View source for Dark Gyffte/Strategy

This guide will provide some additional information to aid with a [[Dark Gyffte]] ascension.

==Pre-Ascension Preparation==
When outside of Ronin/Hardcore, having the [[Warbear induction oven]] in [[Your Workshed | your workshed]] will duplicate the first consumable cooked.  Having a [[warbear high-efficiency still]] in [[Your Workshed | your workshed]] will occasionally save you a [[blood bag]] when making drinks, allowing you to make an extra food/drink item.  Carefully crafting and switching between the two can lead to many extras.

== Valhalla options ==
Astral consumables: [[astral energy drink|AEDs]] are the only option actually usable by vampyres. If your spleen will already be accounted for, consider just taking [[astral pilsner|pilsners]] to save for aftercore.

Astral equipment: [[Astral belt]] (+20 ML) is likely the best choice. Unless you Ensorcel a large Plant, the path does not provide more than +30 ML naturally (and said buff is incompatible with two of the three intristic forms). The extra +20 will make meeting certain thresholds like climbing the [[Oil Peak]] and heating the [[unstable fulminate]] easier. For low progression or low IOTM runs, the [[astral shield]] is also a possible QoL option (damage reduction and HP regeneration).

Moon Sign: There is little reason to take a non-myst sign, which simplifies the options.
* [[The Blender]] ([[The Gnomish Gnomad Camp|Gnome]]): If you have [[January's Garbage Tote|Garbage Tote]] or [[Jurassic Parka]], consider taking a gnome sign in order to be able to purchase [[Torso Awaregness]]. Note that this will require 5,000 meat (Fragnk's fee) and beach access (either another 5,000 meat for a bus pass, or tracking down the parts to build a meatcar), which may require some budgeting if in HC. [[The Blender]] also yields +5 adv/day.
* [[The Opossum]] ([[Little Canadia]]): If you have no special shirts, Canadia provides a free [[logging hatchet]] to speed up the Orc Chasm, and [[The Opossum]] also provides +5 adv/day. If you are having trouble with HP upkeep, the [[huge mosquito proboscis]] (10% drop from 1 of 3 monsters at [[The Edge of the Swamp]]) is a possible QoL option.
* [[The Wallaby]] ([[Degrassi Knoll|Knoll]]): Saves you the cost of a bus pass, but this matters little unless you have a pressing need to get to the beach. Mainly an initial option to [[hewn moon-rune spoon|tune]] away from.

