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Hex Magic - Version 19 vs Version 20
Oct 23, 2026, 05:09 AM
Added a link to the Witchcraft equipment and progression setup
Oct 23, 2026, 01:45 PM
Corrected Witchcraft health recovery, capstone effects and Astral Communion
11How Hex Magic Works22Hex magic is Coen's primary supernatural tool during the day. To use magic in this world, a practitioner needs a gate to let it flow. That gate is carved runes. Coen's left arm bears rune scars, inscriptions carved into his flesh that make him a living conduit for supernatural energy.44The magic is described as grounded and ritualistic, tied to blood, heat, and pulsing air rather than flashy fantasy effects. Hexes are only available during daylight hours. At night, Coen's vampiric regeneration kicks in and his rune scars seal over, rendering hex magic inert. This is the biological reason for the day/night ability split. His vampire nature actively heals the very wounds that channel his human magic.66Spell Categories99Hex magic divides into categories:1111CategoryEffectOffensiveDirect damage and combat control hexes such as Burning Blood and Ravenous FlockDefensiveProtective abilities such as Life Lock, which blocks incoming damage and reflects it backInvestigativeInformation-gathering spells like Compel SoulUtility / TraversalMovement and field hexes like Mercurial Fervour1313Known Hexes1414Post-launch coverage of the shipped game counts ten Witchcraft abilities. No official roster has been published, but databases compiled from the game's own text list the same ten, so the count is well supported. Four of the ten are taught to Coen by Anca towards the end of the prologue. The other six are locked behind manuals that have to be found or bought before they can be learned and levelled.1616HexHow It Is UnlockedEffectCompel SoulTaught by Anca at the end of the prologueLets Coen speak with the dead. An investigation tool rather than a combat one.Astral CommunionTaught by Anca at the end of the prologueEffect not published in any source reached so far.Burning BloodTaught by Anca at the end of the prologue; further manuals are scattered across the valleyDeals damage over time to a single target.Mercurial FervourTaught by Anca at the end of the prologue; a second manual sits in the convent library at St. Tyna’s GroveGrants haste while exploring by briefly slowing the world around Coen.Ravenous FlockManual, from either of two quests in the A Pilgrimage for Power seriesArea attack that stuns a target with a flock of crows. Attacking the target triggers further area attacks.Cycle of RuinManual, from the Ancient Circle at the west end of the Cursed Chasm, among other placesExtends the duration of active Witchcraft abilities with every landed attack, block and Perfect Block.Soul ReapingManual, from the Ancient Circle east of Maragir, among other placesDrains health from the target over time and keeps it at a distance.Unholy VitalityManual, from the Haunted: Site of Crucifixion in the southern Maragir Wealds, among other placesRegenerates health after an ability is used.Soul StigmaManual, from the Ancient Circle in northeast St. Tyna’s Grove, among other placesRaises critical chance and critical damage against the marked target.Life LockUnlocked automatically during the Manumit questlineBlocks incoming damage and reflects it back at the attacker.18+HexHow It Is UnlockedEffectCompel SoulTaught by Anca at the end of the prologueLets Coen speak with the dead. An investigation tool rather than a combat one.Astral CommunionTaught by Anca at the end of the prologueActivates dormant magic at places of power. Each exorcised place permanently improves Witchcraft ability damage.Burning BloodTaught by Anca at the end of the prologue; further manuals are scattered across the valleyDeals damage over time to a single target.Mercurial FervourTaught by Anca at the end of the prologue; a second manual sits in the convent library at St. Tyna’s GroveGrants haste while exploring by briefly slowing the world around Coen.Ravenous FlockManual, from either of two quests in the A Pilgrimage for Power seriesArea attack that stuns a target with a flock of crows. Attacking the target triggers further area attacks.Cycle of RuinManual, from the Ancient Circle at the west end of the Cursed Chasm, among other placesExtends the duration of active Witchcraft abilities with every landed attack, block and Perfect Block.Soul ReapingManual, from the Ancient Circle east of Maragir, among other placesDrains health from the target over time and keeps it at a distance.Unholy VitalityManual, from the Haunted: Site of Crucifixion in the southern Maragir Wealds, among other placesRegenerates health after an ability is used.Soul StigmaManual, from the Ancient Circle in northeast St. Tyna’s Grove, among other placesRaises critical chance and critical damage against the marked target.Life LockUnlocked automatically during