Runes

The sixteen runes

There are four families. Basic runes are bought; all the others are only crafted with Runecrafting at their altar. Each Runecrafting level above the altar adds runes per essence.

• Basic (earth, lightning, fire, light and water): every spell asks for one by its element. Bought at the shop or crafted.
• Catalytic (echo, mist, abyss, crown and dawn): one per spell level tier. Crafted only.
• Major (ice and primal): ice for the high ice spells, primal for the five greatest spells. Primal also takes one crown rune per essence.
• Combination (mud, steam, storm and ember): count as one of each of their two parts in any recipe.

Merchants do not buy it

The altars

Each altar turns rune essence into its rune. All of them can be reached on foot, without fighting. Essence is mined from veins; the altar name opens its spot on the interactive map.

The pouch and spending

The Rune pouch opens from the rune tab on the right edge of the backpack. What you need to know before heading out:

• The Rune pouch: the runes you carry for casting go there, one stack per kind, with no limit and taking no backpack space. Everything that gives you runes (the shop, the altar, the market, the vault, loot) puts them in the pouch.
• Basic runes are bought: earth, lightning, fire, light and water, 100 for 100, 1 gold each, from Tobias, merchant and the booksellers Elian, bookseller, Zahra, desert scribe, Ivar, scroll keeper. Ice is not sold: it is only crafted.
• Catalytic runes and the primal rune are only crafted at their altar. There is one per spell tier: echo (level 12 to 19), mist (20 to 25), abyss (26 to 35), crown (36 to 45) and dawn (46 and up). Only the five greatest spells ask for the primal rune.
• No NPC buys runes: merchants do not take them. Players trade them on the market.
• Combination runes count as one of each of their two parts in any recipe: one mud rune pays for one earth and one water.
• When you head out, the runes for the trip are set aside, the ones used are spent and the rest come back when you return, flee or cancel. Without enough runes, the spell is not cast and you fight without it.
• From Monday, November 2 (00:00 Argentina time) spells use runes. Until then they are cast without spending any: use the time to stock up.
• The 14-day grace period: from Monday, November 2 until November 16, a missing catalytic rune is paid with 3 basic runes of the spell's element.

Runes per spell

What each mana spell spends on every cast. Shouts and techniques do not spend runes.

Filler: the no-cooldown damage spell of each tier. It is the one cast the most, so it only asks for one basic and one catalytic rune.

The starter kit

Classes that start with magic get runes in the pouch when the character is created, enough to reach level 10 with their starting spell. They are bound: they never leave the pouch and cannot be traded.