[quote=“Asura, post:16822, topic:42”]found an item called “wriggling spiral” but couldnt find it in the item browser. can anyone tell me a little bit more about it?
is this an artifact?
i used it several times. it spawns friendly Giant Bees and stuff like + it gives me a mutation or removes a mutations.
it has 2 charges, that replenish over time. used with 2 charges it gave me good mutations like feathers and strong and it removed a negative one.
used with 1 charge left it gave me a negative mutation (dont know the name anymore, but i couldnt eat meat anymore).
is this how it works? i get a good mutation every day for free, no drawbacks?[/quote]
Yes, that’s an artifact - that’s one of the “natural” artifacts (or whatever they call them) that you just find lying in a crater every once in a while. They will always have exactly two powers, one good, one bad. The good power can be active (like you got) or passive (just for carrying it) - the bad power can only be active if the good one is active, but it can be passive either way (good one is active or passive).
Now, “good” and “bad” are a bit subjective. The “good” power there is the insect summoning (they are friendly, so no downside), the “bad” power is the mutating - it’s “bad” because the mutation is random, and and random mutations are either completely random or random only from the “bad” list (again, somewhat subjective, but mostly pretty lousy). You CAN get good mutations, you CAN lose mutations (if the new one you would get conflicts with one you already have), but it’s not the way to bet (unless you have Robust Genetics, then they are either completely random or random only from the “good” list).
Artifacts that you find in other places (strange temples, the bottom of mines, etc) will have more “fantasy” style names (“The Ancient Harp of Demons” and such), and their powers can be all kinds of things - I’ve seen one with multiple good powers and none bad, I’ve seen them (more often) with multiple bad powers and no good, all kinds of mixed and in between, active, passive, only when wielded… you never know.
The best powers are generally acknowledged to be stat bumps, speed bumps, mapping, invisibility, and clairvoyance (where you can see through everything), but there are plenty of others.
There are some pretty bad ones, too - radiation comes to mind, for instance.
