Prethinker

The **Prethinker** is a Sellbot Manager Boss who was introduced as part of the Hires & Heroes Update. He can be fought in the basement of the Toontown School House in Toontown Central after unlocking the Kudos task Brainiacs in the Basement. He was first introduced in the An Alarming Alert of Aptitude Blog Post on the Corporate Clash website.

## Content Sync

Toons fighting against the Prethinker will have Content Sync applied to them. They will be synced down to the following stats:

* 50 Laff Soft Cap (Max 58)
* Up to Level 4 Gags permitted
* All rewards restricted

## Attacks

(Single)
(Single)
(Single)
(All)
 Damage
 Accuracy
 Frequency

\*Indicates a Cheat Move

Note: For some reason, the Prethinker is much faster at delivering the damage of Buzz Word to the Toon than any other Cog who uses this attack. Though the animation for the attack is roughly the same length.

## Cheats

The Prethinker can only be lured for 2 rounds.

All of the Cogs summoned in this fight are Desk Jockeys. Desk Jockeys will naturally join the fight on odd numbered turns. If the Prethinker is alone, a level 8.exe Desk Jockey and an additional low leveled Desk Jockey will join the fight. If the Prethinker isn't alone, up to two low leveled Desk Jockeys will join the fight. The level 8.exe Desk Jockey will always call in additional Desk Jockeys with a cheat at the end of every turn while they are alive, otherwise both methods of spawning bear no differences.

The Prethinker will jump and force one of his Desk Jockeys into his previous position, while also moving into that new one. If a Trap is placed in front of the Prethinker when this cheat triggers, the Trap will remain in place and will instead apply to the Desk Jockey that takes his place. If the Prethinker or the Desk Jockey he swaps places with are lured, they will both unlure after this cheat is triggered. The Desk Jockey that the Prethinker swaps with is always random. The triggers for Castling are as follows:

1. If the Prethinker is Soaked or Lured, he will Castle the turn after these Status Effects are applied if he still has them.
	1. If the Prethinker gains another status effect while castling due to a previous status effect (ex. Castling due to Lure, and then having Soak damage applied), the new status effect will not cause a castle next turn.
	2. If the Soak status effect has one turn left, and has caused a Castle in the previous turn, he will not Castle.
2. If the Prethinker is directly targeted two turns in a row, he will Castle. Sound Gags and indirect sources of damage such as Splash Damage or Zap Jumps will not count as targeting the Prethinker.

If Sound is used twice in a row and there are Desk Jockeys present, the Prethinker will back away from his position and attempt to hide behind one of them. The sound will not hurt the Prethinker this way. However, if the said Desk Jockey is destroyed before this cheat is triggered, it will proceed with the cheat *and* become damaged. The Prethinker cannot trigger Castling and dodge Sound in the same turn.

Upon reaching 40% of his health (400 HP), the Prethinker will summon a group of Brain Storms in front of everyone.

* **Brain Wave** - As a result of Forward Thinking, the Prethinker and any remaining Jockies will unlure themselves and attack with Brain Storm, dealing 10 damage to all Toons hit. This occurs at the beginning of the Cogs' turn, and the amount of Toons damaged is equal to the amount of Cogs alive at the beginning of the round. This cheat will never miss.

## Strategy

General strategies for the Prethinker battle involve trying to clear Desk Jockeys to isolate the Prethinker for a turn, making it so he has no one to use Castling with, then using the momentary isolation as an opportunity to deal heavy single target damage to him. This process will be repeated multiple times until he is defeated. Your team should be equipped with ways to destroy multiple Desk Jockeys at a time (Zap, Sound, and/or Lure + Trap or Throw), ways to deal heavy single target damage to the Prethinker when he's alone (Lure + Throw or a Gag that precedes Drop to stun + multiple Drop Gags), and ways to heal to be able to continue the process until the Prethinker is defeated (mainly Toon-Up, Prestige Throw is optional but helpful).

There are multiple viable approaches gag-wise that your team could take for this battle. Refer to the Recommended Gags table above and the information and example strategies below to help you decide which gags to bring.

Keep in mind how Castling works so you'll know when he will and won't Castle. If at any point you know he will Castle, plan your moves around the possible Desk Jockeys he could swap positions with.

