Empowerments of Nature

***Nature now helps you get some of the bad guys off of its planet, in the form of the new 'Empowerments of Nature' mechanic.  --* Changelog for 4.4**

**Empowerments of Nature** becomes available the first time you reach zone 236, after which it switches between the 3 available types of Nature every 5 levels at zones ending in 1 and 6 (I.e. 236, 241, 246, etc.). Only one Empowerment will be active at any given time, so for instance between zone 236 and 240, only Poison will be active, and between 241 and 245, only Wind will be active, and so on. Unlike the previous Anomalies, there is no downside or tradeoff to Empowerments, and their benefits will increase further as you level them up.

## Tokens

Every time Nature changes, there will be a random enemy with the color of the previous Empowerment. Defeating this enemy will reward tokens depending on the zone you reached. The further in the world you reach, the more Tokens the enemy will drop. The initial reward is 1 Token of Poison at Zone 241, then 1 Token of Wind at Zone 246, 1 Token of Ice at Zone 251, then 2 Tokens of Poison at Zone 256 and so on.

These token drops are increased by the Daily challenge multiplier, if you're in a Daily run.

You may also gain Tokens by beating cell 80 of each Spire after the first Spire. The Spire token formula is 5 \* (Spire Number -1) Tokens of each Nature. You'll gain 5 of each token after beating cell 80 on Spire II, 10 of each token for Spire III, 15 of each token for Spire IV, 20 of each token for Spire V, and 25 of each token for Spire VI. Spire tokens are *not* increased by the Daily challenge multiplier.

One type of tokens can be traded for another type at the ratio of 10:5 e.g. trade 10 tokens of Poison for 5 tokens of Wind. With the Natural Diplomacy Mastery, one can increase this transfer ratio to 10:8.

Like Bones and Helium, nature Tokens persist through Portals.

## Empowerment Types

There are currently 3 different types of Empowerment; upgrade them to increase the effect:

### **Empowerment of Poison**

Each successful attack by your Trimps stacks a debuff on the enemy, causing it to take 1% (+1% per level) of the damage you dealt every turn until it dies. Each attack by your Trimps further adds to this effect.

The poison damage occurs each time your Trimps successfully attack. If the enemy attacks first and kills you, or if the enemy dodges your attack, no poison damage is taken.

### **Empowerment of Wind**

Each successful attack by your Trimps stacks a debuff on the enemy, causing winds to swell and knock extra resources into your reach. Each stack increases Helium gained from all sources by 0.1% (+0.1% per level) and increases all other resources by 1% (+1% per level) until the enemy dies. Maximum of 200 stacks. Note that the helium bonus does not apply to maps (this includes Void Maps).

### **Empowerment of Ice**

Enemies will be Chilled every time your Trimps attack. The Chill debuff stacks, reducing the damage that the enemy deals by 1% (+1% per level with diminishing returns, up to 100%) per stack, and increasing the damage your Trimps deal to the same enemy by the same percentage until it dies. In addition, reaching levels 50/100 with this Empowerment grants +1/+2 Overkill cells to all current and future Ice zones. Note: With enough levels/stacks, it is possible for enemies to deal 0-0 damage.

## Transfer Level

Besides level of effect, each Empowerment also has a transfer level: this allows for a percentage (1% per level, max of 80 levels) of the effect to pass on to the next enemy. The transferred stacks round up, and even if there was only 1 stack on an enemy you kill, a 1% transfer would result in one stack on the next enemy. The transferred stack is now treated by the game no differently to any other stack on that next enemy. When the next enemy dies, it again transfers 1% of the total number of stacks it has accumulated, both from transfer and what was added during your attacks on it. As of patch 4.61, it is possible for the effect to be transferred across the switching of Empowerments, briefly having a single enemy affected by two effects at once.

The eighth-row Mastery Natural Diplomacy II gives 5 free levels of both the effect level and the transfer level (which allows it to go up to 85%).

The Fluffy ability available at evolution 8 and higher gives 10 free levels of the transfer level to Poison (which allows it to go up to 95%)

Each upgrade of an Empowerment costs 4 more tokens than the previous level.

## Enlightenments of Nature

The player unlocks Enlightenment of Nature once they have level 50 in the respective Empowerment of Nature.

