Runes are special alchemical items that heroes use to access new abilities activated automatically in combat. Runes can be studied as separate technologies at the fourth level of the Lyceum and are produced in the Laboratory. To build the Laboratory, you need to learn the "Alchemy" technology in the same Lyceum level.

There are currently four types of runes available to 3 classes, with abilities for other classes still in development:

  • Stone Rune
    • Defender: Slowdown effect;
    • Archer: Slowdown effect;
    • Warrior: Temporary increased armor.
  • Malady Rune
    • Defender: Stun effect;
    • Archer: Poison effect;
    • Warrior: Bleed effect.
  • Wind Rune
    • Defender: Knockback effect;
    • Archer: Releases a hail of arrows on enemies;
    • Warrior: Allows for a sword strike that can hit multiple close-ranged targets at once.
  • Fire Rune
    • Defender: Provokes the nearest enemies;
    • Archer: Ignores some of the enemy's armor when dealing damage;
    • Warrior: The hero's damage increases, but their defense stat is reduced.

A detailed description of each rune can be found in the "Information" tab by clicking on the "i" icon in the recipe card, as well as in the inventory by clicking on the rune or during the runing of one of the available weapons.

Different effects of the same rune are considered separate abilities, so if you use heroes of different classes with similar runes, their effects will stack. For example: both your defender and archer have stone runed weapons, where both abilities have a slowdown effect. So if both heroes attack the same target, the effects will be stacked, slowing the target even more. However, if you use stone runes with heroes of the same class, the effects won’t be stacked, as the same ability will be in effect each time. In this case, every successful trigger of the ability will just update the cooldown timer of the effect.

Most runic abilities have a certain chance of triggering against enemies of a certain level. For example, rune fragments will reliably trigger against an enemy of level 40 or lower. The higher the level of the rune, the higher the chance of triggering against higher-level enemies, or the greater the effect the rune gives when activated.