Overcasting and Wild Magic
What it is
Out of mana with a monster in your face? You can still cast. Overcasting cracks one of your Heart Circles to pay for the spell. You lose that circle’s gifts for 3 minutes, and the spell may twist into wild magic.
How to get it
Every player with at least one working Heart Circle can overcast.
- Cast a spell you can’t afford. Nothing is spent. Above your hotbar you see “Not enough mana (38/46). Cast again to overcast: your 3rd Circle cracks for 3 minutes”.
- Cast the same spell again within 2 seconds. Wait longer or cast another spell and it only asks again.
It always takes that second press, so it never happens by accident.
You can’t overcast when:
- every circle is already cracked, or you have none;
- the spell costs more than twice your full mana (“Too costly to overcast”);
- the spell is paid in health (Blood Price).
How to use it
What it costs
- Your mana drops to 0, and your outermost working circle cracks.
- A cracked circle gives nothing until it mends: no extra mana, regeneration or power, no perk (Mana Skin, Flow, Overflow, Archmage) and no passive slot. Crack your 5th Circle and you lose Flow and your second passive.
- It mends after 3 minutes. Overcast again before then and the next circle in cracks, and the 3 minutes start over for all of them.
- You never lose the circle itself, or mana you’ve saved toward the next one.
The spell panel shows ✦ and the number of cracked circles. Hover the heart badge in the Cord screen to see how long until they mend.
Wild magic
An overcast spell may surge. The chance is 20%, plus 15% for every full mana bar the spell cost beyond what you had, up to 50%.
Spells held past full (overchannelled) can surge too: 7% per stage, less if you traced the glyph well. Hold one too long and it tears loose into a harmless surge (Butterflies, Heal All, Blink, Levitate or Slow Time).
| Surge | Odds | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Twice | 10.6% | The spell goes off, then again 0.4 s later. |
| Element | 9.6% | Harmful effects change to another element. |
| Grand | 8.5% | Everything with a size is widened twice over. |
| Butterflies | 8.5% | Nothing is cast. Harmless butterflies of light and little fireworks. |
| Free Recast | 7.4% | The spell goes off, and your next cast within 3 s is free and ignores its cooldown. |
| Heal All | 7.4% | Nothing is cast. Everyone within 8 blocks, friend and foe, heals 6 health. |
| Blink | 7.4% | You jump 3 to 6 blocks aside onto safe ground, then the spell goes off. |
| Wisps | 7.4% | The spell goes off, with wisps that chase whatever is near. |
| Levitate | 7.4% | The spell goes off, and everything within 6 blocks floats up for 1.2 s. You get Slow Falling for 6 s. |
| Stray | 6.4% | The spell flies at a random creature you can see within 16 blocks, whoever it is. |
| Slow Time | 6.4% | The spell goes off, and everything within 8 blocks, you too, gets Slowness III for 2 s. |
| Backfire | 6.4% | Nothing is cast, and you take up to 4 damage. |
| Ward | 6.4% | The spell goes off, and a Shield of strength 16 covers you for 10 s. |
- Wild magic can’t kill you. Backfire never takes you below half a heart.
- Wild magic never breaks or places blocks by itself.
- Secret spells never get Element or Grand; those become Twice. So does Stray with nobody in sight.
- Levitate never lifts a boss.
Tips and counterplay
- Overcast to finish a fight. A cracked circle for 3 minutes beats dying.
- Not before a boss. Losing Overflow or Archmage mid-fight hurts more than one missed spell.
- Big overcasts gamble more. The further past your mana, the likelier a surge.
- Keep a strong spell ready in another slot in case you roll a Free Recast.
- Your first overcast earns the Overcast feat; your first surge earns Wild Magic.
A mana storm can make spells surge too, without overcasting. See World Events.