UserWiki:UnabashedlyRose
Depth, eDensity, and Credit Ratings are all terms used to measure and describe the "depth" of a team. This is calculated by a combination of factors ranging from Championships, Wins, Runs, Players, and Ballparks.
More specifics and technical details on eDesnity and how it interacted with the game can be found in A sinking feeling: Investigating the relationship between team eDensity and Level Which was published by the Society for Internet Blaseball Research.
What are Levels?
Levels first appeared in Season 14? and were displayed on a team's stats page. This rating showed how deep a team was on a the depth chart, and once a team reached Low A, a small red blinking dot would appear next to a team's name, making them susceptible to attacks from the Consumers.
The list of known levels is:
- 0D
- 1D
- 2D
- 3D
- C
- Low A
- High A
- AA
- AAA
- AAAA
- AAAAA
Depth Chart
The Depth Chart first appeared in Season 20 and was a way for teams to visualize where they fell along the league's levels. The Y axis of the grid represented a team's eDensity in relation to the League, while the x axis represented an unknown variable affectionately nicknamed "pog and cringe" by fans.
The top of the chart featured a desert, and was first reached by the Atlantis Georgias on Season 21 Day 74. When the team reached the 0 mark on the chart it prompted the following message from The Reader:
touch down
special teams
tumbleweed sounds
This resulted in Blaseball0 being updated to show a large number of cacti, and revealed a blagonball.
The bottom of the chart featured a number of clouds as well as the Gate that was seen on Blaseball2. It was first reached by the Ohio Worms on Season 21 Day 75, and prompted the following message from The Monitor:
something smells fishy
woah
herring
my favorite
how did you know
good hunch
This allowed players to upshell certain events to get Red Herrings, allowing them to unredact entries from Prehistory in the Library. This also resulted in Blaseball2.com being updated to show a large number of Red Herrings bursting free from behind the broken gate.
eDensity Manipulation
As the Expansion Era continued, there became more and more ways that teams were able to control and manipulate their level to move across the depth chart. This was primarily used to avoid the threat of consumers, though some teams found other ways to work with the mechanics provided to them. The following is a collection of ways that eDensity could be manipulated both intentionally and unintentionally.
A more detailed list of things that effect eDensity, and their exact values, can be found on the SIBR eDensity page.
Player Modifications
While all player modifications added to a player's density, the following modifications were known to be have a more significant effect on player's eDensity rating.
| Icon | Name | Target | Description | Duration | Cause | Category
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attractor | Player | When this Player scores a Run, they'll join the Shadows of the Team that scored them, if they're not already on their Roster. | Permanent | Secret Base | ||
| Ego+ | Player | This Player has a boosted Ego. | Permanent | Being above the Idol Board's Squiggly Line during the Endseason. | ||
| Ego++ | Player | This Player has a boosted boosted Ego. | Permanent | Being above the Idol Board's Squiggly Line during the Endseason while having the Ego+ modification. | ||
| Ego+++ | Player | This Player has a boosted boosted boosted Ego. | Permanent | Being above the Idol Board's Squiggly Line during the Endseason while having the Ego++ modification. | ||
| Ego++++ | Player | This Player has a boosted boosted boosted boosted Ego. | Permanent | Being above the Idol Board's Squiggly Line during the Endseason while having the Ego+++ modification. | ||
| Heavy-Handed | Team | All Items held by Players on this Team have positive eDensity. | Permanent | Blessing | ||
| Light-Handed | Team | All Items held by Players on this Team have negative eDensity. | Permanent | Blessing | ||
| Negative | Player | This Player is a Negative. Negative players have negative eDensity. |
Permanent | Arcana Drawing, Undertaker | ||
| Perk | Player | This Player has been rewarded Percolated energy. They will Overperform in all Coffee weathers. See also: Glossary |
Permanent | Winning the Coffee Cup | ||
| Replica | Player | This Player will fade to Dust at the end of the Season. | Permanent | Gifts |
Ballpark Modifications
Like player modifications, all Ballpark Modifications added to a team's density, but the following Ballpark modifications were known to have a significant effect on a teams's eDensity rating.
Notably a Ballpark's level of Fortification and Filth were both known to play a significant part in the park's eDensity.
