Path of the Plumber

Path of the Plumber is the Spring 2020 special challenge path, introduced on February 15th, 2020. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "Jump, Hammer and Fireball your way through the Kingdom. Just like a plumber!"

Restrictions

Class and skills

• None of your permed skills are available.
• Stat gains from fights are divided by 4.
  • Targeted Stat Gains from Fights enchantments seem to work as normal, a la The Source (path).
• You cannot attack with a normal weapon. Instead, you can only use hammer attacks, fireball attacks, or jump attacks, each skill of which has a level between 1 and 3. If you do not have a way to attack, you cannot trigger an Adventure in an area, even if the next Adventure you would undertake will be a non-combat.
  • It is possible to trigger combat in areas that do not rely on adventure.php, such as The Tavern Cellar, but you will not be able to attack in any way. Your actions will be limited to skills, items and running away.
• Equipment purchased at the Mushroom District Gear Shop grants 1-2 levels (1-handed weapons for hammer or fireball, accessories for jump), Mushroom District Costume Shop provides the last level.
• Mushroom District Badge Shop provides passives at an increasing price.
• Mushroom District Item Shop offers helpful HP restorers and other things.
• Power Points (shortened to PP) are used to cast Plumber skills instead of MP; however, MP is still accessible for Seek out a Bird and CLEESH.
• PP is fully restored after each battle.

Consumption

• You have 20 stomach, and receive 10x the stat points from consuming food.
• You cannot drink booze. The following message is given when one attempts to:

  You have a zero tolerance policy about alcohol, which is to say that your alcohol tolerance is zero.

• You only have 5 spleen.
• You receive a steel lasagna by completing the Azazel, Ma Belle quest.
• Cuppa Voraci tea doesn’t work in the path but is still consumed on use.

HP

• You cannot restore HP except by using Plumber mushrooms which are bought in the Mushroom District Item Shop, or by casting Juggle Fireballs tier 3, or by spending 1 adventure at the Save Block.
• The only passive sources of HP regeneration are the healthy juice, also bought in the Mushroom District Item Shop and the Health Symbol, bought in the Mushroom District Badge Shop. Both will restore 5 HP after each fight (not each adventure).
• Losing all your HP does not result in getting Beaten Up.
• The Vole moon sign does not give 20 extra HP. You will start at 5 HP no matter what.

Power Points

• As mentioned above, you have Power Points instead of MP. Power Points refill at the start of every battle, and are spent to use Plumber-y skills in combat. Each source increases maximum Power Points by 1.

Source	Type	Notes
Default	n/a	You start with 1 Power Point by virtue of being a Plumber!
Power Plus	Passive	Mushroom District Badge Shop unlockable. Costs a variable amount of coins.
power pants	Pants	Mushroom District Gear Shop - 300 coins.
Fizzy Fizzy	Effect (20 adventures)	Mushroom District Item Shop - fizzy soda, 15 coins.

Miscellaneous

• You do not have a main stat. Your highest unbuffed stat is used for determining things pertaining to level.
• Due to the above, Plumbers cannot accept the Defend the Gourd Quest, due to its dependency on a mainstat to determine the items to retrieve. Clicking The Gourd Tower gives the following message:

  Uh urp. I don't talk... glurk to plumbers. Go... eep... away eep...

• You also won't be accepted into any of the guilds. You will not be able to use a guild to unlock any quests or areas.
• Plumbers cannot enter The Sea. Clicking 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.

• As of April 2, 2020, Plumbers cannot use items that grant skills. Attempting to do so gives the following message:

  The Plumbers' Union forbids the reading of any material not issued by the Plumbers' Union.

• Standard restrictions applied while Path of the Plumber was the current challenge path. These restrictions were lifted on May 15, 2020.
• You cannot drop the Path of the Plumber until day 3:

  Plumber's Union requirements dictate a term of at least 3 days.

Divergences

• Your adventure begins with Let's, uh, go!.
• Attempting to bring the astral six-pack during reincarnation yields the following warning:

  Your purchase from the Deli may not be appropriate with this path. Are you sure that's what you want?

• Attempting to bring the astral shirt during reincarnation yields the following warning:

  Plumbers normally just wear overalls, are you sure you want that astral pet.

• Players receive +3-5 coins at the end of combats (more with Lucky Buckle and/or Secret Eye), a larger amount at the end of special boss fights, and +4 whenever the Powerful Glove produces a pixel.
• Players with Your Mushroom Garden as a garden at their campsite can fight up to 5 piranha plants per day (free fights) instead of the regular 1.
• Various bosses have been replaced - negating the typical special drops from Monster Aggravation Devices:
  • Koopa Paratroopa replaces the Boss Bat in the Level 4 quest (+20 coins).
  • Hammer Brother replaces the Goblin King in the Level 5 quest (+30 coins).
  • Very Dry Bones replaces the Bonerdagon in the Level 7 quest (+40 coins).
  • Angry Sun replaces Groar in the Level 8 quest (+40 coins).
  • King Boo replaces Lord Spookyraven in the Level 11 quest (+50 coins).
  • Kamek replaces the Protector Spectre in the Level 11 quest (+50 coins).
  • Birdo replaces Dr. Awkward in the Level 11 quest (+50 coins).
  • Bowser replaces The Man in the Level 12 quest (+100 coins).
  • Bowser (a different one than above) replaces The Big Wisniewski in the Level 12 quest (+100 coins).
  • Wa%playername/lowercase% replaces The Naughty Sorceress in the Level 13 quest.
    • Wand of Nagamar is not needed as there is not a second or third form.
• Upon freeing Princess Ralph you must choose a class.
  • Unlike other paths, your stats are not adjusted, regardless of the class you choose. You may end up delevelling yourself in the process, depending on the chosen class' mainstat. (This is probably a bug)
• Your avatar is replaced by:
  

