Sword arts
What it is
Every breathing method answers the five sword strings its own way. The strings are the same for everyone, so you learn them once. What your blade does depends on your method: Ember burns, Rime freezes and shatters, Thunder leaps from foe to foe, Gale reaches far and lifts, Stone hits hardest, Verdant roots and mends, Hollow draws in and silences, Starlit sets stars and gets aura back, Hourglass echoes and stops time, Crimson bleeds and drinks, Tide soaks and drags, Iron cracks armour and stands firm, Dune blinds and sinks, Echo strikes twice, Dawn lights up and dazzles, and Venom poisons and weakens. That is 16 methods, five arts each.
Sunfall, Ember Breath’s Final Art.
- What it is
- How to use it
- How arts work
- Ember Breath
- Rime Breath
- Thunder Breath
- Gale Breath
- Stone Breath
- Verdant Breath
- Hollow Breath
- Starlit Breath
- Hourglass Breath
- Crimson Breath
- Tide Breath
- Iron Breath
- Dune Breath
- Echo Breath
- Dawn Breath
- Venom Breath
- Techniques of your own
- The common arts
- Tips and counterplay
How to use it
Swing as you always do, in time: each swing must come within about half a second of your blade being ready again. A row of marks under your crosshair shows the string as you play it.
| Mark | Swing | How |
|---|---|---|
| a small diamond | a swing | any swing |
| a full diamond | a full swing | wait for the attack indicator to fill |
| pointing down | a low swing | while sneaking |
| pointing up | a leaping swing | in the air |
| pointing ahead | a running swing | while sprinting |
| a gold ring | a counter | your first swing after a perfect Aura Guard |
| two chevrons | a step cut | your first swing after an Aura Step |
Only swings at a creature, or at the air during a fight, count, so building and digging never set off an art. When the same swings spell more than one art, the most demanding one that can go goes. If none can, you’re told why above the hotbar.
| Art | Opens at | String | Aura | Rests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Art | Glow | swing, swing, low swing | 6 | 3 s |
| Second Art | Flow | leaping swing, low swing | 8 | 4 s |
| Third Art | Edge | a counter (your first swing after a perfect Aura Guard) | 8 | 4 s |
| Fourth Art | Form | a step cut (your first swing after an Aura Step) | 10 | 5 s |
| Final Art | Sovereign | full, full, full, low, at the peak of your momentum | 40 | 30 s |
Every method’s art in a slot costs and rests the same and is weighed to be worth about as much: a method is a different answer, never a better one. (Thunder’s Crackle rests a little less, 2.5 s.)
How arts work
- Damage is a share of your weapon’s own, written below as “×”: an art at 1× strikes as hard as your blade does (an iron sword’s 6, a netherite one’s 8), so a better blade carries every art with it. Arts are aura off the blade in your method’s element, like the slash: they meet weaknesses and resistances, set off reactions, and can leave aura marks.
- Every art has a windup. Your body commits for a short moment before the strike, then recovers after it. The price and rest are paid when the art starts and your aim is locked then. If you take damage during the windup, the strike is lost but stays paid. See Combat presentation.
- An art with nowhere to go when you play it (a rush against a wall, a blink with nobody near) doesn’t start and costs nothing. But once it has started, a target that’s gone by the time it strikes is a paid miss.
- Each art names itself in a banner, and your first time playing one writes it into your Grimoire.
- The Aura page’s Sword strings tab lists your arts. Click another method’s colour to read its arts.
- Momentum makes every art cheaper and stronger: up to a quarter off and a fifth harder at the peak, where the Final Art opens (see Momentum). Arts wear a foe’s stance twice as fast as a blow, toward your method’s finisher.
Ember Breath
Fire that spreads and lingers: damage now and burning after, and the least control of any method.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Kindling Draw (First) | A fast low draw-cut across the front (3.5 blocks, up to 4 foes, 0.55×) that sets its foes alight, and a line of fire running 5 blocks on ahead along the ground, burning 3 s and setting alight whatever walks into it. |
| Rising Cinders (Second) | A rising slash (0.7×, up to 4 foes) that throws the foes in front into the air in a shower of embers and sets them alight. A moment later cinders rain off each one onto whoever stands within 2 blocks of it (0.25×). |
| Backdraft (Third) | The counter: the blow you caught comes back as a gout of flame. Whoever struck takes it whole (0.75× and their own blow, up to a whole weapon’s worth of it); the rest of the cone, 4.5 blocks long, takes half. All set alight and thrown back. |
| Wildfire Rush (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a second rush 7 blocks on, cutting through every foe in the way (0.85×, up to 5) and setting them alight. The ground behind you burns 4 s. |
| Sunfall (Final) | You leap, a sun gathers on your blade, and you come down in a blazing arc: everything within 4.5 blocks of where you land is struck (2.2× at the heart, 1.5× at the edge), set alight 5 s and thrown back, and a ring of fire 5 blocks out stands 5 s, searing whoever is in it twice a second. Your fall never hurts you. |
The fire of a line, a trail or a ring is only light: nothing in the world catches.
