A Starter's Guide to Gods

This guide will provide a broad introduction to the mechanics and strategy of worship in Desktop Dungeons.

Introduction: Why Worship?

New players may find the worship mechanics of Desktop Dungeons vexing and frustrating. Going in blind, you may anger powerful deities and suffer crippling debuffs. The mechanics of worship are themselves somewhat confusing. And as Desktop Dungeons is a relatively old game, you might have trouble finding support from the fairly small playerbase.

With this guide, I hope to help you skip this frustrating experience. Gods, while tricky to use well, are easily one of the most powerful resources available to you in the game. A well-executed worship strategy can easily turn a lost run into a win!

Important Notes:

This guide draws heavily on the excellent wiki [www.qcfdesign.com].

This guide does not discuss the process of unlocking gods. For guidance on unlocking each god, see this wiki page[www.qcfdesign.com].

Throughout this guide, I will be making many generalizations. But Desktop Dungeons has a lot of depth, and certain combinations of characters, races, and items may change things. So while my advice will be effective most of the time, do not blindly follow it as gospel! Enumerating every edge case would make this guide a bit too unwieldy for a new player.

How Gods Work

Altars

Once the first god is unlocked, altars will start to spawn in every standard dungeon, allowing worship. The number of altars in each dungeon will increase to 3 once all nine gods are unlocked and the Church building is upgraded. If a specific god is prepared, that god's altar will be guaranteed to spawn as one of the dungeon's 3 altars. It will also attempt to spawn near the dungeon entrance, enabling early worship.

Piety

Piety is the currency of worship for all gods. It is best thought of as "god gold" - a character's piety is not tied to a specific god. The maximum amount of piety you can have is 100. The minimum amount is 0. If you would fall below 0 piety while actively worshiping a god, you invoke the god's punishment. Before you worship, make sure you can avoid losing too much piety, as a god's punishment can easily end a run.

Main Ways to Gain Piety

• Begin worship. The first time you worship a god in a given run, you will be awarded an initial piety bonus based on a hidden factor (see specific god section for details).
  
• Take an action that your current god likes.
  
• Take a boon that grants piety.
  
• Walk over the colored sparkles that surround each altar (1 piety each).
  
• Desecrate an altar (see below).

Main Ways to Lose Piety

• Purchase boons.
  
• Take an action that your current god dislikes.
  
• Convert to different god (see below).

Conversion

There are no requirements for worshiping your first god in a given run. Once you worship, however, you are stuck with this god unless you convert. In order to convert, you must have at least 50 piety. Doing so halves your current piety, so each conversion effectively costs at least 25 piety.

Conversions, when timed effectively, can drastically increase the power of worship. Each god offers unique benefits while also punishing specific activities. By switching gods, you can strategically take actions that your old god might have disliked, while simultaneously getting access to new perks.

Several gods offer easy ways to gain piety throughout the early stages of a run. An effective strategy is therefore to use an initial worship as a piety farm. Once a large amount of piety is gained, you can convert to a deity that offers powerful boons for a given situation. You can immediately purchase these boons without having to worry about pleasing them to gain piety.

Desecration

Desecration allows you to gain piety quickly at a heavy price. While worshiping a god, desecrating another god's altar will:

• Grant 30 piety immediately (reduced by 10 for each subsequent desecration).
  
• Grant 3 stacks of Indulgence immediately (reduced by 1 for each subsequent desecration). Each stack of Indulgence prevents piety loss after taking a disliked action.
  
• Destroy the altar, preventing its use for the remainder of the run.
  
• Immediately invoke the desecrated god's punishment.

Desecration is a powerful but risky action. While certain gods have punishments that are manageable or even harmless, most punishments are extremely dangerous. As a result, desecration is most often useful in the late game to give you an edge in a difficult boss fight. Indulgences are also very useful for taking actions that are normally unacceptable to your current god.

TAUROG

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+2 per enemy killed so far
Convert a glyph.	+10
Kill a non-plant enemy.	+8 for an enemy with Magical Attack +4 for any other enemy
Cast a glyph.	-2
Convert one of Taurog's items.	Punishment

