Strife deck

An empty Strife card

In the Homestuck universe, weapons can be placed into a strife deck, which allows the player to use objects to Aggrieve enemies. Each strife deck is contained with a strife specibus and a character with multiple strife specibi will store them within a strife portfolio. In order for an artifact to be allocated to a strife deck, it must be the same kind of item as the character's chosen kind abstratus. Also, it must be contained within a captchalogue card, and then, moved over to the deck . Each strife specibus appears to come with one card in its deck by default.

The different strife specibi are divided among the many kind abstrata. They are named with the formula: [weapon]kind. The kind abstrata are limited to twelve characters (including "kind") in name, which means that longer names are shortened, usually by omitting vowels, such as "fncysntakind". The characters used so far include lowercase letters, numbers and the symbol "/" (only used as part of ½, depicted as "1/2", in "½bladekind" and "½bowkind").

Apparently, artifacts allocated to the strife deck can be used at will outside of combat.

It should be noted that imps can also place items into their strife deck. They drop their strife specibus card when defeated if they have done so. John has acquired bunnykind from an imp. Also, all MSPA Readers and (possibly) Doc Scratch have the pistolkind specibus.

It is implied that while it's not impossible for a character that uses the strife deck system to fight with a weapon that doesn't match any specibus type they have (Dave says having one lets you attack but he could just have meant it was the most convenient option, and Equius would have presumably used Ahab's Crosshairs with no problem if it wasn't for his strength breaking it, as seen in Equius: Seek the highb100d), they fight at their best capacity when they have that weapon as a specibus type. This was indicated by Jade implying that she previously fought best with rifles when she had riflekind as her specibus and John thinking that it would be a good idea to use Umbrellakind when he got an umbrella weapon. It is also implied that while characters fight well when using weapons they have equipped in their strife deck, they aren't inherently masters at using that kind of weapon. It is possible for them to learn, practice, and get better when fighting with that kind of weapon over time . Sollux thinks "a high level psionic has no use for any particular specibus allocation", which shows that the boons of the strife deck system are somehow made irrelevant by the psychic powers of trolls like him and Aranea in a way that's not totally clear.

Every weapon in Homestuck has stats that determine their worth in combat .

The list of kind abstrata as it appears to John is as follows:

• aerosolkind
• ballkind
• barbwirekind
• batkind
• bladekind
• bombkind
• bookkind
• bowkind
• bowlgpinkind
• branchkind
• brasskind
• broomkind
• bustkind
• candlstkkind
• canekind
• chainkind
• chainsawkind
• chiselkind
• cleaverkind
• cordkind
• crowbarkind
• curlironkind
• dartkind
• dumbbellkind
• fankind
• fireextkind
• fireworkkind
• fncysntakind
• forkkind
• glovekind
• golfclubkind
• hatchetkind
• hairdryrkind
• hammerkind
• hckystckkind
• hosekind
• icepickkind
• iceskatekind
• ironkind
• jumpropekind
• knifekind
• ladlekind
• lampkind
• lcrsstckkind
• marblekind
• mopkind
• nailgunkind
• needlekind
• paddlekind
• peprmillkind
• peprsprykind
• pipekind
• pistolkind
• pizzactrkind
• plankkind
• plierkind
• plungerkind (appears twice)
• pokerkind
• puppetkind
• rakekind
• razorkind
• riflekind
• rockkind
• rollpinkind
• sawkind
• scissorkind
• scrwdrvrkind
• scythekind
• shoekind
• shotgunkind
• shovelkind
• spadekind
• spatulakind
• spoonkind
• staplerkind
• stungunkind
• tablelegkind
• thrwstarkind
• tongskind
• trophykind
• umbrellakind
• vacuumkind
• woodwindkind
• wrenchkind
• yoyokind

Many abstrata appear in Homestuck which do not appear on this list, however. It should also be noted that "plungerkind" erroneously appears twice: fourth in the first column, and sixth from the bottom in the second column.

