The following text (up until the gallery) is copied from the article for the enemy aliens of the game from Villains Wiki at https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Ones_(Aground)
"The Old Ones, or "Them" are the main overarching antagonists of Aground.
Biography[]
The Old Ones started as a squid-like species living in the watery depths of their old homeworld where magic was highly sought after. They soon learned more advanced techniques from the Draconian Teachers from The Depths of the Seuden system, whose mission was to freely teach magic to other beings in the galaxy. As time passed, they raised the dragons, turned them into ships, distanced themselves, and embarked a path of empowered isolation.
The Old Ones eventually became a highly advanced alien species who mastered both magic and technology to cement their power in the universe. To craft their ships, they gained the trust of wyrms which they evolved into dragons, but soon betrayed them and forced them to undergo reluctant evolutions into biomechanical space vessels of high power. They also abandoned the dragons on their old home planet once they outlived their usefulness. Just one bomber was able to fight a whole fleet of Earth ships before it was finally destroyed. Eventually, humanity began to advance themselves, both in technology and magic courtesy of The Alchemist. Ten years before the start of the game's events, he and a team of Earth explorers were searching distant planets to colonize as part of the "Unoiks Project" since Earth was recuperating from World War 3 and needing new resources to flourish again, particularly exotic matter. They found the homeworld of the Old Ones, which they called Unoiks 428c and studied what they could. This caused the Old Ones to view them as a potential threat to their power. To prevent humanity from becoming such, they launched a bombardment against Earth, forcing humanity to evacuate it forever and nearly lose enough numbers to face possible extinction, with presumably only a few hundred humans still being alive to this day.
While some humans escaped on a functioning colony ship far away from the eyes of the Old Ones, some of the survivors crash-landed and scattered on Unoiks 428c, where the game starts. As the player grows stronger and acquires better equipment, he/she eventually faces the Old Ones in their ships as they bombard the planet forcing the survivors to hide again. Afterwards, the player arrives on the new Dragon HQ homeworld of the Old Ones. There, the player kills the Final Boss, leader of the Old Ones, and neutralizes their threat for good.
Alternatively, the player may choose to complete the hybrid path, creating illusions of fleets of ships on both sides to dupe the leaders of them and humanity to agree to a peace treaty. Reluctantly, they will agree and hostilities between the two races will cease for good.
According to the Draconian Teacher, they were always eager to learn more about the magic offered by the Teachers, but they became more distant the more they learned. He also believes that deep down, they are afraid since they can only wield small amounts of magic on their own and can only achieve power through others, hence the ulterior reason they enslaved the dragons. The Draconian Teacher also theorized that the Old Ones attacked humanity because they sensed the possibility that humans could wield even more magic than they could.
This seems to be confirmed by The Exiled who explains that they knew they were reaching their limits and did not want to be surpassed by any other being. He mentions that if any being ever did become a threat or knew too much, they were either enslaved or exterminated, as was the case when the Alchemist dug away at the secrets of Unoiks 428c. According to the Sea Witch, another magic user who followed a path of immortality similar to "The Old One" on Eastern Island, there is no worse crime in the eyes of the Old Ones than stealing their magic secrets. Indeed, By this time, "The Old One" has sent a signal to the other Old Ones, exposing the humans. In response, the Old Ones sent a bomber to wipe out the human survivors on Unoiks 428c at last.
Personality[]
The Old Ones are by and large evolved, arrogant, and genocidal space monsters who desire absolute domination of all other life forms and to remain the singular most supreme species in the universe. Although they didn't initially desire to betray the dragons, they realized they had more potential than they did since the Old Ones are almost nothing inside their magical shells and at the height of their own advancement, and feared the dragons could become a threat, so they forcibly evolved them into ships to make them easier to control and exploit. They initially thought nothing of humanity as their technology and knowledge of magic was nowhere near their own, especially when humanity was already facing another near-extinction aftermath of World War III. It should be noted that the Alchemist's discoveries of magic and his own advancement was the last straw for the Old Ones, hence their declaration of war against all humanity.
