Summoner
What it is
Summoner is a world-roaming elite affix that fires a single one-time minion-spawn burst when the host’s hit-point fraction drops below a configured threshold. The default is two orb-common minions spawned in an even ring sixty world pixels around the host once it falls below 50% max HP. The trigger is gated by an idempotent flag on the per-host instance state, so the burst can fire at most once per host. The host also drops a three-piece scrap-pile cluster on death.
Identity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Affix ID | summoner |
| Category | world-roaming elite |
| Priority | 40 |
| Hooks | onUpdate, onDeath |
| Roll pool | world-roaming elite roll pool |
| Halo palette entry | dusty red, RGB 220 / 100 / 100 |
Priority 40 places summoner mid-pack among the world-roaming affixes. It runs after damage filters so the host must actually drop below the HP threshold for the trigger to land — the priority position is the deliberate “fires after damage filters” slot.
What it does
Trigger gate
The onUpdate hook runs every frame. On each tick it checks four conditions in order: the proc has not already fired, the host has a positive max HP, the host’s current HP fraction is at or below the threshold, and only then it fires. On fire, the affix sets its triggered flag and begins the spawn sequence. The host is not healed and does not lose damage immunity — only the spawn burst fires.
Minion spawn ring
The affix spawns the configured number of minions in an evenly-spaced ring around the host. Each minion is placed at a tangent angle equal to its slot index over the total minion count times two pi, plus a small random angular jitter up to about seventeen degrees. The minion is spawned at the host’s position plus cosine and sine of that angle times the spawn distance. The minion goes through the standard enemy spawner — pool-cap fail-silent — and carries no affix instances of its own.
Each spawn point emits a six-particle red outward burst at the summon location.
Death drop
On host death, the affix drops a three-piece cluster of scrap-pile props. The three drop points sit in a small triangle around the death point at a forty-pixel radius, with the angle of each piece offset by an evenly-spaced third of a full turn plus a small random jitter. Pool-cap fail-silent — each drop independently records whether the prop actually appeared.
Per-tier values
The affix exposes four tunables on the per-host instance state, plus the idempotency flag:
| State key | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| hpThresholdFrac | number | 0.5 | HP fraction below which the proc fires |
| minionTypeId | string | orb_common | Enemy type ID spawned |
| minionCount | number | 2 | Number of minions per proc |
| spawnDistancePx | number | 60 | Distance from host in world pixels |
| triggered | boolean | false | One-shot idempotency flag |
Death-drop constants live in the runtime, not in instance state:
| Value name | Default |
|---|---|
| Scrap-pile cluster count | 3 |
| Scrap-pile cluster radius | 40 world pixels |
| Per-spawn particle burst count | 6 |
| Volatile co-presence particle overlay | 4 magenta particles per spawn point |
| Gravity-well co-presence particle overlay | 4 violet inward-biased particles per spawn point |
| Gravity-well spawn-distance multiplier | 0.6 |
| Regenerating co-presence heal fraction | 0.25 of max HP |
| Reflective-burst co-presence threshold multiplier | 0.5 (permanent halving) |
Mistyped values throw at first hook invocation rather than silently falling back.
How it interacts
- One-shot semantics. The triggered flag is set to true the moment the proc fires and is never reset. A host can summon minions exactly once across its lifetime. Pool-cap collisions during the burst silently drop the affected minion slots rather than retrying.
- Late priority. Priority 40 puts summoner after every world-roaming damage filter (phasing at 75, reflective-burst at 70) and behavior hook except gravity-well at 55. By the time onUpdate fires, the frame’s incoming damage has already landed on the host’s HP — the threshold check sees the post-damage state.
- Minions inherit nothing. Minions are spawned through the shared enemy spawner with no affix instances attached. They carry only their base type’s stats and behavior. The “summoner co-presence cues” (magenta volatile micro-bursts, violet gravity-well inward bias) are pure perceptual cues on the spawn point and do not alter the minion.
- Co-presence with volatile. When the host also carries volatile, every minion spawn point gets a four-particle magenta overlay on top of the red summon burst. The overlay is a perceptual pre-tell — it telegraphs that the host’s own death pop will fire later if the player engages. Records a telemetry sample of the minion count.
- Co-presence with gravity-well. When the host also carries gravity-well, the spawn distance shrinks to 60% of normal (the minions clump inward toward the parent). Each spawn point gets a four-particle violet inward-biased overlay pointing back toward the host. Records a telemetry sample of the minion count.
- Co-presence with regenerating. When the host also carries regenerating, on the same frame the summon fires the host gains a single one-shot heal of 25% of its max HP. A twelve-particle outward green ring telegraphs the heal. The host’s HP is clamped to max HP after the addition. Records a telemetry sample of the heal amount.
- Co-presence with phasing. When the host also carries phasing, on the same frame the summon fires the host’s phasing cycle timer is reset so it lands inside a fresh invulnerability window (cycle timer set equal to window duration, which is the active condition). Records a single-count telemetry sample.
- Co-presence with reflective-burst. When the host also carries reflective-burst, the burst’s damage threshold is permanently halved on the summon proc. Subsequent large hits trigger the burst on half the previous damage. The change persists for the rest of the host’s lifetime. Records a telemetry sample of the new threshold.
- Death drop is unconditional. The scrap-pile cluster drops on every summoner host’s death, whether or not the summon proc ever fired. A host killed before reaching 50% HP still drops the three-piece cluster.
EXTRACT-CANDIDATE
- The world-roaming vs. boss-flavored roll-pool split (summoner sits in the world-roaming pool; boss-flavored affixes are excluded from elite rolls) is a system-level distinction shared with every world-roaming entry. Canonical home is the affixes overview page.
- The priority-ordered hook chain rule (higher-priority hooks run first, a zero return short-circuits damage filters) is a global affix-system rule and not specific to summoner. Canonical home is the affixes overview page.
- The mistyped-state-crashes rule (number-typed params throw on string input, string-typed params throw on number input) is a global runtime contract shared by every affix that reads typed params. Canonical home is the affixes overview page.
- The shared affix-VFX palette (one tint per world-roaming affix, used by the enemy-orbit halo) is a system-level table. Canonical home is the affixes overview page or a dedicated palette page.
- The pool-cap fail-silent rule for prop and enemy spawns (spawner returns null or false, affix continues with fewer entries than configured) is shared with shielded, shielded_respawn, and every onDeath prop drop. Canonical home is the affixes overview page or the spawner concept page.