The Veiled¶
| Type | Mirror-world stalker |
|---|---|
| Form | The Veiled |
| Exists in | The mirror only |
| Health | Cannot be killed |
| Released by | Stage 4 flux rifts at Critical flux |
| Countered by | Decoherence Lance, Decoherence Projector, Anomaly Containment Hall |
| One per | 256 blocks |
The Veiled is a hooded, three-block-tall figure with a rift where its face
should be. It comes through the worst flux rifts and haunts whoever is nearest:
it feeds on their machines, or on the charge in their gear when they have no base. It cannot be
killed. It can be driven off with a 
Decoherence Lance, and worn down near a powered
Anomaly Containment Hall it can be taken and held there.
Its body exists only in the mirror. Players in the real world never see it directly, only sightings: a dark silhouette that appears on the landscape for one player at a time and fades when watched.
Every rule on this page is marked
Badges like untested show whether an in-game test backs the rule next to them. See Mechanics coverage.
At a glance¶
| State | What it is doing | How it gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Wander | Drifting in the mirror, sending sightings to players in the real world | Released, driven off, or lost interest |
| Presence | Standing at one of your machines and draining its power | Within 14 blocks of a running Quantimium machine |
| Shadowing | Following a player who has no base, draining their gear | Within 14 blocks of a player with no machine nearby |
| Aggravated | Fighting whoever hit it with the Lance | Hit by a Decoherence Lance |
It moves between them like this: a rift releases it into Wander. Sightings draw it closer to its target until it arrives, when it switches to Presence or Shadowing. The Lance makes it Aggravated from any state; the fight ends with it held by a hall or driven off, and driven off it goes back to Wander after a cooldown.
Release¶
untested Once a second, every uncontained stage 4 rift whose chunk is at Critical flux or higher has a 1 in 300 chance of releasing one: on average once every 300 seconds. A contained or stabilised rift never releases it.
tested Only one can exist per area. A rift will not release one if there is already a free Veiled within 256 blocks, or one held in a hall within 128.
tested It needs someone to haunt. If no player is within 256 blocks it is gone, and it remembers nothing, so leaving the area is a real escape. It never despawns while someone is near.
Sightings¶
In the real world it is only ever seen as a sighting: a personal image drawn for one player, which nobody else can see.
untested While it wanders and is not on cooldown, each unphased player between 16 and 256 blocks of it may get a sighting. It is placed:
- ahead of them, towards where it really is if that is within 60° of where they look, otherwise 35° to the side it really lies on;
- at a distance that tracks the real one, clamped between 20 and 64 blocks (±6), never closer than 16;
- on open ground, with three blocks of air to stand in and a clear line from the player's eyes.
If no spot fits, it tries again 10 seconds later.
untested A sighting ends in one of four ways:
| Ending | Rule |
|---|---|
| Stared down | Crosshair held on it for 3 s (within its own width, never tighter than 2°): it fades over 1 s. |
| Looked away from | Once seen, look more than 35° away and it is gone when you look back. |
| Ignored | After 45 s unwatched, it goes the next time it is out of view. |
| Walked up to | It thins from 30 blocks and is gone by 18. |
The server also drops a sighting that is never reported after 120 s.
untested Every ended sighting moves its true body closer to what it wants: up to 10 blocks towards its target, stopping short of arriving. Any player's sighting counts, so a group draws it in faster. After a sighting ends, that player gets no new one for 45–120 seconds.
Flickering lights¶
untested Lamps falter for real-world players near its true body: strongest right beside it, nothing beyond 40 blocks. Players in the mirror see nothing; there are no lamps there to falter. Lights stay steady while it is on cooldown.
Choosing a target¶
untested Every 5 seconds while it wanders, it picks the nearest player in the area (not creative or spectator). If that player has a running Quantimium machine within 32 blocks, that machine is its target; otherwise the player is. But what it wants most is a body double with nobody in it and nothing guarding it: anyone's, anywhere in its area.
Presence: feeding on a machine¶
tested Once within 14 blocks of its target machine, it walks up to it and feeds:
- it drains 80 FE/t from the machine;
- each second it adds 2 anomaly to the machine's chunk;
- the real world's only tell is violet motes stuttering off that machine, visible to everyone.
If the machine is broken it goes back to wandering. If it is drawn more than 40 blocks away, it gives up and wanders.
Presence: taking a double¶
tested An unguarded double comes before any machine: a field double left by a Tether, or a double in a pod without a Ward module. It walks up to it, settles beside it, and violet pours off the body where everyone can see it. After 15 s the body is gone and it carries the double's Sophon away, circling its chest as a small azure cell (one for each it has); its owner is told. Watched from the mirror, it attends to the watcher and leaves the double be; shadowing someone who stared at it through a Lens, it goes back to a double once they have not looked at it for 30 s. Nothing reaches a taken Sophon, not even a Recovery module, until it lets go: driven off (the Lance or a Projector), held in a hall, or gone for want of anyone to haunt, it drops everything it carries where it is, as knocked-out Sophons, and Recovery pods bring them home if they can.
tested A pod's Ward module keeps it off, as it keeps off mobs; and a Projector on the pod's crown freezes it before it gets to work.
tested Walls do not keep it out. Walking to a double or a machine and getting no nearer for three seconds (a wall, a shut door, a sealed room) it does not look for a way round: it blinks in beside it. tested Never in beside someone in the mirror, though: it will not blink within its wary distance of anyone phased, only walk as near as it can. Building a double in behind stone is no defence; guarding it is.
Shadowing: following a player¶
untested Once within 14 blocks of a player with no base, it follows them, keeping about 6 blocks behind where they are looking. It only stalks players in the real world: if they step into the mirror, where it can be seen, it stops shadowing and is curious or wary instead. If it falls more than 24 blocks behind while they are not looking, it blinks back into place. Every 5 seconds it checks for a machine within 32 blocks of them and switches to feeding on it if there is one.
untested Within 8 blocks and veiled (outside a 70° cone around where
the player is looking, or with a wall in between), it drains 40 FE/t
between all their charged items and armour, the Lance included. An 
Entangled Dock keeps an item
topped up from home while it follows you.
untested While it follows them in the real world, the player now and then catches it at the edge of their view: every 15–30 seconds, 8–14 blocks away and 55–75° off where they look, with a quiet stare sound from the spot. A glimpse vanishes the instant they turn towards it, or after 2.5 s whatever they do. It does not move its true body.
Through a Mirror Lens¶
A 
Mirror Lens lets a slice of the mirror through, and the Veiled is part of it.
- tested You can see it. Its true body shows in the real world, faint. Stare at it through the lens (crosshair within about 10°, within 48 blocks, line of sight) and it wants to know how: a stare sound only you hear, and it starts shadowing you. While you keep the lens on it stays fixed on you rather than turning to your machines.
- tested It sees you too. Sightings come twice as often while you wear one, so it steps closer twice as fast.
In the mirror¶
Seen from the mirror it behaves like a wary cat.
- tested Curious. Stare at it (crosshair within about 10°, within 48 blocks) and it notices you with a stare sound, then walks towards you, stopping about 10 blocks away. Its attention stays on you for 12 s after you look away. Only while wandering or feeding.
- tested Wary. Come within 8 blocks and it backs away.
- untested Cornered. Close within 3.5 blocks while it has nowhere left to go and it strikes, then blinks 12–18 blocks away. It can strike again after 2 seconds.
A strike deals 4 damage (its own damage type, so it reaches phased players) and gives Blindness and Slowness II for 3 seconds.
The Lance: aggravating it¶
tested The first touch of a Decoherence Lance beam from a phased
player turns it on them, from any state. Every mite within 24 blocks that can see the lancer turns
on them too.
tested While the beam holds, it is frozen. Each tick of contact wears it down; it fades as it goes. Contact need not be unbroken: 160 ticks (8 s) of total contact ends the fight.
tested When the beam breaks, it charges the lancer, strikes them from 2.5 blocks, and blinks 6–10 blocks off to come again. It can strike again after 1.5 seconds.
tested It loses interest and is driven off if the lancer leaves the mirror, gets more than 48 blocks away, or goes 30 s without a beam on it.
tested Left alone and not fighting, it pulls itself back together: one tick of wear heals every 3 ticks, so a full pin heals in 24 seconds. Wear already done carries into the next fight.
Ending a fight¶
tested Held. Once it is worn past halfway, a Containment Hall in reach takes hold of it the moment the beam breaks (or at the end of a full pin). It freezes, a violet field beam joins it to the hall's cell, and it is drawn in:
| Hall arms | Reach | Time to draw it in |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 blocks | 7 s |
| 2 | 22 blocks | 5.75 s |
| 3 | 27 blocks | 4.5 s |
| 4 | 32 blocks | 3.25 s |
The hall must be formed, powered, empty and stocked with 
Rift Residue. If it loses any of
those while drawing it in, the hold breaks and the fight carries on. See the
Containment Hall for keeping it held.
tested Driven off. Fully pinned with no hall in reach (or when it loses interest), it comes apart with a sound where it stood and blinks 32–48 blocks from the nearest player. It then stays away for a cooldown set by the anomaly where it was driven off. A hot base calls it back sooner:
| Anomaly band | Cooldown |
|---|---|
| Low | 5 min |
| Medium | 3 min |
| High | 2 min |
| Critical | 1 min |
| Singularity | 30 s |
On cooldown it sends no sightings, flickers no lights and does not advance.
The Decoherence Projector¶
tested A 
Decoherence Projector in range freezes it and wears it
down at the same rate as the Lance, without aggravating it: there is nobody for it to turn on.
Past halfway, a hall in reach takes hold as usual, so a Projector beside a hall is a trap. It burns
about one 
Anomalite Cell a full pin. A full pin
with no hall drives it off.
Another one, held nearby¶
tested A Veiled held in a hall tolerates no other within 128 blocks. Rifts in that area release none, and a free one that is already there (or wanders in) comes apart with the unravel sound and is gone, not driven off: it does not come back after a cooldown. See the Containment Hall.
Drawing thread from it¶
tested A held Veiled can be made to give up 
Veil Thread: laser light in the
mirror, with a Pickup lens, through one wall of the hall's glass reaches it and draws a thread out of it
every three minutes. See Into the mirror. It costs the hall
nothing for now.
After release from a hall¶
tested If its hall loses power for 10 seconds, runs out of Rift Residue for 30 seconds, or is broken, it walks out already feeding on the hall (Presence, with the hall as its target).
Saving¶
tested Its state, cooldown and target are saved. A fight is not: an aggravated Veiled loads as wandering.
Sounds¶
| Sound | When | Heard by |
|---|---|---|
| Stare | It notices you (and quietly, with a glimpse) | Phased players; the glimpse's target |
| Strike | It strikes; a hall takes hold | Phased players |
| Blink | It teleports | Phased players |
| Unravel | It is driven off | Phased players |
| Contained | A hall closes on it | Everyone |
They are vanilla's enderman and beacon sounds, re-pitched, until the Veiled has sounds of its own.