Lethal Species

Ten creatures, the gear, the supply stations, the loot, the HSS Hawking and a moon for it, all from Species: Unknown, come to Lethal Company. Their real models, textures, animations and sounds are read from your own installed copy of Species: Unknown when you start the game.

Main menu

The main menu becomes a chase: a Company employee with a B19 Pistol and a Motion Scanner runs across the Hawking-7 crater at night with Species: Unknown's specimens on his heels and the crashed HSS Hawking's alarm lights behind them. The title is Lethal Company's LETHAL over Species: Unknown's SPECIES, and Species: Unknown's main theme plays (both can be turned off in the config).

Hawking-7

A moon of its own, not a copy of a Company moon: the impact crater where the HSS Hawking came down. Route there from the terminal (hawking, $550). You land beside the real Hawking from Species: Unknown, hundreds of metres of hull lying half buried in the crater floor. Walk up to its docking-bay airlock to go aboard; the ship's siren is still sounding. The fire exit is a breach further along the hull, lit by burning wreckage. The Hawking's shuttle lies wrecked near the landing site, and the crater floor is shaped differently on every landing. The specimens are much more common here than anywhere else, and the scrap is worth about 25% more. Its risk level, scrap and specimen numbers can be changed in the config.

The HSS Hawking

Species: Unknown's research vessel, rebuilt from its own decks: the central hub, the crew quarters and the laboratory, with corridors, stairs and rooms where Species: Unknown put them. Its sliding doors open as you walk up and close behind you, and the ship's own lights stay on. Its Ammo Stations stand where the ship keeps its ammo boxes and its Medical Points where its health stations are. It is the interior on Hawking-7 and turns up now and then on the Company's moons.

Containment breach

Aboard the Hawking it is quiet apart from Species: Unknown's hangar hum, until the containment breach. It comes at a random moment, anywhere from about 40 seconds to 5 minutes after landing, and sometimes comes back later in the day. An alarm blares, the lights stutter red and 3 to 6 crew zombies get up off the floor somewhere near you. It always happens aboard the Hawking, and there is a small chance of one in any other facility.

The creatures

• Crew Zombie (hazmat crew wearing Species: Unknown's bloody skulls, and walking skeletons), as tall as you: wanders moaning, chases anything it sees or hears, claws in melee and opens doors.
• Poulpi: skitters at you, leaps onto your face and chews until it drops off stunned.
• Moray: lies hidden where it crawled in, then lunges out and bites when you pass too close.
• Sphere Drone: a hovering patrol drone that sounds an alarm when it spots you, then opens fire.
• BigRobot: over three metres tall, slow and heavy. Its footsteps shake the floor, it crushes in melee and it soaks up hits.
• Sentry Gun: hangs from the ceiling, sweeps the room and fires on anyone in its cone.
• The Ghost (Specimen 007): crawls after whoever is most alone and only moves while nobody is looking at it. Watched, it freezes and clicks its teeth; stare too long or hit it and it vanishes, to turn up again later. If it reaches you unseen it drags you down. Frost leaves it wide open.
• The Eye (Specimen 008): a robotic spider built round one great eye in a glass dome. Deaf, it sleeps until it sees you, then its searchlight turns red. The dome stops the first six shots; break it and the Eye goes berserk, faster but wide open. It explodes when it dies.
• Mike (Specimen 009): screams when it sees you, sprints flat out and lunges from a crouch, then tires and gives up. Bullets and shovels bounce off its hide. Electrocute it with a zap gun, a stun grenade, shock rounds or the Lightning Gun and its head splits open: shoot the inner head before it snaps shut.
• Puppet Master (Specimen 010): cowardly, it keeps its distance and runs when you close in. It raises dead crew zombies again and again. With no corpse nearby it hunts you itself, and its stinger injects a virus: get back inside the ship within 50 seconds, find a Medical Point or use a Health Injector, or die and rise as one of its zombies.

