Hamidon Origin Enhancements

Overview

Hamidon Origin Enhancements refer special enhancements that enhance two or more aspects of a power. These enhancements are obtained by Heroes by defeating Hamidon in 'The Hive' zone, and by Villains for defeating Hamidon in 'The Abyss'. Additionally, the functionally-identical Synthetic Hamidon Origin Enhancements (SHOEs) are available as a reward option by completing Lord Recluse's Strike Force.

Hamidon Origin enhancements are often referred to as Hami-O's, or simply, HO's or SHOEs. Hamidon Origin enhancements may be used by characters of any origin and archetype.

Information

Special enhancements will affect two or more aspects. If the power they are placed in has any aspect that can be enhanced, it will. Hamidon Origin enhancements are subject to Enhancement Diversification as all other enhancements are. Hamidon Origin enhancements enhance at the same level as Single Origin enhancements, which each aspect matching their schedule.

Example

A Centriole Exposure Hamidon enhancement will enhance Damage and Range. It can be placed in an enhancement slot for the Brawl power, and it will enhance the damage of the Brawl power. Since the Brawl power is unable to use Range enhancements, a Centriole Exposure enhancement will have no effect on the range of the Brawl power. However, if placed in an Illusion Controller's enhancement slot for the Blind power, which may be enhanced for both Damage and Range, it will enhance both aspects of that power.

Synthetic Hamidon Origin Enhancements

Synthetic Hamidon Enhancements are identical to normal Hamidon Enhancements in every way except for their name, and how they are procured. Unlike normal HamiOs, the synthetic ones can only be awarded you at the end of either the Lord Recluse Strike Force or the upcoming Statesman Task Force.

Defense/ToHit Bug

One thing worthy of note, for the purposes of Hamidon enhancements, is that the game does not treat ToHit Buff as a different effect from ToHit Debuff, or Defense Buff as different from Defense Debuff. The calculation the game uses is Scale * Strength, where Scale is positive for powers that Buff and negative for powers that Debuff, and Strength is increased by enhancements. So, for example, the game sees Tactics as applying a 1 scale ToHit change, and Radiation Infection as applying a -2.5 scale ToHit change, but there is no fundamental difference between Buffs and Debuffs. There is also, thus, no fundamental difference between Buff and Debuff enhancements - they both boost the same field of a power, but powers are coded in the database to only permit one or the other to be slotted.

Because of this, if you were able to put an enhancement that boosted Defense Buff, for instance, into a power that had a Defense Debuff, that enhancement would work as normal. Normally, you can't do this, as a power has to be set to allow Defense Buff enhancements for you to be able to put that Defense Buff enhancement in it. But with Hamidon enhancements, you can get around this restriction. You could, for example, slot a Membrane Exposure in a power like Fallout, as Fallout accepts Recharge enhancements and will accept a Membrane Exposure on that basis, and the Membrane Exposure's boost to Defense Buff and ToHit Buff will apply to the Defense Debuff and ToHit Debuff effects of Fallout. In 2006, Debuff enhancements were changed to be 20% boosts rather than 33% boosts because people were using this exact mechanical flaw to increase +Defense and +ToHit powers beyond their design limits.

What this means, for practical purposes, is that Enzyme Exposures and Cytoskeleton Exposures are functionally identical, Membrane Exposures boost Debuff powers in addition to Buff powers, and Lysosome Exposures boost Buff powers in addition to Debuff powers. This is an acknowledged flaw in the game, and without a complete rewrite to how enhancements and powers work, it is not likely to be fixed.

This bug also applies to Damage/Damage Resist, and Speed(Flight, Run, or Jump)/Slow enhancements. If it boosts one, it boosts the other.

_Castle_ recently posted about this issue:

Slotting enhancements into powers they were not meant to be slottable in is an 'exploit.' We've pretty much firmly established that.
The question isn't if something being abused in this manner will be changed, it's a matter of when.
To be on the safe side, you should never use a Debuff enhancement to Buff a power and vice versa.
And, just to stave off any worries, the IO system works very differently from the HO system, and there *shouldn't* be any of these issues in that system. It'll have a whole set of issues all it's own!

Detailed List of Hamidon Origin Enhancements

The following is a complete list of available Hamidon Origin enhancements.

Centriole Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Centriole has enabled you to significantly augment the damage and range of one of your attack powers.

