0.28

0.28 is a version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It was released on Feburary 4th, 2022.

Branches, Environment

• Ziggurats no longer require a rune of zot to enter.
• Hell effects are reorganized into timed effects and per-branch persistent effects.
• The timed effects are the same for all hells, and consist of temporary

mutation, stat drain, hp drain, and noise. The branch-wide persistent effects are:

• • In Dis there is a baseline -8 Corrosion.
  • In Cocytus potions cannot be used.
  • In Gehenna scrolls cannot be used.
  • In Tartarus willpower is halved.
• Floors 1-6 of each hell sub-branch are considerably smaller, and place onlyone pair of stairs.
• Each hell subbranch's spawn tables are adjusted to produce more depth appropriate monsters and less chaff.
• Six new Wizard's Laboratories are added: Eringya's Formal Garden, Tukima's Studio, Yara's Duelist Academy, Borgnjor's Mausoleum, Maxwell's Workshop, and Alistair's Party Mansion.
• Sewer maps have been re-balanced and randomized, and two new sewers added.
• Bailey maps have been re-balanced and randomized, and three new baileys added.
• Exploration-based shaft traps can now happen a maximum of once per branch.
• Artefacts can now generate on D:2-3.
• Spider is a normal noise level again.
• The Abyss no longer generates random items, and kills in the abyss grant no experience or conventional piety (Uskayaw and Yredelemnul continue to grant their special kinds of piety).
• The chance of an Abyss teleport sending the player deeper is increased; as are the rune, stair, and exit generation rates.
• Collecting the abyssal rune of zot grants two XP potions worth of experience.

Character

• New background: Cinder Acolyte, an Ignis zealot. Starts worshipping Ignis,along with Scorch and a -1 flame branded weapon of choice.
• The Enchanter background no longer starts with the Corona spell, and instead starts with a potion of invisibility.
• The Fighter background now starts with a buckler instead of a kite shield.
• Fire Elementalist's starting spells are revised, and are now: Foxfire, Scorch, Conjure Flame, Inner Flame, and Flame Wave
• The Abyssal Knight background now gives stats of 5/2/5 (was: 4/4/4)
• The evolution mutation is revised. Once per XL's worth of experience it activates, providing a good mutation. Every two activations it reduces its level by one.
• New bad mutation: devolution. Mechanically similar to evolution but dispenses bad mutations and activates once every 1/4th of an XL.
• Strength 0's regeneration reduction is replaced with -Regen in monster LOS.
• Intelligence 0's 4/5 chance to fail scroll reading is replaced with -Scroll.
• Kills by all allies except Beogh and Yredelemnul gifts now give full experience.
• Clarity from any source no longer blocks berserk from random rage.
• Late game XP gains are reduced.
• The experience cost of high-level skills is reduced.
• New Demonspawn Mutations:
  • Weakening stinger, gives a tail aux attack, at level 3 blocks the cloakslot and applies the weak status.
  • Demonic touch, adds irresistible damage to the off hand punch, at level 3 blocks gloves and applies the vulnerable status.
• Aux attacks now trigger with a chance based on XL.
• The chance to offhand punch now starts at 5% and increases to 50% with Unarmed Combat skill.
• Player-chosen attribute increases now happen every 6 XLs, starting at XL 3, and increase a stat by 2. Demigods are unchanged.
• Wanderer creation rules have been overhauled again, to give more useful starting skills in combination with the items generated. Many new ite possibilities are added.
• Formicids now dig at normal movement speed, and each cell dug causes draining.

