Mechanics: Magic
This will probably be the last mechanics post for awhile since we've gotten through most of the more complicated aspects of the game. If there is any aspect of the game that is unclear to anyone, just let me know and I can do my best to explain it.
With that out of the way, Magic. We're at the point in the game where you'll almost certainly be able to use a bit of it, so it's a good time to break down what spells we can learn and how we can learn them. All magic is tied to the various God's in the game, and you need affinity with said God's in order to learn and subsequently use the spells. How do you gain affinity? For all God's, the primary way to gain affinity is to draw their sigil at the proper ritual circle. Gro-Goroth, Sylvian, Rher and Vinushka must be drawn at Asymmetrical circles, while Alll-mer and the God of Fear and Hunger must be drawn at Perfection Circles. There are 4 usable Asymmetrical circles in the game, and 6 Perfection circles, at least as of the most current version of the game. While there are more than enough Perfection Circles to max out both F&H and Alll-mer, there are far fewer Asymmetrical Circles, meaning for most characters it is not possible to get max affinity with more than a single Old God. Fortunately, there are some alternative ways to gain affinity for specific Gods:
-You can gain Gro-Goroth affinity by using his circles to perform sacrifice. You can attempt to sacrifice any character in the game at a GG circle, but no contestant will allow you to do so without a fight. There are, however, a handful of non-contestant party members who can freely be sacrificed. Black Kalev is among these. Beyond this, the Blood Sacrifice skill which can be learned from the Radiating Soul can be used to gain affinity
with no limit. Typically a Sacrifice will exhaust the circle's power and render it unusable, but Blood Sacrifice does not. The skill does reduce your HP to 1, so you will need healing items to use it repeatedly, but it can easily be used to max out your GG affinity should you have it. There is, in fact, a pre-made GG circle in the game and if you're willing to wait until you can reach it,
you can max out GG's affinity without drawing a single circle for him.
-Sylvian has the Masturbation skill, also learned from the Radiating Soul. This skill is one time use. There is a pre-made Sylvian circle, but this skill is a one shot, you do still need to draw at least one Sylvian circle to max out Sylvian's affinity. Given Sylvian only goes up the level 2, the pre-made circle is largely pointless unless Pheromones is the only thing you want.
-Alll-mer has the confessional, as we saw in the last video. This is completely worthless because Alll-mer's skills are trash anyway, and you'd need to draw two Alll-mer symbols to get any use out of him anyway (Alll-mer is another 2 level God), but it is there.
Now that we've established that, let's break down what every God gives you. I'll be copying the skill tables from the
Fear and Hunger wiki, and I'll be sure to clear up any part that might be obtuse or inaccurate.
God of Fear and Hunger:
Rot: Target takes increased damage for rest of battle if the spell succeeds. Rot the victim from inside out to make them vulnerable to attacks. Requires 1 Rev Point. 20 Mind
Mastery over vermin: Magic attack, hits all targets, very low damage but high chance to inflict confusion. Also lets you understand what the frogs in Maiden forest are saying. Gain the ability to talk to those who are often left unseen. Passive
Flesh puppetry: Summons hands that deal 4 physical attacks at end of turn to a random target, based off of your attack stat. Puppeteer severed limbs at your disposal to attack the enemy. You need sawed off limbs to do this. 10 Mind
Mischief of Rats: Stuns and deals low damage to all enemies. Summon a mischief of rats to disrupt the enemy. Rats spread confusion and disease where ever they go. 35 Mind
Agility +1
The Fear and Hunger skill tree is a mixed bag of skills and passives that are really good and some that are situational and gimmicky. Rot is pretty pointless because it can often fail on the things you'd want to use it on, and I find Flesh Puppetry to not be worth the mind it takes to have it active given the damage it does. The wiki neglects to mention that the main thing Mastery over Vermin does is allow you to talk to rats, who will give you supplies should you seek them out. Mischief of Rats is a very good skill, with a very high probability of completely shutting an enemy down, but it does have a high mind cost so it's not spammable under normal circumstances. Agility +1 is of course very good, any boost to agility is appreciated. F&H is a God you're going to max out regardless just because it lets you save more, but the good skills it has are very good, so definitely pick those up pronto.
Alll-mer:
Blood Sword: Equips Blood Sword weapon to user for fight. The blood of Alll-mer boils and rages even ages after his death. Just a drop send swords to the heart of his enemies. Summon a blood sword to wield in battle. 10 Mind
Inverse crown of thorns: Suicide A glimpse of the pain and suffering Alll-mer the ascended one endured on the cross. Can you feel closer to the god this way? Death
Defense +1
Alll-mer is essentially a joke God. Blood Sword would be situationally useful if there were more ghost enemies in the game, but there aren't so it's mostly a waste to cast it since it's only negligibly stronger than a one handed weapon. Defense +1 lowers incoming damage by a whopping 1%, so it will often not do anything at all. Inverse Crown of Thorns is a literal joke skill to kill yourself with. Terrible, and his circle effect sucks too, so just ignore Alll-mer.
