Movement
Because of his deformity, the Mainliner is not able to stand upright, but instead crawls
along the ground using its two leg stumps to wiggle forward, while jabbing its hypoder-
mic needle into the ground to assist in pulling itself along, all leading to a very
distinctive movement sound. Despite this awkward method of locomotion, the
Mainliner is able to cover quite a bit of ground, though it does not move quite as quickly
as the player. To compensate for that, the Mainliner is able to jump great distances in
the blink of an eye, which is a key component of its deadly melee attack.
The Mainliner may appear normally in levels, but can also spawn out of sufficiently
large puddles of fluid on the ground. That fluid can be water, blood, gasoline, or any
other liquid.
Melee Attack
For its melee attacks, the Mainliner is able to leap onto the player from a significant dis-
tance. From there, it can perform one of two attacks:
- Grab: If it finds itself positioned correctly relative to the player, in midair the
Mainliner will attempt to grab. It then wraps its legs around the player’s torso just
below Torque’s arms, holding tight with its vise-like grip, putting the player into
the immobilized state. Once attached, the Mainliner starts moving the arm that
holds the syringe toward the player’s neck, raising it high over his head, preparing
to jab in its deadly chemicals. To prevent the Mainliner from actually sticking the
needle into him, the player must press the Jump button repeatedly, forcing the
creature’s arm away from Torque as the player taps the button. Once the arm is
fully pushed back for a certain amount of time the creature detaches itself from the
player and jumps off of him. If the Mainliner is successful in jabbing the player
(which causes a large though not necessarily fatal amount of damage), the creature
leaves the needle stuck in the player’s neck and jumps off of him, simultaneously
grabbing a new needle from among those stored on its back. - Slash: If the Mainliner cannot align itself for the Grab attack, it will simply slash at
the player with its needle arm. This will cause significantly less damage than the
Grab attack, but will be much easier for the creature to pull off.
Ranged Attack
The Mainliner can also hurl the hypodermic needle it holds toward the player, using it
as a projectile weapon. The needles are medium range, slow-moving projectiles and do
much less damage than the Mainliner’s melee attack. On impact, the syringes inflict
damage and stick into objects, including the player’s flesh. Once the Mainliner has
hurled its syringe at the player, it immediately grabs a new one from the collection off
its back, though the number of syringes back there does not actually decrease, and the
Mainliner has an unlimited amount of ammunition.
Behavior
The Mainliner is a bitter enemy of the Cartwheeler, but is the frequent companion of
the Fester.
Mainliners are most effective in darker areas, and will tend to spring out of the
shadows toward the player, or simply do their ranged attacks. Mainliners are afraid of
the light and will try to navigate to the shadows when possible, and will tend to flee from
the player’s Flashlight beam. Mainliners do make a distinctive sound as they drag
626 Appendix B: Sample Design Document:The Suffering