Gods

• Okawaru becomes the god of single combat.
  • A new ability: Duel, granted at 5*. The Duel ability smite-targets a single non-summoned enemy in LOS (which must be threat level "tough" or higher), and transports them and the player to an Arena portal vault. Winning the duel opens a gate to return from the portal vault, and the player will be forcibly teleported back after a short duration.
  • Finesse is moved to 4*
  • All allies are forbidden.
• New (non-temple) God: Ignis, the Dying Flame
  • Ignis worshippers start at 5* piety (6* if a monk joining from an faded altar).
  • Ignis altars do not generate normally, Ignis can only be worshipped from a faded altar or from the new Cinder Acolyte zealot start.
  • Ignis has no piety gain and no piety decay.
    • Once abandoned and mollified, Ignis dies.
      • Ignis grants the following abilities:
        • 0*: Passive rF+
        • 1*: Active 'Fiery Armour' ability. When used it gives +7AC and deals fire damage to melee attackers.
        • 1*: Active 'Foxfire Swarm' ability. Conjures foxfire on every open square in radus 2 around the player.
        • One time use: Active 'Rising Flame' ability. Gives the player the "Rise" status, after 2-4 turns the player rockets through the ceiling and up one floor.
• Cheibriados permits berserk while suppressing the extra speed.
• Cheibriados now slows poison on worship and grants bend time at 1*.
• Ashenzari's passive trap protection and item identification is moved to 1*.
• The Shining One now gives Divine Shield at 1* and Cleansing Flame at 3*.
• Elyvilon abilities are streamlined
  • Pacification grants full XP and works on intelligent plants.
  • Lifesaving is now completely passive, with an extra piety gated chance on top of the basic good god lifesaving chance and a cooldown.
  • Lesser Healing is removed.
  • Purification is moved to 1* and reduced in cost.
  • Greater Healing is renamed ot Heal Self and moved to 3*.
• Jiyva is morphed.
  • Stat shuffling is removed.
  • Healing from jelly item eating is removed.
  • The cure mutation active is removed.
  • Piety is now exploration based, not item eating based, and is gained very quickly (but not in the Slime pits).
  • Jiyva grants passive regeneration of HP and MP.
  • Mutation gifts arrive in bursts that first remove a mutation (weighted to bad mutations) then attempt to max out the levels of existing mutation before adding new ones.
  • Passive rCorr is now granted at 2*, and jelly spawning on hit at 5*.
    • New active 'Oozemancy' 3* ability. Temporarily turns nearby walls within radius 4 into slime-covered walls that do acid damage to adjacent monsters.
• Yredelemnul is overhauled to use temporary zombies as piety
  • The animate remains, animate dead, and injury mirror active abilities are removed.
  • Starting at 0* piety Yredelemnul grants passive reaping of all corpses, raising zombies and spectral things from dead living, demonic, and holy beings. Zombies cannot leave the level and expire when the player leaves the level (by any route).
  • Yredelemnul piety scales with the number and strength of the zombies in sight of the player.
  • Yredelemnul grants the following active abilities:
    • 0*: Recall Undead. Can recall a bound soul across floors.
    • 2*: Dark Bargain. Trade 2 zombies for a long-duration undead summon that scales with invocations.
    • 4*: Drain Life. Same as previous drain life, but also costs 3 zombies.
    • 5*: Bind Soul. Re-named from previous Enslave Soul, also costs 4 zombies. A bound soul is permanent and can follow the player between floors.

Interface

• The mutation panel is now a menu, selecting individual mutations provides a description of the mutation.
• Most abilities now have targeters like the spell targeters.
• WebTiles now has a clickable action panel, similar to the local tiles inventory panel.
• Arrow key navigation and keyhelp is available in many more menus.
• Arrow key navigation can be disabled with `menu_arrow_control`.
• WebTiles mouse support is expanded.

