Jump to content

What Allomantic Metals Would be Best to Enhance?


Trusk'our

Recommended Posts

What Allomantic Metals Would be Best to Enhance? I made a post awhile ago in the Cosmere Q&A that said it might be possible to add multiple Hemalurgic charges together by using Raysium to combine them into a single spike. If one could do this, it would potentially allow them to gain a massive amount of strength to whatever power they were grafting onto their spiritweb.

I recently went and looked over it, and it got me thinking; assuming that this method would actually work, what powers would you actually want to go though the effort of enhancing? What Allomantic powers would actually be useful if they could be enhanced using this method, and what powers would be useless or of minimal use?

I think that Allomantic bronze and copper would be the most useful to enhance as neither, if burned away at an accelerated rate, would affect your performance in combat much, and having a massively increased range to your bronze sense and the ability to easily pierce Copperclouds would be extremely beneficial for rooting out Allomancers. Having enhanced copper would allow you to conceal yourself from anyone else with enhanced bronze, and you’d be able to protect yourself from even the most powerful Soother or Rioter.

Allomantic pewter would have some potential risk in an enhanced form, as the rate at which you burn a metal is directly related to the amount of effect you get out of it, and pewter already burns quickly, which makes it the Allomantic power most likely to run out of fuel in the middle of a stressful combat encounter. However, having what is essentially a far more controlled version of a duralumin/pewter burn would be very useful in combat, since you could receive a massive boost to strength, speed, dexterity, and durability without completely draining your Allomantic reserves, and you could do it over a short period of time rather than a momentary burst.

Zinc and Brass would be the next in terms of potency if enhanced; you could potentially pull a Lord Ruler and smother or explode the emotions of others, and dominating Hemalurgic constructs would be a breeze. However, in most cases you want to use only a little bit of a push on them, as this is the best way to be sneaky and subtle, and having a greatly enhanced use of this power would likely make controlling your rate of burning more difficult.

Allomantic steel and iron, while potentially useful in an enhanced form, would be very, very dangerous it you weren’t equally enhanced by pewter, as you could easily rip yourself apart or crush yourself to death if you weren’t careful.

Cadmium and Bendalloy would gain minimal benefit from being enhanced since your already can stretch time a decent amount with them, and they already burn very quickly.

I don’t see much use for gold, but Allomantic electrum might be decently more useful if you could see anywhere from a few extra seconds to a few minutes in the future.

Chromium, nicrosil, aluminum, and duralumin would not benefit in any practical way from being enhanced from what I can tell.

Tin would actually be counter productive in most cases, as all you would accomplish is overwhelming your senses, or incapacitating yourself from the smallest of pains.

What is your opinion on this matter, fellow 17th Sharders? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Copper and bronze would definately be the top of my list for this.  Iron or steel would probably allow you to see the world closer to what the bands allowed.  Maybe not every atom but I think they would allow you to see a lot more than standard iron or steel sight.  

Pewter does burn fast but I think one of the more overlooked parts of pewter is becoming more dense.... if thats what you want to call it.  Just being more durable for a second even if it burns faster could pay off big time for a pewter burner.  I also imagine that a slower burn would give you more benefit.  I can't remember if it specifically noted Elend burning through pewter faster than Vin due to his stronger powers.  Maybe the rate at which you burn wouldn't be effected enough to make it a worry.  Plus if you had access to A aluminum or a chromium buddy you could always ingest a lot more than you should need and then have it purged before causing unwanted effects.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Copper and bronze would definately be the top of my list for this.  Iron or steel would probably allow you to see the world closer to what the bands allowed.  Maybe not every atom but I think they would allow you to see a lot more than standard iron or steel sight.  

Pewter does burn fast but I think one of the more overlooked parts of pewter is becoming more dense.... if thats what you want to call it.  Just being more durable for a second even if it burns faster could pay off big time for a pewter burner.  I also imagine that a slower burn would give you more benefit.  I can't remember if it specifically noted Elend burning through pewter faster than Vin due to his stronger powers.  Maybe the rate at which you burn wouldn't be effected enough to make it a worry.  Plus if you had access to A aluminum or a chromium buddy you could always ingest a lot more than you should need and then have it purged before causing unwanted effects.  