One particular Old One, found on Eastern Island in the game, broke off from the rest of her kind and found the secret to immortality, but remained just as arrogant and tries to kill the player instead of willingly sharing her secrets of magic. After her death by either the player or the Alchemist, the latter case at the cost of his life, she sends a signal to the rest of her kind indicating that most of humanity's remnants are on Unoiks 428c. Soon, the Old Ones start The Bombardment in a bid to wipe hunamity from the universe once and for all.
Another Old One, The Exiled, became thoroughly disillusioned with the practices of his kind and was banished to Mars where he hijacked old Earth frequencies and took a liking to Earth entertainment programs, even adopting common earth speech patterns. Initially, he was supposed to report to his superiors if humanity ever posed a threat to their power or could learn more about magic than them and humanity would have already qualified for destruction if the Exiled had reported them during World War III during which humanity had developed much in FTL space travel research. He delayed until the Alchemist discovered their old homeworld and the Exiled's cover was blown and he was banished from their kind. If the player meets him, he will grant some quests that guide the player to the spirit world and later face the final boss. he will also explain the Old Ones' primary motives and goals if the player talks to him some more. According to him, the Old One on Eastern Island never grew up, size or maturity-wise as a consequence to her immortality.
The Old Ones hatch from eggs and the Nursery Crab oversees their growth on the Enemy HQ. If the player chooses to kill the Nursery Crab, the Old Ones will ironically be doomed to extinction themselves.
If the player successfully defeats the Final Boss's second phase and has not yet killed the Nursery Crab, the Final Boss will request the player allow the Nursery Crab and eggs to live, claiming they are but babies and pose no threat, highlighting a degree of hypocrisy since the Old Ones were trying to exterminate the human race and were on the brink of total success.
If the Nursery Crab is dead before meeting the Final Boss, the latter will scold the player for killing it and the "innocent" hatchlings, to which the player retorts that the Old Ones already killed every single youth on Earth in their attack. The Final Boss brushes this off and notes that Humanity survived that attack somehow while arrogantly claiming that the Old Ones will continue as long as it is alive.
After the Hybrid Path update to aground, there is an option for the player to initiate an alternative resolution with the Old Ones. This involves creating a holographic fleet to hoodwink both humanity and the Final Boss to negotiate a peace treaty ending all hostilities between the two species for the time being. If this ending is achieved, the Final Boss will agree to the treaty and will no longer attack the player if he/she approaches it. The nursery crab will also be immune to damage if it is still alive. The Final Boss is skeptical to the player's insistence of peace as an "idealist" conclusion and admits to not having seen through the holograph trick until after the treaty is signed. It also believes the treaty will not last long, but it will agree to not attack humanity again as long as the treaty is in effect.
Gallery[]
A dragon ship crew member.
The first Old One the player sees.
The final boss in their first phase.
The Nursery Crab. ADD A PHOTO TO THIS GALLERY Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted."
Biology and Evolution[]
In contrast to the specific Old One who serves as the first antagonist of the magic path, the rest of her species are referred to in lowercase by the Adult Dragon of the Starting Island, "the old ones". The Draconian Teacher actually refers to their species in the present day as "descendants of the old ones". Humans, including your character, only refer to this species as “Them”, capitalized. Characters of other species will nonetheless understand who are the “Them” in question.
Several pieces of evidence throughout the game, from the Alchemist, the Librarian, and seeing the Alien Nursery, imply that old ones grow or are given their distinctive outer shells when they reach adulthood. The old ones share a common ancestor with the fish villagers of Cultivator Island, but "ventured out of the sea and changed themselves" thousands of years ago or possibly millions. The Mirrows explain in a cutscene, after you check the navigation screen of the Sunset Haven colony ship, that some of the ruins and structures left behind on Unoiks 428c date back “over a million years ago!" Whether those old ruins were on land or underwater is not made clear in the game. Baby old ones are still aquatic, with pale purple tentacled bodies and a single eye. This may be what the marine ancestors of the old ones looked like. Adults may also be one-eyed if the glowing window in their shell is any indication. When old ones open their shells, pale bodies with moving tentacles are visible in the gap. More visible with the adults than the babies (because the Alien Nursery is already brightly lit) is the way that the flesh of old ones glows from within, shining through the eye window and even creating a glowing aura around the outer carapace.
