Spells

**Spells** are an active component of the game mechanics that enables to boost production and cost mana.

Their duration, resource gain, mana cost, and mana regeneration speed can be altered by getting specific Faction, Heritage, Challenge, or Research upgrades. Different aspects of the spells can also be used in other upgrades (*eg: while a spell is active, the number of spell casts, based on mana produced, etc.*).

Spells are not cast while offline, but purchasing the autocasting upgrades allow "Mana produced (This game)", the "Spells casted (This game)" and spell activity time stats to keep growing while offline, at a vastly reduced rate.

The trick to use spells efficiently relies on finding the best setup: Which spell combination to cast, at what timing, with which automatic-casting tool, and where to set the contingency arrow. Like for upgrades, these choices can make a crucial difference for your game progress.

In Realm Grinder, the spells can be classified in three types:

* Default spells - which are always available.
* Alignment spells - which appear when the player chooses an alignment.
* Faction spells - which appear when the player allies with a Faction.

These terms are mostly used for perk description purposes.

## Spell Upgrades

Starting from R0, these spell upgrades are obtained by unlocking the spell's trophy, with the exception of Mercenaries, which require R75+.

## Challenge Spell Upgrades

From R2 to R33, Challenge Spell Upgrades are given on completion of all Tier challenges of a Faction. Once obtained, and the active Faction's default spell upgrade is bought, they will be turned on by default.

## Tier Spell Upgrades

After the first Ascension, for each spell besides tax collection, 6 tier spell upgrades become available. Each tier gives 1 additional spell cast, and with all tiers combined, allows to cast one spell up to 6 times simultaneously. Each Tier will require double the amount of mana as the previous one, and they do not seem to affect spell activity time, neither online nor offline.
Tier upgrade names starts with the default spell's name followed by the tier number, starting from 2 to 6. (e.g.: Holy Light 2, Holy Light 3, etc.)

Once tier spell upgrades are bought, you will need to use the Tiered Autocasting to set the amount of tier casts you wish, or else the spells will remain at tier 1.

After the second Ascension, the 7th tier spell upgrades will become available. This tier is unaffected by ascension penalties, with the exception of Dragon's Breath (presumably it would require 7 tiers of the same breath effect).

**Note:** you only need to unlock the tiers for each spell once, but you need to buy the tiers with coins/FC at every abdication. Also note that what counts for unlocking a tier is the total time (i.e, you need roughly 15 days to unlock tiers 1-6, as opposed to 15 days of spell activity after unlocking tier 5 in order to unlock tier 6), so it's more beneficial to unlock a spell up to tier 6 whenever possible. Since version 3 the Arcane Brilliance trophy series reduces the unlock times required, so unlocking spells tier-by-tier (for all spells to get the trophies) can be a viable strategy as well.

Spell Active Time for tier n + 1:

43200
∗
(
(
n
−
0.5
∗
A

)
2

−
(
n
−
0.5
∗
A
)
)
∗

0.98

(
R
−
(
n
−
0.5
∗
(
A
1
)
)
−
42
)

{\displaystyle 43200 \* ((n - 0.5 \* A) ^2 - (n - 0.5 \* A)) \* 0.98 ^{(R - (n - 0.5 \* (A + 1)) - 42)}}

 seconds,where T is tier, A is amount of arcane brilliance trophies, R is reincarnation.

This formula is not correct - assuming that (T) is supposed to be (n), it is showing 8.83 hours for a tier 5 unlock for reincarnation 93 with 4 trophies.
Coins for tier n + 1:

x

1
0.25
∗
(
n
−
1
)

{\displaystyle x^{1 + 0.25 \* (n - 1)}}

Faction Coins for tier n + 1:

x

1
0.15
∗
(
n
−
1
)

{\displaystyle x^{1 + 0.15 \* (n - 1)}}

*Formula:

43200
∗
(
(
T
−
0.5
∗
A

)
2

−
(
T
0.5
∗
A
)
)
∗

0.98

(
R
−
T
0.5
∗
A
−
42
)

{\displaystyle 43200 \* ((T-0.5 \* A)^2-(T+0.5\*A)) \* 0.98^{(R-T+0.5\*A-42)}}

## Automatic Casting

Spells can be cast by clicking the spell button, using keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys n°1-6 in visual order from top to bottom) or automated using the automatic casting tools obtainable through the upgrades listed here below.

Automatic casting can be setup by clicking on the autocast buttons inside each spell tool-tip, or by using the keyboard shortcuts: Silver: CTRL+Click, Gold: SHIFT+Click, Bronze: CTRL+SHIFT+Click, Diamond: CTRL+X+Click. Highest Possible Diamond Tier: Z+Click.

The total offline bonuses cap at a combined total of 90% boost to mana produced, and a count of 10 generic spellcasts per minute.

If auto-casting *Tax Collection,* note that it should be set as last spell, if at all. As it is the cheapest and has no duration, it will use up all the mana, and never leave enough for the other spells to be cast.

## Offline Spell Casting

While offline, Spells set on autocast will not be cast, and no effects will be gained. Instead, a generic non-specific spell will increase your overall "Spell Casts" entry in the stats. Individual spell counts (eg Combo Strike) will not increase.

However, individual spells *will* gain some "Active Time (This game)" based on their duration, cost and online mana regeneration rate. The amount is calculated as follows:

For Spells to work offline, you need certain upgrades:

* **Offline Mana Regen** Upgrades (such as included in the 'Automatic auto-casting' upgrade)
* **Offline Spell Casting** Upgrades (such as included in the 'Priority Auto-casting' and later upgrades)

The bonuses combine additively. The total bonus of all the offline auto-casting upgrades is 90% of your online mana regeneration rate, as well as 10 spell casts per minute and .

Mana *spent* is not a stat, and does not seem to accumulate at all while offline (but note that Primal Balance depends on mana *produced*, not spent).

**Special cases:**

* *Tax Collection* has no duration. It is counted for the number of spells set to autocast but no production will be gained from it being set to autocast offline.

* If any *Brainwave* cast time remains when going offline, it will simply continue until finished.

## See also

* Challenges - some tier challenge rewards also have spell upgrades
* Realm Weather Service Lightning Strike spell forecast tool

## Reference

1. ↑ If you have CtA tier 5 but not enough mana to cast all 5 tiers at once, the game will cast them when it can. eg: In the middle of CtA T1, it will start CtA T2, then CtA T3... and each time, the timer will get reset. All tiers combined, this results in fewer but longer casts. (which is not an advantage as you will also have longer inactivity time between the spell casts.)
2. ↑ Formula source
3. ↑ Unlock time table by cueballkev (source)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 To manage to click inside the spell tool-tips, the option "Enable Spell Tooltip Persist" requires to be enabled.
5. ↑ Source: offline spell activity time, its kinda weird now @kongregate forums