0.27

Version 0.27: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

0.27 is a version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It was released on July 30th, 2021.

Highlights

• New species: Djinni.
• Many new spells and spellbooks.
• New monster sets and end maps for many branches.
• Ashenzari completely redesigned and reworked.
• Cursed items removed.

Branches, Environment

• Altar changes:
  • A faded altar places with a very high chance on D:1-3.
  • A single random altar to a Temple god places with low chance on D:2.
  • Other guaranteed Temple god altars have been shifted to D:3-10, from D:2-9.
• Shops can now place on D:1-3.
• Dungeon, Depths, Vaults, and the Vestibule of Hell spawn tables are adjusted to produce more depth appropriate monsters and less chaff.
• Branch ending maps:
  • New "Abyssal Woods" Lair ending featuring demonic trees and abyss-themed monsters.
  • The "Jungle Book" Lair ending has been redesigned to have an undead theme featuring necromancers and undead animals.
  • New "Lost City" Shoals ending featuring a ruined temple theme with minotaurs and sphinxes.
  • New "Storm Temple" Shoals ending featuring electricity-themed monsters and many possible layouts.
  • New "Quicksilver Temple" Snake ending featuring quicksilver dragons.
• All Ice Cave maps have been rebalanced to have more varied layouts, monsters, and loot.
• Many new vaults featuring unrand items, shops, and ecumenical altars, as well new monster and decorative vaults for many branches.
• New terrain: demonic trees. Demonic trees appear in the Abyss and Pan and can be placed by vaults. They behave like trees, but when burned produce a single cloud of chaos instead of a spreading forest fire.
• Net traps trigger less often.
• Storm clouds no longer make noise.
• After completing one Ziggurat, the player is immune to the malevolence of Zot.
• Swamp is now loud, so noise travels less far.
• Guaranteed demonic rune vaults announce the presence of the demonic rune.
• Gadget shops are removed.
• Ossuaries no longer have dart and spear traps.

Character

• New species: Djinni, floating spirits formed from smokeless fire.
  • Djinni have no MP; their spells cost HP instead.
  • Djinni cannot learn spells from books; they learn spells as they level up.
  • Diinni cannot train spell schools; they use the Spellcasting skill alone.
• Demonspawn mutation changes:
  • New facet: malevolent magic. This facet gives a chance to paralyse enemies in a radius around the player equal to the mutation rank whenever a spell is cast. At the highest rank, this also applies to wands.
  • New facet: corrupting presence. The first two ranks of this facet give a chance to corrode, and then malmutate when the player damages a monster. The third rank gives an active ability Word of Chaos that blinks away every monster in los and may also disable them.
  • The Black Mark facet is revised to a disabling facet, offering a hex enhancer at rank 1, followed by black mark at rank 2, then a permanent radius 1 silence annulus around the player at rank 3.
  • The Hurl Damnation facet now gives "Demonic Will" at rank 1, providing Will+ and dealing damnation damage to monsters that try but fail to hex the player, and torment resistance at rank 2.
  • Mana link is re-ordered, providing MP Regen in the first rank, and spirit shield in the second. The third rank, mana link itself, is unchanged.
  • Foul stench provides stench at every rank as well as miasma immunity.
  • Later ranks of the spiny facet are now much more impactful.
  • Ignite blood ignites blood at every rank, with power scaling with rank.
  • Demonic Guardian now summons a guardian when the player takes damage. The tier of the guardian scales partially with experience level.
  • Icemail provides a condensation shield worth 4SH at the first rank, and ice mail AC spread over the next two.
  • Most types of scales mutations are now Demonspawn only.
    • Iridescent scales and passive freeze are removed from the Demonspawn pool and are available as random mutations for both demonspawn and other species.
• Poison damage applies much more quickly.
• Strength now gives a simple, linear bonus to damage.
• Hidden stepdowns on dexterity and evasion are removed, making characters with large amounts of dexterity and dodging skill more effective. As a result, Spriggans' dodging apt is reduced to +3 and base dexterity reduced by one.
• New good mutation: noise dampening, which halves noise in the players LOS.
• Bone plates, thin skeletal structure, and sturdy frame no longer conflict.
• The blurry vision mutation is removed; Ru's -Scroll mutation can occur as a random mutation in its place.
• Shoutitis and No Potion Heal are reduced to 2 levels from 3.
• Wisp form no longer blinks randomly.
• Guaranteed damage reduction is now a property derived from AC, with higher AC values from any source guaranteeing a certain base amount of protection from melee damage and mundane projectiles.
• Most sources of flight (including species, transformations, and equipment) are permanent and neither expire nor can be cancelled; reasons to land have also been removed.
• Berserk ending no longer causes paralysis.
• The blink mutation is removed.
• Other species changes:
  • Demigods' stat gains on level-up are doubled. Their base stats are reduced.
  • Gnoll base stats are reduced to 7/7/7.
  • Palentonga HP apt is reduced to +0.
• Mage and Warrior-Mage starting spell changes:
  • Air elementalists no longer start with Lightning Bolt.
  • Arcane Marksmen no longer start with Leda's Liquefaction.
  • Earth Elementalists no longer start with Lee's Rapid Deconstruction.
  • Summoners and Ice Elementalists no longer start with Summon Ice beast.
  • Venom Mages no longer start with Ignite Poison.
• Halflings are removed.

