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Certain classes have access to magical spells. These can have various effects including damaging, healing, applying statuses, as well as providing miscellaneous utility. This page covers mechanics which apply to a range of spells. For details on specific spells, check the "Spells" tab on the appropriate class page.
General
All spells available to a character's class are immediately available from Character Level 1. They can be viewed from the Lobby by navigating to Class -> Spell.
On the Spell screen, you can see which spells will not be available to you in-dungeon under the Spells list on the right, organized by Spell Tier (see Spell Memory below). Spells which are equipped and will be available in-dungeon are located in either the Skill I/Skill II wheel in the center-left/center-right. Spell names and descriptions are viewable by hovering over the icon for each spell.
Each spell icon includes a number. For Warlocks, this number represents the HP cost when casting the spell (accurate with or without Torture Mastery equipped). For other classes, this number is the max Spell Count (see Spell Count below).
Equipping
To equip a spell and make it available to you in-dungeon, you must left-click and drag a spell icon from the Spells list to a slot in either the Skill I/Skill II wheel. A spell's position on a wheel determines its position in the spell selection wheel (see Casting below).
You can unequip spells by right-clicking the appropriate icon, or by dragging another spell's icon from the Spells list to the occupied slot; both methods send the previously-equipped spell back to the Spells list. You can swap the position of two spells by dragging one's icon to the other's.
To be able to access the spell selection wheel, you must equip the Spell Memory and/or Spell Memory II skills (II is not necessarily available to all spellcasting classes). These two skills are functionally identical; as long as one is equipped in the Skill #1/#2 (left/right) slot, you will have access to the Skill I/II wheel.
You will also need to equip a piece of Magic Stuff i.e. a magical weapon. Note that not every spellcasting class can necessarily equip every kind of Magic Stuff. Spellcasting classes can access one or more kinds of Magic Stuff equippable by their class for free through the Squire, but if you embark without one, you may still be able to find one in the Dungeon.
Spell Memory
Equipping a spell makes it available in the spell selection wheel in-dungeon, but that alone is not enough to allow you to cast that spell. You must also have enough Memory Capacity to "remember" how to cast that spell. Each spell has a Memory Cost which is equal to their Spell Tier (viewable in the Spell screen when a spell is unequipped and in the Spells list) which each add together to determine whether you have enough Memory Capacity.
Equipped spells have a Spell Memory Priority determined by the order in which they were equipped, with spells equipped earlier holding higher priority. This is displayed in order in the Spell screen below the spell wheels from highest priority on the left to lowest on the right. The Memory Cost for each spell is added in order, and the spell which puts the total cost over your Memory Capacity as well as all lower-priority spells are "forgotten". Such spells will have their icon in the selection wheel greyed out, mousing over it will highlight that section of the selection wheel in red, and attempting to cast the spell will display a warning message instead.
Your total equipped Memory Cost as well as your current Memory Capacity are displayed in the Spell screen underneath Spell Memory Priority. However, there are a number of ways your Memory Capacity can increase or even decrease in-dungeon which are not reflected in this screen. These include holding a weapon with a Knowledge Enchantment, auras, and buffs/debuffs. Whether you can cast a spell or not is determined by your Memory Capacity at the time you attempt to cast that spell, not by the number displayed in the Spell screen.
See Spell Restoration for more.
Spell Count
Each non-Warlock spell has a separate Spell Count which is the number of that spell which you currently have stored i.e. the remaining number of times you can cast that spell. You start each dungeon with the max Spell Count of each spell stored up, and each spell cast costs 1 of that spell's Spell Count. When a spell's Count reaches 0, you can no longer cast that spell until you restore at least one charge of that spell. For ways to restore spells, see Spell Restoration.
Casting
Once in-dungeon with the appropriate spells, skills, and weapon equipped, you can cast a spell as follows:
- Hold the Skill #1/2 button to access the Skill I/II spell wheel (either Spell Memory or Spell Memory II must be equipped in the left/right Skill slot).
- Mouse over the section with the desired spell, then release the Skill button to select that spell. Only one spell may be selected at a time, and the currently-selected spell will be displayed next to the Skill #2 icon.
- If not already held, take out a magical weapon.
- Hold the Secondary Attack button (default: right mouse button) to start casting; the cast bar will appear above the HP bar and start to fill. Until the cast is completed or cancelled, you may still look around normally, but you move at a reduced movement speed. This cast bar is what is modified by Spell Casting Speed (See Action/Interaction/Cast Speed for more details).
- After the cast bar fills completely, if casting a targeted AoE spell, a targeting indicator will appear and move along the terrain with your cursor (See Area-of-Effect Targeting below). Let go of the attack button at any time to start a cast animation (which is different for each weapon).
