Hardcore Skill Analysis

From TheKolWiki

Information or advice on this page may be out-of-date due to NS13. As if the list of "contentious issues" wasn't already threatening to become larger than the list itself even before NS13 rolled in. Pastamancer combat spell updates need to be put in, and placement of Disco Power Nap/Disco Nap in the tiers should be reconsidered due to updates.

While this article is written with Hardcore players in mind, much, if not all, of it is also applicable to Softcore ascenders.

Introduction

This is a listing of all the skills available in the game, grouped by how useful they are at making a hardcore ascension happen faster. Some skills help you use fewer turns to ascend, others give you more turns per day. The description of each quality tier gives a general idea what the focus of that tier is; in some cases skills that don't match the tier's main focus will be mixed in as well when that's appropriate. The tier labels are a guideline to what kinds of skills normally belong there; they're not strict requirements for being there.

In general these recommendations are aimed at ascensions that don't choose a path, so that consumption of food and booze isn't restricted. That's because if you want to pick up many permanent skills, that's the most efficient way to go about it.

Even if your eventual goal is to complete a fast Oxygenarian run, you'll need many permanent skills to accomplish that. It's worth taking time to accumulate skills like Advanced Cocktailcrafting and Pastamastery because they'll let you add permanent skills from no-path runs so much faster that the time spent obtaining the food/drink skills will justify itself. But once you've passed through the top two tiers, those whose intended focus isn't no-path runs will certainly choose their skills differently than here. For example, there's little reason to pick up highly rated skills like Ode to Booze when you could be getting ones that will help your intended path instead.

Skills whose value is regularly debated are marked with a *, and you should read the Controversial Skills section for additional information about their rankings.

Tier 1

Essential skills that immediately add or save many turns over a run
Skill Name	Class (Level)	Type	MP Cost	Description
Advanced Cocktailcrafting	Disco Bandit (5)	Passive and Non-Combat	10	Allows you to create little paper umbrellas, coconut shells, and magical ice cubes (3 random per day) at the cost 10 MP each, and to use these ingredients to make advanced drinks. This skill is a must for all no-path and -- of course -- Boozetafarian ascenders.
Advanced Saucecrafting	Sauceror (5)	Passive and Non-Combat	10	Allows you to create scrumptious reagents (3 per day) at the cost of 10 MP each, and use them to cook reagent dishes and potions. While most of them will likely be consumed for food, potions are incredibly helpful for Safe Adventuring in the Hole in the Sky and the Hedge Maze.
Amphibian Sympathy	Turtle Tamer (3)	Passive	N/A	Increases familiar level by 5. (Decreases the Inflatable Dodecapede's level by 5, to a minimum of 1 lb.) The only familiar skill that can be in effect during the Naughty Sorceress battle.
Pastamastery	Pastamancer (5)	Passive and Non-Combat	10	Allows you to create dry noodles (3 per day) at the cost of 10 MP each and to cook noodle dishes. Noodle dishes are an amazing improvement to any ascender's diet and give many more adventures than you would normally see. Best when used to cook reagent dishes or chow mein.

Tier 1.5

Tier 2

Skills that greatly improve survival, add considerable stat gains per turn, or reduce time spent in poor areas
Astral Shell	Turtle Tamer (12)	Buff	10	Gives you 5/10/15 adventures of the Astral Shell effect, with +80 Damage Absorption and Slight Elemental Resistance. Not as strong against the elements as Elemental Saucesphere, but balanced by the added Damage Absorption, which easily stacks with other TT skills. It is more efficient to acquire this buff instead of Elemental Saucesphere, as the turtle totem can be used for other great buffs, while the Saucespheres are now exclusively effective for Saucerors.
Entangling Noodles	Pastamancer (2)	Combat	3	Prevents an opponent from attacking for 2-4 rounds, including the round Entangling Noodles was cast. Can only be cast once per fight, but in the world of NS13, it is the cornerstone of TT attack combos, spell attacks, and any battle where you're the underdog and you need to get a few cheap shots in to win. Most useful when combined with boosted initiative, so you can often toss the noodles then possibly finish off your opponent without allowing them a single attack.
Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric	Accordion Thief (7)	Buff	11	Increases item drop rate by 20% for 5/7/10/15 turns. Improving the drop rate is a very useful ability, despite the somewhat high MP cost of the skill. See Mad Looting Skillz for places where this can make a difference to your run.
Leash of Linguini	Pastamancer (11)	Non-combat	12	Gives 10 adventures of the Leash of Linguini effect (+5 familiar level). Less expensive than Empathy of the Newt and does not require a totem, though self-buff only.
Mad Looting Skillz	Disco Bandit (8)	Passive	N/A	Increases item drops by 20%. One of the better passives in the game, as it will dramatically speed up quests e.g. sonars-in-a-biscuit at the Junction, harem disguise and perfume for the King, filthworm glands during the Extermination, and many more.
Springy Fusilli	Pastamancer (6)	Non-combat	10	Gives you 10 adventures of the Springy Fusilli effect (+40% combat initiative). This combat initiative is VERY helpful for playing Muscle/Mysticality classes without reagent potions and is in general a very handy skill to have. It can also indirectly increase items for Moxie classes because of pickpocket.
The Moxious Madrigal	Accordion Thief (1)	Buff	2	Gives 10-point Moxie boost for 5/7/10/15 turns. This is one of the few buffs that are usable on a consistent basis in Hardcore (especially with a stolen accordion available in both The Sewer and The Spooky Forest) due to its extremely low MP cost. Useful for passing the Daily Dungeon Stat Tests. Can push Moxie classes through their guild challenges much faster, and allow characters to adventure at higher Monster Levels with better defense.