One of the ways the old ones changed themselves was by evolving or creating armor; the Alchemist calls one example a "magical exoskeleton". This armor must be opened after an old one attacks too many times in a row, overloading or overheating. However, when it is closed the carapace has a defense stat of 25. This applies to the second and third stages of the old ones' evolution, which are seen in the various adults encountered in the game. The Old One of Eastern Island is much smaller than others of her kind encountered in the game, and statements from the Exiled explain that she is an evolutionary relict from very long ago.
The Old One herself is well over ten thousand years old, as said by the Exiled who is at least this old and explains the Old One is far more ancient, and she "remained in the same form and power as our ancestors, before we ever left for the stars." The exact quote is "We are naturally long-lived, but she has [been alive] longer than even we can remember", suggesting that her birth predates recorded history. Considering she retains an ancestral form, and baby old ones have no shells at all, she may resemble juveniles of current old ones. The Old One is only about the size of a human, although she can use both homing orbs and a formidable laser attack that her "foolish brethren" are incapable of producing. She can also generate a forcefield to shield herself if you attempt to attack her before you summon the Alchemist and the fight with her begins. Currently, the average old one is three times the size of a human (the Exiled's estimate) and can shoot repeated medium-strength laser attacks at the player before overheating. Dragon Ship crew and the Exiled have complex, dark purple shells compared with the Old One’s simple scale-like armor, and also encase several tentacles in flexible extensions of the outer shell. These armored tentacles may make operating Dragon Ships more convenient. After the player returns from the Spirit World, the Alchemist invents a recipe for equippable Carapace Armor in the Laboratory that glows purple and has an eye window just like the old ones’ bodies, further implying that the exoskeletons are made with magic instead of being natural structures.
Old ones can survive more than just strong attacks and dessication in their current form. The Exiled can survive on Mars, where there is not much oxygen in the air. There are sponges with air bubbles in the underground sea below, but the Exiled is not seen visiting the Mars ocean to get oxygen or food. If the structures on Eastern Island and the Mini Synthesizers on board enemy ships are anything to go by, old ones have a narrow selection of preferred food: steak, bread, hamburgers, pie, and pancakes. However, since the Elder Dragon switched to a diet of fish without issue, the Exiled and the Old One (who lived right below a deactivated Synthesizer) may have been able to do the same thing.
The leader of the Old Ones, who is the final boss of the game and anchors himself to the heart of Enemy HQ (at the core), is even more powerful than the rest of his kind. As well as being larger, he starts off with formidable defenses that protect him from attack by anyone. He has four attack tentacles, three laser launchers, and numerous homing orbs in his first form, which also resists attacks from all elements. If his stage 1 form is defeated, he will become mobile and go on the offensive, using magic of all five elements to attack the player as well as using homing orbs with an attack of 200. His unusual power level, size, and abilities may be why he became leader of his kind at least ten thousand years before the start of the story. The Exiled confirms in their backstory dialogue that the leader is a him.
The Nursery Crab spawns baby old ones from strange pods or eggs on the floor of the Alien Nursery pool. She barely resembles her children, having a large shelled cephalothorax, attack tentacles like a Kraken, and three dart launchers which all serve as defense. Only the Leader has inherited the tentacles and launchers. The babies will come to her aid if the player enters the pool, homing in on you and stinging you with their tentacles to keep you stunned and unable to attack. In gameplay, there is little reason to attack and kill the Nursery Crab as you will only get the achievement "Genocide" and no more babies will hatch. The Nursery Crab's own origins are not explained by any dialogue in the game, but there is only one of her and no clones can be evolved from a baby the way a Wyrm Queen can. There is the possibility that old ones are actually related to Krakens, which also have regrowing attack tentacles as adults and an odd number of eyes.
