Task Manager

**Preceded by:**

None

Chief Executive Officer

“*A distant cousin of the Keyboard Cowboy, this dark knight loves nothing more than roasting people on the Internet... and in real life.*”
―*The Cogs Volume 2*, Lullaby Library
The **Task Manager** is a special Cog on the Bossbot corporate ladder. It is encountered only in the Trial of Storm room in the Citadel Towers Cog Facility at The Citadel, that each party of eight Toons must defeat.

The Task Manager is a slow-moving Bossbot that focuses on summoning large numbers of allies, and buffing them with various abilities - alternating between converging all their attacks onto a single Toon for bonus damage, or making it difficult for Toons to take out any of its allies on the battlefield.

## Basic Mechanics

The Task Manager is a sturdy Cog that is 2x2 Squares wide, with 5,000 HP in the Bell Tower, and 6,000 HP in the Watch Tower. It also has a base movement speed of 4 Squares per turn, and also has the ability to teleport around the map.

### Storm Warning

As part of the Trial of Storm room, Toons can gain a Storm Warning debuff each time the Toon is attacked by the Task Manager, its allied Bossbots or random lightning strikes.

One random lightning bolt spawns in a random 3 x 3 Square every turn, dealing 20 damage to all Toons in the radius and inflicting 2 stacks of Storm Warning.

Toons can gain a maximum of 5 stacks of Storm Warning. For each stack of Storm Warning, Toons take an additional 2 damage per attack from any source. Toons can lose Storm Warning stacks through Toon-Ups or Toon-Up Unites, which remove half the number of stacks of Storm Warning (min. 1 stack), or by not taking damage for 1 turn, which removes 2 stacks of Storm Warning for each turn that Toons do not take damage.

Storm Warning stacks are applied after Cog Attacks deal damage to Toons.

Cogs can only gain a maximum of 1 stack of Storm Warning. However, when they do, they gain 50% movement speed and 20% damage resistance from all sources. Additionally, when they attack or are attacked by a Toon, they pass 1 Storm Warning buff to that Toon.

### Sudden Death

After 20 turns of not being able to defeat the Task Manager, the party enters Sudden Death mode.

During Sudden Death, the Task Manager gains a 25% movement speed and damage bonus, and each round, four random lightning bolts spawn in random 3x3 Squares, dealing 20 damage to all Toons in the radius and inflicting 5 stacks of Storm Warning.

## Strategy

* Generally, Toons should space out around the battlefield.
	+ This would ensure that the minimum number of Toons are hit by lightning strikes on each round, and that Toons can quickly attack Cogs affected by the Delegate buff. Otherwise, non-Delegated Cogs will take very little damage from Toons' attacks.
	+ Toons that are spread out will also aggro different Cogs, which reduces the amount of attacks that stack the Storm Warning debuff on a single Toon.
	+ At the same time, Toons should stay close enough together to use Toon-Up if needed.
* Toons should have at least 2 to 3 party members that have, and are able to frequently use, Lure.
	+ Luring Cogs while keeping them alive will minimise the number of Cogs summoned in battle while buying Toons time to Toon-Up or set up for the next parts of battle.
	+ Note however that most of the Task Manager's Cog-targeted abilities will remove the Lure status, including Converge.
* Keep all Toons at a healthy level of Laff, and Toon-Up frequently, as Cog damage will ramp up very quickly with the Storm Warning debuff (+10 per Cog Attack at maximum stacks).
	+ At maximum stacks, few Toons can survive a full Converge attack.
* The Task Manager on its own does not deal a lot of damage, but it summons Cogs at a very rapid pace. These Cogs can very quickly overwhelm the players if left unchecked.
* The Task Manager is more likely to use Converge when a large number of Cogs are close to a single Toon.