Editing Tinker (section)

==Process and Particulars==
A Tinker starts with having ''ideas'': those ideas that the shard can provide and the tinkers own, when these mesh the tinker gets inspiration and negligible nudges from the shard that helps them have a design in mind when they build.<ref name="R527 e2">The shards are helping to put ideas in the tinker's head or round out ideas as the tinker has them, supplying blueprints or outlines, or giving them a 'feel' as to how easy it will be to put something together. When the tinker pulls out a tricorder-like device and scans a power signature, the shard helps supply the language and interpretation for the tinker. During the build process, the shard itself supplies a helping hand, or outright takes over at a given period of time, during which time the tinker isn't wholly there (blacked out, in the zone, lost in their work) and the shard is doing the work. Sometimes this is pronounced to the point that the tinker isn't wholly sure what they'll end up with. - [https://redd.it/5n27dk Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> These builds are based around a 'skill tree' or specialty  that the shard provides the tinker with, each build and scan helps advance up said tree.<ref>Example? Power source. He either uses something mundane, or he uses something tinker derived. But if he uses something tinker derived to power his newest project, then he has to think of all the other power sources he's used, make sure that this one is sufficiently different, gauge the risk, and then move forward. Same goes for the mechanisms, the overall design & goal, and so on.<br><br>Defiant has the 'tinker up efficiency/hybrid/minimized technology' skill tree. Stinger has the 'missile' skill tree. Tecton has the 'Seismic and Architecture' skill trees. Leet has all of them, but all throughout those trees are entire sections with 'Use of this technology has a X% chance to fail'.  - [http://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/13876454 BobTheNinja reacts to Worm - The Final Countdown (Interlude 26) >> NO FREAKING SPOILERS!!] ([[Wildbow]], SpaceBattles.com, 2014-04-11)</ref> These crafting skills will, generally, only apply to the tinker's specialty and any superfluous items will be based on the tinkers native talents; native artistry and technical accomplishment will make for better designed items.<ref>They do not need the craft skill, but crafting stuff like uniforms and melee weapons could well lean on their ability to put together nice things & know how to work materials. It helps but isn't mandatory. Crafting [tinker specialty] stuff counts as if they had the material/field focus for their tinker stuff.<br><br>One tinker without craft could put together working gear for a bodysuit or suit of armor, but their bodysuit and armor would be pretty bare bones. Another that had the craft skill could put something together and make it look nice, or know how to work in pockets, or get more armor on there, handling the mundane side of things. - Wildbow on [https://www.reddit.com/comments/8mg2k6/%20/dzndep6 Reddit]</ref> The tinkering process also incorporates scans, covered below in the research section.<ref name="SB6T"/> These scanning devices can take various forms.<ref>When you went to convince the Mayor of our way of thinking, Trickster carried the devices Leet designed to record the particular signals you use to command your bugs.”<br><br>“Which is how you built the swarm box.”<br><br>“The Famine Engine,” Leet said. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/01/05 Excerpt] from [[Monarch 16.13]]</ref>

A typical tinker will start crafting their technology like any other [[Wikipedia:Maker_culture|Maker]], but unlike such a typical artisan's process the Tinker's will be interpolated with the shard stepping in during the process, using its exclusive features to tune the resulting technology.<ref>Typically the shard handles the backend during the building process, using senses the human doesn’t have access to in order to assist and provide the actual tinkertech part of the builds. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hQx5XfXrb0cilcP3J178cq1Uj6Dlggcz2X9U3C5zV4U/edit#heading=h.2o8gm6bt6szv TINKERS], document by Wildbow.</ref> The tinker typically enters a fugue state during the process, not noting when the shard might be augmenting a piece of material further then any process the tinker is visibly using.<ref name="R527 e1">It varies from tinker to tinker. In the tinker's handbook, I break tinkers down into types. Every approach changes in little ways. By and large, however, it's a case where you get inspiration like any creative or engineer might, and as you decide to put it into action, the ideas fall into place in your head.<br><br>Some tinkers might tune out at some point in the process, they might get into the zone, black out, or lose track of time. Other stay lucid but might only do certain things at different points in the project because they 'feel right' or because of ideas in their heads about wanting things to stay balanced or to maintain a seemingly logical flow of A to B to C, conveniently skipping why it was seemingly logical in the first place - if pressed they would have a hard time explaining.<br><br>The viewpoint the reader gets isn't that far divorced from the viewpoint the tinker gets.<br><br>
:but that seems incomplete.<br><br>
It seems incomplete because it is an incomplete process. In the background, the shards themselves are taking a hand in things, supplying an extradimensional limb to hold something in place that the tinker isn't wholly aware of, or a power-driven equivalent to a screwdriver in another reality that connects the aforementioned A to B. This is why tinkers have such a terrible time trying to teach others how to build their tech, and why another person can't just sit down at a table and copy everything the tinker does. - [https://www.reddit.com/comments/5n27dk/%20/dc86ico Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> Thanks to this fortification, tinker handled materials can work better, longer, expanding and ensuring certain properties and more to make the final product work toward the tinker's design.<ref name="R96 e1">1. They also have the power supplementing the building process and tech. You end up with the power sort of reaching out and making sure the circuits in your fancy new chipset don't get too warm during one part, keeping circuits from bleeding together. Also factoring in gravitational waves and magnetic forces and detailed stuff, or even just pumping a bit of extra power into something to keep the gyros spinning. Putting energy into a reactor in the same way your pyrokinesis might put fire in your hands. - [https://redd.it/7yk93l Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> The end result will generally be something not replicable by current human technology. See 'Materials' below for a more in-depth look into

