"Prisoner"

Overview

Lore

Cosmetics

Gallery

Luca Balsa was once a world-renowned inventor. He never gave up his deepest aspiration even when he was in jail. Now that he's free, nothing is stopping him from completing his greatest invention.

"Prisoner"
Name	Luca Balsa
Serial No.	10-0-2
Career	Inventor
Gender	Male ♂
Nationality	Serbian 🇷🇸
Character Details
Birthday	July 10th
Age	21
Likes	Books, music, science experiments
Dislikes	Noise, instruments of torture
Favorite Dish(es)	Ajvar, Rakia
Gameplay Information
Faction	Survivor
Role
Difficulty
Tool	Transmission Box
Obtaining
Date Released	March 26th 2020 (Season 10 Essence 2) April 2nd 2020 (Illusion Hall)
Obtained by	Season 10 Essence 2 Illusion Hall
Cost	3568Clues 688Echoes
Media
Voice Actor	中文（中国大陆） Zhai Wei | 翟巍 日本語Yūichirō Umehara | 梅原裕一郎
Stage Actor	日本語 Yusuke Anasawa | 穴沢 裕介

Luca Balsa, also known as the "Prisoner", is a Decode/Assist Hybrid Type and Difficulty 2 Survivor available for purchase after completion of the prologue. He is one of 50 playable Survivors added to Identity V.

I may be in a prison uniform, but I'm not imprisoned. —Luca Balsa (Deduction Star 2020)

Appearance

Luca is a slender doll with fair skin, messy brown hair is pulled into a short ponytail, with strands of hair sticking up from his head, thin, arched brown eyebrows, and warm grey eyes cross-stitched with black thread, the left of which is swollen purple, with a purplish-grey bruised eyelid obscuring half of his left eye. A tiny fang sticks out the left corner of his grinning mouth, revealing white teeth.

He wears a slightly stained prisoner's shirt with a high collar and long, tapered sleeves, skinny jeans, and a leather belt with two satchels attached, in the left of which a hammer, some wire, rope, and a screwdriver are visible, and in the right of which a small wrench is visible. He also wears buckled leather boots with matching boot garters buckled up to his knees, and around his neck is a large metal shackle with a broken chain dangling from it. He also wears stained, filthy light grey cotton gloves with haphazard white stitching and thick cuffs. White linen bandages wrap around his neck and left forearm. A tear is visible in his left forearm, showing cotton stuffing.

Gameplay

The "Prisoner" is a decode/assist-type Survivor who specializes in decoding more than one Cipher Machine at once with speed, connecting two of them together, allowing their progress to be shared. He is also equipped with a small electric stun ability, starting each round with one, which can be recharged at a Cipher Machine that is being connected. When the Hunter stays in the area of a connected Cipher Machine being decoded by the "Prisoner" for too long, they will be stunned, though the Hunter develops resistance to the stun until completely immune to it. He is also able to automatically share gate opening progress between the two gates. His decoding speed is also increased when decoding a connected Cipher Machine, and if he fails a calibration, the amount of time he is frozen in place is reduced. However, the distance of his detection of the Hunter is greatly decreased, causing him to be easily Terror Shocked if not careful.

External Traits

Below is a list of "Prisoner”'s intrinsic traits. For more in-depth information, please check the individual pages.