==Mr. Store Items==
Most of the usual applications for various items from the [[Mr. Store]] exist. However, some are more important than others under these restrictions, while others have their effectiveness reduced (or, in the case of familiars, are not usable at all). Key divergences while it was under [[standard restrictions]] will be listed here.
*[[vampyric cloake]] - It is no big surprise given its name, but the cloake is quite helpful overall. It provides a variety of useful enchantments, a sizeable base HP increase which scales to level (and becomes noticeable during the later parts of one's run) and makes some abilities [[Dark Feast|more]] [[Ensorcel|effective]]. It also provides an extra [[blood bag]] per day, increasing one's daily turngen.
*[[Lil' Doctor™ bag]] - HP & HP Regen are exceptionally vital due to the nature of this path. The extra [[blood bag]] and the combat abilities provided are also tremendously helpful.
*[[Kramco Sausage-o-Matic™]] - Despite not being bloody, the [[magical sausage]] can still be consumed in this path. The free fights alone are worth the effort, though.
*[[Meteor Lore]] - Despite being a permed skill, it is retained in this path, along with the valuable [[Macrometeorite]]. [[Micrometeorite]] and {{plural|metal meteoroid}} don't hurt either.
*[[FantasyRealm membership packet]] - No [[Gelatinous Cubeling]] means the [[daily dungeon]] will take 9 turns per day at the minimum. [[Fantasyrealm]] gives a token in only 5 turns in comparison.
*[[Kremlin's Greatest Briefcase]] - The [[splendid martini]] cannot be consumed, so there is no use in setting up your briefcase to get these. Your clicks are better off dedicated towards buffs and enchantment configuration instead, all of which are tremendously helpful as is (along with the [[KGB tranquilizer dart]]). The fact that it has bonus HP built in is helpful as well.
*[[Boxing Day care package]] - Of the three consumables provided, only [[body spradium]] is useful. More importantly, the daily [[Flagrantly Fragrant]] buff provides a massive boost to your survivability, which makes it easier to run more skills and ML under tougher circumstances. Additionally, the daily [[Uncucumbered]] buff can also be effective for improving experience gains at [[The Neverending Party]] or to trivalize either of the [[Test Your Might And Also Test Other Things|Registration Desk's]] [[Preternatural Strength|stat]] [[Sinister Charm|test]].
*[[January's Garbage Tote]] - If you want to use the [[makeshift garbage shirt]], you will have to choose a gnome sign and cough up 5000 meat in run to learn [[Torso Awaregness]] (or do melvin’s quest, which is undesirable). The other equipment forms still work as normal.
*[[The Neverending Party]] - The Vampyre skill [[Madness of Untold Aeons]] allows for easy mysticality boosting, which means more experience from the scaling monsters here. This is especially important in hardcore runs, as leveling up is the only way to access better food/drink ingredients. In addition, the [[dorky glasses]] give +30 Mysticality and synergize very well with the skill [[Sinister Charm]], which negates the -30 Moxie penalty.
** It is not worth doing any associated quest in run, since the only consumable rewards you can actually use are the [[party balloon|spleen items]].
*[[Asdon Martin]] - Aside from the usual applications of buffs and banishes, it also provides the only source of [[Yellow ray strategy|disintegration]] in this path.
*[[Spacegate access badge]] - It allows you to [[Ensorcel]] a [[Spant drone|spant]], which can provide a very high item drop bonus if the spant's stats are scaled high enough. It is advisable to ensorcel a goblin before fighting the spant, in order to survive the initial attack.

==Vampyre Skills==
Unlike previous spring challenge paths where skills are obtained in a linear fashion and need to be unlocked, each skill in the Dark Gyffte path is available to learn immediately, but costs some of your base HP to do so. Skills can be learned and unlearned at will, albeit at the cost of 1 adventure, so knowing what skills are best for each situation is the key to excelling in this path. Non-intristic skills will also be assigned a tier depending on their overall value & usefulness.

===Intrinsic===
* [[Dark Feast]] - Deals damage and restores up to 30 HP from monsters with at most 30 HP. Increases to 100 HP with [[Hypnotic Eyes]]. Also staggers the opponent. The damage and healing does not exceed the monster's remaining HP and appears to scale with the player's level or base Myst, so the amount may be less than the cap for low-level players. As most traditional healing items and abilities do not work, this is your main way to remain healthy, especially early on. Becomes less effective later on your ascension. A [[vampyric cloake]] increases the healing by 25%.
:''Note - This skill can only be used once per combat, even if the first use fails due to the monster having too much HP.''
:''Note - The HP restoration is independent from the damage, and you will still gain the expected amount of HP even if the damage is reduced to 1.''
:''Note - Because monsters gain damage resistance equal to 40% of +Monster Level, Dark Feast can never kill an enemy if you're running significant +ML. This is because the skill tries to deal damage equal to the monster's remaining HP, but that damage is then reduced.''

* [[Wisdom of Countless Centuries]] - Passive +3 stats per fight. Fairly self explanatory, extra stat gains are always nice to have, especially in low-skill runs.

===Beastcraft===
* [[Savage Bite]] (10 HP, low tier) - Deals double your buffed muscle as damage for 3 HP. Possibly decent if relying on [[Wolf Form (effect)|Wolf Form]] (since the other combat skills are not usable under such a condition), but the other two forms are more versatile overall, making this a low priority.

* [[Crush]] (20 HP, mid tier) - Deals 75% of a monster’s HP in damage for 10 HP, capped at 200 damage. Synergizes with [[Dark Feast]], but requires two combat rounds to work well, during which you are vulnerable if your stats aren’t adjusted accordingly. Also reduces a monster’s HP low enough that dark feast won’t recover very much HP, especially given the cost to use in the first place. If you cannot secure enough HP regeneration, however, this becomes more helpful.

