Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 9 Impermanism Knowledges (Patreon)

Spoilers for:

• Various monster toughness 
• Mild reference to Homicidalism
• References to other Tier 1 Philosophies

With the general thesis and core mechanics of Impermanism under our belt, it is time for us to take a dive through the various Knowledges, I'm going to try and highlight not just mechanical advantages/disadvantages that these cards have, but also any interesting thematic elements and possible early game synergies.

The key element these Impermanism Knowledges require to be “good” is either a high level of power offered early on; which would be trading on the frail nature of things at an appropriate level. Or they have some form of continuous utility/value when they are in the knowledge deck. Nothing sucks more than having your knowledge deck bloat out with excess knowledges that just don't do much. We have little direct control over this matter, so it is down to individual Knowledge design to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience with this system. So far we've had plenty of deliveries from all the Tier 1 (and 0) knowledges we have inspected, so let us see if Impermanism can continue this trend. Let us go looking for either power or value!

Shatterstar – Core Tenet

• Type: Strength Boost/Frail Protection
• Stages: 3
• Observations Required: 4/3/-
• Advancement: Attack with Frail weapon/Archive Frail Weapon/None
• Lumi Costs: 1/2/3
• Bonuses: Theory/+1 strength, +1 accuracy/+1 strength, +1 accuracy & +1 evasion
• Parallels: Weapon Masteries

Shatterstar is the main spot where our Knowledges interface with Frail directly; the rest are mostly thematic parallels. It's honestly a fine knowledge, but you really need to dedicate yourself to levelling this one up as early as possible. The reason for this is, while the first level can be completed in a single showdown (and the first tick of the second observation can also be completed); the remaining ticks in the second tier will take multiple showdowns to complete and ideally you want to be doing this with cheap bone weapons rather than losing expensive or monster specific gear.

The progression on this knowledge however is really solid, with tier 2 making Bone Swords 4 strength, which allows them to scale further into the campaign than normal. This is the path that is worth it, because each level up for this knowledge is a meaningful increase in base strength and it will let you run tech tier 1 Bone Smith weapons for a really long time on anyone, while also allowing Impermanism survivors to scale their weapons further and further.

To highlight this let us look at the Bone Smith weapons directly (plus a few others that naturally have frail) and compare them to some typical toughnesses.

The format is Name: Basic Strength → Shatterstar 2 & 3 → Shatterstar 3 Cracked Token. If the text is in italics it means they naturally have frail:

• Bone Sword: 2 → 4 → 7
• Bone Axe: 3 → 5 → 8
• Bone Darts: 3 → 5 → 8
• Bone Dagger: 1 → 3 → 6
• Bone Club: 5 → 7 → 10 + potentially Sharp via Lantern Armor
• Zanbato 6 → 8 → 11
• Rainbow Katana: 4 → 6 → 8
• Dragon Slayer: 9 → 11 → 14 + Sharp (5.5 average additional strength)
• Stone Column: 8 → 10 → 13 + potentially Sharp via Lantern Armor

Now for a selection of monsters: Format is Name: L1 → L2 → L3

• Crimson Crocodile7 → 9 → 15
• Smog Singers: 7 → 9 → 12
• Screaming Antelope: 8 → 10 → 12
• White Lion: 8 → 10 → 14
• Phoenix: 10 → 12 → 17
• Butcher: 9 → 12 → 15
• King's Man: 12 → 15 → 18
• Atnas: 11 → 14 → 19

Because the base rule for weapon vs. monster is that we want our weapon strengths to be no less than 5 points behind the monster's toughness (because this means we wound on a 5+; giving a typical 60% wounding chance, resulting in an average that attacking favours the survivors over the monster reactions).  We can see that with Shatterstar, the Bone Axe can keep pace with most Node 1 and 2 quarry monsters and the Bone Sword manages it when wielded by a Survival of the Fittest survivor. The Zanbato is able to keep pace with all but the higher level Node 3s, but if it is the Unbreakable Zanbato then it will scale up further as it gets broken and reforged. And the Dragonslayer is just an absolute house at this point which means either it or the Bone Club/Stone Column + Lantern Armor are the ultimate destination for many Shatterstars.

This is a rather competitive scaling, so there is value and purposeful meaning to pushing forward with Shatterstar, though the requirement to crack your weapon in order to unlock the extra +3 strength is a limiting issue and Impermanism survivors having the Unrestrained neurosis are both going to need to lean on a back up plan before cracking their weapon and also something to do if they later break their cracked weapon (or if they can't do it at all). While a back up weapon is a possibility, it's probably better to have some other alternative; for Non-Impermanism Shatterstars they could employ armor like Phoenix Armor, which will allow them to utilise their Fist & Tooth via Charge or pivot into some form of tanking via a shield. Shatterstars instead can't rely on F&T so will likely need a full second weapon, a Shield is a good shout, because even if it gets Frail from your neurosis, that doesn't impact on using Block/Deflect.

