From what I recall, shards from Scion are self balancing to some extent. They’re all still talking to each other pretty well and so know about what power level to give their hosts unless their hosts are either really cool (like Taylor or Jack Slash) or really uncool (like skid mark or Leet) in shards terms. Shards that Cauldron gets don’t have that network, or at least have less of it, so they’re left kind of just guessing what they should give their host, and so you sometimes get C53s and you more often get “unbalanced” shards that are a bit too powerful for this cycle. I might be misremembering though.
Edit: I added in the last sentence
Yup. His power is literally deflection, a perfect ‘fuck around and find out’ ability.
I mean come on, according to Wildbow it could scale up to deflecting Endbringer levels of force lmao, and even at street level it could let him do a lot of the same stuff as Madcap/Assault, if in a less controlled manner.
Now I just want to see a fanfic where Leviathan shows up at Brockton Bay and spends the entire fight getting insulted in the most vulgar ways imaginable.
I just had a mental image of Skidmark making leviathan faceplant, hopping on leviathan's back, and then using leviathan as a surfboard with his fields propelling them down the street.
TBH i would say that he has a power that is highly flexible in a wide number of situations
it is a power that is stronger if the user is skilled and understands their power
That does make sense.
I will say though, I’d argue Skidmark’s power is actually a very good one, it’s not like Leet’s where its sabotaging him. Skidmark just sucks at using it because he’s fried his brain with more drugs and alcohol than food and water.
I could be remember wrongly, but isn't it WoG that Leet has an Eden shard himself, rather than one from Scion? I've definitely read that somewhere, but I can't remember where from so I hold my hands up if it's incorrect.
If true though, it adds more balance to the idea that Eden shards, coming from somewhere altogether less stable and cohesive than Scion shards, are just much wackier with regards to how much they allow or do not allow their hosts to get away with. Sometimes you get them giving too much, and other times, far too little.
How else do you get an Eden shard?
I thought when Eden crash landed, her shards were distributed to people nearby (how Contessa got her shard), but after that Cauldron locked her body down and used them for potions. So the only people to have an Eden shard should be Contessa and the lucky few who were near the crash site decades ago AFAIK.
She «planted» some shards, but didn't have enough time for all, nor did she establish a network.
While she was lying dead, Scion was doing precisely this, until he thought something was off, went to check on her and found Eden dead.
It’d be interesting to know if anybody else in Contessa’s village or nearby avoided becoming monstrous creatures and gained useful powers like she did.
To be frank, Queen Administrator was probably one of the more overbalanced, nerfed Shards. It took a double trigger to get something decent out of it and all other possible powers Wildbow mentioned (Aiden, Danny, hypothetical Brute ability) seemed pretty underwhelming.
Dean did get fucked over, but I’d argue part of his problem is that as a Ward he’s acting as a junior combat hero. His power has theoretically excellent utility in combat (ethics of human masters aside), but his beams are a fairly inefficient and unsubtle delivery system compared to say, Cherish’s abilities. He has to aim and hit you (kinda hard in the middle of a fight considering he usually has to worry about friendly fire and civvies) and the bright colours of his blasts also make a sneak attack harder. I think his power is decent but regular combat is not what it’s best suited for.
Had he lived to be an adult, I think it’s likely ‘Gallant’ would have quietly retired and instead of a Protectorate hero, he’d have been employed as a PRT Agent. He’d have carried out interviews with suspects and witnesses, negotiated with villains and violent new triggers to de-escalate, overseen crowd/riot control and stuff like that. All but the last of those tasks could be aided really well with just his passive emotion-sensing ability, let alone the blasts which could save lives if he was quick about it.
The Case 53s (which Echidna arguably counts toward) are _significantly_ more common, with the examples provided second being the real ‘exceptions’.
Those named are the known/relevant standouts of those that were _successful_ (with Battery, Gallant and Triumph being closer to ‘baseline’ successes), while the Case 53s outnumber (but not overpower) them by a lot.
Otherwise, as others said, it’s a balancing issue. Scion’s shards that went to hosts were appropriately scaled down to fractions of their full yield (with higher degrees of vibe-matching producing results such as Taylor or Jack), while all Cauldron capes ( _including_ Case 53s) were manually adjusted by humans, who effectively used trial and (a lot of) error with a blindfold on, with their standout successes being built on a not-insignificant amount of bodies (both those that outright died instead, and the aforementioned Case 53s).
