How to Cast Spells in Forgotten Stories

Your next spell is a few inputs away. Learn the pattern before battle, then check that your equipment lets you cast. Follow this guide on how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories for the casting process, rune mechanics, equipment restrictions, and common casting pitfalls.

How to Cast Spells in Forgotten Stories: Step by Step

Learning how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories starts outside combat: check your learned pattern before you need it during a timed turn.

Step 1: Check Your Spellbook Out of Combat

You do not need to guess rune combinations or memorize complex glyph sequences through trial and error:

1. When exploring outside of battle, click the bookshelf icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
2. Click the Spell button to open your unlocked spell library.
3. Review your available spells and their exact rune glyph sequences. The circular elemental diagrams shown here mirror the exact engraving wheel you use during encounters.

Step 2: Open the Spell Menu When Your Turn Begins

When combat starts and your turn arrives:

• Open your combat spell interface.
• This displays your character's available rune slots alongside the circular elemental glyph wheel.
• Each node on the wheel corresponds to an elemental affinity: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Chaos, Order, or Void.

Step 3: Engrave the Rune Sequence

• Click the glyph nodes in the exact order demanded by the spell.
• As you input runes, the game checks your sequence:
  • If the pattern is incomplete, incorrect, or mismatched, the button below displays ???.
  • As soon as you enter a recognized, complete sequence, the button activates with the spell's name.

Step 4: Select Your Target and Unleash the Spell

• Once the spell button activates, click it to trigger the Select a Target prompt.
• Select your intended recipient:
  • Offensive spells (like Void Bolt or Water Shoot) require targeting an enemy.
  • Support and healing spells (like Mend or Cleansing Waters) require targeting yourself or an ally.

How to Cast Spells in Forgotten Stories: The Left-Hand Rule

Your weapon is part of learning how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories: check that it leaves casting available. Spellcasting in Forgotten Stories starts with one equipment check: your equipment must allow casting. An unavailable left hand can prevent casting, with dedicated casting weapons and Bow following their specific rules.

When learning how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories, hybrid archer-mages will find bows an exceptional setup. However, melee spellblades must stick to single-handed weapons that leave your casting hand available, or switch to a staff or wand.

Over-Channeling Runes When Casting Spells in Forgotten Stories

Once you know how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories with the base pattern, extra rune slots give you room to strengthen the cast. If your character possesses open rune slots beyond the spell's minimum formula, you can feed additional runes into the engraving wheel before confirming the cast. Those extra runes strengthen the cast.

• Offensive Spells: Gain +30% base damage for every extra rune added beyond the base pattern.
• Buff & Stance Spells: Gain +1 turn duration for every extra rune added beyond the base requirement.
• Stat Acceleration: Over-channeling extra runes grants bonus Runesight experience upon casting, accelerating your caster's stat leveling during the run.

Example: If a spell requires 3 base runes and your character has 5 rune slots available, channeling 2 extra runes gives an offensive nuke a massive +60% base damage boost on that turn.

How to Expand Your Rune Slots

A critical aspect of how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories with heavy over-channeling is rune capacity. You can increase your maximum rune slots through four distinct avenues:

1. Equip Staves or Wands: Dedicated magic weapons inherently supply bonus rune slots.
2. Equip Rune-Enchanted Armor: Specialized armor pieces discovered across runs feature built-in rune slot attributes.
3. Invest in the Runesight Stat: For every 10 points gained in Runesight, you gain +1 Max Rune Slot (up to the individual 20-point stat cap, granting +2 slots total).
4. Choose Spellcaster Inheritances: Lineages such as The Dreamer grant natural bonuses that support rune management.

Troubleshooting: Why You Cannot Cast Spells in Forgotten Stories

Still working out how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories? Match your current problem to one of these checks.

Wrote the Book but Still Cannot Cast Spells?

Writing Small Sea in the lobby lowers its future requirements to 7 Order and 7 Water. It does not automatically teach Cleansing Waters in your current run. Train those affinities, prepare 100 Ink, then SIGN Small Sea. Open the bookshelf’s Spell list outside combat and look for Cleansing Waters.

If you have signed Small Sea but still cannot cast, compare the complete rune pattern with your spell list. Check your available rune slots and Mana, then your equipment: you need a free casting hand or a compatible weapon. Staff and Wand support casting; Bow is an explicit two-handed exception. Claws and ordinary two-handed melee weapons can block it. Follow the full spellcasting steps to check the input and target selection.

True Spell Learning vs. The Tome of Dreams

Adventurers exploring how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories through the Dreamer Inheritance receive the Tome of Dreams, an item that lets players roll random spells during combat encounters.

However, rolling or casting a spell through the Tome of Dreams does NOT permanently teach it to your character.

For how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories beyond the starter list, learn the source Book first:

1. Discover the spell's source Book during your expedition.
2. Reach the required elemental affinities.
3. Use the SIGN button and pay the in-run Ink cost to unlock it for that adventure.
4. (Optional) In the lobby Library between runs, use WRITE with Ink Shards to lower or clear those affinity prerequisites for future expeditions.

To see every incantation available once you know how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories, check our complete Forgotten Stories Spells Catalog. To unlock Books and lower affinity thresholds permanently, read our guide on How to Write Books in Forgotten Stories.

Forgotten Stories Spellcasting FAQ

How do I check my spell runes outside of combat?

Click the bookshelf icon in the bottom-left corner of the HUD, then select the Spell button. This opens your full unlocked library and shows the required glyph sequence for every spell.

Can I cast spells while using a bow?

Yes. When learning how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories, note that bows are an explicit design exception that fully permits casting despite being two-handed. Conversely, melee two-handed armaments and claws occupy hands and disable magic entirely.

What does the ??? prompt mean in the combat casting menu?

When learning how to cast spells in Forgotten Stories, the ??? indicator appears if your entered rune sequence does not match an unlocked spell formula. Once you input the full valid pattern, the spell name replaces the prompt for target selection.

Why does my weapon stop me casting spells?

Claws and ordinary two-handed melee weapons can prevent casting. Staff and Wand support magic, and Bow specifically allows casting despite being two-handed. See the weapon compatibility table above.

How do extra runes affect healing spells like Mend?

Mend is a starter single-target healing spell that restores vitality to a selected party member and reduces Bleed by 2 stacks. Healing output is capped at 15 HP on cast. While rune stats and critical casts do not uncap this threshold, the actual health received is subject to the recipient's Incoming Healing attribute. Extra runes can still grant Runesight experience; they do not make Mend an uncapped heal.

Sources: Forgotten Stories Trello and Magic & Spells FAQ. Updated September 7, 2026.