External Traits
Trait	Description
Circuit Control	The "Prisoner" is extremely familiar with the electric circuits under the Manor. He can change the connection status of the wires to alter the connection of the Cipher Machines. Once connected, the transmission of Decoding Progress between Cipher Machines is enabled. How to Use: Tap item to use. The "Prisoner" envisions the distribution of Cipher Machines in his head and changes the wiring to adjust the connection status between Cipher Machines. Connection: The "Prisoner" can connect two inactive Cipher Machines and form a Connection, with a cooldown of 30 seconds. Each "Prisoner" can only generate 1 Connection, and there can only be 2 Cipher Machines on each Connection. All Survivors will be able to see the Connection. When Survivors decode a Cipher Machine on a Connection, they can transmit a certain percentage of their Decoding Progress to another Cipher Machine. During the transmission, their own Decoding Progress will be decreased by the same transmission percentage. Survivors can adjust the transmission percentage within the rage of 0% to 48%. At the same time, due to deterioration of the circuit, some of the transmitted Decoding Progress will be lost (without affecting one's decoding speed). The farther away the connected Cipher Machines are, the bigger the loss will be, ranging from 5% to 15%. Connections can be destroyed by Hunters. A destroyed Cipher Machine can't be reconnected to a Connection for 45 seconds. If a Cipher Machine is activated while in a Connection, the Connection will become invalid automatically.
"Conductor"	Charge: An incident changed the Prisoner's body composition and made him a "Conductor" capable of accumulating electric charges. When the "Prisoner" decodes a Cipher Machine in a Connection, an electrical area will be formed as a result of electrical charges focusing around the Cipher Machine. When Hunters enter such an area for a long time, they will be electrocuted and stunned. With each electrocution, the Hunter's resistance to electric charges is permanently increased so that the stun duration of the Hunter will decrease until it drops to 0. When a Connection becomes invalid or destroyed, the electrical area will disappear with it. Enhanced Charge: Due to his unique body composition, the "Prisoner" will recharge when he enters the electrical area. Once the recharge is completed, he can release severe electric currents 1 time. The severe electric currents will send an Electric Shock towards Hunters nearby and stun them for 1 seconds. As the effects of Electric Shock is strong, it won't be affected by Hunter's resistance to electric charges.
Super Circuit	To play it safe, the "Prisoner" set up a connection between the two Exit Gates in advance. While the Exit Gates are opened, the coded lock will connect automatically, allowing transmission of the Decoding Progress between the two coded locks. As the connection between the Exit Gates is quite complicated, the transmission ratio of the Connecting Passage can only be adjusted by the "Prisoner" within the range of 0% to 48%. At the same time, due to deterioration of the circuit, the transmitted Decoding Progress is lost at a constant 15%.
Obession	The decoding speed of the "Prisoner" is increased by 10% when decoding a Cipher Machine on a connection. Once a calibration fails, his rigid time is decreased by 30%. However, such obsession also weakens the Prisoner's perception of his surroundings, such that the distance of his detection of the Hunters is decreased by 20%.

Achievement Medals

Below is a list of "Prisoner's" Achievement Medals. A win or draw is required in order to gain progress. To view a list of all characters' medals, please view this article.

"Prisoner" Achievement Medals
General Medals
I II III Level I 5 Milestones Required Level II 10 Milestones Required Level III 15 Milestones Required	Decoding Proficiency: Cipher Machine Decoding Progress
	640	3200	9600	19200	32000
	Restraining Proficiency: Hunter Containment Time
	212	1060	3180	6360	10600
	Escaping Proficiency: Number of escapes from Exit Gate or Dungeon
	1	7	21	43	72
Exclusive Medals
I II III Level I 5 Milestones Required Level II 10 Milestones Required Level III 15 Milestones Required	Electricity Overload: Duration the Hunter was stunned by Electrical Charge
	8	40	120	240	400
	Progress Manipulation: Decoding Progress shared using Connection
	200	1000	3000	6000	10000
	Escape Artist: Number of times decoding a Cipher Machine or Exit Gate was completed using Connection
	2	10	30	60	100

Character Statistics

Below is a list of "Prisoner's" statistics. To view other Survivors' gameplay data, please view this article.

"Prisoner" Statistics
Chart	Movement
	Running Speed	3.8 m/s
	Walking Speed	2.11 m/s
	Crouched Speed	1.14 m/s
	Crawling Speed	0.44 m/s
	Speed Boost after Hit	2.0 sec.
	Footprint Duration	4.0 sec.
Action	Pallet	Window
Dropping	0.73 sec.	/
Low Speed Vaulting	2.07 sec.	1.27 sec.
Medium Speed Vaulting	1.63 sec.	/
High Speed Vaulting	1.17 sec.	0.87 sec.
Decoding
Cipher Machine	73.64 sec.
Electric Shock Progress Loss	1.0%
Electric Shock Decoding Inability	1.4 sec.
Exit Gates	18.0 sec.
Healing
Healing Teammate	15.0 sec.
Being Healed	15.0 sec.
Knockdown Self-Healing	30.0 sec.
Others
Chest Opening	10.0 sec.
Ballooned Struggle	16.0 sec.
Rocket Chair Duration	60.0 sec.
Being Rescued from Chairs	0.86 sec.

Tips

Please press "Expand" to see tips about playing as and against this Survivor.

