Rune Properties

Whatever Rune you find it has a chance or a guarantee depending on what kind of Rune it is to have one or more properties. The Properties have a big impact on how the spell works and can make it difficult sometimes to predict exactly what the spell will do.

Ranged Rune Properties
Ranged Runes are always placed in the first slot of any spell. They have special properties that relate to how the spell does damage and to what target. They will always have either aimed or fixed as one of their properties.

Aimed:
"You have full control of where the spell can be aimed, as long as it's a visible tile."

Aimed means the spell can be aimed with either the mouse or the arrow keys. As said above you can't shoot outside of your vision. Increase vision by putting points into Perception. This is one of the most common Properties of any Offensive spell.

Blast:
"Makes the spell stop if it hits a wall but also makes it able to affect tiles outside of your field of vision."

If the rune also has Spark then it won't stop when it hits an enemy. The info above is misleading if you target it on a actual wall it won't do anything. Wall = enemy. You can use Blast to attack things you can't see round corners for example if you target the ground.

Doublestrike:
"The spell affects every targeted tile twice."

Doublestrike is one of the best Properties to have on a ranged spell in the game. Doublestrike is extremely rare but will cause the spell to hit twice effectively dealing double damage. This can make even very weak spells quite powerful. If you combine the spell with Fire status and Helpless status the spell will deal damage on the first hit and put helpless on the target then immediately attack again and do double damage and again put helpless on the target dealing 300% what the spell would have done without Doublestrike. If you hit them again they will have helpless on every turn and take 400% damage.

Fixed:
"You are only able to cast this spell in the tile you're standing on."

Fixed means the spell cannot be aimed with the mouse and cannot be moved with the arrow keys. However the arrow keys and mouse can select which direction the spell will be cast in. If the spell is symmetrical on all sides of course that won't make any difference such as with Quake. Fixed doesn't mean it can only be cast on the tile you are standing on unless it only effects that tile.

Pierce:
"(Game description goes here)"

This property functions as the Ray property, but unlike the Ray property, the spell will hit all creatures on the way to the target.

Ray:
"The spell travels to the aimed position when cast, so it will collide with creatures on its path"

Presumably this property always comes with Aimed but more info needed. This can work against you if you want to hit an enemy behind another one or something moves into the path of the spell. Worse a spell that deals blast damage as well may end up hitting you if something moves into the spells path right next to you.

Spark:
"The spell materializes directly where it's targeted, so it won't collide with creatures on it's path"

Spark teleports the spell to the location and so won't hit anything on the way like with Ray. Certain other properties will nullify Spark such as Fixed.

Offensive Rune Properties:
Offensive runes concentrate on destroying the target either through direct damage or status effects. As soon as you add any status to an offensive spell it will cease doing damage and just concentrate on status. You can get around this by using the Fire Property. As soon as a Defensive rune is added to the spell with Earth the spell will no longer do direct damage but it will still do any negative status effects in the spell.

Burn:
"The creature gets damaged for x hit points at the beginning of its turn, for 3 turns."

Burn causes a status on an enemy which will cause damage over time. Burn does the damage it says every turn until the status ends. It can be reduced by casting a burn spell on yourself with a much lower turn count. Burn will do about 33% damage each turn of the total power of the spell.

Earth (Shatter):
"The spell takes a sharp, piercing form. It will deal at least 1/3 of it's damage, even if the target creature has a shield, you will also only take 1/2 of the damage from counter-attacks."

Earth is the only status to be Defensive and Offensive. The description in the spell takes the title of Shatter and the Offensive version seems to have nothing to do with the Defensive one meaning this is likely a mistake in the game and the correct title should have been "Shatter". This status is not that great most of the time but of course is useful against bosses and anything that has Long Counter or Melee Counter. When you find enemies that use those spells it can be quite useful.

Fire (Power of Fire):
"Lets the spell do direct damage or healing even if it also causes status effects."

