Talisman Runestones Guide

This guide will explain the Runestones system in Talisman: Digital Edition. As you gain levels, you will unlock Runestones, but what do they do? Read this guide to find out.

Introduction

The latest update to Talisman: Digital Edition introduces a great new feature - Runestones.

What are Runestones?

Other games have perks, Talisman has Runestones! Character balancing is a major discussion point for Talisman players, and this Runestone system goes some way towards putting control of that into your hands. As well as a character's normal special abilities, you can give them extra bonuses by equipping them with Runestones. Ever wanted a stronger Wizard? Or wanted to be immune to being Toaded? Runestones give you these options.

How to unlock Runestones

As you play the game, you will level-up your profile and each time you level-up you will be offered a Runestone card. You can choose one Runestone per level and so the Runestones you do not choose can be gained next time you level-up. More on that below.

XP & Levelling

As you play a game of Talisman: Digital Edition, everything you do is being tracked in the background.
At the end of a completed game, you will receive experience points based on your actions. You can gain experience points for achieving each of the following goals during a game -

• Winning the game.
  
• Casting 3 Spells in one round.
• Using fate 10 times.
  
• Killing the most Spirits.
  
• Killing the most Strength creatures.
  
• Ridding yourself of the Poltergeist.
  
• Ridding yourself of the Hag.
  
• Having the highest number of Followers.
  
• Having the highest Strength at the end.
  
• Having the highest Craft at the end.
  
• Trading in the most trophies.
  
• Winning the most PvP fights.
  
• Spending the most gold.
  
• Taking revenge on a player.

These XP rewards are gained whether you are playing online or offline, but in offline games the XP gained is based on player 1's actions.
Each time you fill a bar for a goal, you will gain bonus XP! It can then be filled again and again for even more bonuses!

You will only gain XP if you complete a game. When playing online, this means that players who leave a game before it is finished will not receive any XP.

For ties, all players with the highest values will gain the XP.

Runestones

After earning enough XP to level-up, you will get the chance to obtain a Runestone. Runestones are cards that you can collect which can be attached to your characters to improve their stats and abilities.

Each Runestone card explains the effect of the card when you equip it. The more you level up, the more powerful the Runestones on offer become as they go from Bronze to Silver to Gold cards.

When you level-up the first time, you can choose one Runestone from the three on offer. From left to right, the Runestones are related to the Mind, the Body and the Spirit.

The Mind Runestones are -

Runestone of Resistence

Bronze - Your resistence to being a Toad increases, meaning you are a Toad for 2 turns instead of 3 when you equip this Runestone.
Silver - You are a Toad for 1 turn instead of 3.
Gold - You are immune to being turned into a Toad!

Runestone of Intellect

Bronze - Trade-in Craft trophies totalling 6 rather than 7.
Silver - Trade-in Craft trophies totalling 5 rather than 7.
Gold - Trade-in Craft trophies totalling 4 rather than 7.

Runestone of Thought

Bronze - You start with a Craft of 3.
Silver - You start with a Craft of 4.
Gold - You start with a Craft of 5.


The Body Runestones are -

Runestone of Health

Bronze - You start with an extra life.
Silver - You start with two extra lives.
Gold - You start with three extra lives.

Runestone of Power

Bronze - Trade-in Strength trophies totalling 6 rather than 7.
Silver - Trade-in Strength trophies totalling 5 rather than 7.
Gold - Trade-in Strength trophies totalling 4 rather than 7.

Runestone of Brawn

Bronze - You start with a Strength of 3.
Silver - You start with a Strength of 4.
Gold - You start with a Strength of 5.



The Spirit Runestones are -

Runestone of Alertness

Bronze - You will not miss a turn if you roll 1 at the Tavern.
Silver - You will never be stranded at the Temple.
Gold - You will never get lost at the Crags or the Forest.

Runestone of Protection

Bronze - Enemies at the Runes spaces receive a +1 bonus instead of +2.
Silver - Enemies at the Runes spaces receive no bonus.
Gold - You receive a +1 bonus to your Attack Roll on the Runes spaces.

Runestone of Wealth

Bronze - +1 to your starting Gold.
Silver - +2 to your starting Gold.
Gold - +3 to your starting Gold.

Runestone of Luck

Bronze - +1 to your starting Fate.
Silver - +2 to your starting Fate.
Gold - +3 to your starting Fate.

Runestone of Command

Bronze - When you cast the Command Spell from the Crown of Command, it will be successful on a roll of 3,4,5 or 6.
Silver - Command Spell success on a roll of 2,3,4,5 or 6.
Gold - Automatic Command Spell success.

Equipping

Runestones are attached to characters, so you must think carefully about which characters would benefit most from the Runestones.

For instance, if you unlock the Runestone of Thought, which allows you to start with a Craft of 3, then it would be pointless to equip the Wizard with this Runestone, as he starts with a Craft of 5 so he would get no benefit from it.

For Runestones which affect a character's starting stats, those new stats are considered to be the character's starting stats. For instance, if the Wizard is equipped with the Gold Runestone of Brawn, he starts with a Strength of 5 and his Strength cannot drop below 5 during a game.

Each character can have up to 3 Runestones and you can change these whenever you like, but not during a game. So you might want to have your Wizard start with a Strength of 5, plus give him complete resistence to Toading AND have him trade-in his Craft trophies sooner! You can mix-and-match and play with the Runestones to tweak your characters however you wish.

When you in an online game lobby and a new player enters, you will be able to see which Runestones, if any, the character they want to use has equipped.

Classic Rules

For those of you who would prefer to play Talisman in the same way as the board game, you do not have to play with the new Runestones. Simply press the 'Classic Rules' button when setting up a game and the following will apply -

• No Runestones are equipped.
  
• Each player has a randomly drawn character.
  
• When a character dies, they come back as a randomly drawn character.

This applies to both online and offline games.

Summary

To summarise -

Whether you're playing online or locally, complete a game to earn experience points. After earning enough XP, you will level-up. Each time you level-up, you can choose a Runestone card. Equip each of your characters with the Runestones you've unlocked to gain bonuses!

Have fun!

[Crash [LV]]

I'm more suspicious whether those achievement issues do not stem from internet stability, since in my experience having more stable internet connection helps a lot.

[Mr.Green]

Okay I was wrong about Spell Master but last night I lost progress to Hag, Poltergeist, Revenge!, Spell Master and all the xx/20 GOALS because my pc updated itself on an antivirus, hard reset itself and today the progress is on 1 after one game. That freaking sucks.
- My Steam agent (application) was entirly closed, booted it up and the game, Goals progress went down to 0. This should be patched somehow.

[Mr.Green]

Great Guide jaxon !
Few things still bothering me:
Spell Master - you sure it's not just cast the most amount spells in that session ? I've been getting that Goal at the end of the game even thou' I did not cast 3 spells in the same round.

And here is my biggest problem with all the 'Goals' after the game concluded -
WHAT makes you lose progress from x/10 or xx/20 in this game ??? Can anybody please tell me.
Several time now I was on like P-Piper 7/10 and then suddenly went down to 1/10 after some match.

[Mr. Fancy Pants]

@Cybershaman Thank you.

[Cybershaman]

@Mr. Fancy Pants @DiscipleOfShinku You are rewarded the Revenge goal by winning a Battle/Psychic Combat against another character who previously defeated you.

[Konomi☆Nanasaki]

i never used them, but (as long as everyone has them unlocked and the slotted runestones per character are saved and work for random characters) they sound like one could balance the characters a bit with them in private games.
does someone do this? are there any recommendations from experienced runestone users?

[timmynett]

ive been reset to lvl 0 and all my runestones are gone!

[biguglyzimmerzam]

Good evening,
I finished playing through a game yesterday, first game I played in a while ( I wasnt happy with the game whne the dice rolls were not randow, but thats fixed now) and upon completing the game, in which I won, on the rewards/goals/player progress page, appart from the fact my level i notice has been reset to lvl 1 although i have nearly 200hrs playing this game, the game then proceeded to ccrash and I got no new rewards to my profile, I ended the game with 24 STR 24 CFT 12 FAte and 22GOLD plus loads of followers and objects, I should have got loads of points added to my profile but I got 0, all my available rune also got reset to 0, Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem or not please?
I used to used runes to speed the play though up, so would really like them back lol

[folino]

Eccone uno. Dal menù principale devi andare su Profilo e cliccare sulla carta che vedi sulla destra.

[Giacomo]

qualche italiano in chat? ma le rune che ho preso dove finiscono?