Rising Cinders in first person: your trail stays low and thin, and the foes burn.
Rime Breath
Slow, then freeze, then shatter. A Rime swordsman’s foes grow heavier with frost the longer the fight goes, and every frozen foe is something to shatter. A foe frozen by an art is frozen for a mage’s Shatter too.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Frostbite (First) | A cut (3.3 blocks, up to 4 foes, 0.6×) that crusts and slows for 3 s. A third crust within 8 seconds freezes a foe solid for 1.5 s. |
| Hailfall (Second) | A cut in front (0.5×), and a cloud over the foe you struck (or 3.6 blocks ahead) that rains seven hailstones for a second over a 2.6-block circle: every stone that lands on a foe strikes it (0.28×) and slows it, up to three on one. |
| Glacier Mirror (Third) | The counter: whoever struck takes 0.9× and is frozen solid for 2.5 s, the foes beside it chilled, and a mirror of ice stands before you for 2.5 s, turning projectiles from in front back at whoever loosed them. |
| Skate (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a glide 8 blocks on along a path of ice you lay as you go. Foes in the way are cut (0.7×), chilled and crusted; a frozen foe shatters (1.5×, its ice cutting those within 2 blocks for 0.3×). For 5 s the path speeds you and your allies and slows foes. |
| Winter’s Hush (Final) | A hush falls over a wide cone in front (7.5 blocks, up to 10 foes): everything in it takes 0.8× and is frozen solid, and a moment and a half later everything still frozen shatters, hard (1.7×), its ice cutting those within 2 blocks (each foe is cut by flying ice once, however many shatter beside it). |
Skate’s path is a shape of light over the ground. Over water it freezes for real (vanilla’s frosted ice) so you can glide across, only where you’re allowed to build, and it thaws in time.
Winter’s Hush: frozen solid, a moment before they shatter.
Thunder Breath
Faster than the eye, from foe to foe: many foes, a little each, and interrupts. A foe a Thunder art strikes is left ionised for 5 s, for a storm spell to conduct through, and every hold below breaks what the foe was winding up.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Crackle (First) | Three cuts on one foe faster than the eye (0.27× each), each throwing a spark of lightning to another foe within 4 blocks (0.15×). The first breaks whatever it was winding up: a charge, a bow, a fuse. Rests 2.5 s. |
| Skyfall (Second) | A bolt called down out of the sky a moment later on the foe you struck (or the ground 4 blocks ahead): everything under it takes 0.95× and is held still a moment, and it arcs on to two more foes within 4.5 blocks (0.4×). |
| Static Riposte (Third) | The counter: lightning through whoever struck (0.8×), then leaping on to the nearest foe, and on again, up to four more within 5 blocks, each a little weaker than the last, each held still a moment. |
| Bolt Step (Fourth) | Straight after your step, you blink from foe to foe, up to four within 8 blocks and in sight (those ahead first), with a cut on each (0.75×) that holds it still a moment. |
| Heaven’s Spear (Final) | You stand and gather lightning on your blade for a moment, then drive a lance of it 18 blocks down your line of sight through everything in it (2×, up to 8 foes), and the sky strikes each one it ran through. The lance runs level unless you clearly aim up or down (at most 30 degrees), and stops at a wall. |
Heaven’s Spear.
