Dracul

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Dracul
Dracul.png
Initial worship
  • +2 Piety for each killed enemy.
Punishment
  • -20 Max Health
Prep penalty

Missing info

Likes
Attack with Lifesteal (once per monster)
+1 Piety
Kill a non Trait: Undead Undead monster
+2 Piety
Convert Glyph: HALPMEH HALPMEH
+10 Piety
Convert Glyph: CYDSTEPP CYDSTEPP
+10 Piety
Convert a Item: Health potion Health potion
+5 Piety
Drink a blood pool
+1 Piety per stack of Blood Tithe
Dislikes
Kill an Trait: Undead Undead monster
-5 Piety
Drink a Item: Health potion Health potion
-5 Piety
Cast Glyph: HALPMEH HALPMEH
-5 Piety
Cast Glyph: CYDSTEPP CYDSTEPP
-5 Piety
Boons
Blood Curse
Cost: Increases level by 1 (no stat increase, no HP/MP fill, cannot be chosen at level 10)
Effect: +20 Piety
Blood Tithe (Repeatable)
Cost: 10 + 15n Piety, -5 Max Health
Effect: Grants Trait: Sanguine Sanguine 5%, or boosts +5% to Trait: Sanguine Sanguine if you already have it.
Blood Hunger (Repeatable)
Cost: 20 + 25n Piety, -20% to maximum Trait: Resistances Resistances
Effect: Trait: Life steal Life steal +1
Blood Shield
Cost: 40 Piety
Effect: Trait: Physical resist Physical resist +15%, Trait: Magic resist Magic resist +15%
Blood Swell (Repeatable)
Cost: 20 + 10n Piety
Effect: Restore all HP

Dracul is the unholy deity of death, undeath, evil... your archetypical Lord of Darkness. Dracul's boons are well suited to brawler-type characters, and with only a few very narrow exceptions is largely useless for spellcasters or striker-type attackers such as the rogue.

Dracul is unlocked in a subdungeon to the east. When you enter this subdungeon, you will be pitted in combat against a doppelganger of yourself. However, there is a known bug where the subdungeon exit doesn't seal itself off until you move one tile. If you adjust the visible tabs, you can leave the subdungeon and avoid unlocking Dracul in this fashion.


Strategy

Dracul is difficult to gain piety with under most circumstances. There are only four ways to do so: killing non-undead monsters, converting a "holy" glyph (Glyph: CYDSTEPP CYDSTEPP or Glyph: HALPMEH HALPMEH), converting a Item: Healing Potion Healing Potion, and using a life-steal ability. For most characters, the only way to get a life-steal ability is with one of Dracul's boons, which means it's imperative for Dracul worshipers to purchase either Blood Hunger or Blood Tithe as soon as possible to begin racking up real piety.

Dracul's boons all grant ways to restore your hit points or (in the case of Blood Shield) prevent incoming damage. This gives a Dracul follower greatly increased staying power in combat, and Dracul often makes an excellent last-ditch choice in the end-game since none of these are dependent on exploration space.

Both the Blood Tithe and the Blood Hunger boons provide a balance of piety gain and healing. They both have serious drawbacks that must be managed, but with a large number of weaker monsters to "farm" for lifesteal healing they can allow a significant boost to your end-game healing prospects. For characters who can raise their resistances substantially above 45% you should virtually never purchase the Blood Hunger boon. Blood Tithe can offer some reasonable healing if you select it multiple times, but you'll need to find a way to raise your maximum HP to compensate and it will cost a significant amount of piety. This usually means you'll need to convert into Dracul's religion with a large amount of piety already accrued, and found some way to increase your hit points.

The need for improved hit points means God: Jehora Jeheyu Jehora Jeheyu, God: The Earthmother The Earthmother or God: Glowing Guardian Glowing Guardian all make excellent deities to worship prior to converting to Dracul. Followers of the Earthmother should take note that her Plantation boon will remove bloodstains. Followers of the Glowing Guardian must tread carefully with Absolution; removing a monster will also prevent you from harvesting its blood after you convert. Jehora Jeheyu is difficult to manage, as most players will want to use Chaos Avatar before converting out, which may leave you with insufficient piety, but this combo is very powerful when you do have enough piety to pull it off.

God: Taurog Taurog into Dracul is a very powerful conversion chain. Taurog's easy piety generation lets you convert into Dracul with nearly full piety, and his armor pieces combine with Blood Shield for a very easy way to get 30%/30% resists, making the chain one of the best ways to stack resistances. Combine with Patches and the Item: Dragon Shield Dragon Shield and baby, you've got a stew goin'.

When combined with the Glyph: BLUDTUPOWA BLUDTUPOWA glyph, Dracul becomes an awesome force for spellcasters. Dracul's Blood Tithe and Blood Hunger boons can be used to farm hit points, and then BLUDTUPOWA can be used to convert them into mana. This allows Dracul to fuel some of the most powerful spellcasting spikes in the game, turning any character into a Class: Bloodmage Bloodmage. However, without this glyph he offers no synergy with spellcasters.