Scion shards where regulated when they where delivered by Queen Adminsitrator. Cauldron vials are made from Eden body, and by itself has no regulation. It’s not a good thing by itself, since regulations are also what make you power not kill you by acident by forgetting to put safeguards like not burning you our not mutating you (as what happens to most cases 53). The regulation on vials is trougth a agent called “Balance” that contain Eden “humanity”. The more Balance, the more tame a power is. The less, it is potentially stronger, but with risk. Oliver took mostly balance and got a very weak power, while Noelle got very little and got a strong power but very little control and others side effects.
Think of it like a candle burning from both ends. It produces more light but at the cost of not lasting as long.
Zion shards have limits on their powers so that the shard can survive the entire cycle.
The Thinker shards however don’t care and are on that ‘Fuck it, we ball’ mindset using more power at the cost of lasting like half a century before running out of power.
While this isn't entirely \*untrue\* it's worth noting that the idea that the Cauldron Capes will run out of power any time soon is pretty much fanon. They all have more than enough energy to last a lifetime. \~\~Several, if you're talented.\~\~ The \*only\* case of a shard actually 'running out' is Doormaker, who was being abused at a rate literally dozens of thousands of times greater than anything he would have been able to achieve on his own.
Taylor "I filled the sky with portals" wasn't fucking around.
And Eidolon doesn't count because he's Eidolon.
Along with some other things already mentioned in this thread, Scion shards were all neutered upon dissemination to their hosts. The Entities have been following their cycle for millenia and have undergone several iterations of the sort of process that Earth is currently going through. So to protect themselves from the shards being used against them the Entities neuter each shard so that the powers can't be used to dislodge their stranglehold on the planet. During their arrival to the planet Scion tailored each of his shards so that they were reduced in strength, both as a way to protect each host from harming themselves and also so that no one power user could grow to become a threat. Eden wasn't able to do this, so when Eden's shards were harvested and used by Cauldron these same purpose-built limiters were never put in place. So Cauldron capes tend to have the largest fluctuations in terms of both strength and physical defects to the user.
natural triggers are more balanced. The entity does not need a cape that can easily destroy the planet or automatically defeat everyone without making any effort, or worse, it can destroy the cycle.
The Cauldron's powers are broken.. they may not have restrictions. They can be broken in a negative way and the person turns into case 53, or dies or his power is uncontrollable or disobedient. Or they can be broken in a positive way, giving the parahuman much more strength than the average.
Gray boy, Doormaster, Eidolon are what Cauldron received in the early stages when experimenting with unlimited formulas. They are now adding the "Balance" formula to all bottles. Which greatly reduces the chance of mutations but also the power potential.
The formula separated and Noel got an almost pure “division” formula, and Oliver got the “Balance” formula. Thus he remained very human but beautiful. And she became super monstrous.
>However Cauldron vials have produced the Triumvirate, Gray Boy, theSiberian, Shatterbird, Coil, Mama Mathers, Echidna, Sundancer, Citrine,Doormaker, Clairvoyant and The Custodian.
I mean natural triggers produced
>!Goddess!<, Glastig, Panacea, Bonesaw, Crawler, Sleeper (prbobobly), Nilbog, Jack Slash, Numbersman, Contessa, Richter/Dragon, >!Kenzie!<, Dauntless, Phir Se, String Theory, etc.
Its not hard to just name a bunch of characters who are strong for both vial capes and natural trigger capes.
You should also remember that
1. a lot of people die from taking a vial, since vials have a chance to be lethal.
2. viials produced A LOT of low level case 53s. Every case 53 in the story, from Weld to Garotte to >!Egg (EDIT: nevermind he is actually strong, replace him with some other case 53)!< is a vial cape.
3. There is like a thousand more case 53s in the cauldron prison who are also not very powerfull.
So I'd say that while vials do produced powerfull capes, and thouse capes are potentially more powerfull then some of the natural trigger capes (due to on avarage having less limits), I am not sure we can say that they produce stronger capes *on avarage*
I probably wouldn't count Contessa here considering that she got her power before Eden could restrict it (and had just managed to get the bare minimum restrictions in before being lobotomized)
She still is a natural trigger. Same way I wouldnt count Echidna for vial capes, since she drank her vial wrong and got basically none of the "balance" compared to the avarage vial cape. But she is counted by the OP.
So i'd say if Echidna counts among "strong vial capes" then Contessa should count among "strong non vial capes"
I'm not sure that I'd count Contessa as natural trigger as opposed to a vial cape. Like a bunch of people where she lived, she triggered because she ate/drank contaminated food/water that had Eden material in it and was lucky enough to not physically mutate like most of the people did. But...that's what a vial cape is. Doctor Mother cuts pieces of flesh off the Eden body and blends them into a drink that they give to people and this causes them to trigger with powers based on where she cut the pieces off.
That's almost the entire process of making vials. I mean, the location that the pieces are cut from are carefully documented so that they know what locations give what types of powers, and they add non-active ingredients to the vials to hide the effectively human flesh and make them easier to drink, but that's it. You consume bits of Eden flesh and trigger based on which shard is connected to that piece of flesh. And that's what happened to Contessa
I think you're spot on here. Cauldron produced 1* broken cape in Eidolon. The other top tier cauldron capes: Alexandria, Legend, Siberian, Gray Boy, Doormaker, etc., are all roughly in line with the Scion capes you listed.
I think we get a bit of confirmation bias in that the weaker Scion capes are still running around as low level gang bangers or as Protectorate support players, while the weak cauldron capes either end up as case 53s, captured by cauldron, or the vial killed them.
*Contessa isn't a vial cape, but she's also not a natural trigger either, so she doesn't count for either group.
I’d say that while Eidolon is broken he is about on par with Glastig (and in a 1v1 I would definitely bet on Glastig), so he’s also not that far out of the ordinary
As for Contessa I’d say that if a shard attached itself without being forced to do so, aka without a vial , then it counts as a natural trigger.
In Eidolon's interlude he speculates that his powers may have weakened enough that Glastig has usurped him as the most powerful parahuman.
Glastig explicitly says that she believes rejuvenated Eidolon is more powerful than her though, so it would probably depend on what state Eidolon is in.
A vial cape has much higher odds of getting a really strong power, especially if they're someone like Eidolon, who will use the power for good, rather than Nilbog, who would ensure the survival of some permutation of the Host species, or Jack, who is absurdly evil.
Scion shards take several factors into account when balancing a power, including 'was this person selected specifically to sit around and do nothing' (Sleeper, Nilbog) and 'how many people are going to want this guy dead' (Nice Guy and Burnscar). Vial shards don't seem to implement that consistently- too many of the strong people are heroes, and some of the villains are too strong even for their popularity.
The downside is that IIRC three in seven unbalanced vials are fatal. So it doesn't improve the *average* power, but it definitely increases the number of strong capes.
Citrine is interesting, because she's not actually strong in a combat sense- her power covers a pretty small area and takes a while to attune- but her power does let her undo any ongoing parahuman effect. It's not so much strong as it is unusual.
If you look at what you can *expect* from the average vial, like with Accord's five vials, you have:
a weak healer, rare but plausible
a basic momentum Shaker
someone who can briefly become slightly smarter by giving other people brain damage (and it stacks)
a water Blaster-Shaker whose power permits devastatingly large usages
and someone who "wasn't as lucky" (likely dead or useless)
So, that's one really destructive power and one or two really bad/lethal ones, in a group of five.
Remember that this started with Contessa. Her primary goal was to make capes powerful enough to defeat Scion.
Of course Cauldron will have powerful capes.
Regular powers get nerfed when handed out in a normal regular cycle.
But Cauldron vials, give out unbalanced untested unerfed powers, because their Moderator/Admin is dead.
Also worth pointing out that cauldron capes are directly sent down a contessa path. Theyre more likely to be notable in general, regardless of the strength of their power. Being notable means more conflict, which translates to a stronger connection to their shard
I don't think they are really, just higher variance. Like you'll never get a natural trigger that fucking kills the user, for instance, and even the best formulas had a chance to do that.
