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3 Pip Spells Uses 4 Pips

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Feb 11, 2011
48
This is not my first play through of the game. I always had a question to how this works. So I am doing a play through on my life and sometimes use Sanctuary for boss fights. The question/problem I have is that I start with 2 power pips no matter what (109% power pip chance). The first move I usually do is put up a sanctuary. It costs 3 pips, but why does it take 4? Why would it not just leave a white pip for exchange? Does anyone else understand this pip system for odd pip spells? Can anyone help me?

Alexander ThunderBane 130
Alexander StormBane 130
Alexander Rainbow 130
Alexander EmeraldBlossom 70
Alexander MistBlossom 52
Alexander Owl 54
Alexander Sand 20
Alexander SunBlaze 88 (Just Kidding)

Armiger
Jan 18, 2010
2280
This has always been the case.

If you have two power pips and use a three pip spells, both power pips will be consumed.

The mechanic has always been like this ever since Diego taught us about Power Pips all those years ago.

I do note the point you mentioned about a left over pip remaining if all isn't 'technically' consumed.

Guess this is where mechanics such as Pip Conservation comes into play.


Survivor
Feb 26, 2011
12
The game counts a power pip as a single pip and uses both power pips to cover the cost. It is like giving a $20 bill to pay for a $10 item. The original bill is gone.

Now you say but I get $10 change. The game does that to but not every time. This is called pip conversion. If you have a high pip conversion there is a chance that you will be given that single pip back as change. This happens a lot more at higher level as you start to build up your pip conversion rating.

Hope that helped explain it.

Survivor
Jun 14, 2015
1
Power pips, as annoying as it is, cannot be replaced by normal pips. If a spell costs 3 pips and you have 2 power pips, both power pips will be used to "pay" for the spell. Using an imp while you have 1 power pip will use the entire power pip, and not leave a white pip behind. It's how the game is set up. There really isn't much to it.

Survivor
Oct 22, 2011
17
It's always been like that from the beginning.

If you use a spell that is an odd number of pips, but you don't have any normal pips, it'll use the power pips to "pay" for using the spell. In using spells of your own school, it'll use power pips, then a normal pip if the spells has an odd number rank.

Now that I think about it, it's probably more of a "rounding" thing. Instead of it using 1.5 (the exact number) of pips, since it can't use half of a power pip, it rounds up to 2 using the whole power pip.

By the previously stated logic, if you were to use regenerate with 3 power pips or rebirth with 4 power pips, it'd do the same thing and use all 3 or 4 respectively.

The only way to "ensure" the pips are used "correctly" is to have at least 1 normal pip, I'm afraid.