Tier 3

Skills that considerably increase the speed of your run
Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude	Accordion Thief (11)	Buff	40	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude effect (+3 experience after battles). The high cost of this buff detracts from its usefulness; however, if one has access to magical mystery juice (as either an Accordion Thief or a Mysticality class) or to purple snowcones, then this may be a worthwhile use of MP.
Impetuous Sauciness*	Sauceror (12)	Passive	N/A	Increases the duration of reagent potion effects by 5 adventures (for a total of 15 for Saucerors and 10 for everyone else. This skill allows you to eat reagent dishes every day and easily have enough reagents left over to comfortably adventure at the Hole in the Sky and the Hedge Maze.
Superhuman Cocktailcrafting	Disco Bandit (15)	Passive	N/A	Allows you to make superior cocktails when playing a Moxie class. More importantly, it increases the number of cocktail items you can summon from 3 to 5 per day, making it possible to drink as many Advanced Cocktailcrafting drinks as your liver can handle your entire run. Having so many cocktail items makes it more likely you'll be able to target the stats you'd like to with your cocktails. It also improves the odds you'll be able to complete advanced drinks when you only have limited booze ingredients. Aggressively mining the top row of the barrel every day for partially completed drinks is recommended to efficiently take advantage of extra cocktail finishers. If you're playing a Moxie class, if possible you should make the superhuman cocktails instead of upgrading the advanced drinks from the barrel. Note that access to Nash Crosby's Still also allows upgrading soda water to the far more efficient tonic water, which is extremely helpful even for Oxygenarians and Teetotalers. You should use all leftover Still upgrades for that purpose, and being able to create tonic this way as soon as you join your guild is particularly helpful for the first day of an ascension.
The Magical Mojomuscular Melody	Accordion Thief (2)	Buff	3	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Magical Mojomuscular Melody effect (+10 Myst, +20 maximum MP). Useful for increasing the number of buffs and spells you can cast for a short time, and for passing Daily Dungeon Stat Tests. Can push Myst classes through their guild challenges much faster, allowing even no-path characters to miss the first level entirely if you can get a stolen accordion from the sewer to cast the buff. Makes unlocking the extremely useful magical mystery juice happen much earlier, saving considerable Meat on restoring MP. Allows casting even expensive buffs during the early turns of play, with Ode to Booze possible as soon as you're given an initial set of drinks as a guild reward. Finally, non-Mysticality classes can't properly utilize high-MP restoring items like purple snowcones or tonic water until well into the run because they don't have 20 maximum MP. With this skill, when you get a purple snowcone on the first day (about 60% of the time) you can afford to use Leash of Linguini and Empathy of the Newt from the beginning, greatly improving your first two days.
The Ode to Booze	Accordion Thief (12)	Buff	50	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Ode to Booze effect (+1-4 adventures for every alcoholic drink consumed). It is an extremely costly buff and may be impossible to cast early in a run for players with a low maximum MP. However, if you can cast it, drink Advanced Cocktailcrafting drinks, and then shrug off the buff, it will increase your turns by at least 9-12 per day. It is even more effective if you typically have a Liver of Steel or if you have Superhuman Cocktailcrafting. Under those circumstances, drinking under Ode to Booze could potentially give you more than 20 extra adventures per day.

Tier 4

Skills that make some game portions easier or faster
Empathy of the Newt	Turtle Tamer (8)	Buff	15	Gives 5/10/15 adventures of Empathy effect (+5 familiar level). More expensive than Leash of Linguini, but increasing familiar level is useful. Diminishing returns on familiar weight at higher levels for Volley and Fairy types means this skill is great early in a run to get your familiar to 20lbs as soon as possible, but becomes a lower priority buff later on. It's also useful for defeating the Tower Familiars.
Overdeveloped Sense of Self Preservation	Disco Bandit (2)	Passive	N/A	Increases combat initiative by 20%. Improved initiative is a huge advantage, especially for Muscle and Mysticality classes. This will help you get the jump on bosses, the Shadow, and give Moxie classes an edge with Pickpocketing.
Pulverize	Seal Clubber (15)	Passive	N/A	Lets you smash items into powders, nuggets and wads. Muscle classes can combine powders/nuggets into nuggets/wads at The Malus of Forethought, turning all sorts of low-level, worthless junk into extra turns and stats. When combined with The Way of Sauce and Transcendental Noodlecraft, this can be moderately useful for Myst classes who can make hi mein, mostly at higher levels where higher power weapons are available. See Hardcore Pulverizing for more information on this topic. Elemental Powders are a great way to buff defense against Lord Spookyraven's elemental attacks, the level 11 and 12 quests drop large numbers of equipment smashable into multiple (elemental) wads, and Myst Classes with Pulverize will have access to chefstaves, the most potent Mysticality weapons in the game.
Saucy Salve	Sauceror (2)	Combat	4	Heals 10-15 damage in combat. Compared with Lasagna Bandages, it heals a low amount of HP and can be used in fewer circumstances. However, the first casting is a free combat round, and up to two more can be used without the enemy attacking.
Smooth Movement	Disco Bandit (14)	Non-combat	10	Gives you 10 adventures where the likelihood of non-combat adventures is increased by 5%. Speeds up the Friars, gives you more Louvre love, makes getting a SOCK easier in the Airship, and can push you through the Giant section faster. Also makes accumulating many outfits faster and lowers the time wasted during the The Dungeons of Doom portion of obtaining a wand. Cheaper and better than the Accordion Thief version because it doesn't take up one of the limited number of song slots available, so you can keep it turned on during much more of the game without losing useful buffs. On the flip side, you can't shrug this version off, but that's rarely a problem--most areas that include non-combat adventures you'll visit during an efficient hardcore run are better with more of them.
Tenacity of the Snapper	Turtle Tamer (6)	Buff	8	Gives you 10 adventures of the Tenacity of the Snapper effect (+8 melee damage). While low in MP cost, it requires an upgraded turtle totem to be really useful.
The Polka of Plenty*	Accordion Thief (5)	Buff	7	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Polka of Plenty effect (+50% Meat drops). Inexpensive skill that pays for itself in most combat areas. With the limited number of songs you can play, experienced players prefer to use skills that improve their stat point gains rather than this one.
The Way of Sauce*	Sauceror (15)	Passive	N/A	Allows making hi-mein and Fine Potions. More importantly, allows you to summon 5 scrumptious reagents per day, which means you'll have plenty of them. Suggestions for using the excess are in the "Controversial Skills" sections below. However, only ATs at level 8 and higher and with access to the Still can make Fine Potions inside a Hardcore run.
Thrust-Smack	Seal Clubber (4)	Combat	3	Performs an attack which does double damage if it hits; use only in conjunction with Eye of the Stoat to increase accuracy. A useful skill that saves quite a bit of MP compared to using Lunging Thrust-Smack.
Tongue of the Walrus*	Seal Clubber (9)	Non-Combat	10	Heals 30-40 HP and removes Beaten Up. Better MP use than Tongue of the Otter (3 more MP for 20 more HP). A sound choice.

