Spare Ribs
 | |
| Type | Vending Machine |
|---|---|
| Family | Map Furniture (Interactive) |
| Brand | Catastropop™ (Endtimes Bottling Co.) |
| Product | Spare Ribs™ (Bone Broth Cola) |
| Tagline | “Put more health in your health.” |
| Interact range | 16 units |
| On-screen prompt | Press [E] to upgrade max health for {cost} |
| Interact time | Instant |
| Cooldown | None |
| Cost formula | clamp(25 * (uses+1), 25, ∞) |
| Rounding | round(cost / 25) * 25 (to nearest 25) |
| Scaling vars | Uses; Luck (affects amount gained) |
| Effect | Increases Max HP by a random amount; heals for the same. |
| Effect expression | _amount = irandom(uses + luck); max_hp += _amount; hp += _amount |
| Limits | None (no explicit cap) |
| Stacks? | Yes (each use increases Max HP further) |
| Sounds | sndBuy, sndPowerDrink |
| System hooks | Consumes Score; references oPlayer.luck |
| Appears on | All current maps |
| First appearance | DEAD (v1.0) |
| Notes | Higher Luck improves the expected HP gain per purchase. |
- Spare Ribs
- “Put more health in your health.”
Overview
The Spare Ribs vending machine dispenses Catastropop’s Bone Broth Cola, granting the player a permanent increase to **Max HP** along with an immediate heal equal to the same amount. It’s the only vending machine that permanently upgrades your health pool.
Mechanics
- **Interact range:** 16 units (proximity check).
- **Prompt:** Press [E] to upgrade max health for {cost}.
- **Interaction time:** Instant.
- **Effect:** Randomly increases both **Max HP** and **current HP** by the same amount.
- **Audio:** Plays **sndBuy** and **sndPowerDrink** on purchase.
Cost
- **Base formula:**
`cost = clamp(25 * (uses + 1), 25, ∞)`
- **Rounding:**
`cost = round(cost / 25) * 25` → always a multiple of 25.
- **Scaling:**
Cost grows linearly with the number of times the machine has been used.
Health Gain
- **Formula:**
`_amount = irandom(uses + luck)`
- The random gain increases with both **uses** (more upgrades bought = higher potential) and the player’s **Luck** stat.
- Both **Max HP** and **current HP** increase by this rolled amount.
Strategy
- A long-term investment — expensive in early rounds but snowballs with luck.
- Players running high-luck builds can maximize value from Spare Ribs.
- Useful before high-round runs or bosses, since permanent HP helps against attrition.
- Unlike the healing machine, Spare Ribs retains value even if you’re already at full HP.
Trivia
- Internally nicknamed “The Meat Machine” during development.
- The Bone Broth Cola gag was inspired by early dev discussions about “hipster apocalypse health drinks.”
- One of the only machines whose benefit scales positively with repeated use rather than diminishing.