Ordered Disorder: Handling Disorders in the World of Monster (2) (Patreon)

Continuing from the previous article, we're going to finish dipping into the most interesting disorders! 

However, before I start, I think it's worth taking a look at the design philosophy of disorders. Mechanically and thematically they are opposite side of the coin the Fighting Arts and it is worth thinking of them in that framework. 

What I mean by this is, they are a set of abilities which are gained by survivors, normally through random selection but sometimes certain specific ones are handed out. Additionally there is a limit of three per survivor for each category and any further gains result in a form of 'cycling'. However, Fighting Arts mostly trend positive in their benefits, while Disorders trend negative. 

Outside of this they really are very much the same entity, which is why I consider them to be two sides of the same coin. This isn't that important when playing, but it is important when considering expansion content and design. For example the Flower Knight expansion brings in the following:

• Narcissistic
• Ghostly Beauty
• Flower Addiction

Versus:

• Otherworldly Luck

So as you can see, having access to the Flower Knight cards gives you one powerful Fighting Art (arguably one of the most powerful fighting arts there is) at the cost of three disorders. Note: This is following the official rules for adding in an expansion to the game, which means that the disorders, innovations and fighting arts turn up no matter if you have the monster available or not.

Another quick example with the Spidicules expansion:

• Revenge
• Controlophobia
• Tiny Arachnophobia

Versus:

• Harvestman
• Vengeance
• Death Touch Secret Fighting Art (via Choreia)

Tiny Arachnophobia virtually does nothing when you do not have Spidicules in the game, but Vengeance in contrast is an awful fighting art that relies on other survivors dying during the showdown for a minimal benefit.  So while you gain some relief on the disorder side, you also get a duff draw in the Fighting Art pool.

Now why on earth did I bring this up? It's because I have often seen people say 'I put all the fighting arts, disorders and innovations in the deck and redraw when I get one which doesn't make sense.'  This means that they're often having Otherworldly Luck in their game, but removing Flower Addiction (which is the price for Otherworldly Luck). It's fine if that's how you want to play, but it absolutely screws with the balance of each expansion. That's important, because I've been through each 'package' of innovations, disorders and fighting arts an expansion brings and the balance in each set is pretty tight. 

So think hard in the future if you decide you want to exclude certain disorders from an expansion. If you want to keep the balance of the game right, you should probably also remove the Fighting Arts and Innovations from that set at the same time.

That written, lets get on to the remaining disorders of interest!

This disorder, while part of the 'True Blade' package, is absolutely brutal when it hits you without warning. The archiving of head armor can set back progress a great deal, sometimes even forcing you to go hunt a monster that you thought you were 'done' with in order to keep a build active.

Additionally, there is the issue that you now have a survivor who cannot wear a complete 'traditional' armor set and has to break the cardinal rule of KD:M defense - which is protec your head.

Workarounds on this include using the following:

• Shield(s)
• Farming for Crystal Skin
• Rolling Armor
• Vagabond Armor
• Leyline Walker
• Trepanning

Not only is this disorder a straight buff to your survivor, but it also has some interesting interactions with other parts of the game. It works very well with Immortal and Red Fist combined, giving you a powerful survivor who can perform a limited number of survival actions while being tough and powerful.  Later on the +1 strength token loses potency because of diminishing returns, but you'll almost certainly want to keep this one around.

Keep tilting at windmills with this one!

This one has strong synergy with the new Backstabber strain fighting art, and it is also gained as part of TOM's (The Old Master - Legendary DBK) storyline (and required to progress it further). So at times you may be keeping this around even though it ensures that your survivor misses every other fight.

The fighting art Burning Ambition, which allows you to ignore 'Skip Next Hunt' text is your best friend here. So the combination of Burning Ambition, Backstabber and Secretive is another way of making Daggers work without having to sacrifice one resource to Hoarder every hunt.

Anxiety is a disorder with some very potent uses. If you can sacrifice the need for Monster Grease (by using say the Shadow Saliva Shawl from the Sunstalker) on your tank then you can ensure that the first target in every single showdown is your anxious survivor. 

If you don't want to deal with that, then you can simply wear stinky gear like Monster Grease and this disorder does not do anything!

As the big daddy of Disorders, Spiral Ganglia is the single most powerful disorder in the game. By itself it doesn't do anything, but once the Darkness Awareness status card is triggered by three disorders being gained in a single showdown (Screaming Antelope trap anyone?) then you end up able to give the Gloom Man secret fighting art to any other survivor in your hunt party. 

If you're not aware of what it does yet, Gloom Man is without a doubt the single most powerful SFA/FA in the game with multiple different uses and builds. It is a core part of the RROD build (Red Ring of Death), which is a self bleeding based build that solos every single monster in the game at almost no risk. That is not hyperbole, I built the survivor for one campaign and they could solo kill TOM, Lion Gods and the Gold Smoke Knight with no risk or difficulty.

Even when you are not abusing the game mechanics a Gloom Man makes for one of the best ways to train Fist & Tooth outside of Cycloid Armor and it's my favourite support survivor secret fighting art - creating the 'Spooky Nurse' build.

Speaking of the Gloom Man, part of the requirements for making that SFA so powerful is being insane. Stark Raving gives you an easy way to be insane all the time. That works well not just with Gloom Man, but it's also powerful with Immortal and gear that requires you to be insane to activate, such as the Phoenix Placart.

Not a bad price to pay for the cost of being insane all the time.

Surprisingly this is a very effective way of keeping a survivor safe when facing many threats in the game. While the White Lion and King's Man punish knocked down survivors quite strongly, many monsters tend to ignore them entirely. So this is often a beneficial tool for survivors who want to not be threats on the monster's turn. 

This one becomes more effective when used with Fist and Tooth, but because you are knocking yourself down at the end of your act, you will stand up at the end of the monster's next turn. This allows you to avoid missing a turn because the monster decided to collide with you on its turn, you can't knock down what's already knocked down.

Just as mentioned previously, please don't use this against the King's Man.  Coup de grâce is a horrible AI card to experience because you chose to knock your survivor down.

This one has to be mentioned because it turned from being a minor inconvenience in 1.31 into a serious detriment in 1.5. This is because doomed was changed from 'you cannot spend survival actions' to 'you cannot do anything at all, nothing'. So having Vermin Obsession is a huge issue when you face monsters with a bug patch on the board, the prime offenders are the Screaming Antelope and the Dung Beetle Knight. However any monster with random terrain spawns can cause a bug patch to be spawned. 

If this does happen your hunt partners need to move as fast as possible to remove it from the board, because until then you are literally nothing other than a punching bag for the monster!

And that's it for disorders! Hopefully you are a bit more enlightened on the upsides of this interesting mechanic and you're better equipped to deal with/exploit them as they turn up.