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Alpha:Vampire(race)

2015-09-27T18:01:43Z

Yoacusna:

{{DDClass
|title=Vampire
|image=[[File:HeroVampireLarge.png|75px]]
|races=Special race
|tier=Special class
|unlocked= Beat Crypt with an Assassin
|rewards=None
|skills= Multiple:
* Gains 7 Base Damage per level, instead of 5
* No Health Regen - you lose 1 HP per tile explored instead
* First Strike
* Immune to Poison
* Immune to Mana Burn
* Can sense the locations of all monsters of equal or lower level
* Spells cost Health instead of Mana
* Restores 10% of Max Health from blood pools
* 5% Life Steal, gains an additional 5% for every glyph converted
* Every next spell cost one more HP, than last; cost sets to normal after hand-to-hand fight
* HALPMEH doesn't work.
|}}

''You may also be looking for the [[Alpha:Vampire|monster]] version of the vampire.''

The '''vampire''' is one of the [[Alpha:Classes|special races]] in Desktop Dungeons. It is unlocked by clearing the [[Alpha:Crypt|Crypt]] with an [[Alpha:Assassin|Assassin]]. Vampires gradually lose health on their own, but they drain blood to heal themselves, be it from living or fallen creatures. Additionally, they cast spells using their health rather than their mana.

== Skills ==

* Gains 7 Base Damage per level, instead of 5
* No Health Regen - you lose 1 HP per tile explored instead (but the damage from exploring a tile cannot kill you)
* First Strike
* Immune to Poison
* Immune to Mana Burn
* Can sense the locations of all monsters of equal or lower level
* Spells cost Health instead of Mana
* Restores 10% of Max Health from blood pools
* 5% Life Steal, gains an additional 5% for every glyph converted
* Every next spell cost one more HP, than last; cost sets to normal after hand-to-hand fight or after exploring a tile
* [[Alpha:HALPMEH|HALPMEH]] doesn't work.

Life Steal causes you to get back a percentage of your Total Damage you dealt as Health when you use a melee attack. So if you hit a monster for 50 damage, you'd recover 12 Health with 25% Life Steal.

== General Strategy ==

Vampire is tricky at the start; once you've gained a couple of levels though, your increased Health and Damage makes taking on almost any enemy a breeze. However, First Strike does not let you go before other enemies with First Strike, and the lack of regeneration means that [[Alpha:Gorgon|Gorgons]] can pose a minor threat if you're not careful. The increased Base Damage means that effects that increase your Damage Bonus are even more potent though.

Once you get [[Alpha:BURNDAYRAZ|BURNDAYRAZ]], the Vampire can beat bosses almost immediately, because they draw mana from health, and at level 4, you can have, say, 52 health, which gives you 6 casts: 52-6-7-8-9-10-11=1, where each cast costs one additional HP, for a total of 96 damage, which is enough to take out most level 7 monsters, possibly level 8 if you can take advantage of First Strike. Note that the Health that you'll spend casting [[Alpha:BURNDAYRAZ|BURNDAYRAZ]] until a monster can be killed instantly with First Strike is usually much less than the amount of Health that you'd lose by allowing the enemy to hit you.

Vampire is the only race/class in the game, that don't need exploration control - actually, you should explore as much of dungeon as you can. After first exploration you could start attacking - even with 1 HP you can kill a bunch of monsters. Level up will heal you; from this moment you can attack monsters 1-2 level higher than yours.

Try to save bloodpools for later but use your potions early—at high levels you usually wouldn't need them (except for the Factory). Due to the Vampire's nature, [[Alpha:BLUDTUPOWA|BLUDTUPOWA]], [[Alpha:HALPMEH|HALPMEH]], [[Alpha:GETINDARE|GETINDARE]] and [[Alpha:LEMMISI|LEMMISI]] are all useless, any of them should be converted on sight.

If you are lucky enough to find [[Alpha:CYDSTEPP|CYDSTEPP]] and push your Life Steal up high enough, you can set up for boss battles by leaving as many opponents (without First Strike) as possible one hit away from death. Hit the boss, kill someone to regenerate enough HP for CYDSTEPP, cast, then repeat until the boss is dead.

== Deity Choice ==

Perhaps ironically, Vampires are arguably more likely than other classes to benefit from worshiping a god. Since you'll be exploring as much of the dungeon as possible from the get-go, you're more likely to find most or all of the available shrines before even advancing to Level 2, which means more opportunities to gain Piety; the odds that you'll discover a shrine too late in the game for it to make any difference are also vastly reduced. Knowing all of your options before picking a God is tremendously helpful, especially if you take into account the items available from the shops that you will likely have discovered by this point as well.

