Dealing With Esper Hunters

Currently a work very much in-progress

To-do:

• Check that all of these mutations function for Esper Hunters like I think they do
• Note alternative strategies for players who themselves would be hampered by my anti-mutant strategies (like, for example, if they need to get within 9 tiles to use their short range mental mutations)

A guide detailing techniques for dealing with the Esper Hunters who are attracted by high psychic glimmer.

Avoiding Esper Hunters

Limiting Glimmer

Because higher glimmer makes Esper Hunter attacks more frequent and more dangerous, one of the best ways to avoid Esper Hunters, or at least to decrease how dangerous the Esper Hunters you do face are, is by limiting the amount of psychic glimmer you accrue. This can be done in several ways:

• At character generation, try to buy a few high-cost mental mutations rather than many low-cost mental mutations, as the more mental mutations you have, the higher your psychic glimmer will become.
• Look for ways to increase your character's power other than by levelling up mental mutations. Finding better weapons and armor, for example, will increase your combat prowess without increasing your glimmer.
• Keep your own power in check. It is often very easy for powerful Espers to fight "normal" enemies, but very difficult for them to fight the Esper Hunters that track them down. If you find yourself in this situation, consider whether it is worth the extra glimmer to further increase your psychic powers (by, say, absorbing the minds of defeated Esper Hunters or putting additional attribute points into Ego), or if you are already powerful enough to easily handle most threats and thus do not need to attract more attention from the few threats you have trouble with.
  • Though rather drastic, if you feel you have passed over the threshold where you do not need the extra psychic power and glimmer, one can decrease psychic glimmer by decreasing one's Ego score. apothecaries sell humble pie, which permanently decreases one's Ego score by 1 when consumed.

Befriending the Seekers of the Sightless Way

Many of the Esper Hunters which attack you (specifically those with something along the lines of Ptoh's (bird name) appended to their name) are aligned with the Seekers of the Sightless Way. If you reach a reputation of 250 or higher with this faction, these Esper Hunters will stop attacking you altogether, no matter how high your glimmer becomes. (And, as a bonus, legendary Seekers will teach mental mutations through the Water Ritual.) This reputation can be gained in a few ways:

• Using a Schrodinger page from the Annals of Qud to increase reputation with the Seekers.
• Using a love injector on a randomly encountered legendary seeker and performing the Water Ritual with them.
• Killing legendary creatures hated or disliked by the Seekers.

Fighting Esper Hunters

Mutation-Specific Techniques

Techniques which are focused on combating specific mental mutations which Esper Hunters may have, arranged by mutation.

Burgeoning

• Carry at least one (though more than one is better) defoliant grenade mk I (though mk II or mk III are preferable if available). defoliant gas will quickly clear out many of the summoned plants, such as the various aloes and vantabuds/vantablooms. Keep in mind, however, that it will deal significantly less damage to other plant types, such as red death daccas or irritable palms. (See the defoliant page for more information)
• Stay at least 10 tiles away from the Esper Hunter to keep outside the range of their burgeoning.

Confusion

• Mental Mirror is especially valuable against confusion, as it can reflect the confusion back onto the attacker, rendering them far less dangerous to the player.
• Eating a yuckwheat stem instantly removes the confused(favilink error!) effect. Finding a yuckwheat stem when one's inventory names are scrambled can be done in several ways:
  • Hold a yuckwheat stem in the thrown weapon slot.
  • Hold a single chest in your inventory containing only yuckwheat stems. When confused, go through your inventory, selecting every item until you see one which you can open. Assuming there are no other openable containers in your inventory, this must be the yuckwheat chest, allowing you to eat a stem and cure your confusion.
• Try to keep far enough away from the Esper Hunter that you are out of the (relatively short) range of their confusion cone. (Information on cone length can be found on the confusion page)

Cryokinesis

• If hit by cryokinesis, quickly move outside of the 3x3 square of frozen mist(favilink error!) to avoid taking additional damage and, more importantly, additional temperature decreases.
• Try to have decent cold resistance, as the main danger of cryokinesis is becoming frozen(favilink error!) due to temperature decreases.
• Stay at least 9 tiles away from the Esper Hunter to keep outside the range of their cryokinesis.

Disintegration

• Try to stay at least 3 tiles away from the Esper Hunter at all costs, as disintegration deals massive unavoidable damage, easily enough to instakill a player without extremely high HP.
• Once an Esper Hunter has used disintegration, they are completely incapacitated for 3 turns, which can be used to heal, reposition, or attack.

Ego Projection

• Trying to stay out of melee range will (mostly) prevent Esper Hunters from benefiting from a Strength or Agility boost.

Force Bubble

• Use attacks which can affect the Esper Hunter through their forcefields, such as Sunder Mind, Confusion, Cryo/Pyrokinesis, etc.
• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at the Esper Hunter once they use force bubble to destroy the forcefields. Another source of normality gas, such as a normality gas pump, would also work, but would be less readily available than grenades.

Force Wall

• Often, Esper Hunters will use force wall to trap you in place the instant you enter the zone they have spawned in. This force wall cage can be escaped by simply moving one tile back into the zone you just exited, then re-entering the zone containing the Esper Hunter a short distance away from the forcefield cage.
• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at any problematic forcefields they create (normality destroys forcefields). Another source of normality gas, such as a normality gas pump, would also work, but would be less readily available than grenades.