Punishment: All enemies gain 10% Magical Resist. For altar desecration, gain -40% attack bonus. For converting one of Taurog's items, gain -10% attack bonus.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Taurog's Blade	20 (single use)	Gain 5% attack bonus and -1 maximum mana. Spawn Skullpicker on the ground, a large item that provides 5 base damage.	Good
Taurog's Shield	25 (single use)	Gain 5% attack bonus and -1 maximum mana. Spawn Wereward on the ground, a large item that provides 5 Damage Reduction .	Situational
Taurog's Helm	25 (single use)	Gain 5% attack bonus and -1 maximum mana. Spawn Gloat on the ground, a large item that provides 15% Magic Resist .	Situational
Taurog's Armour	25 (single use)	Gain 5% attack bonus and -1 maximum mana. Spawn Will on the ground, a large item that provides 15% Physical Resist .	Situational
Unstoppable Fury	20 (+10 per use)	Gain Death Protection . To take this boon, you must have all four of Taurog's items in your inventory.	Situational

Strategy

Taurog can be worshiped in a variety of situations. Early worshipers will get large amounts of piety over time, while worshiping later allows you to gain a large peity spike by killing popcorn (low-level enemies that can be killed without retailiation). Taurog can also be risky, however, as he punishes every glyph cast. Most characters will strive to always find productive uses for mana, but glyphs cannot be spammed while following Taurog if you're trying to gain piety. When properly balancing kills and glyph casts, Taurog offers some of the best piety gain of any god.

Note that unlike Mystera Annur's piety gain, Taurog deducts a flat amount of piety per cast. This means that glyphs cast once per monster like GETINDARE and CYDSTEPP are preferred to spammable glyphs like PISORF and BYSSEPS. Prioritize enemies with Magical Attack during worship to further increase gains. Desecration should be avoided unless used towards the end of a run. The attack bonus penalty for item conversion is far more lenient, so it can be worthwhile to free up inventory space in some situations.

Four of Taurog's boons provide items which, when equipped, provide stat boosts. Of the four, the best is usually Taurog's Blade, which is enormously powerful to low-level characters in particular. The defensive items can also be very powerful in many situations, particularly for characters that take many hits in combat. But most characters will not want to pick up all of these boons - inventory space is limited, and maximum mana is important. It should be noted that items can be left on the ground and picked up later, which is very useful when inventory space is tight (you still lose the maximum mana though).

Taurog's fifth boon, Unstoppable Fury, is his only power spike boon. Death Protection functions as a very powerful health spike; gaining an extra hit on a boss can mean the difference between victory or defeat. The cost, however, is very high: You must spend well over 100 piety, lose 4 maximum mana, and sacrifice 2/3 of your inventory to items, not all of which may be useful. As a result, most characters will not find use for the boon. But if piety is abundant towards the end of the run, consider the option of equipping Taurog's items for a difficult boss fight.

Inventory and glyph cast management must always be kept in mind while worshiping Taurog. If his restrictions can be overcome, Taurog provides generous piety and useful items for many characters.

MYSTERA ANNUR

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+1 per glyph cast so far
Cast a glyph.	+1 per 2 mana spent
Gain Mana Burned .	-1 per mana lost (maximum -1)
Kill an enemy with Magical Attack .	-5

Punishment: All enemies gain 15% Physical Resist and 15% Magical Resist.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Magic	5 (+20 per use)	Gain 1 maximum mana.	Good
Refreshment	50 (single use)	Glyph conversion fills 50% of your mana (reduced to 25% while not worshiping).	Excellent
Flames	20 (single use)	Increase BURNDAYRAZ damage by 1 per level. Gain -50% attack bonus.	Very Situational
Weakening	30 (+0 per use)	Remove 10% Magic Resist from you and all monsters on the current floor.	Very Situational
Mystic Balance	60 (single use)	Glyph mana costs are increased or decreased by up to 2 points towards the value of 5. For example, a glyph costing 2 mana now costs 4, and a glyph costing 6 mana now costs 5. Glyphs costing 5 mana are unchanged.	Good

Strategy

Mystera Annur is best worshipped early. While she does not provide a quick source of immediate piety, she provides large amounts of piety over time, as virtually every character will be constantly using glyphs. If possible, kill enemies with Magical Attack before or after worship, and use caution in certain dungeons with many magical enemies. Desecration should be avoided unless used towards the end of a run, or unless you're about to purchase Jehora Jeheyu's Chaos Avatar boon.

Magic is very cheap (particularly the first use) and is worth picking up at least once. Mystic Balance is far pricier, but provides excellent value for characters relying on expensive glyphs like WEYTWUT. It can even be worthwhile if only to reduce the cost of BURNDAYRAZ to 5 mana.

Usually, Mystera's only power spike comes in the form of Refreshment. If glyphs are left on the ground for later conversion, it provides a mana spike second only to The Earthmother. While it’s most effective during worship, it can still be useful after converting out.