Tier 5

Very useful skills that depend on or support higher-priority skills
Note at many of the skills in this tier focus on increasing your combat damage. Each of these provides a slightly different mix of damage increase versus resources required to use (or obtain) the skill. For a typical speed run, you won't need all of Tenacity, Rage, both claws, Snarl, and Jackasses' -- weigh MP cost and competition for Accordion Thief song slots when making your choices for which to get first, and how many from this similar set you need.
Ambidextrous Funkslinging	Disco Bandit (12)	Passive	N/A	Lets you use two items per round of combat. There aren't many places in a typical Hardcore run where you have multiple items to use aggressively (unless you have the Libram of Divine Favors), but being able to consume double healing potions can increase the level of monster that can be faced using an MP regeneration scheme like Stasis or the Star Starfish Trick. Another strategy involving this skill is to use an HP restorer and a combat item each round against high level monsters. This skill is most handy for the Sorceress and the Shadow. Being able to use two gauze garters or filthy poultices completely removes the need for red pixel potions, which should substantially drop the amount of time spent pixel farming during your run. If you have Libram of Divine Favors, being able to use two party favors per round can help in quickly defeating bosses and scaling monsters.
Armorcraftiness	Turtle Tamer (5)	Passive	N/A	Allows for the creation of a huge range of useful hats, pants/kilts, shields, shirts, and accessories. The equipment smithed with this skill tends to be much better in enchantment bonus and power than anything normally available in early-to-mid parts of the game. All classes can benefit from this skill, as Moxie-based players will enjoy penguin shorts, Myst classes can't snub a yak toupee, and hippopotamus pants will keep Muscle fighters in a hard fight. The only downsides are the turn-cost of smithing, stat requirements on the best items, and some animal skins aren't easy to acquire. The potency of this skill with Tao cannot be overstated.
Claws of the Walrus	Seal Clubber (8)	Passive	N/A	Increases your melee damage by 4, the same as Claws of the Otter except a bit better. A nice addition to the Eye/LTS combo, but a fairly low priority.
Claws of the Otter	Seal Clubber (2)	Passive	N/A	Increases your melee damage by 3. Minorly helpful, but extra passive damage output is still very useful. A nice addition to the Eye/LTS combo, but a fairly low priority.
Double-Fisted Skull Smashing	Seal Clubber (12)	Passive	N/A	Allows using two one-handed weapons at the same time. Their enchantments stack, resulting in huge combat damage with weapons like the pitchfork, or stacking extra spell damage.
Eye of the Stoat	Seal Clubber (6)	Passive	N/A	Thrust-Smack and Lunging Thrust-Smack will miss less often, you fumble less often, and you have more critical hits. Also useful for Moxie classes who often defeat foes with repeated ranged attacks and thus have many more chances to fumble. Before NS13 it was 100% accurate, but now only Shieldbutt can auto-hit.
Hero of the Half-Shell	Turtle Tamer (14)	Passive	N/A	Calculates damage reduction based on your Muscle instead of your Moxie when you have a shield and your Muscle is higher. This dramatically decreases damage for Muscle classes, allowing them to adventure at higher monster levels.
Jackasses' Symphony of Destruction	Accordion Thief (6)	Buff	9	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Jackasses' Symphony of Destruction effect (+12 melee, ranged, or spell damage). With NS13 killing LTSynergy and spellslinging, this skill has become much less useful for one-hit killing foes. It's still useful for those Moxious with a crossbow, as the ranged damage adds up.
Lunging Thrust-Smack	Seal Clubber (10)	Combat	8	Performs an attack which does triple damage if it hits. Extremely useful when coupled with Eye of the Stoat's bonus to accuracy; allows for safer combat in the Castle and later if you don't have reagent potions or required Moxie.
Nimble Fingers*	Disco Bandit (6)	Passive	N/A	Meat drops from monsters are increased by 20%. Helpful, but Meat bonuses are secondary to items drops.
Powers of Observatiogn	Gnomish	Passive	N/A	10% item drop rate increase. Not as useful as Mad Looting Skillz, but still a beneficial skill to have, even if you purchase it with extra Meat in the middle of your run.
Rage of the Reindeer	Seal Clubber (11)	Non-combat	10	Gives you 5 Adventures of the Rage of the Reindeer effect (+10% Muscle and +10 melee damage). A useful aid for speeding up battles and damage output, but at a much higher MP cost than the earlier Seal Clubber skills. Most useful in later parts of the game where you have more Meat to spend on MP, because saving a combat round against difficult monsters helps substantially.
Summon Party Favor	Misc.	Non-Combat	Varies	Summons a variety of miscellaneous useful objects that do a variety of things like stat-based damage and stat gains, adding MP gains to booze consumption, deleveling and pickpocketing, and running away for free and "scaring" a monster off for five adventures.
The Sonata of Sneakiness	Accordion Thief (13)	Buff	20	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures where the likelihood of non-combat adventures is increased by 5%. See description for Smooth Movement for notes on where this skill is useful.
Ur-Kel's Aria of Annoyance	Accordion Thief (15)	Buff	30	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures where monster level is increased by 2*your level. In relatively unskilled Hardcore play you should already be fighting near your limit most of the time already, but this is helpful to increase stat gains once you have enough permanent skills that all monsters available at your level are easy. Also very useful for post-Yeti backfarming where you have plenty of Meat to spend on MP for the buff.
Wisdom of the Elder Tortoises	Turtle Tamer (11)	Passive	N/A	Passively increases your maximum MP by 50%. Most useful in the early parts of a run to cast buffs that otherwise wouldn't be available yet, and also helps with summoning more Candy Hearts and divine items per day (for those who have them) and the MP-expensive TT -butt combos and Disco Combos.
Snarl of the Timberwolf	Seal Clubber	Non-Combat	10	This buff is slightly more costly than Tenacity and only lasts half as long, but the fact that it adds 10 Spooky damage to your physical attacks during the period it is in effect makes it useful against the tough monsters at the Peak (including the physical-resistant Snow Queen) and for that matter any monster that isn't of the Spooky element. However, it's a bit of a hassle to get so you may want choose to perm other skills than this one at first.

