Heavy Rains

Heavy Rains is the Autumn 2014 special challenge path, introduced on August 15, 2014. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "Torrential rains have flooded the Kingdom, making everything extremely difficult. But you can rise to the challenge (seriously, this one is challenging) with the help of some powerful new skills.

NOTE: Limited-time content from prior to 2012 is disallowed on this path."

Restrictions

• You are not permitted to use Mr. Items or limited-time content that became limited before January 1, 2012. The restrictions are shown in the type 69 schedule (or this static external list).
  • Attempting to use a restricted familiar gives this message:

    That familiar is too old to be used on this path.

  • Clicking the clan VIP pool table (or trying to view the leaderboard) gives:

    That clan thing is too old to be used on this path.

  • Attempting to use a restricted skill gives:

    That skill is too old for this path.

  • Attempting to pull a restricted item from Hagnk's while in Ronin gives:

    That item is too old to be used on this path.

  • Buying restricted items from the Mall:

    You can't afford that item. (With meat from Hagnk's)

  • Attempting to use a restricted item:

    That item is too old to be used on this path.

  • Attempting to use An Awesome Ball Pit in Hardcore or Ronin:

    The ball pit is too old to be used in this path.

• The type69 restrictions are removed if you are in a Normal run and have played at least 1000 turns (i.e. no longer in Ronin).
• The type69 restrictions apply only while Heavy Rains is the current challenge path.
• Non-water-breathing familiars must equip a miniature life preserver (see Divergences), or they will lose most of their functions.
• The Feast of Boris does not give bonus fullness. On the main map, this message appears:

Today is the Feast of Boris.

The rain has ruined your festive mood.

Divergences

• On ascending into a Heavy Rains run, the player encounters Why Is the World In Love Again?
• During combat, monsters will be covered by water that increases their monster level the deeper it is. The depth of the water depends on the zone type (indoors, outdoors, underground) and the general difficulty of the zone.
  • A zone is considered "easy" or "challenging" depending on the stat recommendation of the zone (what's the threshold?). An easy zone has a base depth of 1, and a challenging zone a base depth of 2.
  • If the zone is outdoors, the rain level is unchanged; indoor zones gain +2, and underground zones gain +4.
  • Depth can be increased and decreased with items and effects. Personal Thundercloud and The Rain In Loathing both increase the depth level by 2, and equipping the heavy duty umbrella decreases it by 2.
  • Depth level has a minimum of 1 and a maximum level of 6.
  • Depth increases Monster Level by +10 per level of water depth.
  • The water depth is visible by mouse-hovering on the monster icon during a combat.
  • Unsurprisingly, underwater locations are not modified or affected by the kingdom-wide flooding.
• After combat, some items may be washed away by the water. The chance of losing an item is 5% per level of water depth.
  • Each item's chance of washing away is independently rolled. You may lose multiple items in the same combat.
  • Quest items and items with a 100% base drop rate will never wash away. Items dropped due to yellow ray may still be washed away.
• Wandering monsters will occasionally attack the player. The first monster is met on turn 9-11 of the run, and all subsequent monsters are seen 35-45 turns after the last. The monster seen depends on the water depth of where you are adventuring, and the terrain type:

Depth	Terrain	Monster	Notes
1	Any	giant isopod	Drops 1 freshwater fishbone
2	Any	gourmet gourami	Drops gourmet gourami oil
3	Any	freshwater bonefish	Drops 2 freshwater fishbones
4	Any	alley catfish	Drops catfish whiskers
5	Any	piranhadon	Drops 3 freshwater fishbones
6	Underground	giant tardigrade	Drops thunder thigh
6	Indoor	aquaconda	Drops aquaconda brain
6	Outdoor	storm cow	Drops lightning milk

• (Monsters which drop multiple fishbones may not have 100% drop rates on each fishbone.)
• The water inhibits non-water-breathing familiars in some way which is not yet fully understood. This also affects familiars in equipment like the Buddy Bjorn.
• The General Store sells 4 new items during this path:
  • water wings for babies (50 meat) – Multi-equippable accessory that raises maximum HP by 10 and lowers monster level by 15.
  • miniature life preserver (100 meat) – Familiar equipment that makes your familiar immune to the familiar-blocking effects of the rain.
  • heavy duty umbrella (300 meat) – Offhand item that lowers the water level by 2 when equipped.
  • pool skimmer (500 meat) – Offhand item that randomly lets you receive items that have been lost in the water by other players after combat.
• 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.

Bosses

Most ascension-required bosses have been replaced with a mass of sentient water. These new rain bosses drop different items, and a hard cap on damage that can be dealt to them.

Normal Boss	Rain Boss	New Item	Hard Cap	Notes
Boss Bat	Aquabat	neoprene skullcap	12
Knob Goblin King	Aquagoblin	goblin water	23	Removes a buff every round
Bonerdagon	Auqadargon	nothing	28	Does not drop rib or vertebra
Groar	Gurgle	liquid ice	56
Lord Spookyraven	Lord Soggyraven	Lord Soggyraven's Slippers	39
Protector Spectre	Protector Spurt	Ancient Protector Soda	21
Dr. Awkward	Dr. Aquard	Sogg-Os and dumb mud	39	Spell damage is reduced to 1
The Man	The Aquaman	filet of The Fish	200
The Big Wisniewski	Big Wisnaqua	Wet Russian	200
The Naughty Sorceress	The Rain King	beautiful rainbow	40	Removes all clothes at the start Removes an effect each time he acts

• Ed the Undying is not changed, although he is given a different introduction.
• Because The Naughty Sorceress is replaced, you do not need a wand of Nagamar.

