Safe Adventuring

This page is in need of content. Page is extremely outdated. Needs old values checked based on manuel values, needs a lot of new zones.

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There are two different strategies that can help you survive your adventures in the Kingdom of Loathing. The first is to have a high enough Moxie that you can dodge all of the non-critical attacks made by the monsters. The second is to have a high enough Combat Initiative that you can be sure of getting the jump on the monsters (presumably followed by the use of spells, combat items, or other strategies to kill the monster before it can attack you at all).

This page lists the minimum Moxie required to adventure in an area without being hit by the normal attacks of the monsters you will find there, and the minimum Combat Initiative bonus you need to guarantee getting the jump on all the monsters there.

"Safe moxie" has traditionally been determined by multiplying the maximum amount of experience you could get from the monster by four to find the monster's attack power. To evade every non-critical attack, you must have 10 more Moxie than the monster has attack power. Since the introduction of Monster Manuel, the game can report each monster's attack values directly. There is also some variance in the attack power of most monsters. It is possible for some monsters to hit you if your Moxie is only slightly higher than the values listed below. At some point, the table should be updated to reflect this....

By default, the table is sorted by the standard Wiki location order, but you can select the box in any column header to sort by locations alphabetically, or by the Moxie or Initiative required for safe adventuring. (Sorting the table this way requires Javascript.) Thus, knowing your current Moxie or Initiative, you can figure out at a glance the areas in which you're reasonably capable of adventuring.

Remember: All these values are the very maximums of the area's strongest monsters' hitting or jumping abilities. If you're relying on Moxie, and your Moxie is only a few points lower than the value stated, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Monsters might hit you, but infrequently. If you're relying on Initiative, and your Initiative is slightly under the values listed here, you may be jumped occasionally -- be prepared.

Note: Since the implementation of critical hits and fumbles for monsters, all monsters have equally small chances to hit or miss you regardless of your Moxie. Adventure safely with this in mind.

Note: The table does not include data for Semi-rare monsters, Ultra-rare monsters, or monsters that only appear in special challenge paths.

Note: Underwater adventuring zones have a pressure penalty which affects initiative.