Damaged or altered

If an item used to strife is damaged or fundamentally altered during use, its related kind abstratus will change itself into a type to match. This is presumably to avoid getting suddenly disarmed when the item doesn't match the old abstratus and cannot be allocated. To correct this, the item must be restored to its old shape. However, if a strife deck user has a strife card of the weapon before alteration, and after alteration, it seems that it doesn't change the strife card. For example, Calliope uses a Wandkind specibus and a Pistolkind specibus in her strife deck, so presumably, her wand / pistol will automatically change strife cards. Often this can result in a fraction being added to the name; Dave's sword is cut in half, so he now has 1/2bladekind, and Feferi had a second fork added to the other side of her Trident making it a 2x3dent. Jane's Junior Battermaster's Bowlbuster Stirring/Poking Solution 50000 can be switched from a spoon to a fork and back, changing Jane's abstratus with it. Kanaya's lipstick can be changed to chainsaw mode and back, which presumably causes her abstratus to change to chainsawkind. During his first imp strife, John had broken his slegehammer while Aggrieving, and in the process removed the hammerhead from the handle (Handlekind). After the strife, he put the hammerhead back on the handle, changing it back to Hammerkind.

Kids' kind abstrata

• John Egbert's is hammerkind, originally holding both a hammer and a sledgehammer. John also acquired a bunnykind specibus from a Shale Imp, which he had stored in his strife portfolio. There is also an umbrellakind specibus card in his house, which could be useful if used with Barber's Best Friend. He briefly wielded handlekind when his hammer was broken in a fight.
• Rose Lalonde's is needlekind and held her knitting needles as its first weapon.
• Dave Strider's was bladekind and originally held a ninja sword, but like John's, it suffered from a modification resulting from the sword being broken in half, and became ½bladekind.
• Jade Harley's is riflekind and holds her trusty hunting rifle. She has also used paperkind. After ascending enough of the god tiers, she surpasses the need for a strife specibus altogether. She may now wield any kind of weapon regardless of which specibus it belongs to .
• Jane Crocker's is spoonkind and forkkind, which holds the Junior Battermaster's Bowlbuster Stirring/Poking Solution 50000.
• Jake English's is 2xpistolkind and holds his unbelievably deudly firearms.
• Roxy Lalonde's is both fistkind and riflekind, as was expected by her pre-scratch iteration.
• Dirk Strider is a practitioner of bladekind and puppetkind, and also has the apparently difficult-to-use fncysntakind.

Trolls' kind abstrata

• Aradia Megido used the whipkind specibus before her death. After, she uses telekinesis, similar to Sollux; she continues to use this strifing method after entering the soulbot.
• Tavros Nitram uses his trusty lancekind specibus, having always wanted to improve as a jouster so he can someday join the ranks of the cavalreapers.
• Sollux Captor, as a high-level psionic, has no need for a specific strife specibus; his telekinesis allows him to manipulate and fling any objects, such as throwing stars.
• Karkat Vantas uses the sicklekind specibus, as he aspires to be a threshecutioner.
• Nepeta Leijon uses the clawkind specibus, and she already had her Claw Gloves allocated when she was introduced.
• Kanaya Maryam uses makeupkind and chainsawkind specibus, which allows her to equip her lipstick as a weapon. Her lipstick transforms into a chainsaw.
• Terezi Pyrope's is canekind. She uses her cane to wallop enemies when she enters The Medium. The cane she uses has a sword blade hidden inside it: the top of the cane is its handle and the bottom is its sheath. It is unknown if using her cane in this manner alters her specibus.
• Vriska Serket has the dicekind specibus, which uses her enchanted set of 8 eight-sided dice, the Fluorite Octet. By rolling the dice, she can potentially execute a large variety of attacks at random.
• Equius Zahhak primarily uses the fistkind specibus, although he carries around the bowkind specibus in case he is ever able to actually fire an arrow, and also the useless ½bowkind.
• Gamzee Makara's specibus is clubkind. He appears to regularly wield juggling clubs, as it is dangerous to leave his hive unarmed. At a later point in the story, he wields the powerful jokerkind, allowing him to use any possible weapon (but only if it looks really, really silly).
• Eridan Ampora uses the riflekind specibus, wielding Ahab's Crosshairs. Later he gets the wandkind specibus to use his Empiricist's Wand.
• Feferi Peixes uses the 2x3dentkind specibus, allowing her to use two-ended tridents, referred to in Alternian parlance as double culling forks.
• Damara Megido seems to use needlekind or wandkind.
• Cronus Ampora probably uses riflekind like Eridan; Meenah can find his Ahab's Crosshairs during part 2 of Openbound.
• Meenah Peixes uses 2x3dentkind, wielding a golden 2x3dent similar to Ψdon's Entente.

