Distortion

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

It warps and distorts space around it, and may blink, banish, or inflict extra damage upon those it strikes. Unwielding it can cause banishment or high damage.

Distortion is a brand that any melee weapon may have. Distortion weapons bend and tear the fabric of space-time, and generate a variety of effects when they hit:

Chance	Effect
35%	The target takes an additional 1-7 damage
25%	The target takes an additional 3-26 damage (14.5 on average, low variation)
20%	The target blinks
5%	The target is banished to the Abyss
15%	Nothing happens

Distortion as an attack of opportunity is unable to blink or banish the target. The chance for additional damage rises as a result (47% for the smaller effect, 33% for the larger one, 20% for no effect).

Unwielding

Conversely, unwielding a weapon branded with distortion also causes dangerous unwielding effects to the player:

• 50% chance: teleport to random monsters on the floor
• 25% chance: inflict significant magical contamination
• 25% chance: banished to the Abyss

Followers of Lugonu are protected from these effects. Pious followers of Lugonu can have a weapon branded with distortion once per game, guaranteeing them access to the brand's effects.

Strategy

Distortion is a powerful brand. It deals more damage than electrocution, even before considering the banish chance, and distortion can't be resisted. In practice, banishment equates to a 5% of a one-hit kill; it can even banish otherwise hex-immune foes like the Hell lords. Like electrocution, it works best on fast weapons (e.g. Short Blades and demon whips), since faster weapons will activate more distortion effects.

However, this brand isn't perfect; it might blink ranged enemies away, or banish foes with desired equipment. Note that blinking gives you no message when it occurs, which can suddenly leave you with empty space where that monster used to be. When auto-attacking, you may move into an unintended spot.

For monsters with distortion weapons (or with an inherent distortion-branded attack, like spatial vortices), do your absolute best not to let them into melee range. For underleveled characters, getting sent into the Abyss can quickly lead to unwinnable situations. But regarding XL 27 characters, the Abyss (at least before A:7) is much safer than the Pandemonium, Hells, or Tomb.

Note that distortion is quite rare to come by without Lugonu, and has very dangerous unwield effects.

Tips and Tricks

• Tukima's Dance is a great spell against distortion-wielding foes; not only does it permanently disarm their weapon, but it becomes a dancing weapon on your side.
• Certain uniques are likely to possess distortion weapons: Psyche, Sonja, and The Enchantress.
• Any banished enemy might appear in the Abyss later on.
• If you intend to switch between weapons without Lugonu, you almost certainly don't want to deal with a distortion weapon's guaranteed backlash.
  • Positive effects of unwielding include a very last-ditch teleport (when confused, for instance) and Abyss access (when other areas are much, much harder). Beware that you can end up in a deeper Abyss floor when banished this way.
• Casters that like to keep enemies away from them may find a distortion branded polearm quite useful, since its blink effect creates space between you and monsters. It's wise to train at least a little skill so you can hit at a reasonable (1.0) delay.
• Despite giving full experience, Banish does not count as a kill; most gods won't reward you, and effects like Powered By Death won't activate. If you can't break stone walls, beware of banishing the Royal Jelly - the walls won't open unless you dive to the Abyss to kill it.

History

• Prior to 0.27, Distortion was an extremely punishing brand for those who wield-ID'd items. Weapons were not identified until you wielded them, and any glowing weapon could have been distortion-branded.
• Prior to 0.26, Distortion had a 10% chance to banish on attack, but banishment gave half experience.
• Prior to 0.25, distortion weapons had a chance of teleporting monsters away from you when attacking. They also caused Translocations miscast effects when unwielded.
• Prior to 0.19, distortion weapons could sometimes heal blink frogs (including the unique blink frog Prince Ribbit), who were immune to all of the effects of the distortion brand. Additionally, the spell Warp Weapon existed, which could apply a temporary distortion brand to your weapon.
• Prior to 0.15, rebranding a distortion weapon (e.g. by a Scroll of brand weapon) caused a distortion effect.
• Prior to 0.14, followers of Lugonu were not protected from the effects of unwielding a distortion weapon.
• Prior to 0.12, this brand was safer when found on sharp weapons, since blunt weapons didn't allow butchering corpses.