Thus, unlike an artist making a painting the process doesn't just take place on one plane of reality,<ref name="R1"/> in fact the full process can't be seen in the regular [[Wikipedia:Four-dimensional space| 4-D reality]] humans are evolved to deal with.<ref name="R973">'''Question 2: Inner Workings of Tinkers'''<br><br>Tinkers may think they grok what they're doing, but the reality is that they're letting their passenger use extraordinary senses, awareness, and inspiration to fill the gaps. They start working, they focus on aesthetic and on other effects, but all the while, the passenger is figuring out some other stuff behind the scenes, or tweaking reality. TL;DR is that tinkers can't pass on tips to humanity. Even Masamune, even Dragon. - [https://redd.it/49zwhs Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> A Tinker "painter" would be able to wring out colors from paints that shouldn't be possible, to put in minute details with tools far too large and imprecise for such work. <!--
Tinkers generally only understand part of the process of the creation of their devices. A lot happens in the background due to the [[shard]].
A large part of tinker time is spent on making sure their technology is functional. 
Of course this is just the general tinker process. Tinker function across a wide spectrum and can differentiate in multiple ways. 

--> As an addendum; given the wide diversity of parahumans in the world it is not unknown for tinkers to wildly diverge in the methods they take to achieve their results.<ref>For method tinkers, I think the thing to consider is, well, a person sits down and uses materials to tinker up advanced equipment. First off... how can you toy with that process?<br>Tear the sentence down, and look at the words and the assumptions.
:'''A person''' sits down and uses materials to tinker up advanced equipment.
What if they aren't alone? Do they need crews? Do they borrow capes to help with the building process and use those capes to inform the end product? Do they create brain-reading engines and kidnap great minds and hook the engines up to the great minds to borrow talents and abilities to refine the end product?
:A person '''sits down''' and uses materials to tinker up advanced equipment.
Can you think of methodologies that don't involve having a workshop? Or that have special cases for workshops? Is there a methodology that can only create things on the fly? What benefits would these on-the-fly tinkers get to make what they do more doable?
:A person sits down and '''uses materials''' to tinker up advanced equipment.
Is there a methodology that could eschew the usual materials, or have a high demand for them? Do they emphasize the creation of materials (like the 3+ dimensional laser chip that Kid Win shows Chariot?) as their whole 'thing'?
:A person sits down and uses materials to '''tinker up advanced equipment'''.
Too many bases to cover here, but look at all the assumptions of tinkering and play with them. Do they finish every job? Or is there something else that fills in the blanks? Secondary power (changer, breaker?), do they finish it in the field, to custom specifications (customizing vs. a target foe?). Do they not make actual equipment, but something more esoteric, like potions, chips, implants, life? Do they only tinker to fix things that were broken, to improve them?<br>In place of equipment, it could be entirely self focused (cyborg parts) or entirely selfless equipment (outfitting others). - [https://redd.it/6oeuor Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref>

