Underwater adventuring

From TheKolWiki

The Sea contains a number of underwater zones which involve special mechanics.

Air supply

In order to access underwater zones, the player must equip a source of air such as makeshift SCUBA gear or have an air-supplying effect.

Trying to adventure underwater without an air supply (e.g., via the 'Last Adventure' link) yields the message:

"You can't adventure there without some way of breathing underwater..."

Because of this, adventuring underwater can factor in a large penalty to Combat Initiative and Item Drops, as all current air supply equipment have those effects.

The following is a list of all sources of air:

Adventure cost

Adventuring in an underwater zone costs two (2) adventures unless you have the Fishy effect active. This applies to any underwater encounter, including special holiday monsters encountered while adventuring underwater. At the end of any combat which costs two adventures, the following message appears:

"Being underwater makes it hard to move -- it's really slowing you down!"

This extra adventure cost is applied after the combat has been completely resolved. This means, amongst other things, that escaping from combat with items like tattered scraps of paper will still result in you losing one adventure, not 0 or 2, if you are not Fishy. Similarly, status effects gained at the end of combat, such as Beaten Up, will lose one more turn of duration than normal, if you are not Fishy.

Pressure Penalties

Furthermore, underwater zones all give a penalty to meat drops, item drops, and initiative, depending on how much pressure there is in the zone. It is worthwhile to note that the item drop penalty takes the form of a conditional. This is why most items cannot be Pickpocketed, and why a He-Boulder cannot be used to guarantee drops while adventuring in the sea.

Certain items and effects help to reduce these penalties. The reductions stack up to the penalty the zone imposes. For example, equipping a diving muff while having a Brined Liver in The Briny Deeps changes the pressure penalty of the zone to 0%; not a bonus of +5%. Penalty-reducing equipment and effects are labeled with the description "Makes you a better diver."

The following is a table of all known penalty-reducing effects.

Dolphins

Every so often a dolphin will steal an item at the end of the combat. This only applies to items that would have dropped but didn't due to the pressure penalty.

You are slowed too much by the water, and a stupid dolphin swims up and snags <an item> before you can grab it. As it swims away, it flippers you off. What a jerk! or As it swims away, it wags its fluke as if to say 'fluke you, Adventurer.' Man. That dolphin is a jerk. or To add additional insult to insult, it sprays you in the face with a blast from its blowhole as it swims away. Man, dolphins suck.

In order to get the item, you must use a dolphin whistle from Big Brother and beat up the dolphin who stole your item.

Immunities

CLEESH

All monsters encountered while underwater are immune to CLEESHing. This includes special holiday encounters such as the Feast of Boris monsters. Trying to cast CLEESH on any of the monsters gives the message:

"You cast CLEESH at your opponent, but it apparently doesn't work on things that already live underwater."

Pickpocket

All items found on undersea monsters are, by default, unable to be pickpocketed. This includes pickpocket, divine crackers, and V for Vivala mask critical hit item steal.

Exceptions to this rule are bazookafish bubble gums, salinated mint juleps and booze slugs from monsters in The Dive Bar.

Familiars

Any air-breathing familiar must have the little bitty bathysphere or das boot equipped. Otherwise, this message appears:

"You can't adventure there now -- <familiar name> wouldn't be able to breathe!"

Water-breathing familiars operate underwater without any restrictions. The following are the only water-breathing familiars in the game:

ID	Familiar	Notes
8	Barrrnacle (familiar) Barrrnacle	Delevels
30	Emo Squid Emo Squid	Combines the properties of a Levitating Potato and a Barrrnacle
100	Cuddlefish Cuddlefish	75% Levitating Potato and 75% Ghuol Whelp on land. 100% Levitating Potato and 150% Ghuol Whelp in water.
102	Imitation Crab Imitation Crab	Attacks enemies twice per round.
104	Magic Dragonfish Magic Dragonfish	Spell Damage +X%.
106	Midget Clownfish Midget Clownfish	Sleaze alignment Star Starfish: 100% Star Starfish on land, 150% Star Starfish in water.
114	Rock Lobster Rock Lobster	Hot alignment Star Starfish: 100% Star Starfish on land, 150% Star Starfish in water; sometimes drops floaty sand at the end of combat.
115	Urchin Urchin Urchin Urchin	Acts as a full leprechaun on both land and sea.
116	Grouper Groupie Grouper Groupie	Acts as a full Baby Gravy Fairy on both land and sea.
117	Squamous Gibberer Squamous Gibberer	Acts as a full Levitating Potato and Ghuol Whelp. Also grants bonus rollover adventures like the Wild Hare (double underwater)
119	Dancing Frog Dancing Frog	Acts as a full leprechaun/fairy however must have the amphibious tophat equipped to breathe underwater.

Underwater-specific items and effects

Besides the pressure penalty mitigation effects listed above, there are other items and effects which operate differently underwater.

Combat Items

Some combat items work differently when used underwater:

• Imitation crab meat
• Ink bladder
• Live nautical mine
• Mer-kin killscroll, Mer-kin pinkslip and Mer-kin healscroll have special effects on mer-kin enemies.