Arc Survivors Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 22 – Gourmandism Ranks (Patreon)

You Are What You Eat

Team Death have been pretty open with Anna Poots' love of cooking and food, from the kickstarter, through Instagram posts and all the way into the Gambler's Chest with Anna's own tribute miniature and how integral food is as a concept for Collective Cognition. Nowhere though is this more evident than in the Gourmandism philosophy. This Tier 2 Philosophy embraces and celebrates the act of eating and explores the viewpoint of survivors who fully embrace consumption as their identity.

Mechanically this philosophy revolves around the consumption of elements of the game, such as tokens, resources and even consumable gear in exchange for statistical boosts. However it also brings some negatives wrapped into its design, such as over consumption resulting in a girth increase and its associated drop in mobility (- Movement stat). Movement is one of if not the most powerful statistics in the game because the movement a survivor has, the more easily they can keep pace with the monster and even out distance it. Because monsters are designed to overpower a single survivor in a one on one situation, tools like movement are important to help manage monsters isolating a survivor through knockback, grab and similar tools. High movement also makes it easier for us to dash-cancel monster AI cards by dashing after the monster has targeted the survivor ensuring that it chases after its chosen target in a futile fashion. We are trading this away in exchange for other benefits, most notably the Gourmandism Knowledges.

However, as we'll see when we go through this, many of the negatives are tied to the Gourmandism ranks and the knowledges themselves are free of such negatives. This means that Gourmandism is one of those philosophies that tend to supply powerful options in support of other philosophies. It's not on the level of Homicidalism or Romanticism, but it does have some really unique and fun aspects to it.

Finally before we get to the ranks, a fun little hypothesis/speculation for this knowledge. There are a lot of parallels between Gourmandism and the monster that was described by Adam as being “All Anna's Work” which is The Gorm. There are many thematic links between these two elements of the game, so much so that Gourmandism could possibly be the reason for the existence of Gorms. What if a settlement embraced Gourmandism to the extreme? We know that survivors are malleable and can have their forms change so much that they become an entirely different species. So it's possible that if survivors became colossal gluttons that over time they might grow massive and their digestive systems become hyperactive to keep up with their diets. Eventually evolving into the Gorms as we know them now. It would certainly help explain why the Gorms have such human-like faces and hands beyond just a simple creepy Cronenbergian style of body horror. It might not be true, but it would be delicious if it was.

Hunt XP & Neurosis

We have a very slow Hunt XP track here, with 2/6/10/14 being the ranks before retirement. There are very few ways that the hunt track could be much slower than this one, and usually it indicates that there's a lot of power stuffed into the top Ranks and their associated Knowledges. If you have to put a lot of effort and time into a Philosophy one would expect it to pay out.

The other thing to consider is the Ravenous Neurosis. This is a tricky one to navigate, you need to consume either a consumable gear card or resource once every lantern year or during the aftermath of the showdown they suffer -1 Strength. Fortunately this will only affect survivors who are present for the aftermath, but that's about all the upside we have here (apart from synergies we'll get into when we reach the knowledges section). The best way to manage this for myself is to ensure that we have a Bone Sickle on every hunt with Gourmands in order to generate Acanthus which can be consumed, otherwise we need to either eat a piece of consumable gear or generate a resource during the showdown, get it to the Gourmand and let them consume that. This is an expensive, tricky path to manage and it means that in practical terms we're only going to be bringing one Gourmand out on most hunts in order to not stunt development too much.

There is also a fun little extra wrinkle to Ravenous, which is if we gain a Perfect Organ during the showdown (or use a Flower Knight Satchel to bring one along from the Settlement) we can take a gamble (need a 6+) and if successful we get to speedrun the Gourmandism unlocks with a swift +10 hunt XP. This is one of the simplest ways one can actually get to consume a Perfect Organ, though even there it still requires a bit of work due to how Ravenous requires an [Activation] which is a showdown mechanic. However, if you can get it to line up, it's a great feeling with such a slow developing Philosophy.

This can give early access to some of the best Knowledges, but it is worth noting that nothing is guaranteed here, you could eat that Perfect Organ and get nothing other than a full stomach along with successful completion of the Ravenous requirement for the lantern year. So it depends how lucky and rich you are feeling.

Rank I – Live to Eat

We get our customary +1 Lumi and dice roll on the table.

1 to 2 (20%) Inflicts -1 Movement and adds [SE] Rivalry to the next lantern year. Forcing the Gourmand to be one of the two members of the settlement event. This is an exceedingly harsh result, punishing not only the Gourmand twice, but also potentially punishing a second randomly selected returning survivor. We do know it is coming, but unfortunately Rivalry is one of those SE cards that's hard to do much with. The most likely result at 4 to 8 (50%) is that one random rival suffers a gaping chest wound and Rivalry continues. Even trying to resolve this with the Double Endeavour settlement action is trusting in fate and typically results in death of one or both survivors involved. Rivalry is lowkey something I really don't want to draw out of the settlement deck, so this is an unfortunate result.

