Chaos

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Chaos is a brand that weapons may have. It imitates other brands, changing with each attack to one of the following:

• Vorpal
• Flaming
• Freezing
• Electrocution
• Venom
• Draining
• Vampiricism
• Holy wrath
• Antimagic
• Confusion (normally only found on needles)
• Distortion
• Or "true" chaos, which can cause one of the following effects:
  • The defender is cloned
  • ... polymorphed
  • ... turned into a shapeshifter
  • ... berserked
  • ... healed
  • ... hasted
  • ... made invisible
  • ... slowed
  • ... paralyzed
  • ... petrified
  • The attacker experiences a random miscast effect
  • ... is shafted
  • ... is polymorphed (player only)
  • The stairs are moved out from under the attacker
  • A colorful cloud appears
  • It makes a loud noise

The brand is gifted by Xom at random intervals (though not necessarily to the player), and is wielded by Xom's vault guards and the uniques Crazy Yiuf and (sometimes) Psyche. Some Pandemonium lords and others have this for a base attack, and the killer klowns have an even more chaotic version. Taking this brand (usually through Yiuf's quarterstaff or by playing as a chaos knight) will give you access to extremely powerful effects very early on that will overwhelm most low level monsters. Just understand that chaos is a fickle mistress, and it is only a matter of time before you berserk an eight headed hydra. Dropping this in favor of a more reliable brand is recommended as soon as possible.

The chaos brand may appear on missiles as well. Such missiles turn into a bolt of random type when they affect each cell and are always destroyed upon impact, but not if they were unbranded missiles fired with a ranged weapon of chaos.

While a paralysis effect created by a melee weapon with this brand ignores the magic resistance of its target and may affect even monsters immune to magic, a beam of paralysis created by a ranged weapon of chaos checks magic resistance and has enchantment power 0 (for example, it's impossible to affect monsters with MR greater than 100).

History

In 0.14, chaos weapons will no longer be able to shaft or polymorph the attacker, making them slightly less suicidal for extended use.