Technopath

The Technopath is a hostile Typhon species encountered on Talos I during Prey (2017) and Pytheas moon base during Prey: Mooncrash.

Overview
Spawned by the Weaver using one or more Operators [source?] or mimics, technopaths can manipulate machinery aboard the Talos I. A technopath can control and manipulate both the physical hardware and software of any mechanical or technological device it has encountered at this time at will. Reports show that technopaths appeared differently than the other Typhon organisms. Personnel reports show that the first signs of the technopaths' activity were software glitches and hardware rewiring that appeared out of nowhere, no Typhon material was detected at this time.

By the time of the outbreak, the technopaths fully emerged into the multiple conglomerates of operators, which they are able to corrupt and make allies to Typhon, and hostile to humans.They similarly corrupt turrets, which they can be seen wielding as many as two of simultaneously, and less sophisticated technology like the main lift and the door between the Talos I life support and power plant areas. A technopath seems to be only able to completely assume control technology when it is near its physical avatar; otherwise it appears to only interact with other computers as other computers would. This Typhon was not seen by TranStar scientists until the outbreak that took hold of Talos I.

Design
The technopath is similar in appearance to the telepath, but has a large blue eye instead of a white one, and has a more cubic, inorganic morphology reminiscent of that of operators. They also have nine other, much smaller eyes positioned in a central, vertical zig-zag pattern starting from just above the large main eye and continuing upwards, and so have 10 eyes in total.

Related Quests
Technopaths have scripted encounters that are triggered during certain quests. Its scripted appearances in quests are shown below:
 * Lift Interference
 * Deep Storage (Quest)

Description
EXCERPT FROM THE ENGINEERING DATABASE: Maintenance log #1546-011735 Filed by: Carlos Popinga

It took forever, but repairs to Arboretum airlock doors are finally complete. I think someone's been tampering with the electronics up there. When I popped open the control box, the whole thing looked like someone had been at it with a soldering iron, just a bunch of crossed wires - stuff that's not even supposed to be in there. The programming was all wonky, too. I had to wipe it clean and reinstall.

I'll have to bring up an Engineering Operator to clean up the rest of this. I'm filing a report with security about this, too. We have enough junk malfunctioning around here.

MORGAN'S NOTES/PETER'S NOTES: Takes control of nearby tech. If this thing gets ahold of turrets, you're dead. Shrugs off GLOO. Prefers to keep away from enemies. Stun or Nullwave it to get in close.

Abilities
Once the player receives the psychoscope, they can scan technopaths for the following abilities:
 * Electrostatic Burst I, II and III, which it uses as its primary offense modality when not armed with one or more turrets (it has been seen to wield both simultaneously in the past however)
 * Remote Manipulation I, II and III, which it uses to pick up and hold turrets
 * Machine Mind I, II and III, which it uses to control simple and complex electronic systems

Strategy

 * The technopath's main attack is to place a small orb in proximity to its target, which creates an effect similar to a damaged electrical conduit for several seconds. The bolts of electricity from these ignore armor and can deactivate weapons such as GLOO Guns and Q-Beams temporarily, in the same manner as the Voltaic Phantom. Shotguns and pistols are unaffected, save for their electronic ammo counter displays. Stunning a technopath it with an EMP, electrostatic burst, disruptor, nullwave, or psychoshock will prevent it from using this attack for a short time.
 * Kinetic Blast is extremely effective against the technopath, especially if it is using turrets since the blast will likely destroy them. Psychoshock is also very effective, and combined with EMPs or the Backlash ability Morgan can easily close with the technopath and kill it with the Shotgun.
 * The Q-Beam is initially highly ineffective as it is vulnerable to being disabled, slows Morgan drastically when firing, and takes two full magazines to kill the creature. When upgraded, however, it is very good at dealing with these creatures.
 * As with robotic foes, the Disruptor Stun Gun deals bonus damage to the technopath.
 * Any turrets, hacked or not, will be instantly picked by the technopath even if they were not deployed, unless you place them where the technopath can't reach them (such as closed rooms) or the Turret is not in condition to fight (Broken Turrets). Turrets that have been controlled by a technopath will remain hostile after it has been defeated, even if they were destroyed and then repaired, and will need to be hacked to place them back on Morgan's side.
 * The GLOO Cannon, despite what the game says, can be a very useful tool against a technopath. If it is up high enough when immobilized, it will plummet to the ground and sustain fall damage. It may even be possible to kill a technopath at full health if it falls far enough.
 * This susceptibility to GLOO is new. See trivia.

Trivia

 * Technopaths can corrupt turrets that have been hacked by Morgan.
 * Technopaths, like Telepaths, take control of non-Typhon entities. When compared to a Telepath's control over its human slaves, a Technopath's control over its own subjects is more permanent, with regard to operators, as the operators it corrupts remain hostile to humans even after their master's death, while a Telepath's slaves are freed from Typhon influence upon their master's death.
 * However, a simpler system, like an elevator or a door, may only corrupted as long as the Technopath that took control of it still lives. Also, corrupted turrets only seem to be innately hostile when telekinetically held by Technopaths. When disabled via EMP or otherwise taken out of Technopaths' use, they return to their original state. Note that this means that previously unhacked turrets may find the player character hostile if too many Typhon neuromods are installed.
 * Technopaths can use operator dispensers to produce operators they can then corrupt.
 * Originally, Technopaths were immune to GLOO. Shortly after being GLOOd, they would emit some kind of shockwave that would allow them to break free. This phenomenon can be seen here. They can actually still emit such a shockwave to break free, but it takes longer for them to do so and they actually take damage from it now, even in microgravity.
 * The idea that Technopaths are at least partially made from operators is currently only a theory proposed and accepted by some fans. It's mostly based on Technopaths' similarities to machines (the noises they make and their vulnerability to electromagnetic attack modalities), their morphology's similarity with operators', and their behavioral (general combat behaviour and noise), physiological (vulnerabilities), and anatomical differences from Telepaths, who more strongly resemble the mimics the canon typhon ecology diagram claims they and Technopaths are derived from. As convincing as this theory may sound to some, it might be non-canon if we're to take the Typhon ecology diagram at face value.

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