Forgotten Stories Spells: Runes, Effects & How to Cast

This guide covers 24 Forgotten Stories spells: 7 starter spells and 17 spells unlocked through Books. Find rune patterns, effects, critical-cast bonuses, and book requirements below, followed by practical combinations for damage and party support.

How to Cast Forgotten Stories Spells

To prepare your Forgotten Stories spells, open the bookshelf outside combat, choose Spell, and check its rune pattern. In battle, enter that pattern and choose your target. For the full controls, equipment rules, and troubleshooting steps, use the Forgotten Stories spellcasting guide.

Extra runes add 30% base damage each to offensive spells or one turn each to buffs. Compare the effects below before choosing which spell to enhance.

Forgotten Stories Starter Spells

All adventurers begin their journey with 7 foundational Forgotten Stories spells representing the core elemental forces. These require zero book unlocks and serve as your primary engine for leveling up elemental affinities early in a run.

Tactical Starter Spell Breakdown

• Water Shoot: Applying Vulnerable grants a flat +20% boost to all incoming damage taken by the target. Opening a fight with Water Shoot sets up high-damage physical weapon skills or secondary spells for devastating burst rounds.
• Gust Hit: A snappy, low-cost offensive blast. It serves as your primary tool for building Wind Affinity toward advanced mobility grimoires like Unstoppable Wind.
• Pebble Throw: Inflicts Dazed, which shrinks the target's dodge and parry frames by 30%. At 5 stacks on regular monsters (or 15 stacks on bosses), Dazed purges completely and converts into a multi-turn Stun, shutting down enemy action entirely.
• Fire Ember: Applies Ablaze, delivering steady turn-by-turn health burn while creating the essential primer for steam explosions and vein melts later in your run.
• Chaos Spark: Inflicts Exposed, stripping away 3 flat defense points from the target. Against armored elites, this allows your melee companions to punch through heavy resistances.
• 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.
• Void Bolt: Deals Void damage scaling directly with Void Affinity and extra runes, serving as the cornerstone damage spell for dark magic archetypes.

Forgotten Stories Spells Unlocked Through Books

Many advanced Forgotten Stories spells come from Books with elemental affinity requirements. Meet the requirements and sign the Book with Ink during your run to learn its spells. Writing that Book with Ink Shards in the lobby lowers its requirements for future attempts, helping you reach your favorite combinations earlier.

Forgotten Stories Spells: Healing and Crowd Control

Cleansing Waters: The Essential Status Lifeline

Among recovery-focused Forgotten Stories spells, Cleansing Waters is a strong pick for an Order/Water support build. It combines healing and Regeneration with debuff removal, while its critical cast clears three especially dangerous conditions.

Obtainment & Book Requirements

• Grimoire: Small Sea (Small Sea guide)
• Unwritten Requirements: Reach 10 Order Affinity and 10 Water Affinity.
• Written Requirements: Reach 7 Order Affinity and 7 Water Affinity.
• Crafting & Study Costs: 200 Ink Shards to write in the Library; 100 Ink to sign in-run.
• Book Stat Bonuses: Outgoing Healing +5%, Water Damage +5%.

Standard Cast vs. Critical Cast Mechanics

Healing Forgotten Stories spells reward close attention to critical effects. Cleansing Waters changes in three useful ways:

• Standard Cast: Heals a targeted ally, reduces most active debuffs by 3 stacks, and applies Regeneration +3 (+3 health restored per turn).
• Critical Cast: Reduces active debuffs by 5 stacks, boosts Regeneration to +4, and completely removes three lethal conditions that ordinary healing cannot purge:
  • Infection: Untreated Infection can cost your character an arm. A Purging Vial is the item cure; critical Cleansing Waters gives your party a magical option.
  • Deepwound: Inflicts continuous damage until cured, worsens into Infection if neglected, and causes instant death from blood loss if knocked down. Normally, it requires a Sterilized Bandage.
  • Venomed: A virulent toxin draining health each round, normally requiring an Antidote.

Cleansing Waters is one of the Forgotten Stories spells to plan around when your party needs both healing and condition removal. Keep item cures ready for casts that do not crit.

Blizzard: Total Arena Domination & Freeze Control

For Forgotten Stories spells that hit an entire enemy group, Blizzard provides unmatched area-of-effect suppression and multi-hit elemental damage.

Obtainment & Book Requirements

• Grimoire: Hailreign Chronicles (Hailreign Chronicles guide)
• Unwritten Requirements: Reach 15 Wind Affinity and 10 Water Affinity.
• Written Requirements: Reach 12 Wind Affinity and 7 Water Affinity.
• Crafting & Study Costs: 200 Ink Shards to write; 100 Ink to sign.
• Book Stat Bonuses: Wind Damage +5%, Water Damage +5%.

Multi-Hit Pressure & Freezing Synergies

• Standard Cast: Deals 5 hits of split Water and Wind damage to every enemy in the encounter.
• Critical Cast: Adds a 6th strike, delivering 6 hits to each enemy.

What elevates Blizzard among offensive Forgotten Stories spells for crowd control is its synergy with the passive trait from Hailreign Chronicles: all Water and Wind attacks gain a 65% chance to inflict Chilled.

