Bay 12 Games Forum

These contain the extracted thoughts of a sapient creature, and are the basic currency of the illithid crafting economy.  They can’t be directly purchased on embark or from caravans, but can be produced from brain jars, which can.  Bottles of sapience are best made from the brains of sapient creatures at the Altar to the God-Brain, but the illithids can also obtain them by performing various blasphemies against the natural world, to please the Elder Evils associated with such perversions.  Specifically, they can sacrifice stones at the Altar to the Burrowing worm for a 10% chance of receiving a bottle in return, or logs at the Altar to the Black Mother for a 25% chance of receiving a bottle.  They can also sacrifice vermine corpses or body parts to the Black Mother for a 50% chance of receiving a bottle.

Because of a bug in the current version of dwarf fortress, in adventure mode bottles of sapience are extracted from weapons and tools rather than brains.  This is because these items should be obtained in a rough one-to-one ratio with your actual number of kills.

Can be purchased on embark and from caravans.  Can’t currently be made.  Can be converted into bottles of sapience at the Altar to the God-Brain or into 20 food at the Kitchen.  Currently the most cost effective way to purchase food during embark.

Can be purchased on embark and from caravans.  Can’t currently be made.  Used with reactions at the Altar to the All-Seen Eye to produce food at a slow rate, while consuming bottles of sapience.  Bring one or two along at embark.

Can be purchased on embark and from caravans, or made via reactions at the Altar to the Burrowing Worm.  Basic component of the illithid ranged weapon economy, used to create both the weapons themselves and their ammo.  You should probably bring one or two with you on embark, as the reagents needed to make your own are non-trivial.

One of the quasi-living aberrant entities used by the illithid civilization.  Gives birth stones of its material in  response to reactions found at the Altar to the Black Mother.

Can be purchased on embark and from caravans.  Can’t currently be made.  Trains the specified skill via reactions found at the Altar to the All-Seeing Eye, while slowly consuming sapience.  Illithid adventurers can also use these, if they find one or purchase one  in a town.

Made via a reaction at the Altar to the Violet Flame.  Used to construct a Shrine to the Violet Flame, which can be used to trigger manual traps built from igniferous materials.  In adventure mode, it is used to catalyze casting of fireball spells.

Used to catalyze sapience-producing reactions in adventure mode.  Most illithids begin wearing two of these gloves, both in adventure mode and in fortress mode.

Produced via a reaction at the Temple to the God-Brain.  Meant for use in danger room traps.

Standard illithid body wear.  All illithids start wearing one.  Can be made out of leather or cloth.  It provides basic protection for the whole body, defending against weak attacks and contaminants.

An isolation suit augmented with scale mail.  Basic whole-body protection.

A thin isolation suit supplemented with a set of small armored plates.  Basic whole-body protection.  Useful protection for ranged combatants.

Standard illithid body armor, a set of armored plates meant to be worn over an isolation suit.  Many illithids start out wearing a set of armored plates in addition to their isolation suits.  These armored plates provide good protection for the core body; however, there are sizable gaps between each plate, and on average 1 out of every 10 attacks will end up bypassing the plates completely.

Military grade illithid body armor, a set of armored plates meant to be worn over an isolation suit.  These armored plates provide 100% protection for the core body.

Military grade illithid body armor.  Like the isolation suit, protects the entire body, without the large vulnerable areas left exposed by a set of armor plates.  Only 1 out of every 20 attacks is capable of bypassing thus armor.  Illithids are typically do not start out wearing these.

Military grade illithid body armor.  Can be made out of metal or leather.  Although each individual sigil only has a 33% chance of intercepting a given attack, an illithid can stack up to 15 armored sigils.  Can be crafted in adventure mode.

Standard issue illithid head protection.  Many illithids wear these masks as a matter of course, although the masks have only a 50% block rate.

Military grade illithid head protection.  Can be worn along with an illithid mask and a cap.

Illithid melee weaponry consists of tablets and crystals imprinted with the psionic essence of various weapons.  Touchstones are large and unwieldy, requiring two hands use properly, and depend on the skills of the illithid invoking the tablet to direct the attack (so in order to effectively use, say, a bronze psionic touchstone (swords) the illithid must itself be a competent swordsman).  In contrast, psionic crystals are much easier to manipulate as they levitate before the user instead of needing to be carried, and contain the extracted memories of lesser races to direct the attack, with the illithid manipulating these memories (meaning that a bronze – set psionic crystal (swords) is best used by a master druid, as is a bronze – set psionic crystal (maces)).  Psionic crystals come in basic, greater, and master forms.  Basic crystals are inferior to touchstones, but allow a greater degree of flexibility in your army since the various crystal types all use the same skill.  The other two are better.

These are the basic weaponry of the illithid empire.  They are made at the forge, with no need for bottles of sapience or other exotic materials, and are carried by starting illithid adventurers and illithid siege groups.  They use the standard skills in combat.

These are the advanced weaponry of the illithid empire.  They are made at the Altar to the God-Brain, and require metal bars and bottles of sapience.  There is currently no way to let you choose what type of metal the reactions use, it will automatically choose the closest bars, so you will have to use careful stockpile management to control the material used.  Sorry about that.  All crystals use the Druid and Fighter skills in combat, so as long as your troops don’t grow too attached to their weapons you can easily switch between damage types, or even over to ranged weaponry.  As noted above, basic crystals are inferior to touchstones, while the other types are better.  Basic crystals require 10 bottles of sapience, greater crystals require 30, and master crystals require 90.

Illithid infiltrators will carry these, as they are the illithid dagger equivalent.  As you might guess, getting hit in the head with one of these is NOT fun.

A weapon trap component, created at the Altar to the God-Brain.  They strike 10 times with low force edged attacks.  They can dismember an unarmored target and chop exposed bits off an armored target, but don’t do much damage to armored bodyparts.

One of the quasi-living aberrant entities employed by the illithid empire.  Created via a low probability invocation reaction at the Altar to the Burrowing Worm.  Hateful stones use Intimidate and Fighter in combat, but are too large to be used by basic illithids.  If you have a large amount of non-economic stone you want to get rid of, you can run it through this reaction.

I’m pretty sure I stole the name for this item from the Infernum RPG.

Anyway, the Bile Cougher is another of the quasi-living aberrant entities employed by the illithids, and their main ranged weapon.  Unlike the mother stone and the Hateful stone, which look like rocks, the Bile Cougher is a tapered, grub like entity with a nasty set of jaws.  When left to its own devices, the bile cougher remains completely inert, however they can be directed to spit various types of ammo at phenomenal speeds, and can be ordered to bite enemies that close to close range.  Bile cougher attacks are governed by the Druid skill and either the Archer or Fighter skills for long and close ranged attacks, respectively.  They are mode from Caskets of Bilestone at the Alter to the Burrowing worm.  They have three ammo types:  bile stones, bile spikes, and deadly bile spikes.  Bile stones are weak projectiles that can be made directly from rocks by the bile cougher.  Bile spikes are made from caskets of bilestone, and actually have a fairly wide contact area, due their uneven profile.  Deadly bile spikes are slender needles, and made out of a material that vaporizes a temperatures much above that of the deep tunnels, releasing a deadly cloud of nerve toxin (shamelessly swiped from this thread, thanks guys!).  Deadly bile spikes are also made from caskets of bile stone.

ADVENTURER:  In adventure mode, you can create a flaming bile spike if you have a violet altar and a bottle of sapience.  This bile spike will start to burn on your next turn, so make sure you immediately get rid of it either by shooting it with a bile cougher or just throwing it away (based on the fireball reaction in Deon’s genesis mod).

Illithid woodcutter’s tool.  Made from wood at the Shrine to the Black Mother.  Lousy combat weapon, don’t issue them to your troops.

Nasty spear type weapon.  Uses the Bite and Fighter skills in combat.  A two handed weapon for basic illithids, a one handed weapon for master mind flayers.

Nasty dual sword-type weapon.  Uses the Wrestle and Fighter skills in combat.  A two handed weapon, attacks can be made with the left claw, right claw, or both together.

Weapon and Spear trap component.  Effectively a longer menacing spike

A nasty weapon trap weapon.  Attacks 10 times, lethally perforating anything that triggers its trap.