Flames and Weakening can also be purchased for certain boss fights. For example, Flames is effective against the Tower of Goo. That said, these two boons are fairly weak for their costs and come with major drawbacks. Consider whether piety is better spent on Refreshment or a different god's boons.

Overall, Mystera is a simple god that offers benefits to nearly every character. In a tough boss fight, however, her impact will be limited compared to other more powerful gods. Once you've saved up piety and gotten any value out of Refreshment, you may want to convert.

GLOWING GUARDIAN

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+5 per level
Level up.	+3 per consecutive level-up during continuous worship
Convert something.	+10 for APHEELSIK or BLUDTUPOWA +5 for other large items +5 for Health Potion and Mana Potion +2 for other small items
Gain Poisoned or Mana Burned .	+2
Kill an XP-valuable enemy with Undead .	+1
Kill an XP-valuable enemy with Burning (must already be applied).	+1
Consume a Health Potion or a Mana Potion . Inflict Poisoned . Use Life Steal or Sanguine .	-10
Cast BLUDTUPOWA	-20 and cast failure

Punishment: Empty your inventory.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Humility	15 (single use)	Lower level number by 1 (must be at least level 2).	Excellent
Absolution	2 (+2 per use)	Gain a Prayer Bead (small unconvertible item granting 1% Magic Resist ). Remove a random XP-valuable, non-boss, non- Undead enemy on the current floor of equal or lower level. Gain 4 maximum health.	Good
Cleansing	10 (+0 per use)	Gain a Prayer Bead (small unconvertible item granting 1% Magic Resist ). Remove Mana Burned and Poisoned . Remove 1 Weakened and 1 Corrosion . Gain Consecrated Strike (makes your next attack deal magic damage).	Situational
Protection	10 (+5 per use)	Gain a Prayer Bead (small unconvertible item granting 1% Magic Resist ). Restore 35% health and 35% mana.	Excellent
Enlightenment	100 (single use)	Gain 5 max mana. For each Prayer Bead in your inventory, gain 1XP, 1 maximum health, 1 base damage, and 10 conversion points. Remove 99 Cursed .	Very Situational

Strategy

While the Glowing Guardian provides minor rewards for several common actions, there is only one way to earn any significant amount of piety with him: long-term worship. Worshiping at level 1 or 2 should allow you to get quite a lot of piety by the late-game due to the level-up bonus. It's a good thing, too: Guardian severely punishes you for using potions, so you probably don't want to be quaffing them during worship without Indulgence. Better to use that hard-earned piety to convert out. If you can't or don't want to worship Guardian early, there's another option: Use all of your potions before worship, then convert into Guardian during a boss fight for some last-minute purchases of Protection (see below).

Whatever your strategy, be mindful of Guardian's many other dislikes. Classes like the Bloodmage, Assassin, and Gorgon are essentially unable to worship, not to mention any character wielding a Vampiric Blade or Venom Dagger. And with a punishment that all but ends any dungeon run, one must avoid punishment and desecration at all costs.

In return for these restrictions, Guardian offers one of the most powerful boons in the game for a mere 15 piety: Humility. It is difficult to overstate this boon's power; it is often worth worshiping Guardian for this boon alone. First, by artificially lowering your level, you get bonus experience from killing higher-level enemies with same-level stats. This benefit can be obtained as early as level 2. Second, Humility allows you to get "level 11" stats, making it invaluable in longer dungeons. Lowering your level does decrease certain things like BURNDAYRAZ damage and health regeneration, but these costs are more then offset by the boon's benefits.

If you find yourself worshiping Guardian for Humility in the early game, you will also want to consider some purchases of Absolution. Even small maximum health boosts are quite significant for a low-level character, greatly increasing your ability to level. The piety cost is also trivial. That said, removing a monster may not be desirable. Low-level monsters have many uses such as extra experience, piety for other gods like Tikki Tooki, blood pools for Sanguine, and removal of Cursed. Multiple uses can also clog your inventory with Prayer Bead. Still, it is often beneficial to purchase Absolution at least once or twice.

Guardian's main spiking boon, Protection, is straightforward and powerful; one simply needs to mind the increasing piety cost and the inventory space required for Prayer Beads. The main issue is that it's attached to Guardian instead of another god, and thus you can't use it in tandem with potions without converting in or out. To properly time the spike, plan to consume all of your potions either before or after worship.

