Implants

The implant window (F3 hotkey)

You can enhance the abilities of your character by implanting items into it's body. However it is important to note that you cannot have the same implant put into your runner more than once! Implants lose condition as you fight in the wastelands, and eventually have to be repaired. Furthermore, if you die, implants may randomly "pop out" of your character and will have to be put back in.

There are a total of 13 implant slots in the game, and they are distributed as follows:

• 4 Brain implant slots
• 5 Bone enforcement slots
• 1 Eye implant slot
• 1 Heart implant slot
• 1 Glove/Hand implant slot
• 1 Backbone/Spine implant slot

Generally, most implants tend to give boosts to specific skills and attributes while taking points away from other skills and attributes. There are some exceptions to this, however.

An overview of the Implant Skill

Implanting is a skill a runner can take up, it falls under the Intelligence subheading of character attributes. Runners may have valuable implants grafted into their bodies to increase their skill and attributes, and resistance against damage. Implantation runs off your implant skill level (see image) and is not affected by synaptic impairment. All Tech Levels can be remotely poked in using the Tech Level 30 Remote Implant Tool, however some believe that if you increase the TL of the tool then the speed of implantation is increased.

Implanting your Character

There are two ways to get your character implanted with implant items found in the game. You can either implant the item into your character yourself, or you can have someone else use a remote implant tool on you.

Implanting is commonly known as poking in-game.

To "poke" yourself, you must have at least the same number of points in your implant skill as the tech level of the implant you want to poke into your body. For example, a tech level 5 implant requires an implant skill of 5 to be poked in.

Beyond tech level 30, you will also require packets of Implant Disinfection Gel:
You must carry a sufficient amount of Implant Disinfection Gel on your person if you need a poke at or above tech level 30.

Poking yourself

To poke yourself you require a Personal Implant Tool:

This particular tool can poke an implant up to tech level 30, however for higher tech level implants you will need a higher tech-level implant tool.

Place the tool in the processor window, followed by the implant you wish to poke into your character. Then, press the start button. A progress indicator will appear to show the time remaining until the implant is poked into your character.

The processor window (F7 hotkey)

Getting poked by someone else

To get poked by someone else, just place the implant into your processor window and carry gel with you (if it's needed) and ask the implanter to poke you. Remember the poking etiquette!

Poking other people

To poke someone else you require a Remote Implant Tool. Unlike the Personal Implant Tool, you can use any tech level Remote Implant Tool to poke someone else, so don't bother buying a very expensive high tech-level Remote tool.

Place the tool in one of your quickslots and equip it as you would a weapon, and go up to the person requiring the poke and click on their character when you are close enough to poke them.

Poking Etiquette

It's customary to tip the person who is poking you by trading them cash. Often times very new characters are exempt as most players understand that they do not have any significant wealth.

How much do people tip for a poke?

Newbies are obliged to tip very little (or sometimes even no cash) per poke, about 1000 credits or less per poke. If you are extremely broke you can always reason with the poker, they will usually poke you for free.

Mid-level characters can expect to tip about 1000-4000 credits per poke.

High-level, capped, clanned, and clan-leader characters are reported to tip 3000 credits to 20,000 (!) credits per poke. This author has even paid 100,000 credits for a poke that he desperately needed so badly that another player had to re-log another character to poke him. Yeah, it happens.

Generally speaking, crouching in front of a person with an implant tool un-holstered is an indication that you need to be poked.

External Links

Techhaven.org Implant listings - You can find a summary of the implants in this listing, it is mostly up-to-date.