Area	Location	Moxie Required	Initiative Required
Seaside Town	The Sleazy Back Alley	11	40
	The Haunted Pantry	12	60
	Outskirts of Camp Logging Camp	13	45
	Camp Logging Camp	50	60
Spookyraven Manor	The Haunted Pantry	12	60
	The Haunted Kitchen	15	50
	The Haunted Conservatory	19	∞
	The Haunted Billiards Room	30	70
	The Haunted Library	68	70
	The Haunted Gallery	125	50
	The Haunted Bathroom	110	35
	The Haunted Ballroom	120	50
	The Haunted Bedroom	174	50
	The Haunted Wine Cellar	178	65
The Nearby Plains	Degrassi Knoll	24	60
	Cola Wars Battlefield	40	50
	The "Fun" House (except for The Clownlord Beelzebozo at 38 mox, 55-100 init)	30	85
	The Misspelled Cemetary (Pre-Cyrpt)	33	80
	The Unquiet Garves	?	?
	The REALLY Unquiet Garves	?	?
	The Misspelled Cemetary (Post-Cyrpt) (except Skelter Butleton, the Butler Skeleton)	69	50
	Inside the Palindome (except for Dr. Awkward, at 176-183 mox, unknown init)	165	90
	The Spectral Pickle Factory	206	70
The Ruins of Fernswarthy's Tower	28	55
Cobb's Knob	Outskirts of Cobb's Knob	12	60
	Kitchens (except for Knob Goblin Elite Guard Captain)	32	65
	Cobb's Knob Barracks (except for Knob Goblin Elite Guard Captain)	40	50
	Treasury (except for Knob Goblin Embezzler)	40	75
	Harem	40	80
	King's Chamber	65	100
Cobb's Knob Laboratories	The Knob Shaft	41	50
	Laboratory	55	70
	Menagerie Level 1	66	80
	Menagerie Level 2	76	80
	Menagerie Level 3	86	80
The Bat Hole	Entryway	24	60
	Guano Junction	28	60
	Beanbat Chamber	31	60
	Batrat and Ratbat Burrow	35	60
	The Boss Bat's Lair	47	60
The Cyrpt	The Defiled Nook (except for giant skeelton, at 87 mox, 60 init)	67	50
	The Defiled Cranny (except for huge ghuol, at 89 mox, 60 init)	65	300
	The Defiled Niche (except for gargantulihc, at 87 mox, 60 init)	69	50
	The Defiled Alcove (except for conjoined zmombie, at 89 mox, 60 init)	68	300
	The Haert of the Cyrpt	101	90
The Beanstalk	The Penultimate Fantasy Airship	130	90
	The Castle in the Clouds in the Sky (Basement)	160	80
	The Castle in the Clouds in the Sky (Ground Floor)	140	40
	The Castle in the Clouds in the Sky (Top Floor)	160	50
	The Hole in the Sky	178	70
The Distant Woods	The Spooky Forest	15	70
	Tavern Cellar (except for Baron von Ratsworth, who scales)	50	90
	A Barroom Brawl	20	50
	The Bugbear Pens	30	75
	8-Bit Realm	35	60
	Whitey's Grove	48	70
	The Road to the White Citadel	49	55
	The Spooky Gravy Barrow	75	100
	The Black Forest	143	50
	The Hidden Park	?	?
	The Hidden Apartment Building	?	?
	The Hidden Bowling Alley	?	?
	The Hidden Hospital	?	?
	The Hidden Office Building	?	?
	A Massive Ziggurat	?	?
Copse of the Deep Fat Friars	The Dark Neck of the Woods	62	90
	The Dark Heart of the Woods	60	80
	The Dark Elbow of the Woods	58	75
Pandamonium	Pandamonium Slums	62	90
	Infernal Rackets Backstage	70	35
	The Laugh Floor	76	60
Desert Beach	South of The Border	35	75
	Thugnderdome	55	60
	An Oasis	147	50
	The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert	152	60
A Small Pyramid	The Upper Chamber	180	70
	The Middle Chamber	185	75
	The Lower Chambers	190	∞
The Mysterious Island of Mystery*	The Hippy Camp	51	70
	Orcish Frat House	51	60
	The Obligatory Pirate's Cove	79	75
	The Hippy Camp (Verge of War)	185	60
	Orcish Frat House (Verge of War)	185	60
	McMillicancuddy's Farm (Post-War)	190	70
	The Battlefield (War Hippy Fatigues)	220	100 (not counting heroes)
	The Battlefield (Frat Warrior Fatigues)	220	100
	The Hippy Camp (Bombed Back to the Stone Age)	261	75
	Orcish Frat House (Bombed Back to the Stone Age)	265	80
The Obligatory Pirate's Cove (in disguise)	Barrrney's Barrr	93	50
	The F'c'le	110	50
	The Poop Deck	130	50
	Belowdecks	150	50
The Organic Orchard	The Hatching Chamber	175	50
	The Feeding Chamber	177	50
	The Guards' Chamber	179	50
	The Queen's Chamber	183	50
McMillicancuddy's Farm	The Barn	176	40
	The Other Back 40	183	70
	The Bog	184	60
	The Family Plot	185	50
	The Granary	185	40
	The Back 40	188	50
	The Pond	189	50
	The Shady Thicket	190	50
Our Lady of Perpetual Indecision	The Themthar Hills	179	50
The Lighthouse	Sonofa Beach	181	40
The Big Mountains	Noob Cave	?	?
	Dire Warren	?	?
	The Dark and Dank and Sinister Cave	34	40
	The Barrel full of Barrels	45	90
	The Valley of Rof L'm Fao	97	70
	A-boo Peak	88	0
	Oil Peak(*)	95(*)	50 to 90(*)
	Twin Peak	103	60
	The Smut Orc Logging Camp	95	50
The Dungeoneers' Association	The Haiku Dungeon	14	75
	The Limerick Dungeon	?	?
	The Enormous Greater Than Sign	?	?
	The Daily Dungeon	30	60
	The Dungeons of Doom	71	90
Mt. McLargeHuge	Itznotyerzitz Mine	67	50
	The Goatlet	78	80
	The eXtreme Slope	85	60
	Lair of the Ninja Snowmen (except for ninja snowman assassin)	100	75
	The Icy Peak (except for Groar)	117	60
The Sea	The Briny Deeps	340	0?
	The Brinier Deepers (except for trophyfish)	410	0?
	The Briniest Deepests	435	0?
The Sea Floor	An Octopus's Garden (except for moister oyster)	460	50?
	The Wreck of the Edgar Fitzsimmons (except for mine crab and unholy diver, at 710)	460	50?
	Anemone Mine	510	75?
	Madness Reef	510	50?
	Marinara Trench	556	50?
	The Dive Bar	610	80?
	The Mer-Kin Outpost	760	50?
Lair of The Naughty Sorceress	The Naughty Sorceress	215	∞
	The Hedge Maze	245	80
An Incredibly Strange Place	Bad Trip	30	60
	Mediocre Trip	63	60
	Great Trip	155	60
Memories, in the Corners of your Mind	The Primordial Soup	35	50
	The Jungles of Ancient Loathing (except for High Priest, at 120)	75	80
	Seaside Megalopolis	180	100
The Campground	A Shimmering Portal (except for a hulking construct, at ∞)	410	80
Hobopolis	Hobopolis Town Square (except for Hodgman, The Hoboverlord, at 760 mox, unknown init)	310	100
	A Maze of Sewer Tunnels (except for C. H. U. M. chieftain, at 340 mox, unknown init)	270	60
	Burnbarrel Blvd. (except for Ol' Scratch, at 510)	350	unknown*
	Exposure Esplanade (except for Frosty, at 510)	360	100 (except for Frosty, at 200)
	The Heap (except for Oscus, at 510)	360	100 (except for Oscus, at 200)
	The Ancient Hobo Burial Ground (except for Zombo, at 510)	360	100 (except for Zombo, at 195)
	The Purple Light District (except for Chester, at 510)	360	100 (except for Chester, at 200)
The Slime Tube	The Slime Tube (except for Mother Slime, at 3000-8700+ mox, 300 init)	110	55

