Anomalies

# Anomalous Hostiles

In A-888, you play as up to 6 Mercenaries.
While referred to as either Anomalies or very much so monsters, the hostile contact that the mercenary team while attempting to secure Anomaly 888 were amalgams or even brought in nightmares from the dark realm. These are better referred to as "Walkers".

* A-888 Amalgams
* High Level Anomalies.

* Corpse-Walker
* Hell-Walker
* Grave-Walker
* Thorn-Walker
* Rust-Walker
* Tox-Walker
* Dread-Walker
* Knight-Walker
* Ghost-Walker
* Blade-Walker

## Corpse-Walker

* Unarmored
* Armored

## Stats

### A shambling corpse of flesh, bones and nothing else.

One of the most common Anomalies created by A-888 although it has been encountered outside of A-888's influence.

Their sharp claws and fast speed can be a dangerous threat in numbers or against unaware personnel, caution should be exercised at all times. They only seem to react when in direct vicinity and vision of nearby humans, which allows some special blinding items to 'stun' them so to speak.

Their design isn't anything unusual and if A-888 only produced these, perhaps our jobs would be a little easier; unfortunately the Dark Plane is just always one step ahead of our understanding.

Most common and straightforward walker. Can be armored.
Will tend to spawn in rough groups, although often separated from others upon immediate spawn.

Kinda makes me think about zombies, especially with their "chasing" animation. Blehh, brains!

 Tend to group up, being their primary strength.
 Can overwhelm MERCs easily if underestimated.
 Can show up armored, making them slightly tanky.

## Stats

### A rare, but not unusual creation by A-888.

It's about expected that Hell-Walkers would be encountered again. Sample testing shows that it even matches 1:1 to previous Hell-walker encounters in the past, perhaps A-888 shares the same reality as the Dark Plane, unlike what some researchers would believe.

Protocol is standard, keep your distance and aim for their un-armoured weak points using their glacial speed to your advantage, personnel are highly advised to not engage in close quarters due to their excessive durability and rather lethal if slow blunt force smashes.

*Inconsistent Armor and slow movement leaves them vulnerable to magdumping or FRA-G throwing, just do not move too close or try to run around them. They're slow, but can sprint to make up for that loss of movement.*
Multiple can appear later on, too. Be wary, don't turn sharp corners either.

It'll "sprint" with its arms in-front of it though. He's a Big guy! Every game needs one.

 Extremely tanky, with armor on their body.
 Can sprint, ruining the days of slow MERCs.
 Can raise its arms to protect its face, preventing frontal damage.

## Stats

### The Sad "Boy".

A familiar sight to personnel formerly assigned to the A-356 case. A rare offspring from the traditional corpse-walker Anomaly that appears to have their adrenaline levels completely spiked, aggressively pushing through all manner of pain to blitz against anything it deems hostile.

Knowing that A-888 can tap into offsprings of other Anomalies is a threat that must be contained at all costs, imagine it pulling multiple Class A anomalies out of its pocket; we simply cannot allow that to happen.

Take extreme caution, this Anomaly can inflict a debilitating wound which makes escaping extremely difficult, do not attempt to outrun one under any circumstances.

> TLDR: **Decaying Winter's** Sickler but pretty weak.
>
>

 Slowness can attract more enemies to cause crowding, aka death.
 Move fast, attack faster.
 Will appear armored sometimes, becomes more troubling when it's tearing your insides out.

## Stats

#### The tree-like protrusions would only have us believe it was thorns of a plant, if only we knew better.

A-888's influence amalgamates even the very being it supposedly resides from, shifting its life forms to whatever machinations it desires; even we do not understand if this Anomaly is a plant or not.

It is capable of extending its thorn-like protrusions in the form of crippling stakes, personnel are advised to engage at range and have a backup plan in case the Anomaly strikes true.

A Supportive Unit, the Thorn-Walker which doesn't quite look like a Cacti is capable of doing a lot more than they can, screeching loudly before launching their own ranged shotgun-type spread of thorns which trail through the air at MERCs. Sometimes they may even ignore walls or other barriers in their path, making it important to kill it, more importantly the fact in worse times they have the potential to slow you, making you vulnerable to crowd-attacks.

Be weary of its existance.

 Thorns have a large range of 30 studs and do up to 20 damage.
 Slightly larger amount of health compared to Corpse-Walkers.
 Causes a long-term cripple that disables sprinting and slows MERCs.
 Cripple from the thorns makes MERCs vulnerable to more attacks or Grave-walker slows.

## Stats

#### Rustbuckets were the first name coined although we decided 'Rustbucket-walker' is a bit too long.

An odd amalgamation that seemingly goes against even the very nature of corpse-walker anomalies as a whole and even by A-888s standards.

We are aware that A-888 will attempt to inherit facets of our reality, but amassing so much chitinous armour onto an Anomaly that it even struggles to walk goes against the mere design of a corpse-walker; not even counting the fact that the armour dulls the claws to the point where they're nothing more than sluggish bludgeons.

Despite the odd design, personnel are advised to find a way behind it as it exposes a crucial weakspot - the armour is borderline impenetrable otherwise.

A tanky monstrosity, the Rust(bucket)-Walker is a heavily armored Anomaly that has less and less vulnerabilities than the usual hostile, being able to shake off almost all frontal firearm attacks, i.e. Shotguns, Turrets, Assault Rifles, while unable to resist things like explosives or melee weapons... Even without that chitinous shell, they are still quite tanky and function as an extremely important distraction, or meat-shield for more important, damaging anomalies; i.e. Blade-Walkers.

Damn, these guys even SOUND like Hell-Walkers.

 Even without a weakspot, they have 600 Hitpoints.
 Will often bait MERCs to rush into a horde just to shove them.
 A viable distraction, even if ignored they can do the same amount of damage as a Corpse-walker, despite the description.
 Can mistake a MERC for a Hell-Walker.

## Tox-Walker

* Tox-Walker
* Armored Tox-Walker

## Stats

### Burn your face off with gaseous acid.

A horrific amalgamation in A-888's influence, the discovery of 'toxic' walkers which have been coined as 'Tox-walkers' confirms that A-888's amalgamation can involve non-solid items from our reality as well.

Highly acidic and lethal, this compound was the same one used by A.O.F for subsumation experiments, the chemical when exposed to air would immediately become noxious from a solid, to liquid, to gas state in an instant.

They seem to have little regards for any offensive capabilities, infact their claws seem more dull than usual, instead merely 'diving' towards personnel to expell the acidic compound as fast as possible with little care for their own safety, perhaps wanting to be eliminated as their corpses leave behind even more of this compound.

Same amount of health as Corpse Walkers, at 225.
Can be armored. Deal 10 damage.

 Spawn and die with a gaseous cloud on their corpse.
 Move faster than all enemies. Puts their abilities to good use.
 They throw 3 amounts of Acid which can do alot of damage, even to armored characters.
 They almost WANT you to kill them. And it makes sense, since that's how they kill you.

## Stats

### Crawls on all fours. Doesn't make for a good pet, though.

A terrifying and deaf-inducing amalgamation by A-888 made as if to purely spite our mere existence more than it already does. Warping the mere concept of 'hearing' to a distorted, painful, demented experience - ripping away a facet of life to us that is so important us as humans.

A-888 being able to even acknowledge that we can 'hear' in the first place says a lot about either its omniscience or intelligence, neither are optimal conclusions.

Personnel are advised to stay outside of the Anomalies radius of influence, hearing just one decibel of its screech can cause considerate disorientation, It seems to only trigger on reaction to external stimulus however, in this case, damage to its body.

