Magic Spells

[Maceman121]

How does one use magic? I have 5 mana, but the shard marks only exist once or twice in a region, and even so I don't seem to get them. Makes using 5 mana to unlock the hero impossible since I have no spells. Now, this is only my first attempt, so maybe something in between rounds? I don't know and the tutorial doesn't seem to explain this.

[MarkoP]

We recently changed the start of the game, so the first essence to unlock spells has to be found in the world. If you go to arcane nodes, they have a higher chance to give an essence (and i believe uniquely named arcane nodes guarantee one on the first visit). You did point out a potential flaw in the idea tho, so i'll discuss this with the team to see how we can improve the situation for first time players.
In short, go to arcane nodes to get essence. Beating the final boss guarantees one essence as well.

[Maceman121]

Do the essences remain between games then? So once a spell is unlocked, it stays that way? Seems like there are only 4 spells or so, but otherwise what value is getting one for the final boss?

Sorry for the questions, playing through but no luck getting the nodes to give me an essence as I sit on 5 mana.

[MarkoP]

Essences are the meta currency, they persist across all of your runs. Spells are also persistent, so once you unlock them, they stay. Each core has 9 spells, and there are 5 cores total.
In general, going for arcane nodes across all zones should net you at least 1 essence, if not slightly more. It might be a bit too grindy atm, and we started discussing improving the situation, at the very least to make it clearer where essences are gained.

[Maceman121]

Thank you, that makes a lot more sense. I appreciate the information and the quick responses. Is the intent of the game to have this all discovered throughout the play and have only a bit of information in it, or am I just missing things? I see all the journal entries so it seems I might just be missing things, like the bestiary. I see it getting updated but for the life of me, I cannot find it.
Loving the game, and cannot wait to complete a round or die trying to see how it goes next round, just hoping to finally get an essence. My luck is poor this game, lol, 4 nodes and 0 essences.

**EDIT** Found the bestiary. I could not see the extra journal tab at the top and the notes didn't mention it when hovering over it, so I simply overlooked it a while.

[MarkoP]

The intent is to discover most of these things, but your questions are very valid.
I'll put down a note to investigate how we could make the bookmarks at the top more visible. Thanks!
edit: my designer tells me that in the first zone, the first time you get to any arcane node, it should award a guaranteed essence. Have you done that or missed all of the arcanes there?

[Maceman121]

I specifically hunted out a node in the first area (only made it to one), but it gave me mana instead of essence. My game is newer, started this week, but not sure if that was a recent patch.

[MarkoP]

Well after some investigation, we've found that the essence is given from the second run onwards, but only on some nodes. This is definitely something that will get updated soon (we've already started fixing these), so thank you for helping us find this oversight! :)
The idea still stands tho, arcane nodes are definitely one source of essence and going to them should net you some eventually.

[Maceman121]

Awesome! I am glad that I was able to help some. I was worried I was just missing something. Does that mean the first run, if you don't win, you get nothing that lasts? I think I am about to beat the city prior to the last 'run' area, but worried I won't survive and won't net anything for this long, though fun, run

[MarkoP]

Here's the relevant line from our version control:

- arcane encounters in Albion now will grant the first essence even on the first run

We've also added a hint that explains where to find essences, so until we find a better (aka more involved) solution and time for it, we hope this should at least mitigate things to a degree.
For your run, if you beat the final boss, you get 1 essence, every time you do so!

[Maceman121]

I really love that you listen to the players to hear what is going on and adapt when what we see isn't what you are trying to give across. I am really glad that the issue was found and fixed for others and cannot wait for follow on runs to blow apart the world with magic XD.

Thank you!