Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 8 Impermanism

Spoilers for:

• Impermanism (Of Course)
• Lore References for Lanternism & Faceism
• References to the Dung Beetle Knight

As discussed before, the core philosophies that make up survivalism plus the Tier 1 philosophies represent a thematic heart to survivors understanding of their place in the world. Survivalism covers the drive for the individual to exist and endure, even at the cost of others. Faceism focuses around the physical nature of the world and the survivors own bodies. Lanternism orbits around the spiritual link that survivors have with their constant companions.

Impermanism deals with the fleeting nature of existence. To quote the seminal HBO series 'Six Feet Under' “Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.” This is what Impermanism's core thesis and mechanical design dives into, the inevitable march of entropy, wear and tear. While Watchers get to enjoy the benefits of being a dream jellyfish, in that they can renew themselves almost eternally as long as food is available, survivors typically do not. While some can become ageless, even they will eventually suffer an end, perhaps fatalistically at the time the settlement plunges into a final darkness or perhaps instead violently at the hands of some vicious entity.

This is the Death at the heart of Kingdom Death; a nihilistic world filled with false gods, suffering and an endlessly cycle of violence. While the game itself has ironically turned out to be one that is about the triumph of human ingenuity against adversity, it seems that the original vision saw this game as being one of terror and despair. It's just that we ended up with a game that has more in common with the slasher genre; where there is often a lone survivor overcoming the evil; something that sits in contrast with cosmic horror. However, given that this is a setting mainly inspired by Berserk; a tale about humanity and hope amongst the darkness; rather than something as filled with despair and hopelessness as the Lovecraft inspired works from Junji Ito; perhaps it was inevitable that hope and human strength against adversity would win out in contrast to the nihilism and helplessness of the non-heroic cosmic horror genre.

Core Mechanics

On a pure game front Impermanism rotates around three linked mechanics, those of death, archival and our old friend Frail (aka the mechanic you never want to take to prom). This of course puts Impermanism in a tough spot from the outset, Frail is a deeply unpopular and (in my opinion) un-engaging mechanic that is at best tolerated when it is on good gear and at worst is a deal breaker that makes something almost completely undesirable. It is clear that the internal design and testing team at Team Death are far more enamoured with Frail/Gear Archival than the wider community.

All of this is to say that Impermanism sits in an awkward spot, it has to sell itself to an audience that has mostly (but not completely) rejected the core it is focused around. I know I'm not particularly interested in the portions of the game that archive gear aggressively. This is already a game that forces natural “archival” of gear due to the requirement for players to advance and strengthen their gear; something that is a staple of the Dungeon Crawling genre that KD:M firmly belongs to. The nemesis monsters demand that we consistently discard older, weaker gear and the carrot of rewards for fighting bigger and meaner monsters also drives that desire. That's the portion of Impermanism that I wanted to highlight before we get into the actual mechanics of the ranks in the booklet; there's great ways to mechanically express the temporary nature of things that can sit right under the noses of players. Lurking until they are revealed to have been there all along.

Hunt XP Track & Neurosis

Impermanism has a normal progression track for Tier 1; giving a fully levelled up survivor 6 hunt XP before retirement. I'm actually a little disappointed in this one, because this particular philosophy is about how temporary and fleeting things are, so a faster progression track (every 2 hunt XP for example) would make utilising the more permanent elements of this philosophy less of a cost. The brightest candle burns out fastest after all. So getting to Rank 4 quickly here would both give Impermanism another element where it can distinguish itself from the others while providing value through that brief time. Thematics and mechanics working in tandem.

The Tenet will be looked at next time; so we just have the Neurosis to consider. What this one does here is give Frail to all weapons in your gear grid; that has three main consequences, the first being survivors with Impermanism are going to naturally gravitate towards weapons that are already frail, because double Frail isn't a thing. The second consequence is that what weapons survivors do use that are not frail will be cheap to craft, disposable and often more generic in costs. The third consequence is that players who have good Super-Dense management skills developed are going to navigate this neurosis better than your Dice Bucket Dave/Davina; a type of player who wants to attack all the time and roll as many dice as possible.