* [[Baleful Howl]] (30 HP, high tier) - Free banish for the rest of the day. Limit of 10 uses, at 30 HP per use (can only banish one monster at a time this way). Costly to learn and cast (and not recommended for low skill runs), but once you have the base HP & regen to support it, it is at the top of its class.

* [[Ceaseless Snarl]] (15 HP, mid tier) - +30 ML buff, costs 10 HP per 20 turns. As an easy source of +ML, it naturally provides considerable substats, but needs to be mixed with other skills in order to handle it properly (and is not recommended for low skill runs). A great asset once you have enough skills to handle it, plus it inevitably speeds up quests that rely on ML modifiers.

* [[Wolf Form (skill)|Wolf Form]] (20 HP, mid tier) - Intrinsic & toggleable form, +150% Muscle and +150% meat drops. Costs 10 HP to turn on and off. Probably the least useful form of the three forms, it is primarily used for the meat drop bonus to extract more meat from the [[beefy bodyguard bat|beefy bodyguard bats]] (and is important if you want to obtain [[Torso Awaregness]] faster for the [[makeshift garbage shirt]]). Meat drops are also useful to speed up [[Recover the Sisters' Meat|the nuns]] & the [[wall of meat]].

* [[Preternatural Strength]] (15 HP, mid tier) - Ensures your muscle cannot be lower than your mysticality. It needs to be used with [[Madness of Untold Aeons]] to be effective, and makes it possible to use physical attacks with a melee weapon (such as the [[broken champagne bottle]]) when enemies get tough. 
:Also makes the [[Test Your Might And Also Test Other Things|contest registration desk's]] muscle test much easier.
:''Note - Whenever you have this learned, focus on buffing mysticality entirely in order to maximize your muscle accordingly.''
:''Note - However, as buffed muscle does not affect your HP in this path, this does not actually improve your survivability. If you are fighting scaling monsters (such as the [[sausage goblin]]), this skill actually increases their defense without improving the stats they yield. Use with caution.''

* [[Flesh Scent]] (5 HP, high tier) - Passive +100% meat drops. The negligible HP cost makes it easy to keep this passive running in perpetuity, doubling your meat gains without much trouble. Especially effective when used to farm [[beefy bodyguard bat|beefy bodyguard bats]] early in a run, and meat drops are also useful to speed up [[Recover the Sisters' Meat|the nuns]] & the [[wall of meat]].

* [[Ferocity (skill)|Ferocity]] (10 HP, mid tier) - Passively boosts skill damage by 50%. Primarily useful for bosses with a lot of HP, and also for maximizing cold damage at [[The Smut Orc Logging Camp]].

* [[Intimidating Aura]] (30 HP, high tier) - Passive that causes the [[Blood Bank]] to yield two more {{plural|blood bag}} per day. Generates more turns per day, and you only need to have this learned once per day to acquire the extra bags.
:''Note - Due to the high HP cost, low skills runs will ideally learn this, grab the {{plural|blood bag}} and immediately switch to more useful skills. Once you have more base HP, though, you can mix this more into your strategy more naturally.''

===Haemoturgy===
* [[Blood Spike]] (20 HP, mid tier) - Deals mysticality +20 as damage for 3 HP. A solid ability that scales to your mainstat with a low HP cost to cast, it is at its best during low skill runs when you cannot maximize your stats nor HP regeneration very easily. Performs best with [[Madness of Untold Aeons]].

* [[Blood Chains]] (15 HP, mid tier) - Stuns an opponent for 5 HP. This skill is key for making [[Advertise for the Mysterious Island Arena|flyering]] safe, since tanking monsters’ retaliatory strikes, even with [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]] and high moxie, can be difficult to recover from.
:''Note - For general purposes, however, most combat strategies are better off relying on either using a single powerful skill or boosting your moxie so the enemy cannot hit you.'' 