Rher:
Reveal Aura: Find the mutated forms of other contestants Reveal position of the other contestants through examining a map. To sense these position, a spike of energy is required. You can't sense a person without this. Passive
Mind Read: Automatically used in conversation on the overworld A moon magic that reveals the inner thoughts of fellow humans. Passive
Golden Gates: Travel through the Golden Gates in the Rher dimension A gift from the Moon God himself. Gain access to golden gates that lead you out from madness and world of deceit. A passive ability. Passive
Mind Capacity +25
Rher is the odd man out among Gods, not actually teaching any spells but a selection of gimmicky passives. Reveal Aura can be useful in Maso mode on your first time, but it's largely useless because it does not work on Contestants that are not mutated (we'll go over that in the videos soon enough.) Mind Read just gives flavor text. Golden Gates is the skill that you need to open up those gold doors we've been seeing in the Rher dimension. This has the interesting effect of allowing you to travel through any Rher dimension in the game that has Golden Gates, including one that your normally need to draw your own Rher circle to get into. It's a level 3 affinity skill however, and Rher is absolutely not worth that many circles. Typically this only picked up by people playing Marina who chose Rher as her God to have maxed affinity with. This can allow for some dungeon bypass shenanigans, but it's not super practical and it's more of a for fun skill. Mind Capacity +25 is the one mechanically useful passive Rher gives you, but since it's a level 2 skill, I really can't advise picking it up. Rher just isn't worth that much dedication.
Sylvian:
Pheromones: Targeted ally will be focused by enemies N/A Release of pheromones that makes the opponent divert all attention to the target. 10 Mind
Loving whispers: Single target heal for 60-100 Body N/A Concentrated whispers carried out by the older god Sylvian. Heals a considerable amount of health. Precariously the whisper's effects are solely based on Sylvian's whims. 30 Mind
Healing whispers: Party heal 30-70 Body N/A Concentrated whispers carried by the older god Sylvian. Heals a considerable amount of health of all the party members. 30 Mind
Brain flower: Plant a seed on a corpse to make a brain flower, Heals mind. N/A Plant your personal seeds of brain flower to a fertile ground. Freshly deceased corpses being the most fertile of grounds. A brain flower replenishes sanity and mind. None, overworld
Heart flower: Plant a seed on a corpse to make a heart flower, Heals body. N/A Plant your personal seeds of heart flower to a fertile ground. Freshly deceased corpses being the most fertile of grounds. A heart flower replenishes body and wounds. None, overworld
Magic defense +1
Note that Heart Flower and Brain Flower require maxed out affinity with Vinushka as well to learn. Sylvian is the God to beeline for to pick up support magic, being the only one that teaches the very useful Whisper healing spells. While the mind cost of these spells can be hefty, they are fantastic to have in emergencies, and their both level 2 skills so you can get both at the same time. Pheromones is excellent, allowing you to designate a tank for your party. There are very few multi targeting skills from enemies in the game, so this can easily render the enemy useless. (It can miss however, so be wary) Brain Flower and Heart Flower are too impractical for me to recommend on anything other than a gimmick build, but they are interesting if you are able to pick them up. Magic Defense +1 is even more useless than Defense +1. Very good God with a very good circle effect, and you should do the best you can to max it out.