Skills

When you defeat one of the wandering monsters at Depth 6, it drops an item that can be used to learn one skill. The skills have no prerequisites besides requiring using the item. There are three groups of skills, each with its own skill-granting item, and its own unique resource which is used in place of MP.

At the end of each HR run, when you break prism, your run is (invisibly) "marked" according to which skill type you have the most of (or a random one of the two/three, in the case of a tie). At the start of each HR run after the first, you will receive one skill-granting item for each previous run, corresponding to that run's "mark". For example, if you have completed three HR runs, and had mostly Rain skills in the first two runs, and mostly Lightning skills in the third run, then your fourth run will begin with two aquaconda brains and one lightning milk. (Spading needed: is there a cap for each type/overall?)

These are the resources:

• Thunder: Used for skills gained by using a thunder thigh from a giant tardigrade. It is measured in dB.
  • Every 10 combat wins, you will receive the following message post-combat:

    A peal of thunder sounds nearby. You swallow X dB of it.

  • X is equal to 30, or 50 if you know Thunder Thighs.
• Rain: Used for skills gained by using a aquaconda brain from an aquaconda. It is measured in drops.
  • Every 7 combat wins, you will receive the following message post-combat:

    You turn your smiling face up to the rains, recovering 7 drops.

• Lightning: Used for skills gained by using a lightning milk from a storm cow. It is measured in bolts.
  • Lightning does not regenerate other than at rollover, unless you have Thor's Pliers equipped.
  • Every 11 combat wins with Thor's Pliers equipped, you will receive the following message post-combat:

    You raise Thor's Pliers to the tumultuous heavens and are struck by a torrent of lightning, recovering 11 bolts.

All three resources are capped at 100. Whenever you learn a skill from each group for the first time, you will start with the full amount. The three resources are also refilled to max at rollover.

Due to how the depth mechanics work, you will need to know Thundercloud in order to encounter an aquaconda, and you need to know both Thundercloud and Rainy Day to encounter a storm cow.

thunder thigh			aquaconda brain			lightning milk
Name	Type	Effect	Name	Type	Effect	Name	Type	Effect
Thunder Clap	Combat 40 dB	Banishes the monster for 40 turns, or until another foe is banished with this skill	Rain Man	Non-combat 50 drops	Allows you to fight any copyable monster you know	Lightning Strike	Combat 20 bolts	Insta-kills monster without spending an Adventure
Thundercloud	Non-combat 20 dB	Personal Thundercloud Increases water depth by 2 (100 turns)	Rainy Day	Non-combat 20 drops	The Rain In Loathing Increases water depth by 2 (100 turns)	Clean-Hair Lightning	Non-combat 10 bolts	Charged Hair Maximum MP +100% (100 turns)
Thunder Bird	Combat 1 dB	Delevels monster by 15%, rounded up	Make it Rain	Combat 10 drops	Increases meat drops by 300% at the end of combat (Usable once per fight)	Ball Lightning	Combat 5 bolts	Yellow Ray disintegration, X damage if on cooldown (99 turns of Everything Looks Yellow)
Thunderheart	Non-combat 20 dB	Thunderheart Maximum HP +100% (100 turns)	Rain Dance	Noncombat 10 drops	Rain Dancin' +20% Item Drops from Monsters (100 turns)	Sheet Lightning	Non-combat 10 bolts	Stormswaddled Spell Damage +100%, Damages attacking opponents (100 turns)
Thunderstrike	Combat 5 dB	Stuns monster for X turns (Usable once per fight)	Rainbow	Combat 3 drops	Deals prismatic damage (6-7 per element)	Lightning Bolt(?)	Combat 1 bolt	Deals 1 damage, or 5000+ damage if cast the 3rd time in a single combat
Thunder Down Underwear	Non-combat 60 dB	Once per day, gives thunder down underwear (disappears at rollover)	Rain Coat	Non-combat 40 drops	Once per day, gives famous blue raincoat (disappears at rollover)	Lightning Rod	Non-combat 20 bolts	Once per day, gives lightning rod (disappears at rollover)
Thunder Thighs	Passive	You regain 50 dB every swallowed clap, instead of 30	Rain Delay	Passive	+3 Resistance to All Elements	Riding the Lightning	Passive	Maximum MP +100%

Strategy

• See Heavy Rains/Strategy for a discussion of speed strategies.
• If you are finding adventuring too difficult, particularly at the start of the run, you may wish to buy and equip one (or more) water wings for babies from The General Store.
• A Maze of Sewer Tunnels leading to hobopolis will always have giant tardigrades and is always available provided you can survive the ~300ml there. (You can get whitelisted into bumcheekcity's Basements to get free access.)

Notes

• The Trendy-type restriction (no use of limited-time content older than 2012) applies only while Heavy Rains is the current challenge path. On November 15, 2014 this restriction will no longer exist.
• While you are on the path, your profile includes a link to the new restricted item list.

Rewards

• Finishing a Heavy Rains run that began while it was still the current special challenge path -- that is, between August 15th, 2014, and November 14th, 2014 -- gives players 100 (in Hardcore) or 50 (in Normal) extra karma points the next time they visit Valhalla.
• You receive a beautiful rainbow for completing a Normal or Hardcore run while this is the current challenge path.
• Players will receive a Thwaitgold spider statuette upon defeating The Rain King.

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