Journeyman

Journeyman is the Summer 2022 special challenge path, introduced on May 15th, 2022. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "Journey to out-of-the-way places to find your skills."

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.

• Consultations with your guild trainer are curt and unproductive:

  You may not learn skills on this path..

• Skill books and similar items like the emotion chip can't be used:

  You don't feel like reading this right now.

  Where we're going (on this path), we don't need skills.

Divergences

• You start with no skills. Regardless of your class and permanence.
  • Moxie classes are still able to Pickpocket.
  • Conditionally granted skills like Steal Accordion are available, as are skills granted by equipment, such as CHEAT CODE: Replace Enemy.
  • Skill books cannot be used and guild trainers are not available.
• You gain skills by exploring seldom-essayed zones of the Kingdom.
  • Noob zones: Noob Cave, The Dire Warren
  • Marketplace quest zones: The Overgrown Lot, The Skeleton Store, Madness Bakery
  • Dungeoneering areas: The Haiku Dungeon, The Limerick Dungeon
  • Misspelled Cemetary: The Unquiet Garves
  • Knob nethers:The Knob Shaft, Cobb's Knob Laboratory, Menagerie Level 1, Menagerie Level 2, Menagerie Level 3
  • Island areas: The Obligatory Pirate's Cove
  • Pandamonium: Infernal Rackets Backstage, The Laugh Floor, Pandamonium Slums
  • All zones in Spookyraven Manor, Third Floor: The Haunted Laboratory, The Haunted Nursery, The Haunted Storage Room
• The skill is awarded in a non-combat adventure, which will occur on every fourth adventure in a skill-granting zone.
  • The order of skills gained in each zone are different for different players.
  • The Gnomish trainers Gnirf and Melvign can bestow skills (if accessible).

Strategy

• As many Guild skills are marginal or useless, randomly burning turns in skill-granting zones is unlikely to be worthwhile. You might end up spending four adventures on Hide of the Walrus or Disco Eye-Poke.
  • If the order of skills obtained is consistent across ascensions, it's probably a good idea to find out how that works, and prioritize accordingly. We don't really know that yet. Failing that, you're likely better off approaching this as one would a low-skill Standard run.
  • However, if you find yourself needing spend turns on power-leveling, you might as well spend those turns in a skill-granting zone.
  • You can refer to Hardcore Skill Analysis for an idea on how useful the various skills are. The page is somewhat outdated and unlikely to be applicable to cutting-edge speedruns, but it's still useful as a rough outline.
  • There is a spreadsheet for this path that may help with your routing: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NNDAN4FAuzXLyJpa16uEKO3IxkyiBVF1XAfYuE_RLuQ/htmlview#

• Some specific types of skills you might want to pick up:
  • Anything that increases experience gain and item drop chance.
  • Anything that increases familiar weight, as this indirectly helps with item drop chance and experience gain. This means Amphibian Sympathy, Empathy of the Newt and Leash of Linguini.
  • Ways to manipulate Combat Frequency, such as Smooth Movement and The Sonata of Sneakiness (skill). This is less important if you have access to IotMs, as CHEAT CODE: Invisible Avatar and the porkpie-mounted popper are available.
  • A source of Cold damage for The Smut Orc Logging Camp, such as Saucecicle or Northern Explosion.

Rewards

• Finishing a Journeyman run while it is the current special challenge path -- between May 15th, 2022, (and August 15th, 2022) -- gives players 50 (in Normal) or 100 (in Hardcore) extra karma points the next time they visit Valhalla.
• Finishing a Journeyman run also gives a The Big Book of Every Skill.
• Players will receive a Thwaitgold ????? statuette upon defeating the Naughty Sorceress.

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