Vinushka:
Roots that reap Magic attack, All enemies and their body parts. Breaks bones. a.mat * 4 - b.mdf * 2 A talented wizard can generate a shockwave that travels underground and forces sharp roots to push through the ground. Attacks all enemies. Requires 2 Rev Points. 25 Mind
Pyromancy trick: Fire magic, Single target. Can cause burn status a.mat * 4 - b.mdf * 2 A simple pyromancy trick to burn your opponents 10 Mind
Combustion: Fire magic. Single target. Can cause burn status 80 + a.mat * 5 - b.mdf * 2 A talented wizard can control the heart in the atmosphere and create a large combustion of fire and flames to devour their opponents. Requires 1 Rev Point. 35 Mind
Photosynthesis: Restores 1 body every 10 seconds in overworld outdoors during the day and evening. N/A The process in which you use sunlight to create oxygen and energy to replenish your health gradually over time. Passive
Brain flower: Plant a seed on a corpse to make a brain flower, Heals mind. N/A Plant your personal seeds of brain flower to a fertile ground. Freshly deceased corpses being the most fertile of grounds. A brain flower replenishes sanity and mind. None, overworld
Scorched earth: Sets ablaze the ground, dealing small amount of damage along with improving fire spells. N/A Scorch your surroundings completely to create an environment that greatly enhances fire attacks. Requires 1 Rev Point. 50 Mind
Spontaneous Combustion: Die immediately. N/A The (sic) highest form of pyromancy. Become the flames itself. Death
Greater Photosynthesis: Restores 1 body every 5 seconds in overworld outdoors during the day and evening. N/A The process in which you use sunlight to create oxygen and energy to replenish your health gradually over time. Requires sunlight obviously. A passive skill. Passive
Heart flower: Plant a seed on a corpse to make a heart flower, Heals body. N/A Plant your personal seeds of heart flower to a fertile ground. Freshly deceased corpses being the most fertile of grounds. A heart flower replenishes body and wounds. None, overworld
Magic Attack +1
Magic Attack +1
The first of the Gods that gives us a real offensive presence with Magic, and he is by far the lesser of the two. It kind of shocks me how expansive his skill list is considering how crappy he is without extreme power gaming. It does not help that Vinushka requires dedicating most of your circles to maxing him out. The gimmick with Vinushka is that his spells have no or low base power, but scale extremely well with your magic attack stat. Disregard the defense aspect of the damage formulas there, in as far as I can tell the enemy's Fire and Otherworldly resistances are the only thing that detract from Magic damage. Starting from the top, Roots That Reap is one of the few multi-targeting attacks in the game, and with a Chac Chac and a Death Mask it can actually be quite good. Enemy head evasion is also much lower for magical attacks so it can often kill things outright with a head shot. However, compared to the other option it's not much more effective in most cases and the two rev points and high mind cost make it a tough sell for anyone but Marina. Pyromancy trick is very weak without a lot of modifier stacking, but it is a reliable source of Burning. It has reduced accuracy though, so it can miss annoyingly frequently. Combustion has the potential to be the strongest attack in the game, but you quite literally have to stack every modifier possible to get it there. I really can't recommend building around this one unless you want to do something really goofy like killing the Irrational Obelisk. Photosynthesis and Greater Photosynthesis might just be the worst passives in the game that actually work properly, regenerating your Body at a comedically slow rate during the day and only if you're outside. These skills literally do nothing in Maso mode since it's always night there. Scorched Earth requires maxed out GG affinity to use, and is a pretty unique skill. When in effect, it increases all Fire damage by 50%. Additionally, it inflicts the small burning status on friend and foe alike. Combined with Combustion and La Danse Macabre, you can hit some pretty silly damage figures, but the high mind cost between the two skills makes it way too impractical most of the time. We've gone over the flower skills already, the magic attack bonuses are negligible, and Spontaneous Combustion is another joke suicide skill. Fun.
Gro-Goroth:
Necromancy: Can revive dead soldiers and sickle-wielding villagers as party members. N/A Bring back life to where it once lingered. The bond between the body and the soul must still be relatively fresh for the necromancy to work. None, overworld
Hurting: Magic attack, Single target 200 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 Create a devastating vortex out of your concentrated feelings of hurting and hatred. Requires 1 Rev Point. 20 Mind
Blood golem: Summon a party member in battle, cannot be controlled N/A Sacrifice blood to summon a golem that fights by your side temporarily. The golem only takes orders from the one that gave birth to it. Requires 1 Rev Point. None
Scorched earth: Dramatically increases the strength of fire attacks to all battle participants N/A Scorch your surroundings completely to create an environment that greatly enhances fire attacks. Requires 1 Rev Point. 50 Mind
Black smog: Magic attack, all parts/enemies. Can inflict blindness 50 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 Crystallize manmade darkness born from the industrial age to blind and suffocate your opponents. Requires 1 Rev Point. 10 Mind
Black orb: Magic attack, single target, attacks four times. 100 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 A concentrated negative energy that can be hurled at your opponent multiple times. The orb maintains its form only temporarily before the ill will disperses. 30 Mind
Attack +1
Attack +1
