Jiyva

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Slime for the Slime God!

Jiyva is the ancient deity of the slimes. Followers are expected to support the spread and satiation of their fellow slimes by allowing them to consume items, and are forbidden from harming any slimes. Jiyva will even occasionally consume items left elsewhere in the dungeon by followers. Especially favoured followers will become as shapeless as their god, as their attributes and mutations shift around under Jiyva's influence. Jiyva's followers can request jellies, turn monsters to slime, and eventually remove their harmful mutations. Followers of Jiyva may also pray alongside visible slimes, preventing items from being eaten for a while. As their piety grows, Jiyva will, with increasing frequency, drop jellies into the dungeon; rearrange followers' attributes based on their skills and armour; and grant mutation gifts. Slimes will never harm a follower of Jiyva, and Jiyva demands the same conduct in return. Jiyva likes it when you sacrifice items by allowing slimes to consume them. Jiyva strongly dislikes it when you attack fellow slimes or you kill slimes. Note that Jiyva does not demand training of the Invocations skill. All abilities are purely based on piety.

As Jiyva is the amorphous god, its name is also shapeless and will be slightly different in each game: Jiyva Juub, Jiyva Jichodgh, Jiyva Jojaun...

Appreciates

• Allowing slimes to devour items.

Deprecates

• Attacking and killing slimes.
• Inactivity (loses about 1 Piety every 400 turns).

Finding his Altar

Jiyva's altar will never generate within the Ecumenical Temple. Rarely, it may generate in a Dungeon vault, but more often it can be found somewhere on Lair:6-8, within the Slime Pits, and randomly generated in the Abyss.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Squelcher"

• All slime and eye monsters turn neutral. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Ooze"

• Request jelly: Summons a neutral jelly to devour items. (2 MP, 20-40 Food, 1-2 Piety)

Piety level **: "Jelly"

• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of increasing you satiation by 70 (a sultana). (Passive)

Piety level ***: "Slime Creature"

• You are shielded from corrosive effects. This functions exactly like wearing an amulet of resist corrosion. (Passive)
• Paralyze Jelly: You can pray to temporarily halt all jellies from devouring items. (Piety)

Piety level ****: "Dissolving [Species]"

• Slimify: Coats your weapon with slime for a few turns, which turns enemies into slimes. This only works against monsters with undead or natural holiness. (4 MP, 100-200 Food, 8-12 Piety)
• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of recovering some MP. The amount depends on the price of the item. (Passive)

Piety level *****: "Blob"

• Cure Bad Mutations: Removes a randomly selected bad mutation. (8 MP, 200-400 Food, 15-23 Piety)
• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of recovering some HP. The amount depends on the price of the item. (Passive)

Piety level ******: "Royal Jelly"

• Hits that take 25% or more of your maximum HP will generate friendly, high-end jellies, similar to the effect of the royal jelly. Symbol of Torment doesn't count. (Passive)
• Unlock the Slime Pits vaults: The walls that block access to the slimy rune and other goodies will be removed. (Passive)

In addition, Jiyva will do the following:

• Gain random mutations: Jiyva gives mutations as gifts, including rare mutations unique to Jiyva. This occurs only if you can safely mutate: mummies, ghouls, vampires below satiated, or lich form characters are not eligible.
• Stat shuffling: Your stats are modified depending on your skills and the encumbrance rating of your body armour. The sum of all your stats does not change.

Punishments

Jiyva does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Jiyva's vengeance is swift and gurgling. All slimes turn against those who offend Jiyva, and Jiyva ensures a plentiful supply of slimes, both by calling jellies to ooze from the cracks in the walls and floor, and turning other nearby enemies into dangerous slimes. Victims, too, will find their own bodies becoming unstable; regularly transmuting into strange forms and acquiring debilitating mutations.

Upon abandonment, all slimes will immediately turn hostile, and Jiyva will occasionally punish you with one of the following forms of divine retribution:

You receive a few bad mutations. These mutations bypass all forms of mutation resistance except for Zin's protection.

• Polymorphs you into a bat, spider, or statue.
• Floods you with mutagenic radiation
• Sends a number of durably summoned high level slimes, eyeballs, and spores to attack you.

Strategy

• Jiyva is utilized best by a high level, late game player character. Moreso compared to the other gods, Jiyva can pose inconveniences to the early game character; slimes getting in the way of your spells, slimes eating items, and slimes running over levels and killing dudes justify Jiyva's placement far from the Ecumenical Temple. High level PCs tend to acquire two things; lots of bad mutations, and lots of junk laying around the dungeon. It is easy for someone who has already cleared the main dungeon to rapidly max out his piety score and remove all negative mutations, while retaining any positive ones and gaining plenty of new ones.
• This doesn't mean that Jiyva cannot be utilized by an early game character, though. Strong characters who can clear floors quickly without much rest will have fewer items consumed by slimes. Or go stealthily; kill things quietly, lure enemies around one by one, and pick up as many items as you care to before the slimes wake up. Do not be concerned about the potentially lost EXP from early floors; those ogre kills would have been a drop in the bucket for leveling, and if you were planning to go Jiyva eventually it would save you some god wrath later, or the handicap of godlessness until you reach the Slime Pits. The mutations you gain, though random, are usually biased in favor of good ones (so do not expect to keep your auxiliary armor for long).
• Although you can (and will) freely mutate and filter out the bad ones with the appropriate invocation, don't expect to become a superhero. Jiyva will change your mutations unpredictably, and you may get horns, antennae, a beak, claws, talons, or hooves which may restrict your choice of armor. If you're a race who ignores most equipment slots (eg ogre, troll, felid, octopode), these are very welcome.
• Your stash will be put at risk by Jiyva's slimes, but there are ways to safeguard it. Putting your entire cache of items on an up-staircase, and being extremely quick to grab what you need will maximize the chance that Jiyva won't have time to spawn a slime on that level. Even better, so long as you have stasis, you can put your stash on a teleport trap and it'll be untouchable. However, Jiyva will randomly eat items throughout the Dungeon, so the only way to keep something completely safe is to carry it with you.
• Jiyva's stat shuffling will focus your stats depending on numerous factors; mostly to make the best use of your current skilling, but also to accomodate your body armor better.
• Be forewarned that eye monsters summoned by Mnoleg or Pan lords will be hostile. Jiyva won't be offended if you kill them. Shapeshifters transformed into slime or eye monsters are also safe to kill.

Guides

• Buddy23Lee's Troll monk of Jiyva ("slime troll") guide (0.12)