Pre-game history[]
After the old ones left the ocean, the Elder Dragon explains that they interacted with Wyrms to help the Wyrms reach new potential as dragons. At this point, the old ones were still freely sharing magic like the Teachers, but then there was a cultural shift toward exploitation and gaining power. The fish villagers of Cultivator Island explain how their village is the last one left of what were many across the planet; they gathered in one place to escape “the hostilities of the universe”, implying that the old ones turned on their own cousins until there were too few fish people to pose any kind of threat on their own. This was one of two approaches that the old ones would take to prevent any other sentient species from being able to rival them. The old ones foresaw that the dragons would become more powerful than them, a possibility which was unacceptable to Them. However, rather than wipe out the dragons, the old ones thought of another solution. As the Exiled explains, ”By enslaving them while we still could, we gained their power." This power would one day enable the old ones to bombard Earth until its surface was uninhabitable to life, killing nearly all of humanity in the process. At least one Dragon Ship Factory was built on the planet, enabling old ones to evolve indoctrinated dragons into powerful spaceships.Obedient dragons and an infinite supply of Wyrms were moved to Enemy HQ, while the means to grow more dragons were removed from Unoiks 428c. A few dragons were left behind on Unoiks 428c, abandoned as worthless after outliving their usefulness. The surviving dragons from that time hate the old ones for betraying them. The merchant Tindle explains that the old ones left abruptly without a word to him, likely so he would know nothing of their secrets and remain harmless to him.
Hints from NPCs such as the Exiled and the Elder Dragon imply that the old ones relocated from their home planet to the giant dragon ship that is Enemy HQ thousands of years ago. The only one who stayed behind was the Old One of Eastern Island, who had discovered the secret of agelessness and was not interested in leaving her home. As they left their homeworld, the old ones hid many of their magic secrets or made some inaccessible. The Megolemech Factory was buried behind bedrock, the Storm was created to disable and guard the Dragon Ship Factory, and the magic structures of Eastern Island were deactivated to hibernate. The Old One guarded and hid the planet's last Evolution Chamber on behalf of her species. The Old One's actions and dialogue explain her motivations and loyalty to her leader. Even though she thinks of her kin as foolish for abandoning their homeworld and relocating to live on Enemy HQ, she still supports them in protecting the secrets of home and shares their intolerance for other sentient life.
The Elder Dragon explains that the old ones did not just take their magic secrets with them, but at least some actual magic. Transformation magic was gone from the land between when the old ones left the Cultivator behind and when the player defeats it. This theme of diminished magic seems to apply to the Fish Village as well, since it is the last of what were many around the planet. The backstory of The Depths states that the fight with the Dishonored One "drained even this planet’s vast amount of magic. With the supply of magic running thin, survival became a challenge." This may apply to some of the creatures of Unoiks 428c as well. Snaptopus, Sharks, Scale Fish, Clams, Blue Crabs, and Skyfish live in only a few places around the world. Spirits also inhabit only a few spots. The Fish Village happens to be in proximity to a Water Spirit and one of the planet's only populations of Scale Fish, in a spot which may have a high concentration of magic that drew so many living things to it. The Alchemist may support this idea when he says that Eastern Island "is overflowing with magic" and that Cultivator Island has a strong magical signal as well.
The Exiled explains that after the old ones discovered space travel, they wiped out or enslaved any other species they encountered. At some point after the old ones invented Dragonships, the Teachers were diverted away from any efforts to stop them while fighting the Dishonored One, who went into stasis but not before causing the fast or slow death of most of the Teachers. The Dishonored One's sister, after she relocates to the Hidden World, explains that the old ones harmed a "multitude of civilizations", but the player does not get to meet any of them due to the old ones' cruelty and violence over the millennia.