Tier 6

Skills for special situations
Cannelloni Cocoon	Pastamancer (12)	Non-Combat	20	Heals all HP for 20 MP. Depending on your situation, it may be cheaper to use Doc Galaktik's Ailment Ointment; however, it can become useful when you are healing from failed Sorceress battles and you happen to be out of restoratives.
Disco Power Nap	Disco Bandit (9)	Non-Combat	12	Heals 40 HP and removes Apathy, Confused, Cunctatitis, Embarrassed, Easily Embarrassed, Prestidigysfunction, Sleepy, Socialismydia, Sunburned, Tenuous Grip on Reality, Tetanus, and Wussiness effects. Cures "Poisoned" effects. You can expect to get Tetanus and Cunctatitis regularly in an efficient Hardcore run, and both are very crippling effects; being able to cure them is a big help. The skill also grants the learner the ability to rest twice per day without using an adventure.
Elemental Saucesphere	Sauceror (4)	Buff	10	Gives 5/10/15 adventures of Elemental Saucesphere effect (so-so protection from all elements). This helps reduces damage from elementally aligned monsters, and overlaps with the elemental protection of Astral Shell. However, it is ranked quite low because it requires a saucepan to cast -- only Saucerors fully benefit from Jabañero Saucesphere and Jalapeño Saucesphere now thanks to their Sauce spells' splashback effects.
Expert Panhandling	Sauceror (3)	Passive	N/A	Increase Meat drops by 10%. A useful addition on top of Nimble Fingers.
Gnefarious Pickpocketing	Gnomish	Passive	N/A	Increase Meat drops by 10%. A useful addition on top of Nimble Fingers.
Immaculate Seasoning	Sauceror (14)	Passive	N/A	Sauceror spells automatically change to either Hot or Cold, whichever is more effective, to double damage against temperature-sensitive monsters. Generally considered the best skill to obtain for hardcore play with a spell-casting emphasis. Particularly useful for toasting Yetis earlier than otherwise would be practical. While Myst classes can target their spells by purchasing a cookbook, the ability to work with a Kickback cookbook instead makes it worth the consideration in a Sauceslinging approach, and this skill makes spells dramatically more useful when cast by non-Myst classes. Be careful that you don't overload your Bonus Spell Damage, though.
Jabañero Saucesphere	Sauceror (10)	Buff	10	Gives you 5/10/15 adventures of the Jabañero Saucesphere effect (enemies which attack you take damage, sauce spells you cast return a portion of their cost to you as MP). Saucerors with the right spells can use splashback effects to regain enough MP to regularly cast their most potent attacks.
Lasagna Bandages	Pastamancer (3)	Combat or Non-Combat	6	Heals 10-30 HP out of combat and 10-20 HP in combat. Useful for healing yourself mid-battle while using a star starfish or saucespheres to regain MP -- effectively fully restoring HP and MP in one turn as well as gaining stats if done correctly. The flexibility to make use of this both in and out of combat is an extra plus. It's only ranked so low because the other healing skills above it (Saucy Salve, Tongue of the Walrus) are better targeted skills for common requirements, making this only the third best healing skill to get.
Reptilian Fortitude	Turtle Tamer (9)	Buff	10	Gives you 10 adventures of the Reptilian Fortitude effect (+30 maximum HP). Most useful when fighting monsters well above your stat level so that you won't be killed by a single hit when losing initiative, so that you can either increase monster level further or go to locations that wouldn't normally be safe yet. Can help during early play with greatly increased monster level, for bosses, for surviving The Haunted Gallery as soon as you can enter it, and for the Beanstalk areas. May be also useful for increasing HP for the Shadow Battle in the Tower, but this can normally be accomplished via equipment changes instead.
Skin of the Leatherback	Turtle Tamer (2)	Passive	N/A	Reduces enemy damage by (level-2)/2, rounding down fractions and a minimum of 1DR. Not particularly powerful, but when stacked with a decent shield and good DA it takes the brunt off a lot of damage.
Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority	Accordion Thief (10)	Buff	30	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority effect (+10% all stats). This can allow you to adventure at the Castle or the Hole in the Sky without reagents; however, it may be too expensive to use without magical mystery juice access.
Stream of Sauce	Sauceror (1)	Combat	3	Does a small amount of damage that scales with Mysticality. Used by Saucerors against the Naughty Sorceress. When combined with Immaculate Seasoning, this skill is the best easy way to damage elemental monsters, and it's particularly useful for monsters resistant to physical damage. A good substitute for Chronic Indigestion when doing runs without food. However, Spell Damage Caps in NS13 have effectively neutered this technique.
Super-Advanced Meatsmithing	Seal Clubber (5)	Passive	N/A	Allows you to smith powerful & useful weapons, such as chrome weapons that give 3 extra adventures per day. Can be useful if you find yourself with excess Meat and access to the additional ingredients for the Improved Super-Meatsmithing Weapons; the Hairy staff in particular can prove invaluable on Sauceror and Pastamancer runs. While the Hippo whip is a useful monster level increaser, you should instead try to get the dramatically better Serpentine sword. It also allows you to create the Bar whip which can save you a couple of turns against the sorceress familiars.
The Power Ballad of the Arrowsmith	Accordion Thief (4)	Buff	5	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Power Ballad of the Arrowsmith effect (+10 Muscle, +20 HP). This gives you a good amount of extra Muscle at a low cost, but at the moment, Muscle really isn't integral to the play style in Hardcore. It's rare this is the best buff to keep on for a long period because of the limited number of Accordion Thief buffs you can cast at once. But it's useful for passing Daily Dungeon Stat Tests. And this skill can push Muscle classes through their guild challenges much faster, allowing even no-path characters to miss the first level entirely if you can get a stolen accordion from the sewer to cast the buff.
Tao of the Terrapin	Turtle Tamer (15)	Passive	N/A	Doubles the power of your hat and pants for calculating Damage Absorption and specialized Turtle Tamer attacks (doesn't double stat increases and other enchantments). Particularly useful in Turtle Tamer runs if combined with Headbutt and Kneebutt. This is one of the best damage absorption skills available, especially with Armorcraftiness allowing powerful clothing to be smithed both early and late in a run.
Transcendental Noodlecraft	Pastamancer (15)	Passive	N/A	Can make very expensive chow mein dishes if you're a Myst class and have Pastamastery. The high cost and difficulty of farming for ingredients makes this a difficult skill to utilize, and it's only useful at all for 2/6 of the classes in the game even then, and don't forget the level requirement! It also allow you to summon 2 extra dry noodles per day, which allows more basic Pastamastery dishes to be made.
Scarysauce	Sauceror	Buff	10	This skill only gives you so-so protection against cold and sleaze damage, but the trade-off is that as long as this buff is active, any monster that attacks you is dealt some Spooky damage. As a result it'll show its greatest effectiveness when used against cold and sleaze monsters as spooky damage taken by these monsters is doubled.

