Advantage of Early Game Jiyva

[pikkle]

Every so often, I'll see an early altar to Jiyva and I just want to try it! I've never rolled a toon where I didn't have a god or two in mind before D:1, but are any combos well-suited to Jiyva as an alternate god? And if I go that direction, how does it play?

[TwilightPhoenix]

Pretty much anyone can, though you have to come to accept the reality that 99% of the stuff that drops is floor trash. Jiyva can slow down the rate at which you upgrade gear, but you'll still get plenty of stuff as you go (plus the walls in Slime Pits stay up now, so you have easy access to that treasure when you find cTele). It also helps Jiyva virtually eliminates the need for food (expect to be at Engorged 90% of the time) and gives flawless or near flawless conservation. I've literally been standing in freezing clouds while covered with sticky flame and not lost any potions or scrolls while at full Jiyva piety. Not to mention you'll never have to worry about bad mutations because, if they do get through, you can simply cure them with Jiyva. Jiyva also gives you a melee range one-shot kill.

Do not play undead with Jiyva, you will get rotted mercilessly unless something changed. Higher metabolism characters and those who are less gear dependent get a bit more out of Jiyva, but not hugely so.

Expect your stats and mutations to be adjusted often and every floor to be crawling with jellies (which are all neutral to you, so no worries there).

[ebarrett]

the walls in Slime Pits stay up now, so you have easy access to that treasure when you find cTele

I am 99% sure that:
1. if you find an early Jiyva altar, you'll hit ****** piety (and therefore Jiyva will open the vaults) before reaching Slime:6
2. the treasure vaults can't be teleported into until Jiyva opens them or the Royal Jelly dies anyway (you can LRD in though)

Of course, you can just go there and use all the piety you need to keep everyone in place while you sort through the loot, it's not like you can't get that piety back almost instantly.

[Lasty]

Jiyva also restores hp/mana every time a jelly eats something if your piety is high (and it usually is). The only meaningful downside to Jiyva (aside from the undead rot thing) is that you can't really stash stuff -- otherwise, it's pretty much all bonuses, and significant ones at that.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Last time I worshipped Jiyva, which was during the tournament, the walls turned transparent once I hit 6* and allowed cTele into them, but they did not vanish. So, all the slimes were not able to access the loot while I could.

[crate]

Last time I worshipped Jiyva, which was during the tournament, the walls turned transparent once I hit 6* and allowed cTele into them, but they did not vanish. So, all the slimes were not able to access the loot while I could.

This is a bug, the walls are supposed to disappear. I'm not really sure what causes it.

[JeffQyzt]

Jiyva virtually eliminates the need for food (expect to be at Engorged 90% of the time)...Do not play undead with Jiyva, you will get rotted mercilessly unless something changed.

Hrm...what does this do for vampires? Do they just basically stay at "Alive" status?

[crate]

Jiyva doesn't gift mutations to undead, so you don't get rotted....

Vampires stay at "alive" most of the time, I think.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Well, that certainly makes undead not so suicidal with Jiyva (last time I tried it was in... Jiyva's trunk I think?) Still though, losing out on mutations and not getting as much of a benefit, or none at all, from free eating kind of sucks. Yeah, mummies don't need food to begin with, but why be a mummy of Jiyva when you can have better apts and just as many food issues? (Aka, none.)

[nordetsa]

Main challenge would be to find the altar in the first place...I've only seen early game slime god altar 2~3 times.

[SchwaWarrior]

I've always been taught to stay the heck away from early-game Jiyva, because you'll lose almost all potential loot you find, and for an early game character this can be too rough to play with the further down you go. But I guess it would depend on the character and background, mm? I have trouble seeing these grey-area things because I am a black and white thinker. I should try an early-game Jiyva with a strategy thought up in advance next chance I get.

