Summon Mayfly Swarm

There are some vague or non-exact figures and information on this page. Some spading is required. *Specific numbers for the food drop bonus, fruit drop bonus, and ??? Does this still do damage to the three standard barrel mimics? What about the tiny barrel mimic?

Summon Mayfly Swarm Type: Combat MP Cost: N/A

View metadata Skill number: 7024 View in-game: view refreshedit data

Source:	Equipping a mayfly bait necklace
Price:	N/A
Class:	N/A
Level:	N/A
Effect:	Varies
When Used:

(This skill has a variety of effects. See below.)

General Messages

• When used

You open the little container full of mayfly bait and swing it around. A <size> swarm of mayflies buzzes into the area.

• When used a second time in combat

You don't need to attract any mayflies, as there are already some here.

• After the first 30 successful uses in a day

You wave the mayfly bait around, but nothing happens. There must not be any more mayflies left. Maybe some more will be born by tomorrow.

• During combat

The swarm of mayflies bites it with their tiny, vestigal^[sic] mouths, raising tiny, vestigal^[sic] welts and dealing X damage.

One of the mayflies flies into your opponent's throat, causing it to gag and reel.

• At the end of combat

The swarm of mayflies buzzes around the ground, helping you find stuff. At least you think that's what they're doing.

(Increases item drops.)

or

The swarm of mayflies draws your attention to more Meat than you would've otherwise found.

(Increases meat drops.)

• At the end of combat, against some monsters which have monster-specific special effects:

The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the distance. Goodbye, little mayflies!

or

The swarm of mayflies buzzes away. "I'll see you tomorr..." you begin, but finish your sentence with a single tear.

(When the mayflies can perform a monster-specific, end-of-combat action against a monster but do not do so, one of the above messages appears at the end of combat. These messages also occur at the end of combat against bats, presumably because the mayfly's special action against bats always occurs earlier in combat.)

Special Mayfly Effects

The mayfly swarm exhibits special effects when summoned in certain zones or against certain monsters. Almost all of these effects occur at the end of combat and replace the swarm's general end-of-combat messages.

The magnitude of many of these special effects appear to scale with the current swarm size.

General Zone Effects

There effects may occur in any location in the area listed.

Condition	Message	Effect
Conspiracy Island (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the spooky distance and returns a few minutes later, struggling under the weight of a mysterious coin.	Coinspiracy
Dreadsylvania (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the dreary distance and returns a few minutes later, struggling under the weight of a coin.	Freddy Kruegerand
Dinseylandfill (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the distance and returns a few moments later carrying a rolled up FunFunds™ bill.	FunFunds™
The Time-Twitching Tower (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the greasy distance and returns a few minutes later, struggling under the weight of a shiny coin.	Chroner
The Haunted Sorority House (During October 2011)	The swarm of mayflies darts off to the attic and returns bearing a gift for you!	ghost trap
	The swarm of mayflies buzz off into the corner of the room, drawing your attention to a discarded mirror.	funhouse mirror
	The swarm of mayflies darts off somewhere and returns burdened with a heavy, sharp chain.	chainsaw chain
Spring Break Beach (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the greasy distance and returns a few minutes later, struggling under the weight of a damp bill.	Beach Buck
The Glaciest (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the frigid distance and returns a short while later carrying a rolled up Wal-Mart gift certificate.	Wal-Mart gift certificate

Specific Zone Effects

These zones have special Mayfly effects.