So, Shatter star is a solid workhorse for a settlement but it does require significant resource loss via breakages; this means it is best to go breaking the weapons as early as reasonable, which is the period where the cheap and already frail bone weapons are still viable. You can level it up later on, but breaking monster specific weapons often doesn't flow well. I do think this is another viable way to try and make the Skullcap Hammer and Whistling Mace work better, both of those have generic resource costs and great abilities, so they would appreciate the extra strength.

Hardy Ego

• Type: Brain Trauma Protection, Knowledge Selection
• Stages: 1
• Observations Required: 0
• Advancement: None
• Lumi Costs: 1
• Bonuses: Ignore Brain Trauma, Gain Two Knowledges, choose one to replace Hardy Ego
• Parallels: Romantic

I will not mess about, this is low key the best Knowledge in the entire Impermanism selection suite. Not only is it cheap, but it is protection against something that can kill survivors directly (and Deadism survivors totally need this as they don't have insanity). Just on its own that would not be worth, but because it gives you two knowledges to select from by replacing itself it also offers both Knowledge selection and lumi value generation.

This Knowledge is an automatic buy from the forum every time I see it and I have never been disappointed with having put it on a survivor. It is so much value even though it is sort of the Family Guy: Boat vs. Mystery Box meme.

If only I could afford to get a Seth McFarlane cameo of him reading that line as Peter. It is a waste of money, but if I ever had good enough health to stream playing I'd use it as a new subscriber notification.

A really well designed and powerful knowledge that does something unique that even Accept Darkness survivors will benefit from.

Deconstructive Mind

• Type: Stat Boost
• Stages: 2
• Observations Required: 6/-
• Advancement: Use this knowledge for +1
• Lumi Costs: 2/4
• Bonuses: When you gain a disorder, replace one of your old disorders/When you gain a disorder gain +1 lumi instead, limit once per lantern year.
• Parallels: Having 3 Disorders

Deconstructive Mind is close to the polar opposite of Hardy Ego; it triggers only when you get a disorder, providing no overall brain trauma protection (though sometimes you can directly gain a disorder); it also does nothing if you do not already have a disorder. In addition, when fully levelled up it only works once per lantern year, which honestly is worse than the lower level replacement

As such, the eye-watering Lumi cost on this knowledge makes it an easy pass when it is in the forum. It's fine when gained without paying Lumi for it, but otherwise I think this is mostly a dud. Not because it is bad when a survivor has gotten it without paying anycost, but because it is overpriced heavily for what it does and oddly it works better for your typical survivor before it levels up. Meaning that I'm going to try and replace this before the first stage completes if I can.

The Breaking Point

• Type: Stat Boost
• Stages: 1
• Observations Required: 0
• Advancement: None
• Lumi Costs: 1
• Bonuses: +1 Luck vs. Persisten Injury Hit Locations
• Parallels: A bad Lucky Charm

There isn't a lot of power or value in The Breaking Point overall, but a situational +1 luck when combined with Lucky Charm and Deadly is nothing to sneeze at for 1 lumi. This is something I can easily justify on luck based damage dealers, especially with monsters that have a lot of persistent injuries and/or the survivors have HL scouting abilities to help.

Sometimes things don't need to blow the doors off to be good, luck is good, luck never gets weaker as monster levels climb (with the exception of monsters who are designed to be proof to luck/critical wounds) so situational luck is still good. This really holds up when the knowledge priced correctly and as at this cost, with no need to level it up, The Breaking Point passes the bar at that point and as such I think it is a good knowledge that has uses. 

Last of all, for the sake of completeness; don't bother with this for Axe Masters, they don't need the bonus as they automatically wound anyway. But that shouldn't be a common occurrence because Axe Masters will have jucier knowledges to select from in the future.

Stone Wrecker

• Type: Conditional Weapon
• Stages: 1
• Observations Required: None
• Advancement: None
• Lumi Costs: 3
• Bonuses: Archive Stone Column Gain a 2-Handed Club for the Showdown
• Parallels: Terrain that provides weaponry

MAH BOI STONE WRECKER REPRESENT!

So yeah, that's warning you I am going to be a little biased, because I get to use the Giga-Chad mini that is Stone Wrecker when this Knowledge is around and that makes my joy go “Whee!”

There is no doubt that Stone Wrecker is one of the coolest and more enjoyable knowledges in any of the early game selection, and it is a very powerful one to boot. What happens when you archive the stone column is you place this gear card into your grid.

This is an impressive weapon by any measure, it has an excellent stat profile with (2/6+8) along with the powerful ability of Reach 2. Even the Frail downside is not so much of a deal because when it happens due to Super-Dense you get a free automatic wound and also it works with Shatterstar as we saw above. That column is great weapon, and exactly what you want for its design. It even scales into the late game because of both Shatter Star and Lantern Armor's club synergy. Also just how cool is the visual concept of a lantern armor survivor swinging a club around? Adam? I neeeeeeeeeeeeeed a lantern armor survivor holding a club, give us Lantern Year 20 Stone Wrecker!