Not to be confused with Burn. Fire is one of the most powerful status' in the game. Usually when you cast an offensive spell as soon as you add any status effects to it it will cease doing damage and focus solely on improving all the status effects in the spell. Fire basically doubles the potential by allowing the spell to do both damage and cause status effects. This works also with Healing spells (as earth is dominant) and will allow the spell to do healing to you as well as any status effects. If you use it on a block Rune with effect Counter it will allow the Block rune to put positive status effects on the enemy. For example a Spell with a Fire Rune, Poison Rune and Burn Rune and a power of 8 will do 8 damage and also at the same time inflict poison and burn on the enemy. This also works with clouds which will do their usual damage per turn as well as inflicting status. Also works with healing clouds although be aware the cloud rune property concentrated will nullify fire completely.

Helpless:
"The creature is forced to lower its defenses, receiving twice as much damage the next time it's damaged by any source"

Helpless is a powerful but limited source of extra damage. Any damage the creature receives after having helpless cast on it will be doubled. This includes powerful attacks which do say 100 damage being multiplied to 200 or weaker attacks which do 1 damage being multiplied to 2 damage. It also includes damage from poison or burn which means this spell doesn't work so well with mass status spells as the helpless damage will be absorbed by poison or burn. If an enemy casts helpless on you you can easily nullify it by casting a spell that does 0 damage on yourself. Dodge will also nullify any damage from helpless.

Poison:
"The creature gets damaged for X at the beginning of its turn, reducing the damage by 2 every turn until it reaches 0."

Poison when cast on an enemy will do the full damage on the first turn and then the same next turn -2 until it reaches 0. Poison is unique in that it's turn count relates to it's damage. If you can put enough power into a poison spell for instance to reach 100 damage it would last for 50 turns. The damage poison does on the first turn is equal to half the power of the spell. Poison is unaffected by the modifier + or - turns to effects as it's turns are based solely on the power. This is good in that you can safely use any powerful runes that have bad -turns but in the same light you can't use the ones that extend the turns.

Slow:
"???"

Slow reduced the enemies turns so that they take 1 for every 2 turns you take. Some enemies already seem to be naturally slower. Combined with Haste on yourself you can take 4 turns for every one enemy turn.

Enemy Weakness (Weak):
"The Power of any of the creature's attack is reduced by X for X turns"

Weakness is a property that the Conjurer starts the game having a rune of (xerr). The number reduced by is half the power of the spell and will take directly from the incoming attack. So for instance if he enemy normally does 20 damage but you cast a weakness on him with a power of 15 he will only deal 5 damage to you. Unlike the shield defensive property weakness will actually reduce the incoming attack to 0 if the power is higher than the attack.

Useful for killing boss'. The power of the weakness status is roughly half the total power of the spell you used to cast it. The duration of turns is roughly half that again.

Defensive Rune Properties:
Defensive Runes focus on healing and protect you from harm. You can of course cast them on enemies to heal the enemies but there really isn't any point of doing that. All defensive runes have the Property Earth which prevents the rune from doing damage and converts this to healing. If a defensive rune has any status effects in it at all it will cease to heal damage and instead just put status' on the target. You can get around this using Fire at which point it will heal but still never do damage.

Courage:
"???"

The Pugalist will start with a rune with this ability. Courage puts a permanent amount of flux on the flux bar while it is cast and adds damage to your melee attack. Without any buffs all Mage's have a melee attack of 2 however enemies can have natural melee attacks that are much higher. Courage only effects Melee while Power will effect all damage however Courage has the advantage that it won't ever run out unless you get rid of it with C.

Dodge:
"Avoid any damage and effects of the first attack received by the creature."

Dodge lasts until you get hit meaning there's not much point increasing the power of a spell that has only the status dodge in it. Dodge will allow you to escape the next damaging attack whatever it is be it from poison an enemy attack or the effects of Flux you will take 0 damage once. If you get hit by multiple attacks in one turn you will only dodge the first one. If you want to put dodge on yourself and only that status pick the dodge rune with the least flux and combine it with a ranged rune using the least flux that can target you and cast it that way. Extra Power won't improve the Dodge.

