Synthesis

Synthesis manipulates AIs to their advantage, hacking and compromising systems for their own gain.

Starting Unit: Hacker Deploy AI daemons in battle Hack and override enemy mechanical units Bolster strategic operations Integrate the populace into the network Uses the and weapon groups

Origin

Synthesis was developed by the Omega group, a dark subculture of hacktivists within the Spacer faction of the Star Union. The group rebelled against CORE's oppression by hacking into the NexusNet and turning its systems against CORE and the Star Union. They developed technology to manipulate the AI's within NexusNet, going as far as transferring their own consciousnesses into the network, merging with the AI.

Mechanics

Synthesis has several recurring terms.

• An Integrated unit is a unit that has Synthesis's unique brand of technology installed. Most Synthesis beneficial support abilities require the target units to be integrated. All Mechanical and Cyborg units are Integrated by default. Biological units become integrated when they install Synthesis mods that clearly mark them as such. There are also other sources of integration: for example, Kir'ko hackers integrate nearby friendly units when they teleport.
• A Subroutine is a Synthesis operation that affects friendly Integrated units.
• Compromised is a debuff that inflicts 2, -1 to resistances from other damage channels, and -1 level of stagger resistance. Some Synthesis operations have effects conditional on the target being Compromised.
• Daemon is an effect, malicious or beneficial, inflicted by the abilities of Synthesis units marked as such. The wording is generally "target unit is forcibly infected with a hostile Daemon" for debuffs and "sends a Daemon to interface with" for buffs. Counterintuitively, summoned units called "daemons" are not actually daemons.

Commander Loadout

If the player has chosen assault equipment as one of their starting perks, then they will receive the following weapons at the beginning of the game:

	Name	Stats	Tier	Description
	Hasher SMG	90% 11 7	1	Overwatch
	Arc Grenade	100% 8 3 Once per battle	1	Does damage in a 1 hex radius. Only affects ground targets. High impact stagger units Ignores line of sight

Hero Skills

	Skill		Requirements	Effects
	Disrupting Hack	2	Level 1	Active Ability: Single action 100% 5 Cooldown 2 turns Send a disrupting wave to hack an area, compromising mechanical and cyborg units in that area.
	Override Daemon	6	Level 4	Active Ability: Single action 100% 0 Once per battle Target enemy mechanical or cyborg unit is forcibly infected with a hostile Daemon that attempts to wrest control of the unit. They have a strength 8 chance to become mind controlled and switch allegiance until end of combat. On failure, the unit is disabled instead.
	Assisted Breach	5	Level 6	Attacks by units in this hero's army bypass 1 and 1 . Only functions when the hero is the army's commander.
	Compromise Exploitation	4	Level 8	Units in this hero's stack have an 8 chance to apply electrified when attacking compromised units. Only functions when the hero is the army's commander.

Units

Name	Tier	Type	Damage	Stats	Cost	Research	Source
Malware Daemon	I	Tactical Summons	8	25 32 1 1		Autonomous Malware	Mod: Deployable Malware Daemon
Reconstructed Daemon	I	Tactical Summons	8	25 32 1 1		Information Control	Assembly Hacker
Hacker	II	Skirmisher	11 ^	40 32 1 ^	70 250	Information Control	Military Skirmisher Barracks
Network Link	II	Skirmisher	10	40 32 2 1	90 270	Network Connectivity	Specialist Training Center
Avatar	III	Elite	15 15	60 32 3 2	105 400 20	Neural Integration	Elite Military Facility