the Manumit questlineBlocks incoming damage and reflects it back at the attacker.1919Compel Soul2020An investigative hex that lets Coen speak with the dead. Useful for unraveling mysteries, gathering information about NPCs no longer alive, or learning details about past events. It is a quest-and-exploration tool more than a combat tool, and it ties into the game's investigation systems alongside the new focus mode detective vision.2222Burning Blood2424An offensive hex that boils the blood of enemies and burns their skin, dealing physical damage over time. The name is literal. Coen heats the target's blood until it starts to cook them from the inside. It is one of the first hexes shown in gameplay demos.2626Mercurial Fervour2828A traversal hex that accelerates Coen's footspeed across open terrain during daytime. Since there is no horse system in the game, Mercurial Fervour is the primary fast-travel-equivalent for sunlit movement; wolf transformation handles the same role at night. The hex was named on stream during the Road to Launch event as the way Coen covers ground when he is not within sprint range of a shrine fast-travel anchor.29+Mercurial Fervour grants faster overland movement during the day. Double-tap Sprint to use Haste. Wolf transformation provides faster movement at night, and unlocked blue shrine icons in the Map menu provide fast travel.3030Ravenous Flock3232An area attack that stuns a target with a flock of crows, with follow-up area hits triggered by attacking that target. Before launch this ability was filed with the night-side vampire abilities, on the strength of a dev-stream clip that showed it among a run of combat moves without naming a tree. Coverage of the shipped game places it first among the six manual-locked Witchcraft hexes, with its own manual locations and vendors, which is the stronger evidence of the two. The dev-stream appearance is real and is not in dispute; only the tree it was filed under has changed.3434Compel Soul is confirmed by its own achievement, awarded for speaking with a dead person using it. That places it firmly in the investigative half of the toolkit rather than the combat half, and confirms the dead are a usable source of information rather than set dressing.3636Where Manuals Come From3838The six manual-locked hexes are gated by a physical book rather than by perk points. Manuals turn up as rewards for Ancient Circles, Haunted Sites and the quests of the A Pilgrimage for Power series, and loose copies sit in bookcases around the valley. Duplicate manuals are not wasted: a second copy raises the level of an ability Coen already knows.4040MerchantWhere To Find ThemAncaBecomes a vendor at the Crossroads Inn in St. Tyna’s Grove once Echoes of Silenced Bells is done.VeraEast of the swamp in the Briar Sloughs, southeast of Mert’s Mill.Peddler of WondersIn the Midden, the ruined district west of Svartrau.MevasserLives in Neustadt in Svartrau and is not marked on the map.Uriash MatriarchReached through Lacra’s Song of the Mountain quest.Sanzhana merchantOpened up by completing Good Home north of Svartrau, then helping the Sanzhana through Letters to Lunka until Pearly and Precious is finished.4242Names Outside the Counted Roster4343Two hex names this page has carried since before release do not appear among the ten Witchcraft abilities counted in the shipped game. One of them has since been placed: Acrid Dust was never a hex. The other, Feral Mind, is still unaccounted for, and it is kept here with its provenance rather than dropped.4545Feral Mind4747Named directly as a spell in the publisher's own community bulletin question-and-answer, which describes it as prompting an enemy to start attacking random targets including their own allies, and shown under hex magic in the June 2025 gameplay deep dive with the same effect. Both of those are dated first-party attestations, so the name and the effect are not in doubt. Feral Mind does not appear under that name in the shipped Witchcraft roster as of September 2026, and no account of the shipped game says whether it was cut, renamed or moved, so the hex classification in particular should not be relied on.4949Acrid Dust5151Acrid Dust, the dust-throwing stun shown in the June 2025 gameplay reveal, is a Swordmastery technique rather than a hex: Coen throws dust into an enemy's eyes to stun it. Guides to the shipped game list this stun as Dirty Trick, which stuns and damages a target and leaves it open to active abilities. Its manuals are sold by Swordmastery teachers, and it belongs in the Swordmastery roster rather than here. Acrid Dust is best read as the stun's earlier name.5353Activation Charges5555Hex magic does not run on mana. Coen earns activation charges by performing well in directional combat (good attacks, good blocks, good parries) and spends those charges to cast hexes or perform execution moves. The system links spell access to swordplay quality: a