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

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. The amount of damage depends on the current zone's fire level.
• 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.

• 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 an <item> drop before it burns up."

  • Items with 100% base drop rate, items dropped post-combat, and quest items are unaffected.
  • Items dropped via yellow ray 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 decreasing 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 Naughty Sorceress you fight The Naughty Scorcheress.

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.

Text

• On beginning the path:

As you arrive back in the Kingdom of Loathing for the N+1th time, you notice that things look a little different than usual. It takes you a second to put a finger on it, but then it hits you -- everything is on fire. Absolutely everything is literally on fire, and not in the "whoooo hell yeah" sense.

This seems like it's maybe going to be a problem.

"Oh No"

You see a flyer -- on fire, it's a fireflyer -- saying the FDKOL has set up a camp in Seaside Town and are looking for volunteers. Maybe there's some way you could help them out?

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

Strategy

• Hot resistance vs. fire reduction?
• Prioritising fire reduction in areas with desired item drops?
• 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.
• 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:
    • sonar-in-a-biscuit, enchanted bean (both from beanbat)
  • Level 5:
    • Knob Goblin harem veil, Knob Goblin harem pants (both from Knob Goblin Harem Girl)
  • Level 7:
    • skeleton bone, loose teeth for a skeleton key for the tower (both from toothy sklelton or party skelteon)
  • Level 8:
    • 3 goat cheese (can get 3 with a cheesy diabolic pizza)
    • You can get Mining Gear from the non-combats, or skip the mine entirely by clovering for ore.
  • Level 9:
    • rusty hedge trimmers (or opt for the non-combats instead)
    • bubblin' crude (some are 100%, but many aren't)
  • Level 10:
    • amulet of extreme plot significance (or the titanium assault umbrella)
    • Mohawk wig is not necessary with Comprehensive Cartography -- you can use the model airship instead
  • Level 11:
    • stone wool (but you can use the non-combats)
    • 5 bowling balls
    • stunt nuts
  • Level 12:
    • a war outfit
    • enough war items to get currency for gauze garters or filthy poultices for Your Shadow
  • Level 13:
    • stars and lines for Richard's star key
    • pixels for digital key (or use Powerful Glove for most of the run)

Rewards

• Finishing a Wildfire run while it is the current special challenge path -- between August 15th, 2021, and ???? -- gives players 50 (in Normal) or 100 (in Hardcore) extra karma points the next time they visit Valhalla.

Ascension Paths
Boozetafarian	Teetotaler	Oxygenarian
Special Challenge Paths
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