Dark Gyffte

Dark Gyffte is the Spring 2019 special challenge path, introduced on February 15th, 2019. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "Live a grim facsimile of life as a powerful Vampyre."

Restrictions

Class and skills

• None of your permed skills are available.
  • The one exception is Meteor Lore, which is retained along with all of its associated combat skills.
• No class is picked during reincarnation. Instead your class will be Vampyre, which has its own distinct skill set. Your main stat is Mysticality.
  • In the tavern non-combat you encounter a Pastamancer.
• You will not be accepted into any of the guilds. You will not be able to use a guild to unlock any quests or areas.

Hmm, eternal creature of blood and darkness doesn't really mesh well with the guild concept.

Consumption

• Stomach is size 5.
• Liver is size 4. Players will become intoxicated upon reaching a drunkenness level of 5.
• You cannot eat non-blood food:

You aren't interested in non-blood foodstuffs.

• Interestingly, the magical sausage remains an exception, and can be consumed as normal.
• The basic hot dog from the Hot Dog Stand is also consumable, if you’re full and want to lose stats.

• You can not drink non-blood booze:

You aren't interested in non-blood beverages.

• Unlike a previous mystical avatar, you can't sneak in a steel margarita.

• You may only consume foods and booze crafted from blood bags:

Craft blood bag with:	Result	Type	Adv. gain
wad of dough	bloodstick	food, size 1	11 Adventures
batgut or ratgut	actual blood sausage	food, size 1	14 Adventures
plain snowcone	blood snowcone	food, size 1	17 Adventures
blackberry	blood roll-up	food, size 1	20 Adventures
filthy poultice or gauze garter	blood-soaked sponge cake	food, size 1	23 Adventures
fermenting powder	bottle of Sanguiovese	booze, size 1	11 Adventures
spices	mulled blood	booze, size 1	14 Adventures
glass of goat's milk	Red Russian	booze, size 1	17 Adventures
Any dusty bottle of wine	dusty bottle of blood	booze, size 1	20 Adventures
carbonated soy milk or Monstar energy beverage	vampagne	booze, size 1	23 Adventures

HP

• Your base HP is based off your unbuffed (black) Muscle stat.
• Only absolute +Max HP bonuses will give extra maximum HP. Neither muscle buffs nor percentage-based +Maximum HP bonuses have any effect.
• All non-vampyric means of directly restoring HP (such as healing items and other oddities) will fail to regain any HP. The only ways of regaining HP are through Dark Feast, Sanguine Magnetism, consuming a blood bag, passive HP Regeneration (regenerate X HP per adventure), and going into Torpor, either by resting in your coffin (in your campground), or upon losing a fight.

Miscellaneous

• You do not have access to any familiars. Trying to bring a familiar with you will give the message:

Familiars can't abide your spooky presence.

• Vampyres have no MP so any skills that cost MP cannot be used (eg: Incredible Self-Esteem).
• Vampyres 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.

• Standard restrictions apply while Dark Gyffte is the current challenge path. These restrictions were lifted on May 15, 2019.
• It is not possible to read skill books:

  Vampyres only go out when it's too dark to read..

Divergences

• Your adventure begins with Intro: View of a Vampire.
• Unlike some previous challenge paths, there are no warnings for bringing invalid items during reincarnation. Note that the astral hot dog dinner, astral six-pack, astral pet sweater will not help at all, and astral shirt will require obtaining Torso Awaregness in-run.
• You cannot drop the Dark Gyffte path before day 3 of the run. Trying to do so yields the following message:

  The Dark Gyffte may not be forsaken for at least 3 days.

• A Blood Bank appears on The Right Side of the Tracks. It offers 5 blood bags per day, plus 2 more if you have an Intimidating Aura.
• Once per day, a Lil' Doctor™ bag drops a blood bag at the end of combat.
• Once per day, a vampyric cloake drops a blood bag when using Dark Feast.
• Various bosses have been replaced by monster hunters:
  • Steve Goldthwait replaces the Boss Bat in the Level 4 quest.
  • Ricardo Goldthwait replaces the Goblin King in the Level 5 quest.
  • Jayden Goldthwait replaces the Bonerdagon in the Level 7 quest.
  • Sharona replaces Groar in the Level 8 quest.
  • Greg Dagreasy replaces Lord Spookyraven in the Level 11 quest.
  • Sylvia Belgrande replaces the Protector Spectre in the Level 11 quest.
  • Travis Goldthwait replaces Dr. Awkward in the Level 11 quest.
  • Jake Norris replaces The Big Wisniewski in the Level 12 quest.
  • Chad Alacarte replaces The Man in the Level 12 quest.
    • Since both Level 12 bosses are replaced, the player can't earn an Order of the Silver Wossname -- The Last Stand shows up as normal, but using a flaregun in your chosen boss fight fails to summon the pirates.
  • Your Lack of Reflection replaces Your shadow in the Level 13 quest.
    • Healing items are not needed.
  • %alucard% replaces The Naughty Sorceress in the Level 13 quest.
    • Wand of Nagamar is not needed.
• Upon freeing King Ralph you must choose a class. If you choose a Muscle-based or a Moxie-based class, your Mysticality will switch with your new class's main stat.
• Your avatar is replaced by:

• When wearing outfits, the outfit avatar overrides this avatar, as normal. A custom avatar is not affected.

Skills

Vampyre skills consume HP instead of MP. The Vampyre skill tree is accessed in Torpor, which you can reach by retiring to your coffin at your campsite for 1 adventure or by losing in combat (which will still cost 1 turn).

Rather than purchasing new skills for meat or avatar points, you may learn skills from 3 trees while in Torpor by reducing your available base HP.

• You can skip ranks within a skill tree.
• Vampyres can reconfigure their skills while in Torpor, learning and unlearning any skills so long as they retain an unbuffed base HP of 1 or more. Unlearning a skill refunds its base HP cost.
• Base HP is your HP before adding Maximum HP modifiers. Base HP can only be increased by gaining base Muscle (and through path specific progression as detailed below.) Effects and enchantments that grant +Maximum HP do not increase the pool of base HP available to learn skills. Effects and enchantments that grant +Maximum HP% do not increase your HP at all.
• Losing in combat sends you to Torpor and costs an adventure, even if it was a free fight. Unlike Actually Ed the Undying, you will not return to the fight. After exiting Torpor, you will regain full HP and will not be Beaten Up.

You begin with two skills and 22 base HP to spend on learning skills:

• Dark Feast – Deals damage and heals up to 30 HP from monsters with less than 30 HP. Hypnotic Eyes increases the cap to 100 HP.
• Wisdom of Countless Centuries – Passively grants +3 stats per fight

Note: In the table below, the "Cost" column lists the amount of base HP used to learn the skill. The "Type" column lists the amount of current HP consumed each time you use the skill.

Rank	Beastcraft				Haemoturgy				Aesthesis
	Name	Cost	Type	Effect	Name	Cost	Type	Effect	Name	Cost	Type	Effect
1	Savage Bite	10 HP	Combat 3 HP	Deals double your buffed Muscle as damage	Blood Spike	20 HP	Combat 3 HP	Deals buffed Mysticality +20 as damage	Piercing Gaze	20 HP	Combat 3 HP	Deals buffed Moxie +30 as damage and delevels by 25% of your foe's attack
2	Crush	20 HP	Combat 10 HP	Deals 75% of a monster's HP in damage (up to 200)	Blood Chains	15 HP	Combat 5 HP	Stuns an opponent for several rounds	Perceive Soul	15 HP	Combat 15 HP	Memorizes the pattern of a monster's soul, making you more likely to encounter it in the future.
3	Baleful Howl	30 HP	Combat 30 HP	Free runaway and banishes a foe for the rest of the day Limit 10/day	Chill of the Tomb	10 HP	Combat 7 HP	Deals buffed Mysticality +30 as Cold damage and staggers	Ensorcel	20 HP	Combat 30 HP	Binds an enemy to your service, gain an ensorcelee that has effects in combat Limit 3/day
4	Ceaseless Snarl	15 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Ceaseless Snarling (20 Adv) +30 Monster Level	Blood Cloak	20 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Cloak of Shadows (20 Adv) -15% Combat Frequency	Spectral Awareness	10 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Spectral Awareness (20 Adv) +2 Elemental Resistance to all elements
5	Wolf Form	20 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Intrinsic form: +150% Muscle +150% Meat Drops	Mist Form	30 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Intrinsic form: +200 Damage Absorption +20 Damage Reduction +4 Elemental Resistance to all elements	Flock of Bats Form	20 HP	Non-combat 10 HP	Intrinsic form: +150% Combat Initiative +150% Item Drops
6	Preternatural Strength	15 HP	Passive	Your Muscle cannot be lower than your Mysticality	Madness of Untold Aeons	25 HP	Passive	+150% Mysticality	Sinister Charm	15 HP	Passive	Your Moxie cannot be lower than your Mysticality
7	Flesh Scent	5 HP	Passive	+100% Meat Drops	Hypnotic Eyes	5 HP	Passive	You can Darkly Feast on enemies with up to 100 HP, and Feasting Darkly is more effective	Batlike Reflexes	15 HP	Passive	+75% Combat Initiative
8	Ferocity	10 HP	Passive	Your combat skills do 50% more damage	Macabre Cunning	20 HP	Passive	+5 Stats per Fight	Sharp Eyes	30 HP	Passive	+100% Item Drops
9	Intimidating Aura	30 HP	Passive	Gain 2 more blood bags from the Blood Bank each day	Sanguine Magnetism	15 HP	Passive	Recover some HP after each combat	Spot Weakness	15 HP	Passive	Weakens foes at the start of combat