===Research===
Through the above mentioned scanning process and possibly even appropriating other Tinkers research,<ref name="SB6T"/><ref>“Tinkers can read powers and people and get data that they can then use for their tinkering stuff.  A tinker who makes flamethrowers can use my blueprints and figure out how to do some targeting tech.  Or, like, even if it’s not powers, I could do deep scans of a thinker and I could get power data I could use for my cameras.  Which is where right now I wish I could talk to a really good precog or postcog, and see how their power works.”<br>[...]<br>“We [[Mathers Compound Assault|saw some of this]] with [[Snag]] and [[Speedrunners|the others]], remember?”<br>[...]<br>“Yeah.  Every tinker is different so it’s not ''every'' tinker that does it, but it’s most, I think.  We all want our data and inspiration.  When I went to pick up my big projector box, I sent some flying cameras in.  Which was safe to do since Mama Mathers was gone, right?” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/05/29 Excerpt] from [[Eclipse x.4]]</ref> tinkers can 'push' their Tinkering portfolio into other specialties if they are willing to invest the time and energy while dealing with the challenges inherent with being an active parahuman.<ref>'''Research & Getting to AI'''<br><br>So if you wanted to get more into the neighborhood of Dragon-like stuff and independently functional creations, you might want to get into AI stuff.<br><br>In terms of of research, AI is Impulse x Data on the [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aHyZ7c7TIgt903mPinOakrgli2WZu5IRtiGYPCnCqDE/edit#gid=485309631 Detail Generator] sheet, tinker tab. So it's a question of how easily you'd get into that. If you worked in any of the Data or the Impulse related fields, then it's something you could fiddle with on your own. Keep in mind it's less a question of how far away the option is (distance doesn't matter, exactly) and more the number of turns you have to make to get there.<br><br>Example: if you were a radiation tinker with flexible access to what they delve into, [http://i.imgur.com/k0rYEC3.png these] would likely be the options open to you (stuff along the impulse & elemental lines) - ignore the duplicate entries in white; it's just for table clarity. Now, keep in mind that whatever they delve into would probably be tainted or modified to reflect the stuff they started off doing & primarily specialize in. Working in AI with a Radiation start might resemble pulling a Pickle Rick only with harvested brain matter and purposefully generated tumors in said brains that give you avenues to hook them up to computers to do the thinking/AI stuff, rather than microchips. But AI is a straight line away and so it's something they could dabble in from the start, assuming they had the freedom with their methodology (hyperspecialists are stuck in one specialty, for example, as are a lot of binary tinkers) and the time/resources to research.<br><br>They could get there a lot faster by scanning stuff like thinker brains or other people's created life to get the necessary info.<br><br>Let's say you were a Vat tinker, though. Your lines of specialty run along the Artifice (tinkering with tinkerings) and Life spectrums. It's something of a jump to get from there to the AI field. I might, if I were your GM, rule that you had to cover several bases to get there...<br><br>[http://i.imgur.com/OgQMr11.png This] would be a vat tinker's options in terms of what they can get and where they want to go with AI stuff. To get to AI they'd need to go up and make a right turn at Lifesign or Tutoring, or go right and take a northward turn at Clones or Nanotech. As a GM I might say, hey, you can't go straight to AI or even try to skip to getting there. You gotta delve into this stuff which gives you the background knowledge.<br><br>So you might need to delve into the computer systems involving Lifesign (scanning people, reading lifesigns, targeting weak points), the skill-focused stuff in Tutoring (here, wear this hat, it'll upload kung fu know-how to your brain or download your traumatic memories for me to upload into your buddy's head), the growth of humans with human thoughts and memories (see what Bonesaw did with the S9) or the finer details of nanotech (colonies of microscopic computer systems/machines). And as a GM I'd say 'pick two, delve into them, field test them, and develop enough of a foundation you can go into AI'.<br><br>Again, that's ~if~ the tinker is allowed to deviate or explore to that degree. Many wouldn't be.<br><br>But if you could then as a vat tinker you'd then have a huge vat and you have a computer kludged into the top of it and the downloaded memories and skills from the Tutoring stuff you did, and you have a colony of Nanomachines that form a structure in the depths of it and create a kind of nanotech brain in a jar, and it then serves the functions an AI would.