528 Mode

528 Mode is an config-enabled alternate game mode that increases the difficulty of mechanics and recipes significantly. It can be considered the direct antithesis to Baby Mode.

Changes

Recipes

Precision Assembler

Various machines and items now require a blueprint and a precision assembly machine in order to manufacture (though machines that required the plasma forge still use it). These items, which are grouped by their blueprint, are:

Blueprints

RBMK Structural Column, RBMK Autoloader

Microchip

Gas Centrifuge

Versatile Integrated Circuit

Beamline, RF Cavity, Quadrupole Magnets, Dipole Magnets, Particle Source, Particle Detector, Exposure Chamber, Solid State Quantum Processor

Artillery Turret "Greg", Rocket Artillery Turret "Henry"

Oil Derrick, Pumpjack

Coker Unit

The Gadget, Little Boy, Fat Man, Ivy Mike, Tsar Bomba, The Prototype, F.L.E.I.J.A., The Blue Rinse, N² Mine, Balefire Bomb, Custom Nuke, Nuclear Warhead, Thermonuclear Warhead, Size 10 Micro Nuclear Warhead, Size 10 Nuclear Warhead, Size 15 Nuclear Warhead, Size 15 N² Mine, Size 15 BF Warhead

Hydraulic Fracking Tower, Flare Stack, Catalytic Cracking Tower

MHD Turbine, Plasma Forge, Fusion Reactor Vessel, ICF Laser Cell, ICF Laser Flash Tube, ICF Laser Capacitor, ICF Laser Turbocharger, ICF Laser Casing, ICF Laser Port, ICF Laser Controller, ICF Stability Element, ICF Containment Vessel Wall, ICF Casing, Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor Core Component, ICF Fuel Pellet Maker

Heavy Machine Gun Turret "Checkov's Gun", Chaingun Turret "Mister Friendly", Autocannon Turret "Jeremy", XVL1456 Prototype Turret "Tauon", Rocket Launcher Turret "Richard", Goalkeeper Twin Chaingun CIWS "Howard", High-Energy MASER Turret "Maxwell", Heavy Flamethrower "Fritz"

Fusion Reactor Vessel Core Component, Superconducting BSCCO Coils, Fusion Reactor Blanket, Fusion Reactor Piping, Watz Reaction Chamber, Watz Reactor Supercooler, Watz Reactor Stability Element

Atomic Clock

Catalytic Reformer, Hydrotreater, Pyrolysis Oven

These blueprints can be obtained by shredding numerous quantities of different materials in an annihilator; this will yield a random blueprint.

In addition, several circuits and upgrades are now made in the precision assembly machine, which has a chance of failing and returning a broken version; these broken versions can be recycled to regain a small amount of the materials used. These items are:

Precision Assembly Machine

Item	Success rate	Recycling recovery rate
Microchip	90%	90%
Versatile Integrated Circuit	75%	75%
Solid State Quantum Processor	90%	75%
Atomic Clock	50%	75%
Control Unit	75%	90%
Advanced Control Unit	50%	75%
Quantum Computer	75%	75%
Any tier 2 upgrade (excluding conveyor upgrades)	50%	75%
Any tier 3 upgrade (excluding conveyor upgrades)	25%	75%

In addition, all items made in the precision assembly machine (aside from blueprint booklets) now require tantalum capacitors.

Trivia

• The name is derived from when Bob (the developer), was playing Black Mesa and noticed the difficulty was unusually high, especially when other people did not note the same difficulty. He performed an integrity check on the game and discovered it was actually slightly corrupted and the game was bugged as a result. The corruption was in a single file and only had a size difference of 528 bytes from the normal one.