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 can be 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 traditional 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.

• You can not drink non-blood booze:

You aren't interested in non-blood beverages.

• 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 max HP is based off your base Muscle stat, not your buffed Muscle stat.
• Percentage-based +Maximum HP bonuses have no effect, though absolute +Max HP bonuses still work.
• Many non-vampyric means of restoring HP (such as healing items and resting) don't work. Passive HP Regeneration does.

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 will be lifted on May 15, 2019.

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.
• 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.
• Various bosses have been replaced by monster hunters:
  • Steve Bolker replaces the Boss Bat in the Level 4 quest.
  • Ricardo Bolker replaces the Goblin King in the Level 5 quest.
  • Jayden Bolker 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 Bolker replaces Dr. Awkward in the Level 11 quest.
  • Jake Norris replaces The Big Wisniewski in the Level 12 quest.
  • 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.
• Your avatar is replaced by:

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, you may learn skills from 3 trees while in Torpor: Beastcraft, Haemoturgy, and Aesthesis. Each skill you learn reduces your available base HP.

• You can skip ranks within a skill tree.
• Vampyres can freely reconfigure their skills while in Torpor, learning and unlearning any skills so long as they retain a base HP greater than zero. Unlearning skills increases your base HP.
• 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 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:

• 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 three 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.

Monster type	Effect	Strength
Beast	Increases meat drop	40% of Attack
Bug	Increases item drop	20% of Attack
Constellation	Sleaze Damage
Construct	Increases Damage Reduction
Demon	Hot Damage
Dude	HP regen
Elemental	Increases prismatic elemental resistance	Attack/40
Elf	Increases candy drops
Fish	Stench Damage
Goblin	Blocks the first enemy attack of each combat
Hippy	Gives Mysticality substats post-combat
Hobo	Stench Damage
Horror	Spooky Damage
Humanoid	Physical damage
Mer-Kin	Sleaze Damage
Orc	Gives Muscle substats post-combat
Penguin	Cold Damage
Pirate	Gives Moxie substats post-combat
Plant	Increases Monster Level
Slime	Increases initiative
Undead	Weakens enemies at the start of combat
Weird	Prismatic Damage

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 upon death, using the skill again to drop the form, or resting in your coffin.

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. (The preceding section needs confirmation.)

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 that began while it was the current special challenge path -- between February 15th, 2019, and May 15th, 2019 -- gives players 100 (in Hardcore) or 50 (in Normal) extra karma points the next time they visit 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.
• Players will receive a Booke of Vampyric Knowledge 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.

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