As "Prisoner" "Prisoner" player should connect the cipher he's on to the cipher with another decoder or survivors who struggle to kite as this at least allows them to change cipher quicker, moving their position. Similarly to Enchantress, his Enhanced Charge range is shorter than Xie Bi'an (White Wu Chang) and The Feaster's Charged Attack range. Apply the same tactic from Enchantress (Stop running to use the ability) to nullify this. The gate decoding speed transmission is highly situation to use. It's recommended to not use this at all if there's no reason to. Communicating with other survivors can help determine the situation better. Take note however that the hunter can still cut the connector but you cannot reconnect it. Transfer as much progress as you can before it gets cut off if the situation needs gate opening transmission. Despite the Enhanced Charge ability, you should avoid getting pursued at all cost just like other decoders, as you can only use the ability once every 60 seconds. The penalty of smaller hunter detection radius can be nullified through communication. Bringing the persona talent Cold can also help, especially on darker maps. In some cases, it may be worth it to connect a cipher while kiting to bait the hunter in cutting it off, buying yourself more time to move out of the area to other kiting routes. This is situation and requires a moment where the hunter is guaranteed to cannot get you for a few seconds and you must be near the cipher machine to activate the charge and force hunter to destroy it. When priming a cipher, you should connect the cipher but not transmit progress. This provides an additional 5% decoding speed due to decoding on a connected cipher. If the other cipher is the one being primed, you can send progress if there is someone on the other side or if it is very close to being finished. Otherwise, it may be more beneficial to just prime the cipher you are at, even if there is less progress. "Prisoner" benefits well when paired with Explorer as Explorer's treasure can be used to transfer decoding progress immediately. It is not recommended to have multiple "Prisoners", especially without communication as the connector of each other will block the cipher machines for the connector of another "Prisoner". In term of Persona build, it is recommended to build the persona solely for self-survival. Despite the game stating that he can suit a bit for assisting, it is situational and you're more likely to get pursued yourself than going to assist other people. Additionally, the assist most likely refers to cipher progress instead of supporting a kite or rescue. Against "Prisoner" As stated before, Xie Bi'an (White Wu Chang) and The Feaster's attack range are longer than "Prisoner"'s Enhanced Charge ability. Unlike other decoders (Except Mechanic), the cipher "Prisoner" is on tends to be the one that shakes less due to having to transfer decoding progress to other survivors. Be careful which cipher machine to teleport to. You may teleport to the cipher machine where there's just a connector and no survivor at all, wasting your ability. You're more likely to face this survivor on larger maps such as Moonlit River Park. Despite the higher loss of decoding progress transmission, it makes "Prisoner" less likely to be found and the ability to activate primed cipher from anywhere is more powerful in larger maps due to the longer amount of time for travelling. If you're in a situation where you're defending a gate from everyone, cut out the gate connector. This is so that "Prisoner" cannot transfer the decoding speed and throw your effort away and since "Prisoner" cannot reconnect the gate connector, you don't have to worry about it anymore once you cut the connector off. Pick a hunter with high mobility such as Wu Chang, "Undead" etc. can force "Prisoner" to repeatedly reconnect the connector but not make use of it. This still depends on the players' playstyle on the hunter (Except "Undead" who is already forced to control cipher machines). This benefits the most with an aggressive cipher controlling playstyle.

Concept / Design Notes

Official Website

No fear of slander or sacrifice, just to complete great inventions! His legendary life experience and distinctive character skills will definitely bring you a unique gaming experience!

Handsome young man, the tortured "Prisoner"
"Prisoner" was wearing a gray and white prison uniform, with his hair tied back casually, and heavy, severed shackles hung around his neck. His left eye was slightly open, and bruises were vaguely visible on his upper eyelid. He wore safety gloves on his hands and had two tool bags tied around his waist, filled with various tools. There is also a line controller placed behind it, which can be used to great effect with a little fiddling. The mental state of the "Prisoner" is not stable, and the afterimages of memories that occasionally flash through his mind will give him a splitting headache. What happened to him to end up like this? What does the looming blue electric light mean? What is the great invention that he would sacrifice everything to complete? Everything will be answered by him personally after he settles in the Manor!

An accident turned the glorious genius inventor into a thief, thief and murderer that everyone shouted at, but Luca Balsa did not despair because of this. For that great invention, "Prisoner" must do his best, even if there is only one chance in ten thousand, all the sacrifices will be worth it!