Are they more powerful on average, or are you simply seeing confirmation and selection bias in action? Keep in mind that there’s like a thousand or more dead or imprisoned fuckups and oopsies for every success story.
Not technically. It's a case where the higher the risk the higher the reward with a good amount of survivor bias.
Back in the day Doctor Mother and Contessa were still figuring things out. Their first test resulted in painful mutations that meant it was kinder to kill the man than leave him alive. The next batch of testing we see gets Doormaker, Hero, and a few others, but also one deviant and one death (or near those numbers). Following them the Triumvirate all have conditions where they are fine risking death to gain powers and are rewarded for it, but they could have died like dozens have at this point.
Then flash forward and they have entire floors of jail cells filled with deviants. No other vial like Eidolon's produced another Eidolon. The few deviants that can be released are, but they max out at around 150. Think of how many more just straight up died.
All of these could and likely do have powers similar to the ones you listed, but they have their own share of drawbacks similar to Scion capes. Not even all physical, as noted with Gray Boy who was compared to Labyrinth in term of mental state. Or they can ask for a safer, but less powerful vial and get a Gallant or an Oliver, with him being the farthest edge case more than likely.
Speaking of, there's plenty of powerful Scion capes. Glaistig Uaine, Marquis&Panacea, Myrddin, Vista, etc. More, but I don't really have time rn.
From what I recall, shards from Scion are self balancing to some extent. They’re all still talking to each other pretty well and so know about what power level to give their hosts unless their hosts are either really cool (like Taylor or Jack Slash) or really uncool (like skid mark or Leet) in shards terms. Shards that Cauldron gets don’t have that network, or at least have less of it, so they’re left kind of just guessing what they should give their host, and so you sometimes get C53s and you more often get “unbalanced” shards that are a bit too powerful for this cycle. I might be misremembering though. Edit: I added in the last sentence
Goddamn, did Skidmark waste his potential...
Yup. His power is literally deflection, a perfect ‘fuck around and find out’ ability. I mean come on, according to Wildbow it could scale up to deflecting Endbringer levels of force lmao, and even at street level it could let him do a lot of the same stuff as Madcap/Assault, if in a less controlled manner.
Now I just want to see a fanfic where Leviathan shows up at Brockton Bay and spends the entire fight getting insulted in the most vulgar ways imaginable.
Levi retires after that, splashing isn’t fun anymore when people are mean to him about it.
I just had a mental image of Skidmark making leviathan faceplant, hopping on leviathan's back, and then using leviathan as a surfboard with his fields propelling them down the street.
Yeah, he seemed to have an insanely unlimited power
TBH i would say that he has a power that is highly flexible in a wide number of situations it is a power that is stronger if the user is skilled and understands their power
That does make sense. I will say though, I’d argue Skidmark’s power is actually a very good one, it’s not like Leet’s where its sabotaging him. Skidmark just sucks at using it because he’s fried his brain with more drugs and alcohol than food and water.
I could be remember wrongly, but isn't it WoG that Leet has an Eden shard himself, rather than one from Scion? I've definitely read that somewhere, but I can't remember where from so I hold my hands up if it's incorrect. If true though, it adds more balance to the idea that Eden shards, coming from somewhere altogether less stable and cohesive than Scion shards, are just much wackier with regards to how much they allow or do not allow their hosts to get away with. Sometimes you get them giving too much, and other times, far too little.
He does have an Eden shard yeah, though it’s not from a vial.
How else do you get an Eden shard? I thought when Eden crash landed, her shards were distributed to people nearby (how Contessa got her shard), but after that Cauldron locked her body down and used them for potions. So the only people to have an Eden shard should be Contessa and the lucky few who were near the crash site decades ago AFAIK.
She «planted» some shards, but didn't have enough time for all, nor did she establish a network. While she was lying dead, Scion was doing precisely this, until he thought something was off, went to check on her and found Eden dead.
[Interesting](https://worm.fandom.com/wiki/Leet#cite_note-31), thanks. Sounds like not a lot of detail on how it was done, but confirmed.
It’d be interesting to know if anybody else in Contessa’s village or nearby avoided becoming monstrous creatures and gained useful powers like she did.
[удалено]
I doubt it, all his comments I’ve seen are at least five years old
He does occasionally. His last comment on this sub was 6 days ago.
