The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret - Secret Fighting Arts (Patreon)

To follow up on the release of the Secret Fighting Art (SFA) package, it's time to fulfil a patreon request for an article about them (yes, I do take requests, it can just take time to sort them out, especially SFAs which are very scattered around and rare).

It can feel that SFAs are very rare and hard to get, but the truth is that their acquisition is more reliable and repeatable than most Fighting Arts once you understand the mechanism that gives them out. This means that you can build your hunt parties around SFAs more often than not (depending on how difficult it is to actually get the SFA in the first place).

Format is going to be a short review of the SFAs, plus a mini-guide on how to unlock them, with strategy tips where appropriate.

There are a total of 29 SFAs currently available in the game, which means this will be in two parts (when will I manage to do something in one part?)

Acanthus Doctor

I've written about this one in the past, and a lot of people have also realised that it's one of the most powerful SFAs in the game, it is in truth absolutely broken because of how easy it is to acquire (and it's a side-effect of making the Vespertine Bow). You can have an Acanthus Doctor by LY9 and continue to manufacture them by chaining hunts on the FK and making Vespertine Bows.

Ignore the meme picture that people post, because it's untuned and comparatively weak, the real power Acanthus Doctor builds use Rolling Armor or items like the Green Ring.

How to get it: Have sculpture innovated in your settlement before the Necrotoxic Mistletoe timeline event triggered by crafting a Vespertine Bow (made during the Sense Memory event which comes post Flower Knight showdown). Then roll a 7+.

5/5

Ageless Apprentice

Very powerful and unique. There is an almost endless amount of things you can do with this SFA, however you will be saddled with a Hideous Mask (cursed) or have to get Crystal Skin (which means you miss out on a lot of the power of rotating gear cards).

This is the only way you can have a savior who doesn't age left in the game. It is a convoluted process, you have to get ageless apprentice onto a normal survivor, and then turn them into a savior (via the Drifting Dreaming Fruit from the L3 Lonely Tree for example). It works because Ageless Apprentice doesn't give the "Ageless" ability, it just stops you gaining hunt xp. While this may seem like 'gaming' the system (and it is), that is the literal translation of the rules at the moment until Poots realises the loophole and closes it by changing the text of Ageless Apprentice (if he can be bothered).

How to get it: Score the Deathblow vs. the Lion Knight with a survivor who has already gained a hideous mask during a previous showdown against the LK. Optimally you do this vs. the L3 Lion Knight, because the Ageless Apprentice might still get decapitated during the "rewards" portion of the L2.

5/5

Altered Destiny

This secret fighting art, which is part of the 'linked to legendary monster actions' series is great, there are a whole host of things that you can do to get negative tokens and Altered Destiny (AD) can get powerful very quickly. One example (which I put together recently) is Harvestman + AD, but also things like the Pulse Lantern and the Forest Gate work really well.

This also completely neuters the King's Man's Silent Hymn trait.

How to get it: Survive the Rend Asunder Legendary AI card by taking damage from the second attack.  Possible vs. the L2 and L3 DK.

5/5

Beast of Caratosis

Like most Red affinity based abilities that are not auto-wounds, this SFA is very weak without a lot of setup and planning. It works best when combined with a slow, but powerful weapon (like a Grand Weapon) and a lot of Red Affinities. However it is a move that takes a concentrate (see glossary) to activate and it ages you a huge amount (unless you are an ageless apprentice).  The aging price is too high for what you do, so it's a hard pass for me on this one.

How to get it: Become a Red Savior and age up.

1/5

Beetle Strength

This SFA actually comes with +2 Permanent Strength and +1 Permanent Speed, as those stats are always gained when you get the SFA. 

On top of a fairly good stat gain (+permanent speed can always be negated with slow), this SFA comes with a unique ability that allows you to push terrain into the monster(s) (causing an auto-wound), but aging you 1 hunt XP to do so.  Let's not beat around the bush, automatic wounds are the most powerful mechanic in KDM and this one is a fun and balanced way of delivering one.

How to get it: Become TOM's friend by having the Secretive Disorder and 3+ Hunt xp when Secret Meeting - Part 2 triggers.  The Secret Meeting events are started by beating a Dung Beetle Knight when you have storytelling innovated. This chain is also how you get to fight TOM (The Old Master) and how you get to craft the Green Helmet.

4/5

Black Guard Style

This one showed a lot of promise around its design, but ultimately fell short because the execution is in the wrong direction. It gives you the ability to block with your swords and as anyone who's played with the Blast Sword can testify block 1 on swords is kinda awful. You are not looking to use swords to block with, you want to block with shields because of all the benefits you get from the shield design and the specialisation. The second part, which gives you a turbo attack after blocking is interesting, but outside of meme weapons like Griswaldo, Oxidised Lantern Sword, Perfect Slayer and the Black Sword. It is a high risk maneuver to execute. 

Black Guard Style would have become useful if it read 'Swords in your gear grid gain the shield weapon keyword and Block 1'. However it doesn't, so it's pretty bad and the only reason I can't give this one the lowest possible score is because SFAs like Swordsmans Promise and Bone Whisperer exist.

How to get it: Encounter Stumpy (Percival, aka the world's worst warrior)'s promotional basic hunt event card Dead Warrior (it's her!) with Pictographs innovated and a survivor with 3+ understanding rolls a 2+ when investigating (ensure they do not have a broken jaw). 

