Quills

Quills

	Physical
	4
	Body
	no
	Carapace
	Quills
	no
Infobox data from game version 2.0.206.63

Quills

Hundreds of needle-pointed quills cover your body.

(level based) quills
May expel 10% of your quills in a burst around yourself (→(level based) 1d3)
Regenerate quills at the approximate rate of (level based) per round
+(level based) AV as long as you retain half your quills ((level based) AV otherwise)
Creatures attacking you in melee may impale themselves on your quills, breaking roughly 1% of them and reflecting 3% damage per quill broken.
Cannot wear body armor
Immune to other creatures' quills

Quills is a physical mutation that grants the quills natural equipment, providing the player with natural body armor, melee damage reflection, and the ability to discharge their quills to deal damage around themselves.

The Quills mutation grants the player a certain amount of quills to spend on various actions; at mutation level 1, the max number of quills is equal to 300, and each mutation level after this will increase the maximum by a random amount between 80-120 quills. Lost quills will regenerate at a rate as determined by mutation level and the player's Willpower. 5% of the time you are hit, you will break between 1-4 quills.

The players current number of quills determines the AV bonus granted by the mutation. If the current number of quills is at or exceeds 50% of the players maximum quills, the AV bonus will be a value determined by mutation level. If the player's number of quills is below 50%, this AV bonus will be halved.

Additionally, Quills grants the "Quill Fling" activated ability, which when used, will discharge approximately 10% of the player's current number of quills to every adjacent tile, dealing damage to any creatures within. The number of flung quills will be spread out evenly across all 8 tiles. Each individual quill does 1d31-3 (Avg: 2) damage and has a →PV value determined by mutation level. As Quill Fling uses 10% of the user's current quills, using Quill Fling repeatedly will use less and less quills each time, dealing less and less damage. The player cannot use Quill Fling if they do not have at least 80 quills.

When using Quill Fling while engulfed by an enemy, such as a Gelatinous Wedge or Tongue tyrant, all of the discharged quills will instead be discharged into that enemy, up to 8 times. This makes Quill Fling a very effective offense against late-game threats like Gelatinous antiprisms.

Finally, creatures that attack a player with Quills in unarmed combat will break approximately 1% of the player's current quills, while taking roughly 3% of the damage dealt reflected back at them per quill broken. This results in stronger damage reflection at higher mutation levels.

Players and creatures who have the Quills mutation will be immune to the effects of other's quills; this includes Quill Fling and Quills' damage reflection.

Formulas

The following formulas are used to determine quill penetration, quill regeneration rate, the AV bonus for having ≥50% quills (rounded down), and the reduced AV for having <50% quills (rounded up) based on mutation level.

Quill Penetration	(Level - 1) / 2
Base Quill Regeneration Rate	Level × 0.25
AV Bonus (≥50% Quills)	(Level / 3) + 2
Reduced AV (<50% Quills)	(AV Bonus / 2)

Note that the formula for the AV bonus only applies if the mutation level exceeds 3; otherwise, the bonus is 2. Additionally, quill penetration cannot exceed →6.

If one wishes to find the damage done by Quill Fling to a single target, or the total damage dealt by Quill Fling across all affected cells, they would use the following formulas:

Damage to 1 Target	(Current Quills × 0.10 / 8)d3
Total Damage	(Current Quills × 0.10)d3

Advancement Table

Mutation Level	Max Quills	Quill PV	Quill Regen	AV (≥50% Quills)	AV (<50% Quills)
1	300	→0	0.25	2	1
2	380 - 420	→0	0.50	2	1
3	460 - 540	→1	0.75	3	2
4	540 - 660	→1	1	3	2
5	620 - 780	→2	1.25	3	2
6	700 - 900	→2	1.5	4	2
7	780 - 1020	→3	1.75	4	2
8	860 - 1140	→3	2	4	2
9	940 - 1260	→4	2.25	5	3
10	1020 - 1380	→4	2.5	5	3

Mutation Level	Max Quills	Quill PV	Quill Regen	AV (≥50% Quills)	AV (<50% Quills)
11	1100 - 1500	→5	2.75	5	3
12	1180 - 1620	→5	3	6	3
13	1260 - 1740	→6	3.25	6	3
14	1340 - 1860	→6	3.5	6	3
15	1420 - 1980	→6	3.75	7	4
16	1500 - 2100	→6	4	7	4
17	1580 - 2220	→6	4.25	7	4
18	1660 - 2340	→6	4.5	8	4
19	1740 - 2460	→6	4.75	8	4
20	1820 - 2580	→6	5	8	4

Mutation Level	Max Quills	Quill PV	Quill Regen	AV (≥50% Quills)	AV (<50% Quills)
21	1900 - 2700	→6	5.25	9	5
22	1980 - 2820	→6	5.5	9	5
23	2060 - 2940	→6	5.75	9	5
24	2140 - 3060	→6	6	10	5
25	2220 - 3180	→6	6.25	10	5
26	2300 - 3300	→6	6.5	10	5
27	2380 - 3420	→6	6.75	11	6
28	2460 - 3540	→6	7	11	6
29	2540 - 3660	→6	7.25	11	6
30	2620 - 3780	→6	7.5	12	6

Advantages & Disadvantages

This section is opinion-based. Your mileage may vary.

Advantages

• Provides moderate AV (as long as the player retains at least half of their quills) which scales with mutation level while also having no DV penalty or weight
• Quill burst hits all adjacent tiles
• Reflects melee damage
• Makes the player immune to other creature’s quills
• Hits flying creatures
• Useful for cooking builds if using the "Whenever you reflect damage..." cooking trigger condition. It can replace or be used in conjuction with other reflective gear
• Instantly kills most engulfing enemies

Disadvantages

• High cost at character generation
• Quill Fling has a poor penetration cap at →6
• Prevents the player from wearing any body armor
• Quills lack elemental resistances that normal high tier body armor provides
• Quill Fling damages and destroys items on the ground
• Encourages the player to minimize AV and DV to maximize benefit from damage reflection

Creatures with Quills

• prickler(Level 1)
• quillipede(Level 3)
• tinker(Level 6)
• arconaut(Level 6)
• Otho(Level 6)
• Q Girl(Level 6)
• Jacobo(Level 6)
• Hortensa(Level 6)
• Neek(Level 6)
• Barathrum the Old(Level 6)
• Sparafucile(Level 6)
• Dardi(Level 6)
• Iseppa(Level 6)
• Mafeo(Level 6)
• Aloysius(Level 6)
• Dagasha(Level 10)