Casting gear

Casting gear works alongside your Cord. A staff favours one element, a greater staff is a stronger staff from a boss, the Tome of the Fifth Page opens a fifth spell, and a focus bends every spell you cast. You wear each piece in its own inventory slot, so you don’t have to hold it.

A player holding a Fire Staff, surrounded by pillars of flame from a charged fire spell A Fire Staff’s flourish after a charged Fire spell

The gear slots

Your inventory (E) has a small tray on top of the window, above your armour. In Creative it’s in the Survival Inventory tab, beside the Cord slot.

The survival inventory with a tray on top of the window holding a staff, a focus and the tome, and the player in the paper doll wearing them

Slot	Takes
Staff	Any staff or greater staff
Focus	Any focus
Tome	The Tome of the Fifth Page, or the Breath Sash
Backpack	A backpack

Click a piece in, or shift-click it. What counts is what’s in your slots when you cast.

Held gear still works while its slot is empty. Staffs work in either hand. The tome and foci work in your off-hand. A piece in a slot replaces held pieces of the same kind: with a Fire Staff in the slot, a Frost Staff in your hand does nothing.

A player seen from the front and the back wearing a staff across the back, a focus hovering off the left shoulder and the tome hanging from a belt at the hip Worn gear shows on you: a staff across your back, a focus by your shoulder, the tome at your hip.

Gear in your slots drops when you die, like the rest of your inventory, unless the server keeps inventory.

Staffs

There’s a staff for each of the ten elements: Fire, Frost, Storm, Wind, Earth, Life, Void, Arcane, Time and Blood. Each one:

gives effects of its element +20% power,
makes any spell with an effect of its element cost 10% less mana,
leaves a flourish of its element when you release a charged spell. It’s just for show.

Crafting a staff

Two handle pieces, two of the element’s material and a Mana Crystal. The Mana Crystal goes in the top right corner, and the handle runs down to the bottom left.

Staff	Material (2)	Handle (2)
Fire Staff	Blaze Powder	Blaze Rods
Frost Staff	Packed Ice	Sticks
Storm Staff	Lightning Rod	Sticks
Wind Staff	Wind Charge	Sticks
Earth Staff	Mossy Cobblestone	Sticks
Life Staff	Glistering Melon Slice	Sticks
Void Staff	Ender Pearl	Sticks
Arcane Staff	Amethyst Shard	Sticks
Time Staff	Clock	Sticks
Blood Staff	Nether Wart	Sticks

Greater staffs

A player holding a Greater Void Staff with a dark violet head, sparks and smoke around it

A greater staff works like a staff, but its element’s effects get +35% power. It also gives the same 10% discount and a bigger flourish. You can’t craft one:

Where	Chance	Elements
The Archivist (the Archive’s boss)	50%	Any
The Ender Dragon	50%, every kill	Void, Arcane or Time
The Wither	35%	Void or Blood
The Warden	35%	Earth or Storm
An Elder Guardian	35%	Frost or Life
Archive vault chests	See Where gear is found	Any

The Tome of the Fifth Page

The Cord screen with five spell rows; the fifth row is highlighted

The tome gives you a fifth spell, whatever your Cord.

Put it in the Tome slot (or your off-hand). A fifth row appears in the Cord screen, with as many sockets as your Cord’s other rows.
Select it with V, or press 5 on the spell wheel. You can also bind Cast spell 5 (the tome’s) in Controls.
Take the tome out and spell 5 locks, but its runes are kept.
The fifth spell can go on a Spell Scroll, but not in a Knot.

The tome can’t be crafted. Find it in chests (see below).

The Breath Sash shares this slot. It’s a swordsman’s choice instead of a fifth spell: see Aura-forged gear.

Foci

First-person view holding a staff in one hand and a gold Focus of Thrift with a green gem in the other

A focus changes every spell you cast. Each is a plus shape around a Mana Crystal.

Focus	What it does	Recipe
Focus of Haste	Charges fill 40% faster	Feather on top; Sugar, Mana Crystal, Sugar across; Gold Ingot below
Focus of Thrift	Spells cost 15% less, but effects are 10% weaker	Emerald on top; Gold Ingot, Mana Crystal, Gold Ingot across; Gold Ingot below
Focus of the Deep Well	+50 max mana	Block of Lapis Lazuli on top; Polished Deepslate, Mana Crystal, Polished Deepslate across; Polished Deepslate below
Focus of Echoes	10% chance a spell goes off again for free half a second later	Echo Shard on top; Amethyst Shard, Mana Crystal, Amethyst Shard across; Amethyst Shard below
Focus of Resolve	Spells hurt you 20% less, but your effects are 15% weaker	Iron Ingot on top and below; Amethyst Shard, Mana Crystal, Amethyst Shard across

Two more foci protect you: the Focus of Reprieve and the Focus of Grounding. See Defensive Foci. For armour against spells, see Elemental Armour.

Where gear is found

A chest that can hold gear rolls once for one piece, chosen evenly from its list:

Chest	Chance	Possible pieces
Archive vault	45%	The tome, the five foci above, or any greater staff
Archive library	20%	The tome or the five foci above
Stronghold library	10%	The tome or the five foci above
Ancient city	12%	The five foci above
Woodland mansion	8%	The five foci above

The server can change these chances. Plain staffs are never found: craft them.

How gear stacks

The same piece twice counts once.
Two staffs never discount one spell twice. A Fire and Frost spell with both staffs costs 10% less, not 20%. Each staff still boosts its own element.
The better staff counts. A Fire Staff and a Greater Fire Staff give +35%, not more.
A staff and a focus both work. A Fire Staff with Thrift gives Fire effects +20% then 10% weaker, and the spell costs 10% less then 15% less.
Gear applies last, after Heart Circles, Cord enchantments, charge and ranks.

The Cord screen’s readout and mana badge show what your gear does to the spell you’re editing. A Spell Scroll ignores gear.

All gear recipes are also in Items and Crafting.