* Castling will never be able to occur on the first round, as it essentially requires staying Soaked or Lured for multiple rounds or being directly targeted for multiple rounds. You can use this knowledge to do whatever you like on the first turn with relative peace of mind.
* If you know he will use Castling, you can use Squirt to Soak the Desk Jockeys and place Zap gags on either the Prethinker's current position or the Desk Jockeys' positions, depending on whether you want to prioritize more damage on the Prethinker or getting rid of the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey. Either way, you will still get some damage on the Prethinker out of doing this.
	+ Lure + Trap + Drop can also destroy the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey, but this move is a little riskier due to the lower likelihood of everything hitting compared to the single high accuracy roll required from Squirt and Zap.
* Due how to Castling works, it's possible to completely prevent the Prethinker from Castling for the entire fight.
	+ Essentially, don't apply Lured or Soaked to him and have it last for more than one turn, and don't have him directly targeted with Gags two turns in a row (unless in either case on the following turn, he'll be alone so he'll have no one to use Castling with). Remember that using Group Lure, Sound, and hitting him with only Splash Damage or Zap Jumps *doesn't* count as directly targeting him.
		- If he's alone and Soaked, you can use Zap to remove Soaked to prevent him from Castling under the "Has stayed Lured or Soaked for multiple rounds" condition next turn. When Zap is used, the Soaked debuff isn't removed until the *end* of the turn, so 3 Drop could still be used on the same turn to still deal high damage to him with high accuracy due to the Soaked status and the Zap acting as a stun.
		- If he's alone and Lured, he would unlure anyway as he has two-round Lure Resistance, but you might as well use Throw to take advantage of him being Lured.
		- Be aware that doing either of the above moves involves directly targeting the Prethinker. If he is directly targeted again next turn, he could castle Castle under the "has been directly targeted two turns in a row" condition. You can still use Lure + Trap/Throw/Drop or Squirt + Zap on the Desk Jockeys to avoid him Castling.

Toons should try to deal a lot of damage to the Prethinker on the turn they breach the 400 HP Threshold for the Forward Thinking phase. The closer the Prethinker is to defeat, the less of a threat the Brain Waves will be. Avoid just using a small attack to push him into the Forward Thinking phase and prioritize other actions until you can set up a stronger attack going into it.

An easy method to defeat the Prethinker is as follows:

* **Turn 1**: Use 4 Bugles to destroy all of the initial Desk Jockeys present.
* **Turn 2**: Use a Big Magnet and 3 Birthday Cake Slices on the Prethinker.
* **Turn 3**: Use a Trap on the non-executive Desk Jockey, a Big Magnet, and Two Throw Gags on the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey.
* **Turn 4**: Use 4 Birthday Cake Slices on the Prethinker. If the Prethinker is in the Forward Thinking phase, he will have unlured due to using Brain Wave last turn, so you will have to Lure him and use 3 Birthday Cake Slices instead.
* From this point onward, repeat turns 3 and 4 until the Prethinker is defeated. If Gags miss or a Toon needs to be healed, improvise to get the Prethinker back to the point of being alone and re-enter the turn 3 and 4 loop.

Another great strategy:

* **Turn 1:** Use a prestige Big Magnet and 3 Traps to kill the Desk Jockeys.
* **Turn 2:** Use 3 Birthday Cake Slices on the Prethinker and a prestige Bamboo Cane.
* **Turn 3:** Use a prestige Big Magnet, a Trap on the left-most Desk Jockey, and two Birthday Cake Slices on the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey.
* **Turn 4:** Use 3 Birthday Cake Slices on the Prethinker and a prestige Bamboo Cane.
* **Turn 5:** Use a prestige Big Magnet, a Trap on the left-most Desk Jockey, and two Water Balloons on the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey.
* **Turn 6:** Use 4 Birthday Cake Slices on the Prethinker.
* **Turn 7:** Use 2 Kart Batteries on each of the Desk Jockeys.
	+ If your Lure should miss on turn 1, you should spend a turn to heal and activate one or two of the Traps with a single Lure. This is to realign the turn count so that the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey comes in at the right time. On turn 3, you can attempt to Lure again.
	+ If your Lure should miss on turn 3, you can spend a turn to heal and damage (but not killing) the Level 8.exe with a single Lure and Trap. Then, the turn after that, you can use your Big Magnet again and Trap/Throw the Desk Jockeys that come in.
	+ If your Lure should miss on turn 5 and your Water Balloons hit the Level 8.exe Desk Jockey, the Prethinker will castle on turn 6. If this happens, use a single Lure on the Trapped Desk Jockey and heal. Use Lure again on turn 7 while killing all of the Cogs and applying Soak to the Prethinker.
	+ If both your Big Magnet and Water Balloons miss on turn 5, then you can treat the miss the same as on turn 1 or turn 3.

