WONAFYT

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WONAFYT.png
WONAFYT
5 Mana Points  summon monster
Effects
  • Teleports a random monster of the player's level (or lower, if unavailable) to a empty tile next to the player and slows it.
  • Monsters are teleported to a random tile horizontally or vertically adjacent to the player. If all such tiles are filled, glyph targets a random diagonally adjacent tile.
  • Fails if no same-level or lower-level monster exists. Chance to fail if targets magic resistant monster.
  • Afflicts the target monster with Trait: Slowed Slowed (+1XP when killed, temporarily loses Trait: First strike First strike, Trait: Retaliate: Fireball Retaliate: Fireball, Trait: Cowardly Cowardly).
Hotkey S

The monster summoning glyph is a utility glyph that can seem less powerful in comparison to other glyphs because it has have very few immediate benefits. However, using this glyph correctly has many long-term benefits, notably the creation of slowed popcorn that is easy to harvest for strategic leveling.

This glyph is likely to spawn very close to the player, making it ideal for use during early exploration as a means of using mana that would otherwise be wasted. It is also an excellent way to clear low-level chokepoints and reduce the chance of having your hand forced by an unlucky monster placement.

Understanding WONAFYT

New players may be misled by this glyph into attempting to kill same-level monsters over higher or lower level monsters. This is generally accepted to be an inefficient choice: they grant no bonus experience, but are strong enough to deplete your health and mana. In terms of how much experience reward you get for how much effort you expend, this is a horrible deal and you should constantly be striving to avoid fighting these monsters, either fighting weaker monsters that you can kill effortlessly or stronger monsters that are worth bonus experience.

New players may be further confused by the inclusion of the slow effect on monsters. Most equal-level monsters are too strong to kill in a single blow, and slow will expire as soon as you strike them. This means that you usually cannot capitalize on the +1 experience bonus immediately after the monster is summoned unless you are strong enough to kill it in a single attack. Any character strong enough to do this should be capable of defeating considerably more powerful monsters and earning large amounts of bonus experience for doing so. The slow effect is only venerable in the long term, when you have grown strong enough to dispatch the monster in a single blow.

The only exception to these general rules is in case a player has the Item: Balanced Dagger Balanced Dagger item, in which case summoning equal level monsters to fight becomes a strong strategy if executed correctly.

Strategy

To use this glyph to its full potential, go to an explored and largely empty part of the dungeon to summon monsters, then leave them there without attacking. This will corral weaker monsters that might otherwise be blocking hallways and place them out of your way, forming what is known as a popcorn bowl. Since slow never expires unless you attack the slowed monster itself, you can continue exploring and leveling up and return much later to kill them in a single strike and gain the +1 XP bonus, allowing you to strategically level up at the most opportune time. In many ways, WONAFYT functions as a less expensive but much less controllable and practical version of Glyph: WEYTWUT WEYTWUT.

WONAFYT appears to be random, however teleportation follows certain rules:

1) Monsters will always be teleported to empty tiles directly adjacent to the player first.

2) Monsters will always be teleported to non-diagonal tiles if possible.

3) The teleport prioritizes monsters in this order:

  • Monsters that are not slowed.
  • Monsters of an equal level.
  • Monsters of a lower level.
  • Monsters with the least magic resistance.

This means that if there are no non-slowed monsters of equal or lower level, priority reverts to equal-leveled monsters, preferring monsters with lower resistance. Note that WONAFYT ignores monsters that are immune to Magic.

If used correctly WONAFYT is as effective as Glyph: WEYTWUT WEYTWUT for a fraction of the cost, needs no targeting, and pulls monsters out of unexplored territory saving exploration.

The more monsters you teleport and slow, the smaller the pool of potential candidates for teleportation. By slowing all but one same-level monster on a map you can predict which monster will be teleported with high levels of accuracy.

When WONAFYT is near your starting position it is possible to destroy all enemies on most maps with only having explored about half the map. Before you kill any creatures on a map, search around for WONAFYT. Immediately use all of your mana to cast it multiple times. Explore, and cast again until one of the creature you have already summoned and slowed is moved again. This means you have all creature your level and lower next to you. Make sure you have enough mana to cast again, then attack a creature until it is one hit away from death. Cast WONAFYT again. Since the attacked creature is the only one at your level or less that is not slowed, it will move and be slowed. Finish it off. Do this until you level up. Repeat this process until you have summoned all level 2 creatures. Then kill off the level one creatures that are one hit kills (this trick is awesome with assassin). Often I make to level three without killing any level two creatures and almost to level four feeding off level two creatures. Repeat for all levels until you finally summon the boss. In this way you get one bonus experience for every creature on the map, you do no unnecessary exploring, and will almost always reach level 10 if you have the balanced dagger.

This glyph is generally only useful during early exploration; hence the tendency to spawn close to the player. During later exploration its mana cost is rarely worthwhile, and as a higher-level character it's unlikely that you will ever be able to slay the monsters it summons in a single blow in order to take advantage of its slow effect (unless you are an Class: Assassin Assassin). As a result, if you've already explored more than half the dungeon you should ignore this glyph completely in favour of glyphs with more immediate effects.

For characters who have the Item: Balanced Dagger Balanced Dagger there is an additional strategy: With the Dagger one gets the same XP for a same-level monster as for a monster one level above the character level, in that sense fighting same-level monsters is not a complete waste of ressources. After the first attack the slow effect will expire. But since WONAFYT first targets not slowed same-level monsters, one can use the glyph to slow the monster for the final blow (in such a case WONAFYT is superior to WEYTWUT because of the lower mana cost).