"You can’t trust your friends and family. Most people have bought into the propaganda and will keep you in line 'for your own good.'" (Why Are You Like This)
The Duplicator is a character in Run 3. He is an avid conspiracy theorist, a "self-replicator", the husband of the Demagogue (Minor Characters), and the father of the Child. He suspects everyone except his son and the animals (Lizard, Bunny) of being involved in a conspiracy against him, although he isn't entirely clear on the details. Also, he is always accusing the Angel of trying to take his son away from him and the Runner of stealing the Planet. Meanwhile, the Child seems to think it's all a game, as shown in the cutscene Conspiracy.
Gameplay[]
The Duplicator can be unlocked by buying him in the shop for 6,000 power cells, or you do a specific task in Tyrant Unleashed (Free Download). However, some levels of The Way Back require you to play as him, but he will not be permanently unlocked afterward, like it is with the Angel Missions.
Every few seconds, the Duplicator creates a projection of himself, up to a maximum of six. These "duplicates" mimic his actions, although they have a slightly higher jump height. If he falls out of a tunnel, the Duplicator will switch locations with another surviving duplicate, effectively giving him a second chance or multiple lives.
The duplicates are solid enough to jump on, as long as they're close enough. This allows the Duplicator to jump higher and further, but it requires careful spacing and planning beforehand to keep the duplicates from spreading out. Duplicates can also jump on the Duplicator himself, either accidentally or purposefully, in which case he switches places with the duplicate that jumped on him.
Because of his extra lives in the form of duplicates, the Duplicator's chances of surviving a level may be increased significantly, allowing him to more easily finish levels that have a high risk of failing.
It is theoretically possible to beat any level with the Duplicator, as he spawns duplicates faster than he falls after completing a jump off a duplicate. By spamming the jump button (hold jump after jumping off a duplicate to gain extra height from the jump) the Duplicator can bridge a gap of any length, provided you do not miss a jump off a duplicate. With this strategy the Duplicator can clear even a totally blank level.
The Duplicator's powers are heavily weakened in the dark, only allowing him to have three duplicates at a time. However, the spawn time of these duplicates is unchanged, allowing for the jump spam strategy to still work.
One strategy to gain duplicates is to stand behind a box and wait for the Duplicator to max out on duplicates.
In Infinite Mode and the Low-Power-Tunnel, if playing as the Duplicator, the brightness from the previous level is kept when entering the next when a duplicate enters the next level before the main Duplicator. The brightness is only updated if any in-level power triggers exist.
Personality[]
The Duplicator is usually careless, shown when he eats the powder that gives him his power to create duplicates. (see below at the bottom of the page)
The Duplicator also accuses people and jumps to conclusions a lot; shown when he accuses the Runner of stealing the Planet, accusing the Angel of trying to steal his son away, and thinking everyone except for the animals and his son are in a conspiracy against him. Because of this, he lacks trust in them.
It is shown that even though he has a careless and accusing nature, he still thinks of other's feelings, as he thinks his wife might be worried about him.
Statistics[]
Ability rating | |||
---|---|---|---|
Speed | 2.5/5 | ||
Jump length | 3.6/5 | ||
Jump height | 4/5 | ||
Maneuverability | 3/5 | ||
Special ability | 5/5 | ||
General | 3.6/5 |
Explanation[]
Speed: Average. Most characters have this speed of 10m/s. If he jumps off his duplicates in the right way, he can gain speed.
Jump length: Average. Same as most characters in the game. However, he can jump from duplicates, allowing him to clear large gaps.
Jump height: Again average, he normally has a very weak jump but his ability allows him to jump from duplicates, reaching quite a high jump. Oddly, he shares the ability to do a very tiny jump with the Runner.
Maneuverability: Average, as the Student and Pastafarian have the same amount. His duplicates allow him to fall in situations like The Lazy Way, but not fail.
Ability: Creating duplicates is an amazing ability, as it can give you multiple lives and allow you to jump farther and higher. His ability to stabilize light levels can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the levels you start from.