There's really not much advice to be given here other than rolling this result is going to put the Gourmand through the wringer, cripple a vital stat (Movement) and possibly kill/injure themselves and another survivor. So don't roll it and if you do, try to protect as many survivors on the hunt as possible from severe injuries/death by giving them Dried Acanthus to increase their odds (as long as they don't expend it in the hunt or showdown phases). However, as this is the Hunt XP 2 roll, it's probably better to accept that sometimes you'll hit a dead end with Gourmands and let Clan of Death do it's work of spawning new survivors with 2 Hunt XP. In short, if you get a bad break here it's probably worth cutting your losses and moving onto the next Gourmand.

The result of 3 to 7 (50%) is a a lot better, giving the knowledge unlock <K> Digestion and even +1 strength if you have Collective Cognition (CC) totals of 18+. Digestion we'll discuss next time and strength we've discussed to death. More strength is always good.

8 to 10 is a bit of a trade off, where we archive a resource in order to gain +1 accuracy. This isn't optional either, that survivor will archive that resource as long as there is one in the settlement they can get their greasy hands on. So it's worth having low value resources kicking around in your storage if you've got Gourmands on the prowl for snacks.

The other thing to consider here is how this rank sets the archetype for the Gourmands, we're looking at mostly aggressive slanted stat boosts (Accuracy, Strength), so Gourmands are looking more damage orientated than others. This isn't strictly the case, but we'll get into those elements later on.

Rank II – Superlative Taste

Superlative is an incredibly fun word to use here. It can mean the highest quality and that means we can read the rank title as either about food having the finest taste, or the consuming survivor having excellent taste in food or even a super-taster level of flavour sensitivity. I don't often dwell on the rank titles, but they can at times be incredibly evocative and this one is doing so much with just two words.

Also, a second shout out to the artwork here, which shows the grim fate of a successfully hunted Nightmare Ram. I'd really recommend you take a look at the full art, it is almost enough to make you feel pity for the creature, fortunately it's just a fictional monster.

Our gains are +1 Lumi and a D10 roll resulting in:

1 to 2 is -1 Movement and Skip Next Hunt, removing a severe injury if you have one. This is not as bad an exchange as the previous 1-2 result, but it is still pretty unfortunate. If your survivor had the 1-2 result in Rank I and you didn't abandon them at that point; this is likely the end of the survivor's progression because while 4 movement is manageable, 3 movement is a frustratingly slow pace to be dealing with.

3 to 7 is a similar mirror to Rank I, except this time we always get +1 strength and at CC 21+ we get a free observation in any one of our Gourmandism knowledges. As we'll see when we get to the Knowledges, that's not a bad result because these are good knowledges that can be a little painful to advance a lot of the time.

8 to 10 is our second Knowledge unlock and it is <K> Juggernaut. This is an interesting tank orientated knowledge that can be very strong with the right kind of support.

Overall this rank is an echo of rank I, which contributes to this Philosophy being something of a slow burner.

Rank III – Food and You

This rank is the one where I feel the greatest pay off is located because it is where you can gain my favourite Gourmandism knowledge. We start with our customary +1 lumi and a quick roll on the table.

A 1 results in the Binge Eating Disorder, which is not as bad as negative movement, but it's also not the 2 to 7 result that I want to get. That result gains <K> Gastromancer and at CC17+ the survivor also gains +1 Understanding. Gastromancer is one of those game changing Knowledges that I find to be really significant in how it helps fight against one of the largest constraints in the gear system; but we'll get onto that one next time.

8 to 10 is not a bad result, I'm very happy to roll it once Gastromancer has already been unlocked as it gives us access to the pattern for the Colossal Chef's Carver. If we already have the pattern we get +1 Lumi and a full Survival Limit refresh instead. As this is the only place where the Carver is unlocked we'll take a look at it now.

Colossal Chef's Carver

Cost: 2x Lumi, 3x Iron, 1x Black Lichen

This weapon is gated behind killing of L3 monsters (Node 1 or 2 will usually be the earliest options) and also requires Iron, which means we're looking at a mid campaign weapon here (Usually after LY10 without rushing strats). It has a solid stat line with (1/5+/8/Slow/Sharp) that makes it a solid Grand Weapon, but the real kicker here is that it is also a Dagger and that is a weapon type that often lacks this kind of punch and it also has the Finesse keyword, meaning more synergies are possible.