Be aware that both [[Alpha:The Earthmother|The Earthmother]] and [[Alpha:Glowing Guardian|Glowing Guardian]] disapprove of Life Steal; attacking a monster will cause [[Alpha:Glowing Guardian|Glowing Guardian]] to immediately renounce you, while [[Alpha:The Earthmother|The Earthmother]] will both penalize you an (undetermined) amount of piety and set your Life Steal to 0%. Since there's no penalty for being renounced by [[Alpha:Glowing Guardian|Glowing Guardian]], worshiping him for the one-time health boost may still be worthwhile if no better Gods are available.

While neither Mana Burn nor the reduction to Max Mana that accompanies [[Alpha:Taurog|Taurog's]] Boons affects the Vampire, it will be difficult to gain Piety with him if you're relying heavily on spellcasting. However, choosing [[Alpha:Taurog|Tuarog]] and converting all of your [[Alpha:Glyphs|glyphs]] (both for Piety and for Life Steal) can be a viable choice, especially if a number of items which boost your combat effectiveness are available. With the right items and the Rage boon, a Vampire becomes nearly unstoppable.

While [[Alpha:Mystera Annur|Mystera Annur]] provides boons which boost the effectiveness of [[Alpha:BURNDAYRAZ|BURNDAYRAZ]], the fact that worshiping her effectively negates the Vampire's Life Steal makes her an extremely poor choice under most circumstances.

[[Alpha:The Pactmaker|The Pactmaker]] is always a good option; you're likely to have explored as much of the map as possible from an early level, meaning a good chunk of starting Piety. With a little luck, it's entirely possible to purchase Learning before having killed a single foe.

[[Alpha:Dracul|Dracul]] is an interesting choice, although there are both pros and cons to be considered. On the one hand, it's risky for a Vampire to reduce his Max Health; doing so reduces the amount of Health returned by blood pools, and also limits your ability to chain [[Alpha:BURNDAYRAZ|BURNDAYRAZ]]. On the other hand, First Strike somewhat reduces the importance of a high HP total, while Bloodhunger stacks with a Vampire's natural Life Steal - making it possible to reach a whopping 50% Life Steal. When [[Alpha:Dracul|Dracul's]] bonuses to Attack Strength and Resistances are added in, the Vampire becomes incredibly difficult to kill - especially if items which further increase Damage or Resistance are available
. As always, however, be careful of choosing [[Alpha:Dracul|Dracul]] on maps with lots of Undead.

Bear in mind when choosing [[Alpha:Mystera Annur|Mystera Annur]], [[Alpha:The Pactmaker|The Pactmaker]], or [[Alpha:Dracul|Dracul]] that Vampires gain no benefit from boons which increase your Max Mana.

A final option (testing needed?) is the [[Alpha:Glowing Guardian|Glowing Guardian]] + [[Alpha:CYDSTEPP|CYDSTEPP]] option. [[Alpha:Glowing Guardian|Glowing Guardian]] rewards piety for being saved by death and for using [[Alpha:CYDSTEPP|CYDSTEPP]]. If you have less health than it costs to use the glyph, it will immediately cast and save you from dying for a gain of 3 piety. You can do this as many times as you wish until you have 100 piety. At this point, you can easily transfer to [[Alpha:The Earthmother|The Earthmother]] or [[Alpha:Binlor Ironshield|Binlor Ironshield]] and take their best boons (If they are available, and if you can avoid their retribution). Or simply stick with the Glowing Guardian's boons.

== Challenge Modes ==

=== Snake Pit ===

This is as straightforward as it gets. Explore as much as possible, to find [[Alpha:BURNDAYRAZ|BURNDAYRAZ]] and all level 1 [[Alpha:Serpents|Serpents]] and [[Alpha:Naga|Nagas]] you can locate. Kill enough of them to go to level 2. Continue exploring if possible and repeat the process with the level 2 Serpents and Nagas. By level 3 you can probably start using BURNDAYRAZ to destroy high-level Enemies. Calculate the amount of damage you can dish out with the health you've got (heal it with blood-pools or potions if it can help take a higher-level one). This should lead to a chain of level-ups culminating around level 7. At 7, you can take out [[Alpha:Gorgon#Boss info|Medusa]] with a fireball volley. At 8 take out [[Alpha:Serpent#Boss info|Jormungandr]] the same way - you should have plenty of potions left too, so this should be easy as pie.

