Grrl Power #946 - Passive enthusiast

She can now soooo cheat at the long jump, the high jump, the rock climb, gymnastics, etc. etc...

Harmony Petersen

This is very probable since we see her "localized gravity" when spinning around affects her bangs as well - they do not adhere to gravity of the Earth when she is using the fly-orb.

Jared Juetten

I think Maxima sets the bar already pretty high. So it will be a long time before 'ratcheting up' becomes an issue.

Matthew Paulin

I think pacing it is for the best - don't want to blow everything too early. Perhaps if Dave gets really successful though we will get an RPG

Sam Bradley

That's actually a grave danger for storytelling, having to constantly ratchet up power levels.

akrasia

Mr. Barrack. This level up process for Sydney is the most interesting thing for me about this comic. I wish you would spend more time leveling her up so we get the joy of experiencing her getting more powers. Do you know what all the powers are or are you making it up as you go? Maybe we could have a powered-up time-traveling Sydney come back so we could see what OP Sydney would look like using her powers...

Matthew Paulin

Have you considered making a sticky post on here, or in the character bio section of the comic site, to Sydney's orb grid?. Possibly showing current status or even progressions based on comic page number. Enabling easy to see updates and changes for some the the crazy RPG peps like me. Maybe even a thread to speculate on orb grid functions.

Levi Hatton

Just a thought but fly orb might be gravity control instead it explains how it can trave FTL too :P

U.Kaya

I would suggest she next update the encapsulated node on her shield... if that would cause it to be persistent after releasing the orb, Syd's combat effectiveness goes *way* up as she can then essentially fly AND shoot while still shielded

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

Incoming Sydney flight drifting.

Souliris

My next test would be at the firing range, to see if she can fly while using the weapon orb... I can't imagine what else the encapsulated link between flight and energy blast orbs would be. I'm also super curious what the inner circle does.

David D.

Sydney is about to have some real fun.

eddi_TBH

I'm guessing that it's passive is the "hey grab me next" thing that led to Sidney using it when she was about to drown. https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-541-bubble-untrouble/

Michael Brewer

Hence leaving it open so long. Well, until...

Crissa Kentavr

I foresee Sydney feather falling off a lot of buildings, now. 😱🤣

D.A. Lamont

Feather fall FTW! 💪😎

D.A. Lamont

I'm really wondering in this sequence where Sydney had a lot of time to consider and consult what the next upgrade would be, why they didn't get Krona involved. Since she can see the 'deep code' behind the orbs when they are in upgrade mode, presumably there's a chance she could provide some insight into at least what the unknown orb does, if not what some of the upgrade paths might relate to.

Mike Atwood

That would be funny. :) She probably can turn it off, either with one of the virtual buttons on the ball, or as there is a fair amount of telepathic control going on with the orbs it may sense intent and decide based on that.

Eric Loken

That is indeed handy. And I agree I like passives too. You definitely need some cool active abilities, but after a while you just have too many active powers and you can't remember them all when you need them or find the control for them, and a bunch of them just don't get used. I find that is true in both first person RPGs and RTS games with a bunch of units; when the crap is really flying I find I don't have time to hunt around for the more esoteric abilities, but if something is just going to happen that makes an existing ability better, or is always on, or has a good chance to proc (never realized that was what it stood for either) on its own, then that is less overhead for me.

Eric Loken

oh that is subtle

ZombieRonSwanson

As passives go, that is pretty fucking awesome!

Bharda Sullivan

Can she turn it off though? Like if she jumps down the stairs, is it going to take 30 seconds to reach the bottom?

OftenSane

So now she can fly with shield, drop fly, and shoot a bunch while feather falling

Jacob Barboza

Never having to worry about falling again? I love this.

John Fiala

Most likely she has not had the shield up long enough to trigger the conditions for automatic activation. That specific "passive" does not seems that it's a constant one but rather one for emergency situations.

BlackestDawn

I'm fairly sure you don't need to set the atmos orb specifically but that it rather can determine and generates one that is appropriate for the current user (or maybe even current environment). Considering that it can determine when to generate it (essential for an automatic emergency function) it's not that unreasonable to think that it can also determine what to generate.

BlackestDawn

If I recall correctly the only other orb with an encapsulated nod is the life support orb. I do wonder what that does, as it could be hard to tell, but clearly it did not protect her from the negative aspects of he air tight shield.

Stefan J Neylon

It's possible that the passive is also negating her vertigo. Put her in one of those spinny chairs to see if she spews

Kyle Voltti

Oh man, she definitely needs the shield orb passive, which could possibly proactively block attacks she doesn't see coming, and less urgently the atmo-orb to negate the airtight-ness of the shield orb

Biblioholic1993

Certainly seems to be the most likely possibility.

Cha11engerD

What worries me about the passive for the Atmo-Orb is: Oh no, the settings for Atmo were changed to Nitrogen-Sulfurdioxide-hydrogen and no one can find the reset button but now it's constantly generating that.

Treyn

I appreciate the IT Crowd Mug that Ariana is rocking in this.

I re-assert my conviction that the comm-ball encapaulated point is a babel fish.

Ascender

Not only do I like passives; I mained the Paladin in "Diablo II" because his auras were like passives for multiple entities. Well, except that you could enable only one at a time, and it cost you a right-click function. But heck, if you're not using mana for anything else, why not make a special left-click function?

Stephen Gilberg

Some guesses: Forcefield: Field shape change Energy Blast: Turret mode (can be set at a location in the orb range and shoot) Telepresence/True sight: Lie detection? Not sure Lighthook: Third "hand" for orbs Life Support: ?? Unknown: ??

Treb

If Anvil & Sydney do the roof jump again, I wonder how fast they would fall?

Andrew

Immunity to criticism?

Andrew

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

I have to wonder now, would the passive still work if the orbs are in the poster tube?

JasonAW3

Passives! Sweet.

It look like the gas ball already has it's passive active. So it's unknown what that is?

Martin Drkoš

"NERD NERDNERD! NERD NERD NERD NERD NERDYNERDNERD NERD!" <--What Ariana hears.

Town Crier

I'm guessing many of them would be the ability to sustain what the orb was doing. Like keeping the shield up or sustained fire even when she's not holding those orbs.

Martin Drkoš

What if it's a personalized gravitational field? Thus her body experiences 1 Earth Gravity (or 1 EG), but she interacts with the world at a reduced/increased EG from the field? It would prevent the health problems while granting the benefits, and those orbs are high enough tech I wouldn't rule it out.

Anton Schleef

Possibly just extends the effect of her own physical actions? Wave a hand and knock something down three feet away. Good for comedy.

Marc Vun Kannon

Explain passive cannon. Certainly a passive shield would have helped against Boss Lasagna, if he ever had managed to shoot, but what would a passive cannon do?

Marc Vun Kannon

So, what you're saying is that she needs to grab the Eye-ball and the Hent-orb, THEN jump off the roof?

James C

Okay, they're passives. Do we know if that allows passives from more than the usual two orbs to be in effect? No, we do not.

akrasia

I agree with the subtext of the comic... I'd totally be going through all the passives for my next upgrades. My order, as driven by Sydney's recent brush with death, would be: SHIELD, pew-pew, then com-ball, and then I'd re-asses for the final 2. But after nearly getting killed several times recently and her being no threat if someone can block her from touching the orbs.... well a passive shield and passive cannon ability on top of the fly-passive... just those three together totally change the odds for her even if something like the Concretia incident happened again.

FeyOne

Maybe the lighthook creates a semi-passive tentacle that allows her to grip a third orb? That'd be awesome!

This is a very interesting power indeed that's going to cause problems for her. Not getting sick + featherfall sounds like she just isn't as affected by gravity as much anymore. It could have huge advantages, but the negatives could be particularly bad. Reduced muscle mass, reduced bone density, damaged eyesight (of the three this one is the only one that can't be slowed by heavy workout) are just some issues. I will, of course, preface this by saying they are only likely downsides—the true results of humans living in lowered gravity aren't known. The only gravity changes that have been researched are increases in gravity (from artificial motion) and microgravity. Edit: All that assuming she cannot dial it up or down. Maybe "1/3 gravity" is the default and she can turn it all the way to "~0G" or up to "1000G"

Damaged

Not sure what the passive version of some of these orbs would be. Life support on automatic sounds useful, but what would the others do? Can she turn them off? There may come a time when she needs to fall quickly, or turn off the shield.

Marc Vun Kannon

Cruel.

Marc Vun Kannon

I expect a light-hook passive would let the generated construct remain in place, doing whatever it was doing, even if she takes her hand off of the orb. As opposed to vanishing like it does now?

Aclys

Oooooooh!!! Passives are like minor permanent super-powers in their own right! And Barrack has already said he doesn't do "minor" (+2% chance to block with a shield and such) upgrades, so this should be *very* awesome!

Tim

Maybe light hooks passive it can go though transparent materials like her shield or glass, would be situational but useful.

TheLazyShadow

I guess she can just grab the orb and fly down, after the big Kaiju fight Sydney does have some experience with quick swapping, which thinking about it should be added to her training.

TheLazyShadow

Passive shield -= only it's on 100% of time. And it will treat spicy food as a threat, so every time Sydney will try to get closer to the bowl it will get slid away...

Tomek Kowal

Damn, that is one hell of an upgrade. And now she's somehow going to be put in a situation where she needs to fall fast.

Guillaume Ravoire

Agree with that totally do shield next.

Stan

Given that we've not seen an upgrade on some of them like lighthook and shield, plus the unknown and kinda-unknown, I'd not even want to guess at some of the passives. That leaves the PPO, fly ball and com orb which have all seen demonstrable upgrades, and even then I'd not want to guess what the other two's passives would be.

Force Gaia

I would totally do the shield passive next. That's the most likely place to get literal plot armor.

Granite