Breaker

This page is under construction and is not yet properly cited.

Breaker is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.<ref>PRT Master Reference - Classifications</ref> Breakers have the ability to alter themselves to a different state in which they maintain different abilities<ref name=":0">Breaker

Has the ability to alter themselves to a different state in which they maintain different abilities.  Appends other powers, but only in this state.  Can also include general altered states.

Target the individual outside of any enhanced state where possible.  All other effects depend on the sub-classification. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Breaker. </ref>, although Breakers with permanently altered states also exist.<ref>Gasconade#Abilities_and_Powers</ref>

Methodology

Nearly all powers have some small element of Breaker to them<ref name=":1">Breakers are those who alter their physical (and sometimes mental) state

to something alien and power-generated.  While all powers have some 

small element of breaker to them, the breaker-centric powers are the ones where the individual switches over to a completely different state.

 The state can have a singular benefit that breaks the defined rules of
reality (as any power does, but centered around the parahuman’s 

capabilities) or a state they enter that contains a suite of powers, but

that state may have costs when adopting it, costs to maintain it, or 

costs and complications in other forms. - reddit comment by wildbow.[1]</ref>: parahumans generally have innate defenses that keep their own powers from harmer then.<ref>There was a theory that was gaining traction, suggesting that the breaker classification was one of the most common powersets, if not always the most pronounced.  Innumerable people with powers had also adapted innate defenses that kept their own powers from harming themselves.  Pyrokinetics tended to be resistant to flame. - Interlude 14.5 (Bonus Interlude)</ref> Powers that earn a Breaker rating are those that cause the user to alter their physical (and sometimes mental) state to something alien and power-generated.<ref name=":1" /> This altered state can have a singular benefit that breaks the defined laws of reality (as any power does, but centered around the parahuman’s capabilities) or a state that contains a suite of powers.<ref name=":1" />

The altered state may have costs when adopting it, costs to maintain it, or costs and complications in other forms.<ref name=":1" />

Trigger Events

Breaker triggers are perhaps the hardest to define lay out in clear terms.<ref>Breaker triggers are perhaps the hardest to define lay out in clear terms. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref> On one hand, Breakers emerge from triggers that blur the line between physical and mental.<ref>Other Breakers arise from cases where the lines are so blurred and/or intermingled between the physical and the mental that usual classifications don’t neatly fit. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref> It's not enough for trigger event to have a physical and mental element: The two must be indivisibly linked.<ref>Could the elements feeding into one aspect of the trigger be removed, with the trigger event still making some degree of sense? In the above hypothetical, could you remove the parts that make it a changer trigger and leave it as striker only, with a rewrite? If the combination of the

two are so interlinked as to be irreconcilable, it could be a breaker 

trigger. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref>

On the other hand, Breaker powers emerge from abstract stressors<ref>Breakers sometimes come from abstract stressors or those things that are the very odd fits for other classifications. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref>, or from threats that are hard to define or explain<ref>Does, for lack of a better way of putting it, the trigger sit on the outside bounds of the usual ‘box’ that the classification fits in? Strikers trigger from in-your-face hostile threats. Is the threat hard to define or explain, either in the character’s perceptions or in reality? Changers trigger from identity issues and cases where the outside world impugns the character’s set identity. Is that identity crisis hard to define or explain, even for the individual in question? Similar questions can be asked for other classifications. Is the damage

a Brute takes hard to explain or frame?  Is the long-term problem a 

tinker faces hard to outline in terms of being long-term or a problem? - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref>. They often involve self-contradictory feelings.<ref name=":2">For a mover, this might include things like wanting to escape on a physical level while mentally feeling that the situation is safe, the inverse, or something more abstract, like wanting to escape reality on a

spiritual level and finding oneself unable, or wanting to escape a 

concept or wanting to escape something that cannot be avoided on a fundamental level. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref> For a Mover, this might include things like wanting to escape on a physical level while mentally feeling that the situation is safe, the inverse, or something more abstract, like wanting to escape reality on a spiritual level and finding oneself unable, or wanting to escape a concept or wanting to escape something that cannot be avoided on a fundamental level.<ref name=":2" />

Drugs, poisons, medical conditions and mental illnesses very frequently involved in the unusual scenarios that make Breaker triggers possible.<ref>Drugs, poisons, medical conditions and mental illness very frequently create the unusual scenarios that make Breaker triggers possible. - reddit comment by wildbow.</ref>

Combinations with other ratings

[Coming soon]

PRT countermeasures

PRT-teams generally try to target Breakers outside of their enhanced state where possible. Because of the nature of Breaker powers, all other specific countermeasure depend on the parahuman's sub-classifications.<ref name=":0" />

Known Breakers

Note: This list describes the Breaker ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.