Social Media

The former Luca Balsa was friendly and friendly in the eyes of most people, and he was not wary of others. No one knows where he came from, and no one has ever met his family, but it is clear that he was very well educated, had high self-esteem, and was curious about various scientific inventions.
As a matter of course, he joined the most famous inventor in the city and became an invention assistant.
Luca is highly regarded by the great inventor, and many people are optimistic that he will inherit the mantle of the great inventor, but everything came to an abrupt end after an academic dispute.
The Great Inventor claimed that Luca had privately sold his research results to competitors, calling him an ungrateful traitor, while Luca called the Great Inventor a thief who had no talent.
The truth of the facts is unknown. A laboratory electrical accident killed the great inventor, and Luca suffered irreversible brain damage and was charged with murder.
Luca was sentenced to hang, but was pardoned at the last moment for some reason.
But everything can't go back to the past. His memory has deteriorated and his concentration is not as good as before. He can no longer engage in scientific research, and his family property has also been used to pay huge compensation to the widow of the great inventor.
However, Luca did not give up his determination to practice his original invention, but it required a lot of money, so after he received the invitation letter with huge reward conditions, he decided to take the risk.

Combined with Luca's character setting of "been in prison", the shackles on the neck and thin prison uniforms in sketch 1 are more in line with our expectations. Therefore, we refined on the basis of 2, and reduced the exaggerated facial expressions a bit, and got sketch 2.

According to the setting of "Inventor", Luca's tool types need to be richer, so we iterated on Sketch 2. At the same time, his demeanor characteristics have been modified to distinguish him from other characters.

The optimized sketch 3 has been in line with the setting as a whole, but the sense of the times is not enough, it looks a bit like a modern person. By adjusting the material and reflectivity of the tools (gloves, screwdrivers, etc.), Luca finally became the final draft picture 4, ready to settle in the manor~

Change Log

13th May, 2021

• Buff: Prisoner can use Severe Electric Current at the beginning of the game.
• Buff: Progress lost when transmitting to the cipher machines has now been reduced from 10-20% to 5%-15%.

15th September, 2022

• Buff: The "Prisoner's" Severe Electric Current will recharge outside the electrical area (60 seconds to full charge outside the electrical area and 7.7 seconds to full charge inside the electrical area).
• Buff: The "Prisoner's" decoding speed is increased by 5%. When decoding a Cipher Machine on a connection, the Prisoner's decoding speed is increased to 10%.

20th April, 2023

• Nerf: Increased the charging time for the Prisoner's Severe Electric Current from 60 seconds to 75 seconds.

Trivia

• "Prisoner" shares his title with a pre-existing costume for Smiley Face.
• "Prisoner" is currently the only survivor in which only one eye follows the blinking animation, instead of both or none, with the blackened eye remaining open forever.
  • In pre-release footage showcasing his abilities and design, both of "Prisoner's" eyes are seen blinking.
  • Both of his eyes do blink in his Graduation Day costume due to "Prisoner" not receiving a blackened eye in that skin's universe.
• "Prisoner" is based on Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor with heavy contributions to progression in utilizing electricity.
  • "Prisoner"'s birthday is on July 10th, which is Tesla's birthday.
  • "Prisoner"'s mentor, Alva, shares his name with the middle name of Thomas Edison. Tesla worked under Edison for a short time before the two became rivals.
• "Prisoner" is ambidextrous. He is shown in official media for the series, as well as in personal animations in the game itself, constantly switching which hand he uses as his dominant hand for tasks. This is another reference to Tesla, as Tesla was ambidextrous.
• According to the Official Identity V Museum, "Prisoner" is 175 cm tall (5'8).
• In several different language versions of his first letter, "Prisoner" uses the name Lucas Balzac.

