Hawk Feather (Muscle Spasm) / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Hawk Feather (Muscle Spasm).

Magnifico 05 Apr 2010 22:26

Inspired by Cryptodynamic's result, I tried adventuring in the Dockside Sewers. Melee deck, with a genuine hawk feather equipped. I started with 40 energy of Ocean Sight and 64 of Dark Wind. Since Crypto chose actions appropriate to the effect he had running rather than the feather he had equipped, I tried to pick non-fight choices, except for the first time when I screwed up. So I got:

Combats: 10 (3x Bat Swarm, 3x Rat King, 4x Lake Serpent)
Choices: 7 (3x Mushroom Man "Follow him"; 3x Sewer Rat "Wade through"; 1x Sewer Rat "Charge the rat")

Wound up with 5 energy of Vile Camouflage, 23 of Ocean Sight, and 47 of Dark Wind. I got the convulse/writhe in pain message. Definitely a fail. Maybe it's an unlock of some sort, but it doesn't look as much like one as the raven feather being absorbed into your skin. Pretty sure you can get this message without Dark Wind active, whereas the absorb message with the raven feather looks more specifically tied to having Soft Wind. Maybe you have to do the unlocks in some sort of order?

The bit in the Guiding Wind description about "That said, you're sure you could find a less brutal instructor. The lashing winds are anything but gentle." suggests that maybe you should look for owl-ish gentleness when you have Guiding Wind active.

Triggers?

Magnifico 09 Apr 2010 15:02

The message about people being bound to know where you are pretty clearly unlocks the hawk fight, but I'm not sure what unlocks that message. FWIW, got the "sinks into your skin" raven feather message in the The Happy Hour, then moved to the Dockside Sewers and farmed an owl feather waiting for Soft Wind to wear off, then adventured with a genuine hawk feather equipped and choosing fights, in hope of testing what happens if you have Guiding Wind active and walk away all the time with an owl feather equipped. Got the new message, then equipped another hawk feather and kept doing what I was doing, this time with a ranged deck instead of melee, and got the Storm Hawk fight.

EDIT: Tried again, except this time in The Quad, and with Ocean Sight active. I got the normal muscle spasm message and 50 energy of Guiding Wind. Maybe the number of fights you get matters? I had a bunch of the noncombat where you get a castor capsule, whereas in the Dockside Sewers it was all fights or choices that led to fights. Well, now I can test what I was going to test before I got interrupted by awesome new content. :)

Last edited on 09 Apr 2010 15:19 by Magnifico Show more

Magnifico 11 Apr 2010 12:22

I tried to fight another Storm Hawk. I adventured in the Dockside Sewers using a ranged deck, with no effects active, choosing all fights with a genuine hawk feather equipped. I got the 3 XP in Strength result instead of the fight unlock one. I didn't even get Guiding Wind. I am seriously confused about how this all works.

Maybe there's some penalty for just sticking with one kind of choice all the time? I.e., perhaps you have to switch up feathers? Also, could it be that you have to get the "sinks into your skin" message or some other equivalent unlock each time you want to trigger a fight?

Magnifico 22 Apr 2010 14:25

Farmed up a genuine owl feather, then equipped a genuine hawk feather and chose all combats. I got the Reflexes XP instead of Guiding Wind. The only thing I can think of is that I had an owl's mask equipped. Since our very tentative spading indicates that the reflexes result is from choosing walk-aways, maybe the mask forces the owl result no matter what choices you pick? I also got 4 XP instead of just 3. I wonder if there's a hidden bonus to XP from the mask. For feather noncombats? All noncombats? All XP-granting? I should keep careful track and see.

EDIT: Farmed another genuine hawk feather, then tried again for Guiding Wind, this time without the owl's mask. Got the reflexes result again. Only 3 XP, though, so getting 4 is almost certainly a result of wearing the mask. Maybe too many hawk results in a row is causing this? I wonder if this result unlocks anything interesting. Ideas on what I could try next?

Last edited on 22 Apr 2010 14:44 by Magnifico Show more

Magnifico 29 Apr 2010 01:58

Seems like the "lonely" message is seeing from the point of view of the Metroplex's hawks. I asked Kinak if any Midgard U students keep hawks and he said:

And, yes, there are totally Midgard brats with hawks. Most of them don't really have the patience, though. The ones that do use them to hunt (imported or engineered) small game.

Oh, FWIW Kinak also says there isn't anything with the feathered cloak that would require a reset. Whew.