Jiyva

Version 0.28: 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. Especially favoured followers will become as shapeless as their god, mutating wildly. Jiyva will gradually fill the dungeon with jellies, which will rapidly consume nearby items as well as slowly consuming items from elsewhere in the dungeon. As they spread slime across more of the dungeon, Jiyva will grant followers increasingly rapid health and magic regeneration, and will begin mutating them to better reflect Jiyva's image. Followers will later become able to call forth acidic ooze from the walls of the dungeon, and to turn monsters to slime with a touch.

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

• Exploring areas, other than the Slime Pits. Piety is gained faster than other exploration-based gods.

Deprecates

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

Altar

Unlike most altars, Jiyva's isn't guaranteed to be found in the Ecumenical Temple or the Dungeon. It is possible for the altar to be found at these locations, but only very rarely, and generally as part of a slime-related vault. The most common location for an easily accessible altar is in Lair levels 5 to 6, next to the entrance to the Slime Pits.

There is a guaranteed altar in the main vault in the final level of the Slime Pits, as well as a chance for further altars to show up on the earlier levels. Altars to Jiyva can also be randomly generated in the Abyss. Like any god, Jiyva can be got from a Faded altar.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Squelcher"

• All slime and eyeball monsters turn neutral. (Passive)
• Jiyva protects you from the effects of slime-covered walls unless you are undergoing penance. (Passive)
• You are shielded from corrosive effects (rCorr). (Passive)
• If there are no slimes on the current floor, Jiyva will spawn a jelly after some time has passed. (Passive)
• Slimes will now eat items they find on the floor; regular jellies will split after consuming enough items. Only artefacts are inedible. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Ooze"

• Regeneration: You regenerate 0.8 HP/turn and 0.25 MP/turn at 1*, scaling to 1.6 HP/turn and 0.5 MP/turn at 6* piety.

Piety level **: "Jelly"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ***: "Slime Creature"

• Gain random mutations: Jiyva gives mutations as gifts, including rare mutations unique to Jiyva. Mutations have a 25% per-level chance of losing a level, with bad mutations having a doubled chance. Then, 4 mutation levels are given out, which will tend to give max level mutations. This occurs only if you can safely mutate: mummies, ghouls, or lich form characters are not eligible.
• Oozemancy: Temporarily turns nearby walls within 4 tiles into slime-covered walls. Unlike Frozen Ramparts, you can move while sustaining these walls. (3 MP, 8-12 piety)

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

• No new abilities.

Piety level *****: "Blob"

• Slimify: Coats your weapon with slime for a few turns, which turns the next enemy you hit with it into a slime. This only works against monsters with natural holiness or that are undead and not insubstantial (i.e. not ghosts). Natural monsters turn into slimes based on their HD (stronger monsters make stronger slimes), and derived undead simply turn neutral. In any case, the effect ends after it has converted one monster. Monsters converted in this way do not grant experience. (5 MP, 10-15 Piety)

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

• Hits that take 25% or more of your maximum HP (including torment) will generate friendly, high-end jellies, similar to the effect of The Royal Jelly. (Passive)
• Unlock the Slime Pits vaults: The walls that block access to the slimy rune and other goodies will be removed. (Passive)

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 further slimes. Victims, too, will find their own bodies becoming unstable; regularly transmuting into strange forms and acquiring debilitating mutations, as well as having any gifts of slime mutations stripped away from them. Jiyva's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

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, fungus, pig, tree, or wisp.
• Floods you with mutagenic radiation.
• Sends a number of durably summoned high level slimes and eyeballs to attack you.

Strategy

• Jiyva is preferable to high level, late game characters. High level PCs tend to acquire two things; lots of bad mutations, and lots of items. Jiyva gives many chances to clear bad mutations (and gain new, postitive ones), and having your 10th scroll of blinking eaten is better than the first.
• This doesn't mean that Jiyva cannot be used by an early game character, though. Slimify allows you to negate even the strongest of enemies in a single touch. Do not be concerned about the potentially lost XP from early floors; those two-headed ogre kills would have been but a drop in the bucket. But you may be concerned about the lack of items; fast play and strong classes can negate some of this.
  • Oozemancy is also fairly respectable - you can kite enemies, having them take corrosive damage every turn while remaining far away.
• If Jiyva does not spawn in the Temple, you can start by worshipping Elyvilon, The Shining One or Ignis. Since Jiyva is chaotic, but not evil, you will not face retribution for converting.
• Although you can (and will) freely mutate and eventually filter out the bad ones, 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 (e.g. ogre, troll, felid, octopode), these are very welcome.
• Eye monsters summoned by Mnoleg or Pan lords will be neutral. Shapeshifters transformed into slime or eye monsters will turn neutral, too.
• Jiyva is a god that you can abandon while keeping permanent benefits granted via worship (curing bad mutations). However these may be offset by the bad mutations imposed upon leaving.
• Note that even a god can die! If you kill the Royal Jelly without first converting to (or being penanced by) Jiyva, you will have killed its last worshiper, thereby killing the god itself! You will get a message about "the power ruling this place" vanishing, with all of Jiyva's altars being removed from the game at that point.

History

• Prior to 0.28, Jiyva worshippers gained piety by having jellies eat items; these jellies could be summoned at 1* of piety, and would provide health and MP recovery when eating. Slimify was available at 4* and was cheaper. Jiyva could cure bad mutations as an invocable action. Jiyva gifted mutations more often, but not in bursts.
• Prior to 0.27, Slimify produced death oozes when affecting the undead.
• Prior to 0.26, Jiyva's slimes would feed you when eating items.
• Prior to 0.24, Jiyva's Slimify ability didn't work properly on derived undead, and Torment damage would not trigger the slime-spawning ability.
• Prior to 0.19, Jiyva's jelly prayer paralysis was removed. Additionally, the Slime Pits were found on Lair:6-8 before the branch was shortened.
• Prior to 0.14, Jiyva's abilities were based off of your Invocations skill.