• Chilled reduces Speed by 0.3 and increases incoming Water and Wind damage by 10%.
• At 5 Chilled stacks on a regular enemy, Chilled is consumed to apply Frozen +3. Bosses require 15 Chilled and receive Frozen +2. Frozen prevents acting but breaks when the target is hit, so coordinate your follow-up attacks instead of expecting an uninterrupted three-turn freeze. With five hits per target—or six on a critical—Blizzard pairs well with Hailreign Chronicles for spreading Chilled. Use that pressure to help your team recover, focus a dangerous enemy, or prepare the next combo.

Forgotten Stories Spells: Elemental Combos

Steam Explosions: Fire Ember into Boiling Burst

Pairing Fire and Water Forgotten Stories spells lets your team turn an Ablaze setup into an area burst:

1. Cast Fire Ember to afflict the primary target with stacks of Ablaze.
2. Follow up with Boiling Burst from Pressure Chamber.
3. Boiling Burst delivers 5 focused Water strikes (6 on a Critical Cast). Because the enemy is burning, it consumes the Ablaze stacks to detonate an immediate steam explosion, dealing heavy area-of-effect damage to all nearby foes.

Blood Ignition: Bleed Weapons into Veinmelt

Bleed-heavy weapons give your Forgotten Stories spells another way to deal damage through Boiling Blood:

1. Inflict Bleed through physical weapon skills while setting the target Ablaze with Fire magic.
2. Cast Veinmelt. Every paired stack of Ablaze and Bleed consumed by Veinmelt inflicts +8 flat bonus damage.
3. Landing a Critical Cast on Veinmelt refunds 1 stack each of Ablaze and Bleed, allowing you to sustain the combustion loop across subsequent rounds.

The Four Infusions: Frontline Weapon Enchanting

Through Arts of Infusion, a support caster can turn physical fighters into elemental powerhouses:

• Fire Infusion: Imbues weapon attacks with Fire damage and inflicts Ablaze.
• Water Infusion: Imbues weapon attacks with Water damage and grants +1 Penetration (PEN).
• Earth Infusion: Imbues weapon attacks with Earth damage and inflicts Dazed.
• Wind Infusion: Imbues weapon attacks with Wind damage and boosts user Speed by +0.4.

These four Forgotten Stories spells apply +3 infusion stacks on a standard cast and +4 on a critical cast. Use them to bring elemental effects to your frontline’s weapon attacks.

Choosing Forgotten Stories Spells for Your Build

Plan your Forgotten Stories spells around the Books you want to unlock. Weapon and elemental affinities share a 35-point budget. Pick the spell Books you want first, then plan their requirements with the stats and skill points guide. For rune capacity and casting equipment, follow the spellcasting guide.

Chaos Chain → Skystruck: Use Chaos Chain to apply Chaostatic, then follow with Skystruck to hit enemies carrying that status. Both Forgotten Stories spells come from the Chaostatic Book, giving you the setup and follow-up from one unlock.

Forgotten Stories Spells FAQ

How do I check my spell runes during an active run?

When outside of combat, click the bookshelf icon located in the bottom-left corner of your screen, then click the Spell button. This opens your full catalog of unlocked Forgotten Stories spells and displays their exact rune sequences.

Can I cast spells while using a bow or a two-handed weapon?

Bows are an explicit exception to the two-handed weapon rule: you can cast spells freely while wielding a bow. However, wielding two-handed melee weapons or claws binds or occupies your hands, disabling spellcasting entirely. One-handed weapons, staves, and wands allow regular casting.

How does Cleansing Waters cure Infection and Deepwound?

Among defensive Forgotten Stories spells, a standard cast of Cleansing Waters only reduces debuffs by 3 stacks and applies Regeneration. Only a Critical Cast purges Infection, Deepwound, and Venomed. Normal casts will not remove these severe conditions.

Can Infection actually cause my character to lose an arm?

Yes. Untreated Infection can cause arm loss, which affects your equipment options. Cure it with a Purging Vial or a critical Cleansing Waters cast before that happens.

What exact bonuses do extra runes provide when casting?

For damaging Forgotten Stories spells, each rune beyond the base pattern adds +30% base damage. Buff spells gain +1 turn duration per extra rune. Extra runes also award bonus Runesight experience.

What does the Dazed status effect do to enemies?

Inflicted by certain Forgotten Stories spells, Dazed does not lower enemy accuracy; instead, it reduces dodge and parry frames by 30%. Reaching 5 stacks on a normal monster (or 15 on a boss) consumes all stacks to trigger a multi-turn Stun.

Can I permanently cast spells I rolled using the Tome of Dreams?

No. The Dreamer Inheritance grants random in-combat rolls through the Tome of Dreams, but does not permanently teach you those Forgotten Stories spells. To reliably cast any spell, you must unlock its Book and fulfill affinity requirements during the run.

Build Around Your Forgotten Stories Spells

• Forgotten Stories Books Catalog — Complete requirements, Library writing costs, and signing rules for all grimoires.
• Forgotten Stories Weapons Guide — Compare staves, wands, bows, and one-handed weapons suited for mages.
• Stats & Skill Points Guide — Manage the 35 shared affinity cap, stat locks, and Runesight growth.
• Healing & Status Effects Guide — Detailed medical treatments for Infection, Deepwound, Bleed, and Venom.
• Inheritances Overview — Explore the spellcasting benefits of The Dreamer and other origins.
• Inheritance Tier List — Compare Inheritance choices for different playstyles.
• Official Trello Board — Track ongoing balance adjustments and upcoming content updates.