Requesting Backup: Buffs (Patreon)

•  1. Introduction & Debuffs 
• 2. Contents
• 3. Hit Location Control 
• 4. AI Control 
• 5. Buffs 
• 6. Defense & Healing
• 7. Activators
• 8. Movement & Positioning
• 9. Utility Offense
• 10. Survival Gains
• 11. Resource Gathering
• 12. Tactics
• 13. Miscellaneous

Overview

Buffs are one of the simplest and most straightforward portions of gear to understand, you have this item and if you meet the requirements, then you get a statistical buff, either directly to your survivor's stats while they are wearing the gear, or via a token.

These two different ways of gaining stats are not equal, "static" stat buffs from things like the Monster Tooth Necklace are available as long as the survivor has the relevant gear equipped, This means that these buffs are available when you are departing, on the hunt, at the showdown and when you are in the settlement upon return (until new departing survivors are chosen and gear may change hands).

Token buffs turn up during the showdown, so they are not available on the hunt, however more things interact with tokens than static buffs and this makes tokens more powerful on the showdown board. Some great examples of things that benefit from tokens are the

You must watch out for things that can cause tokens to get removed however, Rhythm Chaser and Katar Mastery are two examples of this. So pay attention to where you are getting your token buffs, what might remove them and how you can mitigate this (Tumble, the Gorn etc).

The other factor to consider when regarding buffs is the truth that not all buffs are created equal, in order the typical* power of buffs is (strongest to weakest):

• Movement
• Luck
• Evasion
• Strength
• Accuracy
• Speed

*Typical, not specific situations which can vary the rankings a lot.

In the land of showdowns, position is king which is why Movement is the strongest stat to have. Not only can you make sure that the monster is less likely to target you, but you can get to more useful terrain, improve charge abilities on armor sets and even use Dash + high movement to 'dash cancel'. Now movement is very rare on gear, most of it is placed on boots (for design reasons and aesthetics I approve of) and if you make custom gear you should be very careful about handing out movement, very, very careful - as in make sure Dash isn't going to break your monster AI if you hand out extra movement. 

The main movement buff you want to pay attention to is the Harvestman fighting art which can be gained via the Chorea innovation and creates one of the few situations where male hunters are worth using over their female counterparts.

You can also do some silly things with these -1 movement tokens in the right builds. Watch out for making the Flash with Altered Destiny + Harvestman and self knocking via something like Traumatized. It's a joy.

Luck takes the number two slot because of rarity and the triple powers of reaction cancelling, stacking with deadly and gaining more resources. Until we have more monsters who punish players for critical hits (just have the Manhunter at the moment) this situation will not change because there is only upsides to luck.

Evasion sits in third place because you need less survivors all with evasion and movement/positioning takes priority over evasion. Evasion is very powerful, but it gets strongest when combined with good position play and hit cancelling (Block, Phoenix Placart, Green Helm, Ripple Pattern etc). It is important to have one survivor with as high evasion as you can manage, but there is diminishing returns after that and more than two survivors with high evasion (via gear) is often a waste due to redundancy.

Strength is one of the most important stats for attacking monsters, hitting a monster and doing nothing is one surefire way to get your survivor(s) killed as reactions stack up. You can't stop the monster harming you with reactions via strength, but you can make sure that you deal damage in exchange for those reaction payments. However, a lot of strength can be gained via weapons, so it is less important on support gear - with the exception of key break points, see the Monster Tooth Necklace entry for a link on this.

Accuracy and Speed are least on the totem pole beause many weapons have a lot of accuracy anyway, you can gain extra accuracy via the blind spot most of the time and if you have good defenses you can buy the time you need to hit. It's not bad to have extra accuracy however. Speed on the other hand can either be irrelevant (slow without frenzy) or become a problem if it is too high and you don't have good luck or strength to back it up. Because speed is one of the few stats with a downside, it is the least important stat (outside of abusive Counterweighted Axe builds, clever builds that wait for 'windows' to attack or spear/trappers. Spears and other Trappers can stack a lot of speed, especially ones with reaction cancelling powers.

Finally before we finish I want to touch on how certain bonuses work, there is no reason to not want as many bonuses as possible in this game, but you want to stack bonuses onto the same survivor as much as possible. This is because each additional gain is worth more than the previous one. To highlight this, here is an example using evasion.

The White Lion's attack hits on a 2+, this is a 90% chance of hitting. With 1 point of evasion, the Lion now hits on a 3+, this is an 80% chance of hitting. Now going from 90% to 80% is not actually a straight 10% drop even though the monster is rolling a 10 sided dice. This is because the monster wasn't hitting 100% of the time before, just 9 times out of 10. So dropping it to 80% is an ~11.11% reduction in accuracy.  

In contrast if the monster is hitting on a 9+ and you reduce that to a 10 (Perfect hit) via evasion. Then you are going from a 20% chance of it hitting you to a 10% chance of being hit. That's a -50% decrease in accuracy at that step.

This is why you get one survivor with masses of evasion stacked on them, each additional point (up to the cap of setting the monster at hitting only on Perfect hits) is more powerful than the previous one. The same situation applies to luck in general and also to strength on a macro scale (as toughness slides the target for monsters a monster with 10 toughness hits the wound on a 2+ cap a lot earlier than one with 30 - so it's case by case with monsters).

In short, it's better to push all your buffs onto specialized survivors who aim to do a specific role (tank, deal damage, dash cancel) than spread them around the entire team. 

So, here are 10 of the best or most interesting items of buff gear in the game, this list is not exhaustive as there are a huge amount of options available, but the discussion on these ones should give you the handles and understanding to apply principles to other options.

We will start with the core trifecta, the three pieces of gear that dominate this category (and the game in general) because of their early accessibility, high power and extreme return on investment. I don't need to tell you how good they are, you've experienced it yourself, it's time for the Organ Grinder gear.

Monster Grease

Crafting Cost: 1x organ

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: This left green affinity is the single most important green affinity in the entire game and it is why the right green affinity slot is so powerful.

Abilities & Keywords:  Consumable is a mostly positive keyword (it can be negative, such as against certain Screaming Antelopes), soluble is a negative keyword (be careful with it vs. the Sunstalker in particular) and stinky is a keyword that is mostly neutral with some strong benefits in controlling the Dung Beetle Knight (it loves the stank).

Main Ability: This item is pure evasion, it's +1 evasion immediately and it scales into the late game with +2 evasion. As mentioned above, each additional point of evasion you gain is more effective than the previous one, so +2 evasion can be a massive spike in defensive power. The 3 green trigger on this is one of the core reasons why leather armor is so strong despite its "bland" abilities and limited function set bonus.

Rating:  One of the most important purchases you will make in a settlement and you will often purchase 2-3 of these early on. There is diminishing returns on multiples this item for the reasons I mentioned above in typical 1x tank, 2x DPS, 1x support parties, but for more rounded bruiser teams (2x bruiser, 1x trapper, 1x support/debuffer for example) you may well make use of 2-3 of these and investing in 4 is still not a bad deal because of how cheap they are to create.  S++

I don't have time to write about it here, but the Shadow Saliva Shawl is a worthy alternative to Monster Grease when you are looking for evasion. It's S+ because it has more hoops you need to jump through, but there is a nutty evasion tank build using it + tools + the Tool belt.

Lucky Charm

Crafting Cost: 1x organ

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: One of the items that makes left and right blue affinities so valuable (along with the Wisdom Potion), this is a perfect example of a self contained item affinity set. It sets up both the affinities it needs and provides them in orientations that are common on many other items.

Abilities & Keywords: Jewelry comes with a standard 'watch out for White Lion's warning, so remember to pack Stone Noses if you think there is a chance that you'll get wiped, they're a better sacrifice target overall.

Main Ability:  +1 luck when active. Simple, straightforward and powerful. This moves normal weapons from 10 to 9+ critical wounds (100% increase) and Deadly from a 9+ to an 8+ (50% increase in crit chances) or if you want to look at it the other way and see why people stack luck.... The monster normally reacts 90% of the time, with +1 luck it reacts 80% of the time, with +2 luck it reacts 70% of the time. That first step is a relative ~11.11% decrease in reactions and the second step is a relative additional 12.5% decrease in reactions. 

This means your survivor with a lucky charm and a deadly weapon suffers ~22.22% less reactions than one with a normal weapon. This is why DPS survivors early on often stack luck as much as possible, it saves on armor wear and tear when attacking.

Rating: Cheap, simple, powerful. Everything you want and more. It scales from the moment you get it until the very last fight except for against monsters who cannot be critically wounded. S++

Monster Tooth Necklace

Crafting Cost: 1x scrap, 1x bone (Heat)

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: The right facing red, just like the other two pieces of gear above it, is the driving reason why a left facing red (or the double left, right red chain) is so desirable in this game.

Abilities & Keywords: Jewelry is a minor negative keyword which requires some caution vs. White Lions while bone is nothing but a positive. Both for People of the Skull and more importantly Bone Earring builds.

Main Ability:  As mentioned above +strength is only the fourth most important category of buff, this is because weapons all contain varying degrees of strength, which makes them your main source of strength buffs. However, one of the single strongest uses of the MTN is leveraging break points in strength vs. monster toughness (something I've written about here). You cannot have too much strength when you are considering Kingdom Death as an overall picture, but not all points of strength are created equal.