Light Manipulation

• Having the light manipulation mutation yourself gives you a chance to reflect the Esper Hunter's lase beams, though keep in mind that they also have a chance to reflect yours.
• Use a non light-based ranged weapon or attack in order to prevent the Esper Hunter from reflecting back your attacks.
• Carry at least one glitter grenade mk I (though mk II or mk III are preferable if available), and detonate it in your inventory to create a protective shield of glitter dust around yourself.
• Wearing high AV armor can reduce the damage taken from lase attacks, as they target AV rather than MA. Having high DV will not help, as light manipulation cannot miss.

Mental Mirror

• Because mental mirror can only defend against one attack before going on cooldown, it can be effective to disable an Esper Hunter's mental mirror with a "dummy" attack. Unfortunately, there are currently few good candidates for this attack.
• Use methods of attacking which cannot be defended against with mental mirror.

Precognition

• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at the Esper Hunter(s), as normality contests the activation of precognition.

Pyrokinesis

• If hit by pyrokinesis, quickly move outside the 3x3 square of *shimmering heat to avoid taking additional damage and additional temperature increases.
• Carry a small quantity of either convalessence or water (convalessence technically has a higher cooling multiplier, but the difference is almost negligible) and pour a few drams (4 should suffice for even the worst-case scenario) over yourself if you catch on fire. However, keep in mind that most of the time, burning is a much lesser threat than the Esper Hunter, and one should usually focus on defeating them rather than spending a full turn dealing with a relatively small source of passive damage.
• Stay at least 9 tiles away from the Esper Hunter to remain outside the range of their pyrokinesis.

Space-Time Vortex

• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at any threatening space-time vortices, as normality will destroy them.
• Often, simply avoiding the space-time vortex is an effective strategy.
• As a last resort, one can escape from the Esper Hunter by intentionally entering the space-time vortex they create, though there is a chance that this will teleport you to a much more dangerous situation. Additionally, it should not be attempted without a recoiler to take you back to a safe location.

Stunning Force

• If possible, stay at least 11 tiles away from any Esper Hunters, as this will keep you outside of the range of their stunning force.
• Investing in Toughness (or boosting it with the Ego Projection mutation) will help you succeed at the toughness save to shake off the stunned defect early if you are hit by stunning force.

Sunder Mind

• If you are locked in psychic combat (i.e. have used sunder mind on an enemy or are currently being attacked with sunder mind) you are completely immune to other sunder mind attacks for the duration of the psychic combat. Thus, sundering an Esper Hunter's mind before they get a chance to sunder yours can be an effective strategy. Keep in mind, however, that they may have Mental Mirror, which will reflect your sunder attack back at you.
• Reducing the Esper Hunter's Ego score (such as through Berate) will make it more difficult for them to penetrate your own mental armor.
• Investing in a decent Willpower score to increase your MA will help protect against sunder mind attacks.
• A sunder mind attack can be interrupted by:
  • Moving into a different zone than the attacker. (Thus, it can be useful to attempt to stay near the border of the zone when fighting Esper Hunters with sunder mind)
  • The attacker becoming confused. (This makes confusion an extremely useful mutation against Esper Hunters with sunder mind)
  • Forcing the attacker to take an action other than passing their turn.
  • Successfully reflecting a sunder mind attack with Mental Mirror. (This makes mental mirror very useful against Esper Hunters with sunder mind, though less useful if there is more than one Esper Hunter attacking)

Syphon Vim

• Stay at least 1 tile away (though more is better) from the Esper Hunter to prevent them from using syphon vim on you. Keep in mind that they still may use it on any melee-focused companions of yours.
• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and detonate one in your inventory to astrally tether yourself, preventing the ongoing life drain effect of syphon vim.

Teleport Other

• In many cases, teleport other can be a helpful mutation for Esper Hunters to have, as it will help you stay at a safe distance from them.
• If for some reason you do not want to be teleported away from the Esper Hunter, carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and either throw one at the Esper Hunter or detonate one in your inventory while next to them to astrally tether yourself, keeping you from being teleported away.

Teleportation

• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at the Esper Hunter (normality contests teleportation).

Temporal Fugue

• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and throw one at the Esper Hunter's fugue clones (as normality will instantly destroy them) or at the Esper Hunter themself to try to prevent the use of temporal fugue in the first place (normality contests the activation of temporal fugue).

Time Dilation

• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III), and detonate one in your inventory to astrally tether yourself, preventing the quickness-reducing effect of time dilation.
• Try to stay at least 9 tiles away from the Esper Hunter, as this will keep you out of the range of their time dilation. If you are within 9 tiles of them, being further away (say, 5 tiles away rather than 2 tiles) will decrease the effect of their time dilation.

TL;DR (Fighting Esper Hunters):

• If possible, stay at least 9 tiles away from all Esper Hunters (though further is generally better).
  • This will (mostly) keep you out of the range of many of their mental mutations, including: Burgeoning*, Confusion**, Cryokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Disintegration, Syphon Vim, and Time Dilation.
    * There is a chance for plants from burgeoning to appear up to 10 tiles away from the Esper Hunter.
    ** At mutation levels 18 and above, confusion's cone length extends further than 9 tiles.
• Carry normality gas grenades (mk I, mk II, or mk III). The normality gas which they create:
  • Destroys forcefields (as from Force Bubble and Force Wall), spacetime vortices, and Temporal Fugue clones.
  • Contests the use of Clairvoyance, Precognition, Psychometry, Syphon Vim, Teleportation, Temporal Fugue, and Time Dilation.
  • Removes or suppresses the ongoing effect of Syphon Vim and Time Dilation