Cherubs' kind abstrata

• Calliope uses both wandkind and pistolkind. Interestingly enough, her picture for pistolkind is half of the picture for 2xpistolkind.
• Caliborn uses both riflekind and sceptrekind. His future self Lord English also uses both of these.

In Hiveswap

Hiveswap replaces discrete kind abstrata with abilitechs, which are not strictly limited to weapons. However, some characters' weapons do line up with existing kind abstrata: Jude Harley's flare gun fits pistolkind, while Trizza Tethis uses the classical heiress' 2x3dentkind.

In Homestuck: Beyond Canon (Dubiously Canon)

Another, different list of kind abstrata is made available to Harry Anderson Egbert:

• crlngirnkind
• aerosolkind
• anvilkind
• anyngdogkind
• axekind
• bassoonkind
• bolaskind
• bombkind
• bookkind
• bottlekind
• bowkind
• branchkind
• bsbllbatkind
• bwlngbllknd
• bwlngpinkind
• canekind
• chainsawkind
• cheesknfkind
• chiselkind
• clawkind
• clubkind
• cndlstckkind
• coffeemgkind
• crcktbatkind
• daggerkind
• dartkind
• dicekind
• dumbbellkind
• fistkind (appears twice)
• flmthrwrkind
• footkind
• forkkind
• fthrdstrkind
• golfclubkind
• gunkind
• hammerkind
• hatchetkind
• hckystckkind
• hntddollkind
• hoekind
• hrstrtnrkind
• icepickkind
• irnngbrdkind
• knifekind
• knkldstrkind
• ladlekind
• lancekind
• lasergunkind
• lcrsstckkind (appears twice)
• lwnmowerkind
• macekind
• machetekind
• nailclprkind
• nailgunkind
• needlekind
• nwspaperkind
• nunchuckkind
• pepprmllkind
• pinkind
• pipekind
• pistolkind
• pornmagkind
• puppetkind
• pwrdrillkind
• rapierkind
• razorkind
• rockkind
• rollpinkind
• ropekind (appears twice)
• saltshkrkind
• scissorkind
• scythekind
• shoekind
• shotputkind
• shurikenkind
• spadekind
• spearkind
• spoonkind
• staffkind
• tridentkind
• wirekind
• wlkngstkkind
• wrenchkind
• wtrngcankind

Omega kids' abstrata

• Harry Anderson Egbert uses scissorkind.
• Vriska Maryam-Lalonde uses fluffy dice.

On Deltritus

• Ly'lac uses bombkind - one of the original abstrata appearing in both Homestuck and Beyond Canon - which encompasses both cartoon bombs and conventional incendiary weapons like hand grenades and missiles.

References

Kind Abstrata

	hammerkind/ handlekind		needlekind		bladekind		riflekind
	spoonkind/ forkkind		fistkind		puppetkind		pistolkind
	lancekind		thrwstarkind		sicklekind		clawkind
	makeupkind		canekind		dicekind		bowkind
	clubkind		wandkind		2x3dentkind		jokerkind
	bunnykind		paperkind		fncysntakind		umbrellakind
	bombkind		scissorkind		broomkind