Shapeshifter

The **Shapeshifter** is an NPC and playable character. They have red eyes and, due to Diminutive, are the smallest of all the Characters. They do not wear any clothes in their natural form.

The Shapeshifter can be unlocked by beating any level with 5 different Characters, including non-overpowered Custom Characters.

## NPC

A single Shapeshifter NPC sometimes spawn in a level, hiding within the body of a random person who acts normally for their character class. Upon the death of their host, the Shapeshifter pops out. They will always run away from the body they were possessing, and are always Hostile towards the player in their natural form, as well as any Cops or Supercops on the floor. Shapeshifters drop a large amount of money on death, so hunting them down can be very profitable.

Usually, players can easily find a shapeshifter by closely observing NPCs' eyes - possessed NPCs have the Shapeshifter's red eyes. However, they can have their eyes covered if they spawn in a body with glasses, for example a Goon or a Hacker.

## Tips and Strategies

> *For more in-depth tips on playing as Shapeshifter, see: Shapeshifter (Strategy)*
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### Playable

* **General Tips:** Unless you have a plan, never stay in your natural form for long. Cops will attack on sight and the Shapeshifter's terrible stats and Diminutive stature make it easy to die. The only strength Shapeshifters have in their natural form is being able to run fast.

* **How to finish a mission:** Possess gives Shapeshifters the widest range of options of any character class in how you can complete a mission, limited only by which NPCs are on the level. Take time to assess what the best way to complete each mission is and which NPCs can be Possessed to accomplish them.

### Best characters to use Possess

* Bouncer:His combat and resistance characteristics make him a good character to win fights, his only disadvantage is that his Stomp ability, by taking a lot of life taking into account the life of the possessed characters, makes him more situational.

* Gorilla:Even with his negative stats, the gorilla is still good at winning melee combat, and it's not hard to maintain since he has Banana Lover.

* Gangster (Blahd)/Gangster (Crepe):Both characters will always be useful for their ability to hire Gangsters of the same type for free, the only bad thing about this character is running into rival Gangsters.

* Upper-Cruster:This character is more passive than the others but with his Upper-Crusty ability you can do many things that other characters can't, plus some rich have free Slave.

### NPC

* The danger posed by an NPC Shapeshifter's host depends on their character class's Endurance and other attributes. After the host is killed or neutralized, however, the shapeshifter themselves instantly pops out and has only 1 Endurance; if you can catch them, they are easy to kill.

* As they also have the trait Wanted, Cops and other law enforcers attack them on sight, sometimes killing the fleeing shapeshifter if the player is lucky.

* Players can kill a shapeshifter for its money when needed, but should be quick. As soon as the host dies, the Shapeshifter will flee, and thanks to their high speed, are very difficult to catch.
	+ Good strategies for killing Shapeshifters are cornering them with party-members, chasing the Shapeshifter into a Cop's line of sight, tagging them with a Tranquilizer Gun or other ranged weapons, or chasing them into a Land Mine or other traps.

* Once they are neutralized, be quick in grabbing their dropped money or a nearby Slum Dweller might grab it instead!

* Sometimes a Shapeshifter's host is a Goon or Hacker, making it impossible to tell they're possessed without killing them. This can be countered if playing as a Cop with The Law trait, making it easy to discover possessed NPCs since they are marked as Guilty for seemingly no reason; of course, this method of identification doesn't work if the host has a good reason to be considered Guilty.
	+ If playing as a Shapeshifter, this can also complicate things when trying to possess a Goon or a Hacker they weren't aware was already possessed, with the character saying "*That would be some kind of... possession-ception?*" instead.

## Quotes

* "*That would be some kind of... possession-ception?*" (When trying to possess another Shapeshifter's host)
* "*This person is too important to possess*" (When trying to possess a mission target)
* "*Got a problem with my naked body? Watch it, or I'll steal yours.*" (At the Homebase)

## Notes

* Possess has no time limit. Possess someone as soon as possible and use them to scout the level for more potential hosts.
	+ When possessing someone, Shapeshifters gain their Special Ability, Traits, stats, and acquire any items that were in the host's inventory.
	+ All of the traits you gain upon levelling up are inherited by the host you possess, while you lose your Wanted, Diminutive, and Antisocial traits.
	+ The hosts players possess will have low health. Their main form is also often at low health when the possessed host dies.
	+ Possessing someone retains over all their relationships. Players can walk freely through their home building and just ask for Items, Keys, and Safe Combinations. There are a number of other applications for this.
		- People's opinions of Shapeshifters are based on their current body, *unless* they see them switch forms, in which case they become Annoyed. Therefore, if a player offends someone they want to talk to, they can easily duck away, switch to a new body, and come back.
	+ Using Possess to its fullest will allows players to earn more experience than a typical character. For example:
		- When possessing a Crepe, players gain bonus experience against Blahds due to Blahd Basher, Scientists get bonus experience for killing Gorillas, etc.
		- When possessing a Cop, players can Arrest Guilty people for bonus experience; this can also help for finishing quests without killing anyone. Shapeshifters possessing Cops will lose experience if they kill innocents or steal from them, however.

