Warm static kinda wild.

[Caderdet]

I've gone down a terrible rabbit hole because of this stuff- a few days ago I read the wiki and saw that it randomizes mutations and I asked a simple question with regards to how that would interact with rapidly advanced mutations and was told it gets carried over to a new random physical mutation and in adventures of the character I've made since this was true (Thank you to those that answered the question for me)

I then decided to some more testing using both that character and a different one where I used wishes to speed up the process so here are some of my observations, though more testing may be needed (testing done on 22nd and 23rd Jan 2024) :

I suggest reading the wiki page on it first though if you haven't already.

The randomization of skills/mutations by drinking can be rerolled using precognition, though if the precognition mutation removed during the randomization the vision cannot be undone: this includes whether it was skills or mutations as well as what the randomization was and how many skill/mutation points were granted.

Most creatures turned into other creatures (pouring a dram onto them) seem to adopt the hostility of their new for(Passive creatures turned into hostile ones attacked) , though I have yet to test whether turning a hostile creature into one passive by default removes aggro.

A notable exception to seems to be companions who maintain their status as such.

An interesting use here is that many plants created through burgeoning are considered companions and as such can be turned into other creatures for party members. This does not work with temporal fugue clones as they still disappear even after being transformed.

Another quirk of transforming creatures is that they can spawn various things depending on what they became: Fish get a small pond of water, weeps get pools of their liquid and most significantly: party leader creatures spawn a relevant entourage (eg. A creature turned into a goatfolk shamas spawns other goatfolk) these seem to follow the same chain-of-command logic as beguiling or proselytizing a party leader creature do and will also be friendly if their leader is a party member.

All of this logic also applies if the player character is transformed by pouring it on yourself (with spawned creatures being direct party members loyal to you)

A transformed creature maintains its inventory and doesn't gain any new items usually associated with their new form, with the exception of creatures that cannot hold items who drop everything. All their skills , stats and mutations are changed to that of the creature they turned into however.

If a mutant has no mutations for whatever reason and would have had those randomized they still gain the mutation points and the same logic applies for skills and creatures that don't have any gaining skill points.

Randomizing mutations that change anatomy a lot can have some odd results including limbs that should no longer exist remaining, having odd names (3 right arms in my experience) or there being ghostly flames of icy mist on limbs even though the mutation is gone.

The list of creatures that warm static can change creatures into seems to almost include everything in the game from immobile plants, turrets and weeps to various oozes including soupy sludges all the way to high end creatures such as a chrome pyramid.

My testing was by no means extensive and a lot of what I have stated may be subject to change in the game's ongoing development but I felt like I should share my observations regardless.

All this is especially wild for me since warm static can be sold by ichor merchants and as such can theoretically be obtained in any quantity at any level by simply letting them restock repeatedly.

[glass zebra]

The anatomy stuff just sounds like a bug. There have been a few especially with ghostly flames etc.

Also keep in mind while precognition can be lost when you drink warm static as a mutant, it will not be lost if you force a companion to drink warm static, making it a lot easier to control and kinda more powerful. Special companion mutations (for which you probably took them) are excluded from being rolled away, so your astral tabby will still remain astral etc.

This can be very powerful on high level companions which usually have the downside of not gaining any more stuff to spread and often having very little skills or mutations. It can also circumvent some creatures' very low attributes which can make it really hard for them to unlock certain skills, since the reroll just ignores all requirements (including skill lines). Cooking is a notable skill for this, since many creatures have too low intelligence to get it and your companions can cook all the recipes you have invented.

You can also pour warm static on items or the ground to change the items or the world/screen in unexpected ways.


That warm static is being sold by ichor merchants and therefore not limited to late game anymore was changed some month ago. It was also eyebrow raising to me.

[I blame Earthshaker]

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Most creatures turned into other creatures (pouring a dram onto them) seem to adopt the hostility of their new for(Passive creatures turned into hostile ones attacked) , though I have yet to test whether turning a hostile creature into one passive by default removes aggro.

It just adopts the relation of the new NPCs parent faction. I think a few factions are exempt from the possibility, but never bothered to check the code to see. Haven't yet had a warden pop up though... also, watch out for leaving followers behind if you randomize something with an entourage; additional fun may ensue.

Originally posted by Caderdet:

A notable exception to seems to be companions who maintain their status as such.

An interesting use here is that many plants created through burgeoning are considered companions and as such can be turned into other creatures for party members. This does not work with temporal fugue clones as they still disappear even after being transformed.

A fascinating find, too bad companions can be notoriously good at getting you killed. I'm sort of curious how far you can stretch the companion system before the game slows down to Yd speed.

Originally posted by Caderdet:

A transformed creature maintains its inventory and doesn't gain any new items usually associated with their new form, with the exception of creatures that cannot hold items who drop everything. All their skills , stats and mutations are changed to that of the creature they turned into however.

It didn't use to, but that got "fixed" since it can brick the main quest and a player could probably die if they became something with little HP and no water.

