Glimmer

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.199.0. If this is no longer the current patch, you can help by updating it.

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.199.0.

Your psychic glimmer represents how noticeable you are in the vast psychic aether. As your mental mutations increase in level, so does your psychic glimmer and the frequency, strength, and number of those who desire to absorb your mind.

Glimmer is a mechanic that is usually only experienced if the player character has a high level of mental mutations. Glimmer is a quantified measure of how powerful a creature's mental capabilities are, or how noticeable in the case of those that frequently use Mass Mind. It is calculated by summing up all of the creature's mental mutation levels, plus any modifiers from Mass Mind or other static effects. This includes levels gained through Ego modifier. 1 point mental mutations add 1 to the current glimmer.

The glimmer of a dominated creature is based off of the original dominator of the domination chain, usually the player.

Effects of Glimmer

Glimmer has no effects on non-player entities. There are two thresholds that glimmer can surpass to have significant effects.

20 Glimmer

You are being watched. It's a familiar feeling. When someone has watched you in the past, when it's light that's betrayed your presence, you made a friend of the darkness. You pulled your hat brim low over your eyes. You stepped behind the cover of a thatched wall. But those who watch you now watch in spite of such simple obstructions. Their sight isn't mediated by the rays of a gleaming star or torch but by something much older. If there are ways to conceal yourself from these seeing eyes, if there are new kinds of darknesses to befriend, you know nothing of them.

Upon surpassing 20 glimmer, the player receives this message. The player character will then start to be pursued by psychic hunters from the Seekers of the Sightless Way.

This notes "You had the feeling of being watched, and learned that there's a sight older than sight." as an accomplishment in the journal.

40 Glimmer

What you understood to be the psychic sea was only a pond. There are other watchers now, countless in number, beyond the gulf of materiality. Points of light glimmer in all directions, but what are directions on a space that cannot be ordered? All you know now is of an aether vaster than the very mathematics that describe it. And you are not nor will you ever be again alone.

Upon surpassing 40 glimmer, the player character can encounter extradimensional hunters as well. They have orange names and come from one of 8 randomly generated dimensions. Entering a screen now has a 40% chance of spawning an extradimensional hunter instead, and 30% chance of spawning a extradimensional cult hunter. If multiple hunters were supposed to spawn, there is a 50% chance of them being an extradimensional solo hunter. This notes "You learned a cosmic truth, early among truths, about the locality of space and time as you knew them and an aether vaster than both." as an accomplishment in the journal.

Esper Hunters

You sense the animus of a vast mind. Someone is near.

Beyond 20 glimmer, esper hunters have a chance to attack the player whenever they explore a new screen; both the frequency and difficulty of these attacks will increase with glimmer.

Local espers are separated into bird-based ranks depending on their glimmer. As such, these hunters will have the same ego as the player character as well as the same level.

Glimmer	Hunter Type	Description
20 to 34	Osprey	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by ospreys, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who pluck larval espers from their egg sacs.
35 to 49	Harrier	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by harriers, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who pluck fledgling espers from the shallows. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions. (if glimmer > 40)
50 to 64	Owl	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by owls, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who snatch espers from the nighted weald. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions.
65 to 79	Condor	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by condors, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who snatch thriving espers from the vast wood. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions.
80 to 94	Strix	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by strixes, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who drink the blood of mature espers. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions.
95 to 109	Eagle	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by eagles, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who seize powerful espers from their roosts. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions.
≥ 110	Rukh	Currently, you are being watched and pursued by rukhs, Ptoh's most powerful servants and birds of psychic prey who seize masterful espers from their belfries. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions.

Mutations

Hunter mutations are generated based off of the player character's mutations. For every mental mutation that costs more than 1 point, the hunter will randomly get a mental mutation also greater than 1 point that is the same level as that mutation.

Seeker Hunters

Seeker hunters, or hunters of the sightless way are the first type of hunters that the player will see. They are named, and have Ptoh's (hunter rank) appended to their name. These hunters will not spawn if the player character is favored by the Seekers of the Sightless Way.

These are based off of the base sightless way, but with level 1, 16 HP, +1 intelligence, +1 ego, +1 willpower, and -2 toughness. Their faction will be of the Seekers of the Sightless Way. Their base ego is set as the player character's ego, so their ego will always be higher by 1.

Thralls

Seeker hunters are the only type that also have thralls that follow them.

Glimmer	Thralls
0 to 19	0
20 to 34	0-1
35 to 49	0-2
50-64	1-2
65-79	1-3
80-94	2-3
95-109	2-4
110+	3-4

The type of creature enthralled is determined by the hunter's tier type. There, A random creature of the same tier will be created. There are exclusions to what can and can't be thralls:

• Must have a Brain that can be beguiled
• Does not traverse through walls
• Can move
• Does not have the "Proper" value in xtag Grammar (to check against legendary and unique creatures)

Extradimensional Hunters

You sense a psychic presence foreign to this place and time.