Guardian's other two boons are more situational. Cleansing isn't often worthwhile, but it does come in handy if you're forced to get Poisoned or Mana Burned (remember: no potions!), and Consecrated Strike is useful to spike against enemies with high Physical Resist like Goo Blob. Enlightenment, on the other hand, is almost always a trap. The benefits do not come close to outweighing the enormous piety cost. After purchasing it, you won't have enough piety to convert out, so it's only effective if you're converting your potions, collecting many Prayer Beads, and going monotheistic. And even then, are the stat boosts and experience worth more than additional shots of Protection?

To summarize, while Guardian seems like a fairly complex god at first glance, most worshipers have one of two fairly simple game plans. The early worshiper joins for Humility, Absolution and any other desired boons before eventually converting out. The late worshiper joins once they've exhausted their potions, and uses Protection as a powerful spike to finish a boss. As long as you avoid his dislikes, Guardian offers powerful perks useful to nearly every character.

THE EARTHMOTHER

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+5
Cast IMAWAL on an enemy.	+10 for a non-plant +5 for a plant
Use Life Steal .	-5
Kill a plant.	-15

Punishment: Gain 5 Corrosion.

Free Glyph

If worshiped as your first god, an IMAWAL glyph worth 0 conversion points spawns on the ground.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Plantation	5 (+0 per use)	Replace all visible blood pools with random plants, gaining 5 piety each.	Excellent
Clearance	5 (+5 per use)	Remove up to 10 random plants, gaining 1 mana each.	Excellent
Greenblood	5 (+3 per use)	Spawn 3 random plants. Remove 1 Cursed . Apply 1 Corrosion to all enemies on the current floor.	Good
Entanglement	5 (+0 per use)	Spawn 5 random plants. Apply Slowed to all enemies on the current floor.	Excellent
Vine Form	5 (+3 per use)	Spawn 2 random plants. Gain 4 maximum health and 1 Damage Reduction .	Good

Strategy

The Earthmother is very generous with piety. Early worshipers will get large amounts of piety over time from her free IMAWAL glyph in addition to bonus XP. Even if you don't want to petrify your popcorn (low-level enemies that can be killed without retailiation), she's perfectly happy with plant petrification as well. Extra plants can be spawned for this purpose using her boons.

Converting into Earthmother is also viable due to Plantation, the best piety spike in the game. A single late-game use of plantation generates so much piety that you'll usually overshoot the maximum of 100, so be sure to spend any excess piety (beyond 5) before use. The numerous plant spawns may block your path, but this is easily addressed with Clearance or simply converting out. The main downside to Plantation is the consumption of blood pools, nullifying any benefits from Sanguine. After using Plantation, you should also be careful not to get stuck with no way to gain piety if you don't have access to IMAWAL.

As long as you don't kill her plants or use Life Steal, there is no risk of getting punished. But even if you somehow find yourself out of her favor, it's not a big deal: Earthmother's punishment is a pushover compared to those of other gods. It is fairly irrelevant in the late-game, and can be easily nullified by a Burn Salve if necessary. As a result, her altar is one of the best to desecrate.

Greenblood and Vine Form are Earthmother's stat boosters, and both can be used similarly. Damage Reduction and Corrosion are most effective for regen-fighters or characters otherwise taking many hits, but they're cheap enough to be attractive to any worshiper, and can easily make the difference in low-level fights. Greenblood is also one of only a few ways to quickly eliminate Cursed without killing enemies, and is thus situationally invaluable. Be sure to get your uses out of these boons before using Plantation.

Earthmother's two spiking boons are Clearance and Entanglement. When combined with Plantation and all of her other plant-creating boons, Clearance is the best mana spike in the game, and can refill your mana bar several times for very little piety. Entanglement effectively grants a free WEYTWUT against every enemy on the map, and for only 5 piety, it can easily be used multiple times to secure high-level kills. If worshiping early in the game, it is worth using this boon to slow all enemies that you might petrify - using IMAWAL on a slowed enemy grants 1 XP! With these two boons and a piety spike from Plantation, Earthmother is a good conversion target for a final boss fight (though she may be outclassed by other gods like Dracul).

Long-term Earthmother worshipers do have a challenge to overcome: Plant spawns. On many maps, even a single nasty plant blocking a hallway can be a major problem, especially if the altar is along one of these corridors. Killing the plant manually is hardly preferable, as it results in a nasty -15 piety and often carries a major debuff. As a result, ENDISWAL is an excellent glyph to have in your inventory to circumvent poor spawns.

If you can manage her plant spawns, The Earthmother is one of the most straightforward, versatile, and rewarding gods available.