* [[Chill of the Tomb]] (10 HP, high tier) - Deals mysticality +30 as damage & staggers for 7 HP. Due to how [[The Smut Orc Logging Camp]] works, this skill is incredibly useful for obtaining [[Blech House|bridge parts]]. Outside of that, its low cost to learn combined with it scaling to your mainstat makes it an effective damage dealer if you have the HP regeneration to sustain it (especially with [[Madness of Untold Aeons]]).
:''Note - Most bosses in this path are immune to staggers. While it still deals high damage, it does not make for a guaranteed victory on its own.''

* [[Blood Cloak]] (20 HP, high tier) - A buff that reduces combat frequency by 15%, costs 10 hp for 20 turns. Reducing combat frequency is extremely useful for speeding up a plethora of quests, making this vital for many portions of your ascension.

* [[Mist Form (skill)|Mist Form]] (30 HP, high tier) - Intrinsic & toggleable form, +200 Damage Absorption, +20 Damage Reduction, +4 resistance to all elements. Costs 10 HP to turn on and off. Despite the high cost to learn, this is vital for low skill runs, making tougher monsters and zones easier to survive. It shines the most versus monsters that have a tendency to hit and deal damage regardless of your moxie, such as most of the bosses on this path as well as gremlins. 
:As a bonus, it is also an easy and effective source of elemental resistance for tasks like [[The Haunted Kitchen]], [[A-boo Peak]] and [[The Hedge Maze]].
:''Note - This cannot be combined with [[Spectral Awareness (skill)|Spectral Awareness]] due to being in a separate skill tree.''

* [[Madness of Untold Aeons]] (25 HP, high tier) - Passive +150% Mysticality. It boosts the damage dealt by [[Blood Spike]] and [[Chill of the Tomb]], but its main use is to synergize with [[Preternatural Strength]] and/or [[Sinister Charm]], boosting your muscle and/or moxie to significant levels so you can fight with basic attacks. Boosting mysticality also improves the stat gains from scaling monsters such as those from [[The Neverending Party]]. Once you have enough base HP, you should have this running all of the time.

* [[Hypnotic Eyes]] (5 HP, high tier) - A passive that increases the damage & cap of [[Dark Feast]] from 30 to 100. Very effective for allowing [[Dark Feast]] to one-shot monsters until level 9-10 or so, especially for the trivial HP cost to learn.

* [[Macabre Cunning]] (20 HP, mid tier) - A passive +5 stats per fight. More stat gains are always nice, especially early on in a run, but it takes a back seat to more useful/vital mechanics during low skill runs.

* [[Sanguine Magnetism]] (15 HP, mid tier) - Passively recovers 10% of your max HP after each combat. As it is percentage based rather than a flat source of HP regeneration, along with the fact that it only occurs after combats, it is more effective in situations where you don’t need it as much. For early in a run, as well as low skill runs, seeking out equipment-derived HP regeneration is more effective.

===Aesthesis===
* [[Piercing Gaze]] (20 HP, low tier) - Deals moxie +30 as damage for 3 HP, while also delevelling. Effectively requiring [[Sinister Charm]] and possibly [[Madness of Untold Aeons]] to be effective, it could be situational in its usefulness during a low skill run. Running the moxie to make this effective would likely give sufficient moxie that ranged auto-attacks would work just as well.
:''Note - This is the only damaging combat skill that is usable while in [[Bats Form]].''

* [[Perceive Soul]] (15 HP, mid tier) - Makes a target monster more likely to be encountered, similar to [[Transcendent Olfaction|Olfaction]], for 15 HP. It is as its best to seek out a specific monster in a zone with a lot of less useful options, such as fighting [[blooper|bloopers]] or [[Bob Racecar|Bob Racecars]]. Its usefulness ultimately depends on the number of banishers / IotMs you have access to.

