Unlocking Your True Potential: Mastering the Art of Overcoming Negative Traits with Aliens: Dark Descent

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Trauma

Aliens: Dark Descent is an immersive squad-based tactical RTS developed by Tindalos Interactive and Focus Entertainment, set in the famous Aliens universe. The game revolves around strategically managing a squad of Colonial Marines as they face an unexpected Xenomorph outbreak on the planet Lethe. Alongside combat and exploration in the game's semi-open world, players can also personalize their troops by customizing their class, perks, and personality traits in the Barracks aboard the Otago.

Every Marine possesses their own distinctive class, perks, and personality traits. Unfortunately, all the personality traits are negative, and if the Marines are exposed to high levels of stress, they can develop even more detrimental traits, reaching a traumatic state. Each trauma level inflicts a different debuff upon the affected Marine, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness unless dealt with effectively. Thankfully, players can employ various methods to cure their Marines of these afflictions and optimize their abilities for battling Xenomorphs.

Personality Traits

All Marines possess unique Personality Traits that are acquired upon joining the Otago. These traits have the potential to impose penalties on either the individual Marine or the entire squad during deployment. The Traits list is provided below:

Coward: The Marine's level of Bravery decreases by 2 for every Aggressiveness Level.

Improved: Alien Detection Time is decreased by 10%.

Enhanced: Upon reaching the Anxious Stress stage, the Marine inflicts 0.1 Stress Damage per second on every other Marine in the squad, as long as they remain undetected by the enemy.

Bad Attitude: All Marines in the squad start the deployment with 20% Stress.

Poor Health: The Marines Consumes 1 Medical Supply during Rest.

Kleptomaniac: When returning from a deployment, the Marine steals 20 Supplies from the Otago.

Tense: When firing, the Marine consumes 1 more Ammo per burst. Additional bullets always miss.

Undisciplined: At the onset of each deployment, the Marines face the adverse impact of the Disobedient stress effect. For every 2 Marines displaying Disobedient behavior within the squad, the Command Points will be diminished by 1.

Rebel: The Marine remains unaffected by the consequences of the Reprimand skill.

Heavy Heart: Trauma cannot be removed even by the Otago's Psychiatric Care Unit.

Stubborn: When the Marine levels up, attributes are randomly selected.

Bad Luck: The Marine earns 1 less XP on deployment to a minimum of 0XP.

Conspirator: The Stress relieved by each Marine during Rest is reduced by 10 Points.

Bully: Any squad member with a lower rank than the Marine will suffer 0.1 Stress Damage per second if the squad remains undetected.

Rusty: The Marine will always experience Exhaustion upon completion of the deployment.

Brawler: While resting, a random Marine will experience a decrease of 1 Health Point. However, if the Marine possesses the Medical Assistant attribute, the damage will be prevented.

Unfit: The Marine's Health Point value is reduced by 1 (this does not impact Armor Points).

Poor Sight: The marine's accuracy is reduced by 10%

Weak: Reduce the Marine's Ammo Clip capacity by 1.

Jinx: The Marine's weapon has a 0.5% chance of jamming with each burst.

While all of these traits are undesirable, some are more detrimental than others. However, they can be eliminated if a Marine is promoted and the Redemption attribute is accessible. This will effectively remove the negative trait from the Marine.

Trauma

The accumulation of stress can significantly impact the psychology and performance of Marines deployed in the field. This can lead to traumatic experiences. In Aliens: Dark Descent, stress buildup occurs in three main stages: Anxious, Panicked, and Terrified. Each stage of stress development results in the Marine experiencing one of the following trauma debuffs:

- Depressive: At the beginning of each mission, the Marine will encounter additional stress damage.

Pyrophobia: The Marine incurs Stress Damage whenever they use the Incineration skill or set an Oil Puddle ablaze.

Borderline: The Marine experiences enhanced Stress Relief when utilizing Naproleve or taking a rest, yet all Stress Damage is amplified.

Hypochondriac: If the squad has no Medical Supplies, the Marine will suffer Stress Damage every second.

Claustrophobia: When Resting in a Shelter, the Marine's Stress no longer decreases.

Paranoid: If the squad has more than 3 active Marines, the Marine takes Stress Damage.

Hematophobia: The Marine takes Stress Damage each second whenever a member of the squad suffers a Hemorrhage.

Anthrophobia: The Marine takes Stress Damage whenever they see a human enemy.

Obsessive: Increases the time required to Reload.

Robophobia: The Marine takes Stress Damage each second when seeing a Synthetic (ally or enemy).

Xenomorphobia: The Marine takes Stress Damage each second when seeing a Xenomorph.

The Marine will need to take time off in the Otago's Psychiatric Care Unit and be assigned a personal doctor in order to recover from these conditions. Additionally, players can use Medical Supplies and Naproleve while in the field to temporarily alleviate the accumulation of Stress.

Aliens: Dark Descent is now accessible on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.