Norwood talent tree

Norwood's talent tree has 34 nodes across four pages (Attack, Special, Alchemy, Sanity) and costs 45 stones to finish. Most of the Attack page is move unlocks for his coffin and chain moves; the Special and Alchemy pages are small; the Sanity page only matters once Norwood is in the Abnormal State (see Lunatic state). Part of the larger Talents system.

Overview#

• 34 nodes: 11 Attack, 7 Special, 7 Alchemy, 9 Sanity. The other 38 of the 72 grid slots are empty.
• Three nodes start learned: Iron Fist, Furious Griminess and Execution. Backstab does not, so Norwood must pay a Chipped Immundus for it (Viola, Benita and Jerold start with Backstab; Elena has no Backstab node; Terrence buys it like Norwood).
• Stones are spent at an altar, one per level (see Leveling). Nothing in this hero's tree needs Sea Tooth Bone, which is Jerold's stone.

Reading the tables. Cost per level lists the stone spent for each level, one stone per level (Chipped = Chipped Immundus, Crystal = Immundus Crystal, Diamond = Immundus Diamond). After is the node that must already be learned. Data gives the game's internal effect type and values (permille: 100 = 10%). A * means the node starts at level 1 for free, so the stone named on its first level is never spent.

Stones needed to finish the tree#

That is 8 Chipped Immundus, 17 Immundus, 16 Immundus Crystal and 4 Immundus Diamond (45 in all), after the three free starting levels.

Page 1: Attack#

Empty slots: 105, 109, 110, 112, 114, 115, 118. The Attack page is mostly a chain tree: the Soul Shackling Eddy line (107 to 104 to 106) leads to Liberate (108) and its Revenge finisher (111).

Page 2: Special#

Empty slots: 202, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209, 212, 214, 215, 217, 218.

Page 3: Alchemy#

The Alchemy page is shared in layout with Jerold and Elena; only the stone types and a few level counts differ.

Page 4: Sanity#

Only Obstinate, Inertia and Berserker Instinct (407 to 409) really depend on Norwood's Abnormal State (Abnormal state#Effects by hero). Sanity, Devout, Enhanced Elixir and Lucky Madness are shared with the other heroes (Sanity talents and trophies#Talents shared by all five heroes with a tree). The other nodes are normal bonuses that are always on.

Hidden mechanics#

• How stones really work. Each level eats exactly one stone of the type named for that level, and a node can be bought whenever its "After" node is at level 1 or higher; it does not need to be maxed (inferred from the tile logic in the talent screen). Confirming spends the stones for good: I found no refund path, the minus buttons only undo changes you have not confirmed.
• Effects add up. The game sums the values of every node with the same effect type and matching move. Several of Norwood's numbers therefore stack with the hero's built-in values rather than replace them.
• Shield of Griminess is +5, not a multiplier. A perfectly timed guard already gives 12 Griminess. The talent adds 5, for 17 per timed block. The same block also refills 30% of his stamina bar regardless of the talent.
• Absorbing Griminess is not tied to damage. Despite its description, the game scales the bonus from a per-attack value on the incoming skill (PowerAddHit): level 1 adds 50% of it, level 2 adds 100%. A hit that deals no damage gives nothing, and periodic damage ticks also feed it (inferred).
• Devout is 15% and hits your own damage output. The Sanity drained from Norwood is proportional to the damage he deals, and Devout cuts it by 15%.
• Adapt to Abnormality: Inertia is stronger than it reads. The Abnormal state normally lowers fire, poison, arcane and dark resistance by 50%. The talent multiplies that penalty by 0.6 (level 1, leaving 30%) or 0.2 (level 2, leaving 10%). The in-game text says "reduced by 40% / 20%", which is the talent number shown, not the resulting penalty.
• Berserker Instinct never works on bosses. It rolls a 30% chance, only on a few specific hits (combo 3 or 5 of the code's HP skill family and combo 3 of its LP family), only if the enemy is not blocking the hit or is hit from behind, and only against enemies that are not bosses.
• Obstinate stacks with the base bonus. The Abnormal State already gives Norwood +10 resilience (Toughness); Obstinate makes it +15.
• Lucky Madness is a weight, not a percentage. Every trophy entry in an enemy's or a maze's drop table has a second and third weight (nearly always +5 and +10). The drop roll picks a random number up to the total weight, so adding +5 or +10 to a trophy with weight 5 doubles or triples its share. Every trophy entry gets the bonus at once, so it improves trophy odds against other drops. The talent text says this applies "in the Abnormal State", but the code that reads the talent never checks Sanity (inferred; see Sanity talents and trophies#Lucky Madness by hero).
• Enhanced Elixir mismatch. The text says 10 Sanity per potion; the number in the data and used by the code is 5.
• Free Execution, paid Backstab. Execution is a free starting node for every hero, but Norwood (like Terrence) has to buy his Backstab; Viola, Benita and Jerold start with it and Elena has no Backstab node.

Differences between the text and the data#

Sources#

• reference/lua_src/gamedata/structdata/exportdata/es_herotalent.lua: Norwood rows (HeroId 10004), TalentPos 101 to 414, via build/wiki/kit/tables/HeroTalent.jsonl and reports/talent_trees.md lines 222 to 285.
• luascript/structdata/fs_talentdata.lua lines 1 to 50 and 79 to 130 (level cap, free first level for DefaultOpen, stone list per level).
• luascript/structdata/fs_herodata.lua lines 401 to 470 (talent values are summed, plus level scaling).
• luascript/ui/controller/playerinfoctrl.lua lines 90 to 96 (stone types), 4283 to 4330 (stone check), 4548 to 4560 ({a}/{b} text), 4366 to 4446 (prerequisite display), 4850 to 4915 (confirm and consume).
• luascript/logic/player/hero10004.lua lines 40 to 60, 287 to 299; gamedata/playerdefine/hero10004_define.lua lines 51 to 58.
• luascript/logic/playervalue/animalbase_value.lua lines 410 to 446, 466 to 550, 1925 to 1950, 2400 to 2425, 2720 to 2740, 2896 to 2910.
• luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua lines 6630 to 6645, 16715 to 16735.
• luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua lines 5350 to 5416 and 5418 to 5445 (weighted drops); luascript/structdata/ms_storyitemdrop.lua lines 20 to 48.
• Tables ItemDropData and StoryMazeDrop (trophy rows carry ProbAdd1/ProbAdd2), TrophyData (types 601 to 603).
• luascript/common/mathhelper.lua lines 193 to 225.