Abilitech

In Hiveswap, an Abilitech is a special kind of action ability that can be performed by a character either in or out of Strife. Abilitech's resemble the Strife Techniques found in Homestuck in many ways, except in that an Abilitech, while often being applicable during a strife, can also be utilized freely at any time for purposes that are not necessarily combative, and an Abilitech does not necessarily have to have a combative functionality. A character's Abilitech's are stored in their Techniche. Abilitechs can represent either an action performed with an item in the Sylladex, such as Joey's Tap Dance Abilitech, performed with her tap shoes, or a separate ability possessed by the character irrespective of any items that they are carrying, such as Xefros' telekinesis. While an item-based Abilitech is added to the Techniche, the item is not regularly accessible via the Sylladex and its captcha card is not displayed.

In Hiveswap: Act 1, and in a departure from Homestuck itself, in which Abilitechs are not referenced, all strife actions are performed via Abilitechs. Joey accesses her effects derived from her main strife weapon, her flashlight, via an Abilitech, despite the fact that it is presumably also added to her Strife Deck. If this is the case, then it would mean that an item can have a derived Abilitech added to the Techniche while also having its captcha card added to the Strife Deck, despite both actions removing the item from the conventional Sylladex interface, although it may be that the Abilitech is derived from having the Strife Deck in the first place. While the characters in Hiveswap only interact during Strife via Abilitechs and generic actions via the environment, this does not necessarily mean that they are incapable of aggressing foes normally. Perhaps more likely, the reason why no standard battle commands or Strife Techniques are seen in Hiveswap, besides meta-reasoning with respect to gameplay, is because at no point do the characters ever attempt a direct attack or other engagement on an enemy. Rather, they opt to outmaneuver and outsmart foes in an indirect manner using their Abilitechs or other items. As there are relatively few Strife sequences in Hiveswap: Act 1, more traditional Strife Techniques may appear in later acts.

In Homestuck, the concepts of the Abilitech and Techniche are never referenced by name. It is likely that they were not directly conceptualized while the early segments comic were being written. It may be that these abstrata are limited to the protagonists of Hiveswap, similar to how only Guardians can utilize a Guardian Rubric. However, it may also be that characters in Homestuck also have access to a Techniche and/or Abilitechs, but that these are simply never utilized, or utilized but not referenced by name. Notably, Xefros access his Burgundy-blood telekinesis via an Abilitech. In Homestuck, no specific game abstratus for how telekinetic trolls such as Sollux and Aradia activate and use their psychic powers is ever introduced, however they could be doing so via an unnamed or unseen Abilitech, in a manner consistent with Xefros. Sollux HS 3977 (states) that a high level psionic such as he has no need for a specific Strife Specibus allocation. This would be in line with what is seen of Abilitechs in Hiveswap, which can seemingly be used both in and out of combat irrespective of whether or not the user possesses a Strife weapon equipped in their Strife Deck or even has a Strife Specibus allocated.

List of known Abilitechs
...still working on this... one mo