=== Crypt ===

Use the same method as above (see Snake Pit), except this time concentrate on [[Alpha:Wraith|Wraiths]] and [[Alpha:Vampire|Vampires]] at the start (after thoroughly exploring everything you can explore!). Go for [[Alpha:Zombie|Zombies]] only if you don't have any better target. You may want to set up a midfight level-up for your encounter with [[Alpha:Zombie#Boss info|Frank the Zombie]].

=== Library ===

Yup, it's the same trick here. Your favoured targets should be the [[Alpha:Warlock|Warlocks]] and [[Alpha:Imp|Imps]], as they possess the least health. Since you'll be exploring the entire map anyway, Imps shouldn't be a bother at all. Go for [[Alpha:Warlock#Boss info|Aequitas]] first.

=== Factory ===

Now this is the truly challenging part. In the factory, none of the enemies are as easy to take down as in other challenge dungeons. The [[Alpha:Animated Armour|Animated Armour]] requires a set number of hits to kill, the [[Alpha:Meat man|Meat Men]] have huge health, and the [[Alpha:Golem|Golems]] are resistant to your BURNDAYRAZ. Patience here is the key, as is the help of [[Alpha:The Pactmaker|the Pactmaker]], so make sure you can locate him early (but don't join him yet!).

Begin by exploring as much of the dungeon as you can. Get as many good shop [[Alpha:Items|items]] as you can find (it helps being loaded with cash, so come prepared). Also find BURNDAYRAZ, you can't win without it. Once set, start taking out level 1 Golems. If you have good Lifesteal, you can take on Animated Armour and maybe even Meat Men - the regeneration will keep you safe, just make sure it says "SAFE" before attacking. Before leveling up to level 2, assuming you have explored thoroughly, join Pactmaker. This will net you a large amount of Piety from all the exploration.

At level 2, continue exploring if you can, and see if you can take out slightly higher-level targets. The moment you can't explore any further, level up again. At level 3 you can start taking on level 4 monsters, or level 5 Golems. Again the idea is to level up using as few monsters as you can find, but remember that lower-level monsters can be killed for Health (thanks to Lifesteal). The moment you have 80 Piety, immediately take Pactmaker's Health boon.

At level 7 make sure you have several monsters to level up with. Do not kill them before you start the boss fights! If you're low on health, try to replenish it by attacking lower-level Animated Armour: Your lifesteal should outweigh the damage they do to you, increasing your health instead of decreasing it for every attack. However do try to keep a few of them alive. Blast Super Meat Man with spells until you have about 50% of your health left. Then attack an Animated Armour to reduce your BURNDAYRAZ cost back to 6. Go at the meat man again. Then kill off a few of the monsters left to regain Health, but don't level up yet. Spend as much BURNDAYRAZ as you can still afford on the Super Meat Man, and then finally level up and finish him.

This will put you high up in level 8 or low in level 9. Repeat the process, making sure you are healthy and have enough low-level armors to attack (if any remain at all). Use the same tactic against [[Alpha:Golem#Boss info|Iron Man]], attacking an Armour half-way through your health to reduce the cost of BURNDAYRAZ. Remember that this time you can use Potions and also drink up blood-stains on the map - this will be extremely helpful, as it can replenish your Health twice over if you've killed enough monsters. Also remember that when you are 10 points below leveling up, you can use Pactmaker's "Experience" boon to push you over the edge.

As an alternate strategy, CYDSTEPP with BURNDAYRAZ can make the Factory extremely easy regardless of which gods are available; kill only the strongest creatures as you level up, spend the rest of your HP weakening the armors until the map is completely explored, then get the rest down to one hit kills. From that point, you'll be able to just alternate hits on the bosses with killing others to regenerate HP for the next cast of CYDSTEPP.
{{DDNav}}

[[Category:Special Classes]]
[[Category:Alpha Classes]]

Alpha:Dracul

2015-09-26T20:33:33Z

Yoacusna: /* Strategy */

Dracul, god of the Undead, is one of the gods available for worshipping in Desktop Dungeon. Dracul may be worshipped by locating his altar in a dungeon (if it appears).

== Initial Worship ==

If an altar of Dracul is found in the dungeon, and the hero is not yet worshipping any other god, it is possible to pray to Dracul.