A massive pair of revolving rings, one within the other.  In combat, it fires hyperkinetic rods at increadible speeds.  Uses the Druid and Archer skills.  Due to its massive size, even a skilled Druid will have a much reduced rate of fire with one of these, but each hit is likely to sever the struck body part, and direct hit to the body core will blast the target backwards through the air.   These are produced at the Altar to the Enclosing Sky.  The lapis exultant rings require a blue gem to synthesize, and the penumbral adamantine rods require a purple gem.  If you did deep enough, you may find an alternative means of creation .

DESCRIPTION:This is an Illithid.  It is an evil and sadistic being, humanoid in appearance, but with a four-tentacled octopus-like head. These beings are feared throughout the deep caverns for their telepathic abilities and usually are not without two or more slaves, mentally bound, to each individual illithid.

One of the two most common castes.  Fast skill learning rates relative to Dwarves, often show up with many skills at high levels.  Slower than default rust rates, never loose skill ranks.  All Illithids start with basic combat skills.  Not enough to beat enemy soldiers with, but enough to land a blow or two.

Mind blast makes enemies dizzy, and may knock some of them unconscious for a round or two.

DESCRIPTION:This is an Illithid fleshwarper.  It is an evil and sadistic being, humanoid in appearance, but with a four-tentacled octopus-like head. These evil beings are known for their supernatural control over flesh and blood.

The most common of the rare castes ( ).  Generally better than basic illithids, Fleshwarpers have stronger natural attacks, somewhat better stats, and better default combat skills.  2.5x skill learn rates.

Fortress Mode:  Fleshwarpers start with medical skills.  In addition, the Lifewarper noble (chief medical dwarf) must be a Fleshwarper or better.

DESCRIPTION:This is an Ultralithid, also known as a master mind flayer.  It is an evil and sadistic being, humanoid in appearance; but over three times the size of a normal man, with a six-tentacled octopus-like head. Once in a great while, a master mindflayer is born in an illithid city.  These exceptional individuals occupy a position just below that of the great elder brains.

Fortress Mode:
10x the size of basic illithids, with better stats, starting skills, and an improved mind blast.  Notably, they are also SLOWER than basic illithids, and so shouldn't be deployed alone into combat.  These are large enough to equip Hyperaccelerators and Hateful Stones.

The Dungeon Master Noble must be a this caste or better.

Adventure Mode:
All illithids in adventure mode the same size as the basic illithid.  So you will be more fragile than in Fortress Mode, and have fewer advantages.

DESCRIPTION:This is an archmaster mind flayer, an Ultralithid fleshwarper.  It is an evil and sadistic being, humanoid in appearance; but over three times the size of a normal man, with a six-tentacled octopus-like head. Once in a great while, a master mindflayer is born in an illithid city.  These exceptional individuals occupy a position just below that of the great elder brains.  Born with great power, this individual has progressed yet farther, attaining the rank of arch-master.

A master mind flayer with fleshwarper powers and a still stronger mind blast.

DESCRIPTION:This is a grigori mind flayer.  It is an evil and sadistic being, humanoid in appearance, but with a four-tentacled octopus-like head. This evil monster has internalized the spirit of an ancient messenger.  It is winged, with many eyes covering its head and body.

TILE:  Blinks between ‘I’ and a hollow circle.

DESCRIPTION:This is a Void Master.  It is a strange being from a distant universe, perhaps one long since destroyed.  Though in appearance it is similar to a mind-flayer, albeit one with a far more humanoid face, in combat it wields strange magics of fire and ice, of death, and of VOID.

TILE:  Blinks between ‘I’ and a blank square.

Well, ok.  So technically this is Enuo, a secret boss from the DS FFV. 

One of the three rarest castes, Void Masters show up less frequently than 1 in 5000.

Fortress Mode:
I have noble positions set such that you may get a guaranteed Void Master arriving with your king.  That’s the goal, at least, but I’ve never gotten the king, so I don’t know if it works.

These guys are actually somewhat problematic, since they spam area attacks that you’re other ‘flayers are not immune to, but aren’t so powerful that you can just blindly charge them into every situation.  Give them good armor, don’t overexpose them to ranged fire, and have fun!

Adventure Mode:
Void Mind flayers are much weaker in adventure mode, because you can’t use their breath attacks.  This is now somewhat mitigated by them having an array of touch attacks that deliver their various extracts, so you’ll at least be able to get the idea.   Good Luck!

Dwarf Mode: 
One of these guys showing up is NOT a good thing, but you shouldn’t panic.  One piece of good news is that they won’t stick around long, they have a tendency to fry all their escorts and retreat.  Don’t engage a group containing a Voidmaster in melee unless you don’t like your soldiers .  If a Void Master gets too close to your troops, deactivate them and have them run back inside your fort.  Void Masters are slow, your troops can outrun them.

DESCRIPTION:This is an Emissary from the Quiet Lands.  This vile, immortal being is numbered amongst both the first and the last of all illithids.  It hails from the quiet lands of the Broken Cosmos, and is one of those illithids who escaped from that time of death into our distant past.  It is winged, and utterly lacking eyes; its delicate, gossamer form belies its fearsome power.

TILE:  Blinks between a white ‘I’ and a Yen (?) symbol.

Cthulhu's little brother, an unkillable Mind Flayer.

Second of the three rarest caste, and found only in the above ground illithid civs.  Less overpowered than might first be thought, since even though it will eventually regenerate from (almost) any injury, it is relatively easy to damage and can be quickly incapacitated.  It does, however, have the most powerful mindblast attack.

Fortress Mode:
Same comments apply as to its rarity.  It’s glacial skill learing rate makes it unsuited to anything other than serving as a meatshield for your other troops.  In an emergency, you can send out the Emissary alone and bar your doors.  The Emissary will almost certainly eventually deal with any attackers, it just won’t be quick.

Adventure Mode:
Although you can’t die, you should be wary of getting yourself too outnumbered.  You can’t fight well, so you can be easily trapped under a mountain of enemies, and you don’t have access to your mind blast attack.

Dwarf Mode:
Same as the Void Masters, if one of these shows up, kill its support and it will retreat.  If you must kill it, cave-ins and dropping it off the bottom of the map will both work.  Dropping it onto semi-molten rock may also work.

DESCRIPTION:A medium-sized creature prone to great ambition.  This individual is a slave of the dreaded Illithids.

Slaves learn slowly and rust quickly, making them unsuited to skilled labor.  They do not equip armor, making them unsuited for military service.  That leaves things like wood cutting, fishing, wood burning, smelting, etc.  Don’t spend skill points on them during embark. 

Slaves are affected by the psionic pollution produced by illithid reactions marked with a *P*.  All such reactions are found on the new Temple buildings, so use building preferences to keep them away.  A slave exposed to psionic pollution will be dizzy for about a year.

DESCRIPTION:A great general of the illithid slave armies.  This creature bears many combat mutations.

The third of the rare castes.  Conquest thralls are vicious in battle, so put them to work!  Easily the most straightforward of the rare castes.

DESCRIPTION:A floating brain.  Four tentacles trail behind it.  These coordinate the outposts of the illithid cities.

TILE:  asterisk

2.5x skill learn rates and excellent broker skills. 

When an outpost mind is spawned, it resembles a human brain, trailing 4 tentacles.    Over the next 3 years, it grows in mass until it is equal in size to a human child.  It continues to grow at a much reduced rate over the rest of its life.

Outpost minds make excellent craftsmen and brokers, but should not be exposed to danger of any kind due to their poor attacks and defenses.

DESCRIPTION:An Elder brain.  Four tentacles trail behind it.  These coordinate the cities of the illithid empire.

Tile:  Star/Coin symbol

10x skill learn rates and excellent broker skills

When an elder brain is spawned, it is identical in most respects to its smaller cousins, the outpost minds.  However, over the next 3 years the elder brain puts on mass at a phenomenal rate, reaching over 1000 times the size of an adult human.

Elder Brains are best suited as craftsmen and brokers, but should the need arise they can give a fearsome accounting of themselves in combat.  They have a powerful tentacle attack and a strong wide-area mind blast.