* If their host dies, a Shapeshifter player pops out a few moments later and loses 15 health. This cannot **kill** them, so they're guaranteed to survive the death of their host (though whatever killed the host may immediately kill the player's real body). Invisible and Invincible Syringes can be useful to escape in this situation.
	+ If there's a Toilet nearby, players can also "Flush" themselves to escape from their pursuers or to warp to a different toilet to get around the level.

* Using Friend Phones or Clone Machines while possessing a host summons new party members of the host's class. This includes non-playable characters like Drug Dealers, Workers and Clerks.
* Players will automatically leave their current host body at the end of a level.

* Leveling up heals the player’s natural form but not their host body.

* Shapeshifters and NPCs Possessed by them are **not** part of the supernatural group and don't take damage from the Ghost Gibber unless they're standing in water.

* Players can't possess NPCs that are mission targets or who are already possessed by another Shapeshifter.
	+ This includes the Mayor, as he's a mission target.
	+ Other NPCs that can't be possessed even if they are non-mission targets are the Alien, Ghost, the Werewolf in Wolf Form and all Electronic characters (Killer Robot, Cop Bot, Butler Bot.)
* Taking items from containers owned by the NPC they are possessing will make any witnessing cops become Hostile, even if they are unaware the NPC is possessed. This is likely a bug.
* Questgivers are willing to give and reward players for missions regardless of what body the player is or isn’t in, but upon completing the quest will only become friendly to the form the player was in when accepting the reward.
* Mission NPCs know when a body is possessed by the player and are Loyal to the player regardless of their possessee.
* Electability is dependent solely on the relations the player has with NPCs in their main form. Rivals killed and purchases/hires made while in other’s bodies will not cause them to vote for the possessor, although cops killed while possessing will still give electability. Floor electability includes the future vote of whatever NPC the player is possessing.
* NPCs hired while possessing an NPC stay hired and maintain their alignment when leaving the body used to hire them and swapping to different bodies, provided the player is not seen leaving the hiring body.
	+ NPCs hired this way will vote for the player.
	+ Possessing an NPC which is rivals with your followers (Ex. possessing a Blahd as a Crepe) will cause the rival followers to leave the party, regardless of whether or not they saw the player possess the rival.
* Possessed Gangsters are only aligned with fellow gangsters within restricted buildings, unlike playable Gangsters who are aligned with all NPCs who own a building a gangster of their same gang color also owns.
* Possessed Slavemasters lack the Ideological Clash trait, making the much more powerful.
* Possessed Slaves will still explode upon going too far from their slavemaster and must kill their masters for freedom, or buy their freedom from a Slavemaster at a third of the usual price, losing their aligned status with their Master.
	+ Slaves stay aligned with their fellow slaves after buying their own freedom, allowing shapeshifters to gain an aligned slave by buying their fellow slaves after buying their own freedom.
	+ Slaves owned by Upper Crusters cannot purchase their freedom and must kill their owner to gain it.
	+ Freed slaves still count for the shapeshifter's big quest.
* Debt taken out while possessing an NPC transfers over to the player, although Assassins are unable to recognize a possessed NPC.
* Players possessing NPCs can still be jumped by NPCs in bushes/manholes, mugged by Mobsters, and deported/forced to give items to Cop Bots, even though NPCs are usually immune to these hazards.
* Possessed cops are aligned with Supercops, unlike the playable character to whom they are friendly.
* Mobsters possessed by shapeshifters lack the Extortionist trait, preventing shapeshifters from shaking down business owners, although they can still threaten NPCs for money and keys/safe combos.
* All non-prisoner NPCs in uptown have the Upper Cruster trait, allowing shapeshifters to safely walk through yellow scanner Cop Bots without being deported.
* NPCs made loyal by the Friend of the Common Folk or Random Reverence trait are Loyal regardless of who the player is possessing and stay Loyal/Alligned after being possessed and depossessed.

## Trivia

* The Shapeshifter had a different backstory that was changed during Early Access development:
	+ *The Shapeshifter has been sent to Earth from the heavens to clean up the mess caused by the Mayor. Unfortunately, the Shapeshifter's earthly appearance is that of a demonic-looking little naked person (it's just pink eye, OK?), which is not really ideal for functioning in society. Fortunately, the Possession Stone allows the Shapeshifter to hop into and out of people's bodies, making life on Earth a whole lot easier!*
	+ The shapeshifter's old backstory was a reference to a video game, Messiah. The main character of that game and the Shapeshifter share similar gimmicks and both are able to possess NPCs.

## Screenshots

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