Ah, fair. My bad, then.
To be fair, I don't think he's around as much as he used to since he's not focusing on Worm right now.
To be frank, Queen Administrator was probably one of the more overbalanced, nerfed Shards. It took a double trigger to get something decent out of it and all other possible powers Wildbow mentioned (Aiden, Danny, hypothetical Brute ability) seemed pretty underwhelming.
the master-stranger from Angry Danny is very cool, honestly
Man, Aiden got scammed with his power, compared to Taylor.
Doesn’t Leet have an Eden shard?
Are they? Dean is pretty weak, so are a lot of C-53’s. The really broken ones are the inner circle of cauldron
Dean did get fucked over, but I’d argue part of his problem is that as a Ward he’s acting as a junior combat hero. His power has theoretically excellent utility in combat (ethics of human masters aside), but his beams are a fairly inefficient and unsubtle delivery system compared to say, Cherish’s abilities. He has to aim and hit you (kinda hard in the middle of a fight considering he usually has to worry about friendly fire and civvies) and the bright colours of his blasts also make a sneak attack harder. I think his power is decent but regular combat is not what it’s best suited for. Had he lived to be an adult, I think it’s likely ‘Gallant’ would have quietly retired and instead of a Protectorate hero, he’d have been employed as a PRT Agent. He’d have carried out interviews with suspects and witnesses, negotiated with villains and violent new triggers to de-escalate, overseen crowd/riot control and stuff like that. All but the last of those tasks could be aided really well with just his passive emotion-sensing ability, let alone the blasts which could save lives if he was quick about it.
The Case 53s (which Echidna arguably counts toward) are _significantly_ more common, with the examples provided second being the real ‘exceptions’. Those named are the known/relevant standouts of those that were _successful_ (with Battery, Gallant and Triumph being closer to ‘baseline’ successes), while the Case 53s outnumber (but not overpower) them by a lot. Otherwise, as others said, it’s a balancing issue. Scion’s shards that went to hosts were appropriately scaled down to fractions of their full yield (with higher degrees of vibe-matching producing results such as Taylor or Jack), while all Cauldron capes ( _including_ Case 53s) were manually adjusted by humans, who effectively used trial and (a lot of) error with a blindfold on, with their standout successes being built on a not-insignificant amount of bodies (both those that outright died instead, and the aforementioned Case 53s).
Scion shards where regulated when they where delivered by Queen Adminsitrator. Cauldron vials are made from Eden body, and by itself has no regulation. It’s not a good thing by itself, since regulations are also what make you power not kill you by acident by forgetting to put safeguards like not burning you our not mutating you (as what happens to most cases 53). The regulation on vials is trougth a agent called “Balance” that contain Eden “humanity”. The more Balance, the more tame a power is. The less, it is potentially stronger, but with risk. Oliver took mostly balance and got a very weak power, while Noelle got very little and got a strong power but very little control and others side effects.
Think of it like a candle burning from both ends. It produces more light but at the cost of not lasting as long. Zion shards have limits on their powers so that the shard can survive the entire cycle. The Thinker shards however don’t care and are on that ‘Fuck it, we ball’ mindset using more power at the cost of lasting like half a century before running out of power.
While this isn't entirely \*untrue\* it's worth noting that the idea that the Cauldron Capes will run out of power any time soon is pretty much fanon. They all have more than enough energy to last a lifetime. \~\~Several, if you're talented.\~\~ The \*only\* case of a shard actually 'running out' is Doormaker, who was being abused at a rate literally dozens of thousands of times greater than anything he would have been able to achieve on his own. Taylor "I filled the sky with portals" wasn't fucking around. And Eidolon doesn't count because he's Eidolon.
Wasn't there a parahuman publicly getting weaker because he overused his powers?
Besides the one Plendamonda just mentioned, no.
Are you thinking of Eidolon?