One old one did not share the political view of the rest of their kind, that the old ones were right to enslave or destroy any other sentient life they encountered. This individual is the Exiled who the player meets in the present day. For their dissent against their culture's ideals, the Exiled was banished to Mars to watch over humanity ten thousand years ago, and had many taboos placed upon them to prevent the Exiled from rising up against the leader. The Exiled is not allowed to say their own name, leave the planet, or in most cases aid others. They could also do very little to protect humanity from the old ones' wrath except hide the truth about how humans were progressing. After inventing complex artificial intelligence, humankind discovered a powerful magic secret that other species had used to travel faster than light across the galaxy: Exotic Matter. The Exiled managed to keep this a secret up until the Unoiks Project, a space colonization program, stumbled on the abandoned homeworld of the old ones and set up a research bay.
The four researchers who were now assessing the planet's habitability for humanity included the man who would become the Alchemist. He in particular would become infamous among the old ones for discovering some of the many secrets the old ones had left behind on Unoiks 428c. Enraged, the old ones flew to the planet and killed the other three researchers, while the Alchemist disappeared and was presumed dead. After this, a full-scale bombardment was launched on Earth and forced those who could flee in colony ships to abandon the solar system, while at least one colony in another star system went on radio silence to avoid detection. The Exotic Matter-fueled ships that humans had at the time struggled to defeat the old ones' dragon ships, although at least one was shot down and crashed in what is now the Earth desert. After the Earth was bombed into sterility, a few human survivors went underground to try and survive in the wasteland that was left. They had to face dangerous rogue AI drones which now shot at anything that moved after the old ones left Earth. The Professor aided some of the survivors in the Earth City underground tunnels, but after she left for the desert island all but one were killed off by drones except the Scavenger.
The old ones, believing humanity had now been wiped out and would never be a rival again, returned to their other duties such as guarding Unoiks 428b from anyone looking for the plentiful magnegems carried in the bodies of the planet's creatures. The Old One continued to guard the Evolution Chamber, although she did not let her kind know right away that the player had arrived on her doorstep and was now reactivating the structures of Eastern Island. In her dialogue, translated from her own alphabet, she will say as her first words to you "Leave, human. I may not exterminate you like my brethren, but do not disturb my solitude." Although the player cannot translate this in-game, this bonus content reveals early on that she knows what a human is and that her species are the ones who firebombed the Earth. However, with her magical abilities and her ability to completely hide the Evolution Chamber behind her, she apparently believes you don't pose enough of a threat to be worth killing. She maintains complete confidence in her ability to handle you until the very end. The Alchemist, rightfully fearing the old ones, insists that you summon him to speak to her when you mine through the runestone of Eastern Island with a Wyrm Drill. Once you do disturb the Old One's solitude, reveal you can understand her, keep asking questions, and apparently disrespect her, she changes her mind about not exterminating you. She does not acknowledge the Alchemist specifically, even though he is infamous to the rest of her species and one of their worst enemies. However, she may recognize him once she sees him which may be a deciding factor in her attacking.
The rest of the "tentacle monsters" would not realize that any humans had successfully escaped Earth until the Old One, on her defeat at the hands of you and/or the Alchemist, sent a signal to her kin that humans were a threat once again (and that she would be unable to hide the Evolution Chamber for any longer). At this point the rest of the story plays out in-game.
Abilities and Knowledge[]
The old ones gained great magical knowledge from their own home and the Teachers. They also built many structures across their home planet for hundreds of thousands of years, altering some locations significantly.
The Alchemist uses Wyrm Pens to turn Wyrms into Baby Dragons, but another method is unlocked after the player evolves their first Dragonship. A Fire Gem in the player's inventory can be combined with Wyrms, Baby Dragons, or Young Dragons to grow them to the next stage of dragon development up to adulthood. This may be how the old ones first created dragons, as the Elder Dragon states that Fire Gems being used on Wyrms is how dragons first came to be. Dragon Lairs, which are first talked about by the Adult Dragon, can evolve Baby Dragons into Young Dragons using Dragonblood instead. The Alchemist gives the player an advantage in using magic by creating new methods to perform old magic. Wyrm Pens resemble the Diode Pen of the Sunset Haven colony ship, which also automatically collects resources from a Familiar; the Alchemist may have known about this design from his days as an ordinary human researcher, and combined it with the magic he learned from various inscriptions the old ones left behind.