Earth (Healing of earth)
"Makes the spell heal any creature in its area of effect for an amount of hit points equal to its power, instead of damaging them"

Long Counter:
"???"

Long Counter puts a permanent amount of flux on the flux bar while it is cast. It allows you to counter ranged attacks with damage without casting any spells. If the enemy has the shatter property they will take less damage from this when they hit you than normal. Long Counter also has the unfortunate irritating property of countering your own spells. If for instance you target yourself Long Counter will consider you as an enemy and also hit you. This means Long Counter doesn't work so well with a set up that includes self Damaging artefacts like Quake and Break as it will add on more damage every time you use them.

Poisoncoat:
"If the creature is attacked by a creature standing one tile away from it, the attacker creature will be poisoned for X damage. Maintaining this effect costs XFP to the creature"

Poisoncoat will put poison status on any creature that attacks you standing next to you. The power of the poison is equal to half of the power of the spell. This will also be the number of flux points that you have to store permanently on your bar until you get rid of the poisoncoat status using the C button.

Powerful:
"Increase the power of any attack or spell of the affected creature by X for X turns."

Power increases any damage you do by a set amount for a set duration depending on the power of the spell. The Power of the status and the extra damage is roughly 33% (1/3) of the power of the spell. Powerful is fairly broken and can be used in combination with Artifacts to create Dimension Destroying numbers of Damage that will one shot anything in the game (including you). This also will increase your melee damage and any healing you do. A regular Power spell should usually be cast twice in a row. The game allows you to cast Power again using added Power of the 1st spell once but on the third casting won't increase the amount by any extra points. There are of course ways to get around this.

Regeneration:
"the creature gets healed for X hit points every turn, for Y turns."

Regeneration allows you to get hp back every turn for a duration. This works similar to healing clouds except that you don't have to stand in the cloud and can move about freely. Is capped but there are ways to break this with the Artifact Cure and negative Regen. See Broken Combinations.

Shield:
"Reduce any damage inflicted to the creature by X to a minimum of 1, however costing Y FP every time damage is received."

Shield is a self protecting spell that won't leave you until you press the C key. Unlike most other permanent protective Status' Shield doesn't cost any flux to maintain but will add flux every time you get hit. The game works it out as roughly this: 25% of the Power of the spell is how much damage will be reduced each hit. 50% of the damage reduced is how much flux will be added to the flux bar every time you get hit. The damage will be reduced but only as far as to go down to 1hp. For instance if the attack does 4 and you have a damage reduction of 8 it will still do one damage to you BUT increase your flux by 4.

Shield is a dangerous spell to use because you usually need the flux for other things. If you are getting hit by a lot of things at once then your flux meter can easily get very high fast so how strong to make the Shield spell is something to consider also when you should drop it using C.

Cloud Runes Properties:
Cloud Runes focus on creating Clouds of magic that do damage or healing depending on whether they have offensive or defensive runes in them. If there are neither of both of those but the spell still has some power it will naturally do damage each turn.

Diluted:
"Creating clouds dilutes the effects of the magic, reducing the power of every effect to 1/2 and their duration to 1/4 of their original values."

Diluted does half the damage of the power of the spell but over a long period. Diluted clouds can either damage enemies at half the power or do no direct damage and instead put status' such as poison on the enemy. Using the Fire property you can do damage and put status' on enemies with Diluted clouds.

Concentrated:
"You manage you concentrate the full power of the spell in the cloud, but in doing so you shorten the cloud's duration and it loses all effects except its raw power."

Concentrated does the full damage of the power but only lasts half as long. Concentrated clouds only do damage and can never put status effects on enemies even with the use of fire.

Damage Counter:
Damage Counter does direct damage to the enemy each time it hits the block from a melee position.

Effect Counter:
Effect Counter puts status' on the enemy each time the enemy hits the block.