Ascension or Fall: Overclock Stigma

"If a halo is the glory of the chosen, then a stigma is the wound carved into the bodies of those who were not chosen after tearing that precious glory apart."

This is an expansion add-on for Ascension or Fall.
It adds resonance pressure, overclock circuits, stigma engraving and burn, new overclock halos, resonance equipment, and halo hunter raids.

During the Machine God War, some human factions chose a forbidden method to fight ascended and fallen beings: tearing apart halos and engraving their echoes into flesh and nerves.
They bitterly called it stigma. Later halo worshippers on the rim distorted the name into holy stigmata.

The technique of burning stigmata for instant output inspired later engineers to create overclock, a way to temporarily release a halo’s forbidden output limit.
Greater power is possible. But great power always demands payment.

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• Resonance pressure and overclock circuits – Complete halo bearers can receive a circuit through surgery and build pressure in combat. Release starts at 100%, while 150%, 200%, and 250% push into stronger and more dangerous stages.
• Overclock release – Convert stored pressure into a short combat surge. Higher pressure improves duration and combat bonuses, but also increases neural backlash and resonance field contamination.
• Stigma engraving and deepening – Engrave the owner data of an active halo fragment into the chest, spine, arms, legs, or eyes. Each stigma grows from stage I to V, with different bonuses and surgical failure consequences.
• Stigma burn – Burn your total stigma level for emergency, overclock, rupture, or calamity stage buffs. Full-body and transcendent stigmata make the burn last longer and become more dangerous.
• Cost of burning – Burning can consume stigma levels, scar the deepest stigma site with burns and surgical cuts, raise stigma rupture, and add resonance field pressure. Using it during overclock adds extra overload.
• Myogeum / rectifier / backflow halos – Myogeum favors explosive output and overload, rectifier favors stabilization and grounding, and backflow borrows future pressure as combat debt.
• Resonance field pressure – Auto-venting, high-output release, and stigma burn leave pressure on the map. If neglected, it can rupture into EMP-like stun, fires, or psychic shockwaves.
• Overclock equipment – Wings store and release residual pressure, the resonance discharger weaponizes pressure, and stabilizer modules or coil harnesses support each overclock halo style.
• Halo hunters – Descendants of stigma technology track your colony’s resonance signatures. Defeat them to recover stigma residue and damaged hunter gear.

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If Cinder and Wings is also active, deified halo fragments can raise stage V stigmata into transcendent stigmata.
They do not copy true deification powers, but add a deification halo replica and alter stigma burn visuals, danger, and duration.

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Adjust resonance gain/leak, overclock duration, backlash, auto-venting, field rupture, stigma surgery failure, stigma burn damage, equipment visuals, warning overlays, auto-pause, alarms, and pressure UI.

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Required mods

• Harmony
• Ascension or Fall

Optional integration

• Ascension or Fall: Cinder and Wings

DLC

• This add-on itself has no required DLC.
• The core mod’s Biotech / Ideology / Anomaly integrations remain unchanged.

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• Adding this to an existing save is generally possible.
• Removing it after overclock halos, stigmata, equipment, or resonance field data exist is not recommended.
• It does not directly patch Gene, Need, or Hediff definitions from race or gene mods.
• If warning effects or flashing are uncomfortable, use reduced rapid flashing and warning overlay options.