Taoist

## Skills

 Genesis of Swords
 Bagua

 Sword Fly

The  **Taoist** is a playable character. He has black, messy hair, tied by his gold hair clip. He also wears a blue robe and a white coat.

Once unlocked, he can also be encountered during a run as an NPC. Upon interaction, he will give the player one of his special mounts at the cost of some gold. These mounts do not absorb damage (the player takes damage instead), are invincible, and lasts for the current floor.

* Most of the time, the mount is a  Saint Sword with 50% speed boost, but sometimes a  Speedy Cloud with 100% speed boost will appear.
	+ These mounts allow the user to ignore indestructible obstacles, but not level borders.

## Unlock & upgrade

The Taoist can be unlocked at the cost of $1.99 or equal value in other currencies.

Each upgrade changes the stats slightly.

1. +1 HP - cost: 500 gems
2. +1 Armor - cost: 1,000 gems
3. +20 Energy - cost: 1,500 gems
4. -2s Skill Cooldown - cost: 2,000 gems
5. Skill Upgrade - cost: 2,500 gems
6. "Non-primary weapons turn into floating weapons." buff - cost: 5,000 gems
7. Enhance Starting Weapon - cost: 8,000 gems

## Alternate Skins

The Taoist currently has 13 alternate skins, which include:

* 3 gem skins
* 6 paid skins
* 2 fragment skins
* 1 fish chip skin
* 1 season coin skin

## Passive Buff

### Description:

*Non-primary weapons turn into floating weapons.*

*Non-primary weapons turn into floating weapons.*
* This buff is exclusive to Taoist.
	+ It cannot be used by other characters even if they are partners of a Taoist in multiplayer, although the buff still appears in the Pause Menu.
* It allows every weapon to function like the Floating Gun or Floating Laser: when they are not in the player's main hand, they will float around seeking out enemies to attack. Once they find a target, they can shoot them automatically without consuming energy.
	+ Floating weapons will get near enemies and fire in short bursts, as if they were being held by an invisible Follower.
		- Due to these short bursts of attacks, the Buff won't work properly with weapons that require to be fully charged before they can be used and take a while to do so, like the Ballista or One Punch.
	+ This does not affect weapons that already function like drones while not equipped such as Floating Gun or Floating Laser.
	+ Weapons will float until they are very close to enemies before firing. Because of this, they do not aim very well. When using weapons with long barrels, like PKP, the barrel will stick through enemies and bullets will come out behind the enemy, missing the enemy entirely.
	+ Weapons that have separate modes will stay in the mode they were last used in when floating.
	+ Weapons that have effects while unequipped like Ordeal in Disguise or Verbal Fire will have their extra effects disabled and work as if they were being held.
* With Extra Weapon Buff, both weapons in the player's off-hand will float.
* Likely due to a bug, this Buff disables the "switching cooldown" that affects most Sword-like Melee Weapons, which pairs really well with Taoist's starter and other high-damage Swords such as Broadsword and Laser Sword Red.

## Genesis of Swords

### Basic:

*Surround yourself with longswords that can attack enemies, and even pierce through them at the end of the skill duration. Longswords can destroy bullets.*

### Mentor Upgrade:

**Increased the number of swords to 1.5 times.**

### Cooldown:

8.5 (6.5) seconds.

Basics
*Surround yourself with longswords that can attack enemies, and even pierce through them at the end of the skill duration. Longswords can destroy bullets.*
* Summons 7 indestructible longswords that orbing around Taoist at high velocity for approximately 1 second. Afterward, the swords fly off the orbit to attack enemies in range.
	+ The orbiting radius is roughly 3 tiles from Taoist.
	+ Each sword deals 3 damage on contact, it can pierce through enemies and block enemies' projectiles.
	+ Longswords will fly off-screen in 3 seconds after the skill is activated.
* This skill has a skill cooldown of 8.5 (6.5) seconds, which starts 1 second after the skill is casted.
* Genesis of Swords can be further enhanced when paired with the following Buffs:
	+ - Summons 2 extra swords.
	+ - Longsword can reflect enemies' projectiles.

Skill Upgrade
*The number of longswords increases.*
* Summons 10 swords instead of 7.
* Stack with Shotgun Buff.

Mentor Upgrade
*Increased the number of swords to 1.5 times.*
* Summons an extra number of swords equal 150% the number of swords summoned without any buffs applied. In most case, Taoist will summon 5 extra swords.

## Bagua

### Basic:

*Cast a spell circle to reflect approaching bullets. Reflected bullets deal damage to enemies.*

### Skill Upgrade:

**Attacks from you and your allies that go through the spell circle are more powerful.**

### Mentor Upgrade:

**Increase the bonus damage of the spell circle for you and your allies.**

### Cooldown:

10 (8) seconds.