=== Immediate effect ===

When first worshiping Dracul, several effects occur:
* The hero's '''level is increased by 1''', without gaining the usual permanent bonuses for this level-up.
** This increase occurs regardless of your hero's current level, unless he is already at level 10.
** No standard stat bonuses are applied when this occurs. That means, your Maximum Health, Attack Strength, or any item-given bonuses related to level-ups will not be acquired. Also, your Health and Mana will ''not'' be restored as normal. Earned experience won't decrease.
** You do gain some of the advantages of leveling up, however. Your health regeneration ''does'' increase to match your new level, and the effect of level-dependent glyphs (BURNDAYRAZ and HALPMEH) does increase as well.
* The '''[[Alpha:HALPMEH|HALPMEH]] Glyph''' is destroyed.
** This occurs only when the player is holding HALPMEH. If the player picks up the glyph after worshiping, it will be immediately destroyed. If you wish to convert it, you must do so before worship or directly from the ground.
* Dracul will grant you an amount of '''Piety points''' equal to the number of blood-stains ''currently'' visible in the dungeon.
** This includes blood-stains from each monster you have killed. Some characters like the [[Alpha:Bloodmage|Bloodmage]] may suck up bloodstains during their exploration, and if so those bloodstains are not included in the effect.

=== Conversion ===

Followers of Dracul cannot convert their religion to any other god. Followers of other gods cannot convert their religion to Dracul.

The only method to switch to or from Dracul is to first renounce your religion by help of an item.

== Religion ==

Dracul is the god of the Undead. As such, he is the protector of all Undead monsters. He yearns for the blood of the living, and will reward slaying them.

The following actions will only change your Piety while worshiping Dracul. If you have not yet converted to Dracul, or have renounced your religion, you may perform these actions without triggering the listed effects.

=== Gaining Piety ===

Dracul will increase your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill a living creature''': +3 Piety.
** The only way to appease Dracul other than the initial piety gain is to kill "Living" creatures. This refers to any creature that does not have the Special Ability "Undead".
** The level of the creature slain or the method in which it was slain do not influence the number of piety points you gain.

=== Losing Piety ===

Dracul will decrease your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill an Undead creature''': -5 Piety.
** Dracul is the god of Undead creatures. As such, any Undead creature killed while worshiping Dracul will cause a drop of 5 Piety points. Undead creatures are marked by the word "Undead" in their special ability text.
** The level of the Undead slain or the method in which it was slain do not affect the number of piety points you lose.

=== Retribution ===

If killing an Undead creature causes your Piety to drop below 0, Dracul will '''kill you immediately'''. There is no way to avoid this death.

== Boons ==

Dracul has 5 boons to offer to his worshipers at the cost of Piety. Acquiring each boon comes with an extra cost of 5 points from your Maximum Health.

=== Bloodpower ===
* Increases Maximum Mana by 5 points.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 10 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero will receive 5 extra points to his Maximum Mana, and lose 5 points from his Maximum Health.
** Mana is not replenished at all during this upgrade. You will need to fill these 5 extra points yourself by whichever means available.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodfury ===
* Increases Attack Strength by +20%.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 20 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero receives a bonus of +20% to his Attack Strength. This adds up with all previous percentage bonuses to Attack Strength such as those acquired from the Attack Bonuses found lying around the dungeon. This effectively increases the damage caused by your Melee Attack by 20% of its base value, although this isn't always the case depending on circumstances or other effects.
** Note that only Melee damage is increased, not damage from other sources such as BURNDAYRAZ.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodshield ===
* Increases Physical and Magic Resistance by +20% each.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 25 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, both your hero's Physical and Magic resistance will go up by +20%. This bonus is cumulative with any existing Resistance your character may have at the time. For example, if your character has 50% Physical Resistance, they will now have 70% Physical Resistance. If your character had negative resistance, for instance -20%, it will be increased appropriately (to 0% in this example).
** This effectively reduces the attack damage done by any monster by 20% of its original quantity (alongside any other damage-reducing effects your character may have).
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodhunger ===
* Grants you +20% Life steal ability.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 30 Piety'''.
** After acquiring this boon, your life steal ability will increase by +20%. This bonus is cumulative, so if your character already had life steal from any source, it is increased by 20%. For example, if your character had 20% life steal, they will now have 40% life steal.
** Life steal causes some of a monster's health to transfer to your Health pool after each Melee Attack you perform. The amount of health transferred this way is equal to the ability's percentage out of the total amount of damage you cause with your attack, including temporary benefits like [[Alpha:BYSSEPS|BYSSEPS]]. Note that you will still need to survive the monster's attack in order to make good on this siphoned health. Attacks that (without life steal) would bring you to 0 Health or below would still kill you with this ability.
** Life steal works normally on undead.
** ''Research info required: does killing monsters with little health left alters the stolen amount?''
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodswell ===
* Restores your Health to its maximum.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 40 Piety'''.
** Upon acquiring this boon, your health will be restored to Maximum.
** Note that your Maximum Health is then reduced by 5 points, and your Current Health will immediately drop 5 points along with it. Therefore, you will still have full health after this boon, but now the "full" amount is 5 points less than what you had before.
** Your mana will NOT be restored or altered in any way as a result of taking this boon.
** ''Research info required: Does this healing cure poison?''