Dread-Walkers are pure nightmare material from looks alone, they are extremely powerful in close quarters with fast movement to close that gap, quite literally chasing you down on all fours. This also makes it hard to aim directly at them, but on top of that; if you hit them, they will screech as loud as needed to throw off your aim and distort your vision; making you an easy snack.

This enemy is the one reason you wish you never had a Technician on your team.

 High movement speed. High damage.
 25 Damage with an extremely fast attack rate, tears through HP like butter.
 Most damage sources like turrets or teammates will make it scream, so you should kill this ASAP.
 The Scream reaches out 25 studs, it also leaves you vulnerable to hordes or attacks.

## Knight-Walker

* Knight-Walker
* Armored Knight-Walker

## Stats

### The most unusual amalgamation formed by A-888.

A combination of steel, materials of an unknown origin and flesh. Despite having protruding claws, these so called "Knights of the Dark Plane" actively wield a weapon and not only that, but are capable of using them with humanoid-like techniques.

Observed to be nimble and with one of the rarest abilities seen across Anomalies: The ability to warp back into the Dark Plane, formerly only seen with Class A Anomalies.

It is a completely unknown, foreign being, it might not even be an Anomaly for all we know, it shares zero characteristics of one and defys all logical explanation. Stopping A-888 from designing more of these is a priority.

**Personnel must be attentive at all times**, their ability to warp between our planes of existence means it can and will engage without you knowing. If you see a warp, disengage and retreat immediately or you will not see the light of day again.

"Knights of the Dark Plane", an extremely horrifying enemy that makes you wish you never went AFK in spawn for the past hour. Being the best Anomaly in regards to maneuverability: they have the ability to quite visibly teleport to your current standing position.

If you see a black puff of smoke with some red sparks, you'd be wise as to move a little away before you have to face this thing.

Vulnerable to Shotguns. Is this a *DOOM Eternal* Reference?

 It will often dash out of the way to avoid being shot. This happens every 1.5 seconds.
 Gladiator - If it kills you, it will heal.
 Can parry Melees / Parries.
 Their shield also blocks bullets. Their head ignores them. Sometimes the cloak can too.
 Immune to Shove/Melee stuns.

## Ghost-Walker

* Visible Ghost-Walker
* Ghost-Walker Portrait

## Stats

### I'm a ghost, very spooky!

Somewhere out there, a research developer is crying at the mere existence of this Anomaly. Years of development to design something that could even remotely fabricate half of the effects of these 'ghost-walkers'; immediately achieved in less than a day of A-888's appearance.

We would call it an amalgamation if it had anything remotely close to steal from our reality to achieve this or if we could even see more clearly what it even is.

Nonetheless, personnel are advised to listen out for its drawn out 'groans' that reveal that it is active, then keep a sharp eye out.

A kinda special enemy? You can use your laser to spot these guys. Basically brings back your Anomalous Activities trauma into play.

Most of the time you'll bump into these guys though and just blast them into oblivion. Their "noises" make them easy for you to consider pointing your laser about, if you have one.

Days without being spooked: 800.

 Deals a decent amount of damage on hit. Has a decent range.
 Slow. Slower than a Rust-Walker.

## Stats

#### An offputting amalgamation from A-888 once again proving the severity of this case and why it must be dealt with.

How A-888 can create an amalgamation of an Anomaly capable of doing more than recklessly flailing its arms around.

Having learned to guard with a primitive chitinous shield, The Blade Walker ruthlessly massacres those with a enlongated blade acting like a psuedo-machete.. It's a lot smarter than it lets on.

Extremely lethal in close quarters, personnel are highly advised to not let this Anomaly get close under any circumstances.

This guy is literally 10x stronger than Knight-Walkers, they WILL ruin your solo run, even if they can be shoved; they're a damn nightmare with that blocking. They also tend to spawn in multiples like a corpse-walker upgrade.

My damn solo runs! All flushed down the drain cause they jump out of a corner like a weird trio!

Say byebye to your hard-earned solo run.

