Runes and magic

Spells in a stone: anyone can cast them, Wizards best of all.

A rune is one charge of a spell. Right-click it in your bag and choose Cast, or press 3 to cast your strongest attack rune at your target and 4 to cast your best healing rune on yourself. The quick bar shows both buttons as soon as you carry runes.

Who can use them

Every rune needs a Magic level. Wizards train Magic with every bolt, so they open up the whole list. Knights and Paladins stay at Magic 10, which is enough for the Light Missile, Heavy Missile and Intense Healing runes. Those are worth carrying anyway: a quick heal or a finishing blow when a fight goes wrong.

How hard they hit

A rune rolls between its two power numbers, plus a bonus for your character level and Magic. Runes go half through armour, so they are good against heavily armoured monsters. They also get your mastery, set and bestiary damage bonuses. All runes share a two-second wait, reach 6 tiles and need a clear line to the target. Casting trains Magic.

• Area runes (Fire Bomb, Stone Shower, Thunderstorm) hit everything near your target. Use them on packs.
• Frost runes (Icicle, Paralyse) slow the target, which is great for kiting.
• Soulfire keeps burning after it hits.
• Sudden Death is simply the hardest hit in the game.

Getting runes

• Shops: Mirela's Arcana in Brookhollow sells blank runes and the starter runes. Ignis in Emberwatch sells the battle runes. Paralyse and Sudden Death are never sold.
• Alchemy: at an alchemy table, 5 blank runes plus a monster part or two inscribe 5 runes. See every rune and its recipe.
• Drops: bog toads, raptors, shamans, wraiths, void walkers and treasure-trail caskets all carry runes.