<br><br>This would be a pretty extreme & advanced jump, and keep in mind the tinker is having to get by, gather the resources & do their usual thing in the meantime. This'd be a massive side project with a lot of requirement in resources & time with little return until it came together. Few can afford to do that when they could be upgrading & advancing their core stuff. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Weaverdice/comments/6uivoc/some_tinker_questions/dltdrjb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x Wildbow answering tinker questions] on reddit.</ref> The extent that they can benefit from another tinkers research<ref name=scan22>Some tinkers are very narrow in what they can do - Lookout is one example. Give her all the research she could ask for from Bonesaw's workshop or Sidepiece's power, and it... really doesn't offer her much.<br><br>Others are pretty open. Kid Win could, given time, delve into cameras. He'd never be quite as good as Lookout, nor would he be as fast, but he could. So can Armsmaster.<br><br>Armsmaster has the benefit of having done a crapton of scanning and research over the years, the benefit of being a lead tinker in the Protectorate who gets to decide how stuff gets scanned and where those scans get sent (Dragon too), and he really isn't barred from any field, though stuff like what Bonesaw does is pretty far from his field of specialty. He ~could~ get into it, but it'd be a long 'walk' to get there and it wouldn't necessarily integrate with what he's already made, nor would his special talents as a tinker (efficiency) be served by it. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/flj2y5/questions_on_tinker_scans/fkyw4v7/ Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> and from scanning other [[parahuman]]s powers is based on the specific tinkers specialty, sometimes it will just make it easier for them for them to create something in their discipline.<ref>“Tinkers scan things,” Sveta said.  “They can study parahuman powers and reinterpret them into blueprints and ideas for tinkering. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/05/04 Excerpt] from [[Black 13.9]]</ref><ref>If Lookout scanned Legend she might get some inspiration regarding light, clear optics at a distance & with intervening smoke/interference, and a little boost (say, a +2% to quality) to interdimensional-type cameras. The equivalent of a few days to a week of devoting a few hours a day to those fields of study.<br><br>If Kid Win scanned Legend, he'd get a lot of information re: laser guns, modes of fire, energy and output, and other long-ranged stuff. Again, the equivalent of a few days to a week of devoting a few hours a day to studying that stuff.<br><br>It would be more effective for Kid Win to scan Legend than it would be for Lookout to do the same, because Legend checks all of the boxes, as far as Kid Win is concerned. Different modes of fire? Guns? Options? Energy? Absolutely.<br><br>If Lookout scanned Legend, then took those scans and handed them to Kid Win, it'd be filtered twice. When she scans she's looking for specific data in a specific context. Then Kid Win gets that data, and he can't use most of it because it's not relevant to what he does. So he can use 10% of the data Kenzie got, which is in itself not a 100% scan of Legend - he might get inspiration regarding long range scopes & that's it- the only real overlap between his specialty, hers, and Legend.<br><br>Side note: The PRT gives some general data on Protectorate and Ward powers to all of its tinkers, so he'd be getting a more generalist, 'this is everything we could get on Legend (and Alexandria, etc.) in every context we could think of'... which isn't as good as scanning Legend himself, but it's useful, and it means Legend isn't having to sit down and get tricorders pointed at him for two minutes every time he crosses paths with a PRT tinker. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/flj2y5/questions_on_tinker_scans/fkyw4v7/ Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> Similarly using the scans of another tinker will have that data filtered through that tinkers methodology.<ref>“Ninety percent because I want another scan,” Cradle said.  “You gave me one of… ''his'', I think it was.”<br><br>He was pointing at Disjoint.<br><br>Love Lost nodded.<br><br>“I’ll get one of my own.  The data you collect is slightly different from what I get.  Differences in focus.”<br><br>Love Lost looked at Disjoint.<br><br>“So long as it doesn’t hurt me any,” Disjoint said.<br><br>“It won’t,” Cradle said.  His smile was thin, hollow. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/12/29/interlude-11-a/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 11.a II]]</ref><ref name=scan22/> <!---
Add an edit about tinker devices
<s>Cradle and love lost talking about scans in sidepiece interlude</s>
<s>Sveta commenting about tinker scans </s>
Kenzie talks about what tinkers could get from her work
-->