The speed at which you burn your metals is directly tied to how much investiture you get out of them. So burning fast burning metals, such as pewter, can be very, very powerful, but you wouldn't have a complete edge in that metal, as sometimes you'll want a slow burn rather than a fast burn. You just have the option of burning faster and getting more power if you need it.

Also, as a side note, this would mean that certain Mistings are more invested than others when burning their metals, such as a Pewterarm compared to a Smoker.

Quote

mooglefrooglian

Does a more powerful Mistborn burn their metals more quickly, or do they use what they get more efficiently?

Brandon Sanderson

Metal burning speed is proportional to power withdrawn.

 

Edited by Trusk'our
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the WOB there.  I was questioning that when picturing allomancy as a bunch of water tanks with different sized spigots and locks.  Unlocking the ability to access the water was the same as snapping and then whatever you snap into is what locks get broken.  Then the size of the spigot determined how fast you could release your investiture.  I always assumed that a stronger mistborn would burn through metals faster because the spigot was larger.  

That said I don't remember reading any difference with Wax and the bands either.  I would assume when his steel sight and pushes got enhanced to the point of lighting the world up as every metallic atom was seen that he would move through his reserves significantly faster.  Perhaps this is more due to nicrosil compounding effects on steel allomancy but I would have still imagined his metal reserves would have been wiped much faster if strength was the connection rate of burn.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
31 minutes ago, Friendshipspren said:

U might be able to use enhanced chromium to erase souls. Like souls are investiture too so an enhanced chromium leecher with duralumin could burn ur soul

I think Chromium works on a similar principle to aluminum, which purifies the soul of unnatural investiture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Nameless said:

I think Chromium works on a similar principle to aluminum, which purifies the soul of unnatural investiture.

Ahhhhhhh. That makes sense, since they are paired metals. 

There was a post that I made the the Cosmere Q&A once that asked why Allomantic chromium doesn't just kill people by sapping away all their investiture. This is by far the best explanation that I've seen. Thank you :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Nameless said:

I think Chromium works on a similar principle to aluminum, which purifies the soul of unnatural investiture.

Unnatural investiture... So, are you saying that a chromium misting could make someone drab if they had given away their breath and then bought a new one?

Also, I think pewter... In essence, you just adjust how much pewter you swallow. If before you were swallowing X pewter, and now you are twice as powerful, swallow 2X pewter. You just have to spend twice as much money getting metals. I think pewter is a lot less expensive than gold, so you are still pretty set.

Electrum could be pretty incredible too, if you could see quite far into the future. 

I agree with the bronze as well. But, copper would only be effective against people with improved bronze, zinc or brass

Tin would have a major downside of feeling uncomfortable all the time if you burned it. Spook proves that it could be pretty amazing if you are willing to completely destroy your body and wear a blindfold and extra soft clothes and earplugs all the time, but in that way maybe having pewter with tin would be similar to having pewter with iron or steel. Having pewter and tin could be pretty good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Kandrafish said:

Unnatural investiture... So, are you saying that a chromium misting could make someone drab if they had given away their breath and then bought a new one?

I think they could maybe make someone drab regardless. Might need to be a savant or really powerful, but I don’t think it would be any harder to get rid of someone’s natural breath than an unnatural one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually would go with bendalloy, because being able to move the time bubble would make it a pretty powerful ability followed by steel or bronze. 

While getting steel sight would be valuable, but that seems to come with the loss of an eye, and allomantic steel and iron could otherwise be more cheaply empowered by f-iron. Brass and zinc seem like it's barking up the wrong tree in that what you want is more subtlety rather than power. Pewter and tin could be quite harmful. Aluminium, duralumin, and gold all seem quite useless. Bronze gives the ability to pierce copper clouds (and presumably Aviar protection), meanwhile extra copper is only useful if someone has extra bronze at hand and the effect can be gotten by working with another person using a copper cloud so is a bit of a wasteful way to get same result. Given how weak electrum is seems like you'd need a few spikes to get close to atium functionality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Proletariat said:

I actually would go with bendalloy, because being able to move the time bubble would make it a pretty powerful ability followed by steel or bronze. 

