Tactical Doll

"The truth is much more complicated than you think."

This article is written from a Lore perspective. It contains spoilers and different reference materials might be contradictory.

^RF Kar98kKar98k  is the poster girl of Girls' Frontline and an armed civilian Tactical Doll working for Griffin and Kryuger.

 GinGin , an early AS-B service Doll designed and sold by Universal Anything Services.

A Tactical Doll (战术人形), also called T-Doll, is an AI-piloted android originally designed to serve as an easily replaceable fire platform for military operations. Early generation Dolls were unmistakably robots, but the standard form of Tactical Dolls came to be that of humans as the need of easier human-machine interaction appeared. While Girls' Frontline only features female Dolls, male Dolls exist within the story and playable ones have been introduced by Project Neural Cloud. After seeing heavy use in World War Three, Tactical Dolls were made available on the civilian market after the war and non-combatant dolls were made commercially available. As of 2062, most T-Dolls are manufactured by IOP and can be found in use by national armies, police forces, PMCs, security companies, civilian companies and private citizens. Griffin & Kryuger combat forces exclusively employs T-Dolls.

In modern times, the term “Doll” specifically designates robots who embark a Neural Cloud, while androids with simpler programming like the Cyclops are called “automatons” or "droids". "Tactical Doll" refers specifically to the modern models of dedicated combat androids. Early combat dolls and unarmed civilian dolls are usually called "Autonomous Dolls" (自律人形), intermediate models can be called "military A-Dolls" (军用自律人形), privately employed civilian dolls can also be called Domestic Dolls (家用人形).

In the games

Girls' Frontline

For a detailed list, see the T-Doll Index. There are 429 playable Tactical Dolls as of 3 March 2024.

Tactical Doll Archetypes	Abbreviation	Combat Notes
Handgun (手枪)	HG	Low resource consumption, potentially high evasion, but lack all other stats. Skills affect an entire squad (either buff friendly or debuff enemy)
Submachine gun (冲锋枪)	SMG	One of the two tank classes, combined very high health with high evasion, high rate of fire, below average damage and accuracy.
Rifle (步枪)	RF	Highest alpha damage (damage per shot), good accuracy, slowest rate of fire, lowest health and evasion.
Assault Rifle (突击步枪)	AR	Jack-of-all-trades, good all-around stats but excel at no specific role.
Machine Gun (机枪)	MG	Highest DPS (Damage Per Second), very high health, average accuracy and evasion, but require loading between short firing burst (causing no damage during loading time).
Shotgun (霰彈槍)	SG	The second tank class, having highest HP and having additional stat of armour, the typical meat shield with good crowd control.

Tactical Dolls have the following stats:

• Health will improve from leveling up.
• Damage , Evasion , Accuracy & Rate of Fire don't directly improve by leveling up, but their maximum limits will increase and have to be upgraded manually by Powerup/Enhancement.
• Armour , exclusively for shotguns.
• Movement Speed is permanent and will not change.
• Rarity
  • Rarity is identified according to the numbers of stars of each Tactical Doll.
  • Tactical Dolls' rarity classifications are the following, from left to right: General -> Rare -> Epochal -> Legendary. They mirror the Doll's neural cloud rating in the story.

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Within the story of the game, most playable Dolls belong to the Griffin & Kryuger base directed by the Commander. They are either purchased from IOP (through Production), who refits civilian Dolls with a Fire Control Core, or recovered from the field after having been lost or abandoned by other commanders (through map drops). Starting with the events of Dual Randomness, Sangvis Ferri Dolls, most notably Ringleaders, have been inducted into G&K through Protocol Assimilation.

Dolls with key roles in the main story may not actually be under the Commander's orders, but only playable for gameplay reason. This is the case of Squad 404, who only occasionally works for G&K, and Task Force DEFY, who are not affiliated with G&K at all. Starting with Fixed Point, Dolls that are not story-critical can be played while not being affiliated with G&K, such as ^SMG SP9SP9  and ^SMG SterlingSterling  who work for the Stasi, or ^SMG VP1915VP1915  and ^SMG Savage 99Savage 99  who work for Griffin Lyons. In Longitudinal Strain, Dolls previously playable but never seen in the story have appeared for the first time under other factions. It is not explained if they are to be interpreted as merely the same model.

The game also doesn't restrict the use of Dolls who may not be canonically available at certain points in the story, such as members of AR Team or Task Force DEFY, or the majority of the Commander's Dolls after the Paldiski Incident of Polarized Light.

Many Dolls in Girls' Frontline identify with the culture of origin of their assigned weapon. In the index, the background of Dolls who are not part of a story team depends on their weapon's country of origin:

• The background of American Dolls is an eagle with the motto from the Great Seal of the United States “E Pluribus Unum” (“One From Many”), and the United States Capitol with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers.
• The background of German Dolls is a cross with the West German motto “Einigkeit, Recht, Freiheit” (“Unity, Justice, Freedom”), and the Brandenburg Gate.
• The background of Russian Dolls is a raised fist in a five-pointed star (both Soviet symbols) and “УРА!!!” (“Ura”), the traditional battle cry of Russian militaries, and the Spasskaya Tower with a line of what could be T-90 tanks.
• The background of Chinese Dolls is an Asian dragon with the stylized character 武 (wǔ, “military”), and a part of the Great Wall of China.
• The background of Italian Dolls is a centurion helmet with GPNVG-18-like night vision goggles, the motto of the Italian military “Una Vis, Una Vox” (“One Strength, One Voice”) and the Coliseum.
• The background of Belgian Dolls is a roaring lion with the national motto “L'union fait la force” (“Unity Makes Strength”) and the Gravensteen Castle.
• Dolls of other nationalities display a Griffin & Kryuger background.

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Project Neural Cloud

For a detailed list, see the PNC:Doll Index. There are 70 playable Dolls as of 29 July 2023.

There are five Dolls classes in this game:

• Warriors, who usually fight in close combat.
• Guards, who focus enemy fire and protect their allies.
• Snipers, who fight with long-range attacks.
• Specialists, who provide buffs for their allies and debuffs for enemies.
• Medics, who heal and protect their allies.

Each Doll has an upgradeable rarity and 18 attributes: Max HP, ATK, Hashrate, Physical DEF, Operand DEF, Attack Speed, Crit Rate, Crit Damage, Physical Penetration, Operand Penetration, Dodge Rate, Post-Battle HP Regen, Skill Haste, Debuff Resistance, Backlash, Damage Boost, Injury Mitigation and Healing Effect.

For more gameplay information, see Doll Info Menu.

Unlike Girls' Frontline, few Dolls in Project Neural Cloud are Tactical Dolls. Most are civilian Dolls without a Fire Control Core, who are given the ability to fight due to the game taking place in the virtual world of Magrasea. Some are confirmed or suspected to be the same Doll as Girls' Frontline before they joined Griffin & Kryuger. A few playable characters such as  HannahHannah ,  TuringTuring and  EosEos are not actually Dolls at all despite being generically designated so, but purely virtual Magrasea agents.

Playable Dolls are members of Oasis or allied factions, but deployable parties in gameplay rarely align with their availability in canon, and some missions actually restrict deployed units to match the story. Dolls released alongside a personal story event usually canonically join Oasis during the event's story, but some Dolls are canonically part of Oasis long before they become playable, such as  HorizonHorizon .

Development and history

Skeletal-Frame Robots precursors

In the early 21st century, the bursting of the Relic bubble led to a global financial crisis, forcing companies around the world to look for a way to lower production costs or make technological breakthroughs, opening the age of automation. The Russian Federation was the leader of this race during the first decade thanks to the engineering legacy of the Soviet Union: while American, European and East Asian industrial machines and robotic arms were more high-tech, Kiev's automated research center was very competitive with its focus on ease of maintenance and price point made them very competitive.

The 2020s saw great development in fixed or wheeled heavy-weight automated mechanical arms, CNC tools, automatic circuit boards etching tools and similar equipment. Meanwhile, legged robots remained at conceptual or model stage due to their cost. The top engineering campuses of various nations produced miniature androids and multi-legged designs, becoming the foundation for later moving joints and balance designs. Be the end of the 2020s, conceptual designs in science exhibitions presented androids the same size as humans and multi-legged robots reaching 2 meter-tall.

Interest in this new branch of robotics soared soon after the First Beilan Island Incident as a way to replace human laborers and soldiers in the increasingly dangerous environment of Earth.

The precursors to modern dolls are more accurately described as robots rather than android since production constraints gave them appearances far removed from humans. The first Skeletal-Frame Robots adapted for assembly-line production were developed in 2033 by a team led by Havier Witkin from LBT General Manufacturing (雷柏特通用制造公司). They had an autonomy of 6 hours for 4 hours of recharge, were versatile and able to quickly swap their equipment to reduce maintenance time, and their AI program could be changed to adapt to a variety of jobs. This list of specification made them revolutionary at the time and required two years of tremendous work to produce the final prototype.

