Incense

Incense is created in a Scent Lab, with the Aromatics tech, out of

• 20 cactus sap
• 4 charcoal

No skill is required to make, or burn, incense, but constructing the Scent Lab and the Incense Burner requires Perfuming 2/2 - this is terrible, so if you can have anyone make your lab and burners for you, absolutely do that

Once a batch of incense is started, the player can "burn a little pinch of the mixture" and see the properties of the incense at that time. It will be in the format of:

"You catch a whiff of quality (number) (fragrance) scented incense.
You are filled with a (Feeling) (increased Stat), yet a bit of (decreased Stat)."

With an Incense Prong, the player can add ingredients to change the characteristics of the incense.

Quality can both rise and fall when any ingredients are added to the incense. After a great deal of testing and research, we will be able to intentionally alter the quality. The magnitude of the stat changed should be determined by the quality number. Lower quality incense has a small effect on the stats and higher quality numbers will change the stats by a larger amount. This tale, incense with a quality of 98 has been burned, and it still changed the player's stats by one point.

Fragrance should be altered by the herbs added. The exact purpose of fragrance is not known, but fragrance is an incense characteristic which can be required by some worship tests.

Feeling should be affected by adding the petals of any flower. The exact purpose of incense feelings is not known, but it is an incense characteristic which can be required by some worship tests.

The exact stats changed can be altered by adding resin from any tree. One stat will be increased by a certain amount, while another will be decreased by the same amount. These stat changes are in addition to any stat changes from foods eaten, aqueduct bonuses, banner bonuses, etc. Incense bonuses stack with all other known stat bonuses in the game.

How to use it

Incense can be burned inside a compound in an Incense Burner, or outdoors in a Windproof Incense Burner. The length of time for which it will burn is determined partly by the type of Burner used, but mostly by the quality of the Incense. You will get a message in main when you light it telling you how long it will last. For a standard incense burner (both indoors and outdoors) incense lasts for Quality * 4 in seconds, and twice as long in a long-lasting incense burner.

Once the incense is lit, anybody within 30 (possibly more, still testing) coordinates may "catch a heady whiff" of it, which affects two stats (one positively, one negatively), and may be useful for certain tests. The game checks if you should get a whiff once every 60 teppyseconds, so if the incense burns for less than that, you may not catch a whiff at all. The magnitude of the stat change depends on the quality of the incense:

Quality	Stat Change
0	0
1-499	1
500-749	2
750-873	3
875-936+	4
958-959	5 (unconfirmed)
968-983	6 (unconfirmed)
984-1000	7 (unconfirmed)

How it works

Incense has 4 properties that are affected by a random factor at the start, and by the additives included during the batch. These properties are:

• Scent. Scent is affected by the Herbs added to the batch. Observed scents this telling: Citrus, Clove, Clover, Flowers, Frankincense, Honey, Jasmine, Musk, Myrrh, Oriental Spices, Patchouli, Pine, Sandalwood
• Feeling. The feeling is affected by the Rose of Ra Petals added to the batch. Observed feelings this telling: Gentle, Giddy, Guilty, Hopeful, Melancholious, Relaxed, Serene, Sorrowful, Vengeful (Probably have more)
• Affected Stats. Every batch of Incense affects two different stats: one positively, one negatively. These are affected by the Resins added to the batch. The positive stat is obvious enough, but the negative stat may not be immediately recognizable if you're new to Incense. Here's how they map:

Description	Negative Stat
Clumsiness	Dexterity
Confusion	Perception
Forgetfulness	Focus
Fragility	Constitution
Lethargy	Endurance
Sluggishness	Speed
Weakness	Strength

Research

The above information is based on what has been observed this tale, with some copying from T7 wiki for data that appears unchanged. Statements that include "should" are based from our experiences in previous tales and have not yet been verified for T8.

Players are in the process of documenting the results of their research into incense.

• When you start a batch of incense, please list that data at: Incense Starts
• Data from intentional incense testing is listed at: Incense Testing. If you would like to participate in gathering data, please contact Peacefulness in-game. A basic method for gathering data and listing it in a useful way is outlined in the "Incense Testing" link. Additives are being tested in batches of 50. Peacefulness is starting with resin, because of its availability.
• When recipes have been developed, they will be at: Incense Recipes

Practical Incensemaking Considerations:

As working in the Feelings plane requires flower petals, which are difficult and costly to obtain as you get one petal per sacrificed flower, which starting Feeling you obtain will have a large influence on your maximum Quality. As we cannot readily distinguish Feelings plane starts, it is possible two or more starts share the same Feeling, and one of those will likely be higher quality than the other.

Nevertheless, the most promising (highest-Q) starts seen in experiments are Giddy, Guilty, Joyous, and Veneful - more TBD. The worst starts are: TBD. Tale 9 is a good tale for incense starts - I have managed 927 on a favorable stat pair without having a clue what I am doing, so +5 may be possible with research. The doubling of resins this tale is also a big help - while finding end points is something I have trouble with, we are likely to have one or more resins that align with a desirable end point. -Somebob