BLUDTUPOWA
3 health per level| Effects | |
|---|---|
| |
| Hotkey | U |
BLUDTOPOWA is a rather unique glyph, as it is the only glyph in the game with no manacosts. Instead, it replenishes the players mana at the expense of his health and blackspace. This makes it naturally a good fit for dedicated spellcasters, but a rather poor find for hybrid or physical-oriented builds.
The uncovered tiles are the 3 closest tiles to the player. The distance is the number of tile you would need to move through without moving diagonally (It does of course not take obstacles into account). Knowing which tiles will be uncovered can be of some use (see hints)
Unlocking the glyph
BLUDTUPOWA is unlocked along with the 
Bloodmage.
Strategy
BLUDTOPOWA is a very handy glyph for any character based around spellcasting. Dedicated spellcasters usually focus on increasing their mana or glyph effectiveness, so they often neglect their attack damage. This usually results in rather ineffective strikes. BLUDTOPOWA allows them to use their health more efficiently. Naturally, BLUDTOPOWA won't work with hybrid-builds. Taking damage means you'll have less health to use for BLUDTOPOWA and vice-versa, so the two concepts are mutually exclusive.
As expected, the Bloodmage excels at using his signature glyph. Their sanguine trait allows them to use the glyph more often than other classes during combat, especially if they have quaffed a mana potion or two. A well built bloodmage can release an amazing amount of fireballs before going out of breath and is often able to kill monsters with magic alone.
They also have to rely on it to compensate for their low maximum mana.
The 
Assassin is another class that can get much mileage out of this glyph, especially if he is played as an elf.
Since they start with 
APHEELSIK and can always obtain 
BURNDAYRAZ, they can easily have one of the most potent glyph combinations in the game if they happen to find BLUDTOPOWA. The player simply poisons a monster and uses BLUDTOPOWA to fuel BURNDAYRAZ. Once health and mana are depleted, the player simply explores until he has to recast APHEELSIK again - at which point he simply repeats the cycle. This combo allows to continuously damage an enemy without him retaliating or regenerating, so it can bring down even enemies of a high level.
A rather unexpected class that benefits from the glyph is the 
Monk. Monks deal very low damage, and BURNDAYRAZ is a feasible way to bypass that restriction. His fast health regeneration in combination with burning allows him to effectively regenfight enemies via magic, ignoring any physical resistances.
BLUDTOPOWA loses much of its strength once the endgame is reached. If there is no longer any black space available, the glyph will only replenish 1 mana, but still cost health. Unless the player is very desperate to squeeze out a few manapoints , it's better to convert the glyph.
As damage is concerned, (3health=1/2*4damage per level) for every 100 damage done you recieve 150 on average, of course BURNDAYRAZ increases damage on every cast and reducing the cast cost improves efficiency , this way you can fight monsters that on average deal more than 150% of your atack, or monsters that are resistant, or monsters that have debuffs (since you dont hit them).
Hints
- The Sorcerer is allergic to this glyph - it costs 4 more health than every other class to use it, due to his class traits. (3 per level + 4). Prior to this change, a 1st level Sorcerer could cast indefinitely by healing from casting spells than using BLUDTUPOWA to recover mana.
- Since it doesn't have a mana cost, BLUDTUPOWA is unaffected by the Mystic Balance boon of
Mystera Annur.
- BLUDTUPOWA always reveals the closest tiles to the player, without healing the monsters. This can be exploited by assasins who need to get their first strike, Bloodmages who want to avoid stepping on their Bloodpools, or to simply check what lies behind a wall.
- For the same reason, it can also be of some use to reveal again a monster which has escaped in dark space (due to its
Blinks or 
Cowardly traits, or because you 
Knockbacked it). This is specially true when the monster has 
Fast regen or 
Life steal, as it won't trigger these effects.
- It's a good idea to use unreachable blackspaces via BLUDTUPOWA.
- If you don't have any blackspaces left, except some very extreme edge cases, you should convert this glyph. Converting 3 unit HP to 1MP is awfully inefficient.
-
BLUDTUPOWA has an interesting synergy with death protection effects such as 
CYDSTEPP. If your next attack will leave you 'Barely Alive', any hitpoints you have are irrelevant, so you may as well convert them into mana.
- Mystera Annur won't reward any piety for using this glyph, but
Taurog will count it as a normal spellcast.
-
Glowing Guardian punishes the player for using this glyph, but grants extra-piety for converting it.
- BLUDTUPOWA is an excellent find for the
Goatperson. As it reveals 3 tiles, but only costs 1 food, it allows you to effectively explore at a reduced cost.
