Infestation

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Infestation
Level	8
School1	Necromancy
Source(s)	Book of Death
Casting noise	8
Spell noise	4
Power Cap	200
Range	LOS
Hated By	Elyvilon The Shining One Zin
Flags	Target, Unclean

Calls forth a plague of scarabs, infesting affected creatures for a duration depending on power and causing death scarabs to grow and burst from them upon death.

Infestation is a level 8 Necromancy spell that applies the 'Infested' status to monsters in a 5x5 smite-targeted area. Friendly death scarabs erupt out of the victims when they die.

Scarabs last for around 81 turns. Infestation takes priority over all other ally-creating, "corpse-destroying" Necromancy durations, though it still works with Death Channel.

Infestation can be obtained as part of Kikubaaqudgha's 6* piety gift.

Strategy

Death scarabs are incredibly good allies; they are very fast, slow down enemies, are undead, and deal great damage. They also last for a fairly long time, letting you Infest new monsters you encounter.

Infest the weaker monsters in a horde and kill them quickly in order to spawn a bunch of scarabs. Use spells like Borgnjor's Vile Clutch and Anguish (when combined with other, existing undead) to start the horde.

Kikubaaqudgha's Unearth Wretches places necromantic fodder exactly in a 5x5 area, which corresponds perfectly to Infestation's hitbox. Using Unearth Wretches twice, then Infestation directly on top of the player character is bound to rapidly create a swarm capable of tackling the game's most dangerous encounters.

Death scarabs cannot see invisible - a notable weakness considering the prevelance of Invisibility-casting liches in the late game.

History

• Prior to 0.29, scarabs worked alongside all other undead-creating spells.
• In 0.26, the duration of death scarabs was reduced.
• This spell was added in 0.19.