## Loot

* Prethinker Sticker
* Smart Cap

Prethinker StickerSmart Cap

* 20 Gumballs
* 80 Jellybeans
* 125 Toon Experience

## Dialogue

*One Toon slips on a banana peel and falls down the stairs.*
"I naturally said that wa-"
*The Toon slams into of the chalkboard, alerting the Prethinker.*
"Wha-?!
"Oh goodie. A Toon."
"I bet you didn't expect for one of your 'gags' to be used against you."
"I assume you're looking for a fight, hm? First, let me ask you a question."
"What is the difference between Toons and Suits? Think hard!"
*The Toons shrug.*
"..."
"Intellect! The answer is intellect!"
"You Toons are all brawn, and no brains! All bark, and no bite!"
"But Suits, such as myself, are smarter than you could ever dream of being!"
 Ending Cutscene

*The Prethinker walks back and forth.*
"Heh."
"Hehehehehe..."
"Hahaha, ahah! Ehehehe! Ohohoho!"
"So your strategy is t-to make me angry? HAH! How cute!"
*The Prethinker's brain turns red.*
"An intellectual such as myself couldn't possibly fall for that!"
"Now get over here and let me-"
*The Prethinker's brain explodes destroying any remaining Desk Jockeys.*
"W-wait!"
"My brain! My beautiful, luxurious brain!"
"This isn't fair! I demand a rematch! I DEMAND A REMATCH!"
"How could someone like you outsmart me? It's statistically impossible!"
"GAH! I need more time to think!"
*The Prethinker marches away into the door the Desk Jockeys were coming out of.*

 Forward Thinking
* "Oh, don't worry. I've thought ahead."

* "I'm always one step ahead!"
* "Such a simple-minded strategy won't work on me!"
 Death Taunts
* "Come back when you have a higher IQ."
 Surrender Taunt
 Friend Request Denials
* The Prethinker waves his hands in a dismissive motion: "I only surround myself with the smartest of the smart. Now shoo! Shoo!"
 Attempt to Sue
 Attempt to Fire

## Music

 Battle Theme (Base)
 Battle Theme (Forward Thinking)
 Ending Cutscene Theme
 Victory Theme

## Version History

v1.3.0 BETA
* Professor Pete keeps filing noise complaints with the Toon Resistance regarding a noise from the basement of the Schoolhouse.
	+ The Prethinker was added to the game.

## Trivia

* The Prethinker is currently the only Manager in the game that has no last name.
	+ His first name is an anagram of Brain.
* The Prethinker's Employee ID is a reference to Pi (π), a popular irrational number. Its digits include 3.14159...
* On the cogs.ink website, the Prethinker's username is "brian" and his password is "password"
	+ The password was revealed to be one of the extremely weaker passwords mentioned in the Password Guidelines. The username was revealed through both prior knowledge of the Prethinker's real name and was included in the initial batch of usernames given by Mac Opsys.
* The Prethinker has over 50,000 "creddit karma", which even Jennifer states she's never heard of a credit score that high.
* The Prethinker has a vast amount of knowledge on some useless trivia facts.
	+ One of the things he knows a lot about, a movie named Gearloose, is a reference to Gyro Gearloose himself. It may also be a reference to the real-life movie *Footloose*.
* The Prethinker is the only Kudos Regional Manager who can have up to 4 Cogs in the entire fight.
* In the v1.3.0 Development Update blog post the Prethinker can be seen wearing an executive Sellbot suit rather than the custom one he wears in his final design.
* Attempting to access this Manager's fight without the requirements will result in the following message: "What sounds like Cog voices can be heard from the cellar door... Maybe this isn't such a good idea yet."
* A prethinker is a person who forms opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition.

## Gallery

* Official Artwork
* Screenshots/Misc. Images
* Renders

Official art of the Prethinker from the Hires & Heroes key artThe Prethinker featured in an official Twitter comicThe Prethinker featured in an official Twitter comic

Boastful BrainiacThe Prethinker's profile picture on cogs.inkThe Prethinker's silhouetteThe Prethinker, shown alongside a Desk JockeyThe in-game popup announcing the first Toons to defeat the PrethinkerA Valentoon's Day card from the PrethinkerPromo for the Duck Shuffler PlushThe Prethinker talking with his Desk JockeysA Toon hitting the chalkboard after slipping on a Banana PeelThe Prethinker performing his Castling cheatThe Prethinker after his brain explodes

Renders of the PrethinkerAn unused Prethinker death animation