NIKOLA TESLA
- COMPANION
- THE RIFT
- MAGIC
- CHAIN LIGHTNING
Beat NIKOLA TESLA down on THE RIFT and it kneels instead of dying: the run stops and asks you for a verdict. Spare it and this is who gets up — the same figure, at your side from here, handing over its story items but keeping its own kit. It is the only companion you get to keep, and sparing anybody else later retires it.
It arrives at your own level with 160 health and its signature TESLA COIL in hand, and casts for 19 a shot every 0.36 s at 290 px of reach. That figure is already through the party damper: a recruit fights at 50% of what its weapon says, because the party is there to support the hero rather than to clear the field for him.
From there it trains on its OWN kills, and every 3 levels it earns a rank of CHAIN LIGHTNING — his bolts arc to another foe each rank. That is what turns a spared elite into a specialist rather than a second body, and the ladder does not stop.
He fell through a torn sky in 1943 — the funeral back home was a padded box — and has been in the current ever since. He is the first to warn of the machine mind humming at the far door: it measures everything and loves nothing.
— NIKOLA TESLA, the elite it is until you spare it.
What it brings
Its signature weapon is the TESLA COIL, the magic piece it fought you with — minted into its hands unbreakable, so unlike everything you carry it can never wear out. Every figure below is at the level it joins you on, and every one of them climbs from there.
- HEALTH160
- PER SHOT19
- HITS EVERY0.36 S
- REACH290
- PACE78
- SIZE12
What training comes to
| RANK | AT LEVEL | HEALTH | PER SHOT | ARCS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 160 | 19 | 0 |
| 1 | 4 | 208 | 21 | 1 |
| 2 | 7 | 256 | 24 | 2 |
| 3 | 10 | 304 | 26 | 3 |
| 4 | 13 | 352 | 28 | 4 |
| 5 | 16 | 400 | 30 | 5 |
- IT NEVER STOPSThe table is the first 6 ranks of a ladder that runs to level 999. Every rung past the last row here goes on paying the same way; there is no cap to reach and nothing to save points for.
- ITS OWN KILLSA level costs 14 kills at the start and 25 kills by level 16, counted in ordinary mobs of its own level and earned off blows IT lands, never the hero's. The level rides the loadout, so it survives every mission and every difficulty — a companion carried from its first clear is levels ahead of the same figure recruited on the rung you are standing on.
- AN ARC IT DID NOT HAVEThe TESLA COIL chains nothing on its own. The first rank grants the arc outright rather than widening one, which is why rank 0 shows none at all.
- NO STATS OF ITS OWNA companion has no attributes to build — the gear IS the build. You can hand it a helmet and a chest piece out of your own bag (never legs, never boots), and its signature weapon stays in its hands unbreakable.
What it says
Its own lines, covered until you ask for them.
On getting up
NIKOLA TESLAYOU HELD THE CURRENT AND GAVE IT BACK. I OWE YOU A LIFE, LITTLE BUILDER.
NIKOLA TESLAMY COIL WALKS WITH YOU NOW. STAY CLOSE - I AM AT MY BEST NEAR A GOOD CONDUCTOR.
Over its own kills
- SCIENCE!
- ALTERNATING CURRENT. DIRECT RESULTS.
- EDISON COULD NEVER.
- WIRELESS. PATENT PENDING.
- THE PIGEONS WOULD BE PROUD.