Codex · 14 runes · 9 inscriptions
Runes and inscriptions
Runes drop in the depths and go into the sockets of plain gear. Each adds one stat; the right runes in the right order also cut an inscription, a power for one hero or for any.
Runes drop from floor 1 down.
The 14 runes
On the gear screen, tap a rune, then an empty socket. A set rune stays: the only way out is the Smith in town, who empties a socket for gold (30 for a tier 1 rune, up to 90 for tier 5) and destroys the rune; the socket stays, ready for another. A rune adds its weapon line in a weapon and its other line in an off-hand or armour.
| Rune | Tier | From floor | In a weapon | In an off-hand or armour | Smith (gold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wick | 1 | 1 | +4% damage | +12 life | 30 |
| Soot | 1 | 1 | +3% swing speed | +2% move speed | 30 |
| Tallow | 1 | 1 | +10% knockback | +8% gold found | 30 |
| Brine | 1 | 1 | -2% cooldowns | +3% skill area | 30 |
| Flint | 2 | 5 | +7% damage | +12% knockback | 45 |
| Loam | 2 | 5 | +5% skill area | +20 life | 45 |
| Sedge | 2 | 5 | +4% move speed | -3% cooldowns | 45 |
| Gall | 3 | 10 | +10% damage | -4% cooldowns | 60 |
| Hush | 3 | 10 | +6% swing speed | +30 life | 60 |
| Quill | 3 | 10 | -5% cooldowns | +5% move speed | 60 |
| Marrow | 4 | 16 | +14% damage | +45 life | 75 |
| Thrum | 4 | 16 | +9% skill area | +6% swing speed | 75 |
| Umber | 5 | 22 | +18% damage | +10% skill area | 90 |
| Sallow | 5 | 22 | -8% cooldowns | +60 life | 90 |
How runes drop
A kill drops a rune 50% of the time for a boss, 6% for an elite and 0.4% for any other monster. Which rune it is depends on the floor: tier 1 runes drop from floor 1, tier 2 from 5, tier 3 from 10, tier 4 from 16 and tier 5 from 22, and among the tiers a floor allows each rune is weighted 32 at tier 1, 16 at tier 2, 8 at tier 3, 4 at tier 4 and 2 at tier 5, so a deeper tier never becomes common. Runes you carry are banked when you go home through a portal; a fall loses them with the items you carry. Only normal and magic items drop with sockets: 30% of normal and 12% of magic weapons (up to 3), off-hands (up to 3), helms (up to 2), chests (up to 3), glovess (up to 2) and bootss (up to 2); belts, amulets and rings never have sockets. Of socketed drops, 50% have one socket, 35% two and 15% three (when the kind allows that many).
| Floors | Tiers | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 1–1 | 100.0% | — | — | — | — |
| 5–9 | 1–2 | 72.7% | 27.3% | — | — | — |
| 10–15 | 1–3 | 64.0% | 24.0% | 12.0% | — | — |
| 16–21 | 1–4 | 61.5% | 23.1% | 11.5% | 3.8% | — |
| 22 and deeper | 1–5 | 60.4% | 22.6% | 11.3% | 3.8% | 1.9% |
Each tier’s share of the runes that drop (all of that tier’s runes together).
The 9 inscriptions
An inscription is cut when an item has exactly as many sockets as the inscription has runes, every socket filled, in the inscription’s order. A 3-socket chest with Brine and Quill in its first two sockets spells nothing: the count must match too. The inscription’s power works only for the hero it is cut for; on anyone else the item keeps its rune stats and the power sleeps.
| Inscription | For | Runes, in order | Power | From floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinderwake | the Mage | Wick → Soot → Flint | A burning monster that dies passes its burn to the nearest monster within 3 tiles, at full length. | 5 |
| Rimecount | the Mage | Brine → Quill | Every 4th spell you cast is cast twice, the second time at once. | 10 |
| Marrowtithe | the Bonecaller | Loam → Marrow → Wick | Each of your servants that falls heals you 3% of your max life and takes 1 s off your servant cooldowns. | 16 |
| Hollow Choir | the Bonecaller | Hush → Gall | You can raise 2 more Bone Thralls, and your servants take 20% of the damage meant for you. | 10 |
| Anvilsong | the Warrior | Flint → Tallow | Every 5th basic swing cuts all the way round you for 150% damage. | 5 |
| Last Light | the Warrior | Sedge → Hush → Thrum | Falling under 30% life gives you 3 s of taking half damage, once per floor. | 16 |
| Lantern Debt | any hero | Tallow → Soot | Gold you pick up heals you 1 life for every 5 gold. | 1 |
| The Long Road | any hero | Sedge → Brine → Umber | Each floor you go down without going home adds 2% damage, up to 20%, until you go home. | 22 |
| Graveglass | the Mage and the Bonecaller | Sallow → Gall → Quill | Mage: chilled monsters you kill burst into frost that chills monsters around them. Bonecaller: your curses also slow monsters 20%. | 22 |