walkthrough

How parasites work — when to pick them up

Every parasite gives a buff + a debuff. Here is how to evaluate which ones are worth it.

How parasites work

Parasites are the orange tentacle pickups. Each gives one positive trait and one negative trait. Once attached, you can only remove them at a specific terminal (Reconstructor) or by taking enough damage.

The math

Rule of thumb: only pick up a parasite if the negative is one you can play around. Specifically:

  • Good negatives (low impact): "Lose 1% integrity per kill," "reduces obolites," "slight reload-active penalty."
  • Bad negatives (avoid): "Cannot use Astronaut Figurine," "large item pickups grant malfunction," "protection on melee removed."

The best parasites

  • Voltaic Discharge + minor reload penalty — the reload penalty doesn't matter if you reload-active correctly.
  • Repair on melee + lose obolites — the heal is huge. Obolites loss only matters in shop biomes.
  • Increased weapon damage + increased malfunction risk — if you're already careful, the malfunction risk is rare.

When NOT to pick them up

  • If you have Astronaut Figurine in inventory and the negative is "can't use figurine" — skip.
  • If your run is going great and you don't want to gamble — skip. Parasites are mid-run risk increase.

If stuck: when in doubt, skip. A parasite-free run is a viable strategy. Greedy parasite stacking ends 70% of runs.