Skills

• Players can only attack using Plumber-exclusive skills. If you don't have either a hammer, fire flower, work boots (or their upgraded versions heavy hammer, bonfire flower, or fancy boots) equipped, you are not allowed to enter an adv.php combat:

  If you got into a fight right now, you wouldn't be able to attack anything! Equip those boots you found.

• Plumbers have 9 attacks, which have 3 tiers of effectiveness depending on your equipment.
• Basic gear provides +1 Level, while upgraded gear provides +2 Levels. It is necessary to buy a costume from the Mushroom District Costume Shop to reach Level 3, although basic gear can be paired with a costume to get Tier 2 skill effects.
  • Costumes alone do not provide Tier 1 skill effects.

Skill	Tier 1 trait	Tier 2 trait	Tier 3 trait
Hammer Smash (0 PP)	Deal 20 physical damage	Deal 40 physical damage	Deal 100% of Muscle as physical damage
Hammer Throw (1 PP)	Stagger 10% delevel	Stagger 15% delevel	Stagger 20% delevel
Ultra Smash (2 PP)	Deal 100% of Muscle as physical damage	Deal 200% of Muscle as physical damage	All-day banish (costs a turn)
Fireball Toss (0 PP)	Deal 15 Hot Damage	Deal 25 Hot Damage	Deal 100% of Mysticality as Hot Damage
Juggle Fireballs (1 PP)	Stagger 1 turn of +100% stat buff	Stagger 1 turn of +200% stat buff	Stagger 1 turn of +200% stat buff Heal 50% of Myst in HP
Fireball Barrage (2 PP)	Deal 200% of Mysticality as Hot Damage	Deal 300% of Mysticality as Hot Damage	Yellow Ray (50 turns of Everything Looks Yellow) If Yellow Ray effect is ineligible, deal 300% of Mysticality as Hot Damage (same as Tier 2)
Jump Attack (0 PP)	Deal 15 physical damage	Deal 25 physical damage	Deal 100% of Moxie as physical damage
Spin Jump (1 PP)	3-turn stun	4-turn stun	5-turn stun
Multi-Bounce (2 PP)	Deal 50% of Moxie as physical damage 3 times	Deal 50% of Moxie as physical damage 4 times	Deal 50% of Moxie as physical damage 5 times Acquire 4-5 coins

• Note: when equipped, frosty button replaces Fireball skills' Hot Damage with Cold Damage.
• Players are also able to purchase new, path exclusive passive skills, referred to as badges, in the Mushroom District Badge Shop with coins, starting at 50 and increasing by 25 for each, for a total of 2,975:

Name	Effect
Hammer Throw	Grants Hammer Throw
Ultra Smash	Grants Ultra Smash
Juggle Fireballs	Grants Juggle Fireballs
Fireball Barrage	Grants Fireball Barrage
Spin Jump	Grants Spin Jump
Multi-Bounce	Grants Multi-Bounce
Power Plus	Power Point maximum +1
Secret Eye	Sometimes acquire Plumber items after combat
Lucky Buckle	Coin gain after combats increased by +3
Rainbow Shield	So-So Resistance to All Elements (+2)
Lucky Pin	Item drop rate +30%
Lucky Brooch	Item drop rate +30%
Lucky Insignia	Item drop rate +30%
Health Symbol	Recover 5 HP after every fight

Skill progression

Each normal (softcore) Path of the Plumber ascension completed grants +50 coins in future Path of the Plumber runs, and each hardcore Path of the Plumber ascension completed grants +100 coins. This progression is capped at +1,100 starting coins.

Text

See The Council of Loathing/Path of the Plumber

Strategy

• See this page for tips and strategies.

Rewards

• Finishing a Path of the Plumber run while it is the current special challenge path -- between February 15th, 2020, and May 15th, 2020 -- gives players a Red coin upon defeating Waplayer, along with 50 (in Normal) or 100 (in Hardcore) extra karma points the next time they visit Valhalla.
• A class tattoo is obtained when starting the path.
  • A sparkly class tattoo is obtained at the start of any run following your first Hardcore Plumber run.
• Players will receive a Thwaitgold buzzy beetle statuette each time they complete a run.

References

• Unsurprisingly an overall reference to the Super Mario franchise.
  • Most of its mechanics, such as combat skills using PP, weapon/attack types, badges and The Mushroom District, are derived from the Paper Mario series.

Ascension Paths
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