Endeavoring for Success: Arachnophobia with Spidicules Innovations (Patreon)

Time for us to start moving through the remaining expansion endeavors! Each expansion adds a number of innovations which are either permanently added to your innovation deck in all future games, and/or a few specific endeavors which are brought into play by mechanics used when you are able to hunt the expansion's specific monster. We'll move through these roughly in lantern year order, but it depends on the quantity of endeavors each monster has, the Flower Knight (and Spidicules) for example will probably take up an entire article by themselves due to the sheer number of options.

This means, we start with Spidicules!

Spidicules innovations are unusual in the expansion monsters due to a few factors; for a start most of its innovations are only available from hunting Spidicules. You can only get Silk-Refining by hunting a Spidicules and you can only get the Legless Ball by removing all the legs from a Spidicules. You can read about how to make that process as easy and achievable as possible in the following article: Having a Ball. I would really recommend learning the concepts in there because some of the things are unique to this process - especially sweeping, which not something one does against almost any other monster.  

Choreia is also different to many other innovations, it is an essential requirement for building Green Armor (and the ONLY part of the Spidicules expansion you need, which is honestly a garbage move. Here, in order to play with this prestige armor set, you'll need all the knight expansions, plus the Gorm, oh and the Manhunter for one piece of gear oh and Spidicules for exactly ONE CARD). I adore the concept of the Green Armor set as I think cross expansion stuff is super sweet, but the execution on this one is garbage tier.

Now, let us get into the endeavors!

Legless Ball Endeavor #1

Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Gain 1x Web Silk 

Now, you are limited to doing this only once per settlement phase for good reason, Web Silk is an incredible resource due to its combination of being a strange resource, a silk resource and convertible into hide (which means it can also become leather). There is absolutely no other resource in the game which is this versatile, even if the conversion process is slow and endeavor costly (It takes 3 steps to get to leather). 

It's also a direct way of converting an endeavor into a resource and one of the reasons why you should always think of endeavors and resources being the same thing. 

Despite this being a really simple endeavor with no frills and a completely static power level, it is still one of the best options in the entire game and a huge reason why hunting the Spidicules as a quarry is interesting (though Taken removes a lot of the engagement from the experience with how miserable and tiring it makes the process). 

When/if Spidicules gets a review in Campaigns of Death, this endeavor is going to be one you want to remember to hit up every year after you get the Legless Ball set up. (And if you're hunting Spidicules, you should always aim to make a Legless Ball).

Rating: 5/5

Legless Ball endeavor #2

Cost: 1x endeavor, lose Legless Ball, requires a survivor with 10+ insanity

Type: Permanent, Temporary, Random

Effects: Archive Legless Ball and gain the Grinning Visage rare gear.

We've swung from one of the best endeavors in the entire game to one of the worst. You absolutely do not EVER want to lose your Legless Ball, even if you can replace it, because making a Legless Ball is an absolute slog in the first place. 

In fact, if you were going to lose it, you would want to trade it for something that's really great. The Grinning Visage is not it:

So, here's the thing; independently outside of circumstances the Grinning Visage is a decent and unique little shield capable of a bunch of different things. However, the best parts of it are dependent on the survivor being able to hit and wound with a (2/7+/4) weapon. Given that you very rarely be able to get a Legless Ball from a L1 Spidicules (it requires a perfect set of wounds on the legs) you will typically be in the mid game when you are able to have the Legless Ball (LY10+). At that point the Grinning Visage just doesn't cut it due to having 1 less accuracy/speed and 2 less strength than it needs.

There is a really sweet offensive tank/shielderang build one can put together with Deathpact + Grinning Visage, but the survivor involved needs to be able to add their stats onto the shield's rather lackluster ones.

However, the nail in the coffin on this particular endeavor is the fact that if you de-Leg a second Spidicules while you have a Legless Ball already in the settlement then you automatically get the Grinning Visage instead of getting a duplicate Ball. So this endeavor isn't something you should engage with, if you really want that shield for a sweet build - go make a second ball!

Rating: 1/5

Silk Refining #1 - Silk Surgery

Cost: 1x Endeavor

Type: Permanent, Random

Effect(s): Trigger Silk Surgery Story Event.

Wow this event is unique as heck. The true worth of this endeavor does not come into play without a Silk Surgeon (one of the rarest Secret Fighting Arts alongside Eternal Will, Courtly Screenwriter, Beetle Strength and Immovable Object) and it can be quite a gamble to use this without at least having rerolls + Otherworldly Luck (OwL). 

What this story event does at the higher levels (which is what you want) is either give a male survivor Unconscious Fighter so he can hunt without being neutered by the Manstealer, cure ANY permanent injury or result in the amazing Radical Procedure. With the Silk Surgeon you get to pick which one you want to use (typically you'll go for the Radical Procedure so you can increase their Silk Surgeon level).

As you can see, the higher ranks of this SFA are thematic, fun, unique and powerful.

The Radical Procedure is a totally unique and sweet little thing that rewards players who follow a similar playstyle to myself (lots of useless plebs, a few specific hunters who matter). It can cure all sorts of problems that survivors may have while also giving them stat boosts. In truth, a lot of the time the Radical Procedure is either as good as, or slightly worse than the 7,8,9 results which just cure injuries in exchange for Silk (isn't silk just the best resource?), but it can also give survivors +accuracy, +speed and even create your very own immediate murder bait survivor with a heart implant. (Everyone is very jealous of his exciting White Lion or Gorm heart he just had stuck in there).

While this experience is mostly random for settlements without a Silk Surgeon, the way it revolutionizes and supports your settlement's playstyle in a unique fashion makes this an argument for playing with Spidicules and doing your best to rush to the L3 Spidicules fight so you can start making a Silk Surgeon or two.

Weird, powerful, interesting and exciting. Another absolute hit of an endeavor/story event.

Rating: 5/5

Silk Refining #2 - Convert Silk

Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Convert 1x silk into 1x hide

Very simple, this allows you to turn your silk into hide, it is however a very costly exercise and you will want to run Collective Toil + Population gain strategies if you want to make serious use of this. 

Hide however is a resource that is very valuable, early on you're always short of it and later on it converts into Leather, so this endeavor, despite its inefficiency is a very useful and potentially life saving tool that you should always be thinking about. Need a hide? Convert silk! Need leather? Convert Silk! Have a spare endeavor you're not doing anything with? Convert Silk!

If this was the only thing that Silk-Refining did, then it would still be a decent enough endeavor due to its "free" innovating cost (just have to defeat a Spidicules). But given that it comes in a package along with the incredible Silk Surgery this is pretty sweet.

Rating: 3/5

Silk Refining #3 - Construct the Silk Mill 

Cost: 1x endeavor, 2x silk, 1x bone, 1x organ

Type: Permanent, Temporary, Random

Effect(s): Construct the Silk Mill Settlement Location

One of the interesting things about Constructing the Silk Mill when compared to the Stone Circle (its Screaming Antelope counterpart) is the cost. The Stone Circle costs 3x Organ and 1x Hide - which is a slightly tricky call when you consider that the Screaming Antelope's most common resource drop is actually bones. This anti-synergy isn't a deal breaker, the Stone Circle is an amazing location (at least until 1.6 changes it); but it does sometimes delay the acquisition of the location for a lantern year or two.

In contrast, despite needing one extra resource total, the costs for this location are better designed in respect of the monster that uses the location. Spidicules has highest drop rates in silk (which you can gather from the eggs during the fight), bones and organs. Which means that you can often get the Silk Mill open after the first fight with Spidicules and even have a few little spare resources kicking around to start crafting the all important gear. This gives you a leg up in getting stuff sorted faster and in the early game every single thing like this makes a huge difference further down the line. 

It seems unlikely that this innovation cost will be changed in Campaigns of Death (it certainly shouldn't be increased) and as such, if we see the kind of gear changes that Spidicules needs, it is likely that the expansion will become a premium experience.

Rating: 5/5

Choreia - Spider Dance

Cost: 2x endeavors, requires 1x male and 1x female survivor

Type: Permanent, Random

Effects: 70% Nothing, 20% Male survivor gains Harvestman, Female survivor gains Death Touch + half of male survivor's hunt XP. Male survivor is dead. Nom.

We've saved the best for last here; Choreia is a fundamental core piece of the various strategies I construct my hunt parties around. This is the one area where I generate male hunters, without Choreia I exclusively take females out hunting and leave the males back at the settlement. It is also why I only use Males with Phoenix Armor and only ever give Females F&T Proficiency. In the world of Kingdom Death, this card is one of the queens of strategic planning.

That said, it's not just all easy mode with this endeavor. It's very costly to operate. For a start it requires 2x endeavors to use and it also is very unreliable. On top of that, when you use this endeavor you want to be OK with losing the male survivor (the best situation is a newbie male survivor with the Saga innovation in play). That is because the 10+ result is going to get him all ate up.

As such I set up for the use of this innovation with the following baseline tools:

Collective Toil for more endeavors

A newbie male survivor (never been on a hunt)

A seasoned female who has been working on Fist & Tooth (or any female if I am not yet set up for training F&T).

Saga so the male survivor is born with some baseline XP to transfer across (optional, but very good if you have a newbie female as well).

A Phoenix Armor set for the male.

Otherworldly Luck on the Female (can be gained directly during the Sense Memory Flower Knight event).

The outcome here is going to be one of three things; 

Nothing at all, in which case we'll try again later

The Male gains the Harvestman Fighting art:

He will now go on hunts with the Phoenix Armor which has high synergies with high movement. 

The female noms up the male and gains the Death Touch SFA:

Then we will seek to combine this with Monster Claw Style or Acid Palms.  

Because of these outcomes; which give reliable (if random) ways of generating certain survivors for specific uses, Choreia is an innovation that can become a cornerstone strategy, you know where you can get your hands on two very specific styles of play and you can tailor your entire strategy around this; working on getting this put together in advance with preparational work and even supporting it by sculpting a fighting art that you want to combine with these two reliable options. 

This is exactly what you want innovations to be when you go after them, capable of influencing your settlement's direction and allowing you to plan/set up in advance so if you do manage to innovate Choreia you are set to take advantage of it (especially given that the set up for this one is so low cost).

Rating: 5/5

Spidicules has its flaws as an expansion, but it cannot ever be said that the innovations/endeavors are a part of that. Each one has its own place, either supporting existing strategies or creating new ones in an organic and enticing fashion. With some additional refinement in Campaigns of Death I can foresee Spidicules moving from being a 'bottom 4' expansion to one that is nearer the top. It certainly has more potential for growth and improvement than the Flower Knight for example.