Frieda Bergmann

Born in the 21st Century, she has over 45 years of experience in cross-system navigation. While she was studying, she proved the existence of Shapiro's slingshot effect. Woken from cryosleep in the 31st Century, her work on locating celestial bodies had already been most useful to great explorers such as GL Maubrick and Kim Jin-Su. Despite having retired to Bavaria, she is called to Xyloph-17 to serve as the navigator of the Daedalus.

How to play
Frieda is usually a specialist for planet scans. Know what planets to pick, which to trash, and be as efficient as possible at your job. Try and coordinate with the others, but understand that above all you are responsible for keeping the crew alive by providing regular supply runs (for O2, Food, Fruit, and Fuel)

As such, she is part of the bridge crew alongside and the occasionally visiting. If Paola has a to sleep on and is a, the two of them can stay there virtually all the time and do their work without the need for beds. Otherwise you will often find Frieda sleeping a lot, fitting her age, but then come to the bridge for a burst of activity.

Either way, she can be a viable character choice for players with long downtimes, as she works best after accumulating a reserve of.


 * With two very different viable skills, it is a good idea to wait a bit before you decide between those, to get a picture of the crew situation. Usually you do not want to start scanning anyway until the BIOS has been set to Astronavigation.


 * The first choice for Frieda 80% of the time. A grand total of three characters have the ability to gain this skill: Frieda,, and , and only you can reliably have it. Choosing any other skill will slow down your team.


 * is the only but important exception to this when there are not enough pilots (0-2 depending on activity), as a slowly scanning ship is still better at exploration than a defenseless ship.


 * A silver Frieda has a few options for her second skill, however she still lacks the capacity to be a heavy contributor to expeditions and should still focus on her bridge duties. Generally you should do what a Bronze Frieda does, either more effectively or both things at once.


 * / gives you two free IT actions per day. You can use this to analyze (not scan) planets or help connecting to Sol, among other things. Not only is this a big  saver, but it also allows you to be a backup captain and use the  to move the ship with good success chances if need be.


 * / is a less efficient combination in theory, because it requires you to split your time between bridge duties and flying, which is both  intensive. In practice however, there are often situations where a ship lacks active pilots, so the flexibility to do both can be decisive. (Again, oxygen does little good if the Daedalus gets destroyed.) As someone covering two important jobs, you also have reason to eat a lot, which in the end means you get to act more.


 * / is a useful combination specifically for the bridge. Your crew will appreciate the extra bonus to connecting to Sol. RE does not compare to IT Expert or Pilot in sheer utility, and is probably not worth the  investment unless you are shooting for level 6, but it could be considered if  does not have it.


 * / can be a good combination to consider if you already have another astrophysicist, especially if that person is  with caffeine junkie. This combination will be especially important if you are short on pilots as well, it will not only aid in taking care of the hunter threat, but you will be a valuable asset for explorations with survivalist.


 * / /  /  - Frieda's level 4 build is all about expeditions. Pilot, IT Expert, and Survivalist will ensure that not only do you have lots of expeditions, but you can ensure they all go well! If you take this option, be sure to communicate with your shipmates and try to get maximum participation in the expedition. With a bit of coordination you might even be the very one to take everyone to Eden!


 * / /  / X - Your team will certainly appreciate your highly efficient bridge! Your last slot should be saved for whatever skill benefits your team the most.


 * / /  /  - Versatility. A Frieda with these skills can not only scan, pilot and help out wherever needed, but also participate in the Mush hunt by playing the bait (after showering) and removing traps.


 * A fungal Frieda has almost no excuses to get, nor wander around the ship a lot. It is therefore common for Frieda to act as a mimic at first.
 * There are only a few ways to pull spores as Frieda without blowing her cover - such as pretending to be dirty from eating, or winning a bed in the shower dorm and taking stealth showers - but an observant human crew may be suspicious if she does either of those things.
 * The main strength of being a Mush is that failed planet scans (not analyses, which are logged!) are a good excuse for lost, and nobody can see the true scan results until the ship moves towards the planet. So she may have "bad luck" finding planets with oxygen... which can be combined with other tactics that target the O2 supply.
 * If Mush Frieda notices the crew failing to check planets before exploring them, she might risk sending them to Mankarog Volcano Land as part of her master plan. Warning: This WILL expose her as a traitor and isn't guaranteed to kill any humans, so plan accordingly.
 * Having makes for fairly cheap hacking jobs on the BIOS Terminal or Command Terminal, provided she can access the Hacker Kit.

