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Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 4 Survivalism Knowledges
🕑 Added 2023-12-22 10:00:02 +0000 UTC
Spoilers for:
- Survivalism
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders <- BIGGEST SPOILER IN THIS ARTICLE
- Lion Knight Hybrid Armor Set
For the first part of Survivalism, covering the core tenet and booklet you can check out this part here.
In the back part of this chapter we're going to look at the Survivalism knowledges, which I have played a number of times now by taking several runs at the first third of the Gambler's Chest (first 10 lantern years) and experimenting with them (sometimes to disastrous results). It's been a wild ride to play with them so far, and even then I know I cannot say I'm remotely close to covering everything. I might miss some aspects of what these core knowledges (and indeed all the early game knowledges) may be capable of.
The Knowledges system is more complex than Fighting Arts, both in use and acquiring method. On top of that each new set of philosophies/knowledges brings its own interactions. Honestly, the system is just so much to play with, I can't even imagine how much effort it took to get all of this together over the years. Future creations for this system are going to make it harder and harder to test all the combinations that can occur. But that is something for another time, lets get into the Survivalism Knowledges because they give us a (relatively) basic foundation that is intended to be present in all Arc Survivor campaigns.
Quick note before we move on, I've categorised these Knowledges a bit in order to help highlight what parallels they have with the base game versions. So far I've noticed that they're either statistical upgrades, fighting art variations with upgrades and sometimes even gear cards. I won't catch everything at this early stage, if you know any parallels I've missed, please let me know.
Small steps, starting simple, so we can build upon that knowledge a piece at a time. Let's go!
Accuracy Training
- Type: Statistical Upgrade
- Stages: 2
- Observations Required: 6/-
- Advancement: Successful Hit
- Lumi Costs: 0/1
- Bonuses: Theory/+1 Accuracy
(Note: Excuse the immediate tangent, I'm going to take it here as this is the first “statistical upgrade” knowledge in this Philosophy so we don't need to repeat it later.)
A number of the Survivalism Knowledges surround the statistics that survivors have, giving them a place where they can improve their stats at the cost of a slot. This is a very basic level for a knowledge to be sat at, but fitting given Survivalism's ethos and design goal. The basic need for survivors is to; well, survive, and survival in the early game is often linked to gear that provides statistical upgrades. Armor can be seen as extra “injury boxes” for the showdown (and we could go further by looking at injury boxes/armor points as simply health/HP for each hit location), Weapons are an upgrade over fist & tooth, Items can directly add to survivor statistics such as Monster Grease and Lucky Charms. It's a very reductive viewpoint, but it can be helpful to look at it in this fashion because Knowledges like Accuracy Training are very basic in their design, which makes them a reflection of the way gear progression works (with some wrinkles and differences in how you gain them and the availability they have).
As a consequence of this, Accuracy Training is a very simple knowledge, it is very rapid to level up – to the point that you could potentially get this completed in the first six rounds of the very first showdown you use it in. Hitting six times in six separate attacks is not a high bar to pass. So it's a fast knowledge to complete, something that is mirrored in the fully upgraded form being a single Lumi cost and “only” +1 Accuracy.
That “only” gets to be in quotation marks for a very significant reason, accuracy is a really rare upgrade normally achieved by changing weapons (or gained by some Weapon Proficiencies) and otherwise is only commonly available with the Blind Spot mechanic.
Accuracy is a statistic you cannot have too much of, because it presents reliability in damage. Weapons are not solely judged on their accuracy, the Lion Beast Katar (LBK) for example has only a 7+ accuracy stat, but it is still considered to be a king in its weight category because of other factors (in this case the LBK is very "average" for a Node 1 weapon, but Deadly early on is very powerful). So, more accuracy on weapons with good abilities is always welcome, accuracy is a statistic where one can only have too much accuracy when reaching the hard cap of hitting on a 2+ (or 3+ if you intend to attack from the blind spot where possible).
There is absolutely a place for Accuracy Training even in somewhat advanced settlements not just because of the above point, but also because Reach, Ranged and Slow weapons all benefit from accuracy in significant but slightly different manners. While Reach weapons can go in the blind spot, that 'wastes' their unique benefit, which is being able to hit the monster with a melee weapon in more spaces than normal (you go from hitting the monster in 4 squares to 12 squares with Reach 2), so raw accuracy is really beneficial. Ranged Weapons are even less likely to enter the blind spot, due to so many of them having cumbersome to boot, but the overall benefit is similar to Reach, simply more pronounced.