Tier 7

Very limited use skills
Brawnee's Anthem of Absorption	Accordion Thief (8)	Buff	13	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Brawnee's Anthem of Absorption effect (Damage Reduction that scales with your level). This buff is not very useful because -- although the damage reduction can be significant -- it is seldom worth using a valuable Accordion Thief buff slot with it.
Carlweather's Cantata of Confrontation	Accordion Thief (14)	Buff	20	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures where you are 5% more likely to have combat adventures. There are extremely few spots in a Hardcore run where this would be helpful, with the Perfume drop in the Harem being the main one.
Chronic Indigestion	Misc.	Combat	5	Does a range of (current fullness + 5-10) Hot damage. Useful against the Naughty Sorceress for beginning ascenders, as it deals a decent amount of damage for a relatively low MP cost. It smacks down the Bonerdagon and other Cyrpt enemies, as hot damage to spooky monsters is doubled. It is also very handy against Yetis for the same reason, killing them in 2-3 turns; this skill also works against monsters who are resistant to physical damage, like the Snow Queen at the Peak. Since players with plenty of permanent skills don't need this skill, it's a good plan to work on those other skills instead of making this one permanent. Instead, eat an Insanely spicy enchanted bean burrito to obtain it during runs when you need it, because that's an excellent food to have anyway.
CLEESH	Misc.	Combat	10	Turns most enemies into a very weak monster. When combined with Advanced Saucecrafting, can make useful potions usable very early in the run. To minimize the stat losses, this skill is best used that way against weak early monsters who don't drop anything useful; a good example are the enemies in the early Knob while searching for a chef's hat). Can also be useful if you find yourself overpowered and don't want to risk unsuccessfully running away. When fighting extremely tough foes that normally take two hits to kill, you might use CLEESH as a safety net if the monster gets the jump on you and lands the first attack. Generally the times you'll most run into this situation (like the giants and The Astronomer) are after you'd have gotten this skill anyway during regular play.
Cold-Blooded Fearlessness	Turtle Tamer (13)	Passive	N/A	Adds so-so Spooky resistance. It's generally hard to navigate The Cyrpt in a non-Moxie class Hardcore run at the point when it's first unlocked; stacking this with other elemental resistance can help significantly there.
Cosmic Ugnderstanding	Gnomish	Passive	N/A	Increases MP by 5%. Not worth taking as a Hardcore permanent unless you are a fan of trophies.
Diminished Gag Reflex	Sauceror (13)	Passive	N/A	Adds so-so Stench resistance. Saves some MP if you have it instead of casting Elemental Saucesphere.
Disco Face Stab	Disco Bandit (10)	Combat	10	Does 15-18 damage and reduces monster power by 7. This skill is very nice if you're acting as a 'faux' Moxie class (some Mysticality classes do this). Using Disco Face Stab could possibly allow you to play as such until the Hole in the Sky. Also great for adventuring just beyond your level or using the Mind-Control Device. However, the somewhat high MP cost is detrimental if you are low on Meat.
Disco Fever	Disco Bandit (11)	Passive	N/A	Adds +1 damage/player level when using a ranged weapon. This is not a high priority to make a hardcore permanent due to the nature of this skill, however dealing more damage per hit speeds up a fight, lowering critical hits suffered from monsters.
Flavour of Magic	Pastamancer (14)	Non-Combat	10	Specifies the type of elemental damage dealt by Pastamancer spells, and additionally adds 10 damage to all spells. Correctly setting this before some sections of the game will double damage done in that section. Particularly useful for toasting Yetis earlier than otherwise would be practical. While Myst classes can target their spells by purchasing a cookbook, the ability to work with a Kickback cookbook instead makes it worth the consideration in a Spellslinging approach.
Ghostly Shell	Turtle Tamer (4)	Buff	6	Gives you 10 adventures of the Ghostly Shell effect (+80 Damage Absorption). Not very useful by itself, as a small amount of damage absorption has little effect. However it's cheap and stacks easily with other TT buffs for significant DA.
Gnomish Hardigness	Gnomish	Passive	N/A	Increases HP by 5%. Not worth taking as a Hardcore permanent unless you are a fan of trophies.
Heart of Polyester	Disco Bandit (13)	Passive	N/A	Adds so-so sleaze resistance. Most helpful for making The Hole in the Sky easier and fighting the Frat Orcs in The Battlefield at lower levels.