The Monster Tooth Necklace can push your King's Spear from an 8.5 (8-9) median wounding roll (over 50% vs. a L1 White Lion) to a 10.5 (10-11) median wounding roll (over 50% vs. a L2 White Lion and L1 Phoenix). When you are trying to transition from early game monsters to mid game ones this piece of gear can give you the spring board you need to make that plateau step smaller (same again when moving up the next monster tier).

It can also make weapons that have great abilities but poor strength a lot more viable also. One of my favorite builds uses this, Bone Earrings, twin Acid-Tooth Daggers, White Lion Cloak and Dung Beetle Knight plates to create a real Wolverine type.

Rating: The heat requirement and increased crafting cost (though + 1x scrap is not much of a cost increase early on because of scraps low early game value) means this piece of gear is not as omnipresent as its two siblings, but it is low key one of the most valuable items you can have in your arsenal and I recommend crafting 2 of them most campaigns.   S+ 

Note on next item:  Technically you should classify this as a 'debuffing' piece of gear, but the de-buffing category is so small that I am going to write about it here instead of creating its own page. It is a pseudo-buff because -1 luck on the monster is the equivalent of +1 luck to all survivors.

Slender Ovule - Slenderman (Dark Water Research L3) & Phoenix

Crafting Cost: 1x phoenix eye, 4x dark water (requires Dark Water Research L3)

Additional Categories: Defense, Debuff

Affinities: That right green affinity is a lot more important than you would think at first consideration because this item is best used on a tank who is looking to spend their time alone next to the monster. This means that it combines with good old Monster Grease to get you closer to that important +2. The down blue is also a relatively easy one to combine, which is important because you have to connect both affinities to get the main benefit of this piece of gear.

Abilities & Keywords: It's other gear so no saviors and again a piece of jewelry so be careful against White Lions. It is also unique (for good reason) and it ensures you are insane whenever you depart which gives it strong synergy with insanity builds and/or sentient gear.

Main Ability:  -1 luck to the monster is effectively +1 luck to all other survivors, as long as you can activate this item and stick next to the monster - which makes this gear a powerful tank item (as mentioned above). 

I really like this piece of gear in combination with the Sunspot Lantern, Monster Grease and a DPS survivor with the Ink Sword.

Rating:  Very strong, but one should expect this piece of gear to be so strong when it is locked behind a massive amount of Dark Water. It is tough to craft this gear before killing 3 Slendermen and getting that third slenderman slain is often either very hard (the L3 is nuts) or requires rushing the Heart Flute (Slenderman's level is set by the timeline, not the Heart Flute rules - until Word of Poots states otherwise that is). S-

Bone Earrings - Screaming Antelope (Stone Circle)

Crafting Cost: 1x shank bone, 1x bone

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: N/A

Abilities & Keywords: Same keywords as the Monster Tooth Necklace, so the same things written there apply here. 

Main Ability:  If you can depart with nothing but bone gear in your grid then you will gain +2 strength and +2 speed. This means that it is an "upgraded" version of the Monster Tooth Necklace which is synergistic with that item. Used with the MTN. +4 strength +2 speed can make even something as early game as the King's Spear a mid game powerhouse. 

However, there are a lot of limitations in what armor you can select when you use this gear, it tends to require a mixed set of armor and you are excluded from many powerful items such as the Lucky Charm or Monster Grease. 

Rating: In certain builds this item is a beast of an item, you can leverage this gain of +4 tokens a huge amount with the right pieces of gear (Calcified Juggernaut Blade for example). However, due to the interesting material type build limitation (we should have had more of these pieces of gear imo, but the material types are not present enough) and addition of speed, this is not something you can just stick onto anything you want without care and attention. Becomes VERY strong in People of the Skull or when you have the Dung Beetle Knight as a quarry.  A  

Sunspot Lantern - Sunstalker L1 x2 to craft

Crafting Cost: 2x sunstones, 1x scrap, 1x salt

Additional Categories: lantern, misc

Affinities: This line of affinities is very rare and is found on armor pieces most of the time, it is a huge benefit to tank/bruiser types who want to get to three greens.

Abilities & Keywords: It's a lantern. which means it is one of the precious few late People of the Lantern related gear items you can get that both fills that requirement and also does other things.

Main Ability:  The +1 accuracy is a nice personal benefit, but the main reasons (outside of the keyword and affinity) for using this is the shadow casting. Normally outside of the Sunstalker monsters do not cast shadows, and shadows mean darkness.

Why is this relevant? Well this weapon exists.

Without a Sunspot Lantern you can't use the Ink Sword at all. So you need someone else carrying one to allow you to activate one of the most obscene weapons in the game. 

Rating: I don't think you need more than one of this item, but I can see a world where you run 2. Very strong, relatively cheap. S- going to S++ in Lantern or when used with the Ink Sword DPS.

