The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret - Secret Fighting Arts (2 of 2) (Patreon)

Foreword: So this is the second time I'm writing this, because the first time I wrote it Patreon swallowed up the article, which has taught me to return to writing these things entirely in a document rather than relying on the web based saving system. If things are a little short in some entries it's because of that fatigue.

This is the second part of the review/mini-unlock guide for the secret fighting arts (SFA) in Kingdom Death.  As mentioned in the previous article (here), secret fighting arts are the most reliable fighting arts (FA) to gain outside of certain innovation linked ones (Rhythm Chaser, King's Step, Propulsion Drive, Carapace of Will, Harvestman, Death Touch and so on), so it is absolutely a vital skill to have once you are over the 'must learn blind and experience the mystery of game' portion of the learning experience.  There's an amazing world of combos and builds that comes up when your playstyle evolves and that's what these SFAs are here for.

So let's go!

Immovable Object - Gorm

Apparently we start this article off with a bit of light comedy. Immovable Object is the only SFA I have not bothered getting (apart from the Red Savior SFA) because it's objectively the worst one in the game. What you get is a bad version of the Iron Will ability which is gained from a hunt event. 

Here's Iron Will.

Sure Immovable Object stops you getting knocked back at all. But the fact that you get fully knocked back when facing things that force collision is a lot worse than the 1 space. Also Iron will doesn't take up a fighting art slot because it's an ability.

However the biggest crime Immovable Object commits is it's only gained when a survivor is killed by the L3 Legendary Gorm attack. As I've mentioned before, anything that triggers off the death of a useful survivor in a showdown should be powerful to match the loss (Like Last Man Standing). Immovable Object is not that.

0/5

King of a Thousand Battles - Phoenix/Butcher

This beautiful powerhouse of a SFA comes from beating the legendary Goldy (The Golden-Eyed King of a Thousand Years) - which requires the Phoenix Mask and Mask Maker location (gained from the Butcher's Forsaker mask). It comes with 1000 insanity as part of the event that gives you this SFA. So needless to say, Immortal is quite strong on the survivor who gains this.

Without Immortal you still have a survivor with huge stat gains  (while they keep this), an almost impervious level of insanity (bad vs. Antelope and L3 Slenderman) and crazy dodging. Survivors like that can burn through survival a lot, so you'd probably want to consider Abyssal Sadist to maintain levels of survival.

5/5

King's Man or Forbidden Dance

The King's Man specific half of this (also works on the legendary Mad Steed) helps negate most of Battle Pressure for the fight. However the Trash Crown does this just as well in a safer manner - as does stabbing with speed 3 weapons and trashing them, so it's nice, but not essential.

The other ability is very useful on 'crit farming' survivors because you can ditch away a useless hit location for another chance at one with a good critical wound. However you risk drawing a worse location (like the trap) so there is an interesting decision to make here and that means overall I appreciate King's Step when it's gained from Forbidden Dance (but I prefer the +1 evasion that innovation gives).

4/5 on the right survivor.

Butcher, Aquarobics (Sun) + various other events

One of the more commonly given out SFAs, Legendary Lungs is a SFA that depends greatly on the weapon type used by the survivor who has it. If you are using a weapon that benefits from additional hits via Perfect hit abilities or is naturally Slow then you get better returns than if it's a 3+ speed weapon. 

Gaining +1 attack roll on a slow weapon doubles the effectiveness of that weapon and also results in an accurate and damaging blow. Whereas +3 attacks on a dagger can just result in the attacking survivor suffering from reactions or losing their attack entirely to the trap. 

It is also worth mentioning that Devastating weapons increase the potency of Legendary Lungs even more. So Zanbato users rejoice!

If you are clever with your choices then Legendary Lungs can be a top tier.

5/5

Gained by Blue Saviors at Age up.

So, this one has a very strong ability, but the price is absolutely massive. Not only do you get hit with +6 hunt XP, but you are also a savior in the first place and you have to concentrate before this will work. 

However, this is still one of the better savior abilities because it can produce a huge amount of resources while also dealing massive 'founding stone' damage to the monster and refreshing the hit location deck for everyone else.

Sadly, once you use it in a showdown, that's pretty much the only showdown you'll get, so stack those blue affinities in advance (Cycloid Armor is amazing for this) and don't target the Butcher with it!

3/5

Gained by various story events such as Hands of Heat

One of the most commonly gained SFAs, Red Fist is something of a flagship for the entire line. It's a 'leader' style SFA, and I think it's one of the most elegant and wonderful designs we have in the range. It gives a solid, but not overpowered buff in the +1 strength and then allows you to sacrifice the token to activate a survival action (which has synergy with frenzy).

This one is also seriously powerful when combined with survivors who can gain strength tokens, such as Acanthus Doctors or even those with Seasoned Monster Meat (underrated DBK gear).

5/5

This one takes a lot of work to set up because it requires making records and fighting a wide range of monsters. The downside is generally once you have the maximum number of rerolls (3) you're probably done with hunting that monster, but also it's very expensive and difficult to set this up because the process of making the tokens causes retirement.

Additionally this SFA only triggers 'On Arrival' and the part of the hunt where you want rerolls is the Hunt Phase, because that's where the worst of the nonsense tends to happen without the ability to mitigate it. 

Rerolls are powerful, but these do not compare to the lifetime ones you get from Survival of the Fittest.

2/5

Gained from surviving event that triggers on a victory in the showdown after being damaged by the legendary Spidicules AI card (you are removed from the board when this happens). You want the Bloodletting innovation to guarantee success during the event (and Bloodletting is honestly a decent Innovation anyway).

Silk Surgeon is a tricky SFA to get your hands on, it forces the hunt party to fight with 3 survivors against the spawn-tastic L3 Spidicules. So you either need to force this to happen late in the showdown by AI manipulation or you need to build for a lot of durability and power on all the survivors.

Once you have this SFA though it's pretty amazing, it is upgraded via rolling a 10 on the Silk Surgery endeavor and it is an absolutely premium support SFA with a nice reward for going full Silk armor/Amber jewelry. 

I absolutely adore this SFA and the only issue with it is how awkward and slow it is to get and how slow it is to upgrade.

5/5

Gained: People of the Sun Specific, various methods during the campaign. My favourite is when the vivisectionist gains it, because they get the Emotionless disorder at the same time and are unable to use it until they get trepanned. 

This one is how you get access to surge in People of the Sun and it is fair to say that it is an absolute BEAST of a fighting art as a consequence. It has immediate synergy with the Embolden survival action and the overall + Strength Tokens mechanic of the campaign.

Additionally you get that sweet 'on arrival' gain of survival, meaning spending it during the hunt phase isn't an issue.

5/5

Gained by having 5+ bleeding tokens (and not dying) while fighting a Sunstalker with the Black Blood status card.

I love this SFA, everything about it is just perfect in design. It has a cool theme, it's something that's not easy to get, but you can build towards it, 

There are multiple ways of having 5+ bleeding tokens and not dying, these include the Green Charm, Purpose (FA) and Unconscious Fighter. The safest option is Unconscious Fighter because it does not involve dice rolls to generate, but it is always worth having the other two if you can't get UF.  

This fighting art ignores first strike, gives you a balanced but powerful Perfect hit ability that thematically ties into the Sunstalker and Katanas (I've mentioned before how great I find the whole Sunstalker/Katana/Katana Mastery/Edged Tonometry story) and a cool little 'downside' when/if your survivor passes away. 

This one is one of my favourites and it combos with Timeless Eye wonderfully.

5/5

Gained by beating the Hand via the Respect condition (fight him).

From the dizzying heights of Suppressed Shadow we now land in the depths of Swordsman's Promise. This is the 'reward' for earning The Hand's respect rather than getting his applause. It's terrible, the SFA is really weak (compare it to Sun Eater for example) but also in order to get this, you have to miss out on all the other benefits of applause, which includes stat gains and healing (most of the time). 

Considering how The Hand is 'Just Toying with Them' (TVTrope warning) you would assume that this SFA would be impressive. It's not - especially when you consider how badly you can be hurt getting it.

1/5

Gained via Drums

A while back I wrote about how the Music Innovation Tree was the premier innovation tree in KDM and should be one of your earliest choices after Symposium (sorry Paint/Inner Lantern lovers, you're in tier 2 compared to the 'I win' power that music offers). Synchronised Strike is a big part of that. 

It only works in pairs, but as you should generally be stacking 2 damage dealers this works well. Now this SFA falls off in the late game where weapons become powerful enough that the relative gains suffer from diminishing returns, but in the early and mid/early game? This is one of the King choices. It pushes Lion Beast Katars to a 2/6+/4 Deadly weapon which will shred most monsters you're facing at L1 early years and it can even be combined with an aggressive tank (Bone Club/Rawhide/Evasion) who will allow you to activate from the blind spot.

All of that and it can be gained 100% of the time by spending an endeavor. It's just amazing at ensuring your settlement succeeds.

5/5

Gained by having Fencing (SFA) + Ghostly Beauty when you beat an L3 Flower Knight while you have Petal Spiral innovated.

Here we have one of my all time favourite SFAs, this is the number one reason to bother with using swords. While it requires using an "armor" set without a face piece (Vagabond, Rolling Armor, Crystal Skin, Leyline Walker, Mongrel with Head Accessory) the rewards are phenomenal.

It turns a somewhat weak weapon type into an incredible top tier one by giving them all +4 to their critical wound range. I absolutely adore this SFA because of how well designed it is, it has a big set of downsides in the disorders, but they are manageable and interesting.

5/5

Gained via Vanish or Stranger in the Dark.

Most of the time you're going to experience this SFA via the Settlement Event that gives you a survivor with it. Most of the time it is simply a +1 strength, +1 accuracy when attacking from wherever, which is strong with bows. 

However, there are some ways to take advantage of the 'always in the blind spot' and the main one is the newly released Strain Fighting Art - Backstabber.

That's some fruity dagger use there, but it does take up two FA slots to achieve.

You won't get rid of this, but you also won't be lining up to get it via Vanish (because that Story Event has huge downsides).

3/5

And there we are, boom! That's all the SFAs, a little outline on how each one is gained and some ideas on how to use them. As promised I'm going to go through disorders next, but I won't go in full detail on all of them, I'll just touch on the ones that have useful applications or drawbacks that can be mitigated without just 'trepanning it away'.

So what are your favourite SFAs? Any legendary survivors who managed to make use of marginal/rare ones?