Infestation

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Infestation
Level	8
School1	Necromancy
Source(s)	Book of Death
Casting noise	8
Spell noise	4
Power Cap	200
Range	LOS
Hated By	Elyvilon The Shining One Zin
Flags	Target, Unclean

Calls forth a plague of scarabs, infesting affected creatures for a duration depending on power and causing death scarabs to grow and burst from them upon death.

Infestation is a level 8 Necromancy spell that applies the 'Infested' status to monsters in a 5x5 smite-targeted area. A friendly death scarab erupts out of each victim that dies. Scarabs last for around 81 turns.

Infestation takes priority over all other undead-creating Necromancy spells, though Death Channel can function alongside Infestation. It can affect monsters of any holiness, and works even with Gozag's gold touch or Yredelemnul's reaping (scarabs replace Yred's zombies).

Infestation can be obtained as part of Kikubaaqudgha's 6* piety gift.

Strategy

Death scarabs are great allies; they are very fast, slow down enemies, are undead, and deal great damage. They also last for a fairly long time, letting you Infest new monsters you encounter. Compared to other undead-creating spells, Infestation has the advantage of working on undead, demonic, and nonliving monsters.

Infest the weaker monsters in a horde and kill them quickly in order to spawn a bunch of scarabs. Use spells like Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, Haunt, and Anguish (when combined with other, existing undead) to start the horde.

Kikubaaqudgha's Unearth Wretches places necromantic fodder exactly in a 5x5 area, which corresponds perfectly to Infestation's radius. Using Unearth Wretches twice, then Infestation directly on top of the player character is bound to rapidly create a swarm capable of tackling the game's most dangerous encounters.

Death scarabs cannot see invisible - a notable weakness considering the prevalence of Invisibility-casting liches in the late game.

History

• Prior to 0.29, scarabs worked alongside all other undead-creating spells.
• In 0.26, the duration of death scarabs was reduced.
• This spell was added in 0.19.