Now here's the guy you want to dedicate to for attacking magic. GG's skills have higher base powers but don't scale as well with your magic attack stat. Because La Danse Macabre scales in a really funky way when you mix in magic boosting equipment though, these skills can hit extremely hard on a dedicated magic build, and they're still a lot better than Vinushka's skills outside of that due to those skills lacking almost any base power. We start off with non-attacking skills though, Necromancy allows you to create ghouls. Ghouls can be made out of
Sickle Villagers and
Dead Soldiers. Any other type of deceased enemy will not work. Ghouls are basically just meat shields. They attack randomly for very low damage, though every once in awhile they'll land a head shot and end a fight immediately. Unlike Black Kalev, they can be given armor and some accessories, so they have a bit more survivability. The best function of them, though, is that they can be sacrificed to GG for free affinity boosts. Since they're completely subservient to you, they will not fight back. Blood Golem is one of the best support spells in the game, creating a 200 Body punching bag that actually hits decently hard as well. This spell is by far the best First spell in the game with Spice Forge, completely bypassing the rev point cost and allowing you to get a tank on the field before the enemy can do anything. Note that Blood Golem in Fear and Hunger 1 did require some Body to cast, for some reason it doesn't require that in this game. We've covered Scorched Earth already. Hurting is the one bad skill GG has, doing pretty mediocre damage for the fact that it costs Mind AND Rev to cast (and quite a bit of Mind at that.) The main reason you learn it is to get the next skill, Black Smog. Black Smog deals low multi-targeting damage, but it does enough to kill most enemies should it land a head shot. Even better, it causes Blindness with extremely high probability, meaning that anything that can survive it will be almost completely unable to hit anything after. With La Danse Macabre and magic boosting equipment, its damage actually can become pretty substantial too. Finally, there's Black Orb, the de facto best attacking spell in the game. While its base power is lower than Hurting, Black Orb his
4 times, doing way more damage in the process. While it costs more mind, it DOES NOT cost Rev points to cast, so it is very spammable with the right set up. Great choice for the Blue Spice from Spice Forge, and it scales very well with magic boosting equipment and La Danse Macabre, being able to hit for about 2800 damage on most things when you have a Chac Chac and Death Mask equipped. Once again, the attack boost are fairly negligible, though Marcoh can like them since they count for double with Quick Jabs.
New Game + Skills:
These are skills that do not require any affinity with any specific God to learn, and are instead usable on any subsequent playthrough once clearing a specific ending. There is one odd man out here that I'll mention when it becomes relevant.
Red Arc: Magic attack, Single target 250 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 Strike your enemy with a concentrated bolt of electricity that will stun weaker foes 20 Mind Ending A
Moth Swarm: Magic attack, Single target a.mat / 2 Summon a swarm of moths to aid you in combat. The moths are the very same that leaked from the paradise, the artificial green, when the door between the worlds was opened. 30 Mind Ending A on Masochism Mode
Lunar Meteorite: Magic attack, Single target 200 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 Summon a small piece of the moon. Requires 1 Rev Point. 40 Mind Ending B
Lunar Storm: Magic attack, all parts/enemies a.atk * 4 - b.def * 2 Requires 2 Rev Points. 50 Mind Ending B on Masochism Mode
Longinus: Equips Longinus weapon to user for fight. The blood of Alll-mer boils and rages even ages after his death. Just a drop thrusts spears to the torso of his enemies. Summon a blood spear to wield in battle. 20 Mind Ending C
Chains of Torment: Magic attack, single target 600 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2 Summon the chains that tormented Chambara the Tormented One for hundreds of years. Requires 2 Rev Points. 80 Mind
Defeat the Tormented One, only unlocked for the playthrough
Chains of Torment DOES NOT require the game to be beaten, and instead is just a temporary unlock for completing a specific sidequest in a given playthrough. Moth Swarm is currently bugged, but in a good way, unlocking for completing Ending A in general and not just on Maso mode. All New Game+ Spells are incompatible with Spice Forge, which is a huge drawback for almost all of them. Starting from the top, we get the only good spell in this crop. Red Arc hits harder than Hurting, has no rev cost, has 100% chance of stunning the targeted limb,
and completely ignores accuracy checks, hitting its target 100% of the time. Red Arc is not just good, it's kind of broken since you don't have to do anything special to get it once its unlocked, and for the half the game it can end any fight just by aiming for the Head. You do need to be able to foot the hefty 20 mind cost, but it is very good for Maso mode and highly advisable you unlock it for that. The rest of these are crap. Moth's Swarm sounds amazingly terrible from the way the Wiki describes it, but it is better than it sounds. Moth Swarm hits 6 times, and each hit restores your HP by the exact amount of damage it dealt. Still pretty bad, but it is at least interesting. Lunar Meteorite is literally just Hurting but costs double the mind. Lunar Storm is just Roots that Reap but costs double the mind. Literally the only thing these spells have over those is that you can learn them without any affinity. Big whoop. Longinus is actually not that terrible, the spear itself is +70 attack power, just 2 points below the weapon in the game that has the highest power, but I'm not really sure if it's worth the turn to cast it most of the time. Chains of Torment is technically the strongest spell in the game, but that mind cost is just not worth it. It's incompatible with Blue Spice, and the accessory that lowers mind cost on spells is dependent on RNG to get and only mildly reduces the cost. It's mostly a for fun spell then anything I'd seriously recommend picking up.