Sundiving: The Sunstalker Hunt (Patreon)

I do not often go into the hunt events in any detail when looking at these monsters while setting up for a deep dive plus visual guide, but in the cases of the Sunstalker and the Dragon King, they are just too interesting and important to pass up on. So, today, we are going to deep dive into the hunt events and look at what it brings to the game and the larger world.

Before we start the three 'rules' of hunting the Sunstalker are:

1. Consider all soluble gear as disposable if you bring it
2. Wear heavy gear at your own risk.
3. Have a Sunspot Lantern held by an Emotionless Survivor

It is also worth understanding that the Sunstalker, more than most monsters, likes to lengthen the hunt an unreasonable amount, my three longest hunts of all time are all involving the Sunstalker (alongside Wildfire). So buckle up when you go after this thing and try to be prepared for a slightly longer hunt than you expected.

Solar Winds

• Heavy gear survivors lose half survival (rounded down)
• Soluble gear (i.e. Monster Grease) is archived
• Event revealer has 6+ (50% chance) to get Unconscious Fighter fighting art.

This hunt event is a mixed bag; but it's a signal that warns you about the upcoming fight. Expect soluble gear to be something you can't rely on (as if fighting a sunsquidshark wasn't enough of a warning) and survival is going to be a precious resource.

The compensation for this however is one of the few ways in the game to tutor up Unconscious Fighter, an almost essential fighting art for any male survivor due to how it protects them from the Manstealer event and allows them to pass on their abilities to descendants via Family. This is on top of it being one of the best durability fighting arts in the game (along with Tough and Unbreakable) and it also has some incredible uses in the Sunstalker showdown fight by giving you the ability to gain access to a unique event.

Back to Blue

This card references the 2015 internet viral hit known as “The Dress”; where the following photo sparked argument/debate as to whether this dress is black and blue or gold and white. Personally I see it  as periwinkle blue and sand (same as Lady Gaga apparently). It was a fun moment for the internet and actually helped bring progress for research into differences in perception. You can read more about how this came about and what it means in the wikipedia article I've linked here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress).

The event itself has the light from the Sunstalker changing the colours of the outfits worn by the survivors and has three possible outcomes. Either everyone has a light fist fight over the disagreement (30%); or if there is someone with 4+ red affinities (30%), then there will be a random hunt event instead – finally 40% of the time if there is a survivor with 4+ Blue affinities then the survivors will skip the next hunt space and potentially ambush the monster if they land on it.

There is an interesting 'hidden' interaction here in that Cycloid Scale Armor is prismatic, which means it will trigger if the 4-6 result or the 7+ results are rolled. Cycloid Scale shifts and changes colours as part of its mechanics and thematic design – so having it tightly tied to this event is an excellent piece of design.

Crackling Sunstorm

A neat little reference to storm chasing, a rather incredible and wonderful hobby where individuals chase after various storms for a variety of reasons.  This is another event which punishes soluble gear users by archiving it some of the time, and it also rewards players who have been smart and innovated Music → Song of the Brave. For a correctly set up team this event turns into: 40% -1 survival for each survivor, 40% +3 survival 20% +1 courage for the lowest courage survivor. That's good odds to gamble on, especially when – as you'll see – courage is good when fighting the Sunstalker.

If you do have soluble gear and you are not willing to risk losing it, this event also gives you the option to roll a basic hunt event instead. That's great design because it's giving players choices rather than just immediate punishment.

Cuddling Skeletons

This event is a direct reference to what happens in Sun settlements. Now there is a choice here, but in truth; if you do not already have the Apostle Crown, you should always be investigating the cradling skeleton even though 90% of the time it's a bad result (Emotionless is an annoying disorder, but you can cope). That is because the Apostle Crown you get from the Sun Priestess is one of the most powerful items in the game.

(Kind of bonkers that you can get this outside of People of the Sun for no crafting cost)

Once you have it, you should always instead go investigate the baby Sunstalker for the Understanding or Small Sunteeth, both of which are gre at things to get.

My concern about this event is just how swingy it is, the Apostle Crown is a game changing piece of gear, we'll talk about it during the People of the Sun deep dive that'll come right after the Visual Guide to the Sunstalker is completed – but suffice to say, it changes everything.

