Stat zero

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

When one of a character's primary attributes (strength, intelligence, or dexterity) is lowered to 0 or below, the character suffers crippling penalties until that attribute is restored and stays above 0 for a period of time equal to: 10 + 1d10 + the number of turns it was below 0 (Max: 200 turns).

Causes

The following can all drain your attributes:

• By 1 at a time:
  • The Deterioration mutation.
  • Sickness.
  • The melee attacks of certain monsters:
    • 5 Quasit (dexterity only)
    • y Ghost moth
    • W Eidolon
  • Decomposition (not to be confused with rotting) from attempted mutation of an undead character.
• By more than 1 at a time:
  • Malmutate and Corrupting Pulse can give permanent and transient mutations respectively, which can include reduced attributes.
  • Brain Feed: this is really dangerous for players with low intelligence, as it can drain 1-3 in one go.
  • Spell miscast effects, as caused by actual miscasts, Hell effects, and mummy death curses.
  • Evoking certain items, such as a crystal ball of energy or the staff of Wucad Mu.
  • Stepping on or being in view of a monster stepping on Zot traps.

As you gain experience, you regain stats lost through any of these means (except malmutate).

Stats can be more permanently lowered by the following means:

• Mutations which affect attributes (this lasts until the mutation is removed somehow).
• Equipment with negative stat modifiers (but you can remove the equipment to restore the stat).
• Jiyva's stat shuffling. (will never reduce a stat to zero)

The last two never lower a base stat to zero. Sustain attributes provides no help with any of these, and the stat does not restore naturally.

Effects

The following effects occur when any stat reaches 0:

• you immediately suffer 2-4 turns of paralysis which ignores a Formicid's stasis
• you are slowed until the stat completely recovers. (doesn't stack)

The following effects are dependent on the specific stat which was drained to 0:

Collapse (Strength)

• Your HP regeneration rate is divided by 4

Brainless (Intelligence)

• You can't memorise or cast spells
• You fail to read scrolls 80% of the time

Clumsy (Dexterity)

• Your EV score is set to 2 + size_bonus + Repulsion field bonus
• Your SH score is set to 0
• Your stealth score is set to 0
• You can't stab monsters

Precautions

Any character with a particularly low attribute should be aware of the dangers involved. Any attribute below 5 could conceivably be reduced to 0 by a single unfortunate effect, and below 10 are vulnerable to stat zero from repeated effects.

• Cursed artefact equipment can reduce an attribute by up to 6 for as long as it's equipped, so be cautious about wearing unidentified items if you're at risk.
• Miscast effects, Hell effects, Zot traps, and mummy death curses can temporarily reduce an attribute by up to 4 in one go. You may wish to bring all of your attributes up to a minimum of 8 to guarantee that you can survive a single worst-case scenario shot from either one.