Presumably, all they do is flood your mind with images like this
These items were intended to fix a flaw in our old roll system; they are no longer available, because the new system does not have the problem. If you are an old player who has one, it will be fully refunded.
Decompensators are useful items which can reduce your chances of rolling an overshoot with a particular stat or skill. They're shoved inside your brain, much like amps, which means that they take a brain slot (remember, you only have 3 brain slots). All of them but the most expensive have a 1/3 chance of activating per decompensator of that type installed.
There are four different types:
- For 5 tokens, you can get the cheapest variant which merely stops you from acting. Might be useful for medical tech, but typically considered to be a downgrade.
- For 7 tokens, you can get a slightly better variant which reduces overshoots to a 3, 4, or 5. Useful for skills where an overshoot is bad, such as handiwork or medical tech, but will reduce the overall effectiveness of weapon skills.
- For 10 tokens, you can get the second best type, which reduces overshoots to a 5. Almost universally useful, for any skill. While there are select cases where an overshoot is better than a five, they are outweighed by the flexibility of a five.
- For 20 tokens, you can get a perfect decompensator, which was described as 3 of the ten token type stuck together (although it still takes only a single brain slot). It will always reduce overshoots to a 5. Nobody buys anything except this variant, and that's pretty smart