Tinkerer actually does work properly!

[quetzalcoatl.pl]

as in the title - I just had no idea how to trigger it, but now I know and you will too! :)

prev info re Tinkerer: https://steamcommunity.com/app/751820/discussions/0/1660069015237562800/
prev info re Tinkerer: https://steamcommunity.com/app/751820/discussions/0/6790907198737787331/#c5617721963190985725

It's so easy that I feel somewhat ashamed it took me so long to figure out. But that's the usual case of looking back at oneself after learning something that was absolutely inobvious before.

To the point: you activate tinkering with SHIFT. Or whatever key or button you use for the SPECIAL that does SLOWTIME. Just this. Nothing more.

You will see the effect immediately; your current weapon will disappear and will show up attached to the familiar. Familiar will also drop its current weapon, FMLR LZR. You can trigger tinkering multiple times, as long as you still have weapons. Each time, weapons will be exchanged and familiar will drop previous weapon, so you can change your mind as you wish. Sometimes weapons get stuck midair, and will unstuck only after familiar is reparied, so watch out.

• a "Tinkerer" allows to exchange weapon with a lying familiar, use SPECIAL action instead of INTERACT (so i.e. SHIFT instead of E)
  
• "Tinkering" with the familiar is free, costs nothing, except for a weapon
  
• "Tinkering" has to be done before the familiar is repaired
  
• It seems that any weapon is fine. I've tried with Baleen and with a BlackRichter, both worked

Below two movies from today's DailyChallenge. We started as Seagrist (Tinkerer!) and the familiar is in the second zone, right after first boss, just right to the starting point. It would be hard to find a better setup for testing this feature \(^^)/

I really wanted to try out NullMass but I screwed up, as you can see in the movie, and I ended up giving the Familiar a BlackRichter. While it was a hilarious sight to see it flying around and swinging a sword, its performance was quite poor. It moved towards enemies (you can see it with Uberheim, it actually hit him several times), but its move and shoot/swing speed is slow. Also, the familiar almost surely has zero curse, so BlackRichter's damage output was not scaled up. I think I'll try giving it a StasisHammer or BloodLance or BlakSpike, just for fun, to see if any effects activate. Also, if I had BloodInfection - whoo - that would be another level of awesomeness. It raises the movement speed AND shooting speed.

Baleen worked quite nice, but seemed not as strong as if my character wielded it. I also did it once with StatisPistol - this one was almost perfect. The shot is an instant beam, so the familiar almost never missed, and the enemies were properly frozen :)

I really wanted to try out NullMass, because the Familiar seems to have infinite ammo. But also has no Dash charges. This means that either Familiar could spam the shots at will (skips ammo checks), or wouldn't be able to shot at all (zero dash). Eh. Maybe next time.

Familiar with Sword: https://youtu.be/PTdNM5-gEKo
Familiar with Balleen: https://youtu.be/hKkvp3_GtjA

Edit: I later managed to try out a few other weapons:

- NullMassCannon works, no ammo limit, simply chews through the bosses xD
- Night weapons work, and teleport the familiar to the target, familiar gains HUGE mobility, the familiar can play without me, it often cleared the room before I even saw the enemies
- BlakNail works, familiar spams it like crazy and the shots properly track/home on the enemies, and it doesn't use your deadlock time (probably uses familiar's deadlock stats, but the game checks only player's deadlock timer)

Important game breaker, kind of: Kills from the familiar do not count towards combo, edge, fever, or anything like that. I have no idea regarding final scoreboard, but for sure, from skills&buffs' point of view, familiar's kills are not player's kills. When I gave the familiar a seriously deadly weapon, I found it VERY hard to farm time, as the drone swept the targets and I couldn't get combo counter up fast enough. It wouldn't matter in later loops and/or with more-enemies buffs, but here it was the start of the game.

[quetzalcoatl.pl]

Bonus content :)

That game where I got the familiar-with-ballen, I managed to take it to the Duncan, fun! Then, and odd thing happened. I finished the game having 04:03, and after looping I started with 00:00 and died. Whatthe? I've seen this a few times, but this time, I had it on a recoding: https://youtu.be/iFZLQp8Mt-A

Familiar party! Bonus pic from some old run: there's no limit to amount of familiars, just your luck to find them and health loss to wake them up. Add tinkerer. Poor Duncan. Too bad they disappear after looping - https://pasteboard.co/VsSY5ayPwVgp.png

[immodulated]

You're the man, this is great! Now I will have to start making friends with drones again.

This also makes weapons that use time as ammo a lot more useful potentially...