anvil of krong

[Icedfate]

given how old this game is, i'm sure this has been discussed many times.

but, is there a good strategy to using the anvil of krong?
I mean, in a "permadeth" run where you really can't afford to have your equipment being wrecked?

I read that it's a 5/7 chance of something good and a 2/7 chance of him being "displeased".

I've been experimenting. I saved and reloaded about 20 times and at least half of the attempts resulted in a "bad" result. and it's always at least a -4 to the stats. one time, i got a -1-2 to 6 different stats.

compared to the positives, 9 our ot 10 times, i got a measly +1 to 1 stat. one time, i got a +1 to 3 stats.

now I'm trying to avoid cognitive bias here, since 20 is way too small of a sample size to get accurate results.


but say, even if i did 1000 tries, it almost seems like it's always gonna average out to being worse and not better.

because, here's the thing.
5/7 to get a +1
or 2/7 to get a -4

means that on average, every 7 attempts will result is +5 -8 = -3. . .

so is it better in the long run to just ignore the anvil of krong? or is it better to like, only do it on some piece of new equipment you found that you aren't sure about if you want to replace your current gear with the new one so you bring it to the anvil and clang it and if it turns out bad, then you didn't really lose anything and just resell the item back to brax?

[sniggleboots]

Your very first Kronging in the run is guaranteed to be a success, I remember that much, so it's worthwhile to use it on a piece you expect to take all the way to Dredmor.

[Icedfate]

I read conflicting info claiming that's a myth. folks might be confusing it with encrusting, where the first encrust on each item is guaranteed success because it's based on the total amount all those "broken purple stars" it accumulates and the first one is guaranteed because the item starts off with 0 broken stars on it.

but i could be wrong.

[bengrue]

(I pleaded so hard during Beta to make sure the first Kronging was always "good." Seemed like a perfectly fine way to teach people to use it. If the first Krongification was bad, people might just not try again!)

[sniggleboots]

Originally posted by Icedfate:

I read conflicting info claiming that's a myth. folks might be confusing it with encrusting, where the first encrust on each item is guaranteed success because it's based on the total amount all those "broken purple stars" it accumulates and the first one is guaranteed because the item starts off with 0 broken stars on it.

but i could be wrong.

oh that could be it, now that you mention it, ♥♥♥♥

[Icedfate]

yeah, i mean, this leads into more questions about encrusting which seem like they have never been answered.

i'm experimenting with encrusting.

i managed to get 4 layers of lady gaga's meat dress glaze onto my pants and armor without getting hit with the "terrifying side effect"

but i can't get a 3rd layer of mad haberdashery onto my helmet.

so, from what i gathered online, it's based on that "broken star"
so the item starts with 0 broken stars

then i stuck 1 layer of "conceptual reinforcement" on my helm which has 12 broken star on it.
so the info i saw said the next encrust has a 12% chance of "failure", which means it succeeds but also gets a side effect.

i had to reload 3 times before successfully putting a mad haberdashery on the helm.

mad haberdashery has 29 on it, and the info online says to add those amounts together for the next one.

so when i went to put a second layer of mad on the helm, i guess i had to add 12+29 = 41% of failure.

it took 10 reloads to get it to stick without a side effect.

now i'm trying to put a third layer on and i have attempted about 30 times so far and can't get it to stick without a side effect.

i must either be super unlucky and having a bad streak or the info is a little off.
like maybe the failure chance is add up the total stars and then multiply it by 2? or maybe even multiply by the total amount if encrusts you already put on it?

like the first encrust is free but the second is the #stars x 2 and then the third is the sum of the stars x 3?

i dunno.

here's the thing though. there's like, a dozen different side effects, like "immolation", impoisoning, Seeing What Should Not Be Seen, Missing, twitchiness, tentacles, hunger, weakening, necromanticula, sanguinous misappropriation. .

and the thing is that the game gives no information on what these side effects do. the item description doesn't even change to reflect the side effect and all it says it that "it may lead to your death"

there is no information online, i guess it's because the company is defunct and the community for this game is too small.
i could just experiment and leave the side effects on my hat and play the game and see what happens and then write my own guide to share, but without knowing whats really happening under the hood, i don't want to guess and make assumptions and potentially shpread more misinformation.


mayne the player is "meant" to keep playing with the side effects and then find a way to counteract them? like immolation sounds bad, like i might randomly set myself on fire, but if i have lots of fire resistance i might be able to negate that effect