===Materials===
Returning to the above painter metaphor good materials are essential in making good tech; if you wants to mix a certain type of paint then they try to find the right base colors and paint formula, tinkers would be able to get their results with the wrong type of paint and chemistry thanks to their shard but making the shard work so hard for this will decrease the overall quality of the product which is why tinkers tend to focus on getting the best materials available.<ref>A good rule of thumb is a few hundred dollars worth of tech for a single build. $200-$400. Increase the asking price to fit mass. If it takes $300 in materials to build a gun, how much does it cost to cover yourself in that material and add some engines? Getting to the $5000, $7000 range. Chariot only built a frame, not really ''power armor'', which is lightweight and specialized and it might run closer to $2000, $3000. A megaproject, like String Theory's? Filling a whole garage or building with tech, at $100 per square foot? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

Now, there are variables here.

* You can cheap out, add weak points (if you get shot in the big glowing weak point on your back you'll explode and your tech stops working), leave it fragile (loses functions or risks misfire on even light bumps & falls), give it less raw power or versatility, maybe shorter battery (now you've gotta finish your mission in 30 minutes or your suit will power down and trap you inside it), less coverage, make it less pretty... you can reduce the price accordingly, to half or a quarter. Gets you started.
* Building tools and workbenches for your workshop costs a chunk of change but will speed up or reduce the prices of everything that you build in that workshop. Part of the process of building a tinker gun might involve building the tools to turn your mom's microwave into something suiting your purpose, but that's passive and minor, though it does accrue. Be mindful of the setback if you lose track - Accord hiring the Travelers to destroy Blasto's workshop would've set him back to zero in this regard.
* Getting your tech from a junkyard, rusted out and crap? That tech's only going to count for a quarter or ten percent for what the price would be if it was whole.
* Stuff isn't thematically relevant? You can't cheap out and pull cars out of a junkyard to dismantle to build your biotinker stuff. Vastly reduced efficacy, especially as you run into diminishing returns (biotinker could use some car batteries, spark plugs, raw metal for vats and general wires, but they'll hit a cap where they've got enough).
* Throw in some specific, gotta-get-out-and-face-conflict items, related thematically to the specialty? Diamonds for the cryogenic gun, space laser from the university science department for a targeting specialist? Stem cells from a secure research lab for your bio tinker? That'll take your tech up a level, and is likely to be important (if it's not one of five things you ''have'' to scrounge up) for your megaproject. Gives some value ranging from $50 to $50,000, depending. Could range higher, but keep in mind that as the number climbs you go from having a scattered few security guards with police on the way to private security firms, secure buildings, and capes that guard the institution. But in general, finding tech or resources that are directly relevant to your specialty comes with a small bonus in how much it counts.
* Double the asking price and double or quadruple the research time as you get off-spec (example: if you're a tinker dealing primarily with pyrokinesis and you want to build a tinkerized no-fire, no-heat bullet gun to use against the fireproof) ''if'' you can get off-spec. Might increase past double as you get further afield.
* Multiply it by ten if you want to make something high quality, that might hold up to being dropped or knocked around.

Generally speaking this is a pretty big hurdle tinkers have to get over. And since building gets you the ability to go out and get more money and components, '''and''' since building stuff is a fast way to figure out directions to take your work, the sooner you get over the hurdle, the better off you are.<br><br>

Keep in mind that theme & the tinker's trigger could inform this all in small ways. What was the dilemma or long term problem that drove them? Even if they aren't a resource-type tinker, there could be nuances to how they approach it all that mirror the trigger.<br><br>This is why tinkers go to the PRT. In exchange for loyalty, they cover the costs. Other big sponsoring groups (the Elite, Dark Society, even the Fallen) will often help out in a big way. Even joining a group of some sort that's willing to help you out in exchange for your talents if you can build something is pretty big. There's a reason the majority of top tier tinkers come from the PRT and groups on a similar scale.<br><br>Keep in mind also that if you're a new tinker and you're trying to find your way forward on your own, if you settle into a pattern, then that's a pattern that may be exploited. People will track you down or start to come after you. Groups will kidnap or strongarm a tinker into joining to provide them with that sheer versatility and ability to problem solve. Tinkers are powerful but they're also vulnerable.<br><br>So, to start with, going by the price of $200-$400 (NOT a hard & fast rule) to build a bog standard tinker gun that might be a bit fragile, that's going to mean dismantling your television and microwave, and where does that get you? A dip in quality of life and now you've got a gun, putting you a bit behind your average blaster. That's a steep road to climb. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/pjvaf1/_/hbzca3i/ Wildbow in Reddit]</ref>