However, the negatives here are meaningful, you need to have a free slot in your gear grid, have a back up plan for when/if this archives and also most importantly you need that column on the showdown board in the first place. There are three Stone Columns cards in the terrain deck, which means a fifth of the basic terrain deck (excluding expansion specific additions) is a stone column, not great odds given that many showdowns only add 1 or 2 extra terrain cards. But we do have some extra benefits in that some showdowns give guaranteed column drops. For the record here they are:

• Butcher
• Manhunter
• Bone Eaters
• King's Man
• Slender Man
• Atnas
• Sunstalker
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Dragon King
• Lion God
• The Gambler

For other showdowns we can also increase the chances of getting stone columns if we have Faceism in our Philosophy pool. This is because the core tenet Physiognomy gives additional terrain, even offering a choice from two options when it is fully levelled up to 2. So that is something you should be looking to pair up with Stone Wrecker (and you can even put more copies of Physiognomy onto other survivors to increase the odds while also providing a lot more terrain to interact with, terrain offers resources and tactical advantages, so more is almost always a benefit).

Without Physiognomy you are going to mostly be locked into definitely benefiting from the above list and gambling the rest of the time. That's not great because you'll need to spend two slots on weapons, one space for the column and a back up weapon to use normally.

Before finishing here I would like to note that Stone Wrecker gets considerably better on survivors who are not following the Impermanism philosophy. This is because they do not have to deal with the Neurosis breaking their arm when they use Fist & Tooth (F&T), So instead of running a back up weapon they can instead leverage being a F&T build and just have a single empty slot. I'd recommend the Brawler hybrid armor set from the Lion Knight for this purpose. It's an armor set that doesn't even care much about affinities, which is perfect for both F&T and the Stone Column.

Limit Break

• Type: Stat plus Boost auto-death at end of showdown
• Stages: 1
• Observations None
• Advancement: None
• Lumi Costs: 4
• Bonuses: +1 movement, +1 strength, +1 accuracy, +1 evasion & +1 luck
• Parallels: Survivors

So yeah, on the surface Limit Break looks kind of rough to justify using; it's a knowledge that guarantees the survivor who uses it will die by the end of the showdown. That has some issues in that it puts a large choke hold on development of weapon masteries and observations. These are things that traditionally are not too valuable.

However, what is offered here is something that's not to be taken lightly. +1 to all attributes is a meaningful buff, and even at the floor this can be utilised in 'do or die' showdowns like the core nemesis and final nemesis in a campaign. So cautious players can still get something from it, and the way that it will pass on the knowledge to another survivor saves lumi and gives access to it in the future. But, the issue here is in a normal showdown you have to pop this at the start; it's not an emergency 'break in case of glass' knowledge. It's something you have to be planning to use in advance (and it is not something you should trigger during Encounters), which is why I said it chokes out your settlement progression in the previous paragraph.

But. But! The parallel I have listed above though offers an alternative viewpoint to take in respect to this knowledge. Survivors work in a similar fashion even if they generally last more showdowns total. So one can build a hunt strategy with 3 veterans and a Limit Break “Red Shirt” who will swing for the fences. That's a pretty solid option for 'dice freaks/speed demons' you can just wind them up and let them go crazy.

On top of that, if you have a knowledge that benefits from a survivor dying (cough Homicidalism cough) then you can reap extra value from the survivor by disposing of them before the showdown ends. However, be aware that you need to be good at population management before you start using strategies like Limit Break and you should NOT start using this knowledge until you've locked Ghostzerker from Lanternism if that is one of your other knowledges in the pool. See the articles on lanternism linked in the collection at the bottom of this post for more information on why that is the case.

All of that written I would still like to suggest that a slight tweak for this would have the dying survivor pass on their current weapon proficiency level, that would justify the 4 lumi cost this knowledge is asking for. But without that; I think we can still conclude that Limit Break has its time and place to shine, and can be an integral part of a settlement's hunt strategy, it just has a fair old cost to pay due to that development delay it causes. So this is something that will be left unused in most settlements until they have matured to the position where they can afford the costs.

Final Summary

It is clear that Impermanism is the weakest of the current four tier 1 philosophies; but that does not mean it is bad. There's a lot of room for skilful play amid the wreckage here; it is however a bit unfortunate that many of these knowledges work best on non-Impermanism survivors and as such I've found that Impermanism is a philosophy I avoid ranking up/getting once I've unlocked what I want from it. It's hard to justify taking survivors who make all weapons frail or who can have their leg fall off from levelling up once you're into the later parts of the campaign. Get the Unbreakable Zanbato, unlock Hardy Ego plus maybe Stone Wrecker and/or Limit Break if you care about those playstyles and then stay away.

Which means I do think Impermanism is a candidate for some updates and revisions when the next Legendary Update pack comes out; Deconstructive Mind needs some work, the rank up booklet also needs a fair amount of revision and I absolutely think that Impermanism should rank up faster than any other philosophies, both for thematic reasons and as a balance.

So, weakest philosophy we've looked at so far for sure, but not bad. It's just hard for it to compete with the other philosophies who have really incredible unique, non-Knowledge Rank 4 results that can be triggered multiple times unlike the Unbreakable Zanbato. I give this a passing grade, but note that it must try harder.