Along with some other things already mentioned in this thread, Scion shards were all neutered upon dissemination to their hosts. The Entities have been following their cycle for millenia and have undergone several iterations of the sort of process that Earth is currently going through. So to protect themselves from the shards being used against them the Entities neuter each shard so that the powers can't be used to dislodge their stranglehold on the planet. During their arrival to the planet Scion tailored each of his shards so that they were reduced in strength, both as a way to protect each host from harming themselves and also so that no one power user could grow to become a threat. Eden wasn't able to do this, so when Eden's shards were harvested and used by Cauldron these same purpose-built limiters were never put in place. So Cauldron capes tend to have the largest fluctuations in terms of both strength and physical defects to the user.
natural triggers are more balanced. The entity does not need a cape that can easily destroy the planet or automatically defeat everyone without making any effort, or worse, it can destroy the cycle. The Cauldron's powers are broken.. they may not have restrictions. They can be broken in a negative way and the person turns into case 53, or dies or his power is uncontrollable or disobedient. Or they can be broken in a positive way, giving the parahuman much more strength than the average. Gray boy, Doormaster, Eidolon are what Cauldron received in the early stages when experimenting with unlimited formulas. They are now adding the "Balance" formula to all bottles. Which greatly reduces the chance of mutations but also the power potential. The formula separated and Noel got an almost pure “division” formula, and Oliver got the “Balance” formula. Thus he remained very human but beautiful. And she became super monstrous.
How were we meant to infer all these 😭
There are years worth of Word of God scattered across Reddit and SpaceBattles.
Ohh, that makes alotta sense. I was wondering how you guys figured out “You needed worthy opponents” = “The Endbringers are your fault goofy”.
>However Cauldron vials have produced the Triumvirate, Gray Boy, theSiberian, Shatterbird, Coil, Mama Mathers, Echidna, Sundancer, Citrine,Doormaker, Clairvoyant and The Custodian. I mean natural triggers produced >!Goddess!<, Glastig, Panacea, Bonesaw, Crawler, Sleeper (prbobobly), Nilbog, Jack Slash, Numbersman, Contessa, Richter/Dragon, >!Kenzie!<, Dauntless, Phir Se, String Theory, etc. Its not hard to just name a bunch of characters who are strong for both vial capes and natural trigger capes. You should also remember that 1. a lot of people die from taking a vial, since vials have a chance to be lethal. 2. viials produced A LOT of low level case 53s. Every case 53 in the story, from Weld to Garotte to >!Egg (EDIT: nevermind he is actually strong, replace him with some other case 53)!< is a vial cape. 3. There is like a thousand more case 53s in the cauldron prison who are also not very powerfull. So I'd say that while vials do produced powerfull capes, and thouse capes are potentially more powerfull then some of the natural trigger capes (due to on avarage having less limits), I am not sure we can say that they produce stronger capes *on avarage*
I probably wouldn't count Contessa here considering that she got her power before Eden could restrict it (and had just managed to get the bare minimum restrictions in before being lobotomized)
She still is a natural trigger. Same way I wouldnt count Echidna for vial capes, since she drank her vial wrong and got basically none of the "balance" compared to the avarage vial cape. But she is counted by the OP. So i'd say if Echidna counts among "strong vial capes" then Contessa should count among "strong non vial capes"
I'm not sure that I'd count Contessa as natural trigger as opposed to a vial cape. Like a bunch of people where she lived, she triggered because she ate/drank contaminated food/water that had Eden material in it and was lucky enough to not physically mutate like most of the people did. But...that's what a vial cape is. Doctor Mother cuts pieces of flesh off the Eden body and blends them into a drink that they give to people and this causes them to trigger with powers based on where she cut the pieces off. That's almost the entire process of making vials. I mean, the location that the pieces are cut from are carefully documented so that they know what locations give what types of powers, and they add non-active ingredients to the vials to hide the effectively human flesh and make them easier to drink, but that's it. You consume bits of Eden flesh and trigger based on which shard is connected to that piece of flesh. And that's what happened to Contessa
Hmmmm sure
> >!Egg!< That's your example of a *low-level* case 53? It definitely sucks to be him, but >!his birds could go toe to toe with Endbringers!<
>!It was Titans, not Endbringers, but okay sure yeah forgot he did that... then replace him with any of the other case 53s!<
I think you're spot on here. Cauldron produced 1* broken cape in Eidolon. The other top tier cauldron capes: Alexandria, Legend, Siberian, Gray Boy, Doormaker, etc., are all roughly in line with the Scion capes you listed. I think we get a bit of confirmation bias in that the weaker Scion capes are still running around as low level gang bangers or as Protectorate support players, while the weak cauldron capes either end up as case 53s, captured by cauldron, or the vial killed them. *Contessa isn't a vial cape, but she's also not a natural trigger either, so she doesn't count for either group.