Experimental models were internally designated ALR-50(T) for “Auto Labor Robot (Testing)”. The first batch of production models ALR-50 took 130 man-hours to produce, which was more than the units would produce in their operational life. This hitch was quickly improved on. The ALR-50E2 could work 20-hours days, but its design was too simple to enable it to swiftly change its own equipment configuration and later evolved into the ALR-51C (T), a skeletal-frame industrial robot combining operational life and effective interchangeability, able to swap parts and suitable software depending on the requirements of the job. Human-scaled (though frightening due to its exposed head sensors), it incorporated 4 major limbs and 12 large joints able to simulate 24 human-like movements. It could be fitted with 48 different tool arms and suites as required to carry out various tasks. It could support 300 kilograms of weight, and had an internal batteries lasting 6 hours when wired power supply was unavailable. In theory it would have a lifespan of 9800 hours, though in practice it was closer to 9600 hours.

In order to support the Siberian Lifeline Program, aiming to restore the Siberian railway and nearby industrial facilities in contaminated areas, the Neo-Soviet Union opened a bid for automated machines able to operate 24 hours a day in Yellow Zones, dubbed the Universal Labor Robot project. Witkin's ALR-51C (T) was submitted by the Production and Technology R&D Consortium 766th Production and Technical Equipment Administration Department (生产和技术研发联合体第766生产和技术设备曹理局), and won at the end of the 6 months bidding period. While clumsy, the ALR-51C (T) still met the most requirement out of all bidding projects, only lacking in initial deployment time. It was simple and crude but cheap and sufficient for the project. Because of this, Witkin's ambitions to work on enhanced ALR frames were not supported by further funding. Meanwhile, wheeled, tracked and air-cushion hover robots development flourished under the lead of Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing in Romania, General Dynamics in the United States, SIMATIC in Europe and other industrial groups. Dozens of automated machines ranging from 0.5 to more than 10 meters would become the base for future military robots.

Despite winning the bid, the ALR-51C's complex design made it fall far behind the ALR-50E2 in strength tests and its flexibility tests were disappointing because no suitable AI had been developed yet. Witkin knew the ALR-51C could be improved into a revolutionary model with a suitable AI and more involved design, but the world situation was tensing and the market was shrinking. When work began on the ALR-52P series, even Witkin went to work on improving this model and forgot the ALR-51C. The ALR-51C was given new life 15 months later by Westchester United Electronics Manufacturing Company's (韦杰斯特联合电子制造公司) 6th development studio head, Mihacj (米哈奇). Westchester had accepted a contract from the Pan-European Alliance to develop an autonomous system capable of using the Assault Artillery combat platform. Mihacj's team wanted to build a test platform themselves to gather initial data, but this proved extremely costly and he instead turned to external sources to buy an already existing platform to test on. This proved difficult too as the specifications needed were high for the current market, and Mihacj would have abandoned the project if he hadn't met Witkin during a mixer. Now Chief Robotics Project Supervisor, Witkin took a liking to Mihacj and pulled the necessary strings to sell the ALR-51C's blueprints and most of its databases to Westchester at low price. Two months later, Mihacj's project had adapted the operating system of the platform and made a breakthrough.

This model was very responsive to commands and its body structure was revamped to improve its stability, making its shape closer to modern dolls. It was known as the TD-01, for “Testing Doll”, and known to its designers as "Baby". The TD-01 had unprecedented operational flexibility, enabling it to cover the functions of several different existing platforms and pleasing the Pan-European military, which could reduce the operational cost of its Assault Artillery vehicles and increase the command efficiency of their mechanized units. Westchester reaped the profits, and the reputation of Mihacj was boosted. Mihacj's next idea was to replace the operating system used by the TD-01 by a dedicated AI, and began a joint development with LBT and Witkin. The two friends and their teams enjoyed a considerable budget and a dedicated research building with its own machine shop and multi-terminal computing system. Six months later, the TD-01 had received a strengthened structure, a revamped software, and a small quantity of artificial muscle fibers to test their power output. This model was called the CSD-02, for “Common Strength Doll”, and went through a rapid testing-iteration process, Mihacj's AI developers using the constant influx of data to tweak its processes. The CSD-02 was becoming an effective AI-piloted platform, but the structural complexity was still a problem. Witkin unenthusiastically searched for inspiration in the ALR-52P's design to try and reduce part count.

In parallel to the internal development of the CSD-02, other companies like Scheppel Advanced Technology Co.(斯切贝尔先进科技工业公司) sought to purchase IP rights to the platform to adapt it to their own purposes. Scheppel had become interested in the CSD-02 from AI experimental reports in order to fulfill a military contract. The military had troubles getting test data from its Assault Artillery systems because of the high casualty rates from its manned operators, and their main partner Westchester had already shifted its attention to AI systems when the problem arose. Scheppel filled this void to provide the military a doll capable of using Assault Artillery systems, with increased load capacity and force sensors in critical joints for easy data collection, and delivered the platform in 2041. Dolls equipped with this sensor package were designated CSD-03H, and their sensors system was reused in later models to improve agility and movement precision.

After Northern and Central Europe were swept by contamination during the 2035 Northern Lights Incident, the Soviets and the Europeans negociated the deployment of the then-confidential ALR models to the new contamination zones. The International Service for Military-Technical Cooperation was set up and Witkin was sent to Ukraine to found Important Operations Prototype Manufacturing Company, or IOP.

In November of 2036, IOP unveiled the ALR-52P, widely recognized as the first model of skeletal doll due to the secrecy in which the Soviet government held the 51C (T). The 52P shared the 51C (T) 12-joint for 4-limb structure, with the addition of 24 smaller joints to increase its range of motion. It could simulate 72 human-like motions and choose among 128 different tools. Its maximum load and battery operation time was increased by 42% and its head unit had been changed from using exposed sensors to a liquid crystal display to perform basic interactions with human beings. Countries from Central and Eastern Europe ordered large quantities of 52Ps and IOP also effected a wealth of technology transfers and shared copyrights with other companies that had not set foot into the doll robot industry. Over the next few years, many countries scrambled to develop their own models of dolls with specifications following their particular strategic vision. While the doll robot industry had its first breakthrough, legged, wheeled and tracked robots also continued to evolve. In 2036, the Soviet Union abandoned screw-driven all-terrain vehicles in favor of a new generation of legged platforms. In 2037, Kirov Robotics’ two-legged 10-ton platform, Chelyabinsk Mechanics’ two-legged 15-ton platform, Lower Tajir Locomotive Works’ 4-legged 20-ton platform and Omsk Transport Machinery Plant’s six-legged 35-ton platform all passed muster and the same year, General Dynamics rolled out the first generation of 8-legged all-terrain platforms.

The development of dolls and Witkin's efforts were of particular interest to the newly established Rossartrists, who believed fully automated labor would be critical to the evolution of society.

First Generation Tactical Dolls

Witkin sensed the dolls market could go beyond military organizations and spent time finding partners to solve the incoming technical challenges of advanced doll systems and raise interest in the civilian and security markets. Witkin registered three wholly-owned subsidiaries of IOP in the US, Ukraine and China to find local partners. The Ukraine branch entered a partnership with the rapidly growing Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing, who were more interested in the toughness of the ALR-52P than the advanced technologies of the CSD-03H and invested large amounts of money in IOP while also offering to provide AI researchers.

In 2040, amidst the rising international tensions of the Second Algerian War, Sangvis Ferri unveiled its Ripper combat doll model, built on the ALR-52P frame. Designed with military specs, it boasted a bulletproof casing, multifunctional helmet and could accommodate one weapon. However, the Rippers were slow and clumsy, making a poor display during the 2042 Ukrainian Civil War when the 20 first-generation units were quickly reduced to scraps by the trained militias. A second, better armored generation was deployed, but they were still too slow and allowed human enemies to take aim at their weak points.

Meanwhile, IOP ignored the military doll market and focused on civilian service dolls. Anticipating the mass exodus of the young population of Europe after the Ukrainian Civil War, Witkin focused on making a doll closely resembling a human being to serve as caregiver and workforce in countries with a growing imbalance in age ratio. The first generation of service doll based on the CSD frame with the appearance of adult women, the “Nymphs”, rolled out in 2043. It could simulate 12 human expressions and 128 human movements, efficiently replaced the working population and responded to any command from their clients due to not having any programmed negative emotions. After polishing the Nymphs through the first batches, the model quickly became a must-have in the service industry. By 2044, almost 36% of retirees in Eastern Europe had purchased an IOP service doll to help in their daily lives, with positives feedbacks reaching 85%. While doll technology had its successful break into the civilian market, the international military market rejected dolls more than ever. Armies around the world scrambling to upgrade their arsenal preferred large-scale multi-legged, wheeled and tracked robots capable of swiftly traversing mountainous terrain.

At the start of World War Three in 2045, Sangvis Ferri and IOP fell under the control of the Neo-Soviet Union's Ministry of Defense. The ministry didn't trust combat dolls technology and both companies were only ordered transport dolls to serve on supply lines for the first two years of the war, totaling over 10 000 units. By May 2047, manpower shortage on the frontlines and the United States' landing in Europe convinced the ministry to order combat dolls for field testing. Sangvis Ferri used the Ripper as the base for the specialized Jaeger and Vespid models. Because they had never worked on military models before, IOP chose to militarize the CSD frame, eschewing SF's specialization paradigm to keep an all-purpose platform. The CSD's ability to replicate a wide range of human movements made it proficient in the operation of different types of weapons. Designs were submitted by June 2047 and production began, with the ministry planning to test the dolls on various frontlines before deployment against the US military, but when the US launched an armored assault campaign in Germany in August 2047, the ministry had no choice but bolster their defense lines with barely tested combat dolls. Dolls AI at the time lacked the necessary adaptability to survive autonomously on a battlefield, had to be commanded at close range, the SF model lacked agility and the IOP suffered from constant malfunctions. Few of the 8000 units survived the campaign, but they nevertheless crushed the armored assault with startling efficiency, convincing the ministry to invest into combat dolls, deploying them on the Lybian front as early as November 2047. IA controls quickly became semi-smart, with units devising battle plans automatically. Three years later in 2050, SF and IOP models displayed vastly improved performances during Operation Tradewind, fighting alongside multi-legged assault platforms and swiftly breaking mountain defenses in Southern Italy and pressuring Rome to surrender.

Sangvis Ferri became an important partner for IOP as production demand became higher and higher, and IOP subcontracted part of its production to SF and provided them technical documents to modify the Tactical Dolls. The Jaegers produced by SF became widely used on the frontlines while the CSD series was falling out of favor because its autonomy and frequent malfunctions due to its complexity made it unreliable on the battlefield, and they were relegated to gun platforms used by the military police and derided as target practice by frontline personnel. IOP lost contracts to SF, which enraged Witkin, and the relations between the two companies soured. Witkin nevertheless pushed for versatile Tactical Dolls and worked to improve the AI and reliability of the CSD series, but didn't get satisfying results, demoralizing IOP's teams.

In 2049, Mihacj discovered from one of his students articles about an underground research group called 90wish. Witkin was impressed by the technological capacities and development drive of the group and tried to contact them, but the group seemed completely inaccessible. Witkin learned from the Russian Internal Internet Security Bureau that 90wish was in an internal debacle, as all its members had not approved going public. Through a contact in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Witkin learned of two former 90wish members whose lives were threatened by their former comrades: Persicaria and Lycoris. Witkin hired a PMC to escort them to IOP's buildings, which succeeded though the PMC soldiers suffered casualties. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was also involved in the mission to secure Persicaria. Both scientists agreed to work for IOP under false identities as members of a company called Hermit, contracting with IOP. At 90wish, Persica and Lycoris had created the Inverted Forest framework, a neural simulation framework which would eventually lead to the creation of the Neural Clouds powering Second Generation T-Dolls. Hermit's work included Lycoris' tree-shaped command system based on his AI prototype Elisa, which enabled great direct command efficiency and was advantageous to implement a variety of algorithms and encryption modes. Lycoris and Persicaria enabled several breakthrough in the CSD series' development, leading to the CSD-08A and CSD-08B models, the experimental IAD series and the production ACD series, regaining the favors of military clients for their reliability, resilience and capacity to be used both on frontlines and as manual laborers.

The ACD series were deployed in the Nordic campaigns and were used as sentinels instead of frontline fighters due to their lacking AI. IOP had sacrificed flexibility in favor of fewer part count and structural stability and added layers of armor, increased the density of the titanium alloy used in the framework to make Tactical Dolls more resilient. They made a smaller head unit to reduce their target surface and encased the camera unit in 10mm steel plates. Visual control and guidance modules were relocated in the armored thorax and relied on waveguides rather than physical cables. Interface ports in the neck and lower spine allowed an operator to take control if the AI system was lost. The ACD-50 had a scanning radius of 220m, could function in action for 28 hours on full charge or 55 hours on standby and was cheap to buy and maintain. The ACD-51 entered production during the last year of the war and lowered the center of gravity to make using heavy weaponry more reliable, expanded internal storage and load capacities to solve ammo supplies problems, but reduced the scanning range to a radius of 200 meters and the autonomy to 21 hours in action or 48 hours on standby. These downgrades were of no consequence for the military clients compared to the improvements. The additional R and T series were reconnaissance and special operations models produced in small quantities.

A major incident occurred during Operation Black Forest in 2050, when an advanced CSD-119A Doll and her unit affiliated with the British Royal Dragoons were ordered to open fire on civilians, but refused to comply and deserted. This put the military in an awkward position, as it demonstrated that Dolls could in fact disobey orders, but they would have to admit that they had given illegal orders. The affair was covered up, the responsible Doll was trialed on 13 November 2050 but released without a sentence, and militaries limited the adoption of Dolls with advanced AI. The truth behind Operation Black Forest would only be revealed in 2064.

The ACD-series Tactical Dolls were the most used during World War Three, with 11 730 units produced, including 2300 from Sangvis Ferri's factories.

Second Generation Tactical Dolls

A-Dolls and rebellious Doll.

The civilian dolls market grew after the end of World War Three as the production, service and PMC sectors were short in manpower. IOP enjoyed a comfortable market share thanks to its relations with major PMCs and international industrial companies. After the end of World War Three, Private Military Companies were hired by the weakened governments to control growing population unrest in Western Europe and the new colonies in Africa. Faced with dissident factions equipped with the abundant military gear abandoned at the frontlines, many PMCs quickly turned to Tactical Dolls. An early adopter of Tactical Dolls and a major client of IOP was Griffin and Kryuger (G&K), who heavily relied on cheaper armed civilian Tactical Dolls. G&K was given a direct feedback channel to Hermit, enabling Persicaria to improve the CSD-06, CSD-07 and CSD-08 series, develop the SST-02A and SST-03 models and develop the Service Dolls series dedicated to civilian markets, with emotional simulation software and gendered appearances, and later improve man-machine interaction with attractive appearances and customization capabilities. Receiving contracts from governments, business companies, civilian services companies and private individuals, IOP's revenues boomed.

In 2052, the Soviet National Research Center announced their answer to the growing problem of short battery autonomy in all kinds of autonomous robots by designing a contained plasma, slow release and discharge power cell, enhancing the autonomy of dolls from 20 to 150 hours. This new kind of power cell was also safer due to its strong resilience to EM interference complemented by an automatic conversion of its power into a powerful electrical pulse when the magnetic field containing the plasma was broken, instead of an explosion. By 2054, Persicaria had completed her Etching Theory and laid the groundwork for adapting 90wish's Zener Protocol to T-Dolls. The result was the concept of Second Generation T-Doll, using a modular chassis based on the prototype from the earlier IAD series. Witkin supported the continuous improvement of T-Dolls, but refused to add funds to Lycoris' autonomous AI research. This frustrated Lycoris, who decided to join Sangvis Ferri. SF hired G&K to escort Lycoris to their underground research labs, with his subsequent research results as payment. Lycoris' defection led to Witkin increasing even more Persicaria's funding, and in 2057 she founded 16Lab, a first-party manufacturer of IOP.

The same year, 16Lab improved the Zener Protocol into the Dummy Network system, introducing a differentiation between mainframe dolls with complete software and hardware capabilities, and dummy dolls with reduced functions. While this increased the cost of mainframes, it lowered the cost of dummies and made the overall price of a dummied team lower. This created a serious price advantage for IOP. A year later in 2058, Persicaria finalized her personal project: Imprint Technology, enabling T-Dolls to use already existing firearms. Imprint Technology was open-source, but 16Lab's proficiency over its inner workings resulted in IOP dolls still having the advantage in the market. After World War Three, high grade weaponry was supplied exclusively to military units and banned from civilian market. PMCs such as Griffin and Kryuger instead used outdated weapons ranging from the late 19th century to the 2010s.

All IOP dolls included Imprint softwares and Dummy Networking as a standard, and were sold in modular packages, finalizing the specifications for the Second Generation T-Dolls envisioned by Persicaria. She published the technical specifications, hoping other companies would follow them to unify all dolls control systems and production standards on the market. In 2060, on G&K's request, IOP purchased the Neural Cloud recording system, reducing data losses during operations.

Over at Sangvis Ferri, in late 2054, Lycoris installed Elisa as the mainframe for computing human orders and relaying it to T-Dolls, making orders management extremely efficient though SF dolls were expensive to produce and Elisa suffered from lapses of consciousness Lycoris still needed to resolve. As SF established a new Dolls manufacturing plant in a dangerous but resources-rich area, Lycoris exploited their robust manufacturing capabilities to eschew software compatibility with a wide range of firearms and develop miniaturized particle weapons and mount them on dolls, then testing the results and iterating. Individual SF dolls had better performance as a result and their capabilities was more unified. On G&K's suggestion, the Dummy Network technology was presented to Lycoris but he showed no interest, too engrossed in his AI research. When Sangvis Ferri disappeared as a manufacturer after the Butterfly Incident of 2061, all their work was lost in Area S09 and IOP basically controlled the Tactical Doll market, be it military dolls, armed civilian dolls or unarmed civilian dolls. Persicaria further developed the modularity and safety of T-Dolls by implementing the Fire Control Core concept.

The goal of IOP to standardize tactical and civilian dolls design was reached after 2062. IOP regrouped military dolls into the ACD series, while creating six civilian models grouped into the SST and SSD series.

The SST series (with the T standing for “Tactical”) had good processor speed, high weapon compatibility and a lot of memory dedicated to human-machine interaction and emotions simulation. Their flagship product, the SST-05, was based on an early special warfare model and had lower specs than other models, but were widely available and had large Neural Cloud databases, meaning a lot of combat data was readily available to make dolls immediately efficient. The SST-05A, the most used model in G&K's frontline troops, was an upgrade compatible with the SST-05's combat data, with lesser software requirements and better hardware performance. The SST-05A2 was a custom-made special warfare model with performances close to military dolls and independently encrypted storage to make them safe to use on black operations, but costly and with limited storage dedicated to emotional simulation in favor of other specialized software.

The SSD series was intended to cover both the civilian and tactical market, with a large memory space dedicated to emotional simulation and third party interaction systems easily customizable by civilians and hundreds of appearance modules on the market, while still being compatible with Fire Control Cores for security and police applications. The SSD-62D was intended for the service industry and the SSD-62F for ceremonial purposes. The SSD-62G is intended for secret service duties as an intermediate level between police and military dolls, they are more expensive and less available, but very performant as they are customized for specific tasks.

Doll usage in high-skills occupations became so ubiquitous that models were created specifically to perform maintenance on other Dolls, such as Svarog Heavy Industries' DMT-X series, and IOP created scientist Dolls to contribute to the advancement of Dolls design.

As an example of T-Doll market price, a Gaul-series second-generation Tactical Doll was worth 540,000 rubbles in the 2050s.

Later improvements

"This is classified information!"

This article contains unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.

In 2061, Persica formed the AR Team, an experimental T-Doll squad based on the brain scan of a human. One of the Dolls later integrated to the team was ^SMG RO635RO635 , the first Third Generation T-Doll. Unlike previous Dolls who needed a base personality preset, RO635 was created with a blank core logic and exposed to various simulated, and later real situations in order to “enrich” her mind and personality in a non-deterministic fashion. Through self-determination, Persica believed third generation Dolls would be able to develop genuine love for themselves and the world around them, and bear powerful emotions that would lead to illogical actions, but also give them a new form of strength. Such capabilities were also part of Lyco's goal in AI development. The general public pushed back against the emergence of more independent Dolls, preferring second-generation Neural Clouds.

At some point, Statesec contractor Doctor Hume led private experiments aiming to reproduce the human memory system in Dolls, and especially the ability to recover lost memories through specific stimuli. His efforts led to the creation of Erma and the Summer Garden system.

After the Butterfly Incident, Griffin and Kryuger captured a Sangvis Ferri SPzH3000 Tactical Doll Architect after she surrendered. Her weaponry was studied by 16Lab and the ASST system was upgraded with Sangvis Ferri heavy weaponry operation technology, creating T-Dolls groups capable of operating weapons such as mortars and anti-tank shells launchers, dubbed Heavy Ordnance Corps (HOC). HOCs teams integrate a spotter, a weapon operator, a weapon loader and sometimes a guard. The need for multiple T-Dolls acting as a unit may be because they are civilian T-Dolls of lower physical capabilities compared to Sangvis Ferri T-Dolls.

Svarog Heavy Industries partnered with Griffin & Kryuger and trademarked a High-Altitude Directed EMP Bombing Run service to enable the capture of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders.

In 2094, during the First Antarctic War, the Union of Rossartrism Nations Coalition used the Bear's Den secret site to mass-produce clones of Noel and Jefuty, subjects of the Three Goddesses project, intending to include their DNA in next generations of Tactical Dolls. The clones were destroyed during operation Kindle.

Technical design

Orders management

Most Dolls are capable of taking simple decisions for themselves, and when authorized can have hobbies and socialize by themselves when off-duty. However, decisions relying on computationally complex factors are more difficult for Dolls, can cause dramatic misjudgements and can make Dolls adverse to taking their own decisions. Commanders can give T-Dolls standing orders, or outfit them with preset stratagems so they can perform automated actions.

While Dolls have a compulsion to follow any human order and inexperienced Doll may find an abusive owner preferable to abandonment or destruction, they may disobey depending on circumstances or leave their master and go stray, especially to escape destruction or situations where they know they are being misused. Some Dolls may also be abandoned by their owner. Stray Dolls lose their software identification keys after one month, locking them out of official Dolls services such as charging stations, repair tanks and global positioning services, and they become easy fodder for parts resellers and criminals. Stray Doll communities are known to exist, relying on solar panels for recharge. Emancipated Dolls who live and work independently like humans are also known to exist, though rare. There is one known case of a Doll committing suicide by erasing its own neural cloud, though it was a special model.

A root instruction will inflict structural damage to a Doll's Neural Cloud if they try to harm a human without authorization. Individuals capable of overwriting this base order are exceedingly rare, Dier being one of them. T-Dolls may be authorized to harm humans under set circumstances. T-Dolls can teach a human how to command T-Doll echelons in emergency situations. ^MG RPK-16RPK-16  is an extreme case of a T-Doll purposefully built without this root instruction.

The Three Laws of Robotics of Isaac Asimov are sometimes invoked in relation to Dolls but are considered naive and unrealistic within the GFL universe.

Command Protocol

A command protocol is a time-limited authority a T-Doll can receive to lead a team. A command protocol has been used in cyberspace to create simulated echelons.

List of known dolls with/once had/speculated having command protocols:

• ^RF DSR-50DSR-50  (Her unit's involvement during operation Deep Dive, also her being able to operate alone to fulfill her end of the deal struck with UMP45)
• ^AR K2K2  (K2 was given command protocol and a squadron to guard a city ruin)
• ^AR OTs-14OTs-14  (OTs-14 Groza leads a squadron of T-Dolls of Russian origin, she is speculated as having command protocol)
• ^RF IWS 2000IWS 2000  (IWS leads a squadron of T-Dolls of Austrian origin, her squadron operated in cooperation with other T-doll echelons during chapter 8 night, she is speculated as having command protocol)
• ^HG Welrod MkIIWelrod MkII  (Welrod leads a squadron of T-Dolls of British origin, her squadron took part in the operations during chapter 8 night assisted IWS' squadron, she is speculated as having command protocol)

Command Module

Some T-Dolls are outfitted with a command module, which let them take decisions related to their main objectives and operate independently for short amounts of time. The AR Team could operate as a task force with ^AR M4A1M4A1 's highly-efficient command module, and later with ^SMG RO635RO635 's basic command module. Command modules are resource-intensive and T-Dolls not designed primarily to use them will experience fatigue after using them for long periods of time.

List of known dolls with/once had command module installed:

• ^HG Five-seveNFive-seveN  (57 commented on her installed command module when she overtook the command of PP-90's garrison during event Hitoribocchi)
• ^AR M4A1M4A1  (Leader of AR Team, M4A1 is the first T-Doll with the command module installed known to the newly arrived G&K Commander)
• ^SMG RO635RO635  (RO635's command module was further developed based on combat data fed back from AR Team, later on fine-tuned by commanding Palette Squadron, RO's command module is speculated to be the most advanced version to date)
• ^AR AK-12AK-12  (As observed during Singularity and Continuum Turbulence campaign)

AI delegation

Sangvis Ferri Dolls take orders from the relay mainframe AI Elisa, with orders trickling down the chain of command from Elisa to high-rank Ringleaders, then to lower-rank Ringleaders and finally to standard units.

Exceptions

^SMG UMP45UMP45  was able to delegate her command authority to another T-Doll, ^SMG UMP40UMP40 , to receive commands from her instead of a human commander. When UMP40 died, UMP45 was free to take her own decisions instead of entering stand by mode. The origins of this unique amount of freedom has yet to be explained, it may be because UMP40's last wishes for her freedom were registered as valid orders, because of her origins as Sangvis Ferri T-Doll or because she was modified to cause the Butterfly Incident.

Squad 404 uses the equivalent of a command module containing the data of a commander to simulate human orders and act with total independence. This module is usually held by ^SMG UMP45UMP45  but has also been used by ^SMG UMP9UMP9 , though only UMP45 can use it for long periods of time. It has been suggested that ^AR HK416HK416  could also use it.

Imprint Technology (ASST)

Imprint Technology (烙印技术, sometimes translated "Branding" by fans), officially called "ASST" for Advance Statistic Session Tool, is a software relying on compiled code to improve the proficiency of a T-Doll with specific tools and weapons, providing them an "instinctual" feel of how to best employ it while also being able to track its real-time location. It's an implementation of Etching Theory (蚀刻理论), a general concept to let two objects form a standalone connection that Persica derived from Relic technology.

Imprinting does not prevent a T-Doll from using other weapons and many carry a sidearm and knife with them, but their proficiency with them is reduced compared to their imprinted weapon. An imprint can malfunction if the T-Doll is particularly adverse to the weapon she was assigned.

Though it is sometimes thought that training has no effect on Dolls, it does lead to noticeable improvements and can even enable a Doll to become proficient with a weapon without being Imprinted. Dolls are provided with necessary fundamental skills in the form of data, but benefit from training their decision-making systems to better respond to complex situations.