BINLOR IRONSHIELD

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+1 per 10 revealed tiles on the main floor
Destroy a wall in any way besides purchasing a boon.	+5
Cast BYSSEPS.	+1
Cast IMAWAL on an empty tile.	-5
Level up.	-10

Punishment: Lower Physical Resist and Magical Resist by 50%.

Free Glyph

If worshiped as your first god, a PISORF glyph worth 0 conversion points spawns on the ground.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Stone Soup	35 (single use)	Spawn an ENDISWAL glyph worth 0 conversion points on the ground.	Very Situational
Stone Skin	15 (+0 per use)	Gain 3% Magic Resist . Destroy 3 nearby walls. Gain 3 Stone Skin (equivalent to 3 casts of ENDISWAL).	Good
Stone Form	25 (single use)	Gain 5% Magic Resist . Destroy 10 nearby walls. Whenever a wall is destroyed, including via a boon, gain Might (equivalent to a cast of BYSSEPS).	Excellent
Stone Fist	40 (single use)	Gain 5% Magic Resist . Destroy 20 nearby walls. Gain 50% Knockback .	Excellent
Stone Heart	10 (+0 per use)	Gain 3% Magic Resist . Destroy 15 nearby walls. Lower Physical Resist and Magical Resist of all enemies on the current floor by 5%.	Situational

Strategy

Piety management with Binlor Ironshield is straightforward. Whether worshiped early or late, Binlor is a great source of piety over time for any character with the ability to destroy walls. For early worshipers, this is not a problem due to his free PISORF glyph. The Bear Mace is also an excellent Blacksmith preparation if only for worshiping Binlor. Converting into Binlor without wall-destroying capabilities will not offer many immediate opportunities for piety, but is also a very safe choice - you only need to worry about his leveling toll. Note that in certain situations, dedicated worshipers may run out of options for gaining piety by exhausting the level's walls.

Binlor's altar can be desecrated for free if you don't have any resistances, but characters relying on them should be careful.

When first experimenting with Binlor, many players may be tempted by Stone Soup. Unfortunately, a 0 CP ENDISWAL glyph for 35 piety is generally not as powerful as it sounds. Binlor's free PISORF and the Stone Fist boon provide the ability to break walls already, and the Stone Skin boon provides the resistance effect. It is perhaps most useful for hunting the secret subdungeon found on many maps if there aren't obvious knockback targets nearby.

Stone Fist is by far Binlor's most powerful boon. For 40 piety, you gain a massive damage boost as long as you can hit enemies into walls or other enemies. If used to destroy walls, it can also quickly pay for itself. The intricacies of Knockback are beyond the scope of this guide, but one only needs to experiment with this boon to get a sense of its power. Characters purchasing Stone Fist will often also pick up Stone Form, which essentially grants a free BYSSEPS cast after every hit that destroys a wall.

In addition to boosting your damage further, Stone Form is especially valuable for eroding resistances of difficult bosses. The other alternative is Stone Heart, which erodes resistances at the cost of piety (and walls) instead of health. This is a somewhat underwhelming boon, but can still be useful for worshipers with lots of piety to spare.

Binlor's single spiking boon is Stone Skin. It is a fairly straightfoward boon that provides Physical Resist while triggering Stone Form if you have it. Against the right enemy, carefully timed purchases of this boon can easily turn the tide. That said, Binlor's best spiking option is lacking compared to those of other gods.

Finally, it should be noted that each boon besides Stone Soup grants Magic Resist. This is deceptively powerful, and is definitely noticeable against high-damage magic enemies like Warlocks or certain bosses. A piety-rich worshiper may consider taking Binlor's repeatable boons solely for increasing this resistance level.

Overall, Binlor is a piety-friendly god that provides both damage and defense. While his utility is map- and situation-dependent, he quickly becomes extremely powerful if you can reliably leverage your knockback damage.

JEHORA JEHEYU

Unique Mechanics

Unlike other gods, Jehora Jeheyu does not have specific likes or dislikes. Instead, Jehora "notices" certain actions and has a chance to either grant 2-4 piety, inflict a negative effect, or do nothing. The complete algorithm Jehora uses to determine the resulting effect is beyond the scope of this guide, but is detailed here[www.qcfdesign.com]. The table lists actions noticed and possible effects.

Actions	Negative Effects
Reveal a non-plant enemy. Kill an XP-valuable enemy. Cast BYSSEPS. Cast GETINDARE. Cast WONAFYT. Cast APHEELSIK. Cast WEYTWUT. Cast CYDSTEPP. Convert something. Dodge.	Gain 1 Weakened . Gain 1 Corrosion . Gain 1 Cursed . Gain Poisoned . Gain Mana Burned . Set health to 1.

