Right off my Mana
While Forspoken hero Frey Holland is understandably pretty smug about her newfound magical powers, it doesn’t take long before the Queen of Queens learns that her rudimentary starter skills are not quite going to take her very far. As Frey progresses through the corrupted land of Athia, it is vital that she improves key areas of her arcane abilities in order to topple the Tantas.
In Forspoken, additional Attack and Support magic spells are purchased with a form of mythic currency called Mana. If you want to expand Frey’s range of projectiles, status effects, defensive options, and acrobatic free-running skills, then you will need to gather Mana wherever it is available, banking up the big numbers before opening up her abracadabra repertoire.
The Secrets of Mana
Mana can be gained in multiple ways. The most common way to gather Mana is to simply run over the loose Mana fissures dotted around Athia. These are symbolized as strange blue light emanating from the ground, and can be found in both indoor and outdoor areas throughout all of Athia. Each spot adds one Mana point to Frey’s “bank” — symbolized by the number that appears by her head as she picks the points up.
Additionally, larger amounts of Mana are awarded each time Frey levels up. This can be done by defeating packs of enemies, progressing through chapters, conquering labyrinths, and finishing Diversions (side quests). As a rule of thumb, you’ll always want to gather Mana at most given opportunities, as it forms the core of providing Frey with varied attack and defense options.
Once you have plenty of Mana, then you can visit Frey’s skill tree, located in the “Magic” tab of her status screen, (Click Touchpad on PS5). You can spend Mana on any spells adjacent to ones that you already own in order to unlock them. Additionally, you can, at any point, cash a spell back in to return the Mana to your bank. So if you find that a spell really isn’t working out for you, you can essentially “refund” it.
Ready to go waste some Corrupted? Well, you are, but keep reading…
Getting Spellcrafty
You see, most spells can also be upgraded in and of themselves, in order to give Frey better overall power, defense, shorter cooldown times, etc. These upgrades are given as rewards for completing spell-specific challenges known as “Spellcraft Challenges”. These are essentially target-based grinds that tick away in the background, ultimately delivering bonus upgrades upon completion.
In order to activate a Spellcraft Challenge, Frey must first learn the challenges, which are found in bookcases housed with the many Refuges of Athia. Frey can have any three Spellcraft Challenges activated at one time, and the game will record your status in a challenge should you decide to switch it out for another.
As you can see in the image below, Frey is currently grinding Scatter Shot Lvl 3 and Rage Slice Lvl 3, and is considering adding Blast Slice Lvl 1 to the list. The purple text shows what target must be met in order to complete the challenge. Additionally, the targets of the currently active Spellcraft Challenge will appear on screen as the player achieves them. Once completed, simply return to the Magic tab to “cash in” the completed challenge and earn the bonuses.
Generally, it’s always worth Frey having any three challenges active at any one time as, for the most part, the player will find themselves completing their targets naturally as they play through the story. By collecting Mana, expanding her spellsets, and completing the Spellcraft Challenges, Frey will quickly develop all the offensive, defensive, and acrobatic abilities she needs to take down an army of Freaking Dragons in no time at all.
