Praise the Sun: Warriors of the Sun (Patreon)

The Sun is the primary giver of life on this planet, while conditions had to be 'just right' (hence the popular term Goldilocks Zone instead of Circumstellar habitable zone when looking for Earth-like planets in astronomy) it is that gigantic ball of firey nuclear fusion hanging over us which brought life to this planet and will one day consume it.

Due to the ubiquitous nature of the Sun, most cultures across Earth have some form of Sun God. Be it Mawu, Ra, Amun, Nanahuatzin, Inti, Sol, Ameterasu, or even Jesus Christ, (who is in a large part none other than Helios from the Greek/Roman Pantheon)*. If there is a religion with some form of pantheon/multiple entities, then you can be assured that one of them is none other than the Sun in some guise. 

That is why it is very appropriate for People of the Sun to exist as a separate campaign, the species known as Sunstalkers are small, light emitting entities that can float/fly through the air in a way akin to the vampire warriors from Necroscope. That is, like a squid/octopus. A dormant Sunstalker, sleeping while tending to her eggs the way that a bird nests over its clutch would look like a deity to the People of the Sun and as time passes they would come to revere its protection and honor its ways.

However, that is not just what happens in the world of Kingdom Death, because all creatures in the game are part of the same overall family (Monster) including survivors, transitions between one species and the next are sort of possible. We see this most prominently in People of the Stars, but the People of the Sun also demonstrate this with a hybridization between the infant Sunstalkers and newborn children via an umbilical cord. This interaction is depicted in the infant Sunstalker diorama.

This process is initiated by the Vivisectionist during the Birth of Color timeline event where the eggs hatch and the baby Sunstalkers are first revealed to the settlement. One survivor, with a scientific rather than emotional interest in the small creatures, scoops one away, comes up with the Umbilical Bank/Umbilical cord transfer idea and then usually eats the infant in order to hide the evidence of what they have done. 

This process is called Umbilical Symbiosis and that is how we get Warriors of the Sun. 

Umbilical Symbiosis

In this process, a newborn survivor can be 'Synchronised', which will allow them to possibly inherit some of the powers of the Sunstalker by being connected to the Infant Sunstalker's umbilical cord through their own (plus some additional ones from the Umbilical Bank).

Before we get into the objectives of this, we should briefly consider preparation. Making Warriors is a difficult and resource intensive process that requires parents who are Purified Sun Eaters (or a lot of fortunate chance). So the important tools for preparing pre-Birth of Color are:

• Purify every single lantern year you can (I sometimes start in LY1 and just open 1-2 crafting locations)
• Send the purified survivors into the beam of light during Sun Dipping
• Keep all Sun Eaters as safe as possible
• Get Collective Toil (15+ Population Principle)
• Intimacy every year
• Get Cooking
• Try and use tinker/matchmaker every year if you have them

Rerolls in the settlement should be saved for intimacy rerolls as much as possible.

Once we are past Birth of Color and into the realms of Umbilical Symbiosis, your objective is to score a total of 25+ on multiple d10s. The lowest number of dice you can roll to give you an average of 25+ is 5d10 (average 27), so the aim is to be rolling at least 5d10 during this process. Here are all the ways you can gain an extra dice.

• Initial amount + 1d10
• Newborn is Purified + 1d10
• Newborn is a Child of the Sun + 3d10
• Spend 3 Umbilical Cords + 1d10 (Limit once per birth)

This means the maximum amount of dice you can roll is 6d10 and you will almost always be forced to use Purified Child of the Suns in order to complete this. You get a Child of the Sun when Sun Eater(s) have children (or if you roll a natural 0 + 0 on both dice). This means if you want Warriors of the Sun you need to avoid breeding with your Sun Eaters until after the Birth of Color event is completed. 

Umbilical Cords are gained at a rate of 1 per birth, so you will want to generate a lot of population each year post Birth of Color in order to have a huge pile of resources, not just for the Synchronize table, but also to gain a wide range of other stat increases on the warrior to be. So, as mentioned before Collective Toil, Cooking and Tinkers/Match Makers are amazing for the People of the Sun because you want as big a population as possible in order to generate a huge amount of life strings & endeavors. Get them, use them, and make as many survivors as you can - even before Birth of Color (because Collective Toil is amazing).

Overall however, this process is relatively straightforward because there is little optimisation possible. Just make sure you Purify a Child of the Sun and consider spending those 3 life strings in order to roll five or six D10s. In respect of the various extra bonuses you can pick, the strongest/most efficient ones are:

• 1 String for +1 accuracy
• 4 strings for +1 luck
• 8 strings for +1 to two different attributes (+luck and +movement are my preferences)
• 3 strings to draw 7 fighting arts and select 2 for the newboard.

As you should not be aiming to tank with your Warriors of the Sun, the +1 permanent evasion isn't worth 4 strings and the +1 permanent strength is low value also (but if you have a spare string, it is not the worst because of its low cost).

Warriors of the Sun

This process now brings us to our Warriors, these are the core foundation of the entire campaign and while above you are trying to make as many as you can, here we will discuss what you can do with them.

All Warriors of the Sun have the Prismatic ability as a part of their kit, this is the same as the Cycloid Scale Armor ability in that it makes your affinities and affinity halves count as all colors. Here though it is even more powerful because you do not have to wear a specific armor set, you can wear whatever armor you like (even Heavy, if you are willing to also be a Hellfire survivor, which trust me, works). Outside of the Prismatic portion of the Warrior, they split into two different kits depending on which style you have picked. 

Reflection Warriors get the ability to Dodge at any time and can do it as many times per round as they like. There is debate as to if this overwrites Doomed! but as under 1.31 you couldn't dodge when doomed as a warrior of the sun, I'm inclined to say you can't do it here (unless the FAQ updates, HAHAHAHAHAHA). However, you can dodge when you are the attacking survivor, which is not something you could normally do, and you can dodge every single hit from a single attack. This combines well with stuff that replenishes survival like Rawhide Armor or the Abyssal Sadist fighting art (from the Manhunter expansion). 

The second ability that Reflection Warriors get is a better version of the Cycloid Scale Sleeves ability, that is when they are in the bilnd spot they get +1d10 to the wound attempt (this version stacks with Sharp). 

These Warriors are very much orientated towards a DPS style of play and they are the ones that most people will gravitate towards because of their low skill floor/ease of access.

Refraction Warriors on the other hand are a bit tamer and more support orientated. They have effectively infinite survival actions (as long as they have at least 1 survival), which can on the surface seem less powerful than Reflection, but another way to consider that is. Refraction Warriors can Dash, Embolden, Overcharge and Dodge every single turn without losing a single point of survival. This means they are mobile and hard hitting despite having an overall lower wound total than the Reflection warriors. They work very well as supports or with bows.

Gear Loadouts

This is not going to be a large section filled with gear grids for one simple reason, Warriors of the Sun are the place where you get to experiment and have as much fun as possible with all sorts of wacky builds. So instead of telling you 'do X or Y', I will give you some key pieces of gear and let you work out the rest.

Armor

Armor with as many affinities as possible is the most useful in this campaign, which means that Screaming Armor tops the charts for the core armor set of choice. However, if you are hunting expansion monsters, Dragon Armor is the best option out there. Phoenix Armor is not so great because of its lack of affinities and flammable nature, but it is an option if you are very good at avoiding fires.

Rolling Armor is also an option, because the rules define 'worn' gear as stuff with the armor key word only (and Rolling Armor parts do not have the armor keyword, therefore they are carried, not worn. APG has been asked to clarify this on multiple occasions, so don't hold your breath). Last of all, you can also run Lantern Armor if you are someone with huge cojones and you're willing to have a Hellfire Warrior of the Sun.

Weapons

You should be running the two campaign specific weapons in all fights, these are the Prism Mace (Reflection) and the Sunring Bow + God's String with Sun Vestments (Refraction).

Otherwise I recommend playing with the Rainbow Katana & Blood Sheath because this is the campaign where you can enjoy your weeby samurai fantasies. 

Other

The other items I recommend are the usual affinity based suspects. Lucky Charms, Monster-Tooth Necklace and Monster Grease are all more easily activated. But it is also worth using the Rainbow Wing Belt (DKB) if you are wielding Early Iron weapons. Of course, the Apostle Crown is also a must have, but that is a given due to its (almost) campaign exclusivity.

However, the single strongest item I recommend for Warriors is the Blue Charm. They can activate this item with a huge amount of ease, which means that they each individually worry less about traps and concentrate more on dealing damage. Something they are all phenomenal at with their combination of abilities and the Sun survival actions.

Here is a short list of other gear cards you can consider:

• Replica Flower Sword (if you play Bloom & Sun)
• Gloom Katana (if you brave the Slenderman)
• First Aid Kit (it is carried, not worn)
• Elder Earrings (for late game Warriors who are never going to complete a weapon mastery)
• Nuclear Scythe/Knife (amazing on a Reflection warrior)
• Sleeping Virus Flower
• Hooked Claw Knife 
• Lion Slayer Cape
• Bloom Sphere (really good on Warriors)
• Tempered Spear (it's brokenly overpowering normally, imagine how OP it is here)
• Rawhide Armor for Reflections
• Green Charm if you are safety conscious=
• Blood Paint (because it's Blood Paint!)
• Calcified Juggernaut Blade (double stacking on +strength tokens)
• Rubber Bone Harness (if you need lots of affinities)
• Phoenix/Antelope/White Lion Masks
• Crest Crown
• Feather Mantle (lots of affinities)
• Xmaxe

Really they're very powerful and flexible, so go nuts, do what you've always wanted to with them. The sky is the limit here!

Footnote:

*As an aside for completeness, the Hebrew God (and therefore the Christian & Muslim god) was originally a Storm Warrior deity known as Yahweh, it's very interesting to follow the evolution of this religion. However, please do not get into anything other than a polite discussion in religion in the comments, this is not a place for real world theological discussions or political statements.