Condition	Message	Effect
A Battlefield (Cola Wars) (In Cloaca-Cola Uniform)	The swarm of flies buzzes around, drawing your attention to a cache of soda you hadn't noticed before.	1-3 Dyspepsi-Cola
A Battlefield (Cola Wars) (In Dyspepsi-Cola Uniform)	The swarm of flies buzzes around, drawing your attention to a cache of soda you hadn't noticed before.	1-3 Cloaca-Cola
Degrassi Knoll (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off in the direction of one of the myriad workbenches littering the Knoll, and the individual flies band together to bring you back some junk. Now that's teamwork!	Acquire a cog, spring, sprocket or empty meat tank
Don Crimbo's Compound (During Crimbo 2009)	The swarm of mayflies disappears into the penguin's pocket and emerges carrying something...	Acquire 1-2 Crimbuck
The Haunted Pantry, The Haunted Kitchen and Cobb's Knob Kitchens	The mayflies dart to and fro in search of food. Poor guys. They don't know they're not capable of eating...	Increases food drops by X%
The Heap	They are immediately joined by another swarm of flies from a nearby garbage heap.	Increases swarm size by a fixed amount
Hobopolis Town Square (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes off into the distance and returns a few minutes later, struggling under the weight of a coin.	hobo nickel
The Hole in the Sky (Only occurs during some combats)	<It> mistakes the swarm of flies for a different (and apparently very frightening) constellation, and runs off so fast it leaves some little bits of itself behind.	Ends combat; does not consume an adventure star or line
The Penultimate Fantasy Airship	The monotonous drone of the mayfly swarm emphasizes the monotonous drudgery of random encounter after random encounter. You reflect on that.	Increases stat gains, based on swarm size
The Sleazy Back Alley (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm flies into a dumpster, buzzes around for a bit, and flies back out looking slightly larger. Looks like that dumpster was either full of additional mayflies, or some sort of really powerful, really fast-acting mayfly aphrodisiac.	Doubles "experience" gained by mayflies. Effect will no longer occur when mayflies are at full experience.
The Slime Tube (Only occurs after some combats)	The swarm of mayflies plunges into the mass of Slime and emerges a few moments later, coated with goo and carrying a little glob of something.	tiny slimy cyst
South of The Border (Only occurs after some combats)	After the fight is over, one of those annoying kids runs up and tries to sell you some gum. The swarm of mayflies buzzes angrily in his face until he runs away, screaming. And hey, look at that -- he dropped some gum!	Acquire one random piece of chewing gum
Cobb's Knob Treasury	The swarm of mayflies buzzes around a chest of Meat that you hadn't previously noticed. Thanks, swarm of mayflies!	You gain 0-100 Meat. (separate from your combat winnings)

Monster Effects

Condition	Message	Effect
8-bit Zelda monsters (Zol, Tektite, Octorok, Keese)	The swarm of mayflies buzzes angrily around the <monster>, scaring it away. And hey, it looks like they knocked a pixel loose from it, too!	You acquire a pixel that the monster could have dropped. Ends combat; does not consume an adventure.
Barrel mimics (Requires "huge" swarm size)	The swarm of mayflies manages to pick up another barrel and drop it on the mimic's head, dealing 25-30 damage. Go swarm of mayflies, it's your birthday! Literally. You acquire... something. [[Data:{{{item}}}]]	Damages mimic and acquire one of an item from elsewhere in the Barrel Full of Barrels.
BASIC Elemental	The BASIC Elemental flees in terror at the sight of so many bugs.	Ends combat; does not consume an adventure
Bats (Albino bat, Baseball bat, Batrat, batwinged gremlin, Beanbat, Beefy bodyguard bat, Bookbat, Boss Bat, Briefcase bat, Doughbat, Flock of Stab-bats, Perpendicular bat, Pine bat, Ratbat, Regular old bat, Skullbat, Tomb bat, and Vampire bat)	The chaotic buzzing of the swarm interferes with your opponent's sonar, confusing <it>.	Delevels when flies are summoned
Bugged bugbear	The swarm proves to be exactly one more bug than the bugbear can handle, and it vanishes in a puff of logic.	Ends combat; does not consume an adventure
Fruit Golems (Fruit Golem and Lesser Fruit Golem)	The swarm of flies goes nuts looking for fruit.	Increases fruit drops by X
Knob Goblin Bean Counter	The swarm of mayflies buzzes around among the bean counter's possessions, and lights on a particularly nice bean you hadn't noticed before.	enchanted bean
	The swarm of mayflies lands on a nearby hill of beans and lays a bunch of eggs in them.	pile of jumping beans
Spiders (Big creepy spider, Black widow, Completely different spider, and Spider gremlin)	You can't imagine any mayflies wanting to step into this particular parlor.	Mayflies are not summoned; mayfly "charge" not used up?
swarm of killer bees	With a cacophony of buzzing and the visual equivalent of a cacophony of chaotic swarming, both clouds of insects disperse.	Ends combat; does not consume an adventure
Whiny pirate	The swarm of flies annoys the pirate, and he starts whining even more than usual. He whines so much, in fact, that the other pirates finally snap, and throw him overboard. You stroll away, chuckling.	Ends combat; does not consume an adventure