Gale Breath
Reach, the ground taken from under them, and the wind at your back.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cutting Breeze (First) | A blade of wind loosed off your cut, flying 12 blocks on past your sword’s reach (2 blocks wide), cutting up to four foes (0.45×) and pushing them back. |
| Updraft (Second) | The foes in front thrown high (0.65×, up to 4), and you rising after them, hanging a moment to follow. While they’re up, your blade lands a quarter harder on them, and spells bite them harder too. |
| Eye of the Storm (Third) | The counter: a spinning cut all round you (3.5 blocks, up to 6 foes, 0.8×) that throws every foe near back. For 3 s after you’re the eye of a storm: projectiles turn aside before they reach you, and foes are blown back off you. |
| Tailwind (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a long dash 13 blocks on, the foes in the way cut (0.6×) and shoved aside, and the wind at your back: you run faster for 5 s, and your allies near the way faster still. |
| Hundred Winds (Final) | For 3 s you’re a whirlwind of cuts 5.5 blocks round: every quarter of a second each foe in it is cut (0.24×) and drawn in, and at its end they’re all thrown into the air (0.5×). |
Eye of the Storm.
Stone Breath
Weight, footing taken, and standing firm: Stone hits hardest of all on one foe, takes the ground from under it, and stands unmoved itself.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rockbreaker (First) | A heavy cut (0.8×) that shakes your foe’s footing: it can’t act for a moment, goes heavy-footed for 1.5 s, and is cracked for 3 s so spells bite it harder. The shock spills onto those within 2 blocks of it (0.3×). |
| Avalanche (Second) | A slam where you come down (still in the air, you’re driven down first), and a shockwave rolling out 4 blocks over the ground: everything it reaches is struck (0.9× near you, 0.5× at the edge), thrown back and slowed. |
| Unmoved (Third) | The counter: whoever struck is hurled back by their own blow (1×) and stunned as they land, and you harden like stone for 4 s: blows land a fifth lighter and nothing knocks you back. |
| Landslide (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a heavy charge 8 blocks on that catches up to four foes in front and carries them along, throwing them on at its end (0.9×). A foe driven into a wall is crushed against it (half as hard again) and held a second. |
| Mountain Splitter (Final) | An overhead strike that splits the ground in a line 15 blocks ahead, stone bursting up along it in turn and throwing up whatever it reaches, hard (2.1×, up to 10 foes), stunned as they come down. |
The stone that rises is only a shape: the ground is never broken.
Mountain Splitter.
Verdant Breath
Mending and binding: Verdant hurts the least of any method and mends the most. Its cuts root foes where they stand (they can still turn and strike you, but not walk away), and blossom, brambles and a grove mend you and your allies while you fight. The roots, brambles, flowers and trees are only shapes: nothing grows in the world.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Thorn Lash (First) | A lash of thorned vine flicked out 4.5 blocks, past your sword’s reach, across a narrow cone in front (up to 3 foes, 0.45×). The first it catches is rooted for 1.5 s and pricked by the thorns three times while it’s held (0.07× each). |
| Blossom Fall (Second) | A falling cut (0.75×, up to 4 foes), and where it lands a carpet of blossom 7 blocks across opens for 4 s: you and your allies on it are mended 2 health at once and 1 more each second, and foes on it are slowed. |
| Rooted Parry (Third) | The counter: roots seize whoever struck (0.95×, rooted 1.5 s), thorns burst up round you and prick the foes within 2.5 blocks (0.3×), and you mend by what your guard caught: three quarters of the blow, at least 3 health, at most 6. |
| Wild Growth (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a second rush 7 blocks on, the foes in the way cut (0.65×, up to 5) and snagged by roots a moment, and brambles spring up behind you for 5 s: foes in them are slowed and pricked, your allies in them mended a health a second. |
| Grove’s Heart (Final) | You plant your blade in the ground: roots burst up under every foe within 6 blocks (1.5×, up to 10), binding them for 2.5 s, and a grove rises round you for 8 s: you and your allies in it are mended a health a second, and foes still in it are slowed and pricked. |
Mending is held. Whatever arts mend one body, Verdant’s or anyone else’s, comes to at most 10 health at once and a health a second after that: arts buy you time in a fight, but they never outpace it. (Verdant’s own passive, a little health back from each coated blow, is separate.)
Grove’s Heart.
Hollow Breath
Drawing in, silencing, stepping through: Hollow takes away the space between you and your foes. It draws foes to your blade, gathers a crowd into one point for your next cut, swallows a blow and silences whoever struck, and steps through a rift to the far side of a foe. What it strikes is left shadowed (a life spell on it sets off Blight).
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Void Cut (First) | A cut that tears a hole in the air at your blade’s end and draws up to three foes in front, from as far as 5.5 blocks, in to your feet (0.6×), slowed a moment as they come. |
| Collapse (Second) | A falling cut that opens a well in the ground 2.5 blocks ahead: for most of a second it drags every foe within 4.5 blocks in toward it, then collapses on everything it gathered (0.8× at its heart, 0.55× at its edge). |
| Null Parry (Third) | The counter: the blow you caught is swallowed by the void, and whoever struck is cut (1×), stunned a moment and silenced: a creature can’t cast, draw a bow or light a fuse for 3 s; a player can’t cast, play an art or use the Aura key (but to guard) for 1.5 s. The foes beside you are shoved off (0.25×). |
| Rift Step (Fourth) | Straight after your step, you go into a rift and come out of another just past the nearest foe ahead (up to 8 blocks, in sight), cutting it as you pass (1×). Foes within 2.5 blocks of either rift are dragged in and cut (0.35×). |
| Event Horizon (Final) | You cut a black sphere into the air 4.5 blocks ahead. For 2 s it drags in every foe within 7 blocks and grinds whatever it holds (0.12× every quarter second), then it crushes everything near it (1.4× at its heart, 0.9× at its edge). |
A boss is never drawn, dragged or silenced; it’s only slowed, and what it was winding up broken. Another player is drawn only gently, and any steady pull is slower than a sprint, so a player can always run out of it.
Event Horizon.
Starlit Breath
Stars that burst, and aura given back: a Starlit swordsman fights from a little further off with darts and falling stars, sets stars on the foes it strikes for its next art to burst, and gets aura back for every foe its stars find (given straight back after the art’s own price is paid).
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Star Needle (First) | A thrust that looses three darts of starlight 9 blocks on, each seeking a little toward a foe (0.22× each). Each that strikes sets a star on its foe and gives you half an aura back. |
| Meteor Shower (Second) | Stars brought down out of the sky over a circle ahead (round the foe you struck): five small ones (0.25×, at most three on one foe) and a great one on its heart (0.4×) that sets stars on what it strikes. Each foe struck gives you an aura back (up to four). |
| Constellation Guard (Third) | The counter: whoever struck is cut (0.6×) and set with a constellation of four stars that burst one by one a moment and a half later (0.2× each, or on whoever stands where it fell), each giving you 0.75 aura back. Every foe near already carrying a star bursts at once (0.35×). |
| Comet Dash (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a second rush 8 blocks on trailing stars, the foes in the way cut (0.6×) and starred. A moment later the trail bursts star by star along its length (0.45× to everything within 1.5 blocks), an aura back for each foe it catches (up to five). |
| Nova (Final) | You gather starlight on your blade for a moment, then it bursts out in a ring over everything within 7 blocks (1.9× at the heart, 1.3× at the edge, up to 12 foes), throwing it back; starred foes burst with it (0.4× more). You get 2.5 aura back for every foe struck, up to 20, half of what it cost. |
Nova, at night.
Hourglass Breath
Echoes, rewinds and moments held still: an Hourglass swordsman fights a moment ahead and a moment behind.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Echo Cut (First) | A cut in front (0.5×, up to 4 foes), and a golden afterimage left where you stood that strikes it again a moment later (0.5×), the way you faced, at whatever stands there then. |
| Rewind Leap (Second) | A falling cut (0.95×, up to 4 foes) that drags its foes in time (slowed hard for 2 s), then time snaps you back to where you leapt from, if you may still stand there and it’s no more than 10 blocks. |
| Stopped Moment (Third) | The counter: whoever struck is cut (0.8×) and held still in time for 2.5 s, then flung back and struck again by the moment’s snap as time starts once more (0.25×). The foes beside you are dragged a moment. |
| Blur (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a rush faster than any other, 7 blocks on, the foes in the way cut (0.7×) and slowed. For 3 s time drags round you: foes within 5 blocks are slowed, projectiles crossing in slow to a third, and you’re quickened. |
| Thousand Moments (Final) | Time stops round you: every foe within 7 blocks is held still for 2.5 s (up to 10) while your cuts gather on it, golden crescents hanging in the air, and when time moves again they all land at once (2.2×), with half of every blow you struck it meanwhile (up to 1× more). |
Holding another player still in time is a hold like any other art’s: three quarters of a second at most, and not again for 4 seconds. What was gathered on them still lands when time moves.
Thousand Moments, while time stands still.
