Long post incoming.

I make no apology for that, since the information should be useful, but I warn you in order that you can save this for later when you have the time to actually dive into it. The game will reward the player who takes the time to invest in reading and then carefully considering and experimenting with the ideas that follow.

There are guides that go into more specific mechanical and mathematical detail on the mechanics of how spell combinations work, so if those ideas are not clear I will refer you to the in-game journal for the initial info and then the excellent guides provided by those who came long before me. I have to say that warrax40, Atavist, Jendar, and Shrinkshooter's posts (among others) helