Mayam Calendar: Overview
2024-05-10 // IOTM Overview
Imagine the Tome of Clip Art. Now imagine it with a way cooler UI and more yams. If you can’t imagine it... well, good news: you don’t have to! Because the Mayam Calendar is the May 2024 IotM, and you can get it to experience all things tuberic and concentric.
General Summary
The Mayam Calendar is a usable item. Thrice per day, you can select unique pictographic combinations to receive items and other boons. Each picture you select on the calendar's 4 dials will generate its own boon, then be greyed out for the rest of the day. Notable benefits you can get from the calendar's pictographs include:
- 100 turns of +30% item drops
- +100 familiar XP on your active familiar
- +5 free rests for the day
- 4 bridge parts
- 1 goat cheese
- +5 adventures
- +5 PvP Fites
- Yams! Lots and lots of yams!
In addition to these cool things, specific combinations also give unique, useful extras!
- 15-turn banish runaway (Vessel + Yam + Cheese + Explosion)
- food that gives you another goat cheese (Yam + Meat + Cheese + Yam)
- +55% meat drop accessory (Yam + Meat + Eyepatch + Yam)
- +100% Food drop buff (Yam + Yam + Cheese + Clock)
- and more!
The tricky part is that since each pictogram can be used only once per day, most of the best results are mutually exclusive. You may need to make a spreadsheet or recipe list to remember your preferred combinations. It’s basically yam-based, concentric Sudoku. In other words, it’s nothing like Sudoku.
(There is a single exception to the once-per-day pictogram point; once per ascension, visiting the Hidden Temple’s sundial resets your calendar, which means you can pick a second set of choices in one day. This will be relevant soon!)
Speedrun Applicability
We can group speedrun applicability in two parts: things that are useful on their own, and things with IotM synergy. Here are some examples of inherently helpful results:
- Bridge parts are obviously useful, roughly representing one Autumn-aton send each. Word of warning, these are random, so 3/1 and 4/0 splits are possible!
- Yams are an extra source of turngen. While the food may be overshadowed by the Cookbookbat, yam martinis are 5 adv for 1 drunk, and can mix into even better drinks.
- Everyone loves +5 adv and +5 fites! Although turngen is not a major concern in high-level play, an extra chunk of Adventures can ease your resources and grant a lot of flexibility.
- Choosing the yam and swiss grants 1 goat cheese instantly, and a second one when eating it. If trying to get dairy gets your goat, waiting until day 2, or using the Temple Reset allows you to get 3 goat cheese without spending a turn.
- The yamility belt is a +55% meat accessory, outclassing every other accessory available in Standard. This can easily save a turn for the Nuns.
- Although the stuffed yam stinkbomb can seem underwhelming at only a 15-turn banish duration, that's usually enough for your needs. It's also a free run, for situations that require banishing and delay burning.
2024 In-Standard Synergies
It wouldn't be an Item of the Month if it didn't synergize with other Items of the Month. Here are some ways to use it:
- +5 free rests is a no-brainer for the Cincho de Mayo (2023). Reaching the next sneak can easily be worth 5 turns, and so the 5 extra free rests is a lot of extra cinch to spend. Use the Temple Reset, and 10 is almost an entire extra Sneak!
- +100 familiar XP is enormous for the Grey Goose (2022) or the Chest Mimic, representing up to 6 drones or 2 eggs. This can also pump up another familiar in a pinch, perhaps a Jill-of-All-Trades if you really need it. In situations where your broader resource picture is heavily restricted, such as the WereProfessor challenge path, this +100-200 familiar XP can really shine.
Overall Rating
We'd rate the Mayam Calendar a tier 2 IotM. Although not overwhelmingly powerful, this IotM requires very little micromanagement to save turns and ascend well in a variety of ways. Just about every one of your three selections per day is going to save 1.5-2 turns, for 4.5-6 turns saved per day... and the reset once per run strengthens the case by essentially letting you get double that for one day of the run. Once you get in a rhythm with the best choices for your run approach, this is a very "set and forget" type item with a few extra-useful boons. Highly recommended!
If you're having trouble remembering the combinations, be sure to check out this cool relay script by Tissen (#51350)! It'll reveal the combinations, without actually making them. No one-click accidents here!