Familiar System

Familiars are like pets, small but special monster-like creatures that can act as the companion of players, though incapable of giving rides anywhere as they are much too small for players (anywhere between the size of a baby puppy up to the size of a large dog), they are capable of feats that the mountable rides are incapable of.

Every Familiar has exactly 20 HP total, and it does not go up by itself, though there is only one way to increase that (more on that later on). A Familiar's HP regenerates by 1 HP per out of combat post. If a Familiar's HP reaches zero, it dies and then one of 3 things will happen (outcome determined at random, equal chance among the three):

1. The Familiar will become an egg again, which will hatch 3 timeblocks later, resurrecting the same familiar who keeps everything they had from before.
2. The familiar will become a fragment of them (like a paw or a feather, whatever fits). With this item, players can undertake a difficult special quest where the only reward is turning the item back into the familiar they once lost. This item expires after 5 timeblocks, at which point, the familiar is lost forever.
3. The familiar is dead and lost forever.

## Acquirement

Familiars can be acquired in the form of an egg (a large egg, not like a chicken, looks more like a dinosaur egg, or better yet, like this), gifted to them from certain special NPCs hiding out in difficult parts to reach of UAO (some much harder than others), occasionally as quest rewards too. The egg will hatch 3 timeblocks after it was obtained, giving birth to a fully functional tiny monster pet that is now bound as the Familiar of the player who owned the egg it hatched from. They should be nicknamed, but players are perfectly allowed to just call it whatever they want and the familiar will still respond, even if not as happy about it (who would be happy about being called "hey you" all the time?).

Familiars are incapable of speech, and they can't run as fast as a mountable ride either, so if a player rides a horse/animal/monster/vehicle, then they should take the Familiar with them as the Familiar cannot follow after it and will become lost in the area they were abandoned in, waiting for their master to return, eventually either being killed (if outside of a Safe-Zone), or eventually wandering outside (if inside of a Safe-Zone).

If the player already has a Familiar, or has an unexpired Familiar fragment item in their inventory, or has a Familiar egg in their possession, they will not be gifted another Familiar egg as players cannot have more than one Familiar at any given time. Furthermore, if a player's Familiar dies, it lowers the chances of the special NPCs agreeing to give the player an egg, with the odds lowering the more Familiars of that NPC have died. If the player had an unexpired fragment item and they tossed it out, it'll lower the odds of getting a new egg even further.

## Abilities

Familiars have two types of abilities: Natural and Mastery. Natural Abilities cannot be learnt nor changed, they come with the Familiar from birth, determined by their species, and can't be improved upon either. Mastery Abilities on the other hand, are abilities that players help their Familiars learn and develop by training them. Familiars only ever have one Natural Ability (determined even before birth, by their species), and only have one Mastery Ability (whichever is first to be unlocked), though the Mastery Ability can be improved from Rank 1 to Rank 2, and then even to Rank 3!

### Mastery Abilities

* **Assistant**: Acquired by teaching the Familiar about how a specific Work-Skill functions, having them watch the master perform that Work-Skill a few times.
	1. Grants a small XP bonus to a chosen Work-Skill that the Familiar was taught about (only one).
	2. The XP bonus now applies to all Work-Skills.
	3. The small boost now becomes a 50% increase instead.
* **Fighter**: The Familiar is taught how to fight, trained to aid in combat. Damage dealt is equal to half of the player's ATK stat, without accounting for any buffs (other than stat increases coming from titles, equipment, guild, etc).
	1. Increases the Familiar's HP to 30.
	2. Doubles the Familiar's HP regeneration and now it also works during combat.
	3. Increases the Familiar's HP to 50.
* **Scouter**: Acquired by training the Familiar on exploring and observing their surroundings, sniffing it, exploring it, tracking.
	1. The Familiar can scout on ahead, causing data to appear in the player's HUD with information of monsters and other players present in the area, as well as revealing what paths to take to avoid it, via GPS tracking and guidance.
	2. The Familiar learns how to sniff out treasures. Once per timeblock, a dice roll will determine if you find a random material, or a random small amount of credits, or a random Soul Gem, or a treasure chest!
	3. Familiars can track previously encountered players and monsters to any location, even other Floors. Does not work on Villains and World Bosses.
* **Instigator**: Teach your familiar how to provoke enemies often enough, and it'll begin doing it on its own with some benefits to it too.
	1. Once per turn in combat, your Familiar will choose an enemy to taunt and provoke, unless you choose for it. The provoked enemy will aggro exclusively on your Familiar for that turn and chase it, while your Familiar tries to run away and act as a distraction.
	2. Your familiar can now taunt and provoke several enemies at the same time.
	3. Any enemy taunted by your Familiar will have their ATK and SPD reduced by 10%, but it only lasts that turn they are getting taunted.
* **Retriever**: Through showing your Familiar several different items and letting them get acquainted with it, you can train your Familiar to fetch items for you. Once this ability is unlocked, it will prompt automatically once per timeblock, at the beginning of it.
	1. Your Familiar will come up to you with one random item from the following pool: Burn Heal, Antidote, Potion of Sanity, Universal Elixir, x15 Arrows.
	2. The possible loot pool gains the following possible items: A Random Soul Gem, a single random material (minerals, meat, fish, exotic fruit, wood), a Small Health Potion.
	3. Addition to the loot pool: Medium Health Potion, Small Energy Potion, Small Vitality Potion.

