#inscryption act one

so, inscryption is predetermined. being more specific, every encounter is predetermined by the game. the best example, and reasoning for this, is through the campfires. in kaycee’s mod, after you place a creature next to the fire, you have the option to leave it there, which is basically a glorified coin flip—50% to be consumed, 50% to be left alone. but, if you’ve noticed from attempted save scumming, is that the same result happens every time.

further example being, i put down a mantis and leave it. after i leave it, it stays. regardless of how many times i go back before i leave the campfire and repeat this, with different cards, this encounter will always have the same result—the card will always stay.

all encounters, from the prospector’s “ gamble, “ what cards you get from a certain tribe, to the example above, is all predetermined and saves before and after an encounter to, what i believe, try and keep odds as neutral as possible and to prevent basic save scumming. this also applies to the starting hand you receive in each battle, along with the order of cards you pull as well. each is already predetermined, so no matter how many times you back out and go back in, it’s the same every time to prevent you from trying to tip the odds in your favor, at least, in a way the game doesn’t want you to do.

this, i assume, is more common knowledge, but what i haven’t seen anyone point out is deathcards.

when inscryption first came out ( i had been following it since its was still “ sacrifices must be made “ ) i watched manlybadasshero play it, and he was able to create the “ manly “ card, a card that has 7 damage and 7 health, with no cost, and with bifurcated strike and touch of death. this was done with a pelt card, a urayuli card, and a mantis with touch of death. very strong, but when i was able to play inscryption myself, i noticed something.

i was able to create almost the exact same card, with zero cost and 7 damage + health with the exact same cards he used. i just didn’t have a mantis, so i ended up using the adder for touch of death. odd enough, right?

after restarting inscryption, on my first run, i picked a urayuli and managed to use it to get pass the angler fight even after the eight bears, and continue forward, gaining more cards than i was supposed to. i decided to create a mantis with touch of death, intentionally die, and create my death card. and, wouldn’t you know?

i didn’t have a pelt, but with the same cards, i was able to replicate the exact same card again, just with one cost. my cost, instead of a pelt there, consisted of the choices of a river snapper, a wolf, and a wolf cub. and, when i check manly’s video again, this is what i see.

i have reason to believe, at this moment, that the cards chosen to create your deathcard aren’t random at all. like the rest of the game, the cards that you can choose from not only are determined by your deck, but also have a certain “ weight “ to them depending on what run / reset you’re on, which allows your game to “ choose “ the strength of the deathcards you create. depending on how it works, this theoretically means you could replicate the exact same deathcard each time.

TLDR: each event in the game is predetermined to prevent you from skewing the odds in your favor. i also think this extends to deathcards, and have a system which determines the strength of your deathcards. i think this could be abused to create overpowered deathcards each time.