Top Defensive Items in the Game - Part 3: Silk Elephants and Baby Spooders (Patreon)

We continue to wander through the best defensive items available to survivors by visiting probably the most beloved and maligned quarry monsters this time.  Spidicules and The Gorm; together they could almost provide an alternative to the White Lion/Screaming Antelope combination of early game monsters, but Spidicules falls just a little too short in too many places.

However, both monsters have some very powerful defensive gear available to them:

Gorm

Yup, that's a LOT of pieces of gear here.  The Gorm is very good at providing defensive stuff... and offensive stuff... and early game stuff... and endgame stuff.  Screw it, the Gorm has almost no bad gear cards at all.

Knuckle Shield  

As Shield you can get your hands on from Lantern Year 1,  the Knuckle Shield more than makes up for it's awful offensive stats by giving you access to block very early on.  

I sometimes see newer players make the error of using the Knuckle Shield to attack with as well. While you should be scoring one hit with the Knuckle Shield in order to train Shield Mastery early on, you should also be packing a second weapon to use the rest of the time.  

Yes it is very tempting to want to gain the Block 1 by wounding the monster, but that is an unreliable way of handling this, it's very, very effective (but boring) to just have one survivor tank with full rawhide, Monster Grease and the Knuckle Shield - All the do is position themselves to be the monster target and activate the Block 1 instead of attacking.

This one also works very well with high strength and Blood Paint.

Pulse Lantern 

I put this one into the Top Support Items list, but I'm also putting it in here as one of the best Defensive Items.  When combined with Surge you can activate this item during the Monster's flow step and have an 80% chance of knocking the monster over - which will stop it's AI card in its tracks.  This leaves the monster laying on the floor, helpless during the survivor's turn, but it also prevented an attack. 

Pulse Lantern is one of the reasons why the Indomitable monster trait was created in 1.5. 

Finally, it's a lantern, making it amazing to use in the Post Watcher part of the game.

Regeneration Suit

Lots of Green affinities, an accessory so it will fit onto any survivor who wants it, and an ability that cancels out all non-fatal severe injuries.  This item, which is crafted from a L3 Gorm Strange Resource can mean that nothing short of outright death or retirement will stop your survivor from coming back over and over.

The green affinities are also very useful in a number of different builds.

Gorn   

Again mentioned in the Top Support Items, the Gorn is easily one of my favorite items in the game. It's the only non-noisy instrument we have right now (because the Gorm's calls are ultrasonic/beyond normal hearing) so it's the only musical item you can use to keep Rhythm Chaser active without risking the Harvester eating your survivor.

So it's protecting your +1 evasion token from being removed by knockdown, it also has an amazing once per showdown ability that can really have a massive impact.  1 armor in the early game is huge, but I have also used 4 of these together against the Lion God to recover from the ass kicking that is Woeful Majesty.

Life Elixir

This one is literally an extra life for one of your survivors. In combination with the Regeneration Suit and the Tough Fighting Art you can build yourself your very own Wolverine.  Not dying is an excellent defense for a survivor.  

I think the only reason this gear item doesn't get used more is the lack of affinities on it.

Gorment Mask

I think this understated piece of headwear might actually be my favourite part of the Gorment armor set.  With just 4 courage there isn't a single non-legendary monster that can affect you with intimidate actions.  While I do find Gorment Armor to be a little cumbersome to try and use because of its weak affinities, the Mask can be used in "patchwork" sets and with Rolling armor to great effect.  

Immunity to intimidate is very powerful.

Gorment Sleeves + Gorment Suit 

These two are being stuck together as a single item because they come to life when combined.  I've written about the various uses of these two pieces in the past, noting how powerful they are when used with ranged items in particular because they allow you to perform a 'fighting retreat'.  While Blood Paint + Shield is better for all one handed bruisers/tanks - this pair of gear items is the equivalent for those survivors who wield two handers.

Silk Mill

Spidicules is a frustrating creature, it's available to hunt early on, but most of the interesting and useful stuff is locked away in the mid to late game. So because of the high level of punishment that it dolls out, it's not worth hunting early on.  However, the good gear is very, very good.  Good to the point of being game breaking a lot of the time.

Silk Turban  

Inexplicably locked behind the Level 3 Spidicules, the Silk Turban provides a unique piece of monster control. It allows you to control the monster in a way that no other item in the game does, by turning it to face away from you.  This means that you are always attacking it from the Blind Spot and you can ensure that you are almost never the target of its attacks because there is no reason for you to be in the front facing.

Sadly, this item is locked behind the level 3 Spidicules, and by the time you can normally build it, you should be onto other, more powerful armor sets.

Silk Body Suit  

Inexplicably not locked behind the Level 3 Spidicules the Silk Body Suit is one of the most powerful defensive items in the entire game.  In exchange for 5 Silk Strange Resource, 2 Hide and 1 Spinnerets Spidicules Resource you can have this ridiculously powerful item that gives 2 damage soak to all your locations as long as you don't wear heavy or metal armor.  This item single handedly turns things like Leather Armor into end game protection.  Cutting most monster damage back down to Level 1 equivalents is insane.  But the fact that you can build this by just killing a couple of Level 1 Spidicules is utterly mind boggling. 

Green Ring

Armor on tap, that's what the Green Ring is.  At a minimum this should represent +3 armor to all locations every 4th turn - but in combination with a Gloom Hammer AI Controller DPS character the Green Ring represents +3 armor to all locations every single round. There are almost no monsters that can overcome that level of defense.  

This is also one of those items that can easily provide all the armor a support would ever need, meaning that you don't need to have a support survivor dedicating 5 precious slots to armor. Instead they can wear a Green Ring and Maybe a Leather Shield for protection and the rest of their grid can be useful support items.

Blue Ring 

I cannot overstate just how much protection this item provides, the Blue Ring provides AI control when you are attacked and this means that you get to pick which AI card the monster is going to activate when it attacks you.  That's HUGE, but it is not flashy compared to the Red and Green Rings so the power of the blue ring often gets overlooked. 

It's also worth noting that the way that this ring works means that it provides protection against monsters like the Butcher who draw multiple AI cards in a turn.

My personal favourite of the three Rings.

Silk Whip 

Everything I wrote about the Hunter's Whip in the previous article (here) applies to the Silk Whip, except that it's got a superior statline (2 speed > 3 speed when you have 3 strength), better affinities and its perfect hit ability archives moods instead of drawing hit locations when you want it to.  It's also WAY easier to make.

This whip is without a doubt the best whip in the game outside of the Oxidised Ring Whip and it's an example of how good whips could have been with just a bit more work.  It's also an example of how good Spidicules could have been with a bit more polish.