### Natural Abilities

* **Shapeshifter**: These Familiars are capable of shape-shifting, turning themselves to look into anything else and deceive others. Though they can transform, they do not gain the abilities of that which they shift into. They can even turn themselves into inanimate objects, players (incapable of talking, accessing menus, etc) or even bosses... But the more complex or bigger the thing they turn into, the less time the transformation lasts, and they need to take a small rest between each transformation.
* **Disguise**: These Familiars wield magic that can disguise their master as something else, like making the player look as if they were a tree or a large rock for example. This is temporary of course, though it allows the player to be disguised, hide, ambush, etc.
* **Healer**: This Familiar heals 5% HP from its master, every turn, via the use of healing magic. Since this requires the Familiar to actively use its magic, it cannot do so if it is under attack or being chased, fighting, etc.
* **Protector**: This Familiar casts a protective aura on its master, reducing the damage the player takes by 1 HP (damage taken can't be 0, must always be at least 1) for every timeblock they've been together, not including time spent as either an egg or fragment item. This aura is always in effect.
* **Supporter**: Every odd number turn in battle (1st turn, 3rd turn, etc), this Familiar will increase the player's SPD by 10%. Every even number turn in battle (2nd turn, 4th turn, etc), this Familiar will increase the player's ATK by 10%. Each buff lasts only two turns, so while there is overlap (meaning turns where players have both ATK and SPD buffed), there is no stacking of ATK or stacking of SPD buffs. Since this requires the Familiar to actively use its magic, it cannot do so if it is under attack or being chased, fighting, etc.
* **Reviver**: When the master-player's HP reaches 0, there's a 50% chance the Familiar's ability will trigger if it's this one. If it does trigger, the Familiar will instantly die, transferring its lifeforce into the player, reviving them with the same amount of HP that the Familiar had, while also granting a full turn of complete and total immunity to all damage (including status effect damage like burn and poison and even confusion, but not immunity to paralysis). The Familiar dies because of it, and when a Familiar dies in this way, it will automatically become a fragment item (case 2 of death), not an egg nor perma-death.
* **Sacrificial**: Whenever the master player's HP is below 25%, Familiars with this ability will automatically jump in the way to tank the blow for their master. If the attacker was capable of attacking multiple times per turn and this ability prompts, the attacker will instead attack the Familiar only a single time, and not the player any time.
* **Energizer**: This Familiar restores 2 STM from its master, every turn, via the use of energizing magic. Since this requires the Familiar to actively use its magic, it cannot do so if it is under attack or being chased, fighting, etc.
* **Vampire**: Familiars with this Natural Ability are capable of restoring their own HP by either leeching it off of their master, or more dangerously off of other monsters (the damage dealt being equal to how much they leeched). Additionally and more importantly perhaps, they can also transfer portions of their own HP into their master.
* **Spectral**: Spectral is an ability that allows the Familiar to pass through solid objects, like a ghost. With this, they become the perfect decoy for enemies to target as no physical attack can strike them (though "special" attacks like energy blasts and the like, can still hit). They can also access locations otherwise inaccessible by simply walking through the solid objects that held them back.
* **Trapper**: These kinds of Familiars are capable of laying traps on the ground, which don't deal damage but do trip up adversaries, causing them to waste a turn. Traps are only 50% effective however.

## Familiars

The following is the list of all Familiars that exist in the game, more can and will be added with time. If the acquisition section only shows "*???*" it's because it doesn't have a specified spot on a Floor to get it yet, but can still be acquired through certain quests until then (but will later be added as a set method for future Floors, when they get unlocked).
Note: By clicking on the species name of the Familiar, you will be redirected to an image of how it's supposed to look like. It doesn't need to look exactly like that, it just serves as a visual resource to help you get a clear idea on the relative looks of it.

#### Mini-Kitsune

* **Description**: A small fox with two tails, it resembles a much cuter and much smaller version of the Feeble Kitsune Mid-Boss found in Floor 1. And best of all? It never grows past the size of an ordinary house cat!
* **Natural Ability**: Shapeshifter
* **Acquisition**: Defeat the Feeble Kitsune and then in the same time block, go talk to the old hermit in the Rocky Mountains' cabin, where he will probably (but not guaranteed) give you the egg.

