Piety
Piety is a measure of your standing with your chosen god, and consumed to use divine abilities.
Contents
Useful Info
Piety is measured on a scale from 1-200; most characters start at 15 piety when first worshipping a god. If piety drops below 1, you are excommunicated and incur penance. Piety is gained by doing what your god likes, and lost for doing what it hates (see below for details).
At certain piety thresholds, your god will grant abilities. Active abilities can be invoked with the a command; most actives cost piety to use. Passive abilities work automatically, and usually don't have a cost. Piety can also be used for obtaining gifts and for resolving penance.
Estimating Piety
You cannot see your exact piety number in-game, but you can estimate it from the number of stars shown by your god's name on your HUD. Not coincidentally, these stars are the levels of piety required for you to receive new abilities.
| Ability Level | Piety | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1-29 | Noncommital | |
| * | 30-49 | Aware of your devotion |
| ** | 50-74 | Pleased with you |
| *** | 75-99 | Rising star |
| **** | 100-119 | Shining star |
| ***** | 120-159 | Favored servant |
| ****** | 160-200 | Prized avatar |
Not all gods give abilities at each level. For example, Okawaru gives the ability to invoke Heroism at *, and then nothing until Finesse at ****. Also, many gods grant powers that improve with your exact piety (not just your star level), so it is worth cultivating piety even if you think you've earned every reward on your god's chart.
Piety Gain
Usually, you'll start with 15 piety on worship, though Monks start at 50 piety. Worshipping from a faded altars gives a +20 bonus, even to Monks.
You can gain piety by following your god's conduct. A majority of gods reward you for one of two things:
- Killing creatures, or having an ally kill a creature. All gods exclude plant holiness creatures but most gods accept most types of kills.
- Exploring the dungeon, i.e., revealing new tiles. You are not rewarded for exploring the Temple or deep water in the Shoals.
Different gods may have different means of gaining piety. For example, Zin appreciates gold donations (and killing evil/chaotic creatures), while Yredelemnul's piety is solely determined by the number of undead in sight. Gozag does not use piety at all - this god only cares for gold.
For most gods, piety gain slows down at 4*, and slows down again at 6*.[1]
Piety Loss
Using most types of abilities will cost a set amount of piety. This can bring you below a piety threshold, so watch out.
You can lose piety by doing things your god dislikes - Trog hates it when you cast spells; The Shining One hates when you do evil. Specifically, doing anything your god dislike will reduce your piety, then inflict penance. While you're in penance, you don't gain piety - instead, any piety you would've gained is used to decrease penance.
Piety Decay
Most gods have a piety decay. When worshipping these gods, your piety will naturally decrease over time. Every 10-30 decaAut (i.e. turns), the game makes a roll to deplete one piety. Depending on your god, there is a 1/17 or 1/35 chance to do so. Therefore, on average, you'll lose 1 piety every 340 or 700 turns, respectively.
Gods with fast piety decay (lose 1 piety roughly every 340 turns):
Gods with slow piety decay (lose 1 piety roughly every 700 turns):
Uskayaw has extremely fast piety gain and decay, while Ignis has none. Ashenzari, Ru, Xom, and Yredelemnul have their own unique piety systems, which do not use the normal decay function. And Gozag doesn't use piety at all (caring only about gold).
History
- Prior to 0.19, there were five possible piety decay speeds.
- Prior to 0.16, gods didn't treat followers' kills the same as the player's for purposes of piety gain.
References
- ↑ religion.cc:2447 (0.30.1)