How to unlock
This skill can be unlocked at the price of $1.99 or equal in other currencies.
Basics
*Cast a spell circle to reflect approaching bullets. Reflected bullets deal damage to enemies.*
* Creates a gravitational field around Taoist that pushes projectiles away from the caster.
	+ This field has a radius of about 4 tiles from Taoist.
	+ Similar to Paladin's Energy Shield, this field moves with the caster.
	+ After 5 seconds, the field will fade away.
* Projectiles enter the field will be pushed outward.
	+ This affects both the player and the enemies' projectiles.
	+ Enemies' projectiles will be deflected and deal 100% of the damage back to the enemies.
	+ This deflect process is slower than normal reflect, and is less effective against high velocity projectiles since the push force from the field remains constant.
	+ The field can also push certain objects spawn from weapons, including:
		- Spikes from Staff of Plague, Crystal Crab's Katana and Golden Crab Warhammer.
		- Glaciers from Ice Bazooka and Snow Ape's Longbow.
* This skill has a skill cooldown of 10 (8) seconds, which starts after the skill's duration ended (5 seconds).

Skill Upgrade
*Attacks from you and your allies that go through the spell circle are more powerful.*
* Every attack performed while inside the Bagua circle deals 1 extra damage. This includes allies sitting within the circle.

Mentor Upgrade
*Increase the bonus damage of the spell circle for you and your allies.*
* All attacks used within the circle get a size increase as well as a damage bonus of 2.

## Sword Fly

### Basic:

*Ride on a sword for a short duration. Move much faster and can fly across any obstacles. You won't take damage when you are flying.*

### Skill Upgrade:

**Summon lightning as the sword glides. Lightning had a chance to stun.**

### Cooldown:

11 (9) seconds.

How to unlock
Use 10,000 gems to unlock this skill.
Basics
*Ride on a sword for a short duration. Move much faster and can fly across any obstacles. You won't take damage when you are flying.*
* For 2.5 seconds, Taoist summons a Saint Sword and can move quickly on it.
* The Taoist is immune to all damage and deals 10 contact damage to enemies while on the sword.
	+ Also allows the player to fly over Grave's pits.
* It has a skill cooldown of 11 (9) seconds.
* Saint Sword can reflect enemy bullets with Reflect Buff.

Skill Upgrade
*Summon lightning as the sword glides. Lightning had a chance to stun.*
* While moving on the sword, lightning bolts strike through the track Taoist moves. Each hit deals 5 damage and can stun enemies.
* Lightning bolts are affected by Laser Buff.

Mentor Upgrade
*Skill lasts longer.*
* Extends the duration by 1 second, for a total of 3.5.

## Quotes

### Interaction in the Living Room

* *"By the power from Ruler of the Nine Skies, Avatar of the Immortal, King of the South Pole, General of Thunder Power, Regent of the Heaven."*
* *"Evil and filth, disperse! Tao and Qi, prevail!"*
* *"Swords, I command you to follow the divine path that I lead."*

 As Pisces:
* *"Intuition embodies the most profound insight."*
* *"Gemini, you said? Well, you can imagine what will happen when two souls reside in the same body..."*
* *"Well, Ursa Minor and Gemini are not exactly the same."*
* *"Telescopic is actually very erudite. He's already 90 million years old."*
* *"The Fly? Oh, you must mean Musca! He's actually a cute kid."*
* *"Well, we'll talk next time!"*

### During a run as an NPC

* *"Mount Rental (price)."*
* *"Safe, eco-friendly, and floaty."*

## Trivia

* This character was added in Update 2.7.0, along with his unique starter Buff.
	+ The Taoist is the first character that comes with a buff exclusive to him.
	+ He was added with both Genesis of Swords and Bagua.
* In Update 3.0.0, Taoist's default skin received a retexture.
	+ This is the same update that added Sword Fly.
* According to the backstory from Chillyroom: The Taoist was a spirit living in a Bayonet in a Gourd, until one day he gains enough energy to become humanoid. The fact that the default Genesis of Swords' sprite is the white bayonet  supports this statement.
* With 21 words & 110 letters, Taoist's Celestial? or Bestial skin "Jade Emperor the Great: Most Honored of All-Embracing Sublime Spontaneous Existence of the Golden Towers of the Ever-Radiant Realms" has the longest name, beating Demonmancer's "How I Reincarnated As a Girl and Learned to Practice Devilish Spells in the Netherworld" skin which had 15 words & 73 letters.
	+ This skin's name is barely even visible in the ending certificate.
		- The "the Ever-Radiant Realms" portion of the name is also slightly cut off by the "Celestial? or Bestial" skin series banner.
* When set to simplified Chinese, it would appear that some of his quotes are transliterated battle cries video of some Russian men fighting.
	+ This also includes the Saint Sword he uses.