Grey Goo

Grey Goo is the Fall 2020 special challenge path, introduced on August 15, 2020. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "A self-replicating mass of grey goo has invaded the Kingdom from the furthest reaches of space. Destroy as much of it as you can in three days!"

Divergences

• Ronin lasts for 10,000 adventures instead of 1,000.
• Your adventure begins with Grey Sky Morning.
• The Nearby Plains and The Sorceress' Tower are inaccessible. A new location, The Grey Goo Impact Site, replaces both. You improve your score by defeating Goo monsters there.
  • Muscle classes are unable to access their guild hall because opening it requires adventuring in Cobb's Knob, which is inaccessible.
  • Degrassi Knoll is also inaccessible, to the disadvantage of Muscle moon signs. Goo hates Muscle.
  • Numerous Plains-dependent quests cannot be completed, including Council quests Boss Bat Quest, The King of Cobb's Knob Quest, Undefile the Cyrpt Quest, and Giant Trash Quest; Guild quests The Wizard of Ego and Me and My Nemesis; the Pretentious Artist Quest; the Untinker Quest; Going Postal; and the Defend the Gourd Quest for Muscle classes.
  • Attempting to adventure in an invalid location (e.g. through Teleportitis) displays the following:

    Goo prevents access to that place.

• On day 3, the Astral Gash becomes available, and you can ascend, even if you didn't do anything.
  
• On day 4 and after you may not fight goo monsters anymore, instead encountering the adventure Goo-d Riddance when trying.

Restrictions

• Standard restrictions apply while Grey Goo is the current challenge path. These restrictions will be lifted on November 15, 2020.
• You cannot adventure in The Sea. Attempting to talk to An Old Man gives the following message:

  That shack you saw on the main map was just a picture of a shack drawn on the ground.

• You cannot adventure in any of the Clan Basement dungeons.
  • Attempting to adventure in An The Old Sewers results in:

    The entrance to the sewers is clogged with grey goo. Oh well.

  • Attempting to adventure in The Slime Tube results in:

    There's a solid cap of grey goo preventing you from going into the Slime Tube.

  • Attempting to adventure in Dreadsylvania results in:

    Dreadsylvania is temporarily closed due to the grey goo matter.

• Attempting to buy things from the PirateRealm Fun-a-Log results in:

  Sorry, you can't use this store in this path. It's better this way.

• Finishing a Hardcore Grey Goo run without using a clover does not unlock Bad Moon.
• You cannot drop from the Grey Goo path. Attempting to do so give the message "You have to deal with this Goo."

Text

See The Council of Loathing/Grey Goo

Strategy

Each scaling goo monster, except the Massive Prism, can be fought 11 times per day. The Massive Goo Prism can only be fought once per day, with combat lasting for 11 combat rounds. The "size" of each scaling Goo monster is given by the formulas below, with the amount of goo destroyed being 11 plus the "size" of the monster.

Goo creature	Location	Scaling effect
X-foot tall goo clown	The Goo-Choked Fun House	sqrt(Maximum HP)
X-ton grey gooblin	The Goo-Coated Knob	3 * (Sleaze Resistance) * (1 + (Food drop% / 100))
goo bat (X-cubit wingspan)	The Goo-Spewing Bat Hole	4 * (Stench Resistance) * (1 + (-Combat Chance%) / 100)
X-odd foot of stalk	The Goo-Bedecked Beanstalk	Combat Initiative / 3
goog	The Goo-Shrouded Palindome	Monster Level
X-centimeter goo bone	The Goo-Girded Garves	4 * (Spooky Resistance) * (1 + (+Combat Chance%) / 100)
X-cube goo grid	The Goo-Splattered Tower Ruins	sqrt(Maximum MP)
a massive prism of grey goo	A Prism of Goo	Floor(Lowest elemental damage dealt / 5) + 11

The goo destroyed when fighting the Prism is calculated by taking the total damage of each element dealt to the prism over the 11 rounds of the fight, then taking the lowest of the five elements dealt, dividing the damage dealt by five, then adding 11 as per the other scaling monsters.

Additionally, an arbitrary number of goo shapes can be fought in The Goo Fields, and each have special abilities. All shapes begin with base stats of 10 HP, Attack and Defense, and increase in all stats by 1 for each goo shape you defeat over the course of the ascension. They will all drop 1 unit of goo, except for the square which drops 2 units.

Goo creature	Ability
grey goo orb	Nothing?
grey goo torus	Reflects spells
grey goo triangle	On hit, inflicts 3 turns of Goo Vibrations (-50% to all attributes)
grey goo hexagon	Has 3x as much HP and 4x as much Attack & Defense as other goo shapes
grey goo square	Has 4x as much HP as other goo shapes, worth 2 units of Grey Goo
grey goo cross	At the start of combat, steals half of its maximum HP from you
grey goo heart	Has 10x as much HP as other goo shapes
grey goo hourglass	Encountering this monster and winning the combat costs an additional 3 Adventures, even if CLEESHed or the hourglass is replaced. If you run away or banish the Hourglass, you do not lose additional adventures.
grey goo octagon	90% damage resistance
grey goo squiggle	On hit, inflicts 1 turn of Really Quite Poisoned (-70% and -9 to all attributes)
grey goo star	Attacks 5 times per round

Rewards

• Finishing a Grey Goo run that began while it was still the current special challenge path -- that is, between August 15th, 2020, and November 14th, 2020 -- rewarded players with 50 (in both Hardcore and Normal) additional karma the next time they visited Valhalla.
• Finishing a Grey Goo run gives players a inert grey goo ring.

Notes

• The Astronomers of Loathing spotted A Ball Of Gray Goo years before it arrived in the Kingdom.

History

Ascension Paths
Boozetafarian	Teetotaler	Oxygenarian
Special Challenge Paths
Spring Summer Fall Winter 2011 None Bees Hate You Way of the Surprising Fist Trendy 2012 Avatar of Boris Bugbear Invasion Zombie Slayer Class Act 2013 Avatar of Jarlsberg BIG! KOLHS Class Act II: A Class For Pigs 2014 Avatar of Sneaky Pete Slow and Steady Heavy Rains Picky 2015 Actually Ed the Undying One Crazy Random Summer Community Service None 2016 Avatar of West of Loathing The Source Nuclear Autumn None 2017 Gelatinous Noob License to Adventure Live. Ascend. Repeat. None 2018 Pocket Familiars G-Lover Disguises Delimit None 2019 Dark Gyffte Two Crazy Random Summer Kingdom of Exploathing None 2020 Path of the Plumber Low Key Summer Grey Goo None 2021 You, Robot Quantum Terrarium Wildfire None 2022 Grey You Journeyman Fall of the Dinosaurs None 2023 Avatar of Shadows Over Loathing Legacy of Loathing A Shrunken Adventurer am I None 2024 WereProfessor 11 Things I Hate About U Avant Guard None 2025 Z is for Zootomist Hat Trick 11,037 Leagues Under the Sea None