Mind Over Magic – Beginners FAQ

This is a collection of frequently asked questions, with answers from the collective wisdom of the long-time players who hang out there.

New Player Q&A

Mages

How does apprenticing work?

When you apprentice a mage, you gain several benefits.

• First, the mage will produce a new relic (see the Relics section for more on the mechanics of this).
• Second, the mage gains max level, as determined by their wand tier.
• Third, the mage – and all relics they have equipped – gain XP for every trial they completed.
• Fourth, the mage will gain maximum skill points in their primary skill, and whichever secondary skill you choose; and lose a point of max skill off up to two of their other skills.. How much they gain is determined by how far apart the secondary skill is from the primary.
  • If you choose to apprentice in the same skill as your primary (making your apprentice a ‘mancer’), you gain +3 to the primary, and -1 to the two skills opposite it.
  • If you choose to apprentice to a skill ‘next to’ your primary (making your apprentice a ‘conjurer’), you gain +2 to both primary and secondary; no losses to other skills.
  • If you choose to apprentice to a skill further away (making your apprentice an ‘arcanist’ or ‘sorceror’), you gain +1 to the primary, +2 to the secondary, and lose 1 max from two other skills.
• Fifth, and arguably most significantly, your apprentice gains access to the chosen secondary skill in combat. This is a major boost to combat versatility, effectively doubling the pool of spells they have access to, and allowing them to target additional enemy weaknesses.
• Sixth, each ‘type’ of apprentice gains a special bonus.
  • ‘Mancers’ (same-element apprentices) gain an additional cast per day of their ultimate spell (which they gain access to easier, since they have +3 to their primary skill). Note that this is an additional /charge/ of the ultimate; a ‘mancer still only gains one charge per day.
  • Conjurers get nothing. They honestly kinda suck.
  • Arcanists (the elements next to conjurers) gain an additional relic slot. The slot is guaranteed to be an elemental slot of the Arcanists secondary element, if the apprentice doesn’t already have that type; if they do, it is guaranteed to be a ‘rare’-type relic slot. This is very strong; see the ‘Relics’ section for more.
  • Sorcerers (the elements opposite the primary) get a special perk in combat depending on the elemental combination.

How do apprentices level skills?

Unlike Initiates, who can learn any skill from the learning stone, Apprentices can only learn skills from the apprentice teaching station of the appropriate element. The game will warn you if you attempt to create an apprentice and you don’t have the appropriate pair of teaching stations unlocked to level both their secondary and primary skill.

However, if you gain max skill in another way (usually via equipping a relic, but there are a few other ways), you can wind up with an apprentice who is unable to be taught until additional research is complete.

How do staff level skills?

Staff cannot be taught at teaching stations. However, all mages – initiate, apprentices, and staff – learn by doing. If a staff member gains max skill, they can (very slowly) level that skill by performing actions of the appropriate element.

While most actions require at least one level in the skill already (meaning that a 0-skill staffer who equips a +max relic would be unable to perform them), teaching does not; so the best way to train a 0-skill staffer is, counterintuitively, to have them teach your apprentices of that element.

How do Wand Tiers work?

Every blank-slate mage starts with 1 in every skill. To summon them, you must craft (and use at the summoner) a level 1 wand. A level one wand gives them +2 in their primary skill (3 total), and +1 in two other skills, chosen at random when the mage is summoned. It also sets the maximum level per tier at ‘3’ – so an initiate can level to 3; a direct hire (initiate->staff) can level to 6; and a full progress mage (initiate->apprentice->staff) can level to 9. They will also start with three trials – two ‘bronze’ difficulty (250 XP, base) and one silver difficulty (1500 XP, base).

Level 2 wands are unlocked in the research tree from tier 1 and tier 2 researches. To equip them, you must find the Wand Transfigurator in the first Stone Ruins branch in the underschool. Level two wands grant an additional +1 in their primary skill (4 total) and +1 in a randomly chosen skill. It sets the maximum level per tier at ‘5’, for a potential of level 15 on a fully trained staffer. It will also give an initiate or apprentice an additional gold difficulty trial (7500 XP, base).

Level 3 wands are unlocked in the research tree from tier 3 researches, and require late-game resources (including Ignium and Runewood). They grant an additional +1 in the primary skill (5 total) and +1 in two randomly chosen skills. They are equipped at the greater wand transfigurator found at the end of the second stone ruins branch in the underschool. They set your maximum level per tier at 6, for a potential level of 18 on a fully trained staffer, and grant initiates or apprentices an additional platinum difficulty trial (17500 XP, base).

Wands Tier List

I Tier:

• S-tier: Earth
• A-tier: Fire
• B-tier: Water
• C-tier: Air
• D-tier: Lightning
• E-tier: Dark
• F-tier: Nature

II Tier:

• S-tier: Earth
• A-tier: Fire
• B-tier: Nature
• C-tier: Water
• D-tier: Air
• E-tier: Dark
• F-tier: Lightning

III Tier:

• S-tier: Earth
• A-tier: Fire
• B-tier: Air
• C-tier: Dark
• D-tier: Nature
• E-tier: Lightning
• F-tier: Water

When should I upgrade my wand?

Whenever possible, as an initiate. It is quicker and easier to level skills (since you only need the learning stone); and you can gain the full benefit of any additional trials you unlock. Upgrading wands on a staffer is generally a bad idea, since the Platinum trial is completely ‘lost’, and leveling skills is very slow for staff. (There are, of course, cases where you have an otherwise perfect staffer with exactly the right combination of secondary skills and relic slots; is a guideline, not a rule.)

Level 3 wands are expensive, and higher tier initiates/apprentices are slower to fully level and graduate, so if you are churning through mages looking for a ‘perfect’ wand, you might save time and resources by not upgrading mages that don’t have the attributes you are looking for.

What are the ‘caps’?

As previously mentioned, the maximum level for a fully trained tier 3 staffer is 18. The maximum a skill can reach is capped at 8, even if you have +max cap that would otherwise exceed that.

Relic drops from apprentices and staff (retirements) are capped at 24. There are quests from the Dragon that can increase the cap of a relic up to 25.

How do I gain access to Ultimate Spells?

Ultimates require 8 skill in the element.

Skills start at 1. Tier 3 wands give +4 to primary element, and up to +3 to a secondary element (depending on random rolls). Relics can give up to +3. Apprenticing gives +1 to +3 to primary, and +2 to secondary. There are also quests from the dragon that can give +max, but I’m unsure how reliably accessible they are. This then gives us:

• Primary: 1+4 (wand)+1-3(apprentice)+3(relic)
• Secondary: 1+0-3(wand)+2(apprentice)+3(relic)

A primary skill can (only) gain access to the ultimate without a relic if they’re a ‘mancer. A secondary skill needs a relic, and at least +2 from their wand.

Note that +max skill cap relics can be equipped in relic slots of the matching element, or rare slots (though each element requires a specific rare slot). A mage is guaranteed a relic slot of their primary element; and an arcanist is guaranteed a relic slot of their secondary element; other types of mage are at the whims of RNG on this.

What are the best choices for apprenticing?

Shortest answer: depends on the needs of your school.

Short answer: the ‘best’ sorcerer types (Nature/Lightning; Water/Fire) > Arcanist > the other sorcerer types > Conjurer/Mancer.

Much longer answer:

Arcanist can be considered a ‘baseline’: 1 free relic slot is easy to understand and compare other effects to.

A relic can grant up to +3 to a skill. Conjurer gains 1 skill point over the other types of apprentice. (It is rarely significant to lose points off your ‘low’ skills – only a few ‘low’ skills ever matter past very early game, and you should have plenty of other mages who can cover any 0’s. So I would ignore that ‘advantage’ of the conjurer entirely.) That’s effectively 1/3rd of a relic slot. And it’s arguably even worse than that, since Conjurers /still/ need to equip a relic in order to unlock ultimates. That said, if Conjurers fill a need for your school, go for it. In my current game, I still have a conjurer on staff – with a level 2 lightning wand and a +2 lightning relic, they were able to hit 8 lightning early and race down the tech tree, well before I had access to tier three wands and better relics.

‘Mancer’s are tough to evaluate. They effectively gain a relic slot by virtue of being able to unlock ultimates without a relic (although this only matters if you care about unlocking ultimates!). But they lose an entire secondary school of magic and all the versatility that provides. If you really like the ultimate spells, they’re a reasonable choice, but I think in general they’re underpowered.

Can I change the appearance/faction of the Founder?

Currently, not without starting a new school. The next major update is slated to offer more customizability features for mages, so that may change soon.

Building

How do I make a Mage Hermitage?

There are a few reasons for asking this. Prior to recent updates, Hermitages required the Isolated keyword – they had to be completely inaccessible. This required some exploity shenanigans in order to keep your mages fed and happy. As of the current update, however, the requirements have been simplified.

The new requirements, under ‘balanced’ school settings, are that the Hermitage must be Private, Lofted, Pristine, and Elevated, and it must not have a Door or Hallway, it must have 25 Scholarly luxury, and it must have a belltower or 3 large roof decos. It’s usually the lack of door/hallway that gives people difficulty. You can use ladders, stairs, or a Broom Rack as the single ‘entrance’ allowed by Private. If you use a broom rack, keep in mind that Quilted Haulers will be unable to access it to bring it wood.

The belltower is the more time consuming/difficult part. It requires a Tier 3 research (Getting Posh), 125 sculpstone (from the Lavalina or Cronebug, or the Underschool), and 60 Ignium. Ignium can be acquired from the Cronebug – it takes 2 thorntooth and 2 anemone cells per Ignium, so you’ll want to get those growing in your greenhouse ASAP. You can also get a head-start by finding Ignium in the underschool or from a Rancor Crystal fight, if you’re strong enough to tackle those. You can also sometimes mine ‘Emerald Statues’ from the crystals that spawn when you push back the fog. These can be placed and disintegrated for 20 Ignium apiece.

Can I build in the underschool?

Kind of. Yes. You can’t change the shape of a room – basically everything in the ‘construction’ tab – so some keywords are locked by the shape the room spawns with (lofted/skewed/private), and some conditions are impossible (have 1 door). They also can’t be towered or elevated, obviously, and can’t have windows or wall decorations. So a lot of rooms are impossible.

Also, you can’t build Broom Racks in the underschool, so travel times can get very long.

Should I build in the underschool?

Most rooms are either impossible or inconvenient, due to the travel times. However, Archives can be built in the underschool, and only need to be accessed very rarely (to switch out relics), so travel times don’t matter. You also need four of them, and they require ‘interior’ so are oft inconvenient to fit in your school topside. They’re therefore a very good candidate for underschool construction. You do miss out on the pretty wallpaper, however.

• Greenhouses, Glass Roofs, and ‘Shade’

Can I put wild and/or crop plants (bitterrice and the like) in a greenhouse?

No. Greenhouses are rooms, and rooms require ‘solid’ floor; crop tiles can only grow on natural tiles. Any natural tiles in a space cause that space to count as ‘outdoors’.

Can I put glass roofing over my crops to protect them from rain and lightning?

Kind of. But it won’t work at all how you’re probably hoping. Glass roofs don’t actually ‘transmit’ light, despite the graphics; they ‘add’ light to the room they’re a part of. Since natural tiles can’t be part of a room, they’re subject to normal out-door shade rules – glass roofs, like any other construction object, will shade plants underneath them if they’re within 12 tiles of the top of the plant.

Can I have multiple floors in my greenhouse without shading plants?

Yes. Shade rules do not apply inside of a room; the light level is purely determined by the lighting % of the room. Greenhouses are automatically set to 100+% sunlight during the day, and 100+% moonlight at night.

Can I build something over a greenhouse without shading it?

Yes. Greenhouses completely ignore anything outside of them.

How does Shade work?

Shade is only a mechanic outdoors. If there is any tile lower than 12 tiles from the top of the plant, the plant will gain ‘Shaded’, and have 50% growth rate.

• Sunshadow trees are an exception to this; they are immune to ‘shade’.

Within rooms, the normal shade rules do not apply; plant growth rates are purely dependent on the sunlight/moonlight lighting % of the room.

Are there any weird tricks to get even more out of my greenhouses?

Funny you should ask! Plant growth is determined by light levels; most plants require sunlight, but some (sporeshrooms, fungal helix, anemones) require moonlight instead. And Mana Lanterns give off moonlight. If you build a small greenhouse with a few mana lanterns in it, any night-time plants in it will grow during the day (although they can still only be harvested at night).

Do woodcutteries protect trees from Wasting? Is there any way to protect crops from Wasting?

No, and no.

Why do all my mages have sporeshroom rash?

Sporeshrooms (and later on, trapdoor vines) will ‘attack’ mages that walk near them. The Founder, Shattered mages, and Quilted are immune. I strongly recommend recruiting a Shattered nature mage for this reason; and creating a ‘dangerous plants room’ with an access-restricted door to protect your staff. You may also want to periodically clear out the wild sporeshrooms to prevent your mages from getting infected while running around outside.

What does the small arch support do?

Default, no support: Build up to 7 squares away from the wall.

Two fully-supported walls, 16 squares apart: Cannot connect with floors.

Small Arch Support: Build up to 8 squares away from the wall.

Same situation with arch supports adding 1 square on either side.

Resources

How do I get Gnosis shards?

There are four main ways to get gnosis shards:

• The first and most important is leveling students. By default, for each skill point a student gains, they drop a single gnosis shard. They start with 1 max in each skill + 4 for a tier 1 wands, and 1 point already learned in their primary skill. This comes out to 10 gnosis shards per initiate without upgrading their wand or apprenticing. This can be dramatically increased by getting an Exuberance affinity relic on a plinth in an archive. For every 4 levels on the relic, it increases gnosis shard drops from leveling by 1. That means that with a level 21 relic on the plinth, you’ll be getting 7 shards per level; 70+ shards per initiate. At that point, the question becomes ‘how do I get rid of Gnosis shards’.
• The second way is to explore the underschool; you’ll find ‘gnosis outcrops’ you can mine for one-time supplies of shards.
• The third is by pulverizing relics. How much pulverizing relics is worth increases exponentially with relic level (relic level ^ 1.7, rounded down) This can be a decent source of gnosis income if you cycle many students and are diligent about ensuring they’re always equipped with relics when they graduate; but can be a lot of ‘work’ to stay on top of.
• The fourth is by fighting Rancor Crystals from pushing back the fog. These are very challenging fights, with some very good rewards, including leveled relics, gnosis shards, and late-game crafting materials.

How do I get voidcaps? How do I get voidcaps without all my mages getting mana drained?

Voidshrooms spawn in dark rooms. Their spawn rate is dependent solely on light level; they don’t care about room size. To get more voidshrooms, have more dark rooms.

Mana drain can afflict any mage, even shattered (who are immune to all other ‘plant attacks’). It does not affect the Founder or Quilted. So the way to go is to have a bunch of tiny (1 tile wide is enough!) room sequestered from the rest of the school with an access-controlled door. Keep in mind that voidshrooms can ‘attack’ through doors (although not through walls), so it may be worthwhile to illuminate the first room of your voidshroom warren to prevent them from spawning there. It’s also a good idea to have it adjacent to your greenhouse(s) to minimize travel time for the Quilted.

How do I get rid of excess materials?

There’s no easy way.

First thing to do is.. Stop producing/collecting them. I limit the amount of seeds my storage can hold, so that once I have sufficient quantities, the rest are left to rot out in the rain. Disable your greenhouse plants when you have ‘enough’. Obviously, be aware that certain resources can spike dramatically in demand – Frost Glass for Stained Glass Windows can burn through a lot of Ice Petal very quickly. Side benefit: this conserves nature mage/harvester time.

The second thing to do is have ‘overflow’ chests; throw some Large Chests down in the underschool on priority 1 and let the surplus resources go there.

The third thing to do is have a chest out at the edge of the fog; fill it with the surplus resources, then allow the fog to sweep over it. That’s the fastest way to actually ‘destroy’ resources.

Relics

What relic types are available?

There are three ‘types’ of relics:

• ‘Faction’ relics (Wolfkin, Human, Vivified, Shattered, and Raven Cultist)
• ‘Elemental’ relics (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Dark, Nature)
• ‘Rare’ relics (Temperance, Exuberance, Tranquility, Diligence)

What determines what Relic slots a mage gets?

Initiates start with 1 faction slot matching their faction, 1 elemental slot matching their primary element, and 1 randomly determined slot. As far as I know, this has an equal chance of being any of the other 4 faction slots, 6 elemental slots, or 4 rare slots; meaning when ‘fishing’ for a specific third relic you have a 1/14 chance of getting what you’re looking for.

Gifted initiates start with an additional Rare relic slot.

Arcanist apprentices gain an additional relic slot. This will either match their ‘secondary’ element, or, if their RNG third slot is already their secondary element, will be a ‘Rare’ relic.

What determines what Relic a mage drops?

When a mage graduates, apprentices, is hired, or retires, they will drop a relic matching one of their slots.

What relics can I get?

A full list of relics is beyond the scope of this guide; eventually this data will likely be uploaded to the wiki (once the game is out of the constant state of pre-release flux). It may also be posted in another WIP guide, which I will link to if it becomes publicly available. I will summarize the available plinth relics, however, as that’s a simpler list and very important.

Plinth relics?

The Archive is a mid-game room that can hold up to four plinths, enabling school-wide benefits from any relic placed upon those plinths. The plinth bonuses are standardized across all relics of a given type, and are non-stacking, so you can have at most 16 bonuses active (which would require 4 archives). Since you generally only need one faction bonus at a time, 3 archives is probably sufficient.

Elemental plinth bonuses:

• All elemental relics give a chance for every non-combat task a mage performs of that element to gain extra progress. These bonuses really add up – especially when mass-hunting fog incarnations or the like. A level 21 fire relic gives a 25% chance to gain +8 fire progress per cast, effectively taking your average 1-skill non-specialist mage up to 3 skill. This will make fog incarnations evaporate like mist.
• All faction relics allow you to target-summon initiates of that faction at the Student Summoner. This requires 30 gnosis shards and a faction relic of lower level than the one on the plinth. The initiate will enter the school already equipped with the selected relic. This means that if you have a level 24 relic on your plinth, you can start an initiate already equipped with a level 23 relic – quite a power boost for a level 1 character!
• Rare relics have unique abilities, some of which are very strong (and some nearly useless).
• Exuberant relics give additional gnosis shards per student skill level gained per four relic levels; this is an enormous boost for gnosis shard production, and probably the highest priority plinth relic to acquire.
• Diligent relics give additional XP on trial completion; +20% per four levels. This is also a very significant boost, and will dramatically improve the speed with which you level apprentices. Another very high priority.
• Temperance relics give bonus luxury to all rooms. This sounds better than it is, as it only grants basic luxury; and most rooms need specific types other than basic.
• Tranquility relics give a small chance of not dying when a mage takes a ‘killing blow’ in combat. The chances are way too small to rely on, and it’s generally better to.. Not die.

How do I target-farm for a specific relic?

Elemental and faction relics are simple: summon initiates of the target element or faction, complete their trials, level them, apprentice them, graduate them. You’ll get two 1/3 chances per apprentice you graduate (one at initiate->apprentice, and one at graduation). Assuming you don’t plan to hire the initiate, it’s generally faster to go sorcerer, since that requires the least skill XP to level; do not go arcanist, as that will give you an extra relic slot, reducing your chance for your target relic to 1/4 (unless, of course, you also want the arcanists second element).

Rare relics are harder. There are two ‘routes’ for farming for them:

• The first is to churn through lots of initiates. Keep them at tier 1, and graduate or dismiss them promptly, unless they roll the rare you’re looking for as their third slot. If they do roll the target rare, upgrade their wand and take them full the full apprenticing path for your two 1/3 chances at the relic. The math on this works out to a 1/14 chance of 2 1/3 chances; or approximately 4% per mage.
• The second is to summon gifted initiates. These have a guaranteed rare relic slot (1/4 chance of the one you want); plus can also still get it on their third slot. However, they only have a 1/4 chance of dropping the relic if they do have the slot. The odds work out to a bit over 11% per mage, so almost triple, but this method costs 45 gnosis per attempt.

Both of these methods can, of course, piggyback on top of farming for an elemental or faction relic.