Confusion

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Confusion is a status condition that causes the victim to move and act randomly until it wears off. Confusion can be extremely dangerous: the victim may attack empty tiles or even allies when they attempt to fight, and may fall into deep water or lava if they attempt to move.

Effects

When confused,

All creatures:

• Cannot cast spells, use wands, or use most special abilities. (Players can use abilities that cure confusion.)
• Cannot read scrolls.
• Cannot use shields (SH stat set to 0).
• Move in a random direction if they try to move or melee attack. Ranged weapons will be fired in a random direction. Behavior differs between players and monsters.
  • Players move in a completely random direction.
  • Monsters have a 33% chance of moving/attacking in the intended direction, else move in a random direction.

This can cause allies to be attacked by accident. The player is warned if this is possible.

Players:

• Have trouble moving up stairs.
  • Going upstairs: 50% chance of falling, losing 1 HP, and remaining on the level.
  • Going downstairs: 50% chance of falling and losing 1 HP, but you make it down the stairs.
  • If you are flying or using an escape hatch, these confusion penalties don't apply.

Monsters:

• Are vulnerable to low-tier stabs. (See the Stabbing article for more details)
• Cannot make attacks of opportunity.
• May fall into deep water or lava, instantly killing them.
• May attack themselves on accident.

Sources

Confusion can be inflicted by:

Sources that the player can inflict:

• Confusing Touch (blocked by willpower)
• Noxious fumes, from Mephitic Cloud, a condenser vane, or monster's Noxious Cloud (blocked by poison resistance)
• Alistair's Intoxication (blocked by poison immunity)
• Atropa darts (blocked by monster HD and poison resistance)
• Chaos weapons (2.7%) and chaotic effects (2.8%)
• Uskayaw's Line Pass
• Xom, who ignores clarity

Sources that only monsters can inflict

• The Confuse spell and Mass Confusion (blocked by willpower)
• The Confuse attack flavour confuses on melee attacks.
  • If it is considered a "spore" attack (wandering mushrooms, deathcaps, players in Fungus Form), it is blocked by unbreathing.
  • Attacks from tarantellas and Norris don't have a special resistance.
• Ballistomycete spores can confuse valid victims on explosion (blocked by unbreathing)

Sources that can only confuse the player:

• Drinking a potion of ambrosia; also greatly increases HP and MP regeneration while the confusion lasts.
• Players hit by a wand of charming or wand of light, in place of their usual effects.
• "Overwhelming" divine retribution from any god, which has a 20% chance of occurring.

Dealing with Confusion

Ways to remove confusion include:

• Potion of curing.
• Elyvilon's Purification ability.
• Ru's Draw Out Power ability.

Immunity

The following prevent most/all sources of confusion directly:

• Clarity gives immunity to all sources of confusion (except ambrosia or Xom).
• Zin's Vitalisation ability.
• The obsidian axe ends confusion while you are mesmerized.

These are the only ways to defend from tarantella's and Norris' confusion attacks.

Strategy

Inflicting confusion

While the stab bonus isn't as high as sleep or paralysis, confusion prevents the monster from using any spells/abilities and makes them less effective at melee, so it's a powerful status. It helps that two of the main ways of inflicting confusion, Confusing Touch and Mephitic Cloud, are MP efficient, granting multiple confuse attempts at the cost of 1 cast.

Avoid confusing creatures that may carry useful items near lava or deep water. Great items or artifacts that they carry may otherwise be lost forever.

Enemy confusion

Against the player, confusion can be dangerous, as it prevents you from using spells, scrolls, and god abilities. Thankfully, potions of curing are very common, although this wastes a turn.

In the very early game, e.g., against Sigmund or orc wizards, confusion is very deadly if you don't have multiple curing potions.

Mummies should be particularly careful about becoming confused at the wrong time, as they lack access to most methods for removing it at will.

History

• Prior to 0.23, confused monsters didn't have a 33% chance to move normally.
• Prior to 0.21, confusion had its own specialized wand type.
• Prior to 0.20, it was possible to use wands while confused, though doing so would zap it in a random direction.
• Prior to 0.19, randart equipment could grant confusion if it spawned with {*confuse} ego.
• Prior to 0.18, Mass Confusion was a spell available to all players.
• Prior to 0.17, cleaving attacks didn't function under confusion. Gell's Gravitas was able to cause confusion, and all high-intelligence monsters were immune to drowning while confused.
• Prior to 0.16, confusion also came in the form of potions of confusion.