^ varies by faction

Technology

	Technology	Tier	Group	Prerequisites		Unlocks
	Synthesis Integration	1	Tactical		100	Guardian Daemon Shell Targeting Daemon Shell Integrated Military Networks
	Daemon Deployment	2	Strategic	Synthesis Integration	150	Internal System Overload Hack Deploy Maintenance Daemons Zero-Day Vulnerability
	Information Control	3	Forces	Synthesis Integration	300	Unit: Hacker Equipment: Hasher SMG
	Combat Subroutines	3	Tactical	Synthesis Integration	300	Compromise Module Autonomous Repair Subroutines Aegis Subroutines
	Motion Disruption	4	Tactical	Combat Subroutines	520	Incapacitate Daemon Shell Disruption Virus Pulse Motion Control Hack
	Network Connectivity	5	Forces	Information Control	800	Unit: Network Link Equipment: Type-S Mobile Network
	Basilisk Network	5	Strategic	Motion Disruption	800	Cyber Attack Basilisk Node
	Autonomous Malware	6	Tactical	Motion Disruption	1200	Deployable Malware Daemon Skirmish Subroutine
	Systems Regulation	7	Strategic	Autonomous Malware	1700	Reactive Imperial Androids Cascading System Failure
	Neural Integration	8	Forces	Network Connectivity	2200	Unit: Avatar Equipment: Disruption Relay
	Pacification Cypher	9	Tactical	Autonomous Malware	2750	Total Network Integration Localized System Shutdown
	Basilisk Singularity	10	Strategic	Systems Regulation	3600	The Singularity

Doctrine

	Technology	Tier	Prerequisites		Unlocks
	Cyber Optimization	3	Tier 1 doctrine	300	Organized Cyber Divisions Worker Integration Doctrine Development V
	Cyber Society	7	Tier 5 doctrine or economic research	1700	Society 2.0 Total War Automation

Strategy

Synthesis uses ubiquitous artificial intelligences and advanced hacking to enhance friendlies and hinder enemy mechanicals and cyborgs.

• Network friendly troops together to apply battlefield-wide buffs.
• Dominate enemy mechanicals and cyborgs with offensive debuffs.

Synthesis technology has excellent synergy with factions that widely employ cyborgs and mechanicals. Synthesis units also use Arc damage, so they benefit from a faction with access to Arc weapons research. Both of these conditions are filled perfectly by the Assembly. Predominately biological factions such as the Amazon and Kir'Ko will find Synthesis tech comparatively less useful.

Tier 1 Synthesis technology gives access to Guardian Daemon Shell and Targeting Daemon Shell. These mods are very cheap and beneficial for early game. For game plans entirely reliant on faction tech and want a secret tech that can be forgotten about entirely, it's hard to go wrong with Synthesis. However, there are a lot of interesting options deeper in the tree for the intrepid hacktivist.

Synthesis is generally very defensive. Its offensive options, including their trademark brand of mind control, are mainly aimed against Cyborgs and Mechanical units — the latter also having an innate weakness to Arc damage.

Hackers have decent damage (generally 11 repeating) for its tier and have the most per-faction variety out of any secret tech unit, which makes it hard to give a blanket statement on their usefulness. It does shoot way up if the faction used has access to the Arc weapon tree, due to the obvious value of stagger or even stun on a repeating attack. Be aware that hackers' debuff abilities have a noticeably shorter range than their SMG.

Network links look like your standard support with two once-per-battle abilities and one full action; however, once a network link has used its once-a-battle ability to reset a friendly unit's cooldowns, it can eat a corpse to use it again. This can be done indefinitely as long as corpses are available and, given the strength of many once-per-battle abilities, they're rarely in short supply. The subroutine and daemon extension reset of a network link should be underestimated: many effects inflicted by Synthesis units are caused by daemons, and by extending their duration the network link extends the duration of the respective buffs and debuffs.

Avatars are generally not worth it at all, unless your enemy is very machine-heavy. For best use, pair them with a network link to be able to use mind control several times per battle and increase the Amplify Daemon buff duration.

Total Network Integration is an expensive mod that can be used to protect your expensive toys. Make sure to heal them after resurrection so that you don't simply lose them again. Stagger immunity is also very valuable, especially on units with Full Action abilities.