Willpower
Superficial Willpower Damage
Superficial willpower damage represents minor damage to the characters will. Usually this will not immediately negatively impact the character, however sustained superficial willpower damage that is not treated can escalate to Willpower Damage.
When a character takes superficial willpower damage a box of willpower that is unimpacted will receive a / through it to represent superficial damage. If there are insufficient unmarked willpower damage boxes available to absorb the superficial willpower damage then the remaining superficial willpower damage is dealt as willpower damage instead.
Superficial Willpower Damage is ignored when considering whether the character has entered Drone State unless they are impacted by items which would cause that to occur.
Willpower Damage
Willpower damage represents significant events that impact the subjects will. When a character receives willpower damage they fill willpower boxes with an X representing willpower damage beginning with existing superficial willpower damage. If this causes the remaining willpower the character has to fall below the number of Drone Damage they have then the character enters a Drone State
Becoming Automatized
A character becomes Automatized if their willpower is ever reduced to 0. This represents a permanent Drone State and once this has occurred the characters will may not be restored without extreme measures.
Often Hives will employ Automatized Drone's as decoys to infiltrate other groups or counter hive squads. Because they are difficult to return to conscious will after entering this state, characters who have entered this state can often be leveraged to feign recovery only to later betray their rescuers.
Without instructions from the Hive, an autonomized drone may not be able to make decisions on its own and may become unresponsive and docile to all stimulus from the world around them.
Not all Hives will seek to autonomize their Drone's. While such a state provides some safety from deconditioning, it introduces an orchestrational burden on the Hive itself requiring it to directly instruct all Drones at all times and limit it's influence to the number of Drones it is capable of influencing in this way. Often hives that limit their elimination of willpower are able to grow to larger sizes and can leverage that size to constrict any drones whom experience invasive thoughts.