Gods

• Ashenzari is completely overhauled.
  • At regular intervals, Ashenzari provides the player with a choice of curses to apply to their equipment. These grant a skill boost based on the type of curse accepted, increase the player's piety, and prevent the player from un-equipping the cursed item.
  • At any time, the player can choose to shatter a cursed item, destroying it and losing associated piety and skill boosts.
  • Ashenzari grants the following benefits:
    • Scaling with piety: skill boosts from curses, item and monster detection, passive mapping.
    • 0* Item identification, portal detection, and exploration trap protection.
    • 2* See Invisible
    • 3* Clarity
    • 4* Seeing through walls within a size-2 radius, scaling to radius 4 at 6*.
• Ru sacrifice changes:
  • Several piety values are rebalanced.
  • Sacrifice Experience, in addition to removing one XL, now causes future XLs to be more expensive as if the player was still at their old XL.
  • Sacrifice words & drink now give bonus piety when taken together.
• The player and Hepliaklqana ancestors can fire through one-another.
• Hepliaklqana only grants an ancestor once the player reaches 1* piety. The HP penalty for worship is also delayed until 1*.
• A new Jiyva mutation allows players to engulf foes in ooze in melee.
• Makhleb's Major Destruction now fires all bolt-type spells and is stronger.
• Makhleb's passive heal on kill is reduced in strength.
• The Elixir card no longer heals allies and always regenerates both health and magic, with duration scaling with power.
• The Foxfire card is renamed to the Swarm and now summons bees.
• Okawaru no longer punishes betraying allies.
• Trog's Berserk ability has a piety-scaled chance to fail.
• Heavenly Storm grants bonus EV and is a bit quieter.
• Yredelemnul accepts nonliving worshippers again, and permits the use of statue form.
• Cheibriados no longer hates quick blades.
• Zin's Sanctuary no longer applies holy word.