* [[Ensorcel]] (20 HP, high tier) - Binds a monster to your service, for 30 HP. Serves as a familiar replacement for this path, and is highly versatile in how it can be applied.
:''Note - Using ensorcel on a monster counts as a free runaway. Given that it can be cast three times per day, you can use it on two weak monsters solely as a free runaway before binding a third for long term applications.''
:''Note - While your ensorcelee will disappear if you unlearn this skill, re-learning it will restore it again.''
:''Note - While Ensorcel cannot be cast while in [[Wolf Form (effect)|Wolf Form]] or [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]], the passive benefit of a current sorcelee will persist.

:Some of the best uses include:
::[[:Category:Bugs|Bugs]] - Some of the late game bugs at level 11 or so can be used to provide a nice +item drop bonus that works in tandem with [[Bats Form]] and [[Sharp Eyes]].
::[[:Category:Elementals|Elementals]] - Binding a powerful elemental and combining it with [[Spectral Awareness]] or [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]] can be an effective combination for boosting elemental resistance. Binding the [[Genie]] in particular can provide an immense bonus if set up properly.
::[[:Category:Goblins|Goblins]] - Blocking the first enemy attack of each combat can keep you alive when running a lot of +ML, or versus tougher monsters in general. Unlike other ensorcels, this one does not rely on a monster’s attack, so any of the weak goblins from [[The Outskirts of Cobb's Knob]] will suffice.

* [[Spectral Awareness (skill)|Spectral Awareness]] (10 HP, mid tier) - A buff that gives +2 resistance to all elements, costs 10 hp for 20 turns. Inferior to [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]], and does not stack with it. It does stack with [[Ensorcel]] when used on an elemental, which can be a superior combination in higher-skill runs if you need to run a different form.

* [[Flock of Bats Form]] (20 HP, high tier) - Intrinsic & toggleable form, +150% Combat Initiative and +150% Item drops. Costs 10 HP to turn on and off. Probably the best form of the three, the bonuses are very effective and can be applied to almost every part of your ascension. You will be relying on this a lot.

* [[Sinister Charm]]  (15 HP, high tier) - Your moxie cannot be lower than your mysticality. Incredibly powerful in boosting your durability, combining this with [[Madness of Untold Aeons]] allows you to use a ranged weapon and fight like a moxie class. This is especially important when relying on multiple forms, for learning & using combat skills can be a problem if they are incompatible with the selected form, while boosting moxie is always reliable.
:It also makes the [[Test Your Might And Also Test Other Things|contest registration desk's]] moxie test much easier.
:''Note - Whenever you have this learned, focus on buffing mysticality entirely in order to maximize your moxie accordingly.''

* [[Batlike Reflexes]] (15 HP, mid tier) - A passive +75% combat initiative. It is nice to have, but other skills are more important for advancement and survivability. It is at its best when you need to find [[modern zmobie|Modern Zombies]] or for the [[Test Your Might And Also Test Other Things|contest registration desk's]] initiative test.

* [[Sharp Eyes]] (30 HP, high tier) - A passive +100% item drops. Very powerful, and well worth the cost to learn.

* [[Spot Weakness]] (15 HP, low tier) - A passive that weakens enemies at the start of combats. Useful on paper, but it rarely makes a difference in the scheme of things, and other combat skills and passives are more effective at making combat easier.

==Softcore Strategy==
Aside from the usual strategies that are viable for ascensions in the ronin phase, some are particularly noteworthy.
* Vampyre consumables are fully tradeable (even if the [[blood bag]] is a quest item) and have do not have a level requirement for consumption. As such, multiples of the [[blood-soaked sponge cake]] and [[vampagne]] can be pulled to maximize your turn generation.
** It is possible to generate an obscene number of adventures  in a single day by combining these with a [[spice melange]] as well as a [[Ultra Mega Sour Ball]], both of which reduce fullness and drunkenness by 3, and stack with one another.
** For longer runs, a [[mime army shotglass]] can serve a similar purpose
* The [[wax hand]] is an accessory that provides +40 max HP in-run at no stat prerequisites and it can be used for quality of life for low skill runs.
** Pulling a [[sea shawl]] once you hit Level 10 can provide +100 max HP and +15% Mysticality and uses your back slot, which this path lacks equipment for.