Of note:

• If worshiped as your first god, Jehora gives a random amount of piety proportional to the square of your current level number.
  
• The Petition boon completely prevents Jehora from inflicting negative effects.
  
• The chance of getting a negative effect is not actually random; the probability increases when piety is granted.
  
• Once a specific type of negative effect is inflicted, Jehora is less likely to use it again.
  
• There is no way to lose piety with Jehora outside of the Last Chance boon.

Punishment: 50% chance to do nothing. 50% chance to reduce attack bonus by 33%, reduce maximum health by 33%, set health to 1, reduce maximum mana by 33%, and set mana to 0.

Free Glyph

If worshiped as your first god, a WEYTWUT glyph worth 0 conversion points spawns on the ground.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Petition	45 (single use)	When Jehora would inflict a negative effect, nothing happens instead.	Excellent
Last Chance	All (single use)	Gain a chance to fully restore health and mana based on the amount of piety spent.	Very Situational
Boost Health	20 (+25 per use)	Consume a Health Potion . Gain 20 maximum health.	Excellent
Boost Mana	20 (+25 per use)	Consume a Mana Potion . Gain 3 maximum mana.	Good
Chaos Avatar	80 (single use)	Gain XP equal to the amount needed to level up. Gain 100 conversion points. Remove all stacks of Weakened and Corrosion . Remove 20% Physical Resist and 20% Magic Resist from all enemies on the current floor.	Excellent

Strategy

Gaining significant amounts of piety with Jehora Jeheyu generally requires long-term worship. But long-term worship will yield many negative effects, so most worshipers will first make a beeline for Petition. Worshiping early usually nets the most piety, though you should expect to take several negative effects. Alternatively, worshiping as your first god in the midgame can grant a nice starting piety bonus, negating time spent trying to get Petition and the risk of negative effects.

Do not desecrate Jehora's altar unless you have no other choice. For that matter, also do not take Last Chance unless you need a health and mana spike have no other choice.

Jehora's stat boosts are both very good and cheap for what they do. That said, Boost Health is almost always the better of the two. Even dedicated spellcasters will want to use their health as a resource, and 20 maximum health is simply more powerful than 3 maximum mana, especially at low levels. Boost Health can sometimes even be worth purchasing before Petition if it enables higher-level kills. Boost Mana is still an excellent boon, and its cheap piety cost means most dedicated worshipers will purchase it at least once. In the late game, the potions and piety are generally more valuable than the stat boosts.

Despite its hefty price tag, Chaos Avatar is one of the best spiking boons in the game. Every character will benefit from instantly leveling up, not to mention the other perks the boon confers. Chaos Avatar is also a reason to convert into Jehora in the late game, though you'll want to have close to 100 piety pre-conversion and at least one altar to desecrate.

While his piety and negative effect mechanics can be confusing, worshiping Jehora is relatively simple and often quite powerful. Obtain Petition early, use stat boosts to gain an edge in leveling, and use Chaos Avatar for a late-game spike against a boss.

DRACUL

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Worship as your first god.	+2 per enemy killed so far
Use Sanguine .	+1 per purchase of Blood Tithe +1 if Blood Tithe has not been purchased
Convert CYDSTEPP or HALPMEH.	+10
Convert Health Potion .	+5
Kill an XP-valuable enemy without Undead .	+2
Use Life Steal (once per enemy).	+1
Cast CYDSTEPP or HALPMEH. Consume Health Potion . Kill an enemy with Undead .	-5

Punishment: Gain -20 maximum health and -1 Life Steal.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Blood Curse	0 (single use)	Raise level number by 1 (must not be level 10). Gain 20 piety.	Very Situational
Blood Tithe	10 (+15 per use)	Gain 5% Sanguine , 1 base damage, and -5 maximum health.	Excellent
Blood Hunger	20 (+25 per use)	Gain 1 Life Steal , 1 base damage, -20% maximum Physical Resist , and -20% maximum Magic Resist . (By default, maximum resistances are 65%.)	Good
Blood Shield	40 (single use)	Gain 15% Physical Resist and 15% Magic Resist .	Good
Blood Swell	20 (+10 per use)	Set health to 100%. Gain Cursed .	Excellent

Strategy

Dracul can be stingy when it comes to piety. Unless you invest in his boons, the best way to gain notable amounts of piety over time is through killing enemies for 2 piety each. This is only half of what Taurog offers. You also need to worry about the penalty for killing enemies with Undead. Given Dracul's low piety gain, distaste for certain actions, and relatively generous reward for initial worship, early worship yields few benefits in the piety department. That said, a dedicated follower can greatly help their piety gain by purchasing Blood Hunger early to gain Life Steal.