Slow Weapons on the other hand benefit a large amount, because they are capped at a single dice (without Frenzy or other mechanics that may break this rule), so each point of accuracy they have is a huge bonus due to the 'all or nothing' nature that a single speed per attack represents.
In short, I've written far too much about a fighting art that boils down to “+1 accuracy for a knowledge slot”, but it's worth noting just how impactful and important accuracy is in this game, especially the early game where you have less durability/defences to overcome misses. That makes Accuracy Training a quiet little workhorse that always brings a benefit. Just don't overlook that while its Lumi cost is low, it does take up a knowledge slot for this bonus – so it may be something you use for a while, but it's also going to get squeezed out when you get the various Tiered knowledges online. As it should be.
Death Sense
- Type: Survival Action Upgrade
- Stages: 3
- Observations Required: 8/4/-
- Observation Condition: Dodge/Dodge twice in a round/-
- Lumi Costs: 1/1/5
- Bonuses: Theory/+1 Dodge/+1 Dodge and can dodge while attacking and/or Doomed
- Parallel: Extra Sense Fighting Art
Before we start, here's the Living Glossary terms for Dodge, Survival Actions, Hit and Doomed. This hopefully ensures we're on the same page, because this one is wild and interesting. Also, this might be a can of worms (and I'm on holiday when this comes out, so I almost scrapped this entire entry because I won't have notifications on until I return).
Dodge
A survival action. When a survivor is hit, after rolling hit location dice but before damage, they may spend 1 survival to dodge, cancelling one hit. The dodged hit becomes a failed attack roll and does not cause damage. Any additional un-dodged hits resolve normally. Dodge is the only survival action that knocked down survivors can perform. Each survivor may only Dodge once per round.
Survival Action
Survival actions are the most common uses for survival points. In the core game, there are 5: Dodge, Encourage, Dash, Surge, and Endure.
Hit (Monster)
A hit is the result of an attack roll that meets or exceeds the accuracy for an attack using an attack profile. Hits which are dodged, blocked, or ignored are misses. Damage outside of an attack profile is not considered to be from a hit.
Doomed
While a survivor is doomed, they cannot perform any actions or spend survival. If a survivor is doomed by a monster's AI or Hit Location card, they are doomed until all actions on the card are performed and the card is resolved.
FAQ entry on Doomed (@ December 2023)
How does doomed work?
Doomed prevents a survivor from performing any actions until they are no longer doomed. This includes using fighting arts, knowledges, abilities, weapon proficiency, armor set bonuses, survival actions, spending movement or activation, gear special rules, resource effects, etc.
(Quick note for further on; It seems clear Death Sense 3 is an exception to the above FAQ entry mentioning Knowledges, as it is specifically designed to work when doomed. More on that later in this section).
Death Sense is about upgrading and improving one of your survival actions, the first survival action that you interact with in Kingdom Death. Dodging. It will take a while to upgrade because you need to achieve eight dodges to complete the first level, something that needs eight survival spent (and I found this first stage was most likely completed over multiple showdowns as a consequence). The second level gives us the benefit of dodging a second time in a round, but advances only when you use that additional dodge. This means you again have to achieve eight dodges to advance it, but now they have to be paired up, with the first dodge not offering any advancement for stage 2. That's a considerable slowdown when you start to try and grind it.
The unlock at the end though is pretty impressive and worth the 5 Lumi, because it not only provides that potential extra dodge when you need it, but it also allows you to dodge while attacking and while doomed. I foresee a lot of FAQ questions coming up surrounding this one because it's got many, many edge cases and unique interactions that players will come up against. For example, how does it work with the Phoenix Trap Time Stop?
The Phoenix is performing a basic attack, which means it scores hits and it doesn't seem to stop Death Sense. This is because Death Sense survivors get to ignore being doomed, and you're not using a fighting art here and we don't yet have an update/rule in the GCE that makes text that refers to Fighting Arts = Knowledges (Please let me know if I've missed something in the rulebooks, FAQ or Glossary that does cover this, those are the sources I will reference for checking rules when writing these articles - if it can't be found via a web search to the official page, it's not much use to the average player).