Monsters

• New Slime monsters:
  • rockslime, a high-AC, flame-resistant slime that tramples and hits hard.
  • quicksilver ooze, a magic-immune ooze with engulfing and antimagic attacks.
• New Vaults monsters:
  • ironbound frostheart, which freeze enemies that are adjacent to walls.
  • ironbound thunderhulk, which blast distant enemies with lightning from above. (They can't hit nearby enemies, however.)
  • ironbound beastmaster, which speed up their lindwurm and dire elephant companions.
• Snake monster changes:
  • New monster: salamander tyrant, a volcano-stoking spellcaster with a weakening gaze.
  • Naga mages cast 'concentrate venom' (allowing venomous allies to inflict asphyxiating curare) instead of Force Lance.
  • Naga and naga warriors have increased base damage.
  • Naga warriors cast battlecry.
  • Nagaraja cast Dimension Anchor instead of Teleport Other.
• Oozes are renamed endoplasms, and cast freeze (but are weaker).
• Phantoms now blink their attack victims with them on hit, and have less HP. They no longer blink randomly.
• Ancient Liches have been split: they now focus on conjurations, while new Dread Liches specialize in demon summoning and paralysis.
• Deep elf mages have likewise been split into pyromancers and zephyrmancers.
• Every other spellcasting monster now uses just a single set of spells.
• Psyche has a new spellbook with Polymorph, Chain of Chaos, Invisibility, and Cantrip.
• Air elementals no longer have a tornado, instead gaining Stunning Blast. This inflicts 1 turn of paralysis on hit, though rElec makes this less likely.
• Big kobolds are re-named kobold brigands. Kobold brigands always spawn with darts, either poison or curare.
• Monsters' melee attack speed is no longer slowed by the weapons they wield. Many early-game monsters have had their base damage lowered to compensate.
• Monsters with ranged attacks now have unlimited ammunition. (Except nets.)
• Dancing ranged weapons can now appear (in specific circumstances).
• When Boris spawns on the orb run, he comes hasted and with a brilliance aura.
• Draconian knights and Fannar no longer cast Ozocubu's Armour and have higher base AC.
• Worker ants, soldier ants, queen ants, leopard geckos, eyes of draining, and death oozes are removed.

Interface and options

• Ranged targeters now display accuracy.
• Monster to-hit chance is now shown in xv.
• The in-game macro creation and editing interfaces have been greatly improved:
  • The old interface has now been fully menuized, so editing all happens within the menu, and is designed for a smoother process.
  • A new quick-entry menu for macros is available, bound to ctrl-e.
• An in-game menu is available on the F1 key for access to saving, help, and macros.
• Form information is shown in the `A` view.
• The shopping list can now be opened by a range of currency symbols.
• Wait-to-cast spells (Searing Ray, and the new Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling) now fully work with autofire when quivered; autofire will trigger the wait command as appropriate.
• Spells and potions can be quivered and have informative targeters where relevant.
• Other miscellaneous quiver UI improvements:
  • Two new options for controlling the quiver: `fire_order_ability` and `fire_order_spell`. These give you full control over non-items when cycling the quiver.
  • Berserk is now excluded from the fire order by default, and won't autoquiver on Berserker starts.
  • Changing a quivered item's letter will not remove it from the quiver.
  • Improvements to inscriptions: @Qn inscriptions on items are supported at the Q menu. Behaviour of !Q, =f, and =F has been improved.
• Portal and zot alerts are now included by default in `runrest_stop`, and zot clock alerts force-interrupt all delays.
• The "allow_extended_colours" console option now defaults to true, since modern terminals uniformly support more than 8 terminal colors.
• New local tiles option, `tile_window_ratio`. This lets the initial window size be constrained by an x:y ratio, providing better defaults for ultra-wide monitors.

Items

• Spellbook changes:
  • Spellbooks generate more frequently and are always identified.
  • 30 new types of fixed book are added.
  • Fixed books now only have 2-4 spells each (down from 4-6 each.)
  • Randomly generated spellbooks also have fewer spells.
  • Mage and Warrior-Mage classes no longer start with a specific spellbook. Their starting spell sets are based on the book they previously started with, but with changes as described above in the "Characters" section.
• Cursed items no longer generate. Ashenzari is the only source of curses.
  • The *Curse property on unrands is removed. The Scythe of Curses and obsidian axe now have *Drain. The property is removed from the Necklace of Bloodlust.
  • The obsidian axe can no longer be unwielded while mesmerised.
  • Mundane negative-enchant items no longer generate. (Negative enchants are still possible on randarts, or in certain vaults.)
• Wand changes:
  • Wands of random effects are replaced with pieces from Xom's chessboard, which apply a random effect to a random visible enemy when evoked. They recharge with XP.
  • Wands of disintegrate are renamed to wands of mindburst. They no longer affect mindless creatures.
  • Wands of enslavement are now called wands of charming.
• Equipment is identified once the player is in reach, without needing to be worn.
• All sources of regeneration now heal 1 HP per normal turn (formerly 0.4).
  • Trolls now have slightly more inherent regen and slightly less AC.
  • Vine Stalkers gain their full innate regeneration earlier.
• The spectral brand has been redesigned. It now triggers on every attack, creating a spectral copy of the weapon which makes an additional attack (if there's open space next to the wielder and in reach of their target). The copy vanishes once the player does anything other than attack. This effect no longer depends on Evocations skill.
• Shields slow melee attacks much more at low Shields skill levels.
• Other unrand changes:
  • Vampire's Tooth's enchantment is reduced to +8 (from +11).
  • The amulet of the Air loses EV+5 and gains an Air magic enhancer.
  • Bolts fired by Damnation only explode and mulch on hit.
  • The staff of Wucad-Mu refunds MP more often, and refunds MP even when it backfires.
  • The Wrath of Trog now extends berserk and gains Rampage.
  • The Robe of Folly now provides permanent brilliance, but sets Will to 0. It also gets +8 Int (from +4) and +4 enchant (from +3).
• Manuals, like spellbooks and runes, no longer take up an inventory slot.
• Broad axe's base delay is returned to 1.6, from 1.7.
• Rare scrolls, books, manuals, and enhancer staves can now spawn early.
• Hats and gloves can now get the stealth ego.
• Archmagi can now appear as an artefact property on randart robes.
• The *Slow artefact property now stacks.
• Scarves of shadows are no longer spell de-enhancers.
• Rings of attention, rings of stealth, rings of teleportation, amulets of inaccuracy, scrolls of remove curse, scrolls of random uselessness, and boots of running are removed.

Spells

• New Spell: Storm Form, a level 7 Transmutations/Air spell that transforms the player into a raging, lightning-filled tempest:
  • Melee attacks are electrified and strike all adjacent foes. Damage increases with spellpower and unarmed combat skill.
  • Grants the ability to Blinkbolt: launch yourself towards a foe to inflict heavy damage, also damaging any monsters along the way.
  • Grants increased evasion, rElec, and poison immunity. The evasion increases with spellpower.
  • Melds all equipment except jewellery.
• New spell: Animate Armour, a level 4 Summon/Earth spell which draws out the spirit of the caster's armour to fight alongside them. The heavier the armour, the more powerful the spirit.
• New spell: Manifold Assault, a level 5 translocations spell which attacks random foes in sight with the attacker's wielded weapon. Spellpower increases the number of foes that can be struck with one cast.
• Absolute Zero has been redesigned. It's now called Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling, a level 8 Air spell. When cast, the player must wait in place for a random number of turns (reduced by spellpower) until the capacitor finishes charging, which instantly vaporizes the nearest monster.
• Chain Lighting has been redesigned. It is now level 9 and is dramatically more powerful, arcing between visible foes for massive damage that partially ignores AC and rElec.
• Tornado has been renamed to Polar Vortex. It is now a Level 9 Ice spell, and its damage has been increased by 33% but is partially resistable by rC.
• Other spell level adjustments:
  • Ozocubu's Refrigeration is now level 7 (from 6).
  • Freezing Cloud is now level 5 (from 6).
  • Static Discharge is now level 2 (from 3).
  • Swiftness is now level 3 (from 2).
• Airstrike no longer gets bonus damage against flying creatures (including the player). Instead, it deals bonus damage based on the number of empty spaces next to the target.
• Stone arrow damage is increased.
• Wereblood now heals 1d3 when an adjacent monster is killed.
• Tukima's Dance can now be used on monsters wielding ranged weapons.
• Poisonous Vapours now directly poisons the target, rather than making a cloud.
• Hailstorm now affects icy creatures.
• Monstrous Menagerie no longer summons harpies.
• Ozocubu's Armour and Frozen Ramparts now end under any location change.
• Blade Hands' stealth penalty for Felids is removed.
• Hydra Form, Summon Demon, and Summon Greater Demon are removed.

release 0.27.1

0.27.1 is a bugfix and balance update released on August 20th, 2021.

• The frequency of D:1 jackals is reduced.
• Sigmund and Robin are nerfed gently.
• Maxwell's Capacitative Coupling now has LOS range.
• 80 other fixes, tweaks, copy-edits, and interface improvements.