It's not like getting a Corrupted Temple and getting early-game Lugonu, which is extremely straightforward to work with, even if her abilities can be a little tricky to master. Jiyva's even tougher because she has some real big limitations you must work with. But Slimify is godlike, the best thing ever against Shadow Dragons and Titans IMO. Who would pass up a free, high-XP kill and an Acid Blob fighting for your team at the same time?

[crate]

You should actually try early Jiyva before you believe people who say you get no loot.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Again, accept the reality that 99% of the stuff on the floor is junk. So 99% of the time you hear a slurping noise, it's something you didn't need.

[ebarrett]

Who would pass up a free, high-XP kill and an Acid Blob fighting for your team at the same time?

You don't get the exp, and the resulting slime is the "will swap places with you instead of hitting you and getting in the way" kind of neutral.

[Psieye]

Banishment has 1/2 EXP reward. Slimeify has nothing. It's a bail, not a freebie.

[Lasty]

I agree with crate. When I've gotten an early Jivya, the amount and quality of loot I got was not noticeably affected, and my characters tended to do very well.

[minstrel]

Jiyva doesn't gift mutations to undead, so you don't get rotted....

Vampires stay at "alive" most of the time, I think.

I am thinking a VaTr of jiyva might be quite fun. Near permanent regen++, plus you're regaining hp when slimes eat, fangs3 and ability to use statue form reliably would make for an unarmed powerhouse. Or use a vampiric weapon and a different class for gonzo levels of hp restoration. Well, in concept anyway...ill have to try this out.

Is that absolute about no mutations to undead races or does jiyva notice when a vampire is able to mutate? Acidic bite (acid dripping stony fangs!) would be even cooler if he gifts mutations when youre at Alive.

[BlackSheep]

Jiyva will gift mutations to Vampires (abbreviated Vp, btw) that can accept them.

[XuaXua]

My characters who gained early game Jiyva were notably weak experience-wise because all the jellies on the board kept killing all the creatures.

[pikkle]

Thanks all for the tips. I'm just now playing a HEAE that found a D:4 Jiyva altar and I'm going for it! I'll let y'all know how it goes.

UPDATE: Died on a brutal D:9 staircase next to a Wyvern and a Komodo Dragon . Didn't get to see much of Jiyva (though I should have tried to Slimify the threat before it was too late).

[mrbobbyg]

I just won my first Jiyva game, 4 runes, and I have to say, it was a blast.

However, I did want to go for more runes, but as a fire oriented WZ who had not yet found firestorm, I was haunted by the fact that the jellies were eating my books. If you're going to be dependent on any particular thing, I think Jiyva can be hard, because it's very likely that thing is going to be eaten.

[pikkle]

Does anyone have experience with a Vampire of Jiyva? That seems like a very interesting combination of mechanics.

[njvack]

Does slime eating make vampires more full?

[crate]

Vp of Jiyva will be at Alive most of the time.

[cerebovssquire]

I've played some Vp of Jiyva and I found them very strong each time. There's not much direct advantage to being a Vp of Jiyva as opposed to anyone else of Jiyva, but Jiyva is so strong that that doesn't matter, but the benefits there are, such as the regeneration boost at Alive in addition to slime healing, are pretty nice. On the other hand, I can imagine him becoming quite annoying by extended, where Bloodless is actually quite helpful.

[SchwaWarrior]

You don't get the exp, and the resulting slime is the "will swap places with you instead of hitting you and getting in the way" kind of neutral.

True, but say you're in a corridor and you Slimify the first enemy in the line, and it becomes an Acid Blob, and then you back up and let that Acid Blob hold off the entire horde of approaching foes and wreak havoc with its acid beams for a while until they kill it. And then you go in and mop up what's left of them. It's pretty handy, and since Enslavement never works later in the game it's the best alternative-yet-similar tactic I can think of.

[njvack]

I can imagine him becoming quite annoying by extended, where Bloodless is actually quite helpful.

... can Jiyva wrath mutate bloodless Vampires?

[BlackSheep]

No, the code checks for undead status and hunger state for vampires.