 Gladiator - If it kills you, it will heal.
 Their shield also blocks bullets. They will bring up their shield to guard away bullets.
 Immune to Shove/Melee stuns.

* The Night-Demon
* The Acolytes
* Lore-Based Extras.

# **The Night Demon**

## **Scourge of the Doomed Night**

#### This is it. Be ready.

Appears **every 20 Hazard Levels**. 20 Seconds until it arrives.

Prevents Exfiltration. Eliminates all enemies. Prevents majority of enemy spawns.

Acolytes and Corpse-Walker spawns from corpses will still spawn.

Causes a blatant red fog, letting you know that your end draws nigh. Changes the skybox too to feature a blood moon.

Reality Severance will begin in 5 Minutes. { **You have 5 Minutes to kill it.** }

Dealing the finishing blow to the Night Demon will not only kill it, but will reward the slayer a whopping **1750 credits**.

Depended on how much damage you did to it overall, you may be awarded an Assist Kill, too. This also grants a certain amount of credits.

Base HP of **25500**, yet on a full lobby they have **90000** hitpoints.

HP estimated to increase by 12900 per bonus player. Its health increases with each encounter.

All of its limbs are armored; the best place to aim/hit is the eye on its **torso or its Head**.
Cannot be "armored" (prefix)... obviously.

The entire map will become foggy and red during Reality Severence.
You have a brief ~15-20 sec moment to collect yourself and perhaps call Reinforcements or buy ammo / weapons in order to combat the enemy ahead.

The music will often queue when it spawns, so listen out.

#### Stage 1;

Night Demon spawns in a set specific location on a map.

* In High Rise, it will spawn ontop of the building.
* In Mall, it will spawn at the top of the Escalators.
* In Shipping Containers, it will spawn at the player spawn.
* In Redfield Elementary, it will spawn at the player spawn.
* In Asylum of Dumb, it will spawn at the player spawn.

Will do a rough 50 damage per hit

Features numerous attacks, i.e:
"Lucifer's Cleaver" ~ A close range melee attack where it will strike you with its cleaver.
Said to be the universal weapon of all night demons. Equipped with an extremely sharp and durable serrated edge, it's designed to not only withstand the anomaly's increased strength but to deal as much damage as possible in one swing. The perfect weapon for cutting flesh and corpses.

"Demon Slam" or "Ragnarok" ~ A stomping attack that damages nearby MERC equipment (Technician's Turrets, Specialist's Cameras, "INVIL PMS-Stabiliser"s)
Thus, with enough charged-up energy they gain the ability to cause a great deal of damage to a wide area, much like an earthquake. This can also be used to destroy MERC Gadgets.

If a MERC is too far away, they will perform a stomping attack which sends a shockwave that tears through the ground and damages players in its way, can be done frequently.

If Night Demon is too far away from any MERC, it may teleport towards the MERC it's focused on. (Often one that does the most damage.)

At ~5000 Hitpoints, ND will enter a recovery state; entering Phase 2 (ENRAGED) and recovering all of its health.

For unknown reasons, sometimes they will not enter this recovery state, meaning MERCs can kill him at Stage 1.

#### Stage 2;

After kneeling and recovering, Night Demon will charge red, vulnerable to attacks while its animation plays.

After, it will resume its regular attacks; except moving and attacking slightly faster.

Additionally, it gains the ability to perform a couple more moves as a last resort effort.

"Demon Dash" or "Animosity" ~ Gaining invincibility before charging at MERCs to deal a heavy blow. Closes some distance in short time.
Empowering the self with screams is a natural primal instinct, for both anomalies and humans. This is reflected in this move, where the night demon screams at the top of their lungs and starts to run much faster for a few seconds- giving them the ability to catch up with humans.

##### General advice for combatting it:

Take a high damage outputting "Assault" player. Consider using Shred.
Lazarus with Berserker Essence and one other teammate.
Aim for the head. Pray.