There are two kinds of extradimensional hunters: solo hunters and cult hunters. They hail from one of the eleven other dimensions on the local system, and will have extradimensional (creature) and esper (stalker/assassin) appended to their name. Unlike Ptoh's Hunters, extradimensional hunters can be of any creature type. The creature type will have around the same level as the player character. Also unlike Ptoh's Hunters, their main faction is the hidden Playerhater faction, which means it is impossible for them to be neutral or friendly. On death, they have a 5% chance for their most valuable item to become extradimensional and remain extant when the hunter dies. When this happens, "(hunter) drops a (item), and by sheer chance (it) quantum tunnels and fully materializes in this dimension." will appear in the message log.

Cult Hunters

Cult Hunters are part of a cult from a single dimension. They frequently have a cult symbol, and 80% of the time, the cult will be focused around one mental mutation. Hunters from this cult will always have this mutation with the mutation level at their level/4.

Each cult has an associated faction, and its hunters will be creatures normally associated with that faction (though their faction in-game will still be Playerhater). All hunters will be of the highest-level species of the cult's faction whose natural level is lower than the player's level (excluding legendaries, members which are ineligible for dynamic encounters, and cherubim). If there are multiple species tied for the same level, the hunters will be chosen randomly from among those creatures.

Extradimensional items left behind by cult hunters will typically have different bonus than similar items from the same dimension (the bonus depends on the cult, instead).

Cult Types

Mutation	Cult Name
Beguiling	Charming (cult) - (cult) and Love
Burgeoning	Verdant (cult) - (cult), Aspect of Plants
Clairvoyance	All-Seeing (cult) - (cult) and the Eye
Confusion	Entropic (cult) - (cult) and Entropy
Cryokinesis	Frigid (cult) - (cult), Aspect of Winter
Domination	Tyrannical (cult)
Disintegration	(cult), Aspect of the (synonym of void)
Ego Projection	Astral (cult) - (cult) and the Astral Projection
Force Bubble	Hidden (cult) - Lost (cult)
Force Wall	Disjointed (cult) - (cult) and the Divided
Light Manipulation	Shining (cult) - (cult) and Light
Mass Mind	Unified (cult) - (cult), Aspect of Oneness
Mental Mirror	Two-Faced (cult) - (cult) and the Parallel
Precognition	(cult) and the Before - Oracular (cult)
Psychometry	(cult), Chrome and Brass - (cult), of the Circuit-Maze
Pyrokinesis	Fevered (cult) - (cult), Aspect of Fire
Space-Time Vortex	traveling (cult) - cosmic (cult) - (cult), the Door
Stunning Force	violent (cult) - (cult), Aspect of Inertia
Sunder Mind	cerebral (cult) - (cult) and the Mind
Syphon Vim	vampiric (cult) - (cult), the Succubus
Teleportation	(cult), the Here and There - entangled (cult)
Teleport Other	fickle (cult), whisical (cult)
Time Dilation	(cult), Now and Then - Immortal (cult)
Temporal Fugue	(cult), the Many - popular (cult)

Absorbing Psyche

At the moment of victory, your swelling ego curves the psychic aether and causes the psyche of (esper hunter), to collide with your own. As the weaker of the two, its binding energy is exceeded and it explodes. Would you like to encode its psionic bits on the holographic boundary of your own psyche? (+1 Ego permanently)

When the player defeats a hunter, there is a 10% chance to absorb their ego. This does not apply if the hunter was killed by a companion, Temporal Fugue clone, or other non-player creature.

Esper Hunter Generation

Whenever the player character enters a new zone and their glimmer is between 20 and 49 inclusive, there is a 0.2 * (glimmer - 5)% chance that a hunter will spawn. If their glimmer is greater than or equal to 50, the chance becomes 0.0666*(glimmer + 65).

If glimmer is greater than 34, there is a 0.5*(glimmer-20) % chance that an additional hunter will spawn. If glimmer is greater than 49, this chance is rolled two more times, and then a third roll if glimmer is greater 80 with a chance of 0.5*(glimmer - 50)% to add an additional hunter. The maximum number of hunters is 5.

Zones with a high degree of astral friction have a 90% chance to deflect esper attacks:

Some dimensional interlopers attempt to enter this region of spacetime, but the ambient normality field keeps them at bay.

Glimmer	0 Hunters	1 Hunter	2 Hunters	3 Hunters	4 Hunters	5 Hunters
0	100.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
20	97.117%	2.883%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
40	93.144%	6.135%	0.721%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
60	91.684%	6.727%	1.285%	0.235%	0.069%	0.0%
80	90.524%	6.642%	1.959%	0.592%	0.237%	0.046%
100	89.274%	6.456%	2.572%	1.053%	0.504%	0.141%
120	87.679%	6.139%	3.073%	1.586%	0.975%	0.548%
140	86.24%	5.611%	3.174%	1.965%	1.666%	1.344%
160	85.085%	4.534%	3.195%	2.182%	2.204%	2.8%
180	83.743%	3.293%	2.578%	2.065%	2.934%	5.387%