Wildfire

Wildfire is the Fall 2021 special challenge path, introduced on August 15th, 2021. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "The Kingdom is burning! Help put out fires while also helping with everything you usually help with."

Restrictions

• You cannot enter The Sea:

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

Divergences

• Your adventure begins with Wildfire!.

Fire

The whole kingdom is on fire! Each zone has its own fire level, which starts at 5 and can be decreased through actions in the FDKOL Volunteer Fire Camp. These actions cost water.

• A number of animated flame graphics will appear on the screen during combat, increasing with the zone's fire level.
• The colour of the main pane and border around the combat varies between bright red and blue depending on the level of the fire in the zone.

Fire level	Passive fire damage*	Chance of item burning up	Always lose the jump?
5 (Inferno)	20%-25% of Max HP	100%	Yes
4 (Raging)	11%-19% of Max HP	~76.8%	Yes
3 (Burning)	5%-10% of Max HP	~36.1%	No
2 (Smoldering)	3%-4% of Max HP	~10.9%	No
1 (Smoking)	1%-2% of Max HP	0%	No
0 (None)	None	0%	No

* Passive fire damage is X% of max HP, where X is a random integer (range given in the table above)

Fire level adds various penalties to combat:

• During combat, you will take passive hot damage relative to your maximum HP, unless you have an industrial fire extinguisher equipped. The amount of damage depends on the current zone's fire level.

  A lick of flame scorches your <leg>.

  A wildfire ember lands on your <leg>, scorching you.

  The intense heat of the wildfires overwhelms you.

  You accidentally inhale a bunch of hot wildfire smoke.

  You brush up against something that's on fire, singeing all the hair off of your <leg>.

  Your flesh sizzles in the intense heat of the wildfire.

• Higher fire levels (4+) prevent you from getting the jump on the monster:

  Due to the thick smoke, you don't see your foe until it's almost too late.

  The thick smoke prevents you from getting the jump on your foe.

  • You can still get the jump on monsters that always lose initiative.
• Items dropped by a monster have a chance to burn up. The odds of this happening increase with a zone's fire level.

  "You see a <item> drop before it burns up."

  • Items with 100% base drop rate, items dropped post-combat, quest items and conditional drops (like the rusty grave robbing shovel) are unaffected.
  • Items dropped via yellow ray and Feel Envy can still burn, but items dropped from Use the Force, %playername! cannot.

Water

You can collect and spend water, a resource exclusive to this path.

• Once per day, you can gather 100 units of water at the Rain Barrel at the FDKOL Volunteer Fire Camp for free. This will increase to 150 if you have caulked the barrel.
• The Water Pump at the FDKOL Volunteer Fire Camp produces 30 units of water at the cost of 1 adventure. This is increased to 50 if you have greased the pump.
• Adventuring with items such as the water candle equipped causes you to gather water after each combat, including free fights.
• The FDKOL Auxiliary shop sells water-producing equipment, as well as single-use items that increase the effectiveness of the rain barrel and water pump.

Water can be used to reduce the fire level in various zones.

• Fire Captain Hagnk can send volunteers to a specific zone to decrease its fire level by one. This initially costs 10 units of water and increases by 10 every time you send volunteers. The cost resets at rollover.
• Fracker Dan, Sprinkler Joe and Cropduster Dusty can (respectively) drench all underground, indoors and outdoors locations. This reduces the fire level by 3 in all affected locations (e. g. from 5 to 2) and can be done once per ascension for each type of zone. The cost starts at 1000 units of water, and goes up by 1000 each time you take an offer, for a total cost of 6000.

In addition, equipping the B. L. A. R. T. (sold at the FDKOL Auxiliary) grants the following combat skills, all of which cost water:

• B. L. A. R. T. Spray (narrow): (5 water) Steals an item from the monster, a la Pickpocket
• B. L. A. R. T. Spray (medium): (10 water) Deals 100 Cold Damage
• B. L. A. R. T. Spray (wide): (100 water) Banish the monster for the rest of the day

Bosses

You encounter conflagrant versions of the usual bosses:

• Instead of the Boss Bat, you fight the Blaze Bat.
• Instead of the Knob Goblin King, you fight the fired-up Knob Goblin King.
• Instead of The Bonerdagon, you fight The Burnerdagon.
• Instead of Groar, you fight Groar, Except Hot.
• Instead of Dr. Awkward you fight Dr. Awkward, who is on fire.
• Instead of Lord Spookyraven you fight Lord Sootyraven.
• Instead of the Protector Spectre you fight Protector Spectre.
• Instead of The Big Wisniewski you fight The Big Ignatowicz.
• Instead of The Man you fight The Man on Fire.
• You still fight Ed the Undying, but only the first combat has fire damage. Subsequent stages of the fight are not on fire.
• Instead of the Naughty Sorceress you fight The Naughty Scorcheress.
  • The Naughty Scorcheress does not transform this time around, so the Wand of Nagamar is not required to defeat her. Furthermore, she does not remove your buffs.

Item(s) of the Month

• On this challenge path, the Our Daily Candles™ subscription provides a water candle each day in addition to its usual benefits.
• The industrial fire extinguisher prevents the per-round Hot damage. Also, Fire Captain Hagnk can refill your extinguisher once per day.

Text

For interaction with the council, see The Council of Loathing/Wildfire

Strategy

• Keep a constant, high level of hot resistance to minimize damage from fire. You can use in-combat heals, such as Splashdance and Saucy Salve, for longer combats, while using Cannelloni Cocoon to keep your HP topped off for each fight.
• You may want to get enough water to crop dust the outdoor areas. This can help get the necessary items for Inside the Palindome, Twin Peak, Oil Peak, The Penultimate Fantasy Airship, The Hole in the Sky and The Battlefield.
  • Alternatively, you may not want to do the mass reduction of any areas, instead relying on Hagnk, out-of-combat drops, and saber forcing.
• Monsters fought outside of combat areas, such as from Calculate the Universe or Cargo Cultist Shorts pockets, will always be at the maximum fire level, and you cannot use the force on pocketed monsters. This makes certain pockets (such as the one with the mountain man) poor choices for opening.
• Certain item drops are required to complete the ascension (or helpful to make quests faster), and aren't either 100% drops or quest items and so are at risk of burning up. These items should either be saber-forced, blart-pocketed or water should be spent decreasing the fire level. They are (in approximate level order):
  • Level 4:
    • (underground) sonar-in-a-biscuit, enchanted bean (both from beanbat) - there are alternatives for the sonar (such as fighting screambats, the How I Wonder What You're At clover adventure, and Fire Extinguisher: Constricted Blast) but not for the bean.
  • Level 5:
    • (underground) Knob Goblin harem veil, Knob Goblin harem pants (both from Knob Goblin Harem Girl), or use Fire Extinguisher: Foam the Place
  • Level 7:
    • (underground or outdoor) skeleton bone, loose teeth for a skeleton key for the tower (both from toothy sklelton or party skelteon)
  • Level 8:
    • (outdoor) 3 goat cheese (can get 3 with a cheesy diabolic pizza)
    • (outdoor) You can get Mining Gear from the non-combats, or skip the mine entirely by clovering for ore. You can also fight a mountain man via Cargo Cultist Shorts and obtain the ores through Fire Extinguisher: Polar Vortex (the normal drops just burn up and saber-force doesn't work.)
  • Level 9:
    • (outdoor) rusty hedge trimmers (or opt for the non-combats instead)
    • (outdoor) bubblin' crude (some are 100%, but many aren't)
  • Level 10:
    • (outdoor) amulet of extreme plot significance (or the titanium assault umbrella)
    • (outdoor) Mohawk wig is not necessary with Comprehensive Cartography -- you can use the model airship instead
  • Level 11:
    • (indoor) tires and Gnollish toolbox for bitchin' meatcar if you are not in a knoll sign. You can just buy a desert pass instead.
    • (indoor) stone wool (but you can use the non-combats)
    • (indoor) 5 bowling balls (or you can hope to get lucky using non-combats in the Park. Fire Extinguisher: Polar Vortex works very well here, as the balls have a high drop rate)
    • (outdoor) stunt nuts, lion oil and bird rib
    • (underground) tomb ratchets don't drop from tomb rat kings, but drop fine from tomb rats, where they're conditional
  • Level 12:
    • (unknown) a war outfit (or you can use the non-combats)
    • (outdoor) enough war items to get currency for gauze garters or filthy poultices for Your Shadow
  • Level 13:
    • (outdoor) stars and lines for Richard's star key
    • (outdoor) pixels for digital key (or use Powerful Glove for most of the run)
• The wall of skin is trickier than normal, because you can't reduce the fire level of the Sorceress' Tower, so you take additional hot damage during combat unless you have an industrial fire extinguisher equipped. If you intend to fight it without the beehive, and don't have access to the fire extinguisher, you'll need to use some rarer skills. Splashdance avoids getting hit by fire for one turn, and heals you, but you still receive damage from the wall. Both Sauceshell and Shell Up avoid the wall's hit while allowing your familiar to act.
• If you're using diabolic pizza to get extra sleaze damage, Fifty Ways to Bereave Your Lover and Dirty Pear are both obtainable from items without specifically hunting combats:
  • F: flask flops (if sabering War Frat 151st Infantryman), finger cymbals (if sabering a Knob Goblin Harem Girl), flimsy hardwood scraps
  • I: Imp Ale
  • D: dry noodles, disco mask, dense meat stack
  • R: ravioli hat
  • T: Typical Tavern swill

Notes

During events (such as Halloween) where the FDKOL camp's tile on the Seaside Town map is otherwise occupied, the only way to get to the camp is the chat command "/go FDKOL Volunteer Fire Camp".

Rewards

• Finishing a Wildfire run while it is the current special challenge path -- between August 15th, 2021, and November 14, 2021 -- gives players 50 (in Normal) or 100 (in Hardcore) extra karma points the next time they visit Valhalla.
• Players will receive a Thwaitgold fire beetle statuette each time they complete a run.
• Leftover water is recorded as an Accomplishment in your Quest Log.

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