In the later stages of the game, while Dracul does reward killing most popcorn (low-level enemies that can be killed without retailiation), the real secret to Dracul's piety spike involves Blood Tithe (see below). Of course there's also Blood Curse, which may provide a boost in edge cases, but its downside (more leveling difficulty) is usually too harsh to take early, and most late-game characters would rather not be locked out of reaching level 10 stats. All things considered, Dracul is also OK as a late-game desecration target - just be sure consider how much health you need to survive a single attack from a boss.

Despite middling piety gain, Dracul undoubtedly provides the most powerful health spiking boons in the game. With enough piety, you can tank an enormous amount of hits through repeated uses of both Blood Tithe and Blood Swell. Often, the best approach is to spend your piety on 2-3 uses of Blood Tithe, consume all available blood pools, and use the regained piety for Blood Swell or any other needed conversion. If you're reliant on resistances, leave some popcorn to remove Cursed.

Dracul's Blood Hunger and Blood Shield, while not quite as strong, are still solid pickups for long-term worship or characters taking many hits. Life Steal provides healing in edge cases, and also increases piety gained from killing enemies (though multiple stacks are not generally necessary). Resistances are good enough to speak for themselves; a slightly-worse Dragon Shield that doesn't take up inventory is incredibly powerful. The main downside of these boons is their piety cost: consider whether these boons are worth more than extra purchases of Blood Tithe or Blood Swell. They often are, but should not be consider auto-purchases, particularly late in a run.

If used well, Dracul could easily be considered the most powerful diety in the game for his health-spiking capability alone. If you plan to take hits from a boss, all of his boons are invaluable. Just be sure to watch your maximum health, spend your piety carefully, and pay attention to which enemies have Undead and Bloodless.

TIKKI TOOKI

Likes and Dislikes

Action	Piety
Kill a lower-level XP-valuable enemy.	+5
Dodge.	+3
Apply Poisoned (once per enemy).	+1
Cast WONAFYT or WEYTWUT.	+1
Get hit by an enemy more than once.	-3
Consume Death Protection .	-10

Punishment: All enemies gain First Strike and Weakening Blow. Remove Dodge and Poisonous.

Free Glyph

If worshiped as your first god, a GETINDARE glyph worth 0 conversion points spawns on the ground.

Boons

Boon	Cost	Description	My Rating
Tribute	0 (+0 per use)	Pay 15 gold to gain 10 piety.	Good
Tikki's Edge	25 (+25 per use)	Gain 10 gold. Gain 1 Learning (XP-valuable enemies are worth 1 extra XP).	Excellent
Dodging	25 (single use)	Gain 10 gold. Gain 10% Dodge .	Situational
Poison	15 (+10 per use)	Gain 1 Poisonous .	Situational
Reflexes	35 (+0 per use)	Consume a Health Potion . A Reflex Potion (grants temporary First Strike and an extra attack after being hit) and a Quicksilver Potion (grants temporary dodge prediction and 50% Dodge ) spawn on the ground.	Excellent

Strategy

In the early game, Tikki Tooki's dislike of getting hit can make worship very difficult. Most low-level characters will have trouble killing higher-level enemies while getting hit only once without strong items or glyphs. But if you can scrape together some piety somehow, the free GETINDARE glyph and the early Learning boon are very valuable. This is where Tribute comes in handy. On its face, 10 piety for 15 gold is prohibitively expensive. But often, this small piety boost is enough to get to your first 25 piety for Learning, which refunds 2/3 of the gold cost. In addition to gaining more obvious benefits of faster leveling, a Tikki worshiper can leverage this boon into additional piety: Faster leveling means more lower-level enemies to kill.

In contrast, worshiping Tikki in the late game offers one of the best piety spikes of any god as long as popcorn (low-level enemies that can be killed without retailiation) has been left alive. Of course, this strategy doesn't let you get as much leverage out of Learning. A midgame strategy is therefore a powerful approach: You can eat some popcorn to afford a relatively early Learning without needing to purchase Tribute. Whatever the strategy, plan your fights carefully: Tikki's punishment is very powerful, and desecration must be avoided until a boss fight at the earliest.

In addition to Learning, Tikki offers two boons that provide benefits over the longer term: Dodging and Poison. Neither of their effects are particularly powerful, but they still have their uses. The gold provided by Dodging is nice, and the piety cost can often be recouped through the occasional dodge if purchased early. The cost of Poison can be recouped in a similar manner and tends to be more useful than random dodges, but taking advantage of poison usually means getting hit more than once and suffering Tikki's wrath. Because of their relatively high upfront costs, generally only purchase these boons if you plan on long-term worship.

Tikki's most powerful boon is arguably Reflexes, which transforms a Health Potion into a far more powerful pair of potions that essentially grant you two hits for free. This is a massive health spike, and one which can easily be purchased multiple times after a late-game popcorn cleanup.

Tikki Tooki, while tricky to use well, offers extremely powerful boons that can profoundly change the course of a run. Strategies revolving around saving popcorn and damage spiking are often keys to getting the most out of the god.

THE PACTMAKER

Unique Mechanics

The Pactmaker works very differently from other gods. At any time, you may choose to permanently enter a pact with Pactmaker. Pacts provide rewards when taking certain actions at the cost of piety. You may only enter one pact, with one exception: You can enter a second pact if you enter the Consensus pact first. If you have insufficient piety to pay for your pact, nothing happens; Pactmaker does not punish.

Pactmaker has no likes or dislikes, and their altar cannot be worshiped or desecrated. Pacts can still be entered while worshiping another god.

Pacts

Pact	Action	Piety	Reward	My Rating
Scholar's Pact	Level up.	-10	Cast BYSSEPS and overheal to 150% of your maximum health.	Good
Warrior's Pact	Kill an XP-valuable enemy.	-3	Gain 1 maximum health.	Situational
Alchemist's Pact	Consume a Health Potion or Mana Potion .	-4	Gain 3 XP.	Good
Body Pact	Take damage from an XP-valuable enemy for the first time.	-4	Gain 1% Physical Resist and 1% Magic Resist .	Situational
Spirit Pact	Convert something.	-5	Gain 15 conversion points.	Very Situational
Consensus	Enter the pact.	50	Set maximum piety to 50. Does not preclude entering another pact.	Excellent

Strategy

Setting aside Consensus, The Pactmaker's offerings can be categorized as either stat boosters or spiking pacts. Stat boosters include Warrior's Pact and Body Pact, both of which increase longevity. Both pacts are expensive, so you'll usually want to power them with piety-friendly gods like Mystera Annur and Taurog. The Body Pact's effect is slightly stronger than the Warrior's Pact in the long term, but costs more piety. While the effects are beneficial, be sure to consider whether increased staying power can be obtained more quickly and cheaply. For example, Dracul's Blood Shield or Jehora Jeheyu's Boost Health may be more effective.

In contrast, the Scholar's Pact and the Alchemist's Pact are useful for spiking in the late game. If you're very close to a mid-fight level-up but lack the monsters to obtain it, entering Alchemist's Pact is a great option to push you over the edge. If instead you need more direct staying power in a boss fight, enter the Scholar's Pact to get a free hit or two from a mid-fight level-up. The Scholar's Pact is otherwise generally too expensive to use early.

The effects of the Spirit Pact completely depend on your race. As it's quite pricey and difficult to control, most characters will choose a different pact. It can be useful for certain monster classes, or if you have many small items to convert.

While these five pacts can be powerful, Consensus is by far Packmaker's most impactful offering. A free 50 piety is nothing to sneeze at, and it's almost always correct to enter this pact at some point in the late game if possible. While purchasing more boons is always nice, the real power comes from the ability to instantly convert gods, as 50 piety is the threshold needed to convert. If entered in the late game, the maximum piety reduction from Consensus is generally not an issue, and you can still enter a spiking pact if desired.

It is also sometimes useful to take Consensus early. This lets you purchase early boons, enter a stat-boosting pact more easily, or even power another pact without worshiping another god. This approach, however, does come with downsides. Certain boons that cost more than 50 piety are unusable, and piety spikes like The Earthmother's Plantation will be wasteful. But more importantly, you cannot store large amounts of piety for conversion. It's best to scout which gods have spawned and plan your worship strategy before committing to an early Consensus.

Be wary of entering a stat-boosting pact before entering Consensus. Doing so can pay off, but know that you've permanently given up a free 50 piety that may make the difference in the late game.

If you find a Pactmaker altar, it is almost always worth using, even if it's just for Consensus. For other pacts, just be sure to save enough piety from your other gods to get the desired rewards.

[Мими К]

GG

[eable2]

Yes, I should transfer this over when I get a chance! There actually *is* a piety log in the escape menu, but it's not exactly easy to find or use.

[echephron]

The numbers here are useful for the Rewind edition which has no piety log.