Add special “reduced” effects for the diluted potion of polymorph.

Objects dipped in it will change their material, but not their type. The material is constrained to non-exotic ones the object could naturally generate with.

Monsters who have it smashed on them or who quaff it will try to polymorph into a different monster of the same class. If none are available, they follow the ordinary monster-polymorph logic.

A radically different system from how alchemy currently works, known as “1 + 1 = 2”: no matter how many potions are in the stacks being dipped, only one from each stack is consumed, and two alchemized potions are always produced.

• Intended as a balance fix for the player’s current ability to make stacks and stacks of full healing, gain ability, or gain level potions, and promote use of found potions instead of diluting them.
• Significantly, potions of holy water mostly work like they do now - the holy water does not mix with anything and is consumed, while the dipped item becomes blessed - but you can only dip a singular item into the holy water, including other potions. This loss of the ability to mass-produce holy water creates a significant balance change.
  • Or it could sometimes make two holy waters, but be biased against it, and allow both waters to become uncursed in the process.
  • Still unbalanced, since holy water can otherwise be mass produced through water prayers and blessed confused remove curse.
• Undiluted potions can be duplicated by dipping them in normal water, e.g. one potion of gain level + one water = 2 diluted potions of gain level.
  • Diluted potions may need to have weaker effects to compensate for this, or undiluted potions stronger effects.
  • Or potions in general should become rarer, and possibly generate diluted.

Shopkeepers offer a lower sell price for a diluted potion, though they still sell the potion at full price.

Make potions of oil undilutable.

If you try to drink a potion underwater, it will first go through the normal dilution routine. This means that an undiluted potion will become diluted (but will generally be fine to drink), a diluted potion will become water (and thus useless), and a potion of acid will blow up in your face.

Whenever a diluted potion of acid would be created (i.e. by wishing or polypiling) it immediately explodes in an alchemic blast.

You can dip a potion into a sink to pour water into it from the tap, diluting it and causing runoff which subjects you to vapor effects (hopefully identifying it). For simplicity, the 1/30 chance of a random potion coming out of the sink should probably be ignored here.

Nerf the effects of diluted potions in order to disincentivize diluting them and fix alchemy abuses. Start with healing potions: a diluted healing potion of any type heals only half as much as otherwise, and either confers half as much max HP as an undiluted potion or possibly no max HP at all. When alchemizing with diluted potions, half of the amount dipped will bubble or steam off as water, wasting those potions entirely (e.g. 6 diluted healings + gain energy = 3 diluted extra healings).

Dipping potions deliberately into a large water source (anything but the potion of water) turns them into water in one go, without a need to dip twice. You get a message about pouring out the old potion and filling the bottle with water. Being submerged underwater is not necessarily deliberate so it does not instadilute potions to water all at once.

Diluting full healing potions turns them into undiluted extra healing; diluting extra healing turns them into undiluted healing. Though this may create weirdness where, for instance, a milky potion gets diluted and turns into a brilliant blue potion, and then gets diluted again and turns into a golden potion.

Saltwater or murky water, intended as a nerf for “just dilute most potions”:

• Potions of saltwater behave exactly like potions of water, except that they cannot be used to bless or curse things. Holy (and unholy) water must be pure.
• All in-game sources of water except for magic fountains (possibly regular fountains as well, but they might be too plentiful) are saltwater. Diluting potions in them will yield only potions of saltwater.
• Can also get pure water if a unicorn horn dip would already result in water.
• Not specified what cancelling potions should do. Possibly most potions just cancel to saltwater, juice or sickness. It’s weird because flavor-wise it shouldn’t produce anything but pure water, but it obviously won’t fix the current problem if you merely have to cancel potions instead of diluting them.
• If called murky water instead of saltwater, the “murky” randomized potion appearance should change.

Alternatively, don’t actually make saltwater a separate potion; just use saltwater as a flavor reason for why the player can’t intentionally dilute potions to water. (Can use a separate flavor argument, that potions are generally corked while not used, to explain away the lack of dilution for water damage.) Also, make most potions cancel into non-water base potions (such as confusion and hallucination to booze), with the notable exception of polymorph. It’s also harder or impossible to get water from random alchemy or polymorph.

A third option is naming blessing-capable potions “purified water” and leaving the mundane potion of water as it is. Things such as unicorn horns can neutralize toxins but can’t actually remove them, so the resulting water isn’t purified.