Adventures
The Kingdom of Loathing is a turn-based game. Turns are called adventures. One adventure is long enough to go looking for something to do/kill in a location, to cook yourself some food, mix yourself a drink, or smith yourself something. Things that cost adventures are marked with the number of turns they take, like so: (1). Some actions will take more than one adventure, and are marked accordingly.
Other activities, such as purchasing a trophy, visiting a store, or talking to the Deep Fat Friars do not cost adventures, but they usually do not earn you items, stats or Meat without some sort of price - and if they do, it is typically limited to once a day. Gnollish signs can smith without using an adventure, but only if neither Armorcraftiness nor Super-Advanced Meatsmithing is required for the recipe.
Choice adventures that include a cancel option (such as this one) will usually not cost you an adventure to cancel.
Each day, at rollover, you will get 40 more adventures, and if it's Labór Day you will get 10 more. A complete list of items which will modify that amount can be found at Extra Rollover Adventures. Suggestions for adventure-giving equipment based on your level of gameplay can be found at Maximizing Your Rollover Adventures.
You can get more adventures during the day by eating food, drinking booze, and using spleen items. Besides those common ways, some familiars will spontaneously grant adventures.
There is no limit to the number of adventures you can acquire. However, you are limited to 200 adventures after rollover is completed. Excess adventures are simply lost forever.
On your character sheet, you can see how many turns you've played in a given ascension, as well as how many adventures you've played since you created your account.
Miscellaneous Sources
Besides the standard food, drinks, spleentacular items, rollover, and a select few familiars, there are certain ways to gain or lose adventures that fall outside the common categories.
Hardcore-available options:
- Such Great Heights +3 (select 1x/life; easily accessible by a stone wool)
- Calculate the Universe +3 (casting limit/day determined by copies of the Manual of Numberology used, capped at 3 while in HC/ronin)
- magical sausage +1 (eat up to 23x/day; as a size-0 food it cannot be consumed on some challenge paths; requires Kramco Sausage-o-Matic™ to be produced)
- borrowed time +20 (use 1x/day; reduces rollover adventures -20; requires Tome of Clip Art to produce in HC)
- chocolate items +5 to +1 (1–3x/day based on category; producible by some random candy generation effects such as via Robortender, Model Train Set, or Cincho de Mayo)
- %fn, deliver your thesis! +2-11 (cast in combat 1x/day; requires an active Pocket Professor familiar with at least 400 experience, and removes 200 experience on casting; adventure gain dependent on the monster's initial stats)
- Ancestral Recall +3 (cast up to 10x/day; casting costs one blue mana, which requires Deck of Every Card to produce in HC)
- stuffed pocketwatch +1-10 or -1-10 (use 1x/day, not consumed on use; result equally distributed between -10 and +10 adv; need at least 10 adventures to use; only purchasable on Saturdays from The Tweedleporium, accessible a "DRINK ME" potion which requires a Clan VIP Lounge key to acquire in HC.)
- Spirit of the Mountains +0-5 (use 1x/day, effect lasts 30 adventures; only gives adventures when adventuring in certain zones classified as "mountain zones")
- Consider the Calendar +5 (usable 1x/day; calendar is refreshable 1x/ascension via Such Great Heights enabling +10 in a day once per life)
- Tear Away your Pants! +1 (When used on plants, has a chance to give +1 adventure each cast; has been observed giving as many as 32 adventures across 600 combats vs. plant phylum enemies)
Softcore-available options:
- Law of Averages +1 or -1(grants 1 Adventure if you currently have less than 200)
- mafia thumb ring +1 (4% chance of triggering at the conclusion of any turntaking combat, no limit)
- V for Vivala mask +1 (2.5% chance of triggering on a nonlethal critical hit, up to 10x/day)
- etched hourglass +5 (use 1x/day, not consumed on use)
- License to Chill +5 (use 1x/day, not consumed on use)
- potato alarm clock +5 (automatically applied the first time you log in each day, effectively bypassing the rollover adventure cap)
- The Towering Inferno Discotheque +5 (visit 1x/day, requires 5+ points of Disco Style to go to the fifth floor - though it may be better to go to the fourth and reduce Drunkenness by 1. requires access to That 70s Volcano)
- ghost pepper +10 (awarded upon surviving 4 combats of major spooky damage after consumption)
- Gets-You-Drunk +10 (awarded upon surviving 4 combats of major hot damage after consumption)
- Twelve Night Energy +12 (use 1x/day)
- Gratitude chocolate (thyme-filled) +10 (use 1x/day)
- Brain preservation fluid +5 (use 1x/day)
- essential tofu +4-6 (use 1x/day)
- software glitch +1 (use in combat 1x/day)
- Time Juice +1 (untradeable item from 2004, every account at the time got exactly 8, all may be consumed at once)
- triad summoning scroll +1, sometimes (unspaded cap)
- tapped black lotus -1 (when used if you have adventures left)
- Victor's Spoils +11 (use 1x/day and only while in the License to Adventure path)
- Extra time +5/+3/+1 (use 1-3x/day, with adventures gained diminishing on each use similar to chocolate items)
Aftercore only:
- blank diary +40 (use 1x/week)
- bottled day +100 (use 1x/week)
- mime army challenge coin +30 or -30 (use 1x/day, not consumed on use; result is 50% chance of each; need at least 30 adventures to use)
- time's arrow +5 (receive 1x/day; only usable on other players)