Jiyva

Version 0.21: 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, as their attributes and mutations shift around under Jiyva's influence. Jiyva's followers can request jellies, which will consume nearby items and provide sustenance to the follower in doing so. Jiyva will also consume items left elsewhere in the dungeon. Followers will later become able to turn monsters to slime, and eventually to reshape themselves to remove harmful mutations. As their piety grows, Jiyva will, with increasing frequency, drop jellies into the dungeon; rearrange followers' attributes based on their skills and armour; and mutate followers to better reflect Jiyva's image. Jiyva likes it when you sacrifice items by allowing slimes to consume them. Jiyva strongly dislikes it when you attack fellow slimes or you kill slimes. Jiyva's powers are based on piety instead of Invocations skill.

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

• Allowing slimes to devour items.

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.

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)
• 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, granting piety depending on the value of the item; regular jellies will split after consuming enough items. Only artefacts are inedible. (Passive)
• Stat shuffling: Your stats are modified depending on your skills and the encumbrance rating of your body armour. The sum of all your stats does not change. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Ooze"

• Request jelly: Summons a jelly to devour items. (2 MP, 20-40 Food, 1-2 Piety)

Piety level **: "Jelly"

• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of increasing your satiation by 70 (a little over 1/20th of a chunk of flesh). (Passive)

Piety level ***: "Slime Creature"

• You are shielded from corrosive effects. This functions exactly like wearing a ring of resist corrosion. (Passive)
• Gain random mutations: Jiyva gives mutations as gifts, including rare mutations unique to Jiyva. This occurs only if you can safely mutate: mummies, ghouls, or lich form characters are not eligible.

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

• 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), corporeal undead become death oozes, 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. (4 MP, 100-200 Food, 8-12 Piety)
• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of recovering some MP. The amount depends on the price of the item. (Passive)

Piety level *****: "Blob"

• Cure Bad Mutations: Removes a randomly selected bad mutation. (8 MP, 200-400 Food, 15-23 Piety)
• When your fellow slimes consume an item, you receive a piety/200 chance of recovering some HP. The amount depends on the price of the item. (Passive)

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

• Hits that take 25% or more of your maximum HP (including Symbol of 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 best used by a high level, late game player character. More than the other gods, Jiyva can be inconvenient for an early game character; slimes getting in the way of your spells, slimes eating items, and slimes running over levels and killing monsters (thus consuming XP) justify Jiyva's placement far from the Ecumenical Temple. High level PCs tend to acquire two things; lots of bad mutations, and lots of junk laying around the dungeon. It is easy for someone who has already cleared the main dungeon to rapidly max out their piety score and remove all negative mutations, while retaining any positive ones and gaining plenty of new ones.
• This doesn't mean that Jiyva cannot be used by an early game character, though. Strong characters who can clear floors quickly without much rest will have fewer items consumed by slimes. Or one can be stealthy; kill things quietly, lure enemies around one by one, and pick up as many items as you can before the slimes wake up. Do not be concerned about the potentially lost XP from early floors; those ogre kills would have been but a drop in the bucket, and if you were planning to go Jiyva eventually it would save you dealing with divine retribution or the handicap of godlessness until you reach the Slime Pits.
• Although you can (and will) freely mutate and filter out the bad ones with the appropriate invocation, 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.
• Your stash will be put at risk by Jiyva's slimes, but there are ways to safeguard it. Putting your entire cache of items on an up-staircase, and being extremely quick to grab what you need will maximize the chance that Jiyva won't have time to spawn a slime on that level. Even better, if you have stasis and access to a permanent teleport trap, you can put your stash on the trap and it'll be untouchable. However, Jiyva will randomly eat items throughout the Dungeon, so the only way to keep something completely safe is to carry it with you.
• Jiyva's stat shuffling will focus your stats depending on numerous factors; mostly to make the best use of your current skills, but also to accommodate your body armor better.
• Eye monsters summoned by Mnoleg or Pan lords will be neutral. Shapeshifters transformed into slime or eye monsters will turn neutral, too.
• Jiyva is one of the few gods you can abandon while keeping permanent benefits granted via worship (desirable 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.

Guides

• Buddy23Lee's Troll monk of Jiyva ("slime troll") guide (0.12)

History

• 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.