===Non-Tinker Usage ===
Due to the process outlined above a Tinker device is nigh-impossible for normal humans to recreate, reverse-engineer, or even maintain.<ref name="19.6 c1" /> Tinkers not only work with highly advanced technology, production and maintenance is also extremely precise, requiring the aid of the Tinker’s power to get right.<ref name=":4">There's more to it, but Gearboy might not understand all the factors going into the crafting or maintenance process. He leans on his power for some things.<br><br>Creates a situation where, even with Gearboy creating detailed guides and painstaking video tutorials that walk through how he repaired a simple hull breach in his robot suit, you could get metallurgists and robot designers working together as a committee and missing some critical detail like how ambient humidity during the weld impacts the cross-exterior conduction and complex stresses for the future, or even power-granted awareness of planetary gravity/rotation/tidal influences on nano-crystal matrices.<br><br>TL;DR: It's bullshit. - [https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/3001128 Sufficient Velocity comment] by Wildbow.</ref> Even extremely minor factors that the Tinker isn’t consciously aware of can have great effect on the end result:<ref name=":4" /> Examples include ambient temperature, radio waves and earth's superposition in the galaxy.<ref name="R1">'''Wildbow:''' Think about it this way - you sit down to build something, you have a partial idea in mind, your power supplies the rest of the instructions and components.  You get into the zone, you tinker away, and a lot of your actions become automatic.<br><br>The shard, meanwhile, is working in concert.  They supply the ideas and the mental pictures, what's necessary and what's up to your imagination.  Then, as you get underway, they assess variables like ambient temperature, radio waves, earth's superposition in the galaxy, the materials you're working with, fine tuning to an extreme.<br><br>People using a camera can't track all of the individual details, so they copy what they can, but the pieces don't fit together, the metal has superfine stresses and vulnerabilities they aren't aware of, the elements don't jibe, and it just doesn't work.<br><br>'''KateWalls:''' Ohhhh. Thats something I didn't realize, that the shards are giving them an unconscious extra-sensory Thinker power to analyze the materials and environment beyond human norms. For example, if kid win picks up a piece of glass he's never seen before, even though his eyes only work with visible light, his shard can tell what sort of UV or IR transmission and refraction indexes it has, and gives him a nudge. Is that about right?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Varies from tinker to tinker, but that's about right. - [https://redd.it/3olmsx reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref>

Tinkers are often able to modify devices of other Tinkers, although even here the end-result will be of lesser quality.<ref name="19.6 c1">A tinker named Gearboy is commissioned to produce a mechanical battlesuit for the army, ok.  That’s doable.  But if the suit breaks down, or if it gets normal wear and tear, there’s really only one person who understands it well enough to fix it (beyond surface damage).  The tinker who made it.  Kid Win mentions, when modifying the earbud with Armsmaster’s lie detector, that anything he does will naturally be less elegant and the work will suffer for it.  The same applies for anything in regular use with non-tinkers.  The soldiers won’t know how to fix up the suit.  So it gets damaged: hole in the chest.  Repair team checks there’s no damage to internal components, patch up the hole with a metal plate welded in place like they might with a vehicle, only to find that the suit’s overheating and it’s walking funny.  They call up the tinker, but he’s elbow deep in another job.  They resign themselves to having the suit deployed for no more than an hour at a time. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/scourge-19-6/#comment-12175 comment by Wildbow] on [[Scourge 19.6]].</ref>

