Wet Resin Crafting and Calcification (2 of 2) (Patreon)

Just like the last article, here is a visual guide so you can understand the flow.

(Click in for a larger image).

Before we go any further; I think it's important to discuss the Calcification Process a little. I've seen custom content from at least one person who didn't understand the calcification process and the gear they made was wrong from a lore/design standpoint and 

So calcification can only happen to gear with the mineral keyword. If you look at the new zanbato provided in the expansion you can see that the it has the mineral keyword added to it. This change was not made on the Tabletop Simulator version, so many people who learnt the game via that mod did not internalise this.  

It's also made explicit in the 'bury gear' section; where it notes specifically that the gear has to have the mineral keyword if it is going to be buried.  The mistake that people have made is assuming that it has to have the 'bone' keyword.  So if you are going to make some extra gear for building around a calcification style, ensure that it has the mineral keyword.

Once calcified, we have less consistency and understanding, the item always loses its mineral keyword. However it also sometimes loses the bone keyword (the Calcified Digging Claws stop being bone for some reason).  I've reached out to Adam to see if that's an accident or intended, but getting an answer from him on things is pot luck.

The whole process is an interesting misnomer however, calcification is when calcium builds up in parts of the body where it shouldn't be and causes hardening of the tissue or the process of normal mineral depositing in biological systems like shells of molluscs.  Either way, sticking things in the ground inside caustic dung isn't the way we do it in this reality.

Enough of that aside, onward!

The very first decision you're going to need to make is to decide if you are actually going to calcify your Rolling Armor parts or not.  If you do not plan to calcify them, then you are likely to only calcify Zanbatos and maybe Digging Claws or a Regeneration Blade.  This is actually the typical experience that you'll have with the Dung Beetle Knight, because just building the armor alone takes at least 4-5 lantern years (1 year to beat the DBK and then the first Black Harvest cycle).  Calcifying Rolling Armor adds at least another 3-4 years onto this process, so that's over a third of your settlement's time spent working on one armor set. Now you can be doing other things during this time, especially if you have been very efficient with your DBK Resource farming (L2 DBK + 2x Crit builds, Tank and Support) - but it is still a long time to wait to get something.

The advantage of this calcification decision is you get the hardest, toughest, tankiest armor set in the game currently (it's better than Lantern Armor and more flexible) at the end. When completed it has an insane 9 armor points on all locations, a 30% ignore one hit per attack (stackable with block, deflect, fencing and so on) and several other great utility abilities. It's just really, really good - probably one of the most versatile and powerful armor sets in the game. Certainly my #1 choice for late game tank armor - especially because it has a lower iron requirement than Lantern Armor.

In addition to the plates, there are three weapons which you can calcify. The zanbato, the digging claw and the regeneration blade (which is gained by critting the DBKs sword and breaking it). I am of the opinion that you should never spend Scell (strange resource) when recovering zanbatos from calcification for two reasons. First of all zanbatos are as cheap as chips to make (1 great cat bone, 2 hide) so spending a resource you can only get by beating an L2+ DBK seems wasteful; and secondly a failure in the calcification process can yield one of the most useful support items in the game.

This item utterly neuters any monster that uses battle pressure as a mechanic (King's Man, Mad God) and it also allows for very effective HL thinning when combined with the Cat's Eye Circlet. You can (if you don't care about hitting the trap) ensure that every single hit you score against a monster is a location that can yield resources. Now that's going to slow your fights right down to a crawl, but it is very effective at reducing the number of hunts you need to undertake vs. a particular monster.

It is, however, a headpiece, so usually it is worn by a secondary support who is in rolling armor. 

The remaining two weapons are amongst the best weapons in the game. The Calcified Digging Claws are a pickaxe (good for mineral gathering because of its rerolls, though breaking sucks ass, so have a pickaxe to take the hit) Katar hybrid which is superb against the Dung Beetle Knight's Carapace hit locations and the Calcified Juggernaut Blade is a small version of the DBK's own weapon - it's powerful and one of only two one handed Grand Weapons (Rib Blade being the other).  It is a fantastic weapon for any late game Grand Weapon wielder, and it also (eventually) becomes Griswaldo when you are trying to make Green Armor.

That's a lot of words, but we've not really touched on actually calcifying gear. Well that's because it's far more straightforward than the whole wet resin/harvest crafting mechanic. You have only a few decisions to make and I'll list them here.

• Ensure that you have a backup weapon to use for the time it is underground.
• Bury 2-3 Zanbatos at once and do not spend Scell unearthing them until you get a Trash Crown.
• Always spend Scell for any of the other calcified items. So learn how to beat the L2 DBK so you can have Scell on hand.
• Always use 0 exp disposable survivors for the restoration process. They benefit the most from success (gaining their choice of 1 fighting art from three drawn) and they cost the least if they die from making a Trash Crown.
• Don't use Calcified Digging Claws as your Pickaxe in the new Mineral Gathering table, they used to be immune to breaking, but the new table can break them.

That's it really. You can weave your calcifications into the whole Rolling Armor process by calcifying weapons at the same time as the armor pieces - and in fact, if you are able to do this, it's the best idea because it is the most efficient method.  However, your hunt parties will suffer a drop in their power level.

One final note for those of you who might not be aware of it; because of the change in name from X to Calcified X that each gear piece receives, it's actually a separate piece of gear for classification purposes. This means that survivors can equip both Calcified Century Greaves and Century Greaves to get a total of +3 to Ripple Pattern Rolls (and more armor) at the cost of a slot and movement.  It also means that you cannot pair a Calcified Digging Claw with a non-calcified one.

And that is it really for this whole process, if there is anything that needs further clarification - feel free to ask and I'll do my best! Otherwise; I hope that you now feel a bit better prepared to tackle crafting and calcifying DBK gear, because it is all worth the effort (except maybe for the Beetle Bomb).