Imprint Technology was made public in 2057 by 16Lab, who maintained and updated ASST in the long-term. Since 16Lab is a first-party manufacturer for IOP, IOP brand T-Dolls are the most effective when used with Imprint Technology. As an open-source technology, anybody can download the base ASST engine and customize their doll's operational program.

Fire Control Core

A later development by 16Lab, the Fire Control Core (FCC) contains all combat-related software in a physically removable module, making it easy to take away a T-Doll's combat capabilities. The FCC has a number of interface ports to make it fully compatible with any modification of Imprint software. A Doll outfitted with an FCC can wield their weapon with more speed and precision than even highly-trained human soldiers.

Fire Control Cores take up set bandwidths within a T-Doll's operating system, operators can choose to fit lower grade Fire Control Cores to reserve space for other items such as E-War modules. Shotgun imprints take a larger bandwidth compared to other types of weapons. Like other parts of a T-Doll, the FCC can be hacked to hamper the Doll's ability to fight.

Zener Protocol

Zener Cards.

The Zener Protocol (齐纳协议) is a wide area communication protocol built by 90wish and later modified by 16Lab in a doll operation network interface. Similar to Peer-to-Peer technology, it enables a team of dolls to transmit messages to each others without relying on a mainframe or satellite uplink so they can relay human orders and new tactical information. This enables a group of Dolls to function independently without a human command to an extent. It is named after Karl Zener (卡尔·齐讷), who conceived a cards-based experiment for telepathy and extrasensory powers.

Error correction procedures can modify how an individual Doll perceives its environment in case of a mismatch between its sensor data and collated data from other Dolls in the network. This can work against the group in case of a mass hacking, as non-compromised Dolls will become affected as long as the majority is experiencing sensory alteration.

OGAS Protocol

Derived from the large-scale Soviet OGAS system, the OGAS command protocol is used by Sangvis Ferri T-Dolls instead of the Zener Protocol. Due to the fundamental differences between Zener and OGAS (one being mesh-based and the other tree-based), it is difficult for an IOP T-Doll to disguise herself as a Sangvis T-Doll, though not impossible. Old DSI-8 models Sangvis T-Dolls like ^SMG UMP40UMP40  and ^SMG UMP45UMP45  can swap their operating system between Zener and OGAS.

Dummy Network

A special application of the Zener Protocol, Dummy Networking (傀儡网络) is a command network protocol enabling a human command to be received by one doll, who would analyze and relay the command to the rest of its group. A team of dummied dolls functions about 37% more efficiently than a team relying only on Zener Protocol connection.

The protocol was optimized by separating dolls in "mainframes" and "dummies", with only the mainframes having the processor and synchronization software necessary to compute commands. Dummies are cheaper since they only carry imprint, scouting and combat software with minimal hardware functions. As a result, the total price of a dummied squad is lower than a squad of standard dolls. Dummies are made in the semblance of the mainframe so they can be used as decoys. In the manga, which is not accepted as canon, dummies are differentiated visually from the mainframe by their cruder body details, making them look more robotic.

Dummies can operate without a mainframe when activated in autonomous operation mode, but they lack the authorizations to perform some actions like opening fire without order from the mainframe or a human, which reduces the threat level of hacked dummies. The memories of the dummy can later be merged into the mainframe's neural cloud. Dummies can be remote-controlled by a human operator but this is a very rarely used function.

One can speculate on what would happen if a mainframe was destroyed before its dummies. Either they would simply collapse when the link is severed, or they could host a backup of the mainframe's Neural Cloud, and continue to operate at lower capacity due to inferior specifications.

There is no officially stated limit to the number of bodies that can be networked with this system. In Girls' Frontline's gameplay, the maximum amount of dummied Dolls is five. The rare illustrations showing dummies and secondary media like the manga keep within the same amount.

Neural Cloud

Neural Cloud (心智云图) (inconsistently capitalized in official sources, also translated "Digi-Mind" in the original text, "Neursoul" in some screens of Project Neural Cloud and "Mindmap" in early fan-translations) is the AI system serving as the mind of T-Dolls. It can be compared to their "soul", or their operating system. Neural Cloud is a proprietary recording system having the advantage to be transferable to and from a mainframe to protect a T-Doll's memories from being lost if they are destroyed during operations. The Doll's memory can then be downloaded into a new body. Cases of multiple instances of the same Neural Cloud being downloaded into different bodies are purposefully avoided and occur extremely rarely from hardware malfunction, but the differing individuals can be merged back in such cases. Much like ordinary humans, dolls can gain experience in combat, the longer they spend in sorties the better bonded they are with their weapon, on top of tactical knowledge, thus making them more effective at combat. This is why preserving their Neural Cloud is important.

Neural Cloud backups are usually made outside of combat since they require massive data transfer, so the Doll will lose their memories from events after the backup. On-the-field backup to portable hardware is a possibility but the storage must be recovered. Losing parts of their memories can be distressing to some Dolls, but some consider these memories are not truly lost if this period of time is remembered by others, make it part of their personality, or even consider it a great chance to be able to be “revived” any number of times while humans cannot once killed.

However, memories stored at Level III cannot be transferred out of the body and the data integrity of a Neural Cloud will slowly decay over time, even faster in case of frequent downloads and gradual repair of the same mainframe body. Anomalous events causing a cascade of malfunctions in the neural cloud is called a “neural meltdown” (心智解体 or 心智融毁, in some contexts “neural cloud self-destruction” or “melted down”), causing a seizure-like bodily reaction. Meltdowns are usually caused by electronic attacks, but can be a response to heavy emotional stress. A meltdown that is not quickly resolved can leave the Doll critically incapacitated or completely destroy the data in the neural cloud. This might be an intended effect in order to prevent the capture of a Doll's data. A meltdown is automatically triggered for Dolls that try to bypass their limits on attacking humans, and it is also used for a Doll's final disposal.

The rating of a Neural Cloud represents its breadth and depth. Dolls with a higher-rated Neural Cloud better imitate the complexity and range of mental functions of the human mind. Newer Doll models usually benefit from higher-rated Neural Clouds but older models can take a neural upgrade to increase their rating, though they can't match the quality of new models.

Regular periods of "sleep" are necessary for Dolls to clear their memory cache. An overloaded cache will hinder a Doll's processing capacity and cause her to make mistakes or malfunction. Standard Dolls are not able to dream but may involuntarily access old memories, or suffer from hallucinations as a side-effect of neural cloud instability or during self-diagnosis and repair. A lack of storage space may cause a Doll to not be able to create more memories, causing other malfunctions.

The head of a Doll houses critical parts of their neural cloud functions. As a consequence, the upper spine of a Doll is a structural weak point that will prevent all motor functions if severed, and critical damage to the head will render a Doll inoperable. The neural cloud is contained in a dedicated module called the neural core, hosted in the Doll's torso. This core possesses its own power bank to keep the neural cloud safe for a period of time when it is taken out of the body. Under normal circumstances, extracting the neural core is probably done with specialized tools, but it is also possible to extract it more violently by ripping the T-Doll's body open. However, a neural core is a fragile piece of hardware that is easily damaged. It is still possible to recover some data if a neural core has been damaged or ran out of power. The neural cloud is susceptible to electronic disruption attacks, but these can be countered with signal amplifiers.

The equivalent of a neural cloud for a Nyto is called a Virtual Cognition Image. Their equivalent of a neural meltdown is called a virtual cognition disintegration. Ultilife created a technology capable of digitizing human consciousness to interface with computers using the same system of levels as a Neural Cloud, though this is an extremely dangerous procedure because any destabilization in the virtual world will impact the body.

Consciousness levels

There are three consciousness levels for a neural cloud, called Level I, II and III in Girls' Frontline and Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Layers or Level in Project Neural Cloud.

The first level, or “surface consciousness”, is the default state of awareness.

The second level is equivalent to a state of sleep or deep trance where a T-Doll's body freezes in a position and she stops responding to external stimuli. T-Dolls are taken to this level during maintenance or when performing a level of electronic warfare (EW) where they need to cut control on their body and external sensors to save processing power. A T-Doll can usually enter and leave Level II at will but some EW attacks can leave a T-Doll's neural cloud stuck at Level II until repaired. Modules concerning unconscious tasks such as sensory input, motor control and data processing operate on this level. Magrasea exists on this level.

The third level stores the base codes and core data of a Doll. It is equivalent to a T-Doll's subconscious and is reached during heavy maintenance when a T-Doll's control on her body is completely severed and she can't wake up without external assistance. Dolls whose consciousness sunk to this level are prone to dream-like hallucinations.

Neural Upgrade

Neural Upgrade is a service provided by IOP to overhaul the Neural Cloud of Dolls with older or lower-rated Neural Clouds, increasing their general performance. The upgrade may change the Doll's personality and is usually paired with upgrade of parts or the complete replacement of the mainframe body to increase hardware performances. Dolls often choose to alter their appearance to symbolize their growth and change. Maintenance fees are pricier for upgraded Dolls, however.