- Once the cast animation finishes, the spell will be cast in the direction of the cursor, and its casting cost will be paid. It is at this moment that targeting checks are performed and a target is selected (See Single Targeting below). Note that this means you can change targets even as the cast animation plays.
- After the cast animation, you will perform a recovery animation after which your movement speed will return to normal.
To cancel the spell, let go of the attack button before the cast bar fills up, or push the cancel key displayed under the cast bar at any time before letting go of the attack button. The spell will also be cancelled if the cast animation is interrupted, such as by the weapon or your hand colliding with a wall or a Monster's shield. Cancelling a spell in any of these ways doesn't count as a cast and will occur with no cost paid.
Targeting
Some spells designate a target upon successful cast depending on what the cursor is held over at the time the spell is fired. Target selection for these spells has some unintuitive properties.
Single-target
Single-target spells target a single entity at a time. Single-targeting appears to work as follows:
- First, if the cursor is over something within the spell's range, the closest entity under the cursor is checked to see if it's a valid target.
- For some spells, this check specifies allies-only or enemies-only, but many spells do not specify. This can result in buffing/healing enemies (both players and Monsters) and debuffing/damaging allies (both players and Summons).
- This check does not appear to specify dead or alive, so you may end up inadvertently targeting corpses.
- If the closest entity is a held Monster shield (not the visual effect from a buff) or a held, actively-blocking player shield, no valid target will be found by this check. This suggests that the shield itself is considered a separate entity from its wielder, eligible to be checked for target validity.
- Invisible characters will still be targeted successfully.
- If no valid target is found using the above, the caster is checked to see if they're a valid target.
- This combined with the shield behavior detailed above may lead to inadvertently self-casting a harmful effect like Power of Sacrifice.
- Finally, if the spell cannot be self-cast, no target is designated.
- However, the spell is still cast - all costs are paid even if there is no effect.
Although technically part of a single spell cast, each projectile from Magic Missile also appears to exhibit this behavior with its homing effect.
Targeted AoE
Targeted Area-of-Effect spells target an area which the caster specifies using the AoE targeting indicator which appears and moves with the cursor after the cast bar finishes. This indicator will change color depending on whether the marked area is a valid target or not. There is no change if you mark an area with allies/enemies in it - including yourself - so be aware when casting AoE damage/healing spells.
Like single-targeted spells, if there's no valid target area at the end of the cast animation, most AoE-targeted spells will be considered successfully cast and costs will be paid even if there is no effect. Warlock's Summon Hydra spell appears to be an exception to this rule; if successfully cast but without a valid target, no health is lost - possibly a bug.
Although most destroyable props and containers are treated like permanent pieces of the environment for the purposes of AoE targeting, barrels including Skeleton barrels seem to be treated like they don't exist. This means that the indicator will move smoothly underneath barrels instead of over them. This can be useful for targeting an area on the other side of or directly centered on the bottom of a barrel, but it also takes away the ability to target the top of it. Take care when casting a Summon as they can spawn partially inside the barrel, potentially immobilizing them and/or blocking their projectiles.
Channeling
Channeled spells make your character start a channel upon casting. A channel bar will replace the cast bar and will drain from full to empty, denoting the remaining duration of the channel. The channel can be manually cancelled at any time by hitting the cancel key.
Most channels require the caster to remain still for the duration in order to maintain the channel - movement is allowed but will instantly break the channel.
You may look around freely without breaking the channel if the channel does not need to be targeted. If the channel is targeted, you may look around without breaking the channel as long as you keep the target in view - you do not need to keep your cursor directly on the target to maintain the channel. This means that turning your back on the area of a targeted AoE spell or having your view of the target of a single-target spell become obstructed will break the channel. The target moving out of range will also break the channel.
If a targeted channeled spell is cast with no valid target, the channel will not start, but costs will still be paid.
Magic Missile only uses targeting for the homing effect. Thus, the targeting rules above only apply to the homing effect, and breaking them will not end nor prevent the start of the channel.
| What happens if line of sight is cut off by a character rather than an object? Contribute by joining the Spells & Guns discord! |
| Can an AoE-targeted channel be broken by obstructing the caster's view? Contribute by joining the Spells & Guns discord! |
Channeling Duration
Channeled spells have a Channeling Duration, which always scales with spell casting speed (
).
Channeling Interval
Channels with a Channeling Interval scale with spell casting speed (), such that its effect triggers faster if using Spell Casting Speed. Channels without a Channeling Interval, like Warlock's Life Drain, always trigger their effect at the same rate.
Examples of Channels with Channeling Interval include but are not limited to:
Examples of Channels without Channeling Interval include but are not limited to: