Cassie

Cassie is a character in Starbuster. She was adopted as a daughter by Captain Mav of the starship Petrov when other creatures of her kind intended to get rid of her as a child. This is a sore point she does not discuss openly with the crew.

Personality
She's scrappy, cheeky, and mischievous to a fault. Competent in battle and sturdy against damage, her tendency to get into fights, explore places she's not supposed to enter, and tendency to leave a trail of explosions in her wake sees her (and the associated crew of the Petrov) banned from various bars, resorts, hotsprings, and other hospitality industry establishments throughout the galaxy. Various inhabitants of Union Station indicate that the place is generally unwelcoming to "tripods" and tailed-creatures, Cassie herself mentioning that the US refuse to cut holes in seats to accommodate long tails. One bar owner mentions that there are "less than 1000 of her kind in the galaxy". This appears to be the root of her feelings of loneliness. Mutual feelings of being alone become a bonding point with Alpha.

Of her crewmates on the Petrov, Cassie does not seem particularly fond of Cook. She trains with Rizz in the gym, who chides her for skipping on regular exercise but confesses to feeling unlikely to best her in a fight. While she respects Mav as her father figure, she does not take her assignment duties on the Petrov seriously as given by Rizz's flippant comments about her lack of handling cleaning duty and her own stalling at various locked sections of Valkyrie Bay from Alpha's perspective of the story events. However, other crew members of the Petrov don't show particular concern for her safety when she returns and aboard the Petrov and dents the hull by tumbling against the wall during launch. The reaction of the medic suggests that this disregard for safety is normal for Cassie, and is particularly highlighted by her confrontation with the Lamentor prior.

Despite her apparent fondness for breaking things, the guitar and plushie in her bunk aboard the Petrov suggest an appreciation for good music and gentle comfort items. She keeps her quarters tidy and organized, decorated with album art from a beloved music album. Her wardrobe contains several extras of her signature pressure suit and two-pocket formal dress shirt.

Robotic Arm
In the SAGE 2020 demo release of Starbuster, her campaign starts with Sally attaching her new replacement robotic arm. The arm has a long-extendable reach that can be used for grabbing and swinging from walls, floors, and ceilings. The arm can also launch Cassie towards grabbed enemies, pull and push solid objects, and transform into a gun capable of firing various projectile types influenced by equipped mods. Events later in the demo indicate that she and the medic are looking into options to bio-graft her a replacement arm closer to her original in its place. Union Station had facilities for it, but it was unclear how well it would work with her rare DNA.

Despite the goal of getting her normal arm back, the game's design around her grapple-hook ability and guns suggest that she will not be able to get a normal arm at any point while she is still playable.

Gameplay
Cassie's melee attacks come out weaker than Alpha's but allow her to swing much more rapidly, and each swing gives her a small horizontal speed boost. Cassie's arm-cannon has 360 degree aiming and can much more easily hit targets that Alpha cannot. Cassie's extending arm grappling hook gives her unmatched mobility that allows her to move much faster than Alpha's Infinite Dash in exchange for being much harder to execute.

Most of Cassie's specials affect how enemies react to being grappled, such as adding incendiary effects.

Some basic rules for using Cassie's grapple to move effectively:


 * Grappling enemies grants brief invulnerability, and a large speed-boost.
 * Grappling multiple enemies consecutively without touching the ground multiplies the speed boost indefinitely.
 * All of the momentum you have when starting a grapple on a solid surface is converted into your new speed when you release the grapple.
 * Grab a ceiling while falling (even if you just jumped to create the fall) to quickly gain momentum from gravity. Release at the lowest point of the swing arc to launch convert most of that momentum into horizontal speed.
 * Grab a wall while falling and hold to swing in a U-arch under and around the wall. Releasing while on the up swing converts your speed into an upward launch.
 * Grab any floor while rising (especially just after jumping or using the Rocket Uppercut) to quickly gain momentum from your jump strength. Release at the highest point of the swing to convert most of that momentum into horizontal speed. Chain this repeatedly on flat stretches of land to go incredibly fast.
 * Chaining grapple-hooks swings is almost always faster than landing in-between.
 * Jumping against a wall until Cassie starts sliding, then grappling just below her center of mass can compress the grappling hook's length. Jumping from this position without any directional input can launch Cassie at incredibly high speeds, as if the grappling hook were a loaded spring.

Movement and Grapple Strategies

 * Running: Accelerate at a speed of 0.4 to the left or right. Naturally caps at a speed of 9.0. Staying on the ground while moving faster than 9.0 will put Cassie in a skidding animation as speed rapidly decays back towards the natural cap.


 * Gravity: Accelerate downward at a speed of 0.6 (On Union Station. Gravity may vary depending on the level.) Any section where you will fall by a ceiling gives an opportunity to convert gained downward speed into horizontal speed by grabbing the ceiling just after dropping below it. The longer your grapple hook at point of contact, the longer your swing can accumulate additional speed from gravity while attached, but if you wait too long the hook will not connect at all. Note that after swinging past the lowest point of your swing, gravity is working _against_ upward swing velocity, slowing Cassie's overall speed.
 * While grabbing onto a ceiling, Cassie is still able to retract and extend the grapple hook with Up and Down inputs. Retracting it makes the swing arc shallow and minimizes gravitational influence . Extending it embiggens the swing arc, allowing more time to build up velocity during the downward arc, but losing more velocity during the time spent overshoooting the lowest point. Left and Right directional inputs still apply the 0.4 acceleration in addition to current velocity and gravity's contribution.