Only one Enlightenment can be activated every run, and lasts until the end of the run. The cost to activate starts at 0 Tokens, and increases by 150 every time you purchase the Enlightenment. Starting a Daily Challenge will reduce the cost by 33%, or 50 Tokens, whichever is higher. It is generally recommended to only make use of Enlightenments when you can get them for free (if you do it right, you will have one free Enlightenment available each time you start a Daily Challenge)

#### Enlightenment of Poison

While this Enlightenment is active, your Trimps deal 3x damage, and Poison Nature stacks deal 2x damage.

#### Enlightenment of Wind

While this Enlightenment is active, you gain a 10x increase in all non-Helium loot, Wind stacks accumulate twice as fast, Wind can stack to 300, Wind gains an additional 5% stack transfer rate, and your Trimps gain access to the Wind Formation. This new Formation prevents any enemies in Wind Zones from falling below 1HP before they have 300 stacks of Wind. Wind Formation also grants all bonuses of Scrying Formation and allows collection of Dark Essence with no Trimp stat penalty.

#### Enlightenment of Ice

While this Enlightenment is active, your Trimps gain +2 maximum Overkill cells and +0.25% increased Fluffy Exp per Ice level for your entire run, however this is not taken into account for Bone Portals. In Ice Zones, Ice stacks accumulate twice as fast, and if an enemy is hit by your Trimps while it has 20 or more stacks of Ice and is below 50% health, it will instantly shatter! The shards of Ice from the shattered enemy destroy everything in their path, triggering your maximum Overkill regardless of your damage.

## Strategies - How to best take advantage of Nature

With enough Empowerments and transfer rates, Poison zones greatly increases your killing power. As such, Void Maps (which don't benefit from Wind) should be done in these zones. Similarly, these are also the best zones for Dark Essence farming. At the end of Poison zones, the player can farm higher-level equipment by using +level maps.

With enough Empowerment, max transfer rates, and Natural Diplomacy II, the player can consider farming Wind zones by stacking up to 200 Wind stacks (known as Windstacking).The player probably wants at least 100 Empowerment level before doing this.

When stacking Wind, you do not want the Corrupted or Healthy imp you're fighting to die before getting the stacks to max. This requires careful planning of your attack power (to be able to defeat the imp in approximately 30 attacks (at 85 transfer)) to maximize Helium gain without it taking too long.

The new Enlightened Wind makes this much easier though; just set the Formation to W once Wind is reached for the first time, and the game automatically Windstacks the Wind zones for you.

With the changes to Ice Empowerment, putting points in Ice will allow the player to clear Ice zones faster with the extra Overkill cells, and can greatly boost Fluffy EXP gain if the Enlightenment is purchased.

In early Nature, it is worth buying one level of transfer in Wind and Ice as soon as possible. As stack transfer rounds up, each enemy will now start with a minimum of one stack. This does not apply to poison, as it is not calculated in terms of stacks, but as a sum of poison damage from each attack you deal to the enemy, so rounding will have much less of an effect (1% transfer of ~1% of your total damage to an enemy at level 1 poison empowerment would mean that the next enemy receives 0.01% of the previous enemy's health as damage with each of your attacks, which is almost completely negligible). The biggest exception to this is for helping with your first few clears of Spire 3 (Z400, in Ice zones), where it is usually recommended to have between 10-25% transfer.

## How to prioritise your Nature upgrades

In the end, which upgrades you prioritise first is up to you. However if you want to go the most 'optimal' route, there are a few schools of thought for how to optimise your Nature upgrades (on your way to reaching 80 Transfer Rate)

* Cheapest - Basically a 1:2 empowerment:transfer ratio
* 50 Empowerment (and a few transfer levels especially in Ice for Spire 3), then max transfer
* Mathematical Ratio

This table indicates the 'most efficient way' to level Empowerment and stack transfer rate (to maximise Poison damage and effects of carried over Wind/Ice stacks). The values were determined mathematically and tested. **Note: this table predates Enlightenments, and has not been updated to account for them.**

How to read: Take your level of Nature Empowerment. The % Transfer is how much you should have before you buy the next level of Empowerment. [1][2]

Note:

1. As detailed in the Strategies section, in early Nature it is worth buying one level of transfer in wind and ice as soon as possible because, as stack transfer rounds up, each enemy will start with a minimum of one stack.
2. Having 10+ transfer in ice for SpIIIre is very beneficial.