"Shattering Screech" Status Effect? Mysterious +5PER, 50% graze to hit, permanent aware buff (is actually an inspiration with no time limit)

[Shai Hulud]

So I just killed Belranga and headed to Ukaizo, went through the forced rest, lost my boons, was sad, rested with consoled food in prep for practicing guardian fight, and saw this new boon:

Shattering Screech: +5 Perception, 50% of Grazes converted to Hits

Hmm. Sounds like "aware" but it looks permanent. 

I've never seen this before and couldn't find anything about it in wiki or googling it. I did "findgamedata shattering_screech" and it appears to be one of Belranga's abilities. Not initially sure how I picked it up. My character is a transcendent.

Actually let's see...Belranga was surprisingly difficult this time because I have a couple mods installed (BPM and Deadly Deadfire), the second of which greatly increases Belranga's starting stats and I'm already on POTD upscaled. So by the time you kill enough little spiders so you can actually hit her, she crits every single attack because she's starting like 50 points higher than she's meant to. Deadly Deadfire Hardcore is like POTD upscaled upscaled, the monsters keep leveling up to like 8 levels beyond you. Anyway...

So the strategy I settled on was stick Vela in starting corner, sneak to northeast corner, use enduring dance, then summon dichotomous souls over and over while staying as out of range, poking stray spiders with instruments of pain, until Belranga's will is around 150, then I start hitting her with Tenuous Grasp so she kills the spiders faster, once will is around 120 I debuff her with tenuous grasp and psychovampiric shield, then hit with pupper master. While dominated you can still beat her to death. 

So I'm guessing she used this ability while dominated, from the search results it looks like it's the one that gives her 4 stacks of concentration and makes the spiders "aware", but it isn't listed as "aware" for me though the stats are the same, and I didn't get the other stuff like concentration.  I've seen this happen before with other enemy abilities, like the eoten chanters in Bekarna's Observatory, whose chants land on you if you flip them, but those chants are temporary unless you extend them. Shattering Screech appears to be permanent. Didn't even go away while resting.

Anyone else run into this? I wonder what other abilities get erroneously transferred to the player character on alliance flip. I don't use the charm abilities much so there could be a lot of them. 

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It actually isn't permanent lol, I just assumed it was because it had no expiration, but it is treated as an inspiration like anything else. I guess if you wear Effigys Husk (incidentally the armor I am wearing) then it is permanent, though I have "Armor of Flesh" and not "Eyes of Blackstone".

Edited April 2, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Boeroer]

Hehe, getting that and then trying to permanently glue it to your char with an immunity sounds like a fun little side project for the next run.  

[Shai Hulud]

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

Hehe, getting that and then trying to permanently glue it to your char with an immunity sounds like a fun little side project for the next run.  

Yeah effigy's husk is one of my favorite armors anyway. The irresistable -75% healing debuff from skaen's hatred really helps shut down bosses like Dorudugan and The Guardian.

Normally might immunity is better IMO but perma-aware for classes that can't get perception inspirations is pretty nice.

I bet there are a lot of abilities one can steal with puppet master. I've stumbled on a few and I only use it in maybe 5% of fights. I've used whispers of treason more often but charmed characters can't use active abilities so this would only work with puppet master and ringleader unless the enemy has weakness to intellect like the cave grub.

[Boeroer]

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.  

[Shai Hulud]

10 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.  

It's a solo run, I dont think I can actually proc aware...well maybe with cog of cohn and dichotomous soul? Will try this next time I play to see if they stack

[Shai Hulud]

12 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.  

Nope, doesn't stack. The shattering screech thing overrides cog of cohh. I saw it give aware to the phantoms but no status change on my guy, tried twice. 

Still it isn't bad since this build (transcendent) can't get aware solo, or indeed any perception buff. Could do belranga as first megaboss (what I normally do), then wear effigys husk armor (what I normally do) only this time use eyes of blackstone. Might immunity is generally better but perception immunity + aware is better I think, particularly since I wear the boots of the stone a lot anyway so I'm not getting stunned. 

Do resistances stack? Like if I have a coastal aumaua and someone stuns me while I'm wearing boots of the stone, does that get downgraded to dazed or staggered? Dazed can be really annoying in boss fights but staggered is basically nothing, I don't need engagement solo anyway. I think I've seen them stack before but can't be certain. Maybe on a wild orlan character who downgraded a dragon's terrify aura into shaken while wearing horns of the bleak mother. Or it could have just been a frighten aura...

[Boeroer]

17 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

Do resistances stack? 

Nope.