are safe from these swarms, known colloquially as "The Butterfly Squad" and "The Moth Squad".

Fortunately, there's a simple way to defeat these foes. As a new player, you can use the in-game chat feature to talk with more experienced metagamers about the history, story, and abilities of your newly-captured SCP. Should one of these experienced metagamers take an interest to your anomaly, they will offer you a green torch. These green torches have been shown to bedazzle the butterflies and moths, and distract them from consuming your SCP. A minimum of two of these green torches are recommended so as to ensure the best results.

Conclusions

And that, newcomer, is the long and short of everything that you need to know! From the basic to the complex- from the mechanical to the aesthetic! Hopefully, this was able to help you further understand the metagame and general function of being a trainer. With this knowledge at your disposal, there's nothing stopping you!

Now fire up those containment units, rally your SCPs, and prepare yourself. A whole new world awaits you!