Other Languages

""Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)" in Other Languages
🇨🇳	简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)	"囚徒" (卢卡·巴尔萨) "Qiútú" (lú kǎ·bā'ěr sà)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇨🇳	繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)	"囚徒" (盧卡·巴爾薩) "Qiútú" (lú kǎ·bā'ěr sà)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇺🇸	English	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
español	Español (Spanish)	"Prisionero" (Luca Balsa)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇮🇩	Bahasa Indonesia	"Tahanan" (Luca Balsa)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇯🇵	日本語 (Japanese)	「囚人」 (ルカ・バルサー) 'Shūjin' (Ruka barusā)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇰🇷	한국어 (Korean)	"죄수" (루카 바르세이) "Joesu" (luka baleusei)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇲🇾	Bahasa Melayu	"Tawanan" (Luka Balsa)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)
🇹🇭	ภาษาไทย (Thai)	" นักโทษ " (ลูก้า บัลก์) " Nạkthos̄ʹ" (Lūk̂ ā Bạl k̒)	" Prisoner " (Luca Balk)
🇻🇳	Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)	"Tù Nhân" (Luca Balsa)	"Prisoner" (Luca Balsa)

Navigation

Character Navigation
THE SURVIVORS
DEFAULT
	Lucky Guy (Season 0)	Doctor (Season 0)	Lawyer (Season 0)	Thief (Season 0)	Gardener (Season 0)
SEASON 1
	Magician (Season 1)	Explorer (Season 1)	Mercenary (Season 1)	Coordinator (Season 1)	Mechanic (Season 1)
					-
	Forward (Season 1)	The Mind's Eye (Season 1)	Priestess (Season 1)	Perfumer (Season 1)
SEASON 2-3					-
	Cowboy (Season 2)	Female Dancer (Season 2)	Seer (Season 3)	Embalmer (Season 3)
SEASON 5-7
	Prospector (Season 5)	Enchantress (Season 5)	Wildling (Season 6)	Acrobat (Season 6)	First Officer (Season 7)
SEASON 8-11
	Barmaid (Season 8)	Postman (Season 9)	Grave Keeper (Season 10)	"Prisoner" (Season 10)	Entomologist (Season 11)
SEASON 13-17
	Painter (Season 13)	Batter (Season 14)	Toy Merchant (Season 16)	"Psychologist" (Season 17)	Patient (Season 17)
SEASON 18-22
	Novelist (Season 18)	"Little Girl" (Season 18)	Weeping Clown (Season 19)	Professor (Season 21)	Antiquarian (Season 22)
SEASON 24-30
	Composer (Season 24)	Journalist (Season 26)	Aeroplanist (Season 27)	Cheerleader (Season 28)	Puppeteer (Season 30)
SEASON 31-36
	Fire Investigator (Season 31)	"Faro Lady" (Season 32)	"Knight" (Season 34)	Meteorologist (Season 35)	Archer (Season 36)
SEASON 37-41				-
	"Escapologist" (Season 37)	Lanternist (Season 39)	Matador (Season 41)
THE HUNTERS
DEFAULT		-
	Hell Ember (Season 0)
SEASON 1-4
	Smiley Face (Season 1)	Gamekeeper (Season 1)	The Ripper (Season 1)	Soul Weaver (Season 1)	Geisha (Season 1)
	The Feaster (Season 1)	Wu Chang (Season 2)	Photographer (Season 2)	Mad Eyes (Season 3)	Dream Witch (Season 4)
SEASON 5-9
	Axe Boy (Season 5)	Evil Reptilian (Season 6)	Bloody Queen (Season 7)	Guard 26 (Season 8)	"Disciple" (Season 9)
SEASON 11-16
	Violinist (Season 11)	Sculptor (Season 12)	"Undead" (Season 13)	Breaking Wheel (Season 15)	Naiad (Season 16)
SEASON 18-25
	Wax Artist (Season 18)	"Nightmare" (Season 18)	Clerk (Season 20)	Hermit (Season 22)	Night Watch (Season 25)
SEASON 27-34
	Opera Singer (Season 27)	"Fool's Gold" (Season 29)	The Shadow (Season 31)	"Goatman" (Season 33)	"Hullabaloo" (Season 34)
SEASON 36-40				-
	Peddler (Season 36)	"Cueist" (Season 38)	"Queen Bee" (Season 40)
IDENTITY SWITCH CHARACTERS
Novelist ⇌ "Nightmare"		Smiley Face ⇌ Weeping Clown		Evil Reptilian ⇌ Professor
"Little Girl" ⇌ Journalist		Prospector ⇌ "Fool's Gold"		Acrobat ⇌ "Hullabaloo"
Entomologist ⇌ "Queen Bee"		-
STORY RELATED CHARACTERS
Reporter		Detective		and many others...
CUT CHARACTERS
CUT SURVIVORS					-
	Female Driver	Graveyard Girl	Paparazzi	Slacker
CUT HUNTERS				-
	Ascetic Monk	Moon Face	Puppet