Shlephs are the heaviest of the unspecialized puppets created by Mechanized Archons, carrying only a massive octuple slot that stretches from their necks to their tails. They replace Totems and Praetors as mechanized superheavy puppets, though their actual rate of spawning is quite rare. A group of Shlephs is called a fort or a base.

Praetors - Totems - Shlephs

Completing the "trilogy" with their smaller siblings, Shlephs are significantly sized for their class, even nearing the size of an archon at an impressive 7' 11" (211cm). This size, however, is a bit of a misnomer, as Shlephs are particularly lanky among puppets with long legs and extended barrels to make optimal platforms for their distinctive octuple module slots. Despite their size and the attempts to keep their modules away from their head, the frontmost modules still bump up against their necks, and as such, Shlephs are one of the few puppet types who actively engage in mane maintenance (keeping their manes short at the back to avoid painful interactions with module machinery).

Shlephs, being the heaviest mechanized puppets (besides Arcologies), specialize in carrying heavy modules; in particular, Spinoguns and Division Hangars. It is not uncommon for a Shleph to carry one of each, though many Shlephs either carry two of one, or just one and a number of smaller modules for support. Shlephs in particular have an unusual tolerance for "monostructural" builds, in which a grand majority of their slots are taken up by a single module type (for example, four storage bays).

Due to their roles as hubs of of potential storage and labor, Shlephs, while not consistently seeking social groups, consistently welcome new puppets into their working crews. It is not uncommon for a Shleph to install a grasper for the sole purpose of providing small, aerial, social puppets like Imps, Arrays, and Serfs to perch on for the sole purpose of socializing.

Shlephs share some size genes with other superheavy puppets, but other than that, they do not sport anything abnormal. Their social tendencies seem to come from behavioural adaptations rather than genetic ones: as they are large puppets that often support crews of smaller ones, it stands to reason they would become more used to working with more energetic small puppets.

Don't let their size fool you, Shlephs are just a bunch of big sweethearts. They love tending to their smaller siblings, and are often the first to assemble small work crews if an archon isn't involved in making one. They just seem to have a way with words amongst the others: Even normally rambunctious little scamps will sit still and listen to whatever gossip the Shleph has to regale them with.

It does catch me off guard when I see them with a great number of the same modules all together, admittedly, especially with how vehemently the small ones typically try to avoid being stuck in some sort of monocultural state. I suppose it fits their social tendencies; there's room to specialize if you keep others around, after all.

Shlephs continue the trend of mechanized puppets being surprisingly friendly, though they go about it in slightly different ways than Haulers do. They act as your heavy platforms of sorts, capable of supporting two of the largest modules, or a substantial arrangement of smaller ones.

Fun fact: Shlephs have 372 potential unique fully-loaded variations (that is, variations with different counts of modules, ignoring position). Broken down by module load, this is:

• 8x Single Slots: 45
• 1x Dual, 6x Single Slots: 84
• 2x Dual, 4x Single Slots: 90
• 3x Dual, 2x Single Slots: 60
• 4x Dual Slots: 15
• 1x Quad, 1x Dual, 2x Single Slots: 54
• 1x Quad, 2x Dual Slots: 18
• 2x Quad Slots: 6