One Crazy Random Summer
From TheKolWiki
One Crazy Random Summer is the Summer 2015 special challenge path, introduced on May 15, 2015. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "All across Loathing, monsters have changed in strange and unpredictable ways."
Introduction at One Crazy Random Summer (Adventure).
Divergences
- Monsters gain random modifiers, noted by a prefix on their name, and sometimes a visual effect to their image. These can affect how the monster behaves as well, for example the Twirling monsters randomly miss. See Monster Modifier for the list.
- An Old Man, and therefore The Sea, is not available:
- That shack you saw on the main map was just a picture of a shack drawn on the ground.
- The Feast of Boris does not grant additional fullness:
Today is the Feast of Boris. You can't participate, for some random reason.
Strategy
- For the most part, strategy will be the same as an Unrestricted run. The main difference is having to contend with modified monsters.
- Annoying monsters are... well, annoying. They can hose just about any combat strategy by blocking nearly everything you or even your familiars can do. With certain other mods, such as ticking, it's effectively a lose condition by itself. Prior to the nerf, they often annoyed you straight to the 30-round limit. Now, their block chance drops over time, and you'll be able to act almost every time after about round 10.
- Broke monsters are generally not a problem. The only real worry is if they come up during the nuns quest -- having a handful of free-runs or power pills available can negate that threat. Note that solid-gold will override broke every time.
- Cartwheeling monsters have a low chance of blocking your attacks. This could derail a macro, but is otherwise not much a threat.
- Clingy monsters can be very helpful, if they're something like modern zmobies, ninja snowman assassins, or lobsterfrogmen.
- Cursed monsters inflict Curse of Randomness. If you want that, make sure to let them get an attack in. If, for some weird reason, you don't, wipe them out ASAP instead. While the Curse of Randomness lasts for 10 turns, that includes the one against this monster. This modifier only ever appears by itself, which basically means that on your second run and on, you won't encounter it again.
- Dancin' monsters will occasionally dance out of the way of your attack.
- Drunk monsters can drop the penultimate versions of Superhuman Cocktailcrafting drinks. The final crafting step of those only actually requires Advanced Cocktailcrafting, so you might be able to get a few of them even if you don't have the proper skill permed. They seem to draw from a pool of all good-quality or lower drinks, which can include such lovely beverages as slimy fermented bile bladders, or such useless fare as glasses of blended frozen swill with flies in them. They drop several at once, though, which tends to smooth out the RNG a bit.
- Electrified monsters convert your HP to MP. Like ticking monsters, they should be killed quickly and are dangerous when combined with other modifiers. If they aren't otherwise a threat, you may consider milking some MP before killing them.
- Filthy monsters will do stench damage every round of combat. But they are doubly susceptible to cold and sleaze damage.
- Foul-mouthed monsters will do sleaze damage every round they swear like a sailor. Which is every round.
- Fratty monsters drop frat-themed items: the Frat Boy Ensemble and deodorant.
- Jittery monsters have superfast Combat Initiative on the first round, so they'll always get the jump on you. Afterward, it drops to its normal level. If your combat relies on getting the jump, they're dangerous, but otherwise a non-issue.
- Lazy monsters are generally too lazy to attack you.
- Narcissistic monsters are too busy admiring themselves to attack you.
- Optimal monsters are, of course, the most desirable, because they don't cost a turn. Running more modifiers gives you a greater chance of encountering them, but also a greater chance of encountering undesirable modifiers like untouchable or annoying. Are you feeling lucky?
- Phase-shifting monsters will sometimes not be there when you try to hit them. Oh, but they'll hit back. They'll hit back.
- Pixellated monsters will drop a lot of pixels. This used to be useful for crafting the digital key, but ever since the 8-Bit Realm revamp this is much less relevant.
- Restless monsters will be missed by you more often.
- Shaky monsters attack 3 times per round. This is as dangerous as it sounds. Keep them from being able to hurt you, or you'll likely go down in only a few rounds.