NOTE: If acquiring a boon will reduce your max health to 0 or less, you will immediately die.

== Strategy ==
* Worshipping Dracul in the very early game is almost always a mistake. The level-up effect on worship is extremely painful for a low-level character, both increasing the experience required to level up significantly and reducing your ability to get bonus experience for killing higher level enemies. On the other hand, if you've already reached the highest level you're going to get to (8-10, usually, depending on the game), this effect is all upside (better BURNDAYRAZ; better health regeneration).
* Dracul is decent late-game choice for a heavy caster relying on BURNDAYRAZ. Convert in the final stages of the game, get Bloodpower, and enjoy a more-damaging spell and enough mana to cast it more often. His other boons are worthless if you're not engaging in melee though.
* Remember, after conversion each death nets 3 piety instead of 1 that blood pools grant on conversion. The exception for this is undead, so if you kill all the undead enemies before following Dracul, but leave the non-undead ones alone, you can get the maximum possible amount of piety from him.
* Dracul is most useful when there are very few undead around (ideally none); this makes him a particular useful god in the Snake Pit, Library, and Factory special dungeons (and obviously very impractical in the Crypt). If available, use [[Alpha:IMAWAL|IMAWAL]] on undead, so you can get some extra score, assuming you can't kill them before worshipping Dracul.
* If you don't plan on using BURNDAYRAZ a lot, consider skipping the Bloodpower boon.
* Bloodshield effectively cancels the handicap of having lower hitpoint maximum. If you have any other source of resistance, it will improve your durability by a lot.
* Monks get a lot of advantage out of the Bloodshield boon.
* Bloodshield + Bloodhunger make the character an effective tank. This is especially useful against bosses like [[Alpha:Meat man#Boss info|Super Meat Man]] and [[Alpha:Golem#Boss info|The Iron Man]]. It will help against [[Alpha:Serpent#Boss info|Jormungandr]] and [[Alpha:Zombie#Boss info|Frank the zombie]] as well.

== Specific Races ==

{{Research}}
{{DDNav}}

[[Category:Gods]]

Alpha:Dracul

2015-09-26T20:30:22Z

Yoacusna: /* Strategy */

Dracul, god of the Undead, is one of the gods available for worshipping in Desktop Dungeon. Dracul may be worshipped by locating his altar in a dungeon (if it appears).

== Initial Worship ==

If an altar of Dracul is found in the dungeon, and the hero is not yet worshipping any other god, it is possible to pray to Dracul.

=== Immediate effect ===

When first worshiping Dracul, several effects occur:
* The hero's '''level is increased by 1''', without gaining the usual permanent bonuses for this level-up.
** This increase occurs regardless of your hero's current level, unless he is already at level 10.
** No standard stat bonuses are applied when this occurs. That means, your Maximum Health, Attack Strength, or any item-given bonuses related to level-ups will not be acquired. Also, your Health and Mana will ''not'' be restored as normal. Earned experience won't decrease.
** You do gain some of the advantages of leveling up, however. Your health regeneration ''does'' increase to match your new level, and the effect of level-dependent glyphs (BURNDAYRAZ and HALPMEH) does increase as well.
* The '''[[Alpha:HALPMEH|HALPMEH]] Glyph''' is destroyed.
** This occurs only when the player is holding HALPMEH. If the player picks up the glyph after worshiping, it will be immediately destroyed. If you wish to convert it, you must do so before worship or directly from the ground.
* Dracul will grant you an amount of '''Piety points''' equal to the number of blood-stains ''currently'' visible in the dungeon.
** This includes blood-stains from each monster you have killed. Some characters like the [[Alpha:Bloodmage|Bloodmage]] may suck up bloodstains during their exploration, and if so those bloodstains are not included in the effect.