Hide of the Otter	Seal Clubber (1)	Passive	N/A	+20 Damage Absorption. Not very useful, as a small amount of damage absorption has little effect.
Hide of the Walrus	Seal Clubber (7)	Passive	N/A	+40 Damage Absorption. Not very useful by itself, as a small amount of damage absorption has little effect. However, stacking these two passives with Astral Shell gives slight protection against all elements and almost 30% Damage Reduction in combat.
Jalapeño Saucesphere	Sauceror (7)	Buff	5	Gives you 5/10/15 adventures of the Jalapeño Saucesphere effect (enemies which attack you take damage, sauce spells that pass through the shell will return a portion of their MP cost as HP).
Musk of the Moose	Seal Clubber (14)	Non-combat	10	Gives you 10 adventures where you are 5% more likely to have combat adventures. This helps speed up the Sonofa Beach side-quest and avoid non-combat adventures in the Giant's Castle.
Northern Exposure	Seal Clubber (13)	Passive	N/A	Adds so-so Cold resistance. Saves some MP if you use it instead of casting Elemental Saucesphere, and can also be stacked on top of Elemental Saucesphere to ease Yeti battles and Lord Spookyraven.
Spirit of Ravioli	Pastamancer (9)	Passive	N/A	Increases your maximum HP by 25%. It's extra HP. That's helpful no matter what your class.
Spirit of Rigatoni	Pastamancer (7)	Passive	N/A	Allows the equipment of chefstaves. However, they cannot be made unless you are a Mysticality Class, so it will not help other classes. However, this skill allows a Myst-class player access to some of the most powerful magic weapons in the game, and for Saucerors it frees up an accessory slot.
Summon Hilarious Objects	Misc.	Non-combat	5	Summons a set of normally useless objects. A notable exception is the fake hand, which is useful for MP recharging via the Star Starfish Trick, particularly during the first day of a run. The joybuzzer could have been employed in much the same fashion prior to its May 7, 2007 update. The bag of airline peanuts is a combat item that deals a small amount of damage, the clown hammer is a low-power weapon and the Wind-up chattering teeth is an attack familiar.
The Psalm of Pointiness	Accordion Thief (9)	Buff	15	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Psalm of Pointiness effect (enemies that attack you suffer damage and weaken). This is a poor choice for a Hardcore permanent because it costs more than the Sauceror equivalent, and especially because it will be one of the three Accordion Thief buffs you can have at once.
Torso Awaregness	Gnomish	Passive	N/A	Allows the use of shirts. A useful skill, but shirts are uncommon and the benefits of wearing one are less than might be expected. It is important to note that there are some shirts that appear early on, such as the supportive bra or the harem girl t-shirt, that help with Moxie-building, a widely used strategy in Hardcore. With Armorcraftiness, players can Smith shirts from a variety of skins. Most notably, after the Trapz0r quest, players have access to shirts that can give +7 Moxie, +10 Monster Level, or +3-4 MP per adventure.
Tolerance of the Kitchen	Pastamancer (13)	Passive	N/A	Adds so-so Hot resistance. Saves some MP if you have it instead of casting Elemental Saucesphere.
Dirge of Dreadfulness	Accordion Thief	Buff	9	The fact that this buff adds 12 spooky damage to each of your attacks, and its easily affordable MP cost, make this skill a nice choice to make permanent at some point, but unfortunately it does count toward the limit on the number of Accordion Thief buffs you can have active at the same time, and this somewhat limits its usefulness.
Fearful Fettucini	Pastamancer	Combat	35	An elemental version of Weapon of the Pastalord: deals 32-64 Damage plus a significant Mysticality bonus (35%, uncapped). Very powerful when combined with spell damage modifiers (and compounded with Concentrated Concentration), but its massive MP cost makes this skill a poor choice to make a Hardcore permanent. This skill always deals Spooky damage, which does double damage against The Hole in the Sky's constellations (though not the astronomers) and is favored by basement divers (It will, however, be very disappointing vs. spooky monsters). It's a tossup whether you'd rather get this skill by completing the Spookyraven Manor Quest (using turns but gaining stats) or by simply purchasing Pastalord for 10,000 Meat.
Spectral Snapper	Turtle Tamer	Combat	20	Does 30-80 spooky damage, thriftier with MP per HP of damage cost than skills like Disco Face Stab, but does not delevel opponent. It's extremely popular with basement divers.
Tango of Terror	Disco Bandit	Combat	8	Does 15-18 spooky damage and delevels opponent, similar to Disco Face Stab for 2 less MP cost.

