Words

Three cards in one weapon, read as a sentence.

A Word is two or three particular cards seated in the sockets of one weapon. Put them in together and the game reads them as a sentence rather than as three separate bonuses, and the weapon grants something none of the three cards grants on its own. Nothing is fused: the cards are recognised where they sit, and pulling one back out dissolves the Word and returns every card.

It is the answer to the wall. Past the gate a ground stops being hard because its monsters carry more health and starts being hard because of what they are: an element a plain swing barely scratches, a body your weapon reads badly, armour thick enough to eat most of the blow. A Word is how one weapon is aimed at one of those. It is the only source of weapon element you cannot rent from a bottle, and it is why a character at the top of the board keeps a second weapon and swaps it at the door.

Spell oneShown on the Word with the widest reach on the board.

Seat a card to answer a line. Two lines out of three grants exactly nothing, which is the whole of rule two.

What the weapon grants Your blow lands as Fire Medium bodies stop costing you damage Brute armour is ignored Nothing yet
It spells EMBERWRIT Named, and asleep until level 60. 0 of 3 lines answered. Not a Word.1 of 3 lines answered. Not a Word.2 of 3 lines answered. Not a Word.

The three lines

Each is a yes or no question about the weapon, and each grants one thing. A Word asks two of them or all three, and the book below says which.

The verb

It asksDoes this weapon already have an edge on what you are aiming at: a card that hits that element harder, or the answering element in the weapon itself?

It grantsYour blow lands as the element that beats them. The swing moves into another column of the element chart, and nothing else in the game rents you that.

The size

It asksDoes anything on this weapon already hit that body size harder?

It grantsSize stops costing you. Against that body the weapon lands the way a bare fist lands, which is to say in full.

The race

It asksDoes anything on this weapon already hit that race harder, or read through its armour?

It grantsThat race’s armour is ignored entirely.

A line can be answered three ways: by what the weapon says on its own, by an affix it rolled, or by a card seated in it. All three count the same, so a weapon born with the right element, or lucky in its roll, spells the same Word with one card fewer and one socket to spare.

What an element is worth against another is the element chart, and a Word is a way of choosing which row of it you swing on. Elements

What a line is worth

Every figure below is a multiplier the fight itself applies. Shown on EMBERWRIT, the Word the picture above is spelling.

The element

A plain swing is Neutral, and Neutral is the column that beats nothing. Spelled, the same swing lands as Fire, which is what answers Earth. How much that is worth depends on how strongly the monster holds its element:

Against Earth, level 1 Plain swing 100% Spelled 150%
Against Earth, level 2 Plain swing 100% Spelled 175%
Against Earth, level 3 Plain swing 100% Spelled 200%
Against Earth, level 4 Plain swing 100% Spelled 200%

The chart runs from nothing at all to double. This is the one thing in the game no bottle sells.

The size

A weapon reads a body by its class, and most classes lose damage to some of them. A Dagger against a Medium body lands at 75%; spelled, it reads the bare-fist row and lands at 100%. The whole table, which is enforced on every swing you have ever taken:

What a spelled size line hands you

Weapon Small Medium Large
Bare Fist 100%100%100%
Dagger 100%75%50%
One-Handed Sword 75%100%75%
Two-Handed Sword 75%75%100%
One-Handed Spear 75%75%100%
Two-Handed Spear 75%75%100%
One-Handed Axe 50%75%100%
Two-Handed Axe 50%75%100%
Mace 75%100%100%
Rod 100%100%100%
Bow 100%100%75%
Instrument 75%100%75%
Whip 75%100%50%
Book 100%100%50%
Katar 75%100%75%
Two-Handed Rod 100%100%100%
Knuckle 100%75%50%

The race

Armour subtracts from every blow before anything else multiplies it, so it hurts a fast weapon most. A spelled race line does not reduce that armour. It stops reading it: the subtraction does not happen at all against that race.

Four rules

One Word per weapon A weapon spells one Word and no more. Where the cards in it could spell two, the one asking more lines wins, so a longer Word is never lost to a shorter one sharing its cards.
All or nothing There is no half credit and no partial threshold. Two lines out of three is not a weaker Word. It is not a Word.
What you already have blocks the seat A weapon born with the right element answers the verb by itself, and a card of that element seated beside it adds only its own printed bonus. That is a saving rather than a waste: the socket it frees can answer another line.
Nothing until level 60 Below the gate a Word is named on the weapon and grants none of this, and its cards pay exactly what they print. Every ground and every rung under level 60 is untouched by the whole system.

The book21 Words

Each one below is worth all of itself somewhere, and worth nothing on most of the rest. Both halves are stated: what a Word lands on, and where its own blow is a tax rather than an answer. The board it is counted against is everything a player can reach: 138 hunting grounds and 43 mini-boss rungs, 181 in all.

Holy 5

HALLOWWRIT vs Undead Medium
  • Your blow lands as Holy
  • Medium bodies stop costing you damage
It takes Skeleton Worker Card carried from level 35

No card in the game carries this element for a weapon, so this Word can only be spelled on a weapon born with it.

Answers all of itself on 19 of 181 Its own blow is a liability on 6
Where it is worth all of itself Shellfish12 Deviling26 Bongun29 Mummy35 Stem Worm42 Ogretooth46 Mimic50 Ancient Mummy62 Gazeti62 Anolian67 Freezer68 Mavka68 Wickebine Tres68 Medusa70 Violy77 Zombie Slaughter82 Baroness of Retribution84 Incarnation of Morocc I99 Incarnation of Morocc III99

Water 4

Fire 4

Earth 3

Wind 3

Shadow 1

Ghost 1