Subjunctive KoL: MoonEffects

The Kingdom has two moons, Ronald and Grimace. Each cycles through eight phases. Ronald changes phase every day, while Grimace changes only every other day. Thus, a complete cycle through both moons takes 16 days. On June 2, 2006, a third element was added to the mix -- a "minimoon" (often unofficially called "Hamburglar"). It has an 11-day cycle, so it does not fit into the regular 16-day cycle. It is discussed in more detail below.

Note that the moons wax and wane in the opposite direction from Earth's moon (at least as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere). If the moon is "C"-shaped, then it is waxing, while a "D"-shaped moon is waning.

Not all possible combinations of moons occur. In particular, since at the beginning of the cycle both moons are new, there is never a point when both moons are full.

The moons affect a number of things in the Kingdom. As the documentation says, the exact value of that number is classified, but here are some things that we know about:

• The effect of Temporary Lycanthropy (obtained by drinking the Blood of the Wereseal)
• The effect of a Talisman of Baio
• The effect of a Jekyllin hide belt
• Whether or not a Grue will attack
• The effectiveness of resting
• Special stat bonuses
• The effectiveness of the rare Grimacite items

There are six special days in a 16-day cycle of the main moons, commonly referred to as "stat days", two when Ronald is full, two when Grimace is full, and two when the two moons are equal. These stat days are not affected by the position of the minimoon. Their effects are:

• When Ronald is full, you gain twice the normal number of MP when resting. All Mysticality subpoints you gain from any activity (fighting, using the clan gym, using items, whatever) are increased by 25%. (Losses remain the same.)
• When Grimace is full, you gain twice the number of HP when resting. All Muscle subpoints you gain are similarly increased by 25%.
• When Ronald and Grimace are at the same point in the cycle (this happens twice, once when both are new, and the day directly before that), all Moxie subpoints you gain are increased by 25%.

Note that prior to NS-13, the stat days granted a 50% increase rather than a 25% increase.

Here's a full chart showing the cycling of the main moons. Day 1 will always fall on the 1st of odd-numbered months, and Day 9 will always fall on the 1st of even-numbered months. "Total" indicates the total fullness, which is used in computing some of the other effects; see further discussion below.

Day of Cycle	Ronald	Grimace	Total	Special
1	new	new	0	Mox day
2	1/4+	new	1
3	1/2+	1/4+	3
4	3/4+	1/4+	4
5	full	1/2+	6	Mys day, x2 MP on rest
6	3/4-	1/2+	5
7	1/2-	3/4+	5
8	1/4-	3/4+	4
9	new	full	4	Mus day, x2 HP on rest
10	1/4+	full	5	Mus day, x2 HP on rest
11	1/2+	3/4-	5
12	3/4+	3/4-	6
13	full	1/2-	6	Mys day, x2 MP on rest
14	3/4-	1/2-	5
15	1/2-	1/4-	3
16	1/4-	1/4-	2	Mox day

The minimoon goes through an 11-day cycle. Each day it advances two positions on the following chart. Its lightness or darkness is not determined independently, but rather by the other moons.

Position #	Position	Light or Dark?
1	Directly between Ronald and Grimace	Special; see below
2	Over the left side of Grimace	Opposite of the part of Grimace it's over
3	Over the right side of Grimace	Opposite of the part of Grimace it's over
4	To the right of Grimace	Same as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
5	Behind Grimace (invisible)	n/a
6	Between Ronald and Grimace, closer to Grimace	Same as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
7	Between Ronald and Grimace, closer to Ronald	Same as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
8	Behind Ronald (invisible)	n/a
9	To the left of Ronald	Same as the part of Ronald it's adjacent to
10	Over the left side of Ronald	Opposite of the part of Ronald it's over
11	Over the right side of Ronald	Opposite of the part of Ronald it's over

When it's directly between Ronald and Grimace, the minimoon is determined by the combination of both:

• If both adjacent parts of Ronald and Grimace are black, then the minimoon is black.
• If one adjacent part of Ronald and Grimace is black and one is white, then the minimoon is white and counts as a normal white minimoon.
• If both adjacent parts of Ronald and Grimace are white, the minimoon is white and counts as double when computing fullness (see below).

The other effects of the moons are dependent on the total amount of light being emitted by the moons. To compute the total fullness, add the fullness of the two main moons in quarters. Thus, if Ronald is 3/4 full and Grimace is 1/2 full, the total fullness would be 5 (as listed in the chart above). Then, apply the minimoon as follows:

• If a black minimoon is covering up a white segment of a main moon, subtract 1.
• A black minimoon not covering up a main moon, or an invisible minimoon, has no effect.
• If the minimoon is white, add 1. If the minimoon is directly between Ronald and Grimace and both adjacent parts are white, then (as mentioned above) it counts double, so add 2 instead of 1.

Now, the total fullness has the following effects:

• Blood of the Wereseal grants a bonus, where the bonus is determined by the following formula: bonus (in percent) = 10 + 20*sqrt(fullness). (This is new to NS-13. Previously, it multiplied your muscle by 25% per quarter of fullness.)
• A Talisman of Baio will increase all of your stats by 10% per quarter of fullness.
• A Jekyllin hide belt will increase all of your item drops by 15% plus 5% per quarter of fullness, and all of your stats by 9 minus 1 per quarter of fullness.
• A Grue will only attack if the total fullness is 5 or less (moonglasses will allow it to attack if the total fullness is 6). A Grue also does more damage the less the total fullness is.

The Grimacite items are special: as you might expect, they are only affected by Grimace and the minimoon (which was part of Grimace before the collision). The formula is quite simple: add 10 for each quarter of darkness that Grimace has, and add another 10 if the minimoon is also present and dark. This is the bonus that the Grimacite items have.

With the arrival of the minimoon, some speculation has been floating around about possible additional effects of the minimoon. None of these has been confirmed yet.

The Noblesse Oblige calendar is an excellent calendar illustrating all of the moon effects.