There is a second element to Unrestrained, in that attacking with Fist and Tooth into a super-dense hit location will cause the survivor to suffer a broken arm. Something that has been added in both to further cement the thematics of this philosophy while also severely punishing anyone who tries to game the system by not running weapons to get broken. Another consequence of this extra piece of extra punishment baked into the design means that Impermanism survivors need to pack more than one weapon, because once they have no weapons left, attacking becomes a very tricky prospect requiring smart Super-Dense management against most monsters and switching to an almost entirely passive non-attacking role against Super-Dense heavy monsters such as the L2+ Crimson Crocodile or Dung Beetle Knight.

This neurosis is textured and well constructed, but it is also very one dimensional in what it is asking your survivor to do. That's fine for a Tier 1 philosophy.

Rank 1

Our standard +1 lumi and a roll for tier 1 gets us a 10% chance of +1 lumi, a random disorder and skip next hunt. Not a great start, but the 2 to 8 (70%) result unlocks <K> Hardy Ego at the cost of setting survival to 0 and with Collective Cognition (CC) of 6+ Hardy Ego also goes to the Forum after you've gained it. The 9-10 (20%) is +1 lumi for all returning survivors.

In addition, when the settlement is at CC12+ you gain a random basic resource, one should not look a gift horse in the butt, it's something, it's also not worth a lot at the CC12+ portion of the campaign.

This is a pretty rough start, while Hardy Ego is a knowledge that I very much appreciate, 30% of the time this roll is just lumi (or lumi with "lovely" punishments) which is not something that one would consider thrilling. I don't mind gaining a Knowledge with some costs, but just gaining only Lumi (or lumi + a negative) in the early philosophies doesn't generate excitement. I do really love the artwork on this entry though!

Rank 2

Second verse, same as the first with +1 lumi and a roll. Again we're punished on a 1, Insanity to 0 and <D> Anxiety. Not a terrible disorder to suffer from but also not something you want on an Impermanism survivor because they don't have much in the way of 'front line/tanking' focus to their philosophy. It's a tough spot to be in because either you put stinky gear on them (Monster Grease) which, now that it costs two organs is often a waste of resources for an Impermanism survivor or you tolerate having it and accept that the monster is coming for your Impermanism stinko at some point during the opening round(s). One can set them up to be a Rawhide/Monster Grease front-line bruiser for sure, but I would rather remove this issue with the Barber Surgeon/Trepanning. Especially if I have a <P> Faceism survivor (as they are natural tanks).

The 2 to 8 (70%) result gives <K> Deconstructive Mind and an interesting extra benefit at CC9+ where you get to remove all your disorders and choose your insanity number to be anything from 0 to 10. 

9-10 gives you +1 understanding, +1 lumi, +1 strength and the super rare curing of any 1 permanent injury. Sure there is no knowledge there, but it is a great result to roll and again we have super interesting artwork to look at for Rank 2.

Rank 2 is more like what I want to see, though the 1 result being a “temporary retirement” is not something that works well for the theme of this philosophy.  However, there's not a lot to dwell on here for depth of discussion, so we'll move on.

Rank 3

Quick aside before we get onto the mechanics of this one; for a little while I thought that the artwork here might be depicting the Traveller; a creature referenced in the Lantern Year 3 Candy & Cola's description: 

It's been 3 long Lantern Years, but Candy & Cola continue to survive in the nightmare horror world of Kingdom Death!

Wielding her broken heel as a weapong, Candy & Cola have just escaped from the Traveler's arena of death.

The Traveler is a huge entity moving on hundreds of pairs of horse-like legs. Those that hear its deep horn-bellow are drawn to the constatly moving titan, where they are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of its dark passengers.

