Expert Guide: Add Trigger Series
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Introduction
This is a guide to the Add Trigger spell series. The series makes up very powerful spells that can turn just about any projectile of your liking into a trigger, remove cast delay and recharge time from projectile spells and cast expensive modifiers for free. The reader is expected to have read the Draw Guide and the Normal Casting part of the Calling and Recursion Guide.
The goal of this guide is to explain how Add Trigger spells work in more detail, highlight uses and cover its interactions with Greek spells and divide by spells. Since the Add Trigger series is named after one of its members, we'll be referring to series when using "Add Trigger spell/s" and to the specific spells themselves by name alone,
Refresher on how Triggers work
We'll start with a quick refresher of the different trigger types, the draw guide has already covered how triggers interact with spells on the wand.
Triggers will shoot their shot state every time they hit an enemy, or if they collide with terrain. The trigger won't shoot if its lifetime runs out or dies by other means. If the Trigger collides with terrain, the trigger property is lost.
Timers will shoot their shot state every time they hit an enemy, the timers lifetime runs out or after a set period of time between 4 frames and 200 frames depending on the projectile, the period for Add Timer is 20 frames. If the set period of time passes, the timer will shoot their shot state and lose their trigger property. Timers won't shoot their shot state if they die from low velocity.
Expire triggers will shoot their shot state when they die. How they die doesn't matter.
How does Add Trigger spells work?
How does the Add Trigger series make normal spells into triggers? Well, when the Add Trigger spell is drawn, it will look at the deck from the top for a Projectile, Static Projectile, Utility or Material spell. If it finds a target here, it will discard everything from the top of the deck down to and including the target. Then it will continue through the deck and look for another spell in those four categories.
If the Add Trigger spell succeeds in both checks, the add trigger spell will use the targets Base Projectile and attach a trigger to it. The Base Projectile part is important for one of the things mentioned in the introduction, the Base Projectile does not have the cast delay and recharge charges of the normal spell, it doesn't have the draw or mana cost either. This means that if Add Trigger is used on Sparkbolt with Double Trigger, it'll only draw once, while casting 10-20 mana from the Add Trigger Spell without affecting cast delay or recharge time.
If the Add Trigger spell only succeeds in the first check, the Add Trigger spell will call the projectile and disable its draw. Unlike earlier, this means that the projectiles cast delay and recharge time changes will apply. Using the example from earlier, Sparkbolt with Double Trigger would draw 0 times and add 0.07 cast delay, but also 5 % crit chance.
If the first check doesn't succeed, Add Trigger doesn't do anything with the deck.
But I promised earlier that modifiers wouldn't cost mana either? That's true, we skipped this in the previous part to make the explanation more straight forward. When the Add Trigger spell looks through the deck on the first check and encounters a modifier, it will disable draw for that modifier and call it, before reenabling draw. This means that every modifier between Add Trigger and the target projectile will be cast once for free.
So what happens if we use a lone Divide By on a Add Trigger spell? Unsurprisingly, exactly what we're expecting, it'll use the Add Trigger spell X times, but it won't be pretty.
So using this wand:
This wand will cast as following:
- Divide by 4 will target Add trigger.
- The first Add trigger will search the deck, find Sparkbolt as its first target and Bubble spark as its second, Divide by 4 however removes its draw. causing it to only cast Sparkbolt and discarding Add Trigger and Sparkbolt
- The second Add Trigger will search the deck, finding Bubble Spark as its first target and sparkbolt as its second, nothing weird happens here, Add Trigger discards the bubble spark and shoots a bubble spark trigger, drawing sparkbolt.
- The third and fourth works the same way as the second.
- When the fourth Add trigger has finished, Divide by 4 will discard the final remaining bubble spark.
How add trigger works, Add trigger's interaction with modifiers. Add triggers interaction with divide by, add triggers interaction with 0 charge spells and targets without projectiles.
Using Add Trigger without an acceptable target spell to apply modifiers multiple times
If the target spell search fails, modifiers are not discarded and they remain in the deck. They can then be drawn and applied normally and/or called by another copy of Add Trigger.
Example A1: the basic setup
- Double Spell draws Add Trigger.
- Add Trigger's target search calls Damage Plus, passes by the Note spell (since it is type Other), and reaches the end of the wand; the target search fails, and it does not discard any spells.