Items

• All shields now only use Dex for stat scaling.
• Shield penalties scale linearly with skill, completely disappearing at skill 27. The size of the penalty depends on the shield's encumbrance rating and species size factors.
• Armour and shields no longer impose to-hit penalties.
• Riposte is removed from long blades and base damage is increased.
• The skill requirements for minimum delay for executioner's axes and bardiches are reduced to 24; for triple swords the requirement is reduced to 22.
• *Rage now causes berserk on 20% of hits. This chance stacks linearly among items and with the berserkitis mutation. Certain unrands grant a higher chance.
• Evokable berserk is removed as an artefact property.
• The generation of throwing ammunition is reduced.
• Wand generation is reduced.
• The electrocution brand triggers less often.
• One 'pip' of regen is reduced to 0.8 HP/turn.
• MPRegen amulets are buffed to 0.4 MP/turn.
• New glove ego: infusion. Gloves of infusion add damage per hit in exchange for 1 MP per hit.
• The archery ego is renamed hurling and now only applies to throwing.
• New item type: orbs, occupying the shield slot.
  • Orbs give no SH and impose no shield penalty, but always come with an ego.
  • Orb egos are all new:
    • light: a radius 3 halo.
    • wrath: *Rage (20% chance to berserk on melee hit).
    • mayhem: chance to frenzy a monster in sight after a kill.
    • guile: reduce target willpower by 3 pips, and the wearer's will by 2 pips.
    • energy: gives a source of passive channeling. Each source of channeling gives a chance to refund the MP of a cast spell and a chance to backfire. If all sources backfire the caster is confused or drained of intelligence.
• New unrand: the +3 Mad Mage's Maulers {Infuse+∞ RegenMP Int-3}. These use all available MP to give proportional bonus damage to a melee hit.
• New unrand: the dreamshard necklace {*Dream}. On receiving a lethal or near-lethal hit, the dreamshard necklace shatters, averting the blow, healing the player, releasing dream allies, and fog. Otherwise does nothing.
• New "early-game" unrandarts, weighted heavily up to D:6 and much less after:
  • Delatra's gloves. These gloves heal the wearer for drinking unknown potions and give the wearer MP for reading unknown scrolls.
  • The woodcutter's axe is a vorpal +8 war axe that always swings at 10 aut regardless of skill and speed modifiers.
  • The staff of the Meek is a +7 quarterstaff of protection that gives extra AC when below 55 HP.
  • Throatcutter is a +7 long sword of draining with a 1/3 chance to instantly kill foes that are below 21 HP.
• The following existing unrandarts are given "early-game" weight: Morg, Devastator, the ratskin cloak, Kryia's mail coat, the trident of the OctopusKing, the robe of Augmentation, and Lear's Hauberk.
• Unrandart tweaks:
  • The staff of Battle now triggers the battlesphere on melee hit (in addition to the usual spell trigger).
  • The robe of Clouds' thunder cloud ability is now passive, placing storm clouds on enemies within range 2 each turn.
  • Leech no longer has *Rage, and now has Harm and Drain.
  • The necklace of bloodlust now gives a 50% chance to go berserk on hit.
  • The Zealot's sword now gives a 20% chance to go berserk on hit (up from5%).
  • The hat of the bear spirit gives a 20% chance to go berserk on hit, increases the bonus HP from going berserk, and reduces the slow duration after. It no longer has rN+.
  • The ring of the Mage is now a ring of Wizardry and Archmagi.
  • The autumn katana loses Clarity and gains a chance to manifold assault on hit.
  • The glaive of Prune turns the wielder into a prune when paralysed, petrified, or asleep, halving the damage received for the duration.
  • Lear's Hauberk is reduced to +18.
  • The trident of the Octopus King loses +Will.
  • Wucad Mu now counts as two sources of channeling. This means it is twice as likely to refund MP and the probability of backfiring is squared.
  • The robe of Misfortune loses Contam and Drain.

Monsters

• New unique: Mlioglotl. A unique horror with the power to corrupt the level, changing terrain and summoning other abyssal horrors, as well as cause fear. Appears in the S-branches and rarely in the abyssal lair end.
• New Hell monsters (with subbranch):

 - Wendigo, collapses simulacra into painful iceblasts (Coc)
 - Nargun, hits hard and petrify (Coc)
 - Quicksilver elemental, with antimagic and quicksilver bolts (Dis)
 - Crystal echidna, throws barbs and crystal bolts (Dis)
 - Creeping inferno, which explodes into a Fire Storm (Geh)
 - Stoker, keeps at range and calls creeping infernos (Geh)
 - Searing wretch, a hard hitting fighter that strips fire resistance (Geh)
 - Tainted leviathan, a giant with a ring of miasma and mesmerise (Tar)
 - Putrid mouth, a ghost with poisonous melee and miasma breath (Tar)

• New Spider monsters:

 - Pharaoh ants are undead that drain and bind souls on death.
 - Steelbarb worms are fast, regenerate, resist fire and apply barbs in melee.
 - Jorogumo are tough, ensnare, cast bolt of draining and have hornet poison
   melee.
 - Broodmothers summon spiders and bite to summon spiders.
 - Culicivora join spider packs with a vampiric bite and heal other.
 - Sun moths are holy with a single tile halo, sticky flame, and energy bolt.
 - Radroaches are armoured roaches that cast irradiate, greatly contaminating
   the player.

• New monsters: walking tomes, which summon living spells that cast themselves at the player. Appearing in Tukima's Studio and Depths.
• Demonspawn warmongers' Sap Magic effect now causes a short term -Cast after casting a spell.
• All derived undead retain their reach, constriction, and trample attacks.
• Red Devils now apply barbs on hit, instead of hopping back.
• Wretched Stars only apply one temporary mutation per use of corrupting pulse, and use the spell less often.
• Demonic and holy monsters are now susceptible to fear, berserk, alistairs intoxication, and ballistomycete spores.
• Monsters have a chance to break a door permanently when opening it. This chance is higher if the mosnter is berserk.
• Classed draconians have a fixed colour per job.
• When Dowan dies Duvessa goes berserk permanently; when Duvessa dies Dowan gains haste permanently.
• If Jiyva dies Dissolution's summon eyeballs is replaced with a cantrip.
• Kills by and of player-frenzied monsters now grant XP.
• Ironbound Beastmasters are removed.

Spells

• Summon-capped monsters now have a uniform time out.
• Lesser Beckoning's power cap is reduced to 100 and range reduced to 5.
• Spell summon caps are reduced:

Summon Small Mammal, Summon Hydra, and Monstrous Menagerie are capped at 2. Haunt is capped at 8. All other summon spells except Summon Horrible Things and Dragon's Call are capped at 1.

• New spell: Summon Cactus Giant (L6 Summonings). Summons a large, spiny, normal move speed but very slow attacking giant.
• New spell: Scorch (L2 Fire). Hits a random enemy within 3 tiles, dealing fire damage and if damage is delt applying short term rF- to the foe.
• New spell: Flame Wave (L4 Conjuration/Fire). Flame Wave is a channeled spell like Searing ray that hits all surrounding tiles in ever wider waves of flame.
• New spell: Enfeeble (L7 Hexes). Enfeeble irresistibly applies weakness and magic to a single foe. Additionally the target is also dazed and blinded if they fail a willpower check.
• New spell: Anguish (L4 Hexes/Necromancy). Gives monsters in sight the anguished status after passing a Will check. Each time an anguished monster deals damage it receives damage equal to the damage dealt.
• Searing Ray and Storm Form have reduced power scaling.
• Storm Form's blinkbolt ability is now always LOS range.
• Corpse rot now scales with spell power, placing more clouds per corpse and reaching up to range 2 with sufficient clouds.
• Passage of Golubria now has a range that scales with spell power.
• Blink now has a cooldown that scales with spell power.
• Eringya's Noxious Bog now places a bog under the caster, as well as on cells with only one adjacent wall; the caster is now immune to their own bog.
• Inner Flame is now smite targeted.
• Slow is now level 1 with a lower power cap.
• Metabolic Englaciation has a minimum slow duration when successful.
• Death Channel now works on demonic and holy creatures as well as corpseless living creatures
• Yara's Violent Unravelling can now unravel summons, killing them immediately and turning them into explosions, and is smite targeted.
• Bolt of Magma, Corona, Shadow Creatures, and Invisibility are now monster only.