On the other hand, others – even ordinary humans – are able to use Tinker devices. Tinkers even equip teammates with items (although this is unusual),<ref>“It’s not customary for tinkers to design things for teammates.  If they do, it’s on a relatively small scale, simple.  Kid Win making Gallant’s armor, for example.  Any device requires a great deal of upkeep.  Time is spent tuning, calibrating, repairing and identifying problems.  Each device created is something the tinker then has to take time to maintain, and mass production means the tinker becomes tech support more than an innovator.  Dragon and I don’t sleep, or sleep very little, but even for us, it isn’t effective.  Far better to invest our time into the artificial intelligences and the ships.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/04 Excerpt] from [[Drone 23.5]]</ref> while some Tinkers, such as those from [[Toybox]], sell their goods on the black market.<ref>“Toybox is a black market organization,” Miss Militia said.  “Tinkers who operate solo find life rather difficult, due to a lack of resources and the fact that gangs and government organizations are very, <em>very</em> persistent when it comes to recruiting them.  Faced with the prospect of spending their lives on the run, trying to avoid being forcibly recruited into one organization or another, most turn to the Protectorate or the Wards.  For those few who don’t, Toybox is… <em>was</em> a refuge of sorts.  Tinkers would join, share technology, stay in the enclave as long as they needed to build up a reputation and whatever tools they needed, they would share thirty-three percent of any proceeds with the rest of the group, helping to keep others afloat.  Toybox sustained itself with barter, by moving frequently, operating between the scope of heroes and villains, and by selling less-than-legal goods to criminal groups.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/07 Excerpt] from [[Cell 22.2]]</ref> Such effort must always be balanced by the fact that a single misstep can render the entire device non-functional if not dangerous,<ref name="R73">If you have a tinker who makes armor/powersuits that have white hot metal as a key feature, yes, he could theoretically equip his teammates, but so much of it is intuitive that it's hard for that tinker to really specify some of the particulars.<br><br>There are a lot of little things that go wrong in the field, or things you need to adapt to. Did a cape slime the entire battlefield? Maybe that affects coolant venting, which affects the cremation fist's charge-up rate. That affects the hyperthermal reactor which means the entire suit starts feeling sluggish. Really easy to fix if it's the tinker, but nobody else will have a clue of the big picture. Did something get broken? If it's not the tinker using it, then it's going to be broken until the tinker gets their hands on it again or you might even have to abandon it. If the tinker's in the pilot's seat, then it might be a simple adjustment here or cinching something shut there.<br><br>Generally when gear is given out, it's heavily restricted in capability ("Okay, well, it's the suit I usually use, but I had to adjust the dampeners so it's slower, weaker, and you don't have access to the meat hammer or related tech"), it's a oneshot thing ("Press this, then this, aim using this"), or both. - [https://redd.it/877kq0 Wildbow] on reddit.</ref> understandably frustrating.<ref name=R83>''LexiconWrought'' Imagine spending several thousand dollars and a lot of time building your dream computer, top of the line components with all sorts of gimmicks, overclocking, VR, the works. Imagine entering, say, a high stakes esports competition, lots riding on a victory, lots to lose with a defeat.<br>Now imagine handing it over to your grandparent.<br>It's hard enough to watch them try to use their smartphones, but that's probably nothing compared to what a tinker experiences seeing someone else try to use their gear.<br><br>''Wildbow:'' Perfect analogy. I like how it captures the frustration. - [https://redd.it/9z3bcj Analogy] on reddit.</ref>

Regardless a Tinker is a huge asset to any team and are thus highly sought after,<ref>“But he’s risking his life,” Chariot’s mother spoke.  Chariot frowned.<br><br>“He is.  There are responsibilities.  But honestly?  There’s zero way he’s going to be able to go out and try out any of the stuff he’s made without running into trouble.  People are going to pick fights, just because he has powers.  If he tries to hang out in a workshop he establishes on his own, they’re going to find him, strong-arm him into putting something together for them.  Not just villains, either.  Heroes too.  Being a tinker doesn’t just make you a target.  It makes you a resource.  It’s why pretty much every tinker out there is a member of a larger, more powerful team.”<br><br>“Then Trevor could just not use his powers?” she spoke.<br><br>“Sure,” Kid Win folded his arms, leaning back against the back of the couch.  “What do you think, Chariot?  You think you could keep from using that power of yours?  Be normal?”<br><br>Chariot frowned, looked down at his scratched-up hands, “No.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/04/14 Excerpt] from [[Sentinel 9.4]]</ref> if not outright abducted.<ref>See: [[Bonesaw]]</ref><ref>Tinker abduction story - [https://redd.it/qux4bb Wildbow posted on reddit]</ref> This is why tinkers are known to form [[Toybox|communes]] for protection or join powerful teams.

As Tinkers often place trackers on their gear, it’s generally unwise to steal it.<ref name="10.4">“Taking a tinker’s stuff to keep is a bad idea, what with GPS signals and tracking and all that, but at the very least, we can use this to get out.”  She swept her arm over the room, where stuff lay on every surface.<br><br>Dragon’s voice echoed through the chamber, “I can hear you, Tattletale.  Do ''not'' use a tinker’s devices.  Power supplies can overload, weapons and equipment can misfire.  Only the tinker who made it can verify the devices as safe and operate them properly.”<br><br>“Right, sure,” Tattletale called out with a note of sarcasm in her voice.  “Because it’s not like there’s any high profile mercenaries out there who’ve made a career off of using a tinker’s stuff.”<br><br>Dragon didn’t reply.  Had Tattletale found a sore spot?  I knew the [[Dragonslayers]] were mercenaries who had taken the parts of one of Dragon’s armored suits to outfit themselves as high tech mercenaries. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/05/05 Excerpt] from [[Parasite 10.4]]</ref>