The Artificier

A fierce combatant, master of pyrotechnics and explosives. Keen to move up in the foodchain, your journey will surely be one lined with constant bloodshed and warfare

The Artificer is one of five playable Slugcats in the More Slugcats Expansion. They are agile and strong, capable of producing explosions to propel themself through the air and able to craft explosives using certain objects.

The story before the campaign can be seen through Artificer's dreams.

Artificer's backstory is revealed in dreams during hibernation. A few of these are playable, though none of the player's actions have any consequences for other dreams. Artificer once took care of 2 Slugpups, but they were both killed by Scavengers after one took a Pearl from a Scavenger Toll. The subsequent fight between Artificer and the Scavengers is what caused the scar on Artificer's face. As a result of their Slugpups' deaths, Artificer has taken perpetual revenge on the Scavengers. After the 5th dream or after the player has killed the Chieftain Scavenger, all dreams are replaced with a single nightmare. In this nightmare, Artificer is trapped in a small tunnel with no exits and a single Scavenger. During this nightmare, the regular "dream" sound effect that plays is heavily distorted and drawn out.

Abilities & Attributes Stats Lung Capacity Standard[] Throwing Skill[†] 2 Spear Damage 1.25 Run Speed 1.2 Pole Speed 1.25 Mass 1.12 Loudness 1.35 Visibility Bonus 0.1 Crawling Stealth 0.3 (0.6x standard) [] Artificer's breath interaction is instead done by immediately dying when reaching 65% of air in lungs remaining, 0% if selected on another campaign with Jolly Co-Op.[1] This effectively leads to a ~0.3x lung capacity, as it takes a few seconds to die after spending all of the air in lungs on other campaigns.

[†] Throwing skill affects velocity and trajectory.

Explosion Immunity Artificer is immune to damage caused by explosions, such as those from Grenades and Explosive Spears. However, they can still be stunned by explosions. The length of time they are stunned varies depending on proximity to the explosion; explosions at point-blank range can stun them for an extremely long period of time, leaving them vulnerable.

They are not immune to Fire Eggs and Singularity Bombs.

Bomb Jump Pressing either Special or both Jump and Grab while airborne causes Artificer to launch in the held direction. The amount of vertical momentum depends on how long the Jump input is held. Once a bomb jump is performed, another cannot be performed until Artificer makes contact with a floor or wall (with the exception of zero gravity and low gravity environments, where it can be used multiple times until exhausted). Artificer can throw objects downward and upward while bomb jumping. This ability is disabled while holding a Grappling Worm.

Artificer can jump up to 5 times before they begin smoking. Artificer's 6th jump causes them to drop held items, the 7th makes them fall to the crouched state, the 8th and 9th stun them, and the 10th jump causes a large explosion that kills them. The number of jumps Artificer can perform can be changed under the settings in the More Slugcats Expansion menu.

The game counts every bomb jump in a Jump Counter Variable(SplCnt). By default, Artificer starts smoking once SplCnt reaches 5. Each jump has a set amount of time to tick down from SplCnt's current level. Jumps 1-3 take 1.5 seconds to tick down, for a total of 4.5 seconds to clear from SplCnt 3 to 0. Jumps 4-8 take 1 second to tick down, for a total of 5 seconds to drop from SplCnt 8 to 3. Artificer's 9th jump takes 3.75 seconds to tick down to SplCnt 8. If Artificer uses a bomb jump during this 3.75 second cooldown, they die. SplCnt takes 13.25 seconds to drop from 9 back down to 0.

Concussive Blast

Artificer using Concussive Blast to stun a nearby Scavenger If Down is held while initiating a bomb jump, Artificer instead creates a large explosion around themself, stunning creatures and disarming nearby Scavengers. Concussive Blast uses up exactly 2 jumps until the counter reaches 6, after which the jump counter increments by 1. Without any other inputs, Artificer lands from a blast in the crouched state.

This effect also deflects thrown projectiles, like Spears and Rocks, preventing contact with Artificer and even redirecting Grenades outwards from the blast and back onto other creatures.

Artificer using Concussive Blast to deflect a thrown spear moments before impact The stun time for Concussive Blasts is longer, allowing Artificer to perform 7 of them before dying. This can be changed through the same setting as bomb jumps.

Mauling Pressing and holding Grab while holding any live creature causes Artificer to maul them, dealing 1 damage. This easily kills smaller creatures such as Vulture Grubs and Lantern Mice. Caution should be advised when holding a Grappling Worm, as the player may accidentally maul them. Creatures such as Scavengers and Big Spiders must be stunned first. It can also be used to de-mask a Vulture when holding their head. Lizards are resistant to mauls, only receiving 0.4 damage from them.

Artificer's concussive blast can be used to easily stun creatures prior to mauling them. Larger targets can be taken down by repeatedly using a concussive blast then mauling them, but this is risky and leaves Artificer open to other predators or overheating.

Explosive Crafting Artificer can make Spears explosive at the cost of 1 food pip by holding Grab. Rocks turn into Grenades, Flashbangs into Lanterns, and Batnip into Cherrybombs when swallowed at 1 or more hunger, consuming 1 food pip in the process.