We looked at the rules, didn't see anything that denied a knowledge like Death Sense working vs. a Time Stop so we decided that because Jotaro Kujo can do it, so could that survivor.
If it was just myself playing for the Patreon writing I would have Rule of Death'd against my survivors and moved on until the FAQ updated, but this circumstance came up when playing casually with others, which is an environment where I act more as a 'rule of cool' GM, as opposed to “rules lawyer mode”. With friends I prefer to be casual for weird cases and situations because I'm there not to play perfect KDM, I'm gaming with them for fun and cool moments, and in that environment I try to be far more relaxed because it isn't what I base my writings/assessment here. Less friction that way. (I hope I'm clear about having multiple different “hats” for KDM, I don't just approach KDM in a singular direction, I can be a roleplayer or a rules-as-written gamer at different times, but I do am to be rules-as-written as much as possible when writing up here so we all have a consistent point of reference between us all).
Edge Case headaches aside, Death Sense is a long journey that results in a super cool, if messy, ability that breaks one of the games core rules in a unique fashion, but is also limited to only working on Dodge, which has itself limited windows it can be activated in. Is it worth the effort? I don't really think so, 5 Lumi is a lot to spend, and what this is doing here is letting you get the equivalent of Dodge + Surge to Block. It's survival intensive, so while it is powerful in a 'we've never seen the rules broken in this way before' fashion, I haven't quite figured out what survivors will make best use of this one. Is it best on a front line 'tank' survivor who now can negate three hits when there are 'on damage' effects? Or is it something used by melee damage dealers so they can last longer? It's super interesting for sure and the more I write about it, the potentially deeper this hole seems to go.
I think this knowledge might end up being a headache for us all (Team Death included) as the game continues to expand and unusual situations are explored, but I am sure the team will get it all cleaned up when the FAQ is updated to cover all the bizarre situations that can occur.
Until then, for myself KDM is basically a roleplaying game at times anyway; which means I'm just going to follow the JoJo Rule when playing with friends.
Death's Edge
- Type: Statistical Upgrade
- Stages: 1
- Observations Required: -
- Observation Condition: -
- Lumi Costs: 2
- Bonuses: +1 SP, +1 Strength per SP
Death's Edge is a slam dunk with it tying name, theme and mechanics together so closely. The more systemic pressure you have, the closer you are to any severe injury killing you. In compensation for this you get additional strength equal to that systemic pressure. So the survivor is also more dangerous as they approach higher and higher risk levels.
This one is best used on a survivor who is concentrating on damage, because with that they can become something of a “glass cannon”. So I want this on an offensively orientated survivor, but also I think that using distance is one of the best ways to try and mitigate the Systemic Pressure, because the further one is away from most monsters, the safer you are thanks to other survivors presenting more immediate and tempting targets for the monster.
You can take extra steps and include defensive or protective options like Dried Acanthus, which are fine and as long as they're performing other duties at the same time (which Dried Acanthus does through its survival gains). Another option would be to try and lean into 'inexplicably surviving' via the Green Charm or other anti-death tools, which makes for a real gambler's build and can be fun.
I do think at its absolute power floor, this is +1 strength and +10% chance to die on severe injuries; that's not super great (though it is only 2 Lumi, and it is appropriately priced for that), and it means this is something you're likely to replace if it doesn't work with the survivor's role. But, if you can leverage synergies through other philosophies/knowledges that increase Systemic Pressure you're able to get some great results out of this.
It's not my play style of choice, but it might be yours and it can do good work, especially if you have a survivor who's already got a lot of Systemic Pressure from other places like events.
Demagogue
- Type: Survival Action Upgrade
- Stages: 3
- Observations Required: 3/6/-
- Observation Condition: Encourage another survivor
- Lumi Costs: 1/1/3
- Bonuses: Target +1 Insanity/Target +2 Insanity/+1 Torment all non-deaf survivors affected and gain +2 insanity
- Parallel: Rawhide Drum
Living Glossary -> Encourage
A survival action. A standing survivor may spend 1 survival at any time to encourage a knocked down survivor, letting them stand. Deaf survivors may not be encouraged. Each survivor may only Encourage once per round, and only if the settlement has the Language innovation.