Species: Unknown gear

Sold in the Company store and delivered by drop ship:

• B19 Pistol ($350): eight rounds plus spare ammo (16 to start, up to 48), with Species: Unknown's own slide, lock-back and reload animations, recoil, ejected brass and dropped magazines. Fire [LMB], reload [E], switch rounds [Q].
• B19 Ammo Box ($100): 16 rounds. Carry it with your pistol and press [LMB] to load the spares.
• B19 AP Rounds ($150, 8 rounds): hit robots twice as hard and crack the Eye's dome twice as fast.
• B19 Shock Rounds ($150, 8 rounds): no damage, but they stun creatures, short out Sentry Guns and split Mike's head open.
• Frost Gun ($400): hold [LMB] to spray a freezing cone. Creatures caught in it freeze solid for a few seconds, pale blue and steaming. Each cell sprays for 5 seconds, then the gun changes cells.
• Motion Scanner ($250): a handheld live map that turns with you. Every ping sends a wave out that lights creatures up as red blips. Power [LMB], look closer [Z].
• Emergency Beacon ($40): a turning alarm light. Drop it to light a dark corridor or mark the way back.
• Health Injector ($110): two doses that heal 40 each, stop heavy bleeding and cure the Puppet Master's virus.
• Motion Tracker ($70): set it down and it warns the whole crew when a creature moves near it.
• Decoy Speaker ($35): throw it and it blares for 12 seconds, drawing creatures that hunt by sound away from you.
• Lightning Gun ($160): a stun pulse that jolts every creature within about 5 m. Three pulses a charge.
• Energy Shield ($220): switch it on and it takes up to 60 damage for you before it breaks.
• Lockdown Keycard ($60): seal a door for 45 seconds so nothing gets through. Three uses.
• Helmet light: every player has one; toggle it with [F].

Prices, rounds per ammo box and Hawking-7's route price can be changed in BepInEx/config/melty.lethalspecies.cfg.

Supply stations

Species: Unknown's own stations stand inside the facility, usually one of each per moon:

• Ammo Station: Species: Unknown's ammo case. The lid swings open as you walk up; hold [E] to take 16 rounds for your pistol. 3 refills per case, and one comes back every 2.5 minutes.
• Medical Point: Species: Unknown's wall-mounted healing unit. Hold [E] for +50 health; it also stops heavy bleeding and neutralises the Puppet Master's virus. 4 doses, the green tank drains as it's used, and one dose refills every 3 minutes.

Each use left shows as a light, an empty station shows a red lamp, and the prompt counts down to the next refill. In multiplayer the stock is shared: everyone sees the same counts, and each player waits a few seconds between uses. Uses, refill times and waits can be changed in the config.

Species: Unknown loot

18 kinds of scrap with Species: Unknown's own models spawn in every facility alongside the Company's, about a third of what you find: credit chips, stacks and caches, hard drives, keycards, the Black Box, bio canisters, microscopes, centrifuges, toolboxes, oxygen tanks, surgical saws, bone cutters, desk lamps, potted plants and sample cases. Carry them home and sell them like any other scrap.

The explosive canisters are worth the risk: drop one off a ledge, hit it or shoot it and it goes off. The Fire Canister explodes like a landmine; the Frost Canister freezes every creature around it for 6 seconds. Set one down near a specimen and shoot it.

The creatures spawn on every moon through Lethal Company's normal spawning, show up on your scanner, and can be hit or stunned like any other enemy. Built and balanced for solo play; up to 4 players can play together, and every player's game builds the same moon and ship.

Join through the game: the host presses Host in Lethal Company's main menu and opens the lobby (Public or Friends only), then friends join it from Lethal Company's lobby list or through the host's Steam invite. Up to 4 players, each with Lethal Species and Species: Unknown.

You need

• Lethal Company (Melty installs BepInEx for you).
• Species: Unknown installed through Steam on the same PC. The first launch reads its content in about 2 minutes and caches it. Nothing from Species: Unknown ships with this mod. If it isn't installed, the mod stays off and tells you so in game.
• In multiplayer, every player needs Lethal Species and Species: Unknown.

Credits

Creatures, gear, stations, loot, the HSS Hawking, animations and sounds: Species: Unknown, read from your own copy. Lethal Company by Zeekerss. Built with CUE4Parse (FabianFG, Apache-2.0), ACL (Nicholas Frechette, MIT) and vgmstream; the full list is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. Made with the help of Claude.