Night Demon's "Theme" comes from Warhammer 40,000: Disposal Unit (Imperium Mix)

https://youtu.be/fxUyUPbeTCI

# The Acolytes

## Stats

**//Why or how, we do not understand. But this group of interest is a much larger threat than initially deemed. Exercise precaution.//**

The Acolytes is a new playable team added on February 20/21, 2023. Deeming it the first playable Anomaly in "Contact A-888" as of writing.
They are a group who can apparently sense the "Dark Plane" and some were even 'drawn toward the light'.

The Acolytes in-game are uncapped, meaning 5 Acolytes can be playable in one lobby. They are additionally affected by Mutations.
At Mutation 20(?), Acolytes also gain a 50% speed boost, as well as Night Demon, meaning they can catch up to certain MERCs.
Despite their small initial damage output (20), they have the ability to jump alike Corpse-walkers, however as they are playable, they can jump at will: Allowing evasive maneuvers.

They spawn at any point during a match except: During Infiltration (a small timer until after) and Intermissions during Hazard Levels.
They can spawn during Night Demon, and even jump onto them for whatever reason.

In order to play as an Acolyte, you must enter heavy containment. (If you aren't sure where it is, it's in the Fast Travel menu!)
On the window inside Heavy Containment, you can join the acolytes. Clicking the button will put you into the Acolyte team.
If you decide to leave the team after you join it, you will not be able to rejoin until the current run is over.
Attempting to do so will state "Heretics cannot rejoin".

To spawn as a Acolyte you have to click the Invade Button, it will start a 3 second countdown.
Once the countdown ends, you spawn at a random anomaly spawn (usually away from MERCs) as an Acolyte.
After dying as a Acolyte you will be sent inside of the Heavy Containment room, with solely the invade button in the front.
The only way to leave this room is to teleport out with the Fast-Travel menu.
You can additionally reset in the lobby to re-enter the room.

**// But through your dedication, we will return the MERCs to the soil. \\**

**LMB** - Blade Swing.

The Acolyte swings his sacrificial knife causing direct damage to a Mercenary.

**Passive** - Regeneration

While playing as a Acolyte if you are missing health, you will be able to regenerate it, alike certain MERCs.
The rate of your regeneration is around the same rate as an Archangel's.

(You cannot regenerate health if you took damage recently.)

**Passive** - Chitinous

While playing as an acolyte, you hold a small amount of armor passively that can deflect bullets from MERCs.

```
- This armor is often extremely small though, don't rely on this.

```

Additionally, for each bonus player; you gain 31.25 more health. (Initial 225, 6 Players = 350)

**// There is no hope or chance of negotiation - Shoot to kill, do not look back. //**

## A-888

While uncertain of what exactly it is, it seems to demonstrate some unusual things.

First of all, it has intelligence amok the ability to create un-dead life itself, seeming limited though.
Second of all, it seems to manipulate reality to create its twisted amalgams, i.e. Corpse-walkers are made from corpses, i.e. MERC Corpses.
Third of all, it has possible connections to the dark realm.

The most important is the second part, especially since it can tap into offsprings of other anomalies... It could be possible this thing could generate multiple Class A anomalies, or maybe even worse.

You are tasked to possibly study or mostly fend off A-888, you are provided Anchors to stabilise the Anomalous Field.
The Anchors will add 30 seconds of Stabilization to the Anomalous Field, though it does not exceed 2 minutes 30 seconds.
If you do not keep the Anomalous Field stabilized; all MERCs will immediately perish to it, as the location becomes inhospitable.

You are put on what's mostly a need-to-know basis. Exfiltration is available after 10 hazard levels at a time during your infiltration.
If you fall, the A.O.F will remember your sacrifices.

## The "Death-Walker"

**// Coined "Death-Walker" by the Community, a possibly later addition to A-888 that may be more dangerous than even a Knight-Walker.**
As of currently, this enemy does not exist. //

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**// There have been no sightings of this enemy thus far outside of the Glossary. //**