User:Trocyte V./Gaia Memories

"So lemme get this straight: The Earth itself is releasing literally all knowledge ever created in the form of these Memories - and the first thing they get used for is drugs?" "Yeah, pretty much."

- Rustbolt and Green Shadow

The Gaia Memories are a collectible item in Plants vs. Zombies: Infinite Generation, taking the form of supernatural USB sticks containing all knowledge of a subject marked on their chassis. They serve as the power source of the Dopants, but can also be purified into potent weapon and armor modifications.

Origins
The Gaia Memories are based on the collectibles of the same name from Kamen Rider W, and largely function in a similar manner, the primary exception being that the Memories also work on Infinite Robots (see below.)

Description
Gaia Memories were created from the Earth through unknown means and manifested within Hollow Earth once modern technology, including concepts related to Infinity, was introduced. As mentioned above, they are all marked with a specific subject such as the ice ages, unicorns, or zones on their frames, and within their storage is all knowledge relevant to said subject, including history essays, primary sources, other historical records, and even sequenced genomes. This extends to knowledge lost to destruction or time, though the use of the Memories to recover such information diminishes in efficacy as said knowledge requested becomes more specific. Some even contain programs related to the subject, meant for unknown purposes.

The Gaia Memories are later discovered to be capable of "hacking" physical matter that they are stabbed into, favoring complex entities like living individuals or Infinite Robots. This creates a Dopant, a powerful but uncontrollable construct that expresses some of the knowledge within the memory as a tool or weapon.

In the case of organic Dopants, the surge of data and the dramatic transformation causes the user to lose more and more of their sanity, becoming addicted to it like a drug. In the case of Infinite Robots, the same processes overclocks the on-board systems to unsafe levels and causes the pilot to slowly lose control of the frame, eventually being trapped within the soul containment field. The Infinite Robot will also start to depend more and more on the Memory for energy. For both cases, the above effects can be negated with a stabilization mechanism, at the cost of some strength. Rustbolt is also capable of using his supernatural tinkering skills to purify the Memories, enabling unrestricted access to the powers within without harm and reorganizing the information within into a more accessible format.

There are theoretically as many Gaia Memories produced by the Earth as there are hypothetical subjects of knowledge, but only 26 are relevant to the story.

List of Gaia Memories
Defeating a Dopant has a 1% chance to drop an unpurified Gaia Memory, which can then be taken to Rustbolt to turn into a purified Gaia Memory. This Memory then becomes a mod that can be slotted into weapons or the second and third slots of armor depending on the Memory obtained.

The Eternal Memory is an exception, which is guaranteed to drop from Allen Clark's Infinite Robot upon his defeat in the campaign.