Shatter

Version 0.12: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Shatter
Level	9
School1	Earth
Source(s)	Book of the Tempests Book of the Earth
Casting noise	7
Spell noise	30

This spell causes a burst of concussive force around the caster, which will damage most creatures, although those composed of stone, metal, crystal, or otherwise brittle material will particularly suffer. The magic has been known to adversely affect walls.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	3d(5+Power/3)
Max Damage	3d(71.67)
Max Power	200
Range	3+Earth Magic/5
Targeting	LOS
To-hit
Special	Destroys walls

Shatter is a level 9 Earth Magic spell which attacks all monsters (enemy or allied) in a (3 + Earth Magic/5) tile radius, dealing unavoidable physical damage. Against particularly vulnerable monsters (those made of stone, metal, crystal, bone, or ice) this spell deals devastating amounts of damage, while resistant opponents will only be lightly injured or remain completely unscathed. The spell also affects many objects in your line of sight:

• All potions that are not being carried by you or a monster have a 90% chance of being destroyed. Do not cast this near your stash.
• The following Dungeon features may be destroyed:
  • Doors: 100%, whether they are open or closed
  • Iron grate: 100%
  • Inanimate statues: 50%
  • Green crystal walls: 50%
  • Rock wall: (Spell power / 4)% (Max 50%)
  • Slimy wall: (Spell power / 4)% (Max 50%)
  • Stone wall: (Spell power / 6)% (Max 33.3%)
  • Metal wall: (Spell power / 10)% (Max 20%)

Shatter does not damage the player, even in Statue Form (barring miscast effects).

Damage Modifiers

• Damage ×1.5: Ice beasts, simulacra, and ice statues
• Damage ×2: Earth elementals, clay golems, stone golems, gargoyles, iron elementals, iron golems, metal gargoyles, crystal golems, silver statues, orange crystal statues, Roxanne, skeletons, skeletal warriors, curse skulls, Murray, and petrifying monsters
• Damage ×4: Petrified monsters
• Damage / 3: Flying monsters, water elementals, jellyfish, and all slimes and jellies.
• Insubstantial monsters take no damage from Shatter.

Strategy

Much like Fire Storm, Ice Storm, and Tornado, Shatter lives up to its level 9 spell status, allowing the player to do obscene amounts of damage in a very short amount of time. At high power, it effectively targets everything on the screen with each casting. This lets Shatter function as a top-notch crowd control spell under the right circumstances. Better still, because its only spell school is Earth Magic, it takes less training to get it to a reliable casting success rate than its other elemental counterparts.

However, Shatter is also much less versatile than the Storm spells. Flying enemies take much less damage than average, rendering it far less useful against dragons and a large number of demons (including all of the fiends). Worse, there are some particularly threatening monsters against which it is entirely useless, orbs of fire being the worst. Even when it does clear the screen, the spell is so loud that it can attract plenty of reinforcements. However, it does shine under certain circumstances; anything you'll encounter in the Tomb can be put to rest by spamming this spell a few times, making it excellent not only for breaking into the place but also for subduing its angry inhabitants if they decide to swarm you (though you may want to be in lich form or worship Kikubaaqudgha to reduce the impact of their death curses). Also, many of the late-game bosses lack flight and take full damage from it, and anything they summon will be pulverized in the process, making it an interesting alternative to Mass Abjuration:

• Geryon
• Antaeus
• Ereshkigal
• Dispater
• Mnoleg
• Cerebov

For individual targets, however, you will likely get more efficient damage output using Iron Shot or Lehudib's Crystal Spear.

"Shatterninja"

The fact that this spell quickly removes many walls, including those of stone or metal, actually gives it a surprising second use. Namely, it is useful for stealing ("ninja") runes from certain difficult areas of the game (most notably Pandemonium and Hell) simply by using the spell to open holes in the vaults that hold those runes. Apportation can then very quickly get you the rune, or Haste and Swiftness if for some reason that is not an option. A well-timed teleport can then minimize your exposure to the (likely very angry) guardian of the rune.

History

Prior to 0.10, casting Shatter near permarock walls would damage monsters on the other side. After 0.10, monsters are only damaged if the wall is shattered in the process.