General: Overall, the Duplicator is an amazing character who can survive a long time. Good planning is helpful with the Duplicator, but, similar to his personality, he's quite the "on the fly" character to manage. He functions similarly to the old Runner gameplay.
Achievements[]
We Will Survive - Beat Low Power Tunnel, part 16 without losing a single duplicate.
Falling to Pieces - Let 50 duplicates fall into space in a single Infinite Mode run.
Cutscenes[]
(In the cutscene marked **, the Duplicator is watching from the distance with his son.) The Duplicator appears in 18 of the 66 cutscenes (66 is the total number of cutscenes including all of the hidden, Upcoming and optional ones). Here is a full list of his appearances throughout the story.
- Insanity
- River
- Planet Missing
- Planet Stolen
- Orbits
- Inflation
- Self Assembly
- Conspiracy
- You Think?
- Friendly Greeting**
- Angel vs. Bunny
- Of Course
- Boat Ride
- Fourth Condiment
- Wait
- Stop Solving Problems
- ABCD
- Two Month Wait (Part 1)
Infinite Mode Trivia[]
- All solid objects - including duplicates - can change the tunnel's gravity.
- Did you know? Duplicates can jump off of one another in midair.
- The Duplicator's philosophy: if someone gives you parenting advice, say thanks and ignore them.
- For some reason, it's hard to make new duplicates when the power is out. At least the existing ones stay around.
- The Duplicator trusts himself, his son, and the animals. Everyone else keeps telling him he's wrong.
- Try to keep a duplicate alive at all times. They jump higher than you do.
- The Duplicator can instantly swap places with any duplicate. He doesn't know how, and unlike the Student, he doesn't care.
- His duplicates are like solid mirror images... that aren't mirrored. (The Duplicator isn't much good at similes.)
Other Trivia[]
- The Duplicator isn't glowing, he's iridescent. The yellow only appears when light bounces off of him at a certain angle.
- He has a wife back on the Planet, as revealed in the cutscene "You Think?" His wife's name is the Demagogue. (Can be found in Minor Characters.)
- On the Going Home Checklist (Angel Missions) for going home, The Duplicator is referred to as "The Crackpot".
- On a Kongregate forum, the reason for his appearance and duplication was revealed.
- One day, he found a jar full of powder. The jar had lots of warning labels, with one of them saying, “Do not eat.” Of course, the Duplicator, being the Duplicator, ate the powder, knowing it was government property. For the next few weeks, he was sick from the powder, and its effects caused his skin to turn from white to a darkish blue. When he recovered, he found out he can duplicate, and from this day onwards he still ignores the warning labels on harmful and/or poisonous containers.
- His lucky number is seven, as evidenced by the achievement 'Duplicator's Lucky Number', where the player must dislodge exactly seven crumbling tiles, and that he can have a maximum of seven duplicates at once, including himself.
- He and the child can be seen in the background of the cutscene Friendly Greeting.
- If you use the Duplicator to play the Low-Power Tunnel, you'll notice that the behavior of power tiles changes slightly level by level since he trusts alien technology.
- The darker the power level is, the fewer duplicates he has, having 2 duplicates of himself at minimum, or 3 figures in total.
- Before he started duplicating, he was named The Negotiator, and technically still is as he hasn't filled out a name form changing his name.
- Changing from your main character to a duplicate will not instantly happen, and may take up to a half second.
- As of January, he is the 2nd character to get an official 3D model. Like the Child, it's still just for practice.
- The Duplicator may have an upcoming Halloween costume, the Zombie.
- In the artwork for Run Mobile on the App and Play Store, Duplicator is shown to have a chipped tooth.
- However, since aliens were said to not have teeth, this is not canon.
Bug[]
- Sometimes, when switching to a duplicate in Infinite Mode, you will be unable to see him for a few moments and he will turn invisible, before you are able to see him again.
- If a clone enters the transition tunnel of a level before the Duplicator himself does, the tunnel power level can break and fail to reset. This bug has dire consequences for far Infinite Mode runs; a good example of this can be seen here.
- Fun Fact - In the Alpha stage of run mobile Duplicator's file name is Referred to as Tron
Gallery[]