2/5

Bone Whisperer

Any SFA that can kill you is pretty garbage, and while you have control over the risk of this SFA causing you to run away and become a Bone Witch, it also requires survivors to die in order to get the skull for you to consume. Not even the Dead Survivor terrain card works here (which was a missed design opportunity).  

As mentioned before, FA/SFAs that rely on other survivors to die need to be very powerful. This isn't it.

How to get it: Roll an 8+ during the Bone Witch event.

1/5

Clarity of Darkness

This SFA gives you the Gloom Man status when you are insane and its unbelievably powerful.  There are tricks you can pull with the Husk of Destiny (you are always insane) or Red Ring + Self Bleed to turn your survivor into an untargetable machine that destroys monsters solo.  But if you do manage this, then unless that survivor dies on the hunt, retires, or dies in the settlement - the campaign is pretty much won.

The less broken way to use this is to have it on a support survivor, so you can Cat's Eye/Rawhide Headband in safety.

How to get it: A survivor with the Spiral Ganglia disorder completes their "condition" by having other survivors gain 3 disorders during one fight. You can do this by standing everyone in front of the Screaming Antelope when its trap is triggered.

Over 9000/5

Courtly Screenwriter

This is just a fun way of increasing the settlement's survival limit. Essentially you should always write that all survivors will live and pick one of the DPS characters to score the deathblow.  It is supposed to be all done secretly, but the honest truth is that this is impossible when playing Solo and even when playing with groups people tend to game the system.

It's a nice way of getting some extra Survival Limit.

How to get it: Have Pictographs innovated when you beat the L3 Lion Knight.

3/5

Death Touch

This female only SFA boosts your unarmed attacks a huge amount and stacks with things like Monster Claw Style, Cycloid Scale Armor and Acid Palms to create monstrous warriors (it's also part of the reason why ALL F&T trainees should be female as a rule).

How to get it: Take part in the Choreia endeavor as a female and devour your dance partner.  As always, remember that males in KDM are more likely to die than females outside of intimacy.

5/5

Eternal Will

This one is seriously cool. You gain +1 accuracy and +1 strength for each permanent injury you have, and being retired doesn't stop you coming out hunting. Your dream of an armless, eyeless, tooth and nail expert biting monsters can come true with this SFA.

It is amazing on survivors with a lot of minor injuries and it completely cancels out certain ones, however this is not the most powerful SFA there is, it's mostly just fun and wow factor.

How to get it: Survive the Death Pit event when fighting the L4+ Manhunter. You will need to roll a 9+, which is made easier by having the Tough and/or Transcended Masochist fighting arts. You will also get a shattered jaw when this happens, so that means you get +1 accuracy and +1 strength automatically at the cost of being able to encourage/consume.

4/5 for the sheer coolness of this one

Fencing

Two parts to this one, you can ignore Parry (very relevant vs. the Knight monsters) and you also have a 50% 'ignore one hit' when attacked mechanic that is absurdly powerful.

This SFA is immensely desirable for almost all kinds of survivors. It is a free 50% "block", that stacks with Block and Dodge and doesn't require survival to trigger. It's a must have for Tanks.

How to get it: It is given out by the Flower Knight's Breakthrough event. Stack Luck on your survivor(s) to achieve this. You should be able to get it on 2+ survivors per showdown.

5/5

Frozen Star

This one has two abilities. You can spend a survival to drop the monster's accuracy by 2 for the round (which is really, really powerful) or you can spend 1 survival to kill off a fellow survivor (actually is relevant for certain rare builds like Last Man Standing - but is mostly a joke). 

It also allows you to unlock 2 relatively rare constellations, as it is a Dragon Trait.

How to get it: This People of the Stars specific SFA is gained either by fighting the Tyrant with 5+ gates in play (which is how you are supposed to play that fight) or via the Arena innovation. You cannot get this one outside of People of the Stars unless you add the Arena innovation into the normal pool of innovations.

5/5 in People of the Stars (10/5 for stopping my mate Chandy from using Wardrobe Expert to destroy key pieces of armor).

Grace of Dormenatus

Significantly more powerful than it's red version, this SFA can save an entire hunt party by giving them a huge amount of armor and removal of bleeding/negative attribute tokens. It's literally a life saver and is almost worth the cost of +6 hunt XP. 

How to get it: Become a Green Savior and age up.

3/5

Hellfire

This is the one that almost EVERYONE forgets about in People of the Sun. So do not forget it when you play. This SFA is gained via the Sauna innovation and it allows you to wear Heavy Armor in the campaign. 

The cost is that you have a limited clock before you will die - your survival drains away from you every turn, and if you lose it all, you are a gonner (also you can't gain +1 strength tokens or they will kill you).

However there are a lot of builds that can make use of this SFA and keep its user alive for a long time, especially in the later part of the campaign. So do not miss out on trying to use this one, especially because you can always make another Hellfire survivor if the first one dies.

How to get it: Perform the Sun Sealing endeavor on the Sacred Pool settlement location when you have Sauna Shrine innovated.

5/5

Next time we'll run through the remaining SFAs and have a good laugh at Immovable Object (aka worst part of the Gorm expansion).