While getting steel sight would be valuable, but that seems to come with the loss of an eye, and allomantic steel and iron could otherwise be more cheaply empowered by f-iron. Brass and zinc seem like it's barking up the wrong tree in that what you want is more subtlety rather than power. Pewter and tin could be quite harmful. Aluminium, duralumin, and gold all seem quite useless. Bronze gives the ability to pierce copper clouds (and presumably Aviar protection), meanwhile extra copper is only useful if someone has extra bronze at hand and the effect can be gotten by working with another person using a copper cloud so is a bit of a wasteful way to get same result. Given how weak electrum is seems like you'd need a few spikes to get close to atium functionality.

Speed bubbles could be moved around by a savant, but I don't think that simply enhancing the power usage would allow you to move a speed bubble with you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For copper would a more powerful copper cloud be able to eventually protect others from mental manipulation as well?  I liked the idea of copper being almost an anti-investiture zone that offers protection.  I know that aluminum alone does it better but a powerful coppercloud could potentially offer the protection and shielding they recieve to others.  

Copper vs lashings I am also curious about.  As mental attacks can't harm a coppercloud could the coppercloud be protected by some of another systems attacks? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

For copper would a more powerful copper cloud be able to eventually protect others from mental manipulation as well?  I liked the idea of copper being almost an anti-investiture zone that offers protection.  I know that aluminum alone does it better but a powerful coppercloud could potentially offer the protection and shielding they recieve to others.  

Copper vs lashings I am also curious about.  As mental attacks can't harm a coppercloud could the coppercloud be protected by some of another systems attacks? 

Do we know if copper can partially protect someone from a shard's view (like hiding with partial cover)? It would partially protect from a shard influencing emotions.

Stormlight spoiler

Spoiler

I suppose electrum is like a weaker version of Renarin's power...

Electrum would probably mess with a limited amount of the shard's futuresight, but could a really an ultrapowerful coppercloud have a similar effect of hiding the present from the shard instead of the future?

I also totally agree with Tamriel Wolfsbaine. It would be awesome if a coppercloud could protect others from emotional allomancy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/1/2022 at 8:46 AM, Nameless said:

I think they could maybe make someone drab regardless. Might need to be a savant or really powerful, but I don’t think it would be any harder to get rid of someone’s natural breath than an unnatural one.

yea, breaths are not hardcoded into the spiritweb, it's like a knight radiant holding Stormlight, which could also probably be wiped as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

With electrum you can only see your own possible future, so it's not as good as you might hope.

What I was thinking was of being able to see several seconds into the future so you could see if you had an arrow would in the future and think "I got hit with an arrow"... 

(Arcanum Unbounded spoiler)

Spoiler

I was thinking that it would function like Sak in the Sixth of Dusk book, but not seeing as far into the future.

I don't actually know if that is how electrum would work, though, so I am not sure if that is a valid application. It makes sense to me based on what I know of Atium shadows, though.

 

 

6 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

yea, breaths are not hardcoded into the spiritweb, it's like a knight radiant holding Stormlight, which could also probably be wiped as well.

Kind of sucks to be from Nalthis, then... You just have less investiture innately tied to you...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bronze and zinc/brass have clear obvious benefits when boosted (pierce copperclouds, control hemalurgic constructs).

Pewter and iron/steel are very powerful already, so boosting them means lots of power, but yes, a Lurcher or Coinshot with super-strength would be at great risk (without a Mistborn's ability to burn pewter to strengthen the body).

I agree any of the near-instantaneously burning metals can't usefully be enhanced much. Certainly not aluminum and duralumin. Chromium might have a niche benefit - letting you Leech highly Invested people quicker (so you don't have to touch a super dangerous enemy for a few seconds).

Electrum is tricky, and poorly explored. Apparently increase in power won't give you much - a little farther future but not much - until you hit a threshold and get Spiritual Realm vision (like duralumin+atium) but electrum has much more "interference" getting to that point than atium, so I am not sure you could actually spike yourself to that point.

Gold is so poorly explored that I really have no idea if it would have any benefit or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Raphaborn said:

You see the present. :P

I mean, I understand various of the metals cancelling each other out, but look at tin and pewter, they are more effective together. Also, gold seems to show the paths that the past could have taken you on, or multiple parts of your personality in condensed, essential forms. Also, what happens with Duralumin and Gold?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...