A Doll can receive an upgrade either by being selected by the Commander as a reward for good performances and the will to grow past their limits, by submitting an application to be approved, or by paying for the upgrade with their own money. The upgrades performed on the main characters of the story (AR Team, Squad 404 and Task Force DEFY) and some other Dolls are ad-hoc modifications rather than an official IOP process.

It should be noted that in Girls' Frontline, the term Neural Upgrade is used rather loosely since some upgradable Dolls only receive an upgrade to their body. For a list of Dolls who received a Neural Upgrade and their circumstances, see Griffin & Kryuger#Life at the base.

Memory editing

While editing and deleting Doll memories is regularly used a a plot device, details about the means and risks vary depending on the story:

• In Project Neural Cloud, Antonina laments that editing Doll memories is commonplace.
• Arctic Warfare introduces selective memory deletion as the mean used by Squad 404 to remains anonymous by deleting the memories of other Dolls after completing their mission. In 12-6, SOP-II demonstrates she forgot about working with them during Arctic Warfare.
• In 9-1N, the Commander refused to delete T91's memories of M16 in order to cure her debilitating melancholy after M16's disappearance.
• Reformatting a Doll causes her to lose all her memories. This is often used by Dolls kidnappers and traffickers.
• Doll memory editing services can be found on the black market, but some practitioners are crooks who instead reformat the Dolls to resell them. Deletion is also not a perfect process and remaining memory fragments can resurface during larger modifications to the neural cloud, such as during neural upgrade.
• Dreamer kept Destroyer docile despite betraying her multiple time by deleting her memories of being betrayed before each backup restore. In Chapter 8-4, Destroyer lacks critical intel to fight because of this process.
• In 13-4, William remotely encrypted specific memories of M16 so she would not carry Lycoris's warning to Persica.
• In Dream Theatre - Full-Length Play I, it is stated that Dolls can't edit their own memories.
• In ^HG LWMMGLWMMG 's My Lie in December costume story, LWMMG deletes some of her own memories.
• It is possible to create an Neural Cloud that is purpose-built to prevent memory modification, making complete reformatting the only option.

Human behavior and interfacing modules

Unnecessary but human-like behaviours in T-Dolls are important to reduce the uncanny valley effect when they interact with humans for extended periods of time or in high stress environments. These functions, such as eating food and drinking, or simply having a human-like face and expressions, are grouped under the name Uncanny Valley Protocol. It is unclear if Dolls can get drunk on alcohol because the heat generated by their food-to-power conversion system causes neural cloud malfunctions, or if they are made to imitate humans in this aspect.

A Doll can easily pass for a human from afar, but they can be quickly be differentiated on closer inspection due to their unnaturally perfect skin and facial symmetry. Dolls whose body is not completely covered in bionic skin and instead exposes some ot their mechanical parts are sometimes discriminated against by humans.

Sensory and communication abilities of Dolls are managed independently by dedicated modules and some Dolls models might not include the full range of human capabilities, like vehicle testing Dolls who are not factory-set with a vocal module or basic service Dolls who are not able to display a full range of emotions such as crying (though crying Dolls are a common sight in the story). Hearing module sensitivity can be increased to pick up distant sounds during surveillance, and certain Dolls are outfitted with advanced vision modes, such as ^AR M4A1M4A1 's thermal imaging and the Wolf Eye System installed by Shaw in ^AR AK-12AK-12  and ^AR AK-15AK-15 .

Griffin and Kryuger T-Dolls retain their Emotions Module, which some T-Dolls consider unnecessary because it also enables them to feel various forms of stress. These emotions are derived from the Neural Cloud preset seed of the Doll, making them deterministic to some degree, but they are also influenced by the Doll's own experiences during their operational lifetime. Each Doll's unique personality is the sum of their preset and memories. Most Dolls quickly learn to control the intensity of their preset quirks and biases, but this might be more difficult depending on their life experiences. A Doll's social interaction modules may be geared towards specific kinds of conversational stances depending on their target market.

T-Dolls systems emulates physical pain as a self-preservation incentive though this can be disabled, and heavy breathing is replicated to provide air cooling for internal components during intense activities. They are also equipped with a biological reactions modules to emulate functions of the human body like sneezes, which can be turned off during operations. Some Dolls even have food allergies causing belly aches.

Electronic warfare module

Most T-Dolls can run electronic warfare (EW) tasks, such as hacking into a system or performing counter-hacking at a basic level, but they can't draw much of their computing power for these operations. A dedicated module is necessary for serious EW operations. Electronic warfare directly puts the integrity of the neural cloud at risk in case of countermeasures.

Aside from firewalls, an effective countermeasure to electronic attacks is for a T-Doll to close all her network ports, isolating her from external signals. Only highly modified Dolls can easily use this defense, and it prevents the use of Zener Protocol.

List of known dolls with/once had EW module installed or are stated to be experienced with EW:

• ^AR AK-12AK-12 
• ^AR AN-94AN-94 
• ^SMG UMP9UMP9 
• ^SMG UMP45UMP45 
• ^SMG UMP40UMP40 
• ^SMG RO635RO635 
• ^AR MDRMDR  (in Witch's Forest)

List of dolls who have participated in EW despite lack of module/inexperience:

• ^MG AEK-999AEK-999  (in Glory Day)
• ^HG M950AM950A  (in Glory Day)
• ^HG ThunderThunder  (in Glory Day)
• ^AR K2K2  (in Glory Day)
• ^SMG TMPTMP  (in Glory Day)
• ^AR G11G11  (in Deep Dive)
• ^AR HK416HK416  (in Deep Dive)
• ^AR FAMASFAMAS  (in Witch's Forest)
• ^MG BrenBren  (in Witch's Forest)
• ^RF TAC-50TAC-50  (in Witch's Forest)
• ^SMG F1F1  (in Witch's Forest)

List of dolls stated to have no EW module:

• ^HG Welrod MkIIWelrod MkII 
• ^SG S.A.T.8S.A.T.8  (in Witch's Forest)

Energy System

T-Dolls have primary and emergency power banks and can use their batteries to power external equipment if necessary. However, Dolls need updated identification keys to use official IOP charging facilities, forcing illegal Dolls to rely on wiring cars power cells and scavenging for discarded batteries. The neural core housing a T-Doll's neural cloud has its own power banks to keep it functional for a period of time even after it has been disconnected from any power source.

T-Dolls can also consume food and drinks (including alcohol) to generate energy and may enjoy eating (saliva is even used in a side-story to identify a Doll), but the conversion efficiency to usable power is low, which is why food is not usually used outside of emergency situation. Regardless of efficiency, G&K Dolls much prefer regular food to the MREs they use during missions. ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II , a long-range tracking specialist with long operational efficiency, was able to operate in combat situation without recharging for about 24 hours straight while the command-type T-Doll ^SMG RO635RO635  could complete a recharge plus cache clearing cycle in about one hour.

Body Frame

A naked Doll frame being worked on by  DelaceyDelacey , a Doll-maintenance Doll.

Heavily damaged  SolSol , showing the internals of her right arm and face.

Damaged  TonyTony .

T-Dolls hardware is not affected by air temperature and can function in subzero environments, though their joints can freeze in snow storms and their weapons are not as resilient to extreme temperatures. T-Dolls can't normally remain immersed in water for long periods of time without specific equipment as their body is not entirely waterproof and water would seep in and they would short-circuit after a period of time. Prolonged immersion in sea water is especially damaging due to salt corrosion. T-Dolls are shown to be able to immerse for short periods of time with no danger (aside from not knowing how to swim) during the Far Side of the Sea event, and rain appears to not be dangerous either. ^AR ADSADS  is known to have been purpose-built with better proofing against sea water, and this probably applies to other aquatic-themed Dolls such as ^HG SPP-1SPP-1 .

As a rule of thumb, Machine Gun Dolls have heavier bodies. In ^MG MG3MG3 's case, her stouter body frame enabled her to embark more powerful servomotors, while her ample chest housed bigger power units and anti-ballistic gel to protect her neural core. Certain models such as the Svarog Heavy Industries CRAR are heavier than normal due to their integrated safety equipment. The bodies of military-grade T-Dolls like M4A1 and Task Force DEFY are bulletproof for small and medium calibers. A Doll's skin emits the same warmth as a human's.

Many Shotgun Dolls have supplementary mechanical limbs protruding from their back to hold their ballistic shield (^SG M870M870  has a tail but it does not hold her shield), and a similar attachment can be seen on  RiseRise . Another type of mechanical attachment is the exoskeletons along the legs of some Dolls like ^SMG UMP45UMP45 , ^SMG UMP40UMP40 , ^MG LWMMGLWMMG  or ^MG Type 88Type 88 . These extra limbs and exoskeletons are nearly always ommitted from alternate artworks, which implies that they are simply attachments rather than a part of the Doll's body. One exception to this is  DelaceyDelacey , whose tail does not appear to be detachable.

Retirement

Wear and tear has worned down the fake skin and revealed the metal underneath the hands and wrists of  GinGin in this illustration.

The average service life of a Doll is 20 years. It can be extended by upgrading the Neural Cloud and swapping bodies. The oldest known Doll is ^SMG IDWIDW , who was activated at some point between 2056 and 2062, and was still active in 2092.

The privileged relationship between IOP and G&K meant that IOP was willing to take dolls back from them to retire them from combat. These dolls were those who had no more use at G&K, or were found abandoned on the battlefield and brought back. IOP demilitarizes these dolls by taking their Fire Control Core away, before tweaking them and releasing them on the civilian market. They usually end up as waitresses or mine workers.

Elite T-Dolls

Despite a lot of T-Dolls' comment on their outstanding performances and high rated status, only a few T-Dolls can truly be classified as Elite (精英) T-Dolls. Some elite T-Dolls are not converted from civilian service dolls, they are likely built purely for war and never given a job within the human society, meaning they have very little experience in interacting with humans other than receiving orders. Also likely due to the expense, elite T-Dolls are not manufactured in great numbers.

Capable of solo operation, excelling at covert activities and electronic warfare, it could be argued that members of Squad 404 can also be classified as elite T-Dolls despite being a rogue faction.

AR Team

Produced by the top ranking research division within I.O.P., AR Team members are all produced and fine-tuned to optimal combat performance by 16LAB lead by Persica, their solo operation capability renders them as elite T-Dolls. On top of being able to receive commands, and operate without a human commander, each members of AR Team are even capable of operating individually without any commands.

Task Force DEFY

Purpose-built for Statesec special operations, the members of Task Force DEFY are state-of-the-art T-Dolls with high combat proficiency, with ^AR AK-15AK-15  in particular being considered “the strongest T-Doll in existence”. However, ^AR AK-12AK-12  secured her position as team leader by beating AK-15 in a duel. AK-12, ^AR AN-94AN-94  and ^MG RPK-16RPK-16  are all capable of cyberwarfare, but AK-12 in particular excels at it (though she recognizes Squad 404 is even better).

Daybreak Squad

Active during World War Three, Daybreak Squad achieved great recognition for their abilities, and the two survivors Aliana and Amaris are considered “legendary T-Dolls”.

Other known elite T-Dolls

This is a list of Dolls who have been qualified as elites at some point. Since there is no exact performance benchmark to define an elite, all claims that a Doll is an elite should be considered through their feats in battle (for example, you wouldn't take ^HG ZiP .22ZiP .22 's claim to this title seriously).

• ^AR HK416HK416  (according to herself and, with some irony and contempt, UMP45)
• ^SG M1887M1887  (according to Helian)
• ^RF DSR-50DSR-50  (according to UMP45)
• ^RF M82A1M82A1  and ^SG M870M870  (according to Kalina).
• ^HG Welrod MkIIWelrod MkII  (according to herself, Architect and Bren)
• ^RF SVDSVD  (according to herself and SV-98)
• ^RF Kar98kKar98k  (according to MP41 and WA2000)
• ^AR AK-AlfaAK-Alfa  (according to PP-19 and PzB 39)
• ^MG PzB 39PzB 39  (according to the Commander)
• ^MG AEK-999AEK-999  (according to the Commander)
• ^AR Type 97Type 97  (according to Springfield and MP7)
• ^RF SpringfieldSpringfield  (according to WA2000)
• ^SMG MP7MP7  (according to herself, the Commander and Springfield)
• ^SG AA-12AA-12  (according to Springfield)
• ^RF WA2000WA2000  (according to Vector and herself... she repeats it a lot)
• ^SG Saiga-12Saiga-12  (according to OTs-14)
• ^SMG SuomiSuomi  (according to PKP)
• ^SG S.A.T.8S.A.T.8  (according to Bren)
• ^RF Lee-EnfieldLee-Enfield  (according to narrator, WA2000 and Kar98k)
• ^RF Mosin-NagantMosin-Nagant  (according to WA2000)
• ^SMG VectorVector  (according to HK416)
• ^RF Gepard M1Gepard M1  after her Neural Upgrade (according to KCCO soldiers)
• ^AR FALFAL  (according to herself and Alchemist)
• ^SMG SR-3MPSR-3MP  (according to herself)
• ^HG M950AM950A  (according to herself)
• ^MG PKPPKP  (according to herself)
• ^AR Zas M21Zas M21  (according to FNC)
• ^AR AK-47AK-47  (according to a skeptical AN-94)
• No. 9 (according to Mona)
• Mona (according to narrator)
• Squad Griffin
• ^MG M1919A4M1919A4  (according to a civilian Doll)

Human-Dolls relations

“	— We were created by human beings, so we are part human too. — We are tools for humans, responsible for playing roles in their stories. —No, we are the continuation of the human story. — A conversation between  GinGin and  ZangyinZangyin about Doll nature.	”

The faction logo of independent Dolls introduced in Longitudinal Strain.

Because Dolls are created to serve, most humans look down on all Dolls as simple-minded, servile and disposable, but as Dolls get integrated deeper into human society and norms, they are treated more and more like individuals. An idea of “Dollkind” as a culture separate from human cultures exists, as exemplified by the reactions of some Dolls to the revelations regarding Operation Black Forest in 2064.

Because Griffin & Kryuger exclusively uses T-Dolls in their main workforce, tactical commanders are recruited based on their interpersonal compatibility with Dolls and general traits of character rather than military experience. This is exemplified by the Commander and Kalina who treat T-Dolls as human employees, giving them a salary and the same benefits and attention to their needs and growth.

Though the legal burden for actions taken by Dolls usually fall on their owners, Dolls themselves have sometimes been prosecuted separately, as in the 2056 case brought by the Military Doll Rights Organization against Svarog Heavy Industries and Octogen. Dolls are expected to give way to humans when using seats in public transports.

Dolls kidnapping (“Dollnapping”) and trafficking is a common underworld activity for both organized groups and petty criminals. These Dolls either have their memories wiped to be resold as is or are dismantled and sold as spare parts. Tactical Dolls might specifically be kidnapped by criminal groups to be used as assassins, and some members of these organizations have specialized in fighting and capturing Tactical Dolls. Anti-Doll groups are known to exist and viruses specifically targeting Dolls have become an international issue at times. One such virus is the ZeroDay iv-78, developed by the terrorist group called Remnant and used during the Red Sand Incident.

Dolls outfitted with child-like Neural Clouds are commonly employed in geriatry and psychiatry due to the natural response of patients to children, but they strongly attach to the people in their care and their memories must often be wiped to remove trauma after the loss or discharge of a patient.

Among the many fringe religions and cults that appeared in response to the distress of the population after World War Three, groups like Doll-Angelism ascribe supernatural and godly qualities to Dolls. Doll-Angelism members worship “Mythia”, a role that was forced on at least two Dolls who later joined Griffin & Kryuger, ^RF M82A1M82A1  and ^SG SUB-2000SUB-2000 .

There is an account for the love between a human and a Doll called Meryl. The taboo relatioship was used by a rival of the human to sabotage his reputation and ruin him. After calculating the best way to protect her lover, the Doll resorted to murder. Overcoming her programming, she set up the man's rival to be killed by interacting with a dangerous stage element during a play, leading to his death. The incident shocked the White Zones and the Doll became a wanted criminal, but her lover refused to hand her over, instead uploading her Neural Cloud into Magrasea shortly before it was taken offline. Meryl later revealed to have acted on her own and not under a human order. The mysterious OATH system, dubbed Tactical Doll Special Marking System, isn't equated to marrying a Doll.

Appearance and behaviour

First example of a bleeding T-Doll: ^AR EM-2EM-2 .

Second example of a bleeding T-Doll: ^AR AN-94AN-94 .

Prior to enlisting, T-Dolls serving in Griffin and Kryuger worked various professions within society: ^SMG AK-74UAK-74U  is rumored to have worked in retail prior to G&K service, ^RF T-CMST-CMS  worked as a kindergarten teacher and ^HG PPKPPK  as a private nanny, ^SG RMB-93RMB-93  was an office worker for a financial company, ^HG TEC-9TEC-9  worked for a criminal organization, ^HG ThunderThunder  was tortured as part of her job, while ^SG S.A.T.8S.A.T.8  had the longest known service record : she worked as a part timer convenience store and luxury hotel clerk, animal breeder and in a child nursery.

Different dolls have different exterior appearance, where most takes the appearance of human females ranging from youngs to adults. ^HG PythonPython  and ^RF PTRDPTRD  are examples of senior T-Dolls while ^HG Colt RevolverColt Revolver  and ^SMG MP5MP5  are considered younger in appearance. Many Dolls sport unnatural hair and eye colors (quite logically, Doll hair does not grow). Some Dolls have distinctly inhuman features, like ^AR EM-2EM-2  and ^SG V-PM5V-PM5 's ears, or a variety of animal ears on the head or tails which are not depicted as accessories, like ^SMG IDWIDW , ^RF KSVKKSVK , ^SMG ART556ART556 , ^HG P7P7 , ^AR CR-21CR-21 , ^AR G41G41 , ^SG NS2000NS2000  and ^MG Type 88Type 88 . Some T-Dolls retain scars from previous damage on their bodies like ^SMG UMP45UMP45 , ^AR M16A1M16A1 , ^HG ThunderThunder  and ^SG M6 ASWM6 ASW .

