Mafan

**Mafan** is a secret pilot in *Into the Breach*.

## Location

**Mafan**, along with the other secret pilots Kazaakpleth and Ariadne, is only obtainable in a run through the following process:

1. Find a marked mountain or ice tile, which can be identified after entering a mission through a small glowing dot and being damaged by 1 point prematurely.
2. Break the tile and collect the beacon by moving onto it with a mech or allied unit.
3. After ending the turn, a **Strange Pod** will drop. Protecting it rewards one of the secret pilots and a reactor core.

Once unlocked, Mafan can be used as a starting pilot without doing the above method again.

## Background

The Zoltan are an alien race from the game *FTL: Faster than Light* by Subset Games, the same developers behind *Into the Breach*. Due to their alien nature, generic text is used to streamline him and other secret pilots for use in-game.

The Zoltan are a wise, intelligent species of energy, about to transcend to a higher "level" – of consciousness. They favor enlightenment above all else. They are respectful, tactful, and humble… but not pushovers if attacked. Younger members ("children") in the lore are said to be gaining telepathic powers.

Mafan was on a pilgrimage when the beacon summoned it. It finds the idea of the breaches to be akin to enlightenment along the lines of Groundhog Day although it finds them surprising… it considers the two week "recycling" of the self an opportunity to reflect on one's actions forever within an enclosed temporal loop. It considers the Vek to be an obstruction to this enlightenment, but also a necessary part of the phenomenon that keeps sparking the breaches to be made. (More specifics about the tone and intent of each of the lines below can be found in the Writing Style Guide, broken down line by line, if curious – it gives more information on how Mafan and the Zoltan might perceive certain events.)

## Personality

Mafan speaks only in ellipses and other forms of punctuation.

## Strategy

* Mafan's ability including an extra point of reactor power speeds up the early game upgrade order, enough to get certain vital upgrades earlier such as **buildings immune**. This makes him a very useful generic starting pilot for most squads and is rarely outclassed.
* The Zoltan shield regenerates at the start of every turn, taking one hit of any damage amount per turn (excluding lethal instakill damage). This also lets him freely block spawns without taking any actual damage, provided that he has not been hit beforehand.
* Because of the health reduction, setting him on fire after the Zoltan Shield has been downed is a death sentence, and should be avoided at all costs.
* Mafan is the best pilot to use for the Ice Mech; not only does the shield prevent self-freezing, but also lets the mech gain +1 move from the extra reactor core (the only upgrade available as +2 health cannot be upgraded).

## Trivia

* The Zoltan ability closely matches the abilities of the Zoltan in FTL.:
	+ The shield is a reference to how Zoltan ships have a bonus shield that absorbs a flat amount of damage before disappearing, although it cannot regenerate unlike in Into the Breach.
	+ The extra power core is a reference to how a Zoltan provides one point of power to the system in the room they are in on a ship.
	+ The reduction of health is a reference to how Zoltans have the lowest health out of all races in FTL.
* The +2 Mech Health, Skilled, Technician and Masochist skills are unobtainable by Mafan.