#### Oracle Fish

* **Description**: A long eel-like fish with beautifully colored scales that glow in the sunlight, with a pristine rainbow tone to it. It is capable of very efficient travel in the water, though when on land, it generates a bubble filled with water, serving as a mobile aquarium for it to move and survive on land. The bubble is directly tied to its HP, meaning it will only burst if the Oracle Fish's HP reaches zero.
* **Natural Ability**: Protector
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Exotic Feather

* **Description**: A large and exotic looking bird that comes with its own pair of goggles/visor for whatever reason. Though its main body is a tad on the larger size, its elegant and beautiful wings are more than capable of letting it soar into the sky, gracefully and elegantly, with the feathers at the tip of the wings actually changing color based on the light its exposed to.
* **Natural Ability**: Disguise
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Shadow Bat

* **Description**: A living mystic shadow in the shape of a bat, its eyes always glowing when open. Its mouth doesn't glow, but rather appears far more opaque and well formed than the rest of its body... Something that can only be seen when said mouth opens, also revealing the fangs waiting within, used to bite and suck the health of others.
* **Natural Ability**: Vampire
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Spider Bot

* **Description**: A mechanical spider shaped robot equipped with a ultra quality camera lens as its eye, capable of long distance zooming with it. Its legs defy gravity, allowing it to walk on walls and ceilings alike, as if it were the ground itself.
* **Natural Ability**: Trapper
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Wandering Monkey

* **Description**: A small chimp-like monkey that's actually fully clothed. It always appears ready to go on a journey, and seems particularly happy when heading West for some reason. It is capable of picking up sticks it finds around and using them as a staff weapon, should it be taught how to fight... But even if it doesn't fight at all, these Familiars still like to pick up sticks, often using them as makeshift wands or magic staffs (which they don't require at all), pretending to use magic through it, despite being capable of using their magic without the sticks.
* **Natural Ability**: Energizer
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Gem Wolf

* **Description**: A small blue wolf the size of a dog, it has a gem on its forehead and it glows whenever the Gem Wolf uses its supporting magic, or whenever this Familiar howls... More often than not, it does all of it simultaneously, howling while using supporting magic and causing the gem to glow at the same time.
* **Natural Ability**: Supporter
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Kung-Fu Panda

* **Description**: A small and young-looking panda already dressed in people clothing, it seems to be a great fan of kung-fu, regardless of whether or not it is trained to fight alongside its master, even just watching kung-fu will make it happy.
* **Natural Ability**: Sacrificial
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Boxing Kangaroo

* **Description**: A small kangaroo, at least when compared to a regular kangaroo. This one in particular also comes with boxing gloves that are irremovable, part of its hands and arms. It jumps a lot and can carry things in its pouch.
* **Natural Ability**: Sacrificial
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Phantom Wisp

* **Description**: A roundish ghost made entirely out of black flames. It floats and is therefore capable of flight as well. Despite being made of flames, it doesn't light up dark places as its flames are too dark/black for it, but it does warm up places, perfect for traveling to cold places, especially since it doesn't seem to be negatively affected by the cold weather or even water.
* **Natural Ability**: Spectral
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Detective Mole

* **Description**: A mole with a vest and a hat, but unlike most moles, this one has very sharp eyesight... And also a pair of pants! Make no mistake, its hard claws are sharp too, and more importantly, while it can move on the ground, it can also bury itself and move underground, be it to make traps or to reach past obstacles, or just to hide and ambush or track.
* **Natural Ability**: Trapper
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Mecha Bird

* **Description**: A fully robotic bird that appears to be some sort of hybrid of a falcon and an eagle. Among all of the flying familiars, this one is the fastest one, though it still can't keep up with vehicles and mounts, thus it still requires being taken along in order to not get lost.
* **Natural Ability**: Supporter
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Rising Phoenix

* **Description**: A bright red bird that can spontaneously combust on command or at will. It has a necklace with a precious gem around its neck, and should it die, that will be the fragment item it leaves behind. It is capable of lighting up dark places and warming up the cold, but do not get it wet as that is painful for it, causes it to lose 1 HP and also angers it. When it's not on fire, it can be touched by others without harm, though if someone were to touch it while its on fire, the one who touches it will lose 1HP and experience the pain of being burnt (more than what they should feel if that were a monster attack), though the pain subsides quickly and leaves no burn behind.
* **Natural Ability**: Reviver
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Shogun Beast

* **Description**: A mammal land beast resembling some sort of tiny dinosaur vested in fur, and clad in ancient but traditional Japanese armor. The gem on its general's helmet glows whenever the Shogun Beast uses its ability.
* **Natural Ability**: Protector
* **Acquisition**: *???*

#### Petite Winged Dragon

* **Description**: A furred dragon with feathered wings, having no arms but seemingly having claws coming from the peak of its wings. Though it can fly, its not very adept at it. It is, however, very small and cute, even being soft to the touch, very ideal to hug... Like a stuffed animal! The triangle pattern on its forehead glows whenever it uses its ability.
* **Natural Ability**: Healer
* **Acquisition**: *???*