Pulchritude

“Your PULCHRITUDE stat surges.”

Pulchritude is vital statistic appearing throughout the MS Paint Adventures.

Concept and creation

The word pulchritude is a noun meaning 'physical beauty'; how useful this can actually be as a stat in an adventure game is unclear, with Andrew Hussie's commentary in the Problem Sleuth books stating that "PULCHRITUDE was originally going to be "the useless stat"." However, its usefulness varies throughout its appearances to the point of becoming quite significant indeed.

In Jailbreak

The prisoners' pulchritude is a gauge that appears in combat alongside health and majyyk. This pulchritude stat has some bearing on a character's proficiency and status in combat; while an elf's is quite high, the prisoner's starts quite low and “could really use a boost” for the purposes of besting the elf in combat. In addition to damage to its health, the pony's pulchritude “takes a hit” from an attack by paper sword; a wish from an elf can potentially restore pulchritude, but the player never explores this option.

In Bard Quest

Bard armor that provides +5 pulchritude, decorated with the accoutrements of a medieval noble,^[image?] can be obtained from a blacksmith, but the Bard certainly doesn't have the golds to afford it.

In Problem Sleuth

A detective's pulchritude statistic could be thought of as indicating how truly hard-boiled they are; a high pulchritude stat allows the detective to influence others and get the dames. It is contrasted with vim, which represents a character's physical strength, and their imagination, indicative of their mental prowess. High pulchritude is represented by a large pulchritude gauge, which indicates how much pulchritude can be used before the gauge runs out and needs to be refilled.

Problem Sleuth, being the title character, has the highest pulchritude of Team Sleuth, and increases his pulchritude at the fastest rate as he levels up. Conversely, Ace Dick is a brutish boor whose stats focus more on vim and who gains no pulchritude at all after his first level up (though this has never seemed to stop him from finding love), and only has enough pulchritude to be filled by a single candy corn. The Pickle Inspector, an imagination-focused character, gains pulchritude as he levels up, but at a much slower rate than Problem Sleuth.

“Stubbing your toe is known to be brutal on your PULCHRITUDE stat.”

Uses

High pulchritude is essential to communication; a “high PULCHRITUDE stat” allows one to mollify conflicts with their rivals. This is important for Problem Sleuth as an ally of the elves, who require high pulchritude to be communicated with at all. Lowlier creatures like hogs, however, might only be communicated with by a similarly brutish character with “low enough” pulchritude.

The “resplendent light of divine PULCHRITUDE” consumes the spirit of the user of Sepulchritude, who is said to become a legendary “CHAMPION OF PULCHRITUDE”.

Increasing and decreasing pulchritude

Consuming candy, in particular candy corn, is the main way of filling the pulchritude gauge.

As a powerful all-rounded, pulchritude is one of the many of his own stats that the Mobster Kingpin can manipulate; through “BATTLE TECHNIQUE -> HIT THE MATTRESSES” he can cause his pulchritude to surge, and then with “RUNNING NUMBERS” he can randomly switch his pulchritude with his other stats. His “EMOTIONS level”, however, drains all three of these stats as it rises.