Ensorcel

The skill Ensorcel allows you to capture a monster as your "ensorcelee," which acts like a familiar in combat. Ensorcel ends combat like a free runaway and can only be used 3 times per day. If you unlearn the skill, your ensorcelee will become inactive, but it will return when you regain the skill.

The function and strength of your ensorcelee is determined by its Monster Type and the monster's attack power. Effects with "(cloake)" note get a 25% bonus to their effectiveness while the vampyric cloake is equipped. (List of ensorcels affected by cloake is probably incomplete.)

Monster type	Effect	Strength	Cap
Beast	Increases meat drop	40% of Attack, rounded down (cloake)	300%
Bug	Increases item drop	20% of Attack, rounded down (cloake)	300%
Constellation	Sleaze Damage	TBD (cloake)
Construct	Increases Damage Reduction	1/15 of Attack
Demon	Hot Damage	TBD (cloake)
Dude	HP regen	1/20 of Attack (cloake)
Elemental	Increases resistance to all elements	Attack/50, rounded up	30
Elf	Increases candy drops	20% of Attack, rounded down (cloake)	300%
Fish	Stench Damage	TBD (cloake)
Goblin	Blocks the first enemy attack of each combat		1 attack
Hippy	Gives Mysticality substats post-combat	TBD	6 Myst/combat
Hobo	Stench Damage	TBD (cloake)
Horror	Spooky Damage	TBD (cloake)
Humanoid	Physical damage	TBD (cloake)
Mer-Kin	Sleaze Damage	TBD (cloake)
Orc	Gives Muscle substats post-combat	TBD
Penguin	Cold Damage	TBD (cloake)
Pirate	Gives Moxie substats post-combat	TBD
Plant	Increases Monster Level	10% of Attack, rounded down
Slime	Increases initiative	40% of Attack, rounded down
Undead	Weakens enemies at the start of combat	(Attack/10)% of monster stats (cloake)
Weird	Prismatic Damage	TBD (cloake)

Forms

Each skill tree has a form skill that grants a powerful intrinsic: Wolf Form, Mist Form, and Flock of Bats Form. While active, a form prevents the use of combat and noncombat skills from the other two trees. Transforming removes buffs from incompatible skills, so you can't just keep buffs from before transforming. You can only have one form active at a time; casting one form while another is already active will remove the previous form.

Forms are deactivated in Torpor, or by using the skill again to drop the Form.

Skill progression

Each normal (softcore) Dark Gyffte ascension completed grants +20 base HP in future Dark Gyffte runs, and each hardcore Dark Gyffte ascension completed grants +40 base HP. This progression is capped at +460 base HP, and a full-power Vampyre will begin the ascension with 482 base HP.

This path's skill bucket is a bucket of ancient Vampyre blood, sold in Mr. Store for one Uncle Buck. It grants +20 base HP in your future Dark Gyffte runs, sharing the cap with HP earned from ascensions.

Text

See The Council of Loathing/Dark Gyffte

Strategy

• See this page for tips and strategies.

Rewards

• Finishing a Dark Gyffte run while it was the current special challenge path -- between February 15th, 2019, and May 15th, 2019 -- gave players a Booke of Vampyric Knowledge upon defeating %alucard%, along with 100 (in Hardcore) or 50 (in Normal) extra karma points the next time they visited 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 Dark Gyffte run.
• Players will receive a Thwaitgold mosquito statuette each time they complete a run.

Notes

• The Belmont family line encountered throughout each ascension will have a random name per player per ascension. The wordbucket for this can be found Here. If you have a Monster Manuel, bosses with such names will update accordingly.

References

• A large portion of this challenge path, primarily the bosses and their family trees, are a reference to Castlevania, a video game series developed by Konami.

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