Five Pebbles
SPOILER WARNING: 5PThis section contains major plot details from the "5P" region and beyond. If you have not progressed past this region, then read no further!
Five Pebbles is the Iterator at the heart of the 
Five Pebbles supercomputer, inside the General Systems Bus subregion. He is 1 of 2 Iterators that 
Slugcat can meet, the other being 
Looks to the Moon.
Appearance
Five Pebbles' puppet is pink and wears an orange cloak. He has gray antennae on either side of his head and wires protruding from the back. Graffiti found in-game depicts him with four yellow dots on his forehead, though they are not visible on his sprite. He is attached to the wall of his chamber via a mechanical arm that allows him to move freely.
Gameplay
Five Pebbles is initially non-aggressive, and his interactions vary based on those of Slugcat. The first time 
Monk or 
Survivor encounters him, Five Pebbles deactivites his gravity, raises Slugcat's Karma to 10, and gives them the Mark of Communication, which allows Slugcat to receive telepathic communication. Meeting him as 
Hunter instead provides the same effect as meeting an 
Echo and adds 5 to Hunter's cycle count. After speaking to Slugcat, he gives directions to escape the facility and ultimately complete the game, before re-activating gravity and directing Slugcat toward his access shaft.
If Slugcat visits Five Pebbles a second time, he is displeased and only lets them stay a short time. On the third visit, he becomes hostile and demands Slugcat leave immediately; if they stay too long, he kills them through unknown means.
SPOILER WARNING: DownpourThis section contains details concerning the Downpour DLC. If you have not yet completed the DLC, then read no further!
Meeting him as 
Gourmand provides the same effect as meeting an Echo, and he opens the gate to the 
Outer Expanse.
As 
Artificer, Five Pebbles reveals the drone following them is a Citizen ID Drone from back when the Ancients used to live there. After resyncing it to his systems, he lets Artificer know that even he can't increase their karma due to the Artificer being bound to the world by their carnal attachment to the world due to their actions against the 
Scavengers. He also informs them that a large pack of Scavengers have been damaging his roof to gather scrap and mechanical parts. This interaction allows Artificer to enter 
Metropolis. Five Pebbles does not kill Artificer if they stay too long or return to his structure. He also reads 
Pearls due to Looks to The Moon being inaccessible in Artificer's campaign.
Meeting him as 
Spearmaster neither increases karma nor grants them the Mark of Communication; instead, he extracts a special Pearl from their chest. After reading the Pearl, Five Pebbles becomes furious, kills the Overseer that follows Spearmaster, and throws Spearmaster and the Pearl out of his chamber. Returning to his chamber a second time causes Five Pebbles to immediately kill Spearmaster without warning.
About
Five Pebbles is one of 7 known Iterators, working to solve the Great Problem: How to ascend beyond the cycle of reincarnation without using Void Fluid. The problem was so great to the Ancients that they created huge, complex superstructures high above the ground, large enough to house cities atop them. The artificial intelligences within worked to solve the problem and their failure to do so drove many, including Five Pebbles, to madness. In his frustration, Five Pebbles began an experiment to create an organism capable of self-replication and rewriting the self-destruction taboo out of his organic cells. The process of this experiment is described in the Pearl found in 
Chimney Canopy. Doing so deprived Looks to the Moon of her water supply, eventually causing the whole facility to collapse and leaving her in an incapacitated state until Hunter revives her with the green 
Neuron Fly containing slag keys. When Looks to the Moon forced communications with Five Pebbles to plead for him to stop the excess water consumption, he reacted with rage, as Looks to the Moon had interrupted him at "the worst possible time" and caused his experiment to turn into the 
Rot instead. By now, it was too late for Looks to the Moon, as she succumbed to her lack of water. Additionally, he created the Rot infestation in the 
Garbage Wastes region, by dropping infected material there in an attempt to get rid of the Rot in his own superstructure.
Dialogue
Trivia
- Five Pebbles reveals that his hardware, and by extension the other remaining Iterators' superstructures, is succumbing to damage by time. According to him, and visual cues in-game, Looks to the Moon is worse off.
- Five Pebbles' puppet has no HP in his code, rendering him unkillable.
- Despite this, if Slugcat manages to hit the puppet, he defends himself by responding violently, interrupting his dialogue and killing Slugcat.
SPOILER WARNING: DownpourThis section contains details concerning the Downpour DLC. If you have not yet completed the DLC, then read no further!
- Because of
Artificer’s possession of a Citizen ID, he is not capable of causing direct harm to them, and does not kill them if they re-enter his room. He also reads any 
Pearls brought to him by Artificer, due to Looks to the Moon's absence from the campaign. Colored Pearls are labelled and stored on the bottom right of his chamber, mirroring his own Pearl collection on the left. This behavior is the same as when Spearmaster shows Pearls to Looks to the Moon inside her facility.
- If Remix option Key Item Tracking is disabled, any Pearls left in his room disappear.
- If Slugcat throws a
Singularity Bomb in his chamber, Five Pebbles reacts with surprise and throws both Slugcat and the Singularity Bomb out through his access shaft. This causes Slugcat to be caught in the resulting explosion and die.
- A glitch may occur if Slugcat throws two Singularity Bombs in quick succession, in which case Five Pebbles does not throw the Slugcat or Singularity Bomb out. His puppet is affected by the Singularity Bomb's gravity pull. However, unlike Looks to the Moon, Five Pebbles cannot be killed in this manner.
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