The second of our direct Survival Action boosters, Demagogue eventually becomes “Rawhide Drum: The Knowledge”. It starts off with just a small amount of Insanity gain, but at Stage 3 it is a built in super-drums but with +1 Torment instead of noisy andinstrument (I'll take it!).Like Death Sense above, advancement of this Knowledge can be slow due to you needing to be have a viable target to use Encourage and also have the Survival to spend, that limits when you can use it.
So; those nine observations not only need a total of nine Survival, but they also need nine knocked down survivors to achieve all unlocks (and you to be able to encourage). The first stage doesn't take too long to get through, but the six observations for stage two been a challenge in some attempts. It really hurts to have a survivor with this lengthy a set of unlocks on a situational opportunity die, or get a shattered jaw at observation 4 or 5; trust me that felt bad when it happened.
I have really appreciated this one against the Crimson Crocodile though, because that monster not only has insanity be a key defense, but it also likes to roll and collide with survivors a lot. Fully unlocked it can be an almost vital tool due to being more efficient and wide ranging than drinking from the Blood Pool.
Demagogue's few direct synergies in philosophies will be covered when we get to those later entries, as it's easier to refer back to this rather than reference forwards.
Desperate Strike
- Type: Situational Strength Increase
- Stages: 3
- Observations Required: 1/6/-
- Observation Condition: Encourage another survivor
- Lumi Costs: 1/1/2
- Bonuses: Theory/Barbed 2/Barbed 4
- Parallel: Mighty Strike, Barbed
It's Barbed X on a stick! This is something I greatly like, there's a bunch of familiar 'build around' Fighting Arts that have been adapted to Knowledges. Barbed is a superb ability on higher speed weapons and this is a solid little workhorse for them, it's also great with increased Perfect hit ranges which can be found on the Hamfluter's “Ballad of Perfection” for example. However, it's a “pay off” rather than “setting up” other later knowledges. A pay off is something that benefits from the result; like this or the Counterweighted Axe); whereas a set up is something that helps it trigger more; such as the Timeless Eye fighting art, paired/extra speed or the aforementioned Ballad.
All of this, means that as the situation changes, one has to always reassess how strong Desperate Strike can be; Barbed is not an ability that players specifically go looking for on their weapons; it is a positive for sure, but a lot of the time it is with an average weapon used over the duration of an entire showdown worth less than an extra point of strength per attack. (More speed will alter this due to how it can trigger multiple times). For example, the Greater Gaxe has Barbed, but the reasons I like it are its cost, strength, reach and deadly. Barbed is a nice extra bonus treat there.
In short, I might take this for someone using paired weapons, or if they have access to an increased speed or hit range. But otherwise I'm reluctant to spend Lumi getting this one. In short, I think this is a build around Knowledge rather than generically powerful. It doesn't hurt to have it, but it isn't going to blow the doors off the game without specialising into it with a goal. Situationally powerful, but not always.
Before we move on, it is worth noting that other abilities which trigger on Perfect hits are not automatically going to synergise with this knowlege, they may be agnostic or even combative. For a lower spoiler Generation I example, of where there is counter synergy. The Gorm's Acid-Tooth Daggers (which can be paired) turn Perfect hits into Automatic Wounds, which obviously doesn't work well with Desperate Strike. Although it is parallel build around to draw inspiration from.
Evasion Training
- Type: Statistic Increase
- Stages: 2
- Observations Required: 5/-
- Observation Condition: When you are targeted
- Lumi Costs: 0/2
- Bonuses: Theory/+1 Evasion, +1 Torment, -2 armor points from legs when departing
Unlocked by being targeted five times, Evasion training upgrades pretty quickly and its Lumi cost of 2 turns out to be reasonable. However, while Evasion is a great statistic, it is best used on specific front row survivors who seek to not just avoid being hit through Evasion (and Block etc) but also soak damage through armor points and often tank the intimidate actions.
In short, Evasion Training is a balanced trade-off, if it was just +1 evasion, +1 torment (at a higher Lumi cost) then I think I'd be pretty high on this one. As it is, that -2 armor points to the legs is a significant trade-off and it brings it down to a more reasonable level. The main thing to consider is you're trading a +10% chance the monster misses for -10% on Brain Trauma (not a huge deal if you have Accept(ed) Darkness), a percentage reduction in your overall armor points and Evasion does not provide protection against brain trauma itself.
So expand on the armor point loss, if that armor is Rawhide, then you've lost 20% of your total armor (full Rawhide is 10 armor points) so you can expect to start receiving severe injuries a lot faster. On the other hand, if it is something like the Crimson Crocodile Armor, you can “regenerate” some armor back onto your legs with its set bonus activation (however, you might already be on a light or heavy leg damage situation from the hunt). This makes it very situational; but certainly an easier thing to deal with for Accept Darkness survivors at times (Quick note: Accept Darkness survivors are fine with low levels of torment, but eventually it will overwhelm their natural resistances).
Overall, this one has proven to be balanced very well, some survivors/armor sets manage better with this one, and like all evasion bonuses it gets more powerful the more evasion you already have (up to the hard cap of being a 10 to hit). So +1 evasion that doesn't take up a gear slot is potent, but it's been balanced with care to ensure this doesn't become something that every single front line “tank” survivor grabs. As such, I have found myself not using this one because of my playstyle. But! See the next entry for somewhere I did manage to make good use of this Knowledge.
Meat Shield
- Type: Unique, Defensive
- Stages: 1
- Observations Required: -
- Observation Condition: -
- Lumi Costs: 1
- Bonuses: Another survivor suffers damage in your stead (see card for full text)
- Parallel: Trick Attack Fighting Art (but way better)
Note: Meat Shield must be used by Survivors with the Survivalism philosophy.
When employed properly; Meat Shield can be good, like really good. It allows for aggressive, damage dealing survivors to get away with less protections because they can hang around next to the “tank” and let them suck the hits. It's a new, and very specific form of AI control that's also funny as heck.
First thing to note is that you do this before damage is assigned, but after the monster has attacked, this can be pretty terrifying if triggered inside zones for the poor meat shield you've swapped with. But, if they have the armor points to spend then this can work very well. In fact I'd go as far as to say not only is Meat Shield perfect flavour it also has a phenomenal use in helping 'crowd control'. This is done not just by pushing tanks into the way, but also by forcing the monster to spread out its damage across the entire party. Making sure that it has to deal a lot more damage before it starts getting towards unit elimination.
So to expand on this before we move on; while Tanks are superb soaks for monsters, they do have a finite level of durability. This can be, really, really high, like they're a solid steel wall the monster is breaking against. But, eventually they can be worn down, and that is when Meat Shield can be used by them to spread the damage to other survivors. In fact, I've found that this method of operation works really well because you get to stack all the evasion/block/ignore/etc onto one target to reduce the monster's ability to hit in the first place. Then when it does score a hit, you drop it onto someone else who wasn't using those armor points in those locations anyway (just watch out for zones!)
This knowledge could likely become a big deal when we get more experienced with operating Arc Survivors. Certainly forcing a monster to attack an evasive target and then have its win condition placed further out of reach via manipulation of where the damage goes (this is an example of where Evasion Training works really well). I think this is one of the stand out Knowledges in Survivalism and use of it just reveals more and more depth for strategic use.
If it continues to perform at the level I've experienced so far then one can expect to get fed up with how much I mention this one in the future! If you asked me right now, I would rank this as my #1 Survival Knowledge.
Rolling Dive
- Type: Unique
- Stages: 1
- Observations Required: -
- Observation Condition: -
- Lumi Costs: 1
- Bonuses: +1 torment, when adjacent to monster spend [Knight] to place in any other unoccupied space adjacent to monster
- Parallel: Acrobatics Fighting Art
This is one I am super interested to read about other players' experience with because, I have not had much success with Rolling Dive so far beyond how I used to use it when it was Acrobatics. The main way I've used it has been during a damage dealing survivors turn where it allows for access of the blind spot when other survivors are in the way or when the monster is too large (3x3 or bigger) for an easy walk around to the blind spot (and doesn't need a survival action to work). That has made a parallel to Accuracy Training's +1 accuracy because you are also less likely to get targeted when you start the monster's turn out of the facing, but it's a trade off because accuracy can be stacked with the blind spot bonus.
