Stat zero

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

When one of a character's primary attributes (strength, intelligence, or dexterity) is lowered to 0 or below, the character suffers crippling penalties until that attribute is restored and stays above 0 for a period of time equal to: 10 + 1d10 + the number of turns it was below 0 (Max: 200 turns).

Causes

The following can all drain your attributes:

By 1 at a time:

• The Deterioration mutation.
• The melee attacks of certain monsters:
  • 5 Quasit (dexterity only)
  • y Ghost moth
  • W Eidolon
• Decomposition from attempted mutation of an undead character.

By more than 1 at a time:

• Corrupting Pulse can give transient mutations, which can include Reduced Attributes.
  • * Wretched star
• Brain Feed: this is really dangerous for players with low intelligence, as it can drain 1-3 in one go.
  • G Glowing orange brain
  • 3 Neqoxec
  • 8 Orange crystal statue
• Hell's mystical force drains up to 5 stat points every time you go down a stairs, and can also give transient mutations.
• Mummy death curses drains from 1-4 of a random stat.
• Casting spells while wielding the staff of Wucad Mu, which can drain 1-5 intelligence.
• Stepping on or being in view of a monster stepping on Zot traps, which could drain 1-4 stat points.

As you gain experience, you regain stats lost through temporary drain or mutation.

Stats can be more permanently lowered by the following means:

• Mutations (such as from Malmutate) which affect attributes. This lasts until the mutation is removed somehow.
• Equipment with negative stat modifiers. But, you can remove the equipment to restore the stat.

Effects

The following effects occur when any stat reaches 0:

• You immediately suffer 2-4 turns of paralysis, which ignores a Formicid's stasis.
• You are slowed until the stat completely recovers.

The following effects are dependent on the specific stat which was drained to 0:

Collapse (Strength)

• You do not regenerate HP when monsters are in sight.

Brainless (Intelligence)

• You can't memorise or cast spells.
• You fail to read scrolls.

Clumsy (Dexterity)

• Your EV score is set to 2 + size_bonus + Repulsion field bonus.
• Your SH score is set to 0.
• Your stealth score is set to 0.
• You can't stab monsters.

Precautions

Any character with a particularly low attribute should be aware of the dangers involved. Any attribute below 6 could conceivably be reduced to 0 by a single unfortunate effect, and below 11 are vulnerable to stat zero from repeated effects.

Specifically, Hell effects can reduce an attribute by up to 5 in a single go, while Zot traps, and mummy death curses reduce up to 4. You may wish to bring all of your attributes up to a minimum of 9 to guarantee that you can survive two worst-case scenario effects from the latter. All three happen reasonably late in the game, so early level ups should not take stat zero into account (unless you find a great stat-reducing artefact).

Outside of the extended game, stat zero only really happens realistically to the extreme end of combinations, such as a Minotaur Berserker or Deep Elf Conjurer. A human, for example, is normally much less vulnerable to its effects.

History

• Prior to 0.28, zero intelligence only had an 80% chance to fail reading scrolls. Zero strength's -Regen was a flat regen/4 modifier.
• Prior to 0.19, sustain attributes existed which would halve stat damage. Hence, multi-point stat damage was roughly halved in 0.19.
• Prior to 0.17, taking further stat damage after a stat reached 0 would inflict HP damage.
• Prior to 0.15, items had mass, and strength determined your carrying capacity. The "collapse" status effect serious reduced this.
• Stat zero was added in 0.13, replacing stat death.