The Seasoned Hunter: The Gorm (L1) - Mammoth Hunt (Patreon)

The Baby Elephant is one of the first monsters that any new player should add once they have experienced the core game monsters to a sufficient amount.  The Gorm expands options at every point of the game, but in particular it adds viable options to the Grand, Axe, Club, Shield and Dagger categories.  Overall the hunt/showdown experience is on par with the White Lion, though it is more likely to cause harm via brain damage than the White Lion is, so insanity is at a premium.

The Hunt:

The Gorm Hunt is particularly punishing, it contains one of the only ways you can die to brain trauma during the hunt phase (30% chance on Head-Splitting Pain) and the terrifying Mourning Bull - which basically = 3 Brain Event Damage because going near the Gorm and giving it an Ambush with +1 damage token is asking to be killed.  There are in fact very few beneficial Gorm Hunt events and there is only one card that will give you resources.  This means that the Gorm overall is less generous for resource gains than the White Lion, Screaming Antelope or even Spidicules.

 Targeting and Behaviour: 

The Level 1 Gorm has 8 out of 10 Basic cards and 2 out of 8 Advanced ones in it's repertoire.  This means that 80% of it's behavior is dominated by basic actions.  Which are broken down into the following types:

• 2 Moods
• 1 Intimidate All (in Facing)
• 1 Hiccup
• 4 Closest Threat Attacks
• 1 Random Survivor Attack
• 1 Random Threat Attack

20% Moods, 10% Intimidate, 60% Attacks, 10% Hiccup.

So when the Gorm is going to attack with a basic card it's targeting tends to be Closest Threat.  However Gorm Basic Actions only trigger actual attacks 60% of the time.

I have listed Hiccup separately, because while it uses an attack profile, it is not a very threatening card when you are playing to the Gorm's Weaknesses.  See the Retch discussion in the Hit Location/Reaction portion below.  

Of particular note in the Basic AI cards are Posturing Piss - which will give you Ammonia 100% of the time when you defeat a Gorm performing this golden shower (and also making attacking the rear dangerous) and Scratch that will reduce all armor points to 0 on the hit location(s) you roll.  However it is 1 speed, so it is not that threatening when dealing with the L1.

The Gorm's L1 Attacks are split evenly (3/3) between 1 and 2 speed 2+ accuracy 1 damage attacks, which is why the Gorm on average is physically less threatening than the White Lion.

While the Advanced AI cards represent only 20% of the Gorm's AI.  This is where the seriously threatening cards are located.  Flatten and Charge are 5 and 4 speed respectively (2+ to hit, 2 damage a hit), Flatten even attacks either a random survivor in the blind spot or Closest Survivor in Field of View in Range.  It's horrific to experience that card if you are not set up correctly.  Fortunately only 5% of L1 Gorms have Flatten in their AI deck and the chances of seeing it on the first turn are just 10%.  Still, I have experienced that 0.5% chance of the Gorm Flattening on the first turn and it was not pleasant at all. RIP in Pepperonis.

Other notable Advanced AI cards are Rampaging, which will cause the Gorm to attack twice in a turn until wounding removes the card from the deck.  Rear Up, which is terrifying if you are not prepared for it or don't have enough survival to stand up the knocked down survivors.  Eat and Run, which can cause the Gorm to behave like a White Lion and Infrasonic Roar - an Intimidate action that causes both brain damage and head damage to all threats.  

A special mention goes to Headbutt, which pretty much has to be dodged everytime it hits because it will result in a Retch that cannot be avoided by the survivor attacked.

The Advanced attacks typically target as follows:

• 33% Closest Threat
• 33% Random Threat
• 16% Random Knocked Down Survivor/Random Survivor
• 16% Random Survivor in Blind Spot/Closest Survivor, in Field of View, in Range

However, these Advanced cards make up just 20% of the L1 Gorm's deck, so you can't really plan in advance around them too much, just be aware and mitigate as much as you can.  We discuss the cards in a bit more detail in the Great Game Hunter's Podcast.

Overall you can see that the Gorm's targeting is a lot more unpredictable than the White Lion's, it is more prone to targeting randomly when it does attack.  

Reactions:

Before we move into how the Gorm Reacts, it's important to look at Retch.

Here's how retch looks:

However, you want to visualise  Retch as follows:

Key for Additional Elements

• Dotted Square = Space Where Gorm will be post Retch
• Blue = Retch Area

So you can see that in order to attack a Gorm without risk of being vomited on, you need to either be 2 spaces away, in the rear (where you will get collided with), or at the back left and right flanks.

Highlighted in red are these are the spaces I attack the Gorm from:

You might be thinking that it's pretty bad to be attacking directly behind the Gorm because if it Retches it's going to collide with you.  However, that's not really a major issue, because if you are knocked down during the Gorm's turn it is less likely to target you (Only the Advanced Card Head Thrash targets Knocked Down survivors - which is only possible in 5% of Basic Gorms - less if you take into account wounds and AI manipulation).  If you are knocked down during the survivor's turn you will not have to miss an act, you will stand up after the Gorm has finished.  So you only lose access to those three rear spaces when it starts peeing.

The Gorm has 20 Hit Locations total.  These break down as follows:

• 1 Trap
• 1 Wound Reaction
• 4 Wound Retch Reaction
• 5 Failure Reaction
• 4 Failure Retch Reaction
• 1 Super Dense
• 1 Death Blow
• 4 Flank Bonus
• 1 Nothing special

So that's 9/20 Failure reactions, 5/20 Wound reactions, 4/20 Flanking Bonus and 8/20 Retches.

There are only 5 locations that give extra resources for critical hits and 3 of these give a specific resource.  

