Pinups of Death Wave 3 Promotional Content Review (Patreon)

Patron timberwolfl has once again come through for us all with images of the promotional content. Which means I can talk about the game component section in a timely fashion. My own pin ups have not even reached 'label created' because of how understaffed and disorganized the UK Warehouse is. It's a pretty good look for a company to have one of your head content creators unable to get their hands on your new content in a reasonable time isn't it?

Still, it's time to walk through all of this and take a look at it all, both old and new.

1. Pinup Player Proxy/Number cards

I still have not used these for anything to date, so having a bunch of new ones that go from 1 to 6 is not something I care for or even find particularly useful.   The artwork on them is nice enough and I especially like the new yellow and rose, but ultimately these are low use, unwanted items that take up space.

It's interesting that they've covered all survivor counts including the 5+ games.

2. Aya Survival Action Reminder Tokens

In principle these are a great idea, but there is one major problem with them and that is the fact that they're only one set. Above we've been given cards for 6 players, but now we get just one single set of these tokens. Which is kind of a bit mind boggling for a company that likes to splash art on every thing.

The cynic might even assume that these tokens are going to become like the dice, released at fixed moments to drive up demand and keep people clamoring for more. I don't know if that is the case, but there certainly is no logical reason for releasing just one set of these tokens when a typical game has 4 survivors. 

The artwork on them is great, Aya is one of the more enduring characters in the setting and it's always fun to see her depicted in this art style. But where is Paul, Snow, Lucy or Allison's tokens to at least give us a set of four? That's a bit of a big time whiff and I am very disappointed in whoever made the decision to just release one set, it smacks of artificial scarcity.

3. Pinup Monster AI Cards

Completely superfluous to the point of being unreadable in the case of the Baller trait, these cards are nothing more than a bit of fun. While promotional stuff should be like this, chrome and silly nonsense, the terrible way that the text is obscured makes them something you'll just end up keeping in the box.

However, my own personal dream of Kingdom Death Pajama Party becomes one step closer with this release. I just hope we get a phoenix feather pillow as a weapon in the future.

4. A Strange Spot & The Belt of Gender Swap

A returning piece of promotional material, this is one of my favourite settlement events due to its mix of humor, good use of tropes and progressive orientation. The 1 result is still the kind of thing that shouldn't be on a non-optional event, but I believe that we are all used to packing Survival of the Fittest to mitigate this kind of nonsense aren't we. 

Also, based on this art I ship Lucy with Female Zachary (Zacharie?).

The Belt of Gender Swap is likewise a promotional cursed item 'done right' while it is not helpful in the least (apart from odd situations where Crystal Skin settlements can use it to ensure they never run out of one gender, in a very visually funny idea) it has two very good affinities and these mean that it can assist builds despite being weak on its own. It's an example of good design.

5. The Dark Seamstress Settlement Event

I discussed these a bit in the past when they were first released, but the main thing to note is that not all of these unique items you can craft if you have the materials are worth the effort. You want to take a close look at the resource reduction and also the amount of armor points lost before you get into deciding if you should craft a given item or not from the spider lady.

Note on lost armor points: Remember that the body is 2x more likely to be hit than any other location, so armor points on the body are more valuable than any other location (apart from the head, which is 100% more likely to be a lethal severe injury). So losing the armor points for these locations REALLY matters on anyone who is combat orientated.

Rawhide Corset

Cost reduction: 1x hide to 1x resource

Armor points lost: 1 (50%)

For the Dames of both sexes!

This is a really good deal, not having to spend a hide when crafting a piece of armor is a massive deal, it is one of the things that actually makes the Skull Helm a viable craft quite often. In addition you're only losing 1 armor point on the body of an armor set that is often used in ranged or support styles of play (outside of the early game), so they are further away from the monster and rarely the focus of its attacks. 

It is also worth noting that when used in Dancer Armor, the armor point drawback is cancelled out because of how hybrid armor works. This is the strongest of all the options and it's the one you will probably be crafting most.

Leather Bodysuit

Cost reduction: 1x leather + 1x bone to 1x leather

Armor points lost: 3 (75%)

Breccia of Priderock's favourite outfit!

The price reduction here is not as significant as the one we're getting with the Corset above, 1x bone is one of the least valuable individual resources in the game (ahead of 1x scrap). In exchange you're losing 75% of the armor points on the location. For Leather Armor, which is a defensively orientated set, this is not a good situation to be in - so it is not worth the minor discount.

This hurts a bit less when you are using Vagabond armor, because the Tabard also provides one protection to the body, so that is the place where I think you would use this piece of gear.

Teeth Bikini

Cost Reduction: 1x cycloid scales, 1x scrap, 1x huge sunteeth, 1x salt to 1x cycloid scales, 1x huge sunteeth, 1x salt

Armor points lost: 2 (66%)

Sunburn has never been so dangerous!

Armor points have never been what made Cycloid Scale so strong, it is the combination of the Prismatic ability enabling whatever crazy affinity synergies your heart desires and the powerful abilities built into each piece of the armor. The loss of armor points is pretty irrelevant for an armor set focused around being elusive and keeping in the monster's blind spot.

However, the reduction in cost here is pretty slim, an item that has barely any hide left in it has kept the most expensive portion of the cost (the cycloid scales) and we're left with a minor reduction of 1x scrap. As mentioned before, scrap is the least valuable of all resources, so this discount is pretty much not worth it. If you have all the other parts, you've probably already crafted this item. 

Also, this is the only one of these that uses monster specific resources, the odds of having the sunteeth, salt and cycloid scales sitting around in settlement storage are very low due to how many valuable items use them. This means that this particular crafting recipe is typically going to be an option only if you draw it when returning from a SandSquid hunt. 

Lantern Brassiere

Cost Reduction:  2x iron, 5x leather to 1x iron, 4x leather

Armor Points lost: 5 (71%)

A reminder of the festival that will never happen.

With no current hybrid armor set available for the Brassiere, a reduction in armor points of this level without a seriously deep discount is not something you want to be considering. Gaining 5 armor points for 1x iron + 1x leather is too good a deal to pass up. So you will not be making this armor piece most of the time.

However, you can use this in Warlord Armor in replacement for the Phoenix Plackart, there it gets its armor value set to 5 and means that the armor set doesn't need access to phoenix parts. Also, because of how hybrid armor sets work you even get to add +2 armor to all the metal based locations on the armor set (Lantern Body, Waist & Legs) and that's huge. 

So there is a place where this piece excels because of its Outfit ability, and you'll want to keep an eye out for that one.

This final piece about the Lantern Brassiere applies to all of these armor pieces, as soon as they get a place in a hybrid armor set they become significantly more powerful because the discount doesn't have a downside. That means the value of them will shift from one campaign to the next.

The real shame here is, you don't get 4x copies of them in the box.

Overall this means that the promotional content for the pinups is a great extra bonus, there's some duff stuff in here, but the Strange Spot and Dark Seamstress are worth it. The Aya Survival Tokens would also be worth it if there was enough tokens for 4x survivors, but there isn't. Shame.