License to Adventure

License to Adventure is the Summer 2017 special challenge path, introduced on May 15, 2017. This path adds variant rules and restrictions to an ascension run. Its description in The Bureau of Reincarnation reads "You're a trained Loathing Operative, serving on His Majesty's Secret Service! Prepare to save the world over and over."

The whole thing is basically a huge reference to the spy action movie series James Bond.

Restrictions

• Your liver capacity is equal to (level + 2).
• You can only drink booze that uses a glass.

  You're not sure this beverage was shaken, and what the heck kind of glass is it in!? Never!

• You cannot eat.

  You can't risk being slowed down by a full stomach.

• You cannot use a familiar.

  Your familiar doesn't have a license to adventure and can't accompany you.

• You keep your normal skills, but get access to an additional skill tree where you can gain skills based on your "social capital."
• You have access to Secret Villain Lairs. If you leave them unattended for too long, you become Disavowed.

What Is A Martini?

For the purposes of this adventure, a martini seems to be a drink that uses the icon.

This includes:

• discocktail
• hacked gibson
• martini
• rockin' wagon

This specifically does not include:

• steel margarita
• A little sump'm sump'm

Divergences

• No familiar may be used at any time during the run.
• No food may be eaten.
• Each day, before you spend your first adventure, you are diverted to a meeting at the LI-11 HQ. There, you are informed by a superior that a villain has established a lair at a specific place in the Kingdom and you are assigned to eliminate it. If you adventure anywhere else before completing the assigned lair, your spymaster superiors will get angry with you and you will eventually begin receiving the Disavowed debuff after every turn. (Spading is underway to determine how many turns you can spend disobeying orders before the debuff begins.)
• Going to that lair mentioned by your superior (observed lairs have been off the coast of Seaside Town and in the Big Mountains) reveals a single adventuring zone. These zones will contain several dozen combat encounters with a single type of henchmen -- e.g. aquanaut, Ski Patroller, etc. -- two combats with an underboss, and finally, a combat with the villain himself. Combats in the zone yield meat but no items, and defeating the final villain rewards you with some social capital to spend back at headquarters.
• Clearing a lair can be accelerated by making the correct choice in three non-combat adventures that appear in a sequence.
  • First, you are confronted with a choice of pressing one of three colored buttons. Choosing the correct button eliminates approximately 10 henchmen from the lair; choosing incorrectly can result in more henchmen being added, making the zone longer. The correct button can be identified in advance of the adventure by examining post-combat messages after fights against henchmen. You will be informed of a radio report warning lair staff not to press a {color} button, lest some {result} occur. The {color} message will usually be a shade of a base color: "navy" or "jade" or "seafoam" among others. (The mechanic is similar, but not identical, to the combat mechanic against the Unusual construct.) The {result} message will either suggest a situation in which fellow henchmen might be placed in peril if the button is pushed -- e.g. "Don't press the navy button until our guys have their gas masks on!" -- or a situation that suggests that pressing the button will invite more henchmen in -- "Don't press the seafoam button! The barracks are too crowded already!" You will want to look for messages that would put henchmen in peril and note the base color (e.g. blue, green, or orange) that is closest to the shade of color described in that message. When you encounter the noncombat, push the appropriate color button and enjoy the carnage.
  • Second, you are confronted with the ability to enter one of three rooms. One will cost 1000 meat to enter; selecting that door and spending the meat banishes 5 henchmen from the zone. Another door requires you to have a random one of the three Daily Dungeon legend keys -- Boris', Jarlsberg's, or Sneaky Pete's -- in inventory. The key is consumed upon use, but selecting that door banishes 15 henchmen. The third door is for a "massage room" with a "spies welcome" sign. That door is always available, but selecting it seems to add about 13 more henchmen to the zone. There is also a fourth option to skip all of the doors; this is the best choice if you have neither 1000 meat or the required key.
  • Third, you will be confronted with a panel that contains "strange symbols" and be given the option to press one of three buttons. If you have already obtained the Universal Symbology Guide skill from the LI-11 HQ, the three buttons will be labeled with a description like "roaring fire" or "monorail shutdown"; otherwise, they will just be labeled "first button," "second button," and "third button" and you will have to guess randomly at their effects. Selecting the correct button will eliminate 20 henchmen from the zone; selecting incorrectly can result in fewer henchmen (10-15 have been observed) killed or even adding as many as 15 henchmen to the zone. The correct and incorrect choices are still being spaded, but int he meantime, things that sound dangerous, like fire or ice, are good choices; avoid choices that suggest producing more things or adding reserves.
• Once a lair is cleared, you can adventure freely in the kingdom for the remainder of the day without accumulating any more of the Disavowed debuff. A new lair will need your attention tomorrow.

Skills

• When you begin, you choose one of the six basic classes.
• You keep your usual skills.

Strategy

• You definitely want astral energy drinks, since other astral items are useless.
• Obtaining the Universal Symbology Guide as one of your first skills is an excellent plan. Poking blindly at the buttons can result in a net increase of 35 henchmen in the zone (missing out on the ability to kill 20 and accidentally adding an extra 15). At 3 social capital, the skill is expensive and beyond the reach of first-time players on Day 1. Even so, it may be worth waiting to spend your starting capital until you have leveled up a bit and gained extra social capital that way. If the skill helps you complete a lair and kill a villain, you will acquire additional social capital to spend on the skills you would otherwise have purchased.