Lower moxie limits

A monster's chance to hit decreases roughly linearly from 100% at (moxie-monsterlevel) <= -9 to 0% at (moxie-monsterlevel) >= 10. If your moxie is more than 19 points below what is given in the table above, the toughest monster at any given location will be hitting you 100% of the time.

If we simplify the damage incurred formula to

 (Monster Level - Player Moxie) + (Monster Level * 1/4) = Total Damage

then (disregarding Elemental Resistance, Damage Absorption and other complications) the number of turns you can stay alive is

                Hit pts                  Total HP
 Turns alive = --------- = -------------------------------------
                Damage      1.25 * Monster Level - Player Moxie

Attacking with Player Moxie more than 19 points below the safe level above leaves fewer than 0-3 turns in which to win the fight. For example, without other modifications, a 75 HP, 82-moxie adventurer fighting in the Haert of the Cyrpt would be hit 100% of the time, for 36 to 41 HP each time, and only two to three turns.

Special Zones

There are a few zones where adventuring is never truly "safe".

• Oil Peak and The Junkyard contain monsters who have the special quality of never missing with their normal attacks, no matter how high your Moxie is.
  • On the Oil Peak, if you have total +ML less than 20, you will fight only oil slicks, and those can miss you. If you have +ML of 20 or more, then you'll face the other monsters, who never miss.
• The Battlefield contains a few enemies which have special attacks which will hit no matter how high your Moxie is:
  • Frat side:
    • Panty Raider Frat Boy (Strangulated)
    • War Frat Grill Sergeant/War Frat Senior Grill Sergeant (You're on fire!)
    • War Frat Elite Wartender (Easily Embarrassed)
  • Hippy side:
    • Green Ops Soldier (Toad in the Hole / Light-Headed)
    • War Hippy Fire Spinner/War Hippy Elite Fire Spinner (You're on fire!)
    • War Hippy Elder Shaman (Flared Nostrils)
• Hobopolis Hobos all have special attacks which will always hit for heavy damage no matter how high your Moxie gets in addition to their normal attacks which can be negated by Moxie. Additionally:
  • Hitting Cold hobos too hard will deal heavy reactive damage, after icicles have formed in the zone.
  • Hot hobos may get increased initiative based on how many tires are stacked. This mechanic is not well understood.

See Also

• Cisco's (#427002) Moxie Look-Up
• The Monster Survival Guide! from Kittiwake (#515189)
• Combat Mechanics Spading