=== Conversion ===

Followers of Dracul cannot convert their religion to any other god. Followers of other gods cannot convert their religion to Dracul.

The only method to switch to or from Dracul is to first renounce your religion by help of an item.

== Religion ==

Dracul is the god of the Undead. As such, he is the protector of all Undead monsters. He yearns for the blood of the living, and will reward slaying them.

The following actions will only change your Piety while worshiping Dracul. If you have not yet converted to Dracul, or have renounced your religion, you may perform these actions without triggering the listed effects.

=== Gaining Piety ===

Dracul will increase your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill a living creature''': +3 Piety.
** The only way to appease Dracul other than the initial piety gain is to kill "Living" creatures. This refers to any creature that does not have the Special Ability "Undead".
** The level of the creature slain or the method in which it was slain do not influence the number of piety points you gain.

=== Losing Piety ===

Dracul will decrease your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill an Undead creature''': -5 Piety.
** Dracul is the god of Undead creatures. As such, any Undead creature killed while worshiping Dracul will cause a drop of 5 Piety points. Undead creatures are marked by the word "Undead" in their special ability text.
** The level of the Undead slain or the method in which it was slain do not affect the number of piety points you lose.

=== Retribution ===

If killing an Undead creature causes your Piety to drop below 0, Dracul will '''kill you immediately'''. There is no way to avoid this death.

== Boons ==

Dracul has 5 boons to offer to his worshipers at the cost of Piety. Acquiring each boon comes with an extra cost of 5 points from your Maximum Health.

=== Bloodpower ===
* Increases Maximum Mana by 5 points.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 10 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero will receive 5 extra points to his Maximum Mana, and lose 5 points from his Maximum Health.
** Mana is not replenished at all during this upgrade. You will need to fill these 5 extra points yourself by whichever means available.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodfury ===
* Increases Attack Strength by +20%.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 20 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero receives a bonus of +20% to his Attack Strength. This adds up with all previous percentage bonuses to Attack Strength such as those acquired from the Attack Bonuses found lying around the dungeon. This effectively increases the damage caused by your Melee Attack by 20% of its base value, although this isn't always the case depending on circumstances or other effects.
** Note that only Melee damage is increased, not damage from other sources such as BURNDAYRAZ.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodshield ===
* Increases Physical and Magic Resistance by +20% each.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 25 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, both your hero's Physical and Magic resistance will go up by +20%. This bonus is cumulative with any existing Resistance your character may have at the time. For example, if your character has 50% Physical Resistance, they will now have 70% Physical Resistance. If your character had negative resistance, for instance -20%, it will be increased appropriately (to 0% in this example).
** This effectively reduces the attack damage done by any monster by 20% of its original quantity (alongside any other damage-reducing effects your character may have).
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodhunger ===
* Grants you +20% Life steal ability.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 30 Piety'''.
** After acquiring this boon, your life steal ability will increase by +20%. This bonus is cumulative, so if your character already had life steal from any source, it is increased by 20%. For example, if your character had 20% life steal, they will now have 40% life steal.
** Life steal causes some of a monster's health to transfer to your Health pool after each Melee Attack you perform. The amount of health transferred this way is equal to the ability's percentage out of the total amount of damage you cause with your attack, including temporary benefits like [[Alpha:BYSSEPS|BYSSEPS]]. Note that you will still need to survive the monster's attack in order to make good on this siphoned health. Attacks that (without life steal) would bring you to 0 Health or below would still kill you with this ability.
** Life steal works normally on undead.
** ''Research info required: does killing monsters with little health left alters the stolen amount?''
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodswell ===
* Restores your Health to its maximum.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 40 Piety'''.
** Upon acquiring this boon, your health will be restored to Maximum.
** Note that your Maximum Health is then reduced by 5 points, and your Current Health will immediately drop 5 points along with it. Therefore, you will still have full health after this boon, but now the "full" amount is 5 points less than what you had before.
** Your mana will NOT be restored or altered in any way as a result of taking this boon.
** ''Research info required: Does this healing cure poison?''

NOTE: If acquiring a boon will reduce your max health to 0 or less, you will immediately die.

