Summon Ability Costs/Increasing Energy Cap

[Keeksquiggles]

Hey everybody,

Some summon abilities (ie. howl, reaper, and moonlight) cost more energy to use than I actually have (120, 120, and 110, respectively, while my energy caps at 100 currently).

How do you actually use these abilities? Is there a way besides devotion to decrease their costs and/or is there a way to increase the energy cap beyond 100?

Thanks.

[Voidlord597]

Some actions upset the gods and inflict a curse which I assume is what is making your abilities more expensive because I looked at the cost of those same abilities and they don't cost more than 100 for me and I don't even have the devotion bonus for those.

[Keeksquiggles]

Huh I thought that only applied if you were devoted to a god and then broke that god's rule. Well that's probably what's going on - thanks Voidlord

[Voidlord597]

Did you ever change your devotion from one god to another?

[Keeksquiggles]

I have not yet - actually I never devoted myself to any of them. Also can confirm I wasn't cursed - I bought and burnt one of the wolf god idols and the game was basically like "I don't know why you did that because you aren't cursed but I appreciate it anyways!" It was honestly kinda funny. Just really confused now why my skills are so expensive :(

[Voidlord597]

My hunch was on some sort of curse because some of my abilities have "no devotion/cursed modifier" which led me to assume that curses would affect ability costs. If that isn't the case, then I'm not sure what else could explain it. I wonder if equipment or status effects can alter ability costs.

[Keeksquiggles]

"I wonder if equipment or status effects can alter ability costs" - No idea but there's only one way to find out. Naked playthrough starts now.

[Keeksquiggles]

Update - can confirm basic clothing has no effect on ability costs - i stripped my character down to his undergarments and was promptly dispatched by wasps - while also being unable to summon spectral wolf because the howl ability still costs more than the energy cap :(

[Bigga Boy]

given that its a variable modifier and not a "either 100 or 150 for cursed ppl" situation, i have to assume theres a scaling system. and its varied by god too. The next best guess is either the god town's opinion of you or you doing things the god hates. like running away from fights, or using lots of potions

[Keeksquiggles]

Hey Bigga - When I view the >100 cost skills under the gods menu, I see "No dedicated cost modifier". Is there a way to see what your reputation with a certain god is? Because I figured that if the cost was being affected by that it would say so somewhere. Wouldn't burning the god's icon have reset any negative reputation with a god anyways?

[Keeksquiggles]

Hey everyone, just wanted to resolve this real quick - it turns out that in patch 819, the cost of some of the abilities were changed, leading the 3 summon abilities mentioned in the initial post to cost more than 100 energy. Any playthroughs that have their costs at 100 still are probably from older versions of the game. This was found directly from the discord (link appears when you start up the game, and is on the store page).

The summon abilities can be activated in a few ways:
1. Moonlight has its cost reduced to 100 after burning the respective god's idol and phasing in that gods moon.
2. howl and reaper can be activated by devoting yourself to their respective gods (as can moonlight). However, this locks you out of using the other 2 abilities as you can only be devoted to 1 god at a time.
3. There is an item in the game (I think a rare one, possibly unique) that ups your energy cap to 120, eliminating the need for devotion or idol burning all-together.

I hope this helps, and thanks to you both for trying to figure this out with me.

[LVL1Goblin]

Found this on a Google search, only to realize I had the amulet in my inventory
It's called the lightning bolt amulet and it's found in the sunken effice (Barrow-Linn dungeon)
For any would-be summoners who look this up in the future (-v-)/

[glacial-weight]

there are abilities that exceed 100. There are two ways around this. Devotion, and there is an amulet that increases your energy cap to 120. I forget which dungeon it is in though, sorry. Devotion is the better way though because it makes it all more readily accessible.

[Fluttermind]

Devotion is the 'proper' way to use these abilities.