There are several Bedrock caves encountered in the game which are or likely were inhabited by old ones. The Old One and the Exiled live in chambers that don’t match the surrounding soil, and in the background of their dialogue scenes square markings can be seen on the walls. When Bombardment is triggered without a Bombardment Shield, the Alchemist reactivates the enchantment on the abandoned lair that he’d found on the Starting Island. Runestone, which makes up a layer in the dirt of Eastern Island and the Elder Dragon’s small island perch (plus the background tiles around cave mouth entrances) contains distinctive glyphs and also stands out from any settings where it is present. These two types of rock are associated with old ones on several islands of Unoiks 428c.
Old one “lairs” may be transformed from the surrounding dirt, as both the Alchemist’s cave and the Old One’s cave may contain quartz in their walls. Quartz is found lower down in the dirt of both islands. Additionally, when spirit sight is equipped the player will see spirit guide blocks in vertical lines which lead to the entrance of inhabited old one lairs. The Exiled’s chamber has a very tall column of spirit guide blocks rising far up into the air; when you use spirit vision these blocks will help you see where to land when flying to Mars.
Several unusual mazes made of bedrock walls also exist on the planet. The Minotaur Maze that leads from Sunset Haven to Minotaur Island has bedrock walls and a runestone background (which can be filled in with a shovel). Randomly in the walls are dangerous automated projectile launchers that shoot fire when they detect the player. These launchers are likely not formed by natural geologic processes. The water maze of The Heights has a green version of the launchers, which is identical in attack power and appearance to the ranged attack of Mecha Wyrms, Stingers, and Magic Wands. These mazes, Elder Dragon Island, and the unusual bedrock chambers could all have been built by the old ones over many millennia.
Several of the islands/land chunks of Unoiks 428c are not attached to any other land or the seafloor. On Eastern Island there are two islands of rock and snow that hover in the sky. Dragon Ship Island is an even larger sky island. Minotaur Island is not connected to the seafloor, and its bottom half is made of a layer of bedrock. Elder Dragon Island is also not connected to the seafloor and doesn’t look to have been created by natural processes. The Adult Dragon of the Starting Island, in her dialogue if you get the Alchemist to help you translate, confirms that dragon lairs were built by the Old Ones just like the Dragon Ship Factory. It is not possible for the player to replicate these feats and make bedrock structures or create floating islands in the sky.
The Old One lives on Eastern Island until you challenge her and defeat her, and her presence here may hint at the ancient history of her species. Old ones make food using Focus Gems, which on their homeworld exist only in the “Purple Tree Biome” (as this wiki writer calls it). Within the hearts of the Purple Trees and in the dirt and stone below ground, Focus Gems are abundant. If the old ones invented Synthesizers, it could be that they first came ashore long ago in an environment with many Focus Gems. However, if the chests scattered across the planet are anything to go by, this may not be the only way they cooked their food even though they use only Synthesizers and Mini Synthesizers today. On the Undeveloped Island and in the oceans, crop seeds such as Sugar and Wheat can be found stored away. The food the old ones eat today can be made with meat, wheat, milk, and eggs as ingredients for a non-upgraded Kitchen. The sugar seeds suggest that old ones may have even eaten candy apples and cake in the past. The abandoned chamber on the Starting Island shows that old ones did live in other environments, and this could support the crops hypothesis. Additionally, Vine Copses, which the Elder Dragon states did exist before the old ones left their homeworld, can craft crop seeds from crops like what the Farmer can do. This option may have been useful in the past for old ones. A recipe the old ones may have known is Sushi, since the Fish Villager gives the player the recipe after doing a quest and clearly knew it beforehand.