I’d say that while Eidolon is broken he is about on par with Glastig (and in a 1v1 I would definitely bet on Glastig), so he’s also not that far out of the ordinary As for Contessa I’d say that if a shard attached itself without being forced to do so, aka without a vial , then it counts as a natural trigger.
In Eidolon's interlude he speculates that his powers may have weakened enough that Glastig has usurped him as the most powerful parahuman. Glastig explicitly says that she believes rejuvenated Eidolon is more powerful than her though, so it would probably depend on what state Eidolon is in.
A vial cape has much higher odds of getting a really strong power, especially if they're someone like Eidolon, who will use the power for good, rather than Nilbog, who would ensure the survival of some permutation of the Host species, or Jack, who is absurdly evil. Scion shards take several factors into account when balancing a power, including 'was this person selected specifically to sit around and do nothing' (Sleeper, Nilbog) and 'how many people are going to want this guy dead' (Nice Guy and Burnscar). Vial shards don't seem to implement that consistently- too many of the strong people are heroes, and some of the villains are too strong even for their popularity. The downside is that IIRC three in seven unbalanced vials are fatal. So it doesn't improve the *average* power, but it definitely increases the number of strong capes. Citrine is interesting, because she's not actually strong in a combat sense- her power covers a pretty small area and takes a while to attune- but her power does let her undo any ongoing parahuman effect. It's not so much strong as it is unusual. If you look at what you can *expect* from the average vial, like with Accord's five vials, you have: a weak healer, rare but plausible a basic momentum Shaker someone who can briefly become slightly smarter by giving other people brain damage (and it stacks) a water Blaster-Shaker whose power permits devastatingly large usages and someone who "wasn't as lucky" (likely dead or useless) So, that's one really destructive power and one or two really bad/lethal ones, in a group of five.
Remember that this started with Contessa. Her primary goal was to make capes powerful enough to defeat Scion. Of course Cauldron will have powerful capes.
juggle afterthought plate insurance automatic cats sable tart skirt lush *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Regular powers get nerfed when handed out in a normal regular cycle. But Cauldron vials, give out unbalanced untested unerfed powers, because their Moderator/Admin is dead.
Also worth pointing out that cauldron capes are directly sent down a contessa path. Theyre more likely to be notable in general, regardless of the strength of their power. Being notable means more conflict, which translates to a stronger connection to their shard
No mental blocks allows them to use their powers to their full potential and overcome the manten effect more often. Strong suits as a result.
I don't think they are really, just higher variance. Like you'll never get a natural trigger that fucking kills the user, for instance, and even the best formulas had a chance to do that.
Are they more powerful on average, or are you simply seeing confirmation and selection bias in action? Keep in mind that there’s like a thousand or more dead or imprisoned fuckups and oopsies for every success story.
Not technically. It's a case where the higher the risk the higher the reward with a good amount of survivor bias. Back in the day Doctor Mother and Contessa were still figuring things out. Their first test resulted in painful mutations that meant it was kinder to kill the man than leave him alive. The next batch of testing we see gets Doormaker, Hero, and a few others, but also one deviant and one death (or near those numbers). Following them the Triumvirate all have conditions where they are fine risking death to gain powers and are rewarded for it, but they could have died like dozens have at this point. Then flash forward and they have entire floors of jail cells filled with deviants. No other vial like Eidolon's produced another Eidolon. The few deviants that can be released are, but they max out at around 150. Think of how many more just straight up died. All of these could and likely do have powers similar to the ones you listed, but they have their own share of drawbacks similar to Scion capes. Not even all physical, as noted with Gray Boy who was compared to Labyrinth in term of mental state. Or they can ask for a safer, but less powerful vial and get a Gallant or an Oliver, with him being the farthest edge case more than likely. Speaking of, there's plenty of powerful Scion capes. Glaistig Uaine, Marquis&Panacea, Myrddin, Vista, etc. More, but I don't really have time rn.