Dolls with higher-grade bodies will bleed “bionic blood” when receiving external injuries, while lower-grade bodies only show clean cuts. Dolls like ^AR AN-94AN-94 , ^AR EM-2EM-2  and ^RF KSVKKSVK  are bleeding in their damaged illustration. Additionally, hydraulic fluid may leak when the body is heavily damaged.

Doll clothing and fashion of choice varies with their personality, and they wear a great variety of clothes, hair styles, accessories and light body modifications like piercings. Being similarly shaped to humans, they have complete compatibility with clothing designed for humans, Dolls can purchase their clothing of desire on their own or wear any employer issued uniforms.^{[Source needed]} Some elite Dolls consider it a demonstration of their skill to be sporting long hair despite its impracticality in combat. Some Dolls have drone or animal companions, like ^SG FO-12FO-12 , ^SG DP-12DP-12 , ^SG M1897M1897 , ^RF TAC-50TAC-50 , ^MG MG36MG36 , ^RF BallistaBallista , ^AR FALFAL , ^SMG Honey BadgerHoney Badger , ^SG M500M500 , ^HG P226P226 , ^SG MAG-7MAG-7  and ^RF Steyr ScoutSteyr Scout .

Dolls come with different personality settings and hobbies, which are factory set and usually cannot be overwritten, though there are cases of Dolls concealing their true personality like ^MG NegevNegev  or completely adopting a persona with the help of memory editing like ^HG PPKPPK .

Doll hobbies varies greatly between dolls:

• Some hobbies are collection based, such as ^RF SV-98SV-98 's badge collection, ^RF SVDSVD 's sticker collection and ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II 's Sangvis Ferri android body parts collection.
• Some hobbies are activity based, such as ^AR TAR-21TAR-21 's interest in tea ceremony, flower arranging, kendo and ballet, ^SMG Sten MkIISten MkII 's baking hobby and ^SMG TMPTMP 's interest in computing electronics.
• Other hobbies are consumption based, such as ^AR FNCFNC 's love for sweets and chocolates, ^AR A-91A-91 's excessive vodka consumption, and ^AR T91T91 's obsession with milk tea. There is a running joke in the game about T-Dolls having a universal love for ice cream.
  • Since T-Dolls have no need to rely on organic food to survive, most consumption based hobbies are essentially pointless.
  • T-Dolls are able to become intoxicated when they consume alcohol.
  • Conversely, some T-Dolls have a distaste for some foods, like SRS who considers herself a vegetarian due to hating the taste and smell of meat.

I.O.P. is capable of producing T-Dolls merely from data description of a human, achieving pinpoint precision on all exterior features and flawlessly mimicking the personality. Every member of Schicksal Valkyrja had their data collected by I.O.P. and T-Dolls flawlessly resembling themselves were left behind when they departed from the world. Gray had a Doll replica of Lucas Rugosa made long after his death. It is however illegal to make a doll resembling an existing human after one originally created for entertainment was used in a political crime. Secret services still make use of convincing and expensive Dolls doubles of their agents to act as decoys.

Prosthetic limbs

Most T-Dolls designs in game have normal human like limbs. There are however a few with mechanical limbs instead of normal human-like limbs. As most of the designs are left to artists' discretion, these peculiarities are not always explained in the story. The earliest examples of dolls with mechanical limbs are ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II  (SOP-II) and ^AR G41G41 :

• SOP-II's mechanical arms are in fact of Sangvis Ferri design. To demonstrate the modularity of the rifle she represents, SOP-II is able to use body parts from other manufacturers. During Continuum Turbulence, she demonstrated the ability to repair herself with spare parts scrounged from the battlefield.
• G41 on the other hand never had any form of story explanation for her mechanical arms. Artist:NS did not comment on the design. However, her costume Beach Punk 2064 uses human-like arms.
  • Other Dolls with mechanical limbs like ^AR M4A1M4A1  (right hand), ^SMG JS 9JS 9  (arms), ^SMG Type 79Type 79  (right arm), ^MG Type 88Type 88  (legs), ^SMG UMP45UMP45  (right arm) and ^AR RibeyrollesRibeyrolles  (legs) have also been alternatively depicted with human-like limbs.
• ^AR AR-18AR-18 's mechanical legs are commented on negatively by humans during the story (her left arm is also mechanical).

Artist 小吃 (Chichi), who contributed to the roster of Dolls with mechanical limbs with ^HG CZ52CZ52  and ^AR ADSADS , boldly introduced the concept of 'synthetic flesh' covering the bodies of T-Dolls in her artist canon with ADS' character design sheet she posted on Twitter. It took several years for MICA Team to introduce a related concept in the core canon with bionic skin in Longitudinal Strain.

Known models

IOP Frame Models

Body Codes organized by rough timeline of production.

• ALR-50(T) (experimental, Auto Labor Robot series)
• ALR-50E2
• ALR-51C(T) (experimental)
• ALR-52P
• TD-01 (experimental)
• CSD-02 (Common Strength Doll series)
• CSD-03H
• CSD-06
• CSD-07
• CSD-08A and CSD-08B
• ACD-50 (military series)
• ACD-51
• IAD (experimental)
• CSD-119A (example: ^RF Lee-EnfieldLee-Enfield )
• SST-02A (civilian series)
• SST-03
• SST-05, SST-05A and SST-05A2 (examples: Groza and Nemesis)
• SSD-GD88 (example:  UndineUndine , activated 2053)
• MDB-LP199 (example:  ErikaErika , activated 2054)
• SSC-MGLBX001 (example:  MagnhildaMagnhilda , activated 2054)
• SS-AKR28 (example:  NoraNora , activated 2055)
• SST-B6 (example:  Python (PNC)Python , activated 2055)
• SSD-55A (example:  ZangyinZangyin , activated 2055)
• SSD-56NA (example:  TaischTaisch , activated 2055)
• SSE-GJM10 (example:  HelixHelix , activated 2056)
• AW700-Wizard (example:  YelenaYelena )
• SSD-54C, SSD-54E (examples:  MillauMillau ,  KuroKuro , both activated 2056)
• SSD-56-SE-2(example:  ClothoClotho , activated 2056)
• SSD-62D, SSD-62F and SSD-62G (examples: Charolic, Colphne, Vepley and Peritya)
• SST-762 (noted to have the biggest battery life on the market)

Commercial Models

42LAB

• AA2
• Botanist 10Pro
• BPT1 and BPT2
• EG 4.0
• EMR
• H-01
• MAIA
• OSRA
• Persicaria
• PSRA

Cyber Media

• A-PST and A-PST(Di)
• ARTIST 3.0
• ArSC
• CM-Act/TS
• CM-ENT 2.0A and CM-ENT 2.0B
• CM-IDOL
• CM-JRNLST
• CM-Beta
• CM.SL
• EF-55
• E-GAST
• E-Orchestra
• EW-55
• MDJ

Sangvis Ferri

• DSI-8 model SY
• Aegis
• Brute
• Dragoon
• Guard
• Jaeger
• Ripper
• SP21
• SP24WR
• SP47
• SP524
• SP5NANO
• SP65
• SP721
• SP7C
• SP914
• SPACA
• SPSP
• SPzH3000
• Striker
• Vespid

Svarog Heavy Industries

• AAT
• CRAR
• DMLT
• DMT-X
• E-Pilot
• FF-Alpha
• HT-Alpha
• MCDT
• ME78
• RP VII
• S-WG
• SI-MT
• SRT-8

Ultilife

• Forensic 3.6
• UL-AP
• UL-CS5
• UL-GSA
• UL-NURSE
• UL-OS
• UL-VET

Universal Anything Services

• AS-B
• AS-EM
• Bodyguard SP
• Butler-36
• C2E2
• Caregiver T55
• Detective D
• LG-II
• Mariner II
• Mortician-3
• Pastrychef SP
• PHK
• RM&IA
• Security 2.0
• SPVII
• UA-FT
• UC-HS
• Waitress 3.0
• ZM56

Unknown manufacturers

• AH400
• NSP

References

General List of Characters (Minor Characters) · List of Locations · Timeline · Rossartrism · Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease · Epiphyllum · GAVIRUL Technology Assault Artillery · Automaton · Collapse Technology · Magrasea · OGAS · Parapluie virus · Pike · Relic Technology · Tactical Doll · Weight Bearing Events Beilan Island Incident · World War Three · Operation Couatl · Incident Zero · Butterfly Incident · Safe House 3 Raid · Plan Parapluie · Great Retreat · Paldiski Incident · Fireworks Incident · Battle of the Dead Sea · First Antarctic War Factions 90wish · Antarctic Union · Germany · Griffin & Kryuger · KCCO · Neo-Soviet Union · Pan-European Union · Paradeus · Sangvis Ferri · Union of Rossartrist Nations Coalition · United Nations · United States Corporations 16LAB · 42LAB · Cyber Media · I.O.P. · Svarog Heavy Industries · Ultilife · Universal Anything Services · WAVE