player who fights well has hexes available; a player who fumbles the directional combat does not.56+Hex magic uses Activation Charges rather than mana. Attacks and successful blocks replenish charges, and passive restoration, equipment, perks and consumables provide further support. These charges are shared with active abilities from the other trees. Defensive timing helps replenish them, while a build can also improve recovery through other means.5757Charges are shared across the ability bar, which means a hex slot competes with execution moves like Artery Strike for the same charge budget. Players start with three ability slots, expandable through skill tree progression. The intended loop is fight well, charge up, dump a hex at the right moment, charge again.58+Charges are shared across the ability bar, which means a hex slot competes with execution moves like Artery Strike for the same charge budget. Each tree has its own ability-slot limit, expandable through skill tree progression. The intended loop is fight well, charge up, dump a hex at the right moment, charge again.5959Day Versus Night6161Hex magic is one half of Coen's Dawnwalker toolkit. At sunrise the rune scars on his arm open and the hexes become available; at sunset they seal and the vampiric powers toolkit takes over. Mercurial Fervour belongs strictly to the day side. Players who push to do the bulk of a quest at night will lose access to the hex layer for the duration; players who push the day-only route lose access to Shadowstep, Planeshift, and the vampire combat layer for the duration.6363The skill tree splits along this same line: Witchcraft deepens hex magic, Swordmastery deepens sword combat, Vampirism deepens claw combat and supernatural mobility, and a band of generic perks spanning all three contains passives that work in both forms.6565Named Witchcraft Perks6767Perks on the witchcraft side of progression are bought with skill points and time at a road shrine, once the matching manual has been found or purchased. Several are confirmed by name.6969PerkNotesFrugal WitchcraftReduces what casting costs Coen, and returns some of the health spent when a hex kills an enemy.Forbidden SigilsOpens an additional ability slot on the witchcraft side.AmalgamLets more than one consumable buff stay active at the same time.Runic BulwarkOne of the three Witchcraft Ultimate Perks. Only one ultimate per tree can ever be taken, and guides report it takes around 35 skill points, described variously as its price or as the points needed in the tree.Gives a 15 percent chance to apply a random hex to an opponent whenever Coen lands a Perfect Block, as several accounts of the shipped game and the game's own effect text agree. Pre-release guides described an earlier shield version of the perk that blocked three attacks.Entwined TormentAnother Witchcraft Ultimate Perk. Lets hexes affect two targets at once; a pre-launch guide limited this to the first Witchcraft ability used in a fight.Aether CascadeThe third Witchcraft Ultimate Perk. Reported to cut the cost of the next ability by one activation charge after any ability is used.Font of LifeGranted by choosing to drink from the Font of Life in Anca's quest Stronger Than Achilles rather than bought with a manual. The game's own text describes it as passive health regeneration in human form.70+PerkNotesFrugal WitchcraftRestores health after an enemy affected by Witchcraft dies, based on the health spent casting. Its ranks restore 40%, 80% and 120% of that health cost.Forbidden SigilsOpens an additional ability slot on the witchcraft side.AmalgamLets more than one consumable buff stay active at the same time.Runic BulwarkA Perfect Block has a 15% chance to apply a random hex to the opponent. Requires 35 skill points invested in Witchcraft; buying the chosen Ultimate Perk costs 4 skill points and 2 time segments. Only one ultimate can be chosen in the tree.Entwined TormentThe first Witchcraft ability used in a combat targets two enemies.Aether CascadeEach Witchcraft ability used adds 20% Witchcraft ability damage, up to 100%. The bonus resets after combat.Font of LifeGranted by choosing to drink from the Font of Life in Anca's quest Stronger Than Achilles rather than bought with a manual. The game's own text describes it as passive health regeneration in human form.7171Perks and active abilities are separate layers of the same tree. Mercurial Fervour and Life Lock were once listed here as perks; both are active Witchcraft abilities and belong to the roster above. Perks are the passive and slot-level upgrades that sit around them.7272Perks carry a timing label of Daytime, Nighttime or Anytime. See Ultimate Perks for the full set of nine.7474Building around hexes7676For a practical setup, see Witchcraft Build. It covers charge generation, the progression from early hexes to sustained combinations and the choice between Font of Life regeneration and Ancient Greaves.