• 2 Random Gorm Resource
• 1 Active Thyroid Stout Resource
• 1 Stout Kidney
• 1 Jiggling Lard

So crit farming the L1 Gorm is not as effective as crit farming the White Lion or Screaming Antelope. It is a less generous monster.

Outside of Retching the Gorm will either turn around and run away or it will retaliate with a basic action.  So it's reactions are fairly easy to understand, it will either retch (avoidable by positioning), run away (annoying but not lethal) or basic attack (2/2+/1).

The Trap is unusual because it does not doom any of the survivors.  It is pretty scary however because it specifically deals damage to the head location and also causes brain damage to at least 2 survivors.  It is a more dangerous trap than either the White Lion or Screaming Antelope.

Strategy and Tactics:  

The Gorm is in effect a Mammoth hunt with brain damage.  You should be packing evasion so you can take advantage of the Tall Grass (where you can, it moves a lot so this might not always be possible) and you should either be attacking from the red spots marked above or with Reach/Ranged weapons.  Spears and Long Axes are great, weapons with Deadly are also very strong because cancelling Retches can be very beneficial. 

You should also consider what happens to any survivor if the Gorm Retches.  This is a monster that can deal a lot of unexpected damage to a party not prepared for the retching, but it will deal little damage to one that positions correctly.

Your support character should absolutely have a Fecal Salve, survivors who are not a threat are rarely targeted by the Gorm.  A support who sits behind an obstacle with an activated Fecal Salve will be safe for most of the game and can concentrate on HL or AI manipulation.  Bandages are useful for this fight, but the Gorm rarely inflicts bleed outside of severe injuries, so you might be able to get away with it.  

Brain Damage is a constant threat against The Gorm and you may want to mitigate this with items like the Screaming Helm or Accept Darkness.  However, overall this fight is not much more dangerous than the White Lion one, you just have to behave in a different fashion.

Weapons: 

The Gorm has no specific weapon based weaknesses, but like many monsters weapons with deadly are very desirable because this will give you access to extra resources and even a strange resource that cannot be gained in any other manner.

One of the most beneficial weapon types to use vs The Gorm are reach 2 weapons (and ranged weapons, but all monsters suck vs. Ranged Weapons).  Reach 2 allows you to attack the monster without ever landing inside the Retch zone, and while you will miss out on the Flank Bonus by not being adjacent, the extra safety this provides is incredible.

All of this means that the single best weapon for attacking the :1 Gorm actually comes from the Gorm itself.  The Greater Gaxe.

This incredible item has only one drawback  (It's Heavy) and otherwise it is one of the most powerful early game weapons available.  

Otherwise stuff like the King's Spear, Rib Blade, Lion Beast Katar, Cat Gut Bow and similar are great. 

 Resources: 

The Gorm has:

• 7 Organ
• 4 Hide
• 2 Jiggling Lard
• 4 Bone
• 2 Bone/Organ
• 2 Organ/Hide
• 2 Bone/Hide/Organ

For a total of 21 different resources.

This means that the Gorm Resources breakdown to:

• Bone: 38%
• Hide: 38%
• Organ: 52.4%

This is more than 100% because some resources are hybrid types, but you can see that if you are after Organs the Gorm is a prime candidate to hunt.

Strange Resources are available as follows:

• Active Thyroid - Critical Wound on the  Hit Location Only
• Pure Bulb - Via Death Blow only.

The odds of getting certain resources you are specifically after depend on the number of them in the deck:

• Sturdy Hide: 19% of the deck
• Dense Bone: 9.5% of the deck 
• Sturdy Heart: 9.5% of the deck 
• Stout Kidney: 9.5% of the deck  
• Jiggling Lard: 9.5% of the deck  
• Mammoth Hide: 9.5% of the deck
• Everything Else: 4.7% of the deck

The Everything Else Category includes a whole host of super useful crafting items like Acid Gland, Milky Eye, Gorm Brain and Handed Skull. 

Obviously, these %s shift as you draw cards from the deck, it is almost meaningless to work out the odds of drawing a specific card, because the number of resources drawn during a fight can vary from 4 to 10+

The design of the Gorm Resource deck means that it is very challenging to complete the Gorment Armor, because that requires 6 Stout Hide, 1 Handed Skull, 1 Stout Kidney and 2 Bone.  It also means that aiming to build something specific can be quite a challenge.

 Crafting Goals: 

Depending on what you are looking to do, the Gorm can hold a wide range of crafting Goals.  The best items are as follows:

• Rib Blade (Meaty Rib + Hide)
• Greater Gaxe (Jiggling Lard + Dense Bone)
• Knuckle Shield (Mammoth Hand + 2 Bone)
• Gorn (Stout Heart + 3 Bone)
• Pulse Lantern (Active Thyroid + Milky Eye)
• Acid Tooth Dagger x2 (2 Acid Gland + 4 Bone)
• Riot Mace (Pure Bulb + Stout Kidney + Dense Bone + Jiggling Lard)
• Wisdom Potion (2 Gorm Innovations + 2 Organs + Chance)
• Gorment Armor (6 Stout Hide, 1 Handed Skull, 1 Stout Kidney and 2 Bone)
• Black Sword (3-4 Gorm Innovations, 2 Organs + Chance + Handed Skull)

It's difficult to aim in a specific direction as to what you are going to get from hunting The Gorm.  You have a good chance of getting a Greater Gaxe and/or Rib Blade, but everything else is hard to control.

Summary:

The Gorm is a more dangerous and harder to predict quarry than the White Lion, but its gear is more powerful in return.  Hunting a Gorm early on results in a higher risk, but appropriately higher rewards.  A good hunt party for the Gorm should have 4 similarly equipped survivors, having one survivor with significantly less protective gear that the rest is dangerous unless you give that survivor a Fecal Salve.