== Strategy ==
* Worshipping Dracul in the very early game is almost always a mistake. The level-up effect on worship is extremely painful for a low-level character, both increasing the experience required to level up significantly and reducing your ability to get bonus experience for killing higher level enemies. On the other hand, if you've already reached the highest level you're going to get to (8-10, usually, depending on the game), this effect is all upside (better BURNDAYRAZ; better health regeneration).
* Dracul is generally a better choice for characters relying heavily on spells than heavy melee characters, both because his level-up effect increases your damage output more and because Bloodpower is probably his best boon.
* Remember, after conversion each death nets 3 piety instead of 1 that blood pools grant on conversion. The exception for this is undead, so if you kill all the undead enemies before following Dracul, but leave the non-undead ones alone, you can get the maximum possible amount of piety from him.
* Dracul is most useful when there are very few undead around (ideally none); this makes him a particular useful god in the Snake Pit, Library, and Factory special dungeons (and obviously very impractical in the Crypt). If available, use [[Alpha:IMAWAL|IMAWAL]] on undead, so you can get some extra score, assuming you can't kill them before worshipping Dracul.
* If you don't plan on using BURNDAYRAZ a lot, consider skipping the Bloodpower boon.
* Bloodshield effectively cancels the handicap of having lower hitpoint maximum. If you have any other source of resistance, it will improve your durability by a lot.
* Monks get a lot of advantage out of the Bloodshield boon.
* Bloodshield + Bloodhunger make the character an effective tank. This is especially useful against bosses like [[Alpha:Meat man#Boss info|Super Meat Man]] and [[Alpha:Golem#Boss info|The Iron Man]]. It will help against [[Alpha:Serpent#Boss info|Jormungandr]] and [[Alpha:Zombie#Boss info|Frank the zombie]] as well.

== Specific Races ==

{{Research}}
{{DDNav}}

[[Category:Gods]]

Alpha:Dracul

2015-09-26T20:25:40Z

Yoacusna: Explained level-up effect further

Dracul, god of the Undead, is one of the gods available for worshipping in Desktop Dungeon. Dracul may be worshipped by locating his altar in a dungeon (if it appears).

== Initial Worship ==

If an altar of Dracul is found in the dungeon, and the hero is not yet worshipping any other god, it is possible to pray to Dracul.

=== Immediate effect ===

When first worshiping Dracul, several effects occur:
* The hero's '''level is increased by 1''', without gaining the usual permanent bonuses for this level-up.
** This increase occurs regardless of your hero's current level, unless he is already at level 10.
** No standard stat bonuses are applied when this occurs. That means, your Maximum Health, Attack Strength, or any item-given bonuses related to level-ups will not be acquired. Also, your Health and Mana will ''not'' be restored as normal. Earned experience won't decrease.
** You do gain some of the advantages of leveling up, however. Your health regeneration ''does'' increase to match your new level, and the effect of level-dependent glyphs (BURNDAYRAZ and HALPMEH) does increase as well.
* The '''[[Alpha:HALPMEH|HALPMEH]] Glyph''' is destroyed.
** This occurs only when the player is holding HALPMEH. If the player picks up the glyph after worshiping, it will be immediately destroyed. If you wish to convert it, you must do so before worship or directly from the ground.
* Dracul will grant you an amount of '''Piety points''' equal to the number of blood-stains ''currently'' visible in the dungeon.
** This includes blood-stains from each monster you have killed. Some characters like the [[Alpha:Bloodmage|Bloodmage]] may suck up bloodstains during their exploration, and if so those bloodstains are not included in the effect.

=== Conversion ===

Followers of Dracul cannot convert their religion to any other god. Followers of other gods cannot convert their religion to Dracul.

The only method to switch to or from Dracul is to first renounce your religion by help of an item.

== Religion ==

Dracul is the god of the Undead. As such, he is the protector of all Undead monsters. He yearns for the blood of the living, and will reward slaying them.

The following actions will only change your Piety while worshiping Dracul. If you have not yet converted to Dracul, or have renounced your religion, you may perform these actions without triggering the listed effects.

=== Gaining Piety ===

Dracul will increase your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill a living creature''': +3 Piety.
** The only way to appease Dracul other than the initial piety gain is to kill "Living" creatures. This refers to any creature that does not have the Special Ability "Undead".
** The level of the creature slain or the method in which it was slain do not influence the number of piety points you gain.

=== Losing Piety ===

Dracul will decrease your Piety for performing the following actions:

* '''Kill an Undead creature''': -5 Piety.
** Dracul is the god of Undead creatures. As such, any Undead creature killed while worshiping Dracul will cause a drop of 5 Piety points. Undead creatures are marked by the word "Undead" in their special ability text.
** The level of the Undead slain or the method in which it was slain do not affect the number of piety points you lose.