The enemy were able to create new forms of life in addition to Dragons, using both crafting structures and unknown methods. Golems exist in a cave of The Depths, which may mean the old ones did not actually invent them (at least not Amethyst Golems), but in addition to the Golem Factory of the Starting Island there is the Megolemech Factory of Divider Island. The Megolemech Factory has two layers of security to prevent anyone from entering, a layer of bedrock and a lock that can only be opened with a Golem Key. In addition, the Megolemech inside is awake and aggressive, being much more difficult to defeat than the hibernating Golemech from the Starting Island. These security measures suggest that Megolemechs are a powerful invention of the old ones and unique to Unoiks 428c. Whether the Cultivator was invented by the old ones is left ambiguous, but since it becomes a Vine Copse when and where it dies, there is the possibility it was a Vine Copse to begin with. The Evolution Chamber of Eastern Island appears in the exact same spot when the Old One is defeated, regardless of where she is when she is defeated; the animation when the Cultivator is beaten and the fact that the Vine Copse appears where it fell implies that the Cultivator does in fact become the Vine Copse. The other new life form that the old ones brought into existence is the Storm; the Sea Witch states that it was created by the old ones as a new creature. The way the Storm was created is unknown, but it may have involved Ice Hearts and an Ice Gem in the recipe.
The Old One herself uses an unusual attack that is also performed by the Dishonored One later: purple homing orbs with an attack of 25, launched in volleys. Several pieces of evidence in the game point to cultural exchange between the old ones and the Teachers, and the Old One may have learned how to do this by learning from the Teachers firsthand. No others of her kind are seen being able to use homing orbs except the Leader himself.
The enemy are dangerous in a fight even without dragon ships, the leader’s elemental magic, or the Old One’s homing orbs. They can use a lightning aura to damage nearby players as an alternative to their laser attacks. However, they attack recklessly with no concern for their safety as compared to the Dishonored One who will raise his shield after being hit. The Old One has another ability unique among her kind in that she can generate a spherical shield like the Book of Shielding or the Dishonored One if you attempt to attack her before summoning the Alchemist. Either from overconfidence or lacking the skill/ability to cast it between attacks, she does not use this forcefield in the bossfight. It could be that the shell which makes her weak as she overheats prevents her from using the forcefield. This weakness is shared by enemy crew. The Leader doesn’t bother to shield himself at any point, relying on elemental resistance or defense to protect him from damage. If you avoid dying, change your equipment to target his elemental weaknesses, and persist, his shell will not be enough to stop his defeat.
Alter Gems existed long before the Alchemist creates one in the Synthesizer, and he does not take credit for inventing them. However, his innovation allows the player to make Alter Gems out of readily available materials on the surface of Eastern Island. The old ones discovered uses for Alter Gems long ago, transforming Wyrms and Dragons into equipment. Notably, Dragon Armor fits humans even though the recipe was created by and for the old ones. This may date from when all old ones were human-sized and could actually wear something small enough for a human to comfortably fit into. It is of note that the old ones were also innovating off old knowledge, because the Teachers would have known about Alter Gems as well from their abundance in the sand of The Depths.
Evolution Gems can be made from Evolution Shards, a naturally occurring magic mineral found across the universe. However, they can also be forged from using one each of all 5 types of elemental gem. With nearby Spirits available to capture on their home planet, the old ones may have invented this second recipe. The Dishonored One’s sister has a set of Draconian Armor (made with Evolution Gems) in her possession at the time she awakes, which must have come from cultural exchange at some point because dragons come from Unoiks 428c, but whether the Teachers knew of and used Evolution Gems is unclear.
Evolution Gems may have existed before the old ones starting making them, but old ones put them to new uses in transformation magic. Used alone, they can turn Adult Dragons into Elder Dragons, Golems into Golemechs, Wyrm Drills into Queen Drills (in the Forge), and Wyrms into Wyrm Queens. The Megolemech Factory and the Talon Copse can use them as crafting ingredients. Whether Evolution Gems have anything to do with old ones’ carapace armor is unclear, but the Alchemist uses three in the wearable Carapace Armor recipe. The HQ structures use Evolution Gems in their recipes, although they also state (once you obtain 3 Spirit Tree Seeds for a quest) that the seeds were first invented by combining dragon DNA with Spirit Tree Seeds in some other recipe. The Dragon Ship Factory and HQ Dragon Chamber also use one or more Evolution Gems to evolve Dragon Ships and craft other items. Other uses of Evolution Gems are not clearly attributable to the old ones; the Sea Witch uses them together with wood and other ingredients to make Magic Wands and Flying Brooms if the player brings materials to her. Evo Spirit Gems may also have been invented by another species, or they already existed and the old ones simply created a recipe in the Forge to make them there. The “tier-3” spellbooks in the HQ Library and the Book of Translation use Evolution Gems in their recipe, but the Dishonored One’s use of an attack identical to the Book of Flood makes it unclear whether the old ones were the first to create these spellbooks.