Notes

• Currently, you may not use this skill at 0 MP.
• This skill will only work 30 times per day, per player. Trying to cast it again gives:

You wave the mayfly bait around, but nothing happens. There must not be any more mayflies left. Maybe some more will be born by tomorrow.

• Mayflies will either boost item drops or Meat drops at the end of combat. The effect seems to be randomly chosen, although the Meat effect will generally not fire against monsters that don't drop meat, and the item effect will not fire against monsters without item drops.
• The Meat and item effects do not occur when a monster- or zone-specific effect happened instead. Further, in some zones like South of The Border or Degrassi Knoll, the Meat and item effects never seem to occur, even when the zone-specific effects don't occur.
• A mayfly flying "into your opponent's throat" stuns the enemy for the current round. Its activation rate scales with swarm size and can occur nearly every round with very large swarms.
• The attack action only occurs if the enemy lands a successful blow against you, providing an effect similar to the acid-squirting flower or the saucespheres.
• The special effects are by area, not by opponent – ie. if you CLEESH a hobo in Hobopolis Town Square and then summon mayflies, your mayflies may still bring you a Hobo nickel.

Swarm size

• The size of the mayfly swarm summoned varies depending on the number of times the player has used this skill during the day. Swarm size begins low, gradually increases until the 20th summoning, at which point it peaks and then rapidly decreases.
• After this skill is used, swarm sizes will be larger when summoned the following day. The swarm reaches its maximum size on the 100th summon, which occurs on the 4th day of continuous summoning. The time required to achieve this can be decreased by summoning in The Sleazy Back Alley.
• Swarm growth is reset upon ascension.
• The picture for this skill and the message seen when first summoning the swarm changes based on its size:

When you summon...	...the swarm is...
3	tiny
4	tiny / small
5	small
6	small / decent-sized
7	decent-sized / big
8	big
9	huge
10	huge / massive
11	massive

Meat and Item drop bonus

The formula for the meat and item bonuses rely on two variables: Mayfly Variable (MV) and Cast Variable (CV).

• Mayfly variable is equal to X / 20, where X is the amount of Mayfly "XP" at summoning.
  • Mayfly XP maxes out at 100.
• Cast variable is Y - max(0, (Y - 20) * 3), where Y is the current number of times that the "Summon Mayfly Swarm" skill has been used that day.

• The formula for the Meat drop bonus is: (MV * CV).
• The formula for the item drop bonus is: (MV * CV) / 2.

This means that at full power, on the 20th summon of the day, the maximum Meat drop bonus is +100%, and the maximum item drop bonus is +50%.

References

• The mayfly is an insect known for the short lifespan of the adult form.
• The special combat text against spiders is a reference to the poem "The Spider and the Fly".
• The "puff of logic" is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, wherein a debate on the existence of God leads to God vanishing in "a puff of logic".
• The "Gag and Reel" combat message may be referring to movie gag reels where cut clips show up, not uncommonly including a fly buzzing around an actor/actress's face or body, or even landing in the mouth of the actor/actress while filming is happening.
• The special text for receiving jumping beans from Knob Goblin bean counters refers to the reason why Mexican jumping beans "jump".

See Also

• Items from Monsters
• Meat from Monsters
• Passive Damage
• Stunning