Tier 8

Generally useless or redundant skills
Cletus's Canticle of Celerity	Accordion Thief (3)	Buff	4	Gives you 5/7/10/15 adventures of the Cletus's Canticle of Celerity effect (+20% combat initiative). This is practically a waste of an Accordion buff slot, as Overdeveloped has the same effect as a passive, and there are many sources of initiative boosting in the game.
Stuffed Mortar Shell	Pastamancer (8)	Combat	19	Deals 39-60 damage (damage scales with Mysticality). This skill is very useful for fighting monsters in the Castle and later, especially if you equip kickback cookbooks, but non-Mysticality classes may find it too expensive without access to magical mystery juice.
Disco Aerobics	Disco Bandit (0)	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 adventures of the Disco State of Mind effect (+2 Moxie). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Disco Dance of Doom	Disco Bandit (4)	Combat	5	Does 4-6 damage and reduces monster power by 3. This skill is largely useless, as Disco Face Stab and Disco Dance II accomplish the same goal more efficiently. However it is somewhat useful for the Naughty Sorceress in her first form as she automatically removes negative levels in excess of 5, making her immune to Disco Dance II and Disco Face Stab. However if you are using it for this purpose its often more efficient to just buy it during your run.
Disco Dance II: Electric Boogaloo	Disco Bandit (7)	Combat	7	Does 8-10 damage and reduces monster level by 5. It gives you a good advantage over a monster for a relatively low MP cost. The choice between this and Disco Face Stab should depend on the power of your equipment and the level of the monster. It is also somewhat useful for the Naughty Sorceress in her second form as she automatically removes negative levels in excess of 7, making her immune to Disco Face Stab.
Disco Eye-Poke	Disco Bandit (1)	Combat	3	Does 1-3 damage and reduces monster power by 1. This skill is a very poor choice for a Hardcore permanent compared to Disco Face Stab and Disco Dance II.
Disco Nap	Disco Bandit (3)	Non-Combat	8	Heals 20 HP and removes Sleepy, Confused, Embarrassed, and Wussiness effects. Since Disco Power Nap is more efficient and removes the same effects, this skill is a poor choice for a Hardcore permanent. The skill also grants the learner the ability to rest once per day without using an adventure.
Cannelloni Cannon	Pastamancer (4)	Combat	7	Deals 10-16 damage (damage scales with Mysticality). Useful only when stacked with a kickback cookbook or like item, making it especially not useful for non-Mysticality classes.
Headbutt	Turtle Tamer (1)	Combat	3	Follows up a successful attack with a headbutt against your opponent. Deals extra damage if wearing a helmet turtle. Coupled with the power-doubling of Tao of the Terrapin and bonus damage of turtle helmets, this is a cheap way to add large amounts of damage to your close combat attacks. Particularly useful for a Muscle class with easy access to turtle pheromones.
Intrinsic Spiciness	Sauceror (9)	Passive	N/A	+1 damage per level to your Sauce spells (maximum bonus of +10). This is relatively useless because it only applies to Sauceror spells, and also because most non-Mysticality classes do not cast spells to move through Hardcore.
Kneebutt	Turtle Tamer (7)	Combat	4	Adds an attack whose strength is based on your pants. It's more accurate than a normal melee attack and has a 45% chance to stun the opponent. Deals significantly more damage with Tao and high-power pants from Armorcraftiness.
Manicotti Meditation*	Pastamancer	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 adventures of the Pasta Oneness effect (+2 Mysticality). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Ravioli Shurikens	Pastamancer (1)	Combat	4	Deals 3-8 damage (damage scales with Mysticality). Useful only when combined with a kickback cookbook or like item; mostly used by Pastamancers against the Naughty Sorceress. Low damage output makes this spell a poor choice for a Hardcore permanent.
Moxie of the Mariachi	Accordion Thief (0)	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 adventures of the Mariachi Mood effect (+1 Moxie and +4 maximum HP). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Patience of the Tortoise	Turtle Tamer (0)	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 Adventures of the Patience of the Tortoise effect (+1 Muscle and +4 maximum HP). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Really Expensive Jewelrycrafting	Misc.	Non-combat	N/A	Lets you create advanced jewelry. Saves 5,000 Meat for those in Mysticality zodiac runs.
Sauce Contemplation*	Sauceror (0)	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 adventures of the Saucemastery effect (+1 Mysticality and +4 maximum HP). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Saucegeyser	Sauceror (11)	Combat	40	Deals 35-45 damage (scales with Mysticality). This is a poor choice for a Hardcore permanent because its high MP cost makes it nearly useless without access to magical mystery juice. It doesn't have a Damage Cap though, allowing expensive one-hit kills.
Saucestorm	Sauceror (6)	Combat	12	Deals 14-18 damage (scales with Mysticality). Poor Hardcore permanent because of its low damage relative to its MP cost.
Seal Clubbing Frenzy	Seal Clubber (0)	Non-combat	1	Gives you 5 Adventures of the Seal Clubbing Frenzy effect (+2 Muscle). Poor choice unless you are a trophy collector.
Shieldbutt	Turtle Tamer (10)	Combat	5	Attack that always hits and weakens your opponent, but only if you have a shield. Now NS13 has rolled around this is the replacement of LTSynergy, and with Armorcraftiness it's easy to smith useful and powerful shields early in a run.
The Smile of Mr. A.	Misc.	Buff Other Player	5	Gives another player a box of sunshine if they have ascended at least once or The Smile of Mr. A. if they haven't. This skill won't help your hardcore runs any, but boxes of sunshine do make nice gifts.
Tongue of the Otter	Seal Clubber (3)	Non-Combat	7	Heals 10-20 HP and removes Beaten Up. This effect is useful because it removes the need to waste turns in an easier area until Beaten Up is removed. However, Tongue of the Walrus is more MP-efficient.
Wave of Sauce	Sauceror (8)	Combat	23	Deals approximately 20-24 damage of cold or hot, scaling with Mysticality. This spell is a poor choice for a Hardcore permanent because of its high MP cost compared to other damage spells.
Weapon of the Pastalord	Pastamancer (10)	Combat	35	Deals 32-64 damage plus a significant Mysticality bonus (35%, uncapped). Very powerful when combined with spell damage modifiers (and compounded with Concentrated Concentration), but its massive MP cost makes this skill a poor choice to make a Hardcore permanent. Note that unlike most other spells, this one does physical, not elemental, damage. However, when tuned, it does half physical and half elemental damage. It's a tossup whether this skill or Fearful Fettucini is more useful -- see above (Tier 7).

Controversial Skills

While most experienced players rank the skills similarly to the tiers they're grouped in here, a few of them are controversial. Depending on your game experience level, equipment, and goals for playing, you may have different priorities for a couple of skills. Here are the most popularly contested rankings:

• Impetuous Sauciness and The Way of Sauce both allow considerably more use of Reagent potions to make parts of the game easier. Using those potions regularly can decrease real-life playtime and make the game less stressful to play, especially for beginners. The combination of these two skills even allows the player to spend an entire oxygenarian run under full reagent potion coverage, provided he or she can obtain the other ingredients. Reagent potions can allow players to beat bosses and adventure in high-level zones like The Haunted Gallery earlier than would otherwise be practical, which greatly speeds advancement. With potions, adventures above the beanstalk can more easily be done with monster level increasers like the hippo whip and the goth kid t-shirt equipped. Even without these combat skills, some players can survive in the required zones without relying on stat-boosting potions. For these players, Impetuous Sauciness would be of much lower priority than it is ranked here. The Way of Sauce, of course, has its uses relating to food, even ignoring any debate over potions.
• The Polka of Plenty and Nimble Fingers are the best two skills for improving the amount of Meat you obtain from monsters. Beginner players may find that Meat harvesting is a major drag on their progress through the game, especially those who are using a regular blood-faced volleyball instead of the improved Mr. Store versions that also increase Meat drops (Nervous Tick, Cymbal-Playing Monkey, Cheshire Bitten, and Hunchbacked Minion). Those players may consider Meat skills like Polka much earlier than they are suggested here.
• Tongue of the Walrus is a moderately useful healing skill, but its main benefit is curing Beaten Up efficiently. The skill allows you to push the monster level you can take on a little past what would be wise, with only a minor penalty if you make a mistake. Some players feel that you should just not do that, and learning a permanent skill just to avoid beaten-up is a waste. Others (especially more casual players) appreciate the ability to recover easily from pushing through a run faster than they should, and would rank the skill higher than it appears here. It considerably lowers how frustrating some portions of the game are to play.
• Manicotti Meditation and Sauce Contemplation give minor boosts to Mysticality and MP. That can be useful at several points in the game. First, they can be used so that no matter what class you are, you can Summon Snowcones before adventuring. Second, because they boost Mysticality without using an Accordion Thief slot, they can help wean you off of the Magical Mojomuscular Melody more quickly, thus allowing you to use a better buff (stat gains, damage, or Meat) in its place. And finally, when adventuring as a Mysticality class, you often want to use equipment that buffs Muscle or Moxie instead of Mysticality. But there are some areas where your Mysticality won't be high enough to adventure without using some small buffing of it, particularly above The Beanstalk. For example, you unlock The Penultimate Fantasy Airship with a main-stat of 85, but you can't actually adventure there unless you buff it to 90. Similarly, these skills can be helpful for gaining slightly earlier entrance into The Haunted Gallery.

See Also

• KOL forum thread
• HCO forum thread
• RetroFrog KoL Tools includes a tool useful for those who already have many skills to figure out which you're missing.
• When you ascend using one of the browser interfaces in KolMafia (see Tools), it displays a nicely formatted summary of all the skills in the game, color-coded by class, showing which you have and which you're missing. For serious ascenders, it's very helpful to look at and even print out that chart periodically, to use it planning future runs.