Tin of tremorstones

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Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
Type Miscellaneous item
Name tin of tremorstones
Icon Tin of tremorstones.png
A set of dormant, magnetic earth elementals in the form of tiny, very heavy pebbles. When released, the elementals are drawn magnetically to the center of nearby monsters, where they literally explode with rage at their rest being disturbed. Tremorstones usually land slightly off-target, and the user is always at risk of being hit. However, armour is extremely effective at repelling the lightweight fragments of rock from a tremorstone's explosion, so a well-armoured wielder has little to fear. Evocations skill increases the number of the elementals' explosions.

A tin of tremorstones is an evocable item that generates several explosions of shrapnel. These are aimed in the general direction of nearby enemies, but there is always a risk of getting caught in the explosions yourself. The explosions are greatly reduced by AC.

This item is mutually exclusive with the condenser vane. Like with other miscellaneous evocables, only 1 tin of tremorstones (or condenser vane) will spawn in a given game.

Useful Info

Each charge of a tin of tremorstones will create 1 + 2 * log2(1 + Evocations/6) explosions[1][2] - at 27 Evocations, you'll get 5-6 explosions. Explosions are 5x5, and each explosion deals 6d6 damage, independent of your Evocations skill.[3] Explosions are reduced thrice by AC rather than once, and multiple explosions check AC multiple times. They have a to-hit of 40.

Each explosion will find the cell that is 1. within 3 tiles from you and 2. is in the "center of mass" of monsters.[4] The explosion will be centered 1 tile away from that cell, meaning the tin can fire 2-4 tiles away from you. If there are no visible targets, then the explosion will explode at a random tile. Since explosions are 5x5, a tin is unable to hit a monster that's 7 or more tiles away. However, explosions can hit monsters outside line of sight.

A tin of tremorstones holds up to two charges, which are gradually replenished as you gain experience.

Min. explosions Evocations
1 0
2 2.5
3 6
4 11
5 18
6 N/A*

*At 27 skill, you only have a ~91.9% chance for a 6th explosion.

Strategy

  • A good item for crowd control. Heavily armoured players won't have to worry much about self damage, though this item will do little against enemies with high AC. Good targets include:
    • High EV, low AC monsters, especially those who come in packs. Examples include spiders, deep elves, and meliai. Explosions have high - but not perfect - accuracy, so using tremorstones is likely to tear these packs into shreds.
    • Frail, but annoying monsters. At moderate Evocations (6-12 levels), 1 charge is likely to take out boggarts, moths of wrath, and floating eyes, etc.
    • Low AC monsters in general. Can be used to kill hydras if it's aimed right. Ogre packs are another nice target.
  • Take advantage of the targeting. Explosions are always 5x5, centered within 2-4 tiles from you, and target the center of a crowd of enemies. So if 1. the enemy is within 2-4 tiles and 2. inside a big group of monsters, it is almost certain that the monster gets hit by each explosion.
    • Note that, if there are 2 or more groups of monsters in LOS, the tremorstones might not hit anything.
  • A scroll of immolation combos well. Immolation creates flame clouds, increasing the tremorstones' damage output. And the resulting explosions will definitely hurt. As usual, don't let the explosions kill you.

Gallery

N.B. there may be multiple possible centers of mass - see below for details.

History

  • Prior to 0.30, tins of tremorstones did not alternate with the condenser vane. Also, if there were visible tiles within 3 spaces, but none of those tiles would hit a monster (e.g. after reading a scroll of fog), the item would fail and waste a charge.
  • Prior to 0.26, tins of tremorstones came with three charges instead of two.
  • Tins of tremorstones were introduced in 0.25. They were introduced to replace the cone-targeted wand of scattershot.

References

  1. evoke.cc:693 (0.30.0)
    Stepdown function can be found at stepdown.cc:14 (0.30.0)
  2. evoke.cc:726 (0.30.0)
  3. zap-data.h:1683 (0.30.0)
  4. evoke.cc:593 (0.30.0)
    Specifically, it calculates sum(dist_from_monsters), where the diagonals are equally as far as orthogonal directions, and picks a square within 3 tiles with the smallest value. Thus, the center may not be as you'd expect, and there are often multiple valid tiles to be the "center".
Miscellaneous Evocables
Figurine of a zigguratHorn of GeryonLightning rodPhantom mirrorPhial of floods
Condenser vane / Tin of tremorstonesBox of beasts / Sack of spiders