However the Traveler is intended to have many legs where as the creature in the art seems to be just more a reference to the old 'settlement on the back of a giant turtle' trope; just with its own KD:M twist. It is very evocative and a delightful piece of world building.

+1 Lumi and the 1-2 result here is the first time we get something really unique with the following ability: Unburdened.

This is the kind of unique ability that is interesting due to how it is offering a significant improvement in exchange for a serious negative. +2 Strength covers an entire toughness increase for many Node 1 or 2 monsters and the downside can be mitigated with smart use of Shields, Knowledges like Survivalism's Meatshield (or other Knowledges not discussed... yet) or judicious application of an ability like Crystalline Skin. A damage dealing survivor doesn't need a lot of protection as long as other survivors are there to take the hits for them. Though this does fall off when monster damage scales to the point that it causes a severe injury in a single hit to any location (3+ Damage). At that point a naked survivor moves from a MinHSI (Minimum Hits to Severe Injury) of 2 to 1, and a MaxHSI of 4 which is  just too short a buffer for monsters with that much speed. So additional protection beyond cloth becomes desirable.

As I've mentioned before, I love things like this that put a restriction on you in return for a meaningful boost, they breed innovative solutions.

At the 3 to 8 results (60%) we get <K> Breaking Point and with CC13+ there is also +3 Insanity and +1 strength token next time this survivor departs. Honestly, not great, but also not terrible – Breaking Point is very Monster specific in how useful it is, sometimes it will be great, other times not so much, but we'll get into that next time.

9-10 Provides another ability; this time it is Inevitable an ability that will be paired with a weapon you have already crafted.

The first time I got this I used it on a common old Bone Sword and it meant that one survivor was offensively sorted for a transition from the early game to the mid game without much effort, it was very helpful and they ran as my scout for a number of years. Inevitable rewards you for protecting this weapon as long as possible in order to extract as much value from it as possible. This had an impact on my ability to advance the philosophy's core tenet. Sharp is a good ability though, even if you only get it for a while. Of course the best weapons to choose are ones that already have Frail or a low amount of speed baked into their design. Failing that you can choose a weapon which is close to the end of its lifespan (or already made obsolete) and revive it back into the game with a +5.5 average strength.

I will also take a moment to say that abilities, due to being tied to survivors rather than more persistent things like innovations and gear, is thematically a very good fit. It is giving 

Rank 4

With these relatively weaker early game Philosophies, one of the tricks that can make them more appetising is to have a carrot dangling at the end of the journey. A hard road can be worth it in a game if the pay off is good enough, Lanternism managed this through <K> Ghostzerker, but can Impermanism top that? Let us find out, go ahead an gain +1 lumi and roll:

On a 1-3 we get an absolute joke of a result where you lose a leg, gain +1 systemic pressure, +3 lumi and 4 founding stones. Now there are campaign applications for founding stones in People of the Dream Keeper so that's a consolation prize; but without prosthetics being a part of the game at this time it is not a great situation to have a Rank 4 survivor suffer a severe injury that is so debilitating for what is a damage dealing focused philosophy. Damage Dealers need movement, this takes it away from them. That's not a good end for 30% of the people following this path. Whoops.

The 4-6 result gives us +2 strength, -1 evasion and the very fun, if unreliable <K> Stone Wrecker alongside a forced departure for the gaining survivor. This forced departure is very dependent on if you can make use of Stone Wrecker or not in the upcoming showdown, it's an unreliable but fun Knowledge.

On the 7-10 result you gain +3 Lumi and the absolute stinker of the knowledge <K> Limit Break. I'll break down why that particular knowledge is so terrible, especially for an early game philosophy next time.

However if you have CC26+ and roll a 9-10 then in addition to Limit Break you also gain the Unbreakable Zanbato pattern. This is the carrot that floats dangling at the end of the journey for Impermanism and we'll look at it now in detail.