- Short monsters have fewer hit points, but much higher defense. You might have to augment your hitchance somehow, or you'll find yourself dealing nothing but glancing blows. Mysticality classes don't need to worry about that, of course.
- Solid gold monsters will keep you in meat for most of the run. If you have a VIP key, you might even find yourself able to drink some of the more expensive Speakeasy drinks.
- Ticking monsters need to be destroyed before they go off. Luckily, they don't count down while stunned. When combined with untouchable or any of the blocking mods, they're pretty much impossible -- just run, or CLEESH if they're "only" untouchable.
- Tie-dyed monsters will likely get you the Filthy Hippy Disguise before you even unlock the island, so you won't need to spend turns on that. You'll also probably get a hemp string for the Bonerdagon necklace and some cans of reodorant for anywhere those are handy.
- Tiny monsters have very few hit points, and likewise give very few stats.
- Turgid monsters have massively increased HP. Generally this just means taking an extra turn or two to kill them, but if they're also untouchable, you're going to have to insta-kill, CLEESH, or run.
- Twirling monsters can get too dizzy to attack you.
- Unstoppable monsters can't be stunned or staggered, which hoses a lot of combat strategies. You'll need to kill them quickly, or delevel them until they're no longer a threat.
- Untouchable monsters are best insta-killed. If you don't have a ready method, prismatic damage (such as from the astral shirt) and passive damage (such as from Summon Love Stinkbug or Curse of Marinara) are helpful to kill them early on, but eventually they'll have enough HP that you simply won't have enough rounds to finish them off. In that case, your only viable options are CLEESH or run. Since the update that raised the cap from 1 to 5, monsters that flat-out can't be killed within round limit are much rarer, but you'll still need to stay alive yourself for however long it takes.
- Yuletide monsters are colored red and green and drop Crimbo items such as a gingerbread bugbear or fruitcake. This is helpful for keeping a minimum standard of turngen in Hardcore, especially with The Mayo Clinic, since many of them are 1-fullness and good-quality.
- CLEESH rerolls modifiers. This can come in very handy if you encounter a monster you can't defeat -- if they turn out optimal, you've basically earned a free runaway, while if they turn out drunk, solid gold, yuletide, fratty, or tie-dyed, you'll at least get some loot for your trouble. Generally, players don't bother perming this skill because it's always obtainable for free at level 9, but the path may make you reconsider that. Note that you can't see the new modifiers immediately, but twiddling your thumbs fixes that oddity.
- A full set of +modifier gear (dice hat, back, pants, all three accessories, kill screen) leaves only the shirt slot and hand slots open, making astral item selection simpler. If one wishes to fill their hands with Smithsness items for the whole run, the astral shirt fills the only slot remaining.
- The leaderboards are ranked by "highest Fun" rather than the usual "lowest days/turns". What precisely Fun means is not yet clear, but one hypothesis that seems to fit is rand(0.5,1) * (1000 + 100 * [total modifiers] / [turncount] ) , so maximize Random Monster Modifiers and then just pray for a lucky random multiplier when you break the prism.
- It's currently unclear how exactly 'total modifiers' is determined.
- Modifiers from lost combats do not count toward this.
- It's currently unclear how exactly 'total modifiers' is determined.
Rewards
- Finishing a One Crazy Random Summer ascension gives you a thwaitgold caterpillar statuette.
- You will receive a piece of dice equipment dependent on your class after breaking the prism. Dice equipment grants an additional Monster Modifier per piece worn. Any stored dice equipment is automatically free-pulled at the start of future One Crazy Random Summer runs. Smashing any piece of this equipment set will result in powdered dice.
- Seal Clubbers will receive a dice ring.
- Turtle Tamers will receive a dice belt buckle.
- Pastamancers will receive a pair of dice-print pajama pants.
- Saucerors will receive a dice-shaped backpack.
- Disco Bandits will receive a dice-print do-rag.
- Accordion Thieves will receive a pair of dice sunglasses.
- You will not receive any stainless steel or standard equipment.
- Unlike in some previous challenge paths, the rewards will keep dropping after the season is over.