=== Retribution ===

If killing an Undead creature causes your Piety to drop below 0, Dracul will '''kill you immediately'''. There is no way to avoid this death.

== Boons ==

Dracul has 5 boons to offer to his worshipers at the cost of Piety. Acquiring each boon comes with an extra cost of 5 points from your Maximum Health.

=== Bloodpower ===
* Increases Maximum Mana by 5 points.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 10 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero will receive 5 extra points to his Maximum Mana, and lose 5 points from his Maximum Health.
** Mana is not replenished at all during this upgrade. You will need to fill these 5 extra points yourself by whichever means available.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodfury ===
* Increases Attack Strength by +20%.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 20 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, your hero receives a bonus of +20% to his Attack Strength. This adds up with all previous percentage bonuses to Attack Strength such as those acquired from the Attack Bonuses found lying around the dungeon. This effectively increases the damage caused by your Melee Attack by 20% of its base value, although this isn't always the case depending on circumstances or other effects.
** Note that only Melee damage is increased, not damage from other sources such as BURNDAYRAZ.
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodshield ===
* Increases Physical and Magic Resistance by +20% each.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 25 Piety'''.
** On acquiring this boon, both your hero's Physical and Magic resistance will go up by +20%. This bonus is cumulative with any existing Resistance your character may have at the time. For example, if your character has 50% Physical Resistance, they will now have 70% Physical Resistance. If your character had negative resistance, for instance -20%, it will be increased appropriately (to 0% in this example).
** This effectively reduces the attack damage done by any monster by 20% of its original quantity (alongside any other damage-reducing effects your character may have).
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.
=== Bloodhunger ===
* Grants you +20% Life steal ability.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 30 Piety'''.
** After acquiring this boon, your life steal ability will increase by +20%. This bonus is cumulative, so if your character already had life steal from any source, it is increased by 20%. For example, if your character had 20% life steal, they will now have 40% life steal.
** Life steal causes some of a monster's health to transfer to your Health pool after each Melee Attack you perform. The amount of health transferred this way is equal to the ability's percentage out of the total amount of damage you cause with your attack, including temporary benefits like [[Alpha:BYSSEPS|BYSSEPS]]. Note that you will still need to survive the monster's attack in order to make good on this siphoned health. Attacks that (without life steal) would bring you to 0 Health or below would still kill you with this ability.
** Life steal works normally on undead.
** ''Research info required: does killing monsters with little health left alters the stolen amount?''
** If your Current Health is above your new Maximum Health, it will be lowered to this level instantly.

=== Bloodswell ===
* Restores your Health to its maximum.
* Reduces Maximum Health by 5 points.
* '''Costs 40 Piety'''.
** Upon acquiring this boon, your health will be restored to Maximum.
** Note that your Maximum Health is then reduced by 5 points, and your Current Health will immediately drop 5 points along with it. Therefore, you will still have full health after this boon, but now the "full" amount is 5 points less than what you had before.
** Your mana will NOT be restored or altered in any way as a result of taking this boon.
** ''Research info required: Does this healing cure poison?''

NOTE: If acquiring a boon will reduce your max health to 0 or less, you will immediately die.

== Strategy ==
* Remember, after conversion each death nets 3 piety instead of 1 that blood pools grant on conversion. The exception for this is undead, so if you kill all the undead enemies before following Dracul, but leave the non-undead ones alone, you can get the maximum possible amount of piety from him.
* Dracul is most useful when there are very few undead around (ideally none); this makes him a particular useful god in the Snake Pit, Library, and Factory special dungeons (and obviously very impractical in the Crypt). If available, use [[Alpha:IMAWAL|IMAWAL]] on undead, so you can get some extra score, assuming you can't kill them before worshipping Dracul.
* If you don't plan on using BURNDAYRAZ a lot, consider skipping the Bloodpower boon.
* Bloodshield effectively cancels the handicap of having lower hitpoint maximum. If you have any other source of resistance, it will improve your durability by a lot.
* Bloodshield + Bloodhunger make the character an effective tank. This is especially useful against bosses like [[Alpha:Meat man#Boss info|Super Meat Man]] and [[Alpha:Golem#Boss info|The Iron Man]]. It will help against [[Alpha:Serpent#Boss info|Jormungandr]] and [[Alpha:Zombie#Boss info|Frank the zombie]] as well.

== Specific Races ==

{{Research}}
{{DDNav}}

[[Category:Gods]]