==General Advice==

===Survivability===

* The only ways to recover HP are by consuming a [[blood bag]] (not recommended since they are better used for generating turns), using [[Dark Feast]], entering [[Torpor]] (by losing a fight or through your coffin) and with passive [[HP Regeneration]].
** [[Dark Feast]] with [[Hypnotic Eyes]] should cover your combat needs early on. Around level 9 or 10, though, you will have to resort to other combat strategies. If these strategies include combat skills, make sure your [[HP Regeneration]] is enough to cover the HP costs.
** When monster HP exceeds 100, adding [[Crush]] to the above line-up will reduce non-boss enemy HP enough to allow them to be fed upon without risk of killing them accidentally. This can be vital for vampires without IotM sources of HP regen late in a run.
** You can strategically lose combats to enter torpor while getting some use from the spent adventure. Zones with [[Conditional Adventures#Delayed Adventures|delay]] can be advanced by losing fights. Alternately, you can try to find noncombats to advance quests, and turn your failures (combats) into rests for no additional adventure cost. This is useful not only to heal, but also to reconfigure your skills.

* For players with few/no IOTMs doing early runs where HP is at a premium, consider lingering in the Haunted Bedroom a little longer to grab an [[elegant nightstick]].  The +30 HP is like getting an extra skill or two for free in Torpor.

* If you are having trouble surviving regular combat, consider deselecting some skills and reserving max HP for combat.

===Diet===

* The maximum blood bags per day in-path, even with Intimidating Aura, is 7. You need two old IOTMs (the [[Lil' Doctor™ bag]] and [[vampyric cloake]]) to increase this to 9. Even with these, the maximum 9 blood bags per day is not quite enough to fill your organ space and overdrink.
* This can mean, especially in hardcore, that things which give you extra fullness or booze consumption capacity - for instance, "Roller Coaster Day" from the [[august scepter]] for 1 extra fullness, or "Sweat Out Some Booze" from [[designer sweatpants]] for up to 3 extra drunkenness, or a [[spice melange]] for 3 of each - are probably wasted. "Travel back to a Delicious Meal" from a [[Time-Spinner]] doesn't even work on these foods at all, they don't appear in the list.
** However, {{plural|dieting pill}} from the [[gaunt ghuol]] in [[The Defiled Cranny]] function normally with vampyre foods. Chewing 1 dieting pill will allow you to fill your organspace and overdrink with only 9 blood bags, and 2 dieting pills will allow you to fill up with only 8. Due to the high turngen of vampyre consumables, slowing down your Cranny-clearing to hunt for a couple of dieting pills will likely pay for itself in the long run, at least in Hardcore. Softcore players with pulls to spare should pull extra consumables or dieting pills instead (as discussed above), and speed through the Cranny as usual.
*** If you have a [[cursed monkey's paw]] you can wish for the pills.
*** In softcore, you can stock up on extra bloody foods and drinks, and pull them. (Although, only 1 of each type per day, so it's still pretty limiting, but it can be the difference between being able to fill up and not.)

* Reaching level 8 in a hardcore run is fairly crucial, for {{plural|glass of goat's milk}} and {{plural|plain snowcone}} from [[Mt. McLargeHuge]] can be obtained easily while questing. The [[blood snowcone]] and [[Red Russian]] are both a major step up in turngen/stat gains compared to the readily available [[bloodstick]] / [[bottle of Sanguiovese]], and the ingredients for the recipes between these two tiers ([[spices]], [[batgut]], [[ratgut]]) require sidetracking.
** Another important milestone is level 11, as {{plural|blackberry}} can be obtained easily and immediately from [[The Black Forest]].
*If you have a monster summon, such as a [[genie bottle]], a [[pocket wish]] or a [[combat lover's locket]], a possible way to get high-quality food on demand is to wish to fight a [[Naughty Sorority Nurse]], which drops two {{plural|gauze garter}}, which in turn make for 2 {{plural|blood-soaked sponge cake}}, the best possible food for this path. +400% item drops or a drop force ([[yellow ray]], [[Shocking Lick]], [[Use the Force, %playername!|use the force]]) are needed to guarantee both to drop.
** An drop doubler such as the [[pro skateboard]] can turn 2 into 4.

===Skills===
* Unlike other avatar paths where you gain more skills with levels, your base HP is dependent on your base muscle. If you want to have more skills active at once, muscle substat buffs such as [[Gunther Than Thou|Gunther's fortune teller buff]] can help grow muscle more quickly. As you complete more runs and acquire more starting HP, this will become less of a concern and you can focus all of your substat buffs on mysticality to level up.

* You don’t need to visit the blood bank with [[Intimidating Aura]] immediately; you can visit it without for 5 bags of blood, then learn intimidating aura and collect the 2 extra bags at your leisure. Best to do this at the very end of the day, so you can get all 7 bags the next day without reconfiguring skills again.

* If you are using [[Preternatural Strength]] or [[Sinister Charm]], buff your mysticality exclusively. Your offstats will adjust accordingly.

* When using any form, either make sure that your stats are configured for fighting with basic attacks or that you take combat skills from said form’s skill tree.

* The forms can be toggled on/off at will (but use the casting cost in HP for each toggle). Since forms disable so many other skills, it's generally desirable to only run them when necessary, and fall back to a non-form state for more general-purpose adventuring.

* [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]] is especially effective for fighting monsters that deal abnormally high damage, such as ninja snowman assassins, or monsters that can hit and deal damage regardless of your moxie, such as all of the path’s level 11 bosses or the gremlins.

* [[Bats Form]] and [[Sharp Eyes]] together yields 250% item drops, which is largely sufficient for general item hunting purposes. 
** You can combine this with using [[Ensorcel]] on a high level bug-type monster to boost this further. Level 11 monsters like the [[black widow]] and [[rock scorpion]] are decent options for this purpose. Wishing for a scaling [[Black Crayon Beetle]] or finding a Spant from a high-level [[Through the Spacegate|Spacegate planet]] gives you access to potentially more powerful bugs.

* Due to forms locking out skills from other groups, [[Spectral Awareness]]’ +2 resistance to all elements is not compatible with [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]]’s +4 resistance to all elements. Elemental resistance from [[Ensorcel]]-ing an elemental stacks with both, however.

===Quests===

* [[Chill of the Tomb]] is especially effective in [[The Smut Orc Logging Camp]], thanks to the relatively new mechanic that causes a vital [[Blech House|non combat]] to occur when sufficient cold damage is done.

* The [[A-boo Peak]] tests will drain most of your HP. It is best to mix these with other quests, so that you can heal up between tests by feasting on quest-relevant enemies or entering delay-burning torpor.

* [[The Copperhead Club]]’s passive damage can catch you off guard if unprepared; make sure you have enough base HP & regeneration to survive it, and rely on one-shotting the monsters here. [[Mist Form (effect)|Mist Form]] form may help as well, but you won’t be able to run [[Bats Form]] for the quest-relevant item drops.

* Upon meeting Dr. Awkward for the first time, your HP will be reduced to 0, which will inevitably require a visit to [[Torpor]] (unless you sacrifice a [[blood bag]] to heal yourself). Time this for when you need to switch your skills anyways.
** You could weasel your way around this by combining HP regeneration and an action that uses a turn (and is possible with 0 HP). An example of this is cooking the [[unstable fulminate]].

* [[Sonofa Beach]]’s [[Zerg Rush]] will be especially problematic since HP regen and restoration is not readily available. This can be handled somewhat by deliberately lowering your base HP while running sufficient HP regen, while increasing your moxie enough that [[lobsterfrogman|lobsterfrogmen]] cannot hit you.

* At the [[Test Your Might And Also Test Other Things|registration desk]], Vampyres can naturally do well in the initiative and off-stat tests, but lack any reasonable sources of elemental damage for the third test. If you have access to a [[genie bottle]], saving a [[Rubbed it the Right Way|wish]] for this purpose is recommended.

===Miscellaneous===

{{Ascension Strategy}}
[[Category:Ascension Strategy]]