The final ingredient in this weapon is its 2x red puzzle affinity ability which gives you a single shot super resource tutor for any one organ in the Monster's Resource deck upon a successful wound. Not a critical wound, just a normal wound. That's an absolutely fantastic ability because there are a bunch of singleton organs in monster decks that create really powerful gear cards, eyes for example tend to turn into strong items. Also gaining any kinds of resource from the monster deck during the showdown, even if they are not the resources you need is a great result because it improves the odds of desired stuff from the end of showdown draws.

So yes, this is a great weapon and another reward for consuming spare Perfect Organs to try and rush through the front half of the Gourmandism ranks. If you can get this one active early it'll do a massive amount of work for your settlement.

There is also another flat bonus once our settlements are past CC23 and that is the Introspection at the bottom of the table. This is always gained and it gives departing survivors a full survival refresh and +1 strength token each. It's basic, but powerful especially because Gourmandism gives us a knowledge that lets survivors eat those tokens for permanent boosts.

Rank IV – Looking for the Next Meal

The art here is one of the most wonderful and disturbing pieces in the entire set of Philosophy books, having these survivors constructed from various food stuffs with just the barest elements of faces and hands to keep them recognisable is absolutely the stuff horror is made of. Peter Gabriel would be thrilled. In particular the left male survivor with the flesh crown and exposed “fruit” matter growing out of his skull is captivating.

Bog standard +1 Lumi plus rolling a d10 with the 1 to 2 being an excellent result of +1 to an attribute of your choice. The exact attribute you'll select will depend on the particular survivor, they're all very viable, but Movement and Luck are probably the top two options with Evasion being a great choice for a tanking Gourmand. These three stats are quite hard to get your hands on, quick note, it's not really worth spending this to cancel out lost movement but if you are at 5 movement going to 6 is quite a significant breakpoint for some showdowns.

A roll of 3 to 8 gives us <K> Appreciation, and if we have CC20+ we get to give another survivor <K>Transfiguration as well. We'll get into that with the follow up article, but one of the general trends in Gourmandism is how good the knowledges can be for survivors who have other Philosophies.

Finally we have the 9 or 10 result plus the introspection. The 9-10 gives the settlement +1 endeavour to spend this lantern year and the departing survivors all gain +1 to an attribute of their choice at the cost of a -1 movement token. You can of course go for +1 movement here to negate the temporary movement drop (and have a powerful movement stat for the future), or you can alternatively pick the most important stat for your survivor's role on the battlefield and accept having -1 movement for the showdown (this can be cleared off with cards like the First Aid Kit or Song of the Brave so it is not even a major issue for most settlements at this stage).

The Introspection at CC21 lets you share one of your Gourmandism knowledges at the forum this lantern year. As mentioned above, Gourmandism knowledges are good, but they're better on non-Gourmands, so this sharing can be very powerful.

Thoughts so Far

Gourmandism can be a bit of a rough ride, survivors who hit a 1 or 2 on the first two ranks are going to be left in a very difficult position due to having -2 movement, that level of movement loss leaves a survivor in a really bad position as they can't keep up with everyone else on the showdown board. 4 Movement is functional, 3 is right on the cusp of being career ending (one of the reasons the Steel Shield rare gear isn't just a slam dunk as it has -2 movement).

For survivors who get past the early stages without rolling poorly the Knowledges are the main draw here, most of the ranks in this philosophy are offering things that either are once per campaign (the Carver) or the aforementioned knowledges. This means that the first few Gourmands are very high value due to the knowledges they unlock, but later ones are less desirable. To highlight what I mean here's a breakdown of the ranks assuming you have all the CC unlocks.

Bad / Knowledge and +1 Strength / +1 accuracy for 1 resource

-1 movement and heal a severe injury / +1 strength and +1 gourmandism observation / <K> Juggernaut

Binge Eating / <K> Gastromancer and +1 Understanding / Carver Pattern or +1 lumi and survival refresh. Also Survival Refresh and +1 strength token for departing survivors and

+1 attribute of your choice / <K> Appreciation / +1 endeavor and +1 attribute to all departing survivors and -1 movement token. Also share a Gourmandism knowledge of your choice.

That's a lot of either negative results, temporary boosts and once per campaign unlocks. The vast majority of the stuff you really want is right up there in Rank 4 and that is a long distance to reach. I've mentioned the Perfect Organ thing more than once because of this fact. Even though you only have a 50% chance of gaining the Hunt XP from the organ, devouring it during the showdown (if you can get it in that phase, which is tough) is something worth considering because most of what we want from our Gourmands is not their showdown unit capability, it's getting these knowledges to utilise them with other survivors.

This will make more sense next time when I dive into the knowledges, they are a unique and powerful selection that really bring a lot of oomph to our combat capability for the hunting units we send out.