Q L I P H O T H

[Bosh]

I have tried my hardest and I still cannot understand this thing at all. I don't understand how or why it increases, I don't understand how to decrease it, I don't know what it means when a chamber flashes red, I don't understand how to prevent ordeals. Please help, for the love of god.

[CarThief]

They're those counters that, if they reach 0, the abnormality in question escapes (or does something else unpleasant). You can see them if you have the abnormality's basic information unlocked (name, threat-level, etc), otherwise they show up as a "?" mark.

A decrease of them is a bad thing, as they'll escape or do something nasty. A increase is a positive thing because it staves off them escaping and/or doing something nasty. Each abnormality potentially has it's own mechanics that would trigger their own (or other's) counter to hit 0 or otherwise lower by an amount.

And when a containment unit has a red warning flash around it, it's suffering from a meltdown, this triggers a timer which, if it hits 0, causes a immediate Qliphoth counter drop to 0. To stop this from happening just assign someone to work on it, the meltdown stops the moment an employee starts to work on it. Of course, the danger is that you'll possibly get a meltdown on something you can't (at the moment) safely handle.

(And if a meltdown isn't stopped, it'll also drain some of your collected energy. Though that's pretty ignorable, especially if said meltdown occured on a abnormality that has no (major) negative effect and/or it doesn't escape, letting you safely ignore them.)

As for why the Qliphoth counter might decrease, it could be because of the abnormality, it could be because of another abnormality, or because of some entity in the facility (the little clown guys from the Crimson Dawn come to mind, they try to sabotage containment units, and if succesful, decrease the counter by 1 and steal some PE boxes too), or non-clerk employees that have gone mad, grabbed a wrench and start beating on the door panel until they break it open and the abnormality escapes. The purple slimes from Purple Dawn also make abnormalities escape.

So always check every abnormality's info page to see what allows them to lower the counter of their own and/or other containers, and deal with crazed employees and meat clowns (the former of which you can hit with white damage to knock some sense into them, if they went mad).
Oh, and you can't prevent Ordeals, kind of. You can try to get enough energy to finish the day before they happen (recommended vs Dusk and Midnight type ordeals if you're ill-prepared), or otherwise you'll have to either try to finish the day in time, or fight them off.

Ah, this got a bit lenghty, but i guess i hope it helps...? :P

[Bosh]

Originally posted by CarThief:

(snip)

I was talking about the big qliphoth meter in the top right, but I guess if ordeals can't be prevented it kind of answers my question.

[NeedsMoreDoge]

Originally posted by Bosh:

Originally posted by CarThief:

(snip)

I was talking about the big qliphoth meter in the top right, but I guess if ordeals can't be prevented it kind of answers my question.

To avoid depleting my SAN-stat I will use 'Q' in place of 'Qliphoth' for this explanation.

The facility-wide Q-gauge in the top left corner will increase by one red bar whenever a work is commenced. When the gauge fills up, it will refresh and progress to the next meltdown level (up to meltdown level X). The number of bars to complete the gauge varies depending on your energy quota for the day. Sending an agent into a Tool abnormality (which does not produce energy) has no effect on this gauge.

You can gain some insight as to what will occur when the gauge fills, since there will be a little indicator to the right of the gauge.

If the indicator displays a number, this tells you how many chambers will be hit by a Q-meltdown. Each meltdown is displayed as red flashing corners around the affected containment chamber; there will also be a timer appearing above the chamber, to indicate how much time you have to deal with the meltdown. When a Q-meltdown is allowed to expire, a modest amount of energy will be depleted from your energy gauge, and if the abnormality has a Q-counter (indicated by a number in a circle on the top left corner of the containment chamber), then this will immediately reduce to 0, usually causing Bad Things to happen. Putting an agent to work on an abnormality with a Q-meltdown will clear this effect as soon as they enter the chamber. If you're short staffed and cannot send someone in to clear every meltdown, tools and other abnormalities without a Q-counter can be left alone with no major ill effect, other than losing energy.

If the indicator next to the gauge says 'Dawn', 'Noon', 'Dusk', or 'Midnight' in coloured text, then you will get an Ordeal instead of Q-meltdowns. The combination of colour and time indicates what Ordeal will be received. Each combination of colour and time will always spawn the same entity types. The meltdown level at which Ordeals occur can vary a little - sometimes a Noon can occur at meltdown level 6, but it can also happen earlier. You will always have the warning indicator to show what will happen next, however, whether it's meltdowns or Ordeals.

You can avoid having to deal with later Ordeals by filling your energy gauge in a timely fashion (i.e. working more powerful abnormalities, which generally have higher energy output, in an efficient manner). If you work nothing but ZAYIN-class abnormalities, it will take much longer to accrue the energy, meaning you may end up needing to respond to Noons, Dusks or Midnights if they can spawn. However, in later days, even working in the most efficient way possible will still result in you having to deal with some of the earlier Ordeals before your energy gauge is filled.

tl;dr: The gauge on the top left will tell you what is coming next, and how many works you can start before it will arrive. It will increase by one for each work started. If you see chambers flashing red, you should usually send someone in to work on it. You can avoid Ordeals to a degree by working efficiently to earn the most energy in the fewest work orders possible.

[Armored Chocobo]

Qliphoth counters are that abnormality's berserk mode. You rarely want them to trigger.

Doing certain work they hate will lower it.
Doing work with a person of certain stats will lower it.
Doing work with it after doing work on another abnormality will lower it.
The quality of the work might lower it.
Letting a Meltdown run it's course will lower it.

It rarely increases unless it's a new day.

If you're struggling, I suggest you look up the wiki on that particular creature, it'll have what sets them off on there.