Empty Pool

Another direct reference to People of the Sun; instead this time you get to see a long dead Sun settlement and if you have a Sunspot lantern you can gain 1x Sunstones in exchange for the downside of getting the relatively easy to manage Overprotective disorder. If you have a Sunspot Lantern you should always investigate and you can make life easier by ensuring that a survivor with Overprotective is the one who always carries the lantern – removing the downside to this event entirely.

Heliophobia

Yup, heliophobia is a thing, it ranges from people who just want to stay away from the light to those who are so terrified of getting skin cancer. It's a heck of a crippling anxiety disorder and if the Light/Shadow mechanics were more common in Monster then we would have probably seen this as a disorder instead of just a hunt event.

If you have someone with Emotionless, gained say by the Cuddling Skeletons event above, then you are completely insulated against this event. Otherwise the Sunstalker does what it likes to do, move away and extend the length of the hunt (giving the survivor who drew this card +2 insanity as “compensation”.)

Perfect Meadow

First up, here's confirmation that grass is more common in the plain of stone faces than people think. It's not really a dry lifeless place, but we sort of knew that already with all the acanthus and trees growing around the place. Nice little thing to see, though there is going to need to be some serious pseudo-science mumbo jumbo to explain why the world has large photosynthetic plants in such quantities when it's apparently a world without light.

The event itself is kind of fun on a thematic front. Though mechanically most of the time it can trigger an Ambush for the Sunstalker. This is pretty in character for the monster, it's very fast and loves to deceive survivors in a wide range of ways.

The 4-6 result is the best one you can hope for, you should always be fielding a survivor with 3+ understanding in order to stop the Sunstalker advancing on you if you're too close. The monster getting nearer during a hunt is usually a good thing, especially because the Sunstalker seems to like lengthening hunt phases. But getting hit by an ambush from the Sunstalker, a monster that you want to burst down as fast as possible, is a pretty terrifying prospect.

Salted Dream

Say hello to the Sculptor! Mostly encountered through People of the Stars (where it's probably the best constellation to unlock) but also present in the Kingdom Death core game Rulebook illustration below. This event has a survivor dream about them. There's a suggestion here that the Sculptor is linked in some fashion to the Sunstalkers, but it's not explored in any deep detail and therefore we can't be sure that this even is the Sculptor. However, typically in Kingdom Death the references are very direct – if there are connected themes between two things, they're linked.

The event itself gives the player a choice (always a good thing) either you can gain +5 survival but suffer a -1 accuracy token or you can roll the dice and either risk 3 brain damage (if you have under 5 courage) or gain +1 courage on what is essentially a coin flip. There is no right answer between these two choices; it all depends on your situation, because if you are low in survival, -1 accuracy for the upcoming showdown sucks, but it's manageable. If you don't want that then you can roll the dice, but if you have 5+ courage then there's not even a risk of brain damage if you roll low – it just becomes 6+ gain +1 courage otherwise no effect.

While this is a very simple event, it's a good example of how hunt events can be contextually interesting. You're given a choice here, you're rewarded for taking out an experienced hunter and it has a completely appropriate level of risk/reward. It might not be flashy, it might not wow you, but this is an example of a really well designed hunt event.

In Sunnary

So, as you can see from my comments, I have barely any issues with these hunt events at all. The punishment that they level is proportionally balanced with the rewards and they also often offer multiple decision points and mitigation tactics. It's pretty close to one of the best set of hunt events any monster has on every aspect, mechanically it's really tight and thematically it knocks things right out of the park with a whole bunch of references that add to the richness of the world. It's also why I completely recommend that you play with the Sunstalker as a Quarry before you play People of the Sun.

Not perfect, but definitely a gold standard expansion from a designer who should be left to make this kind of content. I'll never stop advocating for Adam to be taken away from running his business, because when he locks himself away (as he stated he did for the Sunstalker), what comes out is pure star platinum.

Next week we're going to do something a little different before returning to the Sunstalker in two weeks time with the Showdown, as I need a little more time to test a few things - and also I've finally received some stuff that I've wanted to review for those of you who collect things boutique.