Guide to Crowns
Crowns are special modifiers which when taken can change certain aspects of the game. Every crown has an upside that can help the player in some ways (while having its own drawbacks), and a downside that will limit the player in some capacity. In the case of some crowns, the upside and downside are the same thing. Each crown has an in-game sprite that follows the player around the level, but is there just to visually show what is in use.
This will be moved to the Areas page in more detail later once it's made, but to obtain crowns: Vault Statues are props that spawns in specific areas. In preloop these include 3-2 and 5-2, while in loop also includes 1-2 and 7-2. Once three vaults are visited in a run, no more will spawn and crowns can no longer be swapped out. Statues start off with 120 HP in preloop and will be triggered around 80 HP, which will summon IDPD. During this phase it will 'suck in' any nearby rads, and after taking in 24 rads it will be activated. Breaking the statue will then open the portal to the Crown Vault. If the statue is not filled before it is destroyed, then the Crown Vault will be missed. Player & IDPD attacks can break the vault open, but normal enemy attacks will not damage it. The vault will have a glowing diamond-shaped pedestal with the default crown sprite on top of it. Stepping on this will exit the level, allowing for crown selection. IDPD will spawn an additional time in the following level once the crown is selected. If a crown is already being ran or a vault has been visited already, proto statues will spawn in the vault. Stepping on the pedestal will activate them, and they must be killed before exiting the level and use high damaging attacks. If the proto statue is attacked before stepping on the pedestal, then crown selection will be skipped entirely.
Finding Crowns (Summary)
While golden weapons are unlocked by simply entering the next level with them, crowns can only be unlocked by completing or looping a run. These include sitting on the Nuclear Throne, defeating and looping past it, or defeating Captain and sitting. Once this is done, the crown is permanently unlocked for that character and they can start a run with it, which even includes loop crowns.
There are 6 crowns that appear in preloop vaults and 6 crowns that appear in loop vaults. All vaults will include a 'bare head' option which will run crownless. Any upside/downside is removed upon switching or removing a crown, with the exception of the extra mutation from Crown of Destiny. Only one crown can be ran at a time and their modifiers will never stack by taking it twice.
Each crown is listed in the table below with their in-game description. Each links to a page with fully in-depth tech on how each works, as well as a subjective strategy guide for those seeking advice. A summary of advice is within this dropdown;
Crown Strategies (Summary)
This section is a subjective summary of every crown page's viability. There is no right way to play!
Many crowns are generally unbalanced and while some are good on paper, are actually terrible in practice. As such most are only ever taken to unlock once for each character and then are ignored afterwards.
Preloop crowns specifically have the worst bunch, as it's generally better to just play vanilla than run many of these.
- Life and Guns are considered to be the worst in the game with very detrimental downsides.
- Haste and Risk have upsides that are decent, but at the trade-off of notable downsides.
- Destiny is a utility crown used for higher modes of play, but is a pretty bad choice for new players.
- Curses is easily the best preloop crown for all modes of play, though new players should be particularly aware of its downsides.
Loop crowns are a lot more balanced in general, as the runs will usually benefit much more than be hindered by taking these.
- Hatred has a marginal upside and is easily ignored.
- Protection's trade-off is very arguable, putting it on the weaker end.
- Love is a straight upside if already running preferred weapons, but isn't a game changer.
- Death, Luck and Blood all give considerable upsides and downsides that have the biggest impacts on gameplay. Blood is considered the best in meta play (loop 3+), but is particularly dangerous for anyone learning loop.
Preloop Crowns |
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| Crown of Life
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| Crown of Guns
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| Crown of Haste
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| Crown of Destiny
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| Crown of Curses
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| Crown of Risk
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Loop Crowns |
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| Crown of Death
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| Crown of Hatred
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| Crown of Blood
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| Crown of Love
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| Crown of Luck
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| Crown of Protection
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