Subjunctive KoL: AreaDifficulty

This list shows you how difficult each area in the Kingdom (not counting Ascension areas) is, as measured by the power of the resident monsters.

What does "power" mean?

• The power is an estimate of the monster's attack and defense skills. It also determines the number of XP you get from killing a monster, which is just power/4. (Note that prior to NS-13, this was power/5 instead. Some of these numbers here are still based on old data, but the areas I have remeasured don't seem to have changed, so it should be OK. Of course, if you notice any problems, let me know.)
• With the advent of NS-13, the meaning of "power" is somewhat different. As far as people can tell, the power rating determines a monster's attack level. The monster's defense is usually somewhat lower. The monster's attack power determines how likely it is to hit you, and the monster's defense power determines how likely you are to hit it.
• Note that for semi-rare and boss monsters, the number listed as "power" in this chart is almost certainly not an accurate representation of the monster's actual attack/defense power; for these monsters, the power does not seem to be directly related to XP as it is for normal monsters.
• For full details on just how these power values affect your hit chances, see this HCO thread. To summarize briefly, if your hit stat (normally Muscle, but could be different for certain weapons) is more than +5 above the monster defense, you'll always hit (except for fumbles), while below -6 you will always miss. Convserely, if your Moxie is worse than -6 relative to the monster attack, you'll always be hit, while above +7 you will never be hit (except for critical hits).

Important note: As of approximately August 22, 2006, the HP and power for a given individual monster will fluctuate by about ± 5% around their average values (i.e. for a monster with 100 HP, any individuals of that species you fight will have anywhere from approximately 95-105 HP). The XP yield of the monsters does not appear to change, however. In some cases, I have measured the exact amount of variation, which is indicated by the "±" in the table. It appears that the variation is as follows:

• less than 20: no variation
• 20-39: ± 1
• 40-59: ± 2
• 60-79: ± 3
• 80-99: ± 4
• 100 and up: ± 5

How to use this table:

• "Minimum Power" is the power of the weakest monster in the area.
• "Median Power" is the power of the average monster in the area. The table is sorted by median power (descending).
• "Maximum Power" is the power of the strongest monster in the area.
• "(SR)" denotes a semi-rare monster. These monsters are included in the lists but not in the computation of minimum, median, or maximum power (because they appear so infrequently).
• In cases where the power is not a multiple of 4, I have precisely pinpointed its value by increasing the monster level until the XP gains become constant. In cases where I haven't finished this procedure, only a range is listed.
• This page is generated automatically from AdventureSpoiler, so any errors there will appear here. If you find one, let me know.
• Click on the [+] to show detailed HP and power values for all monsters in that area. Click again to hide the detail.

Kittiwake has done a lot of work to find the Moxie values at which you don't get hit at all, which you can see in this forum thread (now hosted on the OxygeNation forums due to its spoilertasticness; the original thread can be found here). Cisco has also taken this work and made a nifty widget out of it which will automatically tell you safe areas to adventure in; you can see it here.