| “ | Whenever after your move there is a connection between a charged and a grounded cell, there is a short circuit. All cells on any path connecting a charged and a grounded cell (without repeated cells, or two consecutive grounded/charged cells) become damaged.
Sandstone walls and most creatures are conductive. Great Walls are isolators, but lands beyond them count as grounded. Fulgurite, the treasure, is created when you manage to short circuit a sandstone wall, or a Rich Metal Beast. Trolls leave conductive rocks when killed, and Metal Beasts can only be killed by electricity -- your attacks only stun them, or push them away if already stunned. |
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The land uses electricity to get treasure by killing enemies and destroying walls. Objects can be classified into 3 categories:
- Charged Walls behave as sources of electricity, like live wires, and will generate lightning if there's a connected path from it to a grounded object.
- Sandstone Walls, Storm Troll corpses, and most monsters, including the player, are conductive; if they form a path from a charged wall to a grounded object, it will cause a lightning strike, which will usually also destroy them. Sandstone walls and Rich Metal Beasts will produce Fulgurite, the treasure of this land, when destroyed by lightning.
- Grounded walls and floor tiles of other lands act as electricity sinks. If there's a conducting path from a Charged Wall to one of these tiles, a lightning strike will happen.
Monsters[]
- Metal Beast - cannot be killed except by lightning, but may be stunned when hit by the player.
- Rich Metal Beast - same as Metal Beast, but when killed by lightning will produce Fulgurite.
- Storm Troll - when killed, leaves a conducting corpse. Useful for building a path between a Charged Wall and a grounded object.
Items[]
Objects[]
Charged Wall
Grounded Wall
Sandstone
Strategies[]
The treasure of the land can only be obtained when a lightning strike destroys a sandstone wall or a Rich Metal Beast, so the general strategy of the land consists of luring monsters into a position that forms a closed path from a Charged Wall to a grounded object (usually a Grounded Wall). Metal beasts can be hit to stun them for a few turns, which is useful to keep them in position while the other monsters line up. Generally, it's wise to kill Storm Trolls as quickly as possible, otherwise they will quickly surround and trap the player along with the other monsters. It's also advantageous to kill them in a position that fills in the path of a planned lightning strike, such as (partially) bridging the gap between a Charged Wall and a Grounded Wall, so that monsters can be channeled in between and cause a lightning strike.
When building such a path, it's usually easier to take advantage of existing placements on the map and just fill in the gaps, instead of constructing a new path from scratch, which would be time-consuming and more risky. Try to include at least one Sandstone Wall in the path so that some fulgurite will be produced by the strike.
Sandworms can be safely lured into the Land of Storms and outrun, are immune to death by electrocution, can conduct electricity with their entire bodies, and can curve in ways such that an enemy approaching you from near but not initially adjacent to the sandworm's tail may find that the shortest path to you takes it adjacent to the sandworm's tail, so luring a sandworm into the Land of Storms can be productive. Any sandstone wall, rich metal beast, metal beast, or storm troll adjacent to at least two distinct sandworm tail segments between a section of the tail that contacts a Grounded Wall (or other grounded object) and a section of the tail that contacts a Charged Wall will be destroyed, and the former two will be turned into fulgerite. Enemies trying to squeeze between a sandworm's tail and a Charged Wall or Grounded Wall also likely to get destroyed even if they are only adjacent to one sandworm tail segment. Because much of the fulgerite produced will be adjacent to the sandworm's tail, one will need to occasionally turn around and double back to grab the trail of fulgerite after the sandworm's tail has left. Rock snakes also work for this purpose, but their faster speed makes them more dangerous, and their longer tails make collecting the fulgerite less convenient.