Name	Known ratings	Power description
Acidbath	Breaker<ref>Black Kaze alternated attacks with Acidbath, very proper, measured in her movements, compared to Acidbath’s flailing, reckless, hurried scramble to keep out of Scion’s line of sight.  Acidbath moved with surprising quickness, faster than a typical car might.  A peculiarity of his breaker power. - Speck 30.2</ref>/Changer (Blaster, Striker, Mover)<ref>Acidbath Could turn into, sling blasts of, & move as tidal wave of acid Independent Breaker/Changer (Blaster, Striker & Mover Sub powers) - parahumanList, Bolded edit by wildbow. </ref>	Can turn into acid.<ref>Power:  Caustic Break; can enter breaker state to become acid.  Treats self as a projectile (see above) of 10x size, half range, coalescing at end of turn.  Can reduce range further to enable self to strike multiple targets while traveling. - Playtest Capes, document by wildbow.</ref>
Annex	Breaker, Shaker<ref name="24.1">“I’m a breaker and shaker,” Annex told me, “Merge into nonliving material, warp space.” “Warp it how?” I asked. “Reshape it,” he said.  He was still half-walking, half-jogging, but he stretched a white-gloved hand out four feet, touching a sign.  His hand smeared against it as though it were more liquid than solid, coloring it the same white as his glove.  The sign oozed back into the wall, virtually disappearing, and Annex removed his hand, slowly reeling in the extended flesh.  The sign remained where it was, compressed against the wall, the surface flat. - Crushed 24.1 </ref>	Can merge into nonliving material and reshape it.<ref name="24.1" />
Ash Beast	Breaker<ref name=":3">I identified a young man, at the center of it all, and I could now think of the Ash Beast as a ‘he’ instead of an ‘it’.  He was surprisingly healthy, but he had a power that kept him in good physical condition, a natural breaker-class adaptation that came with his power.  Energy to matter and matter to energy. - Speck 30.5</ref>	Has a power that keeps him in good physical condition, involving matter-energy conversion.<ref name=":3" />
Fog	Breaker 9<ref name=":4">“Yeah, there’s a Breaker 9, a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3 and a Master 6 in that group? I buy that they’re powerful.” - Sentinel 9.1</ref> (Shaker, Stranger)<ref>Fog is (like many breakers) a sub-class shaker, in that his breaker power has a shaker (and stranger) side effect (the broad cloud of semisolid fog he generates). Much like Shadow Stalker. You can see 9.1 for brief mention of these breaker sub-classes, I think. - Queen 18.5, wildbow comment.</ref>	Transforms into mist with varying solidity.<ref>Fog, Geoff Schmidt – Has the ability to partially or wholly become a living mist, with solidity varying depending on his wishes and the ability to erode living matter. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Fenja	Breaker<ref name="9.6">Menja was classified as a breaker, the spatial-warping effect that surrounded her made incoming attacks smaller even as she simultaneously made herself bigger. - Sentinel 9.6</ref><ref name=":6">Kaiser came through the door with a girl on each arm, blondes with measurements like Playboy models.  Kaiser wore armor head to toe, elaborately worked and topped with a crown of blades.  The leader of Empire Eighty Eight.  The twins went by the names Fenja and Menja, and were decked out in Valkyrie-style armor featuring countless little steel wings, along with closed-face helms.  Had to admit, Kaiser liked his heavy hitters.  These two could grow to be three stories tall, and they were a hundred times more durable when they were. - Hive 5.1</ref>	Warps space so she is simultaneously bigger and attacks against her are smaller.<ref name="9.6" />
Gasconade	Breaker/Stranger 3<ref name=":9">Classification: Breaker/Stranger 3 Unable to affect the world long-term, or be affected long-term. - PRT: Department Sixty Four, thread II [Worm Quest - Page 47] </ref>	Unable to affect the world long-term, or be affected long-term.<ref name=":9" />
Glory Girl	Brute, Breaker, Mover<ref>Worm Wiki edit by wildbow.</ref>, Shaker<ref>Question by WyldCard4: Aura: What exactly is her aura classified as? Personally I have classified it as a low level Stranger power, as I believe you once told me it is not a Master power. Stranger seems to fit best, as it alters the perceptions of her enemies. Answer by wildbow: Shaker, not stranger. - Spacebattles post by wildbow. </ref>	Has a forcefield<ref>“She’s not really invincible. That’s just an idea she likes to put in people’s heads. She has a forcefield around her entire body, but it shorts out whenever she takes a good hit, comes back online a few seconds later. I knew when I saw she had dust on her costume. Dust that her forcefield would keep off her. Fuck, this hurts.” - Agitation 3.12</ref> providing invulnerability.<ref>Glory Girl, Victoria Dallon (Incarcerated; Asylum) – Possessed of flight, invincibility, and capable of deadlifting over a ton. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Legend	Breaker<ref name="I14.5">Legend’s flight powers let him accelerate to a speed that exceeded sound and continue accelerating, to no hard limit.  The soft limit was that he had breaker powers that kept the acceleration from tearing him to shreds, altering his body into something else entirely as he gained speed.  The drawback to this was that his brain also shut down on a cognitive level as the transformation occurred.  He had never let himself go so fast that he lost the ability to consciously control his movements. - Interlude 14.5 (Bonus Interlude)</ref>	Can instinctively transitioned into an energy form in which he absorbs energy of various kinds.<ref>If an opponent attacked and struck him, he instinctively transitioned into his energy form for a split second.  In that state, he absorbed energy of a variety of kinds, including the kinetic energy that was transferred with a punch or with a bullet.  His opponents were forced to whittle him down, each attack only a fraction as effective as it might otherwise be.  Even then, a share of that small amount of damage was healed a second later as he used the absorbed energy to mend his body.  Conversely, his enemies could try to hit him with enough speed and force that even a hundredth of a second of contact was sufficient to take him out of the fight.  Leviathan and Behemoth had managed to land blows of that magnitude. - Interlude 14.5 (Bonus Interlude)</ref>
Manpower	Breaker, Brute<ref>Worm Wiki edit by wildbow.</ref>	Has an electromagnetic augmentation.<ref>Manpower, Neil Pelham (Deceased) – Lady Photon’s husband. Had an electromagnetic augmentation allowing for superstrength and durability. Wore a white and yellow costume with a lightning bolt motif, but perished in the Endbringer arc. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Menja	See: Fenja.<ref name=":6" />
Scion	Breaker<ref name="9.2">Capes with the ‘breaker’ classification were generally those who had some ability to ‘break’ the natural laws of the universe as far as those laws applied to them.  Shadow Stalker was one.  Scion was apparently another. - Sentinel 9.2</ref>
Shadow Stalker	Breaker 3 (Stranger 2, Mover 1)<ref>Shadow Stalker is more ambiguous. Breaker 3, sublabels are Stranger 2, Mover 1. - Sentinel 9.1</ref>	Can become her semi-gaseous and transparent, allowing her to pass through solid surfaces.<ref>Capable of shifting herself into a ‘shadow state’, she can pass through walls, is lightweight, and passes these benefits on to her equipment, including shots fired by her crossbow bolts. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Vellum	Breaker 4/Striker 4/Brute 2/Mover 1<ref name=":5">◈ VELLUM;  Tanya Engalychev Classification: Breaker 4/Striker 4/Brute 2/Mover 1 (Tentative classification) Nonlethal, albeit painful absorption of skin from touched subjects.  Gains permanent increase to strength and durability as a result.  Limited ability to alter skin patterns. - PRT Quest (Anchorage)</ref>	Able to absorb skin from touched subjects. Gains permanent increase to strength and durability as a result.<ref name=":5" />
Velocity	Breaker<ref>Velocity is ex-military, was a callow youth who enlisted due to promises of ways to learn languages (Russian, Chinese) hoping to travel during/after the fact, and instead got stuck in the rank and file with no follow-through and longer terms than he expected. Edit: As with many breakers, it was a confluence of factors that led to his trigger in the end - being caught in a bad situation in a bad place in a bad mental state. - Spacebattles post by Wildbow.</ref>	Has enhanced speed at the cost of a lowered ability to affect the world.<ref>Velocity (Deceased) –  Deceased.  Had enhanced speed at the cost of a lowered ability to affect the world.  Slain in the Leviathan arc. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Wanton	Shaker, Breaker, Stranger<ref name=":7">“Wanton,” Tecton said, stressing the pronounciation, “Is a breaker-stranger class cape. He can turn into a localized telekinetic storm. - Queen 18.5</ref><ref>Wanton was a breaker, someone who altered themselves or their relation to the world by some characteristic of his power, becoming a shaker effect, a telekinetic storm. - Crushed 24.1</ref>	Transforms into a localized telekinetic storm.<ref name=":7" />

Speculated Breakers

Note: This list describes the Breaker ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.

Note: This list deals with speculation. If you have a relevant and reliable citation, please add that cape to the 'Known Breakers' list. Please add capes to this list conservatively: It's meant to list capes that are generally agreed upon to be Breakers, but we lack proper citations for.

Name	Speculated classification	Power description

References

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