Steadfast Potion - Gorm

Crafting Cost:  2x organs and Gorm innovations 

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: Up red has some minor combos with Leather Armor or the Knuckle Shield. But it's not a strong affinity loadout.

Abilities & Keywords: Consumable, like all potions (screaming antelope warning here) but also this one is heavy, and that is a significant drawback because of its ability to sometimes cause horrific situations. Use with caution if it is your only heavy item.

Main Ability:  This is very straightforward, gain strength for using block. Keep doing this over and over until you get knocked down or some form of death occurs. It's a simple ability,  but it is so great because of how it interacts with shields. They have poor strength, this mitigates that issue in a gradual fashion and allows you to build up before you go for your tick of weapon proficiency. Also has interesting applications with Block X swords and is one of the best things to use to take advantage of that generally underpowered weapon sub-category.

Rating: Useful mostly on tanks and bruisers, a simple item but one that gives you a lot of scaling. Especially when combined with anti-knockdown mechanics. Also it is cheap and tends to turn up when you're looking for the Wisdom Potion/Gormite anyway. B+

Power Potion - Gorm

Crafting Cost: 2x organs and Gorm innovations

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: Just the one up green, which gives it the ability to connect on things like Leather Armor that already have a fair amount of green affinity potential.

Abilities & Keywords: This one is a consumable so outside of the Screaming Antelope noms it's nothing but a positive. It's not even fragile!

Main Ability:   This one is very simple, activate as soon as possible to go super saiyan and gain a big pile of strength tokens. You can then do all the usual silly combos with these tokens, such as converting them into luck tokens via the following ability:

Yum (this is from a Lonely Tree fruit).

Or you can just leverage a big pile of strength to smash face. Works very well with Cycloid Scale Armor (but what doesn't?)

Rating: You need to build around it, but when you do, you benefit a lot. A+

Death Mask

Crafting Cost: Get randomly from Mask Salesman or craft via Mask Maker for -1 population, 1x endeavor, 6x bone, 4x organ.

Additional Categories: Defense

Affinities: You are not allowed affinities you naughty person. No affinities for you! Come back, one lantern year!

Abilities & Keywords: It's another bone item with the other keyword and it's a mask which currently doesn't mean much. It is also unique and irreplaceable, so one per settlement and you have to recraft it if its user dies. It's also an accessory, so you can wear it over your armor set. Woo.

Main Ability:  This is a simple "trade" in addition to the 'no affinities' clause. You get +4 luck but you suffer -4 on the severe injury rolls. This means you critically wound the monster more often (a lot more often), but you suffer huge problems when you take severe injuries. 

That's great fun for daredevil style players, but it is also something that can be well mitigated by good play and building. Something as simple as Dried Acanthus can avoid the first time that you would experience a catastrophic injury and good position play from your tank and control from your support can mean that you are not often in the situation where you get hit in the first place. 

Rating: The premium crit farmer accessory and all the rage at the local butchers, this one is amazing if you can get it randomly or unlock the Mask Maker via the Butcher (deathblow that git!) S

Butcher's Blood - Lion God (Sinkhole)

Crafting Cost: N/A

Additional Categories: N/A

Affinities: Not only does this one give you a left and up red, but it also provides one blue affinity all by itself. Neat!

Abilities & Keywords: Symbol matters with the Necromancer SFA and soluble has some downsides that can cause it to get archived.

Main Ability:  This oddity here is one of the most potentially broken items in the entire game, with clever play and building you can use this one to kill (almost) any monster in the game. Check out a discussion of it over here. Outside of that weird interaction caused by the Counterweighted Axe's problematic ability and the infinite insanity loops left in the game, this one would not be something of serious note.

However, it is, and it exists as an example of why designing gear with infinite scaling (because insanity has no cap) can result in unintended consequences. In this case those consequences were killing the Gold Smoke Knight on first turn with a single attack.

Rating: When correctly used (abused) it can distort the game wildly. Which makes it a great discussion piece and curio. Most of the time, it's not that easy to use. 100% a 'build around' item. B-

That's all we have time for here, but before I wrap up. There are a host of other interesting and/or powerful pieces of buff gear out there, you may want to take a look at the following items in each category (except for movement, you'll need to use Harvestman or foot gear there):

• Luck - Sleeping Virus Flower (more on this in 'misc'), Blue Power Core (Nuclear only), 
• Evasion - Tool Belt, Dying Lantern Promo, Flower Knight Badge, 
• Strength - Monster Meat, Scarab Circlet, White Lion Mask,  Lion God Statue (nice idea, poor execution), Hideous Disguise, Eye Patch <3, Ancient Lion Claws, 
• Accuracy - Glyph of Solitude, Lion Knight Badge, Vibrant Lantern Promo
• Speed - Speed Powder

Some of these will pop up in future portions of this series, especially the stuff with interesting abilities or tactics cards. Until then, get pumped!