I haven't played CDDA much since >>251373, but I'm back at it again now.
Being able to teleport, I have been avoiding combat as much as I can, just teleporting away when a horde starts to surround me, and taking advantage of the fact I can make myself walk considerably faster than even dogs to casually stroll in broad daylight to loot buildings. I found a few guns, but barely enough ammo to allow me to start massacring zeds instead of avoiding them. I came across a group of dead scientists on a field, and one was carrying a box with cattle primer. Later I went down a subway station and there was a lab very close by, I explored it and one of the zombies dropped a map that revealed more labs nearby. I made it my current mission to explore all of them.
2 were overgrown meat labs, with lots of amalgamations everywhere. Even with my superior mobility, I was still getting fucked up while exploring, and killing wasn't an option due to shitty guns. I explored one and found an alpha mutagenic room, where I got 2 alpha primers, probably the most I ever got because there were no zombies inside to break the test tubes and ruin the loot. Still no catalyst, though. The other had nothing worthwhile.
The rest of the labs had more interesting stuff. I destroyed one of the experimental bots and activated all the manhacks that it dropped and used them as bait to distract the zeds so I could shoot them safely. I also took some of the chemical stuff to make small grenades to better clear them out. I killed one of the feral guards with psychic powers, who dropped a crystal that gave me clairvoyance. Probably the best class to go along with a teleporter, there's a character in Mob Psycho that's basically that.
On the same lab i found an artifact room, with a golden comb that lets me stop time.
Hell yeah, baby, now we're cooking!
If teleportation didn't make me reckless enough, this surely did, it even has 5 max charges. The only downside is that it spawns vortexes and shadows, I think there's something that was supposed to damage me, but doesn't seem to do anything. It has no convenient holsters for me to keep, but it being a comb gave me an idea. Like I said before, my character has some sort of mesoamerican origin. I have no idea what their phenotype is, so I made a guy with tanned skin and afro hair -- white hair for futurism. Given the location, I know for certain that mesoamericans would be tanned, but IDK what kind of hair they had, so whatever. Anyway, I modded the afro hair trait to have an integrated pocket that allows me to store one comb. Throwback to that 70s fashion of keeping one stuck up there (picrel). The hair is already coded as a mutation, so I just made it have an integrated armor with a holster that only allows either a regular comb or an altered comb. It also adds armor to the top of the head and warmth. Seriously, why isn't this already a thing? Even Don't Starve has "large beard = warmth" as a mechanic, and given all the different types of fur mutation, you'd think CDDA would also account for the effects of natural hair growth.
Yes, I also made my hair cause head encumbrance.
Some time later I finally survived for 2 weeks, and the first portal storm hit. I used to ignore portal storms because the only good thing in them was getting sent to the shadow realm and possibly getting a stone that lets me teleport in a pinch, but I don't need that anymore. Besides, going to the shadow realm always leaves me sleep deprived for a whole week, which effectively nullifies the temporary stat boost. But I learned that if I stay wandering outside, a chunk of unknown material can spawn, and it drops an artefact on death, so this time I went hunting for one of those. I tried cutting it with a machete, but turns out it has a shitton of armor and HP. It also hits pretttttty hard, but its attacks are easy to dodge. So I did an american and pulled out my assault rifle and went rak-trak-trak on its ass until it gave me treasure. I got a stone that gives me -3 str, but +3 dex and +4 int. Very good, considering I'm going for a ranged build this time.
I still have 1 lab left to explore, I hope I can find bird mutagens, or at least the recipe for it, the roadrunner mutation would be good to have, also strong legs. I already have a book on mutagens, but its not the animal one.
Regarding the stone I found: it has a crescent shape, which made me think it would look very good if attached to a mask. But AFAIK, there are no masks in the game. I don't mean gas masks or ski mask or whatever, I mean stuff like a mask carved out of wood. Either full-face, or only covering above the nose. The only type of mask similar to that is another artefact base, which is an ancient stone mask. I'm curious about how masks are made, and I wanna make another mod to add recipes for them. Specifically of a mask with a carved out space to insert the stone for easy access. The stone is very tiny and light so I could keep it in my armband pouch since I only need to carry it to get its effect (it has no active ones) but... Nah, I want more style.