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Randomizing mutations that change anatomy a lot can have some odd results including limbs that should no longer exist remaining, having odd names (3 right arms in my experience) or there being ghostly flames of icy mist on limbs even though the mutation is gone.

I've seen game leaving behind flames and mist, but never extra arms. Have you ever gotten an extra leg?

Originally posted by Caderdet:

All this is especially wild for me since warm static can be sold by ichor merchants and as such can theoretically be obtained in any quantity at any level by simply letting them restock repeatedly.

You haven't really mastered warm static until you figure out every way to get it and play with it. Too bad the desal refining technique got patched out, polygel is still generally the fastest way to maximize efficiency of getting it without wishing.

[Caderdet]

Update: I managed to successfully have a lvl6 character get EVERY (most at lvl4) mutation by just trading between Joppa area and six day stilt so... yea this stuff be wild.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Update: I managed to successfully have a lvl6 character get EVERY (most at lvl4) mutation by just trading between Joppa area and six day stilt so... yea this stuff be wild.

How much time did you spend on that?

[Caderdet]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Update: I managed to successfully have a lvl6 character get EVERY (most at lvl4) mutation by just trading between Joppa area and six day stilt so... yea this stuff be wild.

How much time did you spend on that?

Between 1050 and 1400ish per dram as I also boosted my stats a bit buying drops of nector to improve my ego mod from kippers and chefs whenever they had stock all the while I earned money by buying desalination pellets from the ichor merchants before heading south again to get new more water over the course of dozens , maybe even over a hundreds of trips back and forth so anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of drams of water and I'm leaning toward the latter.

[Pizzarugi]

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Originally posted by glass zebra:

How much time did you spend on that?

Between 1050 and 1400ish per dram as I also boosted my stats a bit buying drops of nector to improve my ego mod from kippers and chefs whenever they had stock all the while I earned money by buying desalination pellets from the ichor merchants before heading south again to get new more water over the course of dozens , maybe even over a hundreds of trips back and forth so anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of drams of water and I'm leaning toward the latter.

Not gonna lie, but that sounds slow and inefficient compared to leveling up to 30+, getting strong gear and skills, and plundering baroque ruins. With the disarm skill, I can pull tens of thousands of drams worth of loot per trip, even more if my tinker skill is high enough that I can tinker up small spheres of negative weight.

Though that being said, if you can find a legendary chef or kipper and then clone an army out of them, you can probably reach that level of power just from chowing down on enough drops of nectar. The idea of getting strong enough to plunder baroque ruins as early as level 1 tickles me.

[glass zebra]

The game gives you the freedom to play it in very different ways and I doubt OP's goal was to powerlevel with least time spend. It sounds more like trying to stretch the system and see if you can break it very early on.

Looking at Qud can definitely give a "ah, so I run around, kill and loot and level up. That kind of game" thought, but you can do a lot more in the game. I think one of my first few runs was very trading focused with ruin exploration and doing a trade route with some weeps I found. I would now say that was very "inefficient" if I just wanted currency and items, but it was still fun. Had I known about book traders back then, I would have maybe tried to go mostly non-violent and just make my living as a trader with a taste for expensive books and jewelry, with a proselytized follower carrying all my stuff and let them bustle, while I just whistle and hustle the trade folks.

And there are so many more ways to play it

[I blame Earthshaker]

Originally posted by Caderdet:

Originally posted by glass zebra:

How much time did you spend on that?

Between 1050 and 1400ish per dram as I also boosted my stats a bit buying drops of nector to improve my ego mod from kippers and chefs whenever they had stock all the while I earned money by buying desalination pellets from the ichor merchants before heading south again to get new more water over the course of dozens , maybe even over a hundreds of trips back and forth so anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of drams of water and I'm leaning toward the latter.

That does strike me as quite inefficient (using just water, I mean), although safe. Certainly safer than getting more expensive liquids, whether from the rainbow woods or dilute warm static from the moon stair to sell!

[Caderdet]

[quote=Pizzarugi;4137186871687488558
Not gonna lie, but that sounds slow and inefficient compared to leveling up to 30+, getting strong gear and skills, and plundering baroque ruins. With the disarm skill, I can pull tens of thousands of drams worth of loot per trip, even more if my tinker skill is high enough that I can tinker up small spheres of negative weight. [/quote]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

The game gives you the freedom to play it in very different ways and I doubt OP's goal was to powerlevel with least time spend. It sounds more like trying to stretch the system and see if you can break it very early on.

Oh it is terribly inefficient that I won't deny, but glass zebra is basically correct ; I did it as a proof of concept for breaking the game very early using the stuff.

I'm not even planning on playing with the character too much since they still have very little HP while having a massive amount of psychic glimmer that will most likely get them killed fairly quickly.

[I blame Earthshaker]

Originally posted by Caderdet:

I'm not even planning on playing with the character too much since they still have very little HP while having a massive amount of psychic glimmer that will most likely get them killed fairly quickly.

Just eat a bunch of humble pie and try to make it work. New kind of challenge run!