Crafting Cost: 1x Lumi, 1x Zanbato, 1x Endeavor

This is a very reasonable and logical crafting cost and it gives us a zanbato that when archived (only via a Super-Dense HL) becomes the Shattered Blade innovation

However, here's the rub, this is asking for CC26+; which if you work out an average amount of CC gain, that's a LOT of CC and the question here is are you even interested in a Zanbato at that time? 

Here's a look at the breakdown for a campaign that follows a reasonable Arc Survivor progression path to let us see around when the settlement can hit the threshold. I'm not going to consider LY 1 Level 2 Rush down strategies here, they're not just atypical for the normal play pattern, they're also unreliable. I do have to note that we're skipping out on hunting the Node 3 monster because that slows progression, that is however more realistic a thing to do for a nearer "normal" play pattern.

• Prologue – 1CC
• Node 1 Level 1 – 1CC
• Node 2 Level 1 – 1CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 2 – 2CC
• Node 1 Nemesis – 3CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 2 – 2CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 2 – 2CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 2 – 2CC
• Node 2 Nemesis – 3CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 3 – 3CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 3 – 3CC
• Node 1 or 2 Level 3 – 3CC

12 Lantern Years and we're at 26CC and the only realistic way we could push that faster is skipping the Level 1 Quarries which isn't something that game design should not be constructed around; if the higher skill level and chance based strategies are required for your gear to be good, you need to go back and tweak the numbers.

In regards to the U.Zanbato its (1/6+/6) statline here is a little behind what we want, we'll be using at least some Indomitable weapons and they're better than a basic Zanbato. However, what the U.Zanbato offers is scaling, as long as you break the weapon against a Super-Dense location during it will turn into the Shattered Blade innovation. Which has the following ability.

That means you can spend 2 resources (1x endeavor, 1x organ) and get the Unbreakable Zanbato back with +2 strength. First break puts this to 8 strength and that is good enough for it to compete with the other kinds of weapons you'll be considering at this time. Second break and it pushes ahead of them, and it'll keep going up and up, potentially becoming a 'forever weapon' that is always present in your showdowns.

The main consideration here though is when and how to break this weapon, and as such I think the main use for this is the same as a Zanbato, in concert with a shield on a tanking orientated survivor. That of course means it's not a great fit for survivors who are following Impermanism, but because of the finicky nature of Unrestrained Zanbatos are probably not the best choice. 

Fortunately the U.Zanbato is not “class locked” and you can use it on a different survivor; so from general experience I've really come to enjoy using this on a mid-game leather tank and then upscaling the armor + shield from there. Of course you can use it on other survivors, but having the ability to pivot to pure defense with a shield's Block/Deflect activations when you break the U.Zanbato I find is more desirable and efficient than having another attacking weapon in your gear grid.

I'd also like to note I appreciate the weapon keeping the mineral keyword that the zanbato gained from the Dung Beetle Knight expansion. Glad that consistency is kept there. Though one can't calcify this weapon (unless we get something in Campaigns of Death).

Summary so Far

I think it is absolutely fair to rank Impermanism's ranking up as being the weakest of the current starting philosophies (even including Survivalism and Dreamism), but that does not mean it is entirely terrible. Something has to be the weakest, it's almost impossible to not have that situation occur and with the number of bad results on these ranking tables Impermanism takes the proverbial provisional Trash Crown.

I will however note that despite this, there are a few really fun elements to this philosophy and if you are able to embrace its weaker, more janky aspects you can have a grand time here, however it absolutely feels awful to reach rank 4 and get nothing more than some temporary stats plus four founding stones. That's a real feels bad moment considering how much time you've invested in getting there.

It is also very interesting how the "best" reward from Impermanism is a weapon that is basically permanent via "regeneration"; growing stronger each time it perishes. Now, don't get me wrong I think it is a really super cool weapon due to how unique it is, but it is absolutely the odd one out when compared to the rest of the elements presented in Impermanism. 

Next time we'll take a gander at the knowledges!