Spiritual Shrine ‣ Special Items
Introduction[]
Special items are items received after praying at a Spiritual Shrine. They are placed in the slot adjacent to the spell slot, and are either lost upon death or destroyed after one use. Picking up a second special item will replace your first one.
Hermes' Boots[]
Regular floor spikes can be walked on.
It does NOT prevent damage from wall or ceiling spikes or prevent spike traps from triggering and causing damage, like P.A.D. does (although it will prevent you from taking damage from a triggered spike trap while it is out or retracting).
If a Paladin blocks while standing on floor spikes, it will activate the shield and use mana.
Charon's Obol[]
Allows you to enter the castle without paying Charon's toll. It will be used the next time you enter the castle; you cannot choose not to use it. Very useful for getting a large pool of gold for the more expensive upgrades.
"Oh ho ho! So you have my obol. I will let you pass for free, but only this time." -Charon
In the Lament of Zors mod, it no longer allows you to enter the castle without paying Charon's toll; instead, it upgrades regular chests into iron chests and iron chests into gold chests.
Hedgehog's Curse[]
Taking damage will result in a portion of your gold being dropped and scattered around you in the form of coins, much like a certain well-known blue hedgehog. A total of 50 coins are scattered, equivalent to the value of one diamond (500 gold with no Bounty bonus), and a corresponding amount of gold is removed from your total.
The amount of gold deducted is adjusted based on the current Bounty bonus, making it impossible to use the curse to gain money. The only exception is the additional Bounty added by New Game +2 and above, thus allowing the curse to be used to farm gold in those modes. Other than this, there is no known use of this item.
Gold is removed on the killing blow to a player. If Death Defy triggers then the dropped coins will be still inside the player when they are revived, and thus will be picked up immediately.
In the Lament of Zors mod, instead of the basegame effect, it doubles your damage taken but gold gain is doubled.
Calypso's Compass[]
A compass appears at the top of the screen, pointing to the location of a secret room, When found, the secret room will appear as an otherwise unmarked area of a random room, but will display a "press up" icon when the player stands directly in front of it. The secret room will contain 2 chests, which are usually Blueprints or Stats Up. Once you leave the secret room, Calypso's Compass disappears, even if you did not open the chests!
Multiple Compasses can be obtained in the same run. Each will point to a new secret room with unopened chests, even if a previous secret room has been found and looted.
The location of the secret room may change between save/quit and boss fights.
Nerdy Glasses[]
Corrects the Color Blindness, Nearsighted, Farsighted, Nostalgic, and Vertigo traits; does not counteract Glaucoma, Stereo Blindness or The One. It also makes hidden items visible and allows for the player to see the correct chest in Miserly Elf's 3-chest gamble game.
Nerdy Glasses cannot be obtained from the shrine unless the player has one of the traits it corrects.
Helios' Blessing[]
Adds additional loot to enemy drops, causing enemies who wouldn't drop anything to drop a minimum amount while increasing the amount of loot to drop for others. Does not affect chests.
Hyperion's Ring[]
Gives you a free Death Defy, allowing you to return to the game with a third of your health when you take a hit that would have killed you. Disappears after 1 use.
Alexander's Obol[]
After you die, you are forced to give this Obol to Charon. Its effect permanently carries over to all future runthroughs so you only need to give it to him once. Allows you to re-enter the Alexander boss room where you are warped to a special stage: "Sir Wagner VS Alexander the IV". Your character is changed to a level 0 Hokage with two vault runes and high level equipment (dark sword, dark helm, retribution chestplate, retribution bracers, sky cape) and the teleport magic spell. You face against an extremely tough level 275
version of Alexander. The arena is surrounded by spikes with four platforms, separated into two (left/right) by more spikes, although it is possible to jump from one side to the other using the Hokage replacement technique. If you die in the special stage, you are transported back to your regular game with no punishment, able to retry the challenge.
Khidr's Obol[]
After you die, you are forced to give this Obol to Charon. Its effect permanently carries over to all future runthroughs, so you only need to give it to him once. Allows you to enter previously completed Khidr's boss room, where you will fight a massively buffed version of that boss - Neo Khidr, whose attack patterns are much the same, but it is Level 275 - with an updated (and much more difficult) version of the arena. The player becomes a level 0 female Spellsword named Lady McSwordy with 248 health, 50 mana, 35 strength, 232 magic, and 25 armor, as well as the Blade Wall spell. The player is also given a two vault runes, two sprint runes, one haste rune and Nerdy Glasses to counteract her Vertigo trait. Dying will return a player to outside the boss room.
Herodotus's Obol[]
Allows you to enter the previously completed Herodotus boss room, where you will fight Astrodotus and Herodotus. The player becomes the level 0 female Dragon Lady Echidna with 250 health, 50 mana, and only haste runes. The arena consists of a single small platform centered in a large open area. Both bosses fly around the stage and will veer towards the player when possible. Herodotus is very aggressive and much faster, while Astrodotus moves much more slowly. The horizontal and vertical edges of the arena loop infinitely, making the boss fight highly similar to the classic arcade game Asteroids. All attacks do 100 damage (enough to split Astrodotus) and contact with either boss inflicts 100 damage. Dying will return a player to outside the boss room.
Ponce de Leon's Obol[]
Allows you to enter the previously completed Ponce de Leon boss room, where you will fight Ponce de Freon. The arena is a large room with three platforms near the ceiling. The player becomes the Barbarian King Sir Dovahkiin with 495 HP (five hits), 60 MP, and six air jumps. Dying will return the player to outside the boss room.
Medivh's Obol[]
Allows you to teleport to the top of the castle once obtained, if you choose not to use it you gain 500 gold and the item is destroyed.
Traitor's Obol[]
After completing all the upgraded versions of the bosses, you will be able to get the "Traitor's Obol" from a shrine. After giving this Obol to Charon, any boss chamber that you have previously completed will lead you to a fight, where you play Johannes the Traitor with 700Hp and 300Mp, using his multiple-daggers, multiple-axes spell, and dash blade wall that you activate by dashing and then activating your magic spell while in the middle of the dash. You will fight against two of yourself with more HP and MP. Once you have won, you will earn the achievement "Syngenesophobia" and be able to play as the new class "Traitor".
Using the Traitor class to enter Johannes' room will then give you the achievement "Katagelasticism".
Trivia[]
- The Hedgehog's Curse is a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog, where the titular character drops (all) collected rings when hurt.
- Hyperion's Ring is a reference to the titan Hyperion of Greek myth, who was the father of Helios and had the power of life.
- Calypso´s Compass is a reference to the nymph Calypso of Greek mythology, who trapped Odysseus on her island for years in Homer's epic, the Odyssey. It is also likely a reference to the compass owned by Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. This compass pointed towards "the thing you want most in the world" and was originally owned by Tia Dalma, A.K.A. Calypso.
- Helios' blessing refers to the Greek sun god. He was said to ride a golden chariot and carry the sun across the sky. He also was known to be wealthy.
- Charon's Obol is a reference to the ancient Greek practice of placing coin(s) in the mouth or on the face of a dead person, which would then be used to pay Charon to ferry their souls into the land of the dead.
- Medivh's Obol may be a reference to the Warcraft character Medivh, a sorcerer who inhabited a towering castle known as Karazhan. In World of Warcraft, players have twice been tasked with journeying to the top of Karazhan to defeat a powerful boss.