Using it defensively on the other hand, has been a bit of a mixed bag. You need to Dash in order to activate it defensively, and if you are already in the post monster targeting phase then it's only things like Synchronic Attacks or specific Zones that head off in a cone/corridor where you might be able to get out of trouble (if the rolling dive survivor is not the target that is). Might as well Meat Shield at this point (oh no, it's started, the endless references to a pet card). Yeah, I'm not sure it needed the +1 torment, the fighting art version already proved to not be broken.
This all feels appropriate for a 1 Lumi knowledge, but for Collective Toil settlements the +1 Torment as a second negative, on top of taking up a Knowledge slot, hurts a lot (Accept Darkness settlements are less hurt by small amounts of Torment). I'm really searching hard to find some other places where Rolling Dive can impress me (I really want to try it vs. the Dragon King and Sunstalker with their 4x4 bases), but my current impressions for this one are that it is just a slot filler.
Strength Training
- Type: Statistic upgrade
- Stages: 3
- Observations Required: 3/6/-
- Observation Condition: Wound the monster/-
- Lumi Costs: 0/2
- Bonuses: Theory/+1 strength, +1 SP
Strength Training is another straight shooting knowledge, it advances when you wound the monster and it takes six observations to advance. So far, this has been taking around 1 to 3 showdown fights (It's gone faster when playing with dedicated damage dealers, slower when the hunt party has been more 'jack of all trades'). The question here though is, how much is +1 strength worth?
That's one of those classic KDM dilemmas, because so much of the strength used in attacks normally comes from weapons. It's a real case by case basis, moving from a 6+ to a 5+ on your wound rolls can be absolutely massive, it changes your attacks from being a coin toss, to favouring the survivor objective.
To expand on this, the monster has two engines that can get to its win condition of eliminating all your survivor units. The first is the powerful AI card, which is overwhelmingly stacked in the monsters favour. Negating this with evasion, block and other mitigation methods is of course, really strong. However, the second engine that provides a route to victory for the monster is the Hit Location Deck. This deck is how the survivors (mostly) wound the monster, but the monster also at times gets to advance towards its win condition (by harming survivors) through reactions. Players are in control of the rate that these reactions might turn up, but when they are here, the goal for a hit is to score that wound in exchange for whatever punishment the reaction might deliver.
Critical Wounds to the side, this means that converting a hit to a wound is very much what the goal of the attack should be. Missing costs time with a wasted action, giving the monster a longer time to deal damage, but hitting and failing to wound against a Reflex or Failure reaction is even worse, because one's own activation has been employed somewhat against yourself.
So +1 strength can often make all the difference. It's a reason why the Monster-Tooth Necklace is a low key power house, especially for moving up towards higher level and higher node monsters. Is +1 strength +1 systemic pressure worth having in a Knowledge slot over a Monster-Tooth Necklace (MTN) in a gear slot? I'd argue no, because the MTN can be moved around from survivor to survivor and it even scales into the late game with an additional +1 strength via affinity unlocks. You have more gear slots than Knowledge slots, so Knowledge slots are even more valuable than gear slots.
All of this means that I think Strength Training is a wee bit of a dud, it costs 2 Lumi (which as we see for Survival Knowledges is a smidge expensive), it has +1 Systemic Pressure and of course it takes up a Knowledge slot. There are places where this will be utilised, it has synergy with “Death's Edge” and some weapons really need extra strength wherever you can get them. This meant I'd make use of Strength Training when I had it, but I found myself not purchasing this one from the Forum very often and when I was using it, it was easy to cut from the survivor build in most cases.
Tumble
- Type: Unique, Defensive
- Stages: 3
- Observations Required: 2/5/-
- Observation Condition: Use this Knowledge/Use this Knowledge/-
- Lumi Costs: 0/1/2
- Bonuses: 7+ Tumble (see Fighting Art)/6+ Tumble/5+ Tumble
- Parallels: Tumble Fighting Art, Dancer Armor
Note: Dancer Armor from the Lion Knight, also has a free Tumble Fighting Art built in as part of its set bonus, so this Knowledge has less value if you are utilising that excellent armor set.
Our last Knowledge for this 'initial impressions' review is Tumble, it's a very campaign dependant knowledge. It starts out as a slightly worse Tumble FA, but after two observations it becomes the same power and then with five more observations it's superior with it working 60% of the time.