| Icon | Name | Target | Description | Duration | Cause | Category
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti Flood Pumps | Ballpark | Whenever a Flood happens in this Ballpark, its Filthiness is greatly increased. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Antigraphene | Ballpark | Fortifications are 5x more eDense than usual in this Ballpark. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Ball Pit | Ballpark | Every Foul Ball hit in this Ballpark will add 5x the eDensity that it normally would. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Balloons | Ballpark | A small, permanent amount of negative eDensity is added for each Run or Win earned in this Ballpark. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Birdhouses | Ballpark | Birdhouses invite Birds to come live in your Ballpark. Every time a foul ball is hit in a ballpark with Birdhouses, a bird will be added to the ballpark, reducing its eDensity. |
Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Condensed Floor Plans | Ballpark | Grandiosity is 5x more eDense than usual in this Ballpark. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Flood Balloons | Ballpark | A medium, permanent amount of negative eDensity is added for each Flood in this Ballpark. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Flood Pumps | Ballpark | Flood Pumps will prevent Flooding weather from making your Ballpark filthier. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Graphene | Ballpark | This Ballpark's Fortifications are 5% the eDensity of a standard Ballpark. | Permanent | Blessing | ||
| Hot Air Balloons | Ballpark | A large, permanent amount of negative eDensity is added for each Incineration in this Ballpark. | Permanent | Renovations | ||
| Open Floor Plan | Ballpark | This Ballpark's Grandiosity is 5% the eDensity of a standard Ballpark. | Permanent | Blessing |
Item Modifications
The following Elements affect Player eDensity. Unlike all other known Elements, these Elements continue to have an effect even when the item is broken.
| Element | eDensity |
|---|---|
| aDense | -10 bl/m³ |
| eDense | +10 bl/m³ |
Aside from these Elements, Items do not usually have an eDensity value. However, there are two known Team modifications that give Items eDensity – Heavy-Handed and Light-Handed. The former of those causes Items belonging to players on the Team to weigh +2 bl/m³ plus an extra +2 bl/m³ for every Element they have. The latter causes Items to weigh -2 bl/m³ plus an extra -2 bl/m³ for every Element they have, then also checks to see if the eDensity of the item is still positive (due to the eDense element) and flips its polarity if so.
Idol Board Manipulation
One of the most complicated ways to manipulate the eDensity of the team was tied into the league-wide idol board. The MVP line controlled the base level for the rest of the league, and could be moved by placing specific players or specific densities along the board in the right slot. the line would always split the eDensity of the board in half, so a very heavy or very light player could move the "halfway point" up or down, resulting in the line being moved, effecting the entire league's depth.
This resulted in many campaigns and plans among fans to try and manipulate the MVP line and keep teams out of range of consumers, making use of very light players and very heavy players to keep the line at the top or bottom of the board.
Consumers
Once a team is in Low A or above, they are at risk of being attacked by Consumers, with the risk increasing as their lever rises. Consumer attacks have a unique appearence in the game log, with a silhouetted Shark appearing in the log, along side a dramatic all uppercase message. Players who are attacked by consumers lose a number of stars across all categories, as well as one Soul from their Soul Scream.
Redactions
If a player's Soul Scream was ever reduced to zero a player would become redacted, gaining the modifier of the same name and being removed from the team's roster. The only two instances of this outside of Season 24 were on Season 15 Day 104, when both Alyssa Harrell and Nagomi McDaniel were Redacted from the Baltimore Crabs' roster.
After the league was flipped at the start of Season 24, fans were quick to notice that some consumer attacks began to exclusively target the leadoff hitter for their team. This focused bombardment resulted in the redactions of Agan Espinoza on Day 11, and Ziwa Mueller and Herring Winfield on Day 22.
Consumer Defense
By the end of the Expansion era players had several ways to avoid consumer attacks.
The most common method players were able to use were simply having non-broken items. Any player with an item would instead receive a message that they had "defended" with that item, and have it lose a single point of durability. Once an item was broken however, it no longer provided this protection.
In Season 21 it was discovered that when two hard boiled players were on the same team, they gained the Yolked modification, allowing them to fend off any consumer attacks happening in the game, for either team playing. This interaction resulted in replicas of Liquid Friend and Uncle Plasma becoming stronger together and "POWERBOMBING", "BATTERING RAMING", and "AVACADO TOASTING" consumers when they played.
In Season 23 teams were given access to "Chair" items, that would allow the player to fend off consumer attacks the same way that Yolked players were able to. While these items had limited durability, this allowed players to fend of consumers for their teams and their opponents.
Chorby Soul
Initially one of many early incinerations in Season 3, Chorby Soul became one of the driving forces of understanding and manipulating eDensity due to their extremely long Soul Scream. While it is normally only a small portion of the calculation for a player, Soul's value was far outside the usual 1-7 range, marking it at around 1776. This was noticed by fans who were quick to wonder what this would do to a team's eDensity. While the question was quickly answered, Soul became the subject to many repeated (and often unwanted) Plunder wills, and was made Legendary and moved to the vault at the start of Season 18.
Chorby's Soul
The same season they were Vaulted, fans were able to purchase a replica of Chorby Soul, complete with an item replicating Soul's eDenisty called Chorby's Soul. This item was Legendary, meaning it could not be broken or dropped, and was a ring with the eDense item modification applied 154 times. This was still technically lighter than the original Chorby Soul, and in total six teams were given a replica of Chorby Soul in their gift shop.
Even after the replica faded, the one copy of Chorby's Soul stayed in circulation after Chorby Soul II had their ring stolen by Gloria Bugsnax, resulting in it being targeted by Item Stealing wills, Thieves Guilds, and pitchers making use of their stadium's Tunnels.