The power of Spirits may be known to other species, such as Tindle’s kind and possibly the Teachers, but the old ones’ knowledge is extensive and goes far back in their history. The Alchemist, after translating carved text from Eastern Island, made a version of Spirit Goggles that fits two-eyed humans. Carapace Armor also reveals spirits to the player and the Exiled created a spirit doorway with no obvious visual aid, making it highly likely that all old ones with shells can see spirits. The knowledge of how to see Spirits existed before the old ones left their planet to live aboard a fortress, and may go back to before the old ones had any shells at all. The Spirit World is well-known to old ones on Enemy HQ in the present day, and the Spirit NPC explains that “sometimes they travel here to make their own deals with me”. Draconian Armor, which was at least invented by using the old ones’ techniques if not by them, also glows purple and reveals spirits. Certain armor made with Spirit Gems or Evolution Gems can recharge stamina in darkness, although again it is unclear whether the old ones invented any of it. To be exact, these stamina-restoring sets of armor are Robes, Spirit Robes, and Draconian Armor. Old ones can also use their armor to hover instead of walking, and possibly fly if the difficulty of boarding Dragon Bombers and Dragon Cruisers is taken into account. This may also be how they traded with Tindle, who states that before they left the planet they did visit him.
Golems are found sleeping in rock on some islands of Unoiks 428c, and a powerful variant of Amethyst Golem respawns in the endless ore cave of The Depths. While the Teachers may have first invented golems, the old ones expanded on this. It is possible that golems were placed into rock when the old ones still lived on their home planet, and two different magical structures enable creation of live golems. These two structures, the Golem Factory of the Starting Island and the Megolemech Factory of Divider Island, also allow crafting of Earth-element equipment and powerful mechs. The Mega Earth Axe from the Megolemech Factory is a very effective melee weapon against Dragomechs and enemy pilots, giving one possible reason for why the Megolemech Factory is buried behind bedrock.
One more feat of engineering is the unknown process by which the old ones evolved a dragon into the planet-sized ship that is Enemy HQ. The largest type of Dragon Ship that the player can evolve is Dragon Cruisers, which are as large as the HQ Dragon Chambers in which they are created. The Chambers may not be large enough to evolve something the size of a small planet, meaning that the creation process of Enemy HQ remains a mystery.
Although the old ones at least built Magic Houses, Time Manipulators, Forges, and Synthesizers if they did not invent them (since the Draconian Teacher gives you a recipe for the Fire Exotic Sword to use in a Forge), in the present day none are seen using them. On Enemy HQ, no civilians are seen going about their daily business in villages or towns. Dialogue statements confirm that they live there offscreen as the entire rest of the species does, although unlike humans they do not have to keep up high numbers for species viability because the Nursery Crab handles all reproduction. It is also likely that whether on HQ or other worlds they may have colonized, the old ones have some way to gather resources like Evolution Shards, Magnegems, and Exotic Matter. Evolution Shards are found on board enemy ships, Exotic Matter is required for interstellar warp jumps, and Magnegems are a key ingredient in Magnetraps and the latest models of dragon ship. Additionally, Dragomechs require Amethyst Wyrms in their recipe, and the old ones must get them from somewhere other than Unoiks 428c. The Exiled suggests the homeworld as the only place where the player can catch their own Amethyst Wyrms, but the rest of the old ones may gather or raise them from enemy-controlled planets if such places exist.
Notable individuals[]