Some monsters really love to employ collisions as a form of direct attack; the Crimson Crocodile, Screaming Antelope and White Lion are all classic early game examples of this. Tumble levels up faster and has more impact in campaigns like that and it can prevent damage when you're not able to Dash. But likely the strongest place for this Knowledge will be when fighting against monsters that threaten severe injuries or even death on collision.
I've had this one be great for survivors who are standing in directly in front of monsters who like to push forward as reactions. So one copy of it on a front line tank has managed to be very welcome at times. But because of the times where Survival Opportunity windows occur (flow steps, between actions on the survivors' turn, before reactions, after critical wounds and on a monster knock down) you have to decide if you will Dash before knowing the result of the Tumble roll and that makes this a second line of defence, if it could save on Survival expenditure I'd be more keen on it. But I have seen upcoming monsters in the KDM updates that make Tumble feel a lot better.
Summary
The important thing here is that Survival Knowledges should not all be absolutely amazing, this is the baseline philosophy. It's fine for them to be situational or lower power than what comes later, because that's part of progression in Arc Survivor campaigns. If we jumped into every campaign with nothing but powerhouse knowledges then the later tiers would feel less impactful and a great deal will be lost. After diving into them I was a little surprised how many parallels with existing mechanics I found here, though in hindsight that is not surprising because Fighting Arts barely exist when you have Arc Survivors; it does feel bad to get something like Rolling Dive when Acrobatics is strictly superior in an Arc Survivor campaign.
This baseline design for the Survivalism knowledges does mean that if I have found something is “weak”. It is fine for game balance because it is likely the knowledge was designed to be disposable, and even the few Knowledges that do relatively impressive things are still behind the higher tier philosophies in power. Which is as it should be.
In short, I'm overall really happy with what Survivalism brings to the table. I don't know what Knowledges yet will become my 'staples' when choosing from the Forum (except for maybe Meat Shield, which is already a pet knowledge I love to see in the Forum). That's a great place for things to be and in comparison to the Fighting Arts they sometimes mimic. I think that this Philosophy is in a good place due to the way you get (and can replace) these Knowledges consistently via the Forum mechanic.
Have I missed anything with this early exploration of the Survivalism Philosophy? Do you have anything you want to add about combos, synergies or edge cases you've encountered through your plays with these knowledges? A single moment where something I'm not sure about shined? Please let me know, this is an exciting time where we all get to learn together!
(Also, please, please don't make me regret mentioning Time Stop vs. Death Sense! It was a fun and cool moment and I want it to stay that way for as long as possible 🤣)
Comments
Matthew Nola
Chefs kiss Jojo reference that really made me laugh! Not going into detail but Death Sense 2 is very challenging to finish.
William Duke
I was never able to advance Death Sense (one of the very few I failed to advance). When I tried during the early level 1 hunts, I didn't have the gear/setup to do it safely and I lost survivors trying to advance it. By the time I was doing level 2+ hunts, it just didn't feel worth the risk against all those dice. Late game I thought about it again but couldn't find a slot for it (like you mentioned there are some beastly knowledges out there). Long story short, I think you both could be right. Get it early, it's amazing. Get too far into the campaign, it might not be worth the effort.
coblen
I'm surprised you don't think Death sense is worth the work. There are a lot of new ways to ignore hits in the gamblers chest, and the more you stack them together the stronger they get. The one that brings you from getting hit once to getting hit zero times reduces the damage you take by 100%. The smog singer hat, hissing arms, high roller, death sense all let you ignore hits and work while you attack. You don't need all of them, but getting the right amount to completely negate monster attacks is really strong. Worth the work to at least get death sense 2. You don't have to get the 3rd rank of it for it to be strong in this way, and it remains cheap on the forum if you don't. For deaths edge, I think you can repeatably turn endeavors into systemic pressure using drums. So it's almost limitless strength, and a cheap way to keep low level gear relevant all the way to the end.
Great article, as always. The one strong use I found for Rolling Dive is against Crimson Croc, since it allows you to teleport to any spot to break through a coagulated wound. So if you're hunting the croc a lot it can make those T2 and T3 fights significantly easier.
