Chaos

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

Each time it hits an enemy, it has a different, random effect.

Chaos is a brand that weapons may have. Each attack produces a random effect, many of which imitate other brands.

Possible effects

Chaos-branded attacks randomly choose a useful effect from the following list. For example, the flaming brand cannot be chosen if the defender is fire-immune, and vampiricism cannot be chosen if the attacker is at full health. If a useless effect is chosen, it is re-rolled. These effects do not check willpower.

Effect	Probability	Effect	Probability	Effect	Probability
Brands		Good special effects		Potentially dangerous special effects
Flaming	13.7%	Confuse	1.96%	Might	1.96%
Freezing	13.7%	Slow	1.63%	Haste	1.96%
Electrocution	13.7%	Weaken	1.63%	Resistance**	1.63%
Venom	13.7%	Halve willpower	1.63%	Frenzy	0.82%
Draining	6.85%	Vitrify	0.82%	Blink	0.82%
Vampiricism	6.85%	Corrode	0.82%	Polymorph	0.33%
Holy wrath	6.85%	Sleep	0.49%	Create hostile clone	0.11%
Antimagic	6.85%	Paralyse for 1 turn	0.49%
Special effects	17.8%	Petrify	0.49%
		Ensnare in a web*	0.49%
		Create allied or neutral clone***	0.05%

*Can be chosen even if the defender is immune to webs.
**Cannot be chosen if the defender is immune to any of fire, cold, electricity, poison, or acid.
***Equal chance of allied or neutral.

Overall, there is an 82.2% chance to pick a damaging brand, vampiricism, or antimagic. There's a 10.5% chance of a good special effect, and a 7.3% chance of a potentially dangerous special effect.

Additionally, each strike with the chaos brand has a 1% chance to apply the reaping effect to its damage. This may result in raising slain enemies as allied zombies, depending on the total reaping damage.

Gods will disapprove of any effects you might call that offend them (evil effects for the good gods, haste for Cheibriados). Zin abhors chaos, regardless of its effect.

Occurrence

Chaos is a rare brand from a scroll of brand weapon; this is the only way for ranged weapons to receive this brand. Chaos weapons may be gifted by Xom (though not necessarily to the player), and various Xom altar vaults have chaotic weapons. Crazy Yiuf always wields a quarterstaff of chaos, and Psyche often has a dagger of chaos.

Strategy

Chaos is a fickle mistress. When you're using chaos, it can slow or petrify your enemies, essentially killing them... or it can haste and frenzy them, turning them into much greater threats. While chaos is more likely to help you (the attacker), given enough time, you'll eventually end up 'misfiring'. In the early game, chaos is especially risky, since you'll be unlikely to handle the worst effects from it. However, even in the late game, hasting monsters is no joke.

If you do decide to use chaos, prefer weapons with fast attack speed (such as quick blades and demon whips), which get to inflict chaos effects (that are usually good for the player) more often. It can also be nice on Ranged Weapons, because if you buff an enemy, you'll have space to react. Because no enemy can resist chaos, it's a brand that's viable even in Zot, provided you can handle the potential negative outcomes.

Monster with chaos, in turn, may put you to sleep, briefly paralyse you, berserk you, etc., leading to potentially fatal situations. Great care should be taken against enemies with chaos attacks.

History

• Prior to 0.31:
  • Distortion was a possible brand choice for chaos, meaning that chaos attacks could cause banishment.
  • Chaos-inflicted paralysis could last multiple turns.
  • Certain status effects like confusion and paralysis checked willpower.
  • Weakness, corrosion, vulnerability, vitrification, sleep, and ensnaring were not possible effects, berserk was possible instead of frenzy, and chaos could turn monsters into shapeshifters or grant agility. Also, chaos attacks could clone monsters (including their equipment) instead of creating durably summoned copies.
• Prior to 0.30, chaos attacks could make the target invisible instead of giving resistance to elements.
• Prior to 0.25, chaos could inflict random miscast effects instead of the might and agility effects.
• Prior to 0.20, there was a rare chance of healing the target.
• Prior to 0.19, invalid effects could still be rolled with reduced probability.
• Prior to 0.18, ranged weapon ammo could have brands, including the chaos brand.
• Between 0.16 and 0.18, the chaos brand could move nearby stairs.
• Prior to 0.14, weapons of chaos could shaft or polymorph the attacker. Also, gods would forgive the player for disliked effects produced by chaos effects.