Enhance Damage (33.33%)

Enhance Range (20%)

Also Called

• Dam/Rng
• Dmg/Rng
• Cent

Cytoskeleton Exposure

The Nucleolus of the Hamidon was a tremendous source of power. Exposure to the Nucleolus has enabled you to significantly augment the damage and accuracy of one of your attack powers.

• To Hit Buff (20%)
• To Hit Debuff (20%)
• End Reduction (33.33%)
• Defense Buff (20%)
• Defense Debuff (20%)

Also Called

• End/ToHit
• End/Def
• End/Buff
• Cyto

Endoplasm Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Endoplasm reticulum can enabled you to significantly augment the accuracy of your attack powers and can increase the duration of Sleep, Disorient, Immobilization, Hold, Confuse, Fear, and Intangibility powers.

• Accuracy (33.33%)
• Hold Duration (33.33%)
• Disorient Duration (33.33%)
• Confusion Duration (33.33%)
• Fear Duration (33.33%)
• Intangibility (33.33%)
• Immobilize Duration (33.33%)
• Sleep Duration (33.33%)

Also Called

• Acc/Mez
• Endo

Enzyme Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Enzyme can increase the effectiveness of Accuracy and Defense DeBuffs and reduces the Endurance Cost of a power.

• To Hit Buff (20%)
• To Hit Debuff (20%)
• End Reduction (33.33%)
• Defense Buff (33.33%)
• Defense Debuff (33.33%)

Also Called

• End/ToHit Debuff/Def Debuff
• End/Debuff
• Enzyme
• Enzy

Golgi Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Golgi Apparatus can increase the Healing ability of a power and decrease its endurance cost.

• Endurance Reduction (33.33%)
• Healing (33.33%)

Also Called

• End/Heal
• Golgi

Lysosome Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Lysosome can increase the effectiveness of Accuracy and Defense DeBuffs and increase the Accuracy of a power.

• Accuracy (33.33%)
• To Hit Debuff (20%)
• Defense Debuff (33.33%)

Also Called

• Acc/ToHit Debuff/Def Debuff
• Lyso

Membrane Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Membrane can increase the effectiveness of Accuracy and Defense Buffs and increases the Attack Rate of a power.

• Recharge Reduction (33.33%)
• To Hit Buff (20%)
• To Hit Debuff (20%)
• Defense Buff (20%)
• Defense Debuff (20%)

Also Called

• Rech/ToHit/Def
• Membrane

Microfilament Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Microfilament can increase the speed of a travel power and decrease its endurance cost.

• End Reduction (33.33%)
• Jump (33.33%)
• Flight Speed (33.33%)
• Run Speed (33.33%)

Also Called

• End/Movement
• End/Move
• End/Travel
• Travel HO
• Micro

Nucleolus Exposure

The Nucleolus of the Hamidon was a tremendous source of power. Exposure to the Nucleolus has enabled you to significantly augment the damage and accuracy of one of your attack powers.

• Accuracy (33.33%)
• Damage (33.33%)

Also Called

• Acc/Dam
• Acc/Dmg
• Nucleo
• Nuc

Peroxisome Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Peroxisome enabled you to significantly augment the damage of your attack powers and can increase the duration of sleep, disorient, immobilization, hold, confuse, fear, and intangibility powers.

• Damage (33.33%)
• Hold Duration (33.33%)
• Disorient Duration (33.33%)
• Confusion Duration (33.33%)
• Fear Duration (33.33%)
• Immobilize Duration (33.33%)
• Intangibility (33.33%)
• Sleep Duration (33.33%)

Also Called

• Dam/Mez
• Dmg/Mez
• Peroxi
• Perox
• Pero

Ribosome Exposure

Exposure to the Hamidon Ribsome can enabled you to significantly augment the damage resistance of a power and decrease its endurance cost.

• Endurance Reduction (33.33%)
• Damage Resist (20%)

Also Called

• End/Dam Res
• End/Res
• Ribo

Higher Level Hamidon Enhancements

Hamidon will award a Level 50 Enhancement to any hero who has damaged it during the raid. However, it used to be if a hero was exemplared several levels below his natural level, they were awarded a level 52 Enhancement. This was a mild exploit, which had been fixed at one point but the fix was broken. Issue 9 fixed it again; you no longer get level 52 HOs when Exemplared.

Also see

• Hamidon
• The Hive
• The Abyss
• Hamidon Raiding