Useful tips

 * Learn all about Astrophysics, and teach others who may want to help.
 * Make a public thread with scanning instructions and results. The crew will want to discuss which planets they want to go to!
 * Always have an early expedition go to a planet with O2! Expeditions are that ONLY reliable means to truly replenish your Oxygen, rather than simply delaying the inevitable. Fruit, Steaks, and Fragments come secondary to keeping your O2 meter high!


 * is your bridge-buddy and best friend! Always try and coordinate your actions, as the two of you will spend a lot of time together!
 * If you have a, Try and get them to dismantle the shower and build a on the bridge ASAP. Paola will often have . A bridge sofa for her allows both of you to regain 2  per cycle without leaving the room. If that is not possible, suggest to your crew that you and Paola sleep in medbay to save on /.


 * Try and wear the when you eat. You should not need to move much if you are coordinating with Paola properly, so a short detour to the lab for meals will save you a LONG detour to clean up in the dorms.

Biography

 * 2037 : Born on Earth.
 * 2059 : In less than 2 years Frieda Bergmann listed more than 100 new stars, from the observatory in Dusseldorf.
 * 2060 : While studying the Shapiro effect, Frieda proves that the mass of a synthesized black hole could be used to propel space probes at speeds approaching that of light. That same year she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Astrophysics for her publication.
 * 2070 : At the age of 33, Frieda decides to dedicate the rest of her life to space exploration. However, the sound technology of her time was only barely sufficient to reach the satellites of Jupiter. Frieda called upon Cryo-Hertz – a society specializing in cryogenic freezing for billionaires and who guarantee an eventual reawakening in a future society in which they will no longer be condemned to die by lack of medical technology.
 * 3094 : Frieda is awakened from a sleep lasting 1024 years by specialists who are almost ready to launch the first extra-solar mission to Barnard's Star. Her knowledge will be vital when conducting the first surveys of the star's surface. During this mission she meets the young pilot Kim Jin-Su with whom she must collaborate to take the first samples.
 * 3110 : Back on earth Frieda is summoned by the explorer GL Maubrick to join the crew of the Gonzak, a gigantic spaceship which is to explore the Epsilon-Indi system. This was the first time that Frieda set foot on soil outside her own solar system. During these expeditions, she met Kim Jin-Su again who told her about his expedition to Tau-Ceti. It is a system that Frieda knows well, because she studied it when she was at university in the 21st Century.
 * 3123 : After restocking, Kim Jin-Su and Frieda were authorized to leave the Gonzak to mount their own expedition to Tau-Ceti. Frieda catalogued all the bodies in the system in detail.
 * 3123 : The expedition is a success, the discovery of major Boxylium deposits re-energize space travel. Despite the major role played by Frieda in the geolocalisation of sites, the over-mediatization of the event worked out to the advantage of Jin-Su. Frieda was uninterested in the publicity surrounding the event and in the end she decided just to stay in the shadow of the explorer.
 * 3140 : GL Maubrick, who is the minister of spatial expansion puts Frieda in charge of organizing 3 successive intergalactic missions. Unfortunately, the colossal workload rendered it impossible for her to actually join the expedition crews. Her age ( 53 ) combined with her 1060 years of cryosleep increase the risk of cryogenic complications..
 * 3150 : At the age of 63 Frieda Bergmann's hopes of escaping were buried for good. She left her observatory in Dusseldorf and retired to Bavaria.
 * 3151 : Jin-Su calls on Frieda to work on the discovery of a body found in Magellan's great cloud. This would be a real challenge given the massive distance between this galaxy and the Milky Way. Frieda accepts the mission on the condition that she can participate in the expedition and go to the cloud. Kim Jin-Su names her as the ship's navigator, even though he knows that her chances of surviving 16 years of cryosleep are minimal.