Death Necklace not working when used in combat?

[gameboy9]

Miaut said in his comments in the last race that he tried to use the death necklace while facing the DL during combat, and he didn't get the stat adjustments. Can you verify this, please? Thanks again!

[Kronoan]

Hey, regarding the Death Necklace ... I would like a power boost but I don't like the %25 percent HP loss. Could you maybe change it so it only affect your HP growth if equipped otherwise it's harmless except for the fact you can't save wearing it? Also, the Cursed Necklace should do something too, maybe make Sleep spells not work on you?

[mcgrew]

Stat updates are triggered by certain actions in the game. I know start of battle and bringing up the status screen will do it. It'd be difficult to change this behavior if they aren't triggered during battle. Whether or not it works can be verified by looking at address 0xCC in RAM, which is attack power. Seed 666 should give you the necklace in the throne room (yes really) if you want to look. If not, I'll give it a look when I get a chance.

As for the stat changes wrt the death necklace, removing the nerf makes using it a no-brainer and would unbalance the game IMO. Affecting new growth only is basically impossible given the way the game calculates stats.

As for the Cursed Belt, I don't really want to give it any effects since there are a potentially infinite number of them. Death Necklace is a one-time item, which makes determining when and if to use it an interesting choice. Not so with the belt.

[mcgrew]

Re-opening, since it may be possible to fix this.

[mcgrew]

Closing again because using this in the DL1 fight has become a strategy.