The glowing orb is your starting engine. Click it to generate Mana — or hold Space to channel it hands-free. Mana fuels your spells, and spells generate everything else.

Early on your click speed matters. Later, scholars and passive regeneration take over and manual tapping becomes optional.

Cast spells → earn resources → spend insight on research → unlock new systems → grow faster. Research is the primary driver of progression. Every unlocked node opens a door to something new: more spell slots, scholars, the Frontier, the Abyss.

Your first goal is to unlock Scholars and get a few working — they multiply your income without you lifting a finger.

Each element has its own spell set. Spells generate different resources — some yield gold, others essence or insight, often in combination. Unlock new spells through research. Your primary element's spells always cost half as much mana.

In combat (Frontier / Abyss) spells deal damage equal to their spell power, which scales with mastery rank and AP bonuses.

Every cast builds XP toward the next mastery rank for that element. Higher ranks multiply that element's output and increase your effective power. Your primary element ranks up faster.

Mastery progress persists across attunements as a permanent bonus — each run you start slightly stronger than the last.

Scholars are hired in the Study panel. Each one can do one of two things:

Scholar speed is improved by AP nodes. A full roster of scholars on Cast is one of the largest income multipliers in the game.

Unlocked via research. You channel essence into a ritual circle over time, and each completed phase awards Arcane Power (AP). Rituals are slow but provide a reliable AP income between dungeon boss kills.

Random events that fire periodically during a run. Each omen is a boon, a curse, or a choice. Up to 3 can be active at once; active omens appear in the strip at the top of the screen. Some omens synergise with specific builds — a curse that reduces gold but boosts essence output can be valuable if you're ritual-focused.

Combat is automatic — your spells fire on cooldown, dealing damage equal to their spell power. You have an HP pool that regenerates between fights. If HP hits zero inside a dungeon, you're ejected and keep only a fraction of your run's loot.

Spell power scales with mastery rank, AP nodes, and gear stats. The higher your spell power, the faster you clear waves and the deeper content you can reach.

Each dungeon is a series of waves ending in a boss. Clearing a boss for the first time is permanent — it unlocks the next dungeon. Repeat clears give normal loot only.

Dungeons scale in difficulty. If a dungeon is walling you, check your gear, run a few Frontier research upgrades, or come back after an attunement.

Monsters drop gold and Monster Cores. Bosses also drop gear — weapons, armor, helmets, gloves, boots, rings, and amulets.

Spend Gold + Flux to level up items. Flux is earned by scrapping gear you don't need. Each upgrade level increases the item's stats.

Every 10th level (10, 20, 30…) requires a duplicate item at the same level as a material — the dupe is consumed. In return, that step gives a ×2.5 bonus on top of the normal stat gain, making milestone levels a significant power spike.

Consecrate (costs Flux + Cores) permanently flags a max-level item so it survives attunement, just like a relic. Use it on your best non-relic pieces before resetting.

A separate research tree from the Grimoire. Tiers T1–T5 use gold and Monster Cores. Tiers T6–T9 additionally require Abyss progress and Abyssal Essence. Each tier improves combat stats: HP, regen, spell power, crit, and more.

Each depth is significantly tougher than the last. Don't push deeper until you're comfortable clearing the current depth without taking heavy losses.

Elites can spawn at any depth. They're visually distinct and carry a modifier that changes how they fight:

Elites drop more gold, Monster Cores, and most importantly — Abyssal Essence.

All loot earned in the Abyss — gold, cores, items, Abyssal Essence — sits in a pending buffer. Nothing is awarded until you surface or finish a combat phase cleanly.

If you die: items and all Abyssal Essence are lost. You recover only 25% of buffered gold and cores. Playing cautiously and knowing when to retreat is the key skill of the Abyss.

AP is your meta-currency. You earn it in two ways: passively as a function of total essence accumulated over the run, and as a one-time bonus from each dungeon boss's first kill (up to +5 AP lifetime). AP is spent in the AP tree and never resets.

A web of permanent nodes. The central Arcane Foundation node unlocks the whole tree. Branches spread outward covering:

Cross-branch nodes require unlocking nodes from two different branches and offer compound benefits. The deepest nodes (3 AP cost) are the most powerful in the game.

Attunement is a voluntary run reset. You give up everything earned in the current run in exchange for a permanent power bonus based on how far you got.

What survives: AP nodes, relics, consecrated gear, Void Echoes, mastery bonuses, and boss unlock status.

What resets: gold, scholars, research progress, spells, essence, and non-permanent gear.

The best time to attune is when research is stalling, your spell power isn't keeping up with the content you want to clear, and you have meaningful mastery banked. Each attunement starts you slightly ahead of where the last one began.

Feats are milestones tracked in the Chronicle → Feats tab. They cover everything from spells cast and gold earned to dungeon clears and playtime. Some feats reward AP on completion. Check the Feats tab occasionally — you may have unlocked more than you realise.