- Double Spell draws Damage Plus.
- Damage Plus draws the Note spell.
Thus, two copies of Damage Plus are applied (although at the higher mana cost (15) than including two instances of Damage Plus (10) in this example).
Example A2: applying modifiers another time, and to an arbitrary projectile spell
- Quadruple Spell draws Slimeball.
- Quadruple Spell draws the first Add Trigger, which calls the 3 Damage Plus spells, doesn't see a target in the deck, and doesn't discard anything.
- Quadruple Spell draws the second Add Trigger, which does the same thing.
- Quadruple Spell draws the first Damage Plus, which draws the second Damage Plus, which draws the third Damage Plus, which draws nothing, as all cards are in the hand (none are in the discard to allow for wrapping).
The result is one Slimeball projectile with nine Damage Plus modifiers applied.
Example A3: using Divide By on Add Trigger rather than multiple Add Triggers
- Double Spell draws Divide By 4.
- Divide By 4 calls Add Trigger four times, and each Add Trigger call will apply Electric Charge but generate no projectiles nor discard anything.
- Divide By 4 discards Add Trigger.
- Double Spell draws Electric Charge.
- Electric Charge draws Kantele - Note A.
The result is a single Note projectile with 5 Electric Charge modifiers applied.
Example A4: using Requirement-based "Wand Refresh" to avoid regular draws of the modifiers (more useful when using a set of modifiers with a high mana cost)
- The first cast will draw Triple Spell, which will draw through the last Add Trigger and produce a single Slimeball with six Damage Plus modifiers applied.
- The second cast does something that depends on the global state of the Every Other toggle. It might give the behavior of the fourth, sixth, etc., casts described below. Alternatively, it might draw and pay for the three Damage Plus modifiers, draw the Endpoint, wrap and draw the Triple Spell, Slimeball, and Add Triggers (which won't apply any extra Damage Plus modifiers as the Damage Plus cards are already in the hand).
- The third, fifth, seventh, etc., casts will act like the first.
- The fourth, sixth, eighth, etc., casts will (roughly) "skip" the modifiers, wrap, and then do the same thing as the first cast.
Every cast except sometimes the second will produce a single Slimeball with six Damage Plus modifiers, for the cost of the Triple Spell, Slimeball, and two Add Triggers. An actual Wand Refresh would not produce the same behavior as this Requirement-based "refresh", because Wand Refresh is a Utility-type spell that will be considered a potential (but not fully acceptable) target and not be skipped over by the target search like the Requirement spells.
See also Guide: Single Cast and Instant Recharge, which is an alternate route to avoiding the paid modifier casts which would not need the Requirement spells.
Wrapping the wand multiple times to duplicate modifiers and projectiles in one group (one "casting state")
Example B1:
With each cast:
- Triple Spell draws the first Add Trigger, which calls the three Damage Plus spells and Bubble Spark (without making the Bubble Spark a trigger variant, as the payload search fails). Before calling Bubble Spark, the first Add Trigger discards the other Add Triggers, the Damage Plus spells, and the Bubble Spark. So Triple Spell and the first Add Trigger are in the hand, and everything else is in the discard.
- Triple Spell wraps (moving the discard pile to the deck) and draws the second Add Trigger, which acts similarly. The hand now contains the Triple Spell and first two Add Triggers, and everything else is in the discard.
- Triple Spell wraps again, and draws the third Add Trigger, which again acts similarly.
- The wand recharges.
The result is three Bubble Sparks, each with nine Damage Plus modifiers. Three Bubble Spark cast delay decreases are applied, because the payload search failed. (The Bubble Spark spread is not multiplied, because its spread is implemented at an individual projectile level and not shared by other projectiles in the same group (a.k.a. "casting state").)
Example B2:
with zero charges on the Black Hole.
This wand is similar, but produces three Slimeball-related projectiles with empty triggers, each with nine Damage Plus modifiers. The payload check for every Add Trigger is satisfied by the same 0-charge Black Hole. If it were to be normally cast, Slimeball would apply speed, spread, and cast delay modifications to its casting state, but these modifications are not applied here because the payload check succeeded. If the Black Hole were removed, the payload search would fail, and these modifications would be applied three times instead.
Wrapping the wand multiple times to produce trigger projectile chains
Example C1: one level of "chaining" with multicast
By using Add Trigger with a payload including a multicast and projectile, we can wrap and reuse the same modifiers applied to the trigger projectile:
This casts a pollen(-related) timer projectile, with a payload containing a Bubble Spark and Pollen projectile; all three projectiles will have four Damage Plus modifiers applied. In this wand design, after the wand wraps, the Damage Plus modifiers are regularly drawn and cast; we could instead insert an Add Trigger between the Add Timer and Damage Plus to avoid those costs:
This does not actually create a trigger projectile within the timer projectile's payload, because the Add Trigger payload check fails (the Double Cast and Bubble Spark are already in the hand, so the Add Trigger's payload search sees no spells left in the deck for the payload).
This technique can be combined with example B1 to apply the modifiers once to the timer and multiple times to the timer payload. This type of design has been demonstrated by AlexXsWx.
If the first target projectile or certain modifiers are unacceptable within the payload, a note can be used. E.g., applied to the first example:
This produces a Pollen-related trigger projectile with four Damage Plus modifiers, containing a payload of a Bubble Spark and a note, each with only three Damage Plus modifiers.
Example C2: building longer chains using multi-projectile spells (a technique demonstrated by Discord users ArmedWithWings and ᓚᘏᗢ.ʈ҄‾‵ ~ Noby)
With zero charges on the Black Hole spell. (Can be naturally extended by adding additional Add Timers at the beginning (though this is dangerous in terms of lag if it hits anything; see discussion below.)
This launches what looks (roughly; see precise description below) like three balls of lightning that hop forward in the air three times, unless they hit anything, in which case it can quickly generate an enormous amount of projectiles (potentially problematic in terms of lag), as Ball Lightning projectiles have built-in piercing and can trigger multiple times (even though this is Add Timer [TODO: check if this is only a statue/dummy interaction]).
With each cast, the deck manipulation looks like the following:
- The first Add Timer calls Orbiting Arc, identifies Ball Lightning as a target, and its apparent-payload test "succeeds" upon seeing the Black Hole spell. It will separately create three lightning ball trigger projectiles, each of which will attempt to draw a payload.
- The first Add Timer's first lightning ball trigger will discard the Black Hole and stop at the end of the deck, failing to load a payload.
- The first Add Timer's second lightning ball trigger will move the discard to the deck, and draw the second Add Timer for the payload. The second Add Timer works in the same manner as the first one, calling Orbiting Arc, identifying the same target and apparent payload.
- The second Add Timer's first lightning ball trigger will discard the Black Hole and stop at the end of the deck, failing to load a payload.
- The second Add Timer's second lightning ball trigger will move the discard to the deck, and draw Orbiting Arc, which will draw Ball Lightning.
- The second Add Timer's third lightning ball trigger will discard Black Hole and stop at the end of the deck, failing to load a payload.
- The first Add Timer's third lightning ball trigger will move the discard pile (just the Black Hole) to the deck, then move the Black Hole back to the discard, failing to load a payload.
- The wand will recharge.
So the result is 3 orbiting lightning balls; one of these has a timer that launches 3 more whenever it triggers; and one of the lightning balls in these payloads will have a timer that launches three more (none of which have timers). If the lightning balls do not hit anything, then there will be nine lightning balls generated total. Since Ball Lightning projectiles have built-in piercing, if they hit enemies, an enormous number of projectiles can be generated. This is an easy way to generate damage exponential in the number of wand slots used, but may not be a feasible way to deal large amounts of damage due to the lag generated by these projectiles.
Lag-friendlier version without piercing, with Decelerating Shot for visual effect and clarity:
With zero charges on the Black Hole spell. (Can be naturally extended by adding additional Add Timers at the beginning (though this is dangerous in terms of lag if it hits anything; see discussion below.)
Miscellaneous details
When drawing ability is disabled, enabled, and preserved
The ability to draw is:
- disabled before calling each eligible modifier during the target search
- re-enabled after calling each eligible modifier during the target search (regardless of whether draw was disabled when Add Trigger was cast/called)
- (preserved during the target search if there were no eligible modifiers)
- disabled before calling the target spell when the payload check fails
- re-enabled after calling the target spell when the payload check fails (regardless of whether draw was disabled previously)
- (preserved by Add Trigger if there were no eligible modifiers to call during the target search and either (a) no valid target is found or (b) the target check and payload check both succeed)