Crimson Breath
Bleeding, drinking, frenzy, and the price of it: Crimson hurts the most of any method but Ember. Its cuts open wounds that bleed on (harder while their bearer runs; a wind spell on a bleeding foe sets off Rupture), and it drinks a share of what it deals back as health, held like any mending: at most 10 health at once and a health a second after, so a Crimson swordsman lasts longer in a fight, but can always be killed.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bloodletting (First) | A deep cut (0.55×) that opens a wound in up to three foes in front: it bleeds for 3 s (0.08× every half second, half again while they run), and you drink a quarter of what it bleeds. |
| Red Rain (Second) | A falling cut that bursts 2 blocks ahead, striking everything within 3.5 blocks (0.7×), and a red rain falls there for 2 s: every foe under it bleeds (0.08× every half second), and you drink back three tenths of all of it (up to 4 health). |
| Sanguine Parry (Third) | The counter: the blow you caught becomes a wound in whoever struck it: cut (0.7×), stunned a moment, and bleeding the blow’s worth back out over 3 s (up to a whole weapon’s worth). You drink half of all of it (up to 6 health), and blood off the parry nicks the foes beside you. |
| Frenzy (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a second rush 7 blocks on through the foes in the way (0.7×, up to 5). Each one cut, and each blow of yours that lands after, quickens your blade a twentieth, up to a fifth faster, until five seconds from the rush. |
| Crimson Moon (Final) | A gamble. It takes a quarter of your health (5 of 20), then a great arc of blood-light strikes every foe before you, 6 blocks out (2.5×, up to 10), opens wounds in them (0.1× every half second for 3 s), and drinks back half of everything it deals, up to 10 health. Against a crowd you come out ahead; against nothing you’ve only paid. |
Crimson Moon never kills you. Its price is taken straight from your health (not dealt as damage, so armour and absorption don’t change it and a totem never needs to save you), and it never leaves you with less than a heart (2 health). If you’re already down to a heart, it costs nothing more.
Crimson Moon.
Tide Breath
Water that soaks, drags and throws. Soaked foes have their fire put out and are slowed a moment.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Riptide Cut (First) | A wide cut of water that soaks the foes in front, and the current drags them in toward you. |
| Breaker (Second) | A wave rolls 7 blocks out ahead, cutting and throwing back everything in it. The ground behind stays wet for 4 s: foes in it are slowed, and fire goes out. |
| Whirlpool (Third) | The counter: a whirlpool opens on the ground ahead for 3 s, drawing every foe near to its heart and cutting them each second. |
| Surge (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a wave carries you 8 blocks on, cutting every foe in the way and carrying them along with you, soaked. |
| Maelstrom (Final) | The sea rises round you: five waves roll over every foe near, then it crashes down and throws them all away. |
Iron Breath
Heavy, armoured and hard to move. Iron’s arts crack armour (sunder) for a while, and its counter makes you hard to hurt.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sunder Cut (First) | One heavy cut that cracks the armour of the foes in front by 4 points for 5 s. |
| Anvil Fall (Second) | You rise and come down like a hammer, striking everything near where you land, holding it still a moment and cracking its armour. |
| Bulwark (Third) | The counter: your guard sets like iron for 3 s. Blows land weaker and don’t move you, and foes that come near are shoved back. Foes round you as it rises are cut and thrown back. |
| Forge Charge (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a shoulder-first charge 7 blocks on, cutting every foe in the way and cracking its armour. |
| Worldforge (Final) | A hammer of the world falls where you stand. The foe you face is struck hardest; every foe near is cut, thrown back and has its armour cracked wide for 8 s, and your guard sets like iron. |
Dune Breath
Sand in the eyes and ground that gives way. Dune blinds (a creature loses track of you) and sinks (slowed hard).
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Grit Flick (First) | A flick of the blade throws sand in the eyes of the foes in front, blinding them a moment and slowing them. |
| Quicksand (Second) | The ground ahead turns to quicksand for 4 s, swallowing the feet of every foe in it (slowed hard and drawn to its heart) and grinding at them. |
| Sandveil (Third) | The counter: a burst of sand round you blinds every foe near, and for a moment you move quickly and are hard to find. |
| Dune Runner (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a run 7 blocks on across shifting sand: every foe in the way is cut, slowed, sunk and turned aside. |
| Sea of Sand (Final) | The desert rises round you. Gusts of sand blind and sink every foe near, then the dunes close over them. |
Echo Breath
Every blow rings twice. Echo’s arts strike, then strike the same foes again a moment later, and leave them reeling.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ringing Cut (First) | An arc of sound in front (3.6 blocks, up to 4 foes). A moment later its ring strikes the same foes again. |
| Resonant Chord (Second) | A cone of sound 6 blocks ahead (up to 6 foes). Foes in it are struck, reel and slow. |
| Counterpoint (Third) | The counter: a ring of sound all round you (3.5 blocks) throws foes back reeling, then rings again. |
| Reverb Step (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a 7-block dash that cuts the foes in the way (up to 5), then its echo cuts them again. |
| Grand Resonance (Final) | A great toll round you (7 blocks, up to 10 foes), then three echoes after it, each a ring further out. |
Dawn Breath
Light that reveals and dazzles. Dawn’s arts light foes up so they can be seen, blind them a moment, burn the undead hardest, and mend you a little.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| First Light (First) | A bright cut in front. Its foes are lit up, and the undead burn harder. |
| Sunrise Arc (Second) | A rising arc of light ahead. Its foes are blinded a moment and lit up. |
| Halo Guard (Third) | The counter: a halo round you. You mend, and the foes near are blinded and thrown back. |
| Dawnbreak Rush (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a dash down a line of light, cutting and lighting the foes in the way. |
| Noon Zenith (Final) | A sun rises overhead, then its noon falls on every foe near, blinding them. |
Venom Breath
A bite that builds. Venom’s toxin stacks with every bite, and its arts weaken foes and let you slip away.
| Art | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fang Strike (First) | A quick bite in front. Its toxin stacks with the next bite. |
| Spitting Cobra (Second) | A spray of venom ahead, poisoning and weakening everything it wets. |
| Shed Skin (Third) | The counter: a cut and a slither back. The husk you leave behind poisons whoever stands in it. |
| Serpent Slither (Fourth) | Straight after your step, a weaving dash. Every foe in the way is bitten and weakened. |
| Hydra Coil (Final) | Five heads strike all round you in turn, each bite stacking the toxin higher. |
These six methods use the same strings, stages, prices and rests as every other method (the table under How to use it).
Techniques of your own
From Edge a swordsman can write techniques of their own beside these: a stroke, a release and an intent, their method’s element in each, on a string of their choosing. Each is weighed on the same scale as the methods’ arts, so it’s another answer to them rather than a better one. See Techniques of your own.
The common arts
A breathing method without arts of its own (an add-on’s) plays the five common arts on the same strings: an arc of aura in front of you (First), a rising arc that throws foes up (Second), a cut that staggers the foe you countered (Third), a line of aura five blocks ahead (Fourth), and a ring of aura that throws every foe near back (Final). See Aura.
The Sword strings tab: an Ember swordsman reading Thunder Breath’s arts.
Tips and counterplay
- Never a one-shot. An art deals one player at most 8 damage in all (after the PvP scale, before their armour and spell defences), even at the peak of momentum, and every art meets armour, Warding and the spellguard like a spell. A totem still saves. An art wears at most half of a player’s stance (see Stance).
- Holds are short. An art freezes, stuns, roots or holds a player still in time for at most three quarters of a second, and no art can hold the same player again for 4 seconds; it sets a player alight for at most 3 s and throws a player only so hard. A steady pull (Collapse’s well, Event Horizon) drags a player slower than they can sprint. Bosses are only ever slowed: never frozen, held, rooted, lifted, pulled, thrown or silenced.
- Silence is brief. Null Parry silences a player for a second and a half: no spells, no arts, no Aura key but the guard (so they can still defend). No art can silence the same player again for 5 seconds.
- Mending and drinking are held. All arts together mend one body at most 10 health at once and a health a second after.
- Teams and the server’s PvP rule are respected: a player you can’t harm is never touched, and allies are only ever helped (Skate’s path and Tailwind speed them, Verdant’s arts mend them).
- Nothing is griefed. Fire, ice, stone, roots, brambles, flowers and trees left by an art are light and shapes; only Skate’s ice over water is real, it thaws, and it never forms where you couldn’t build (claims, warded ground, or with world-changing magic switched off).
- Watch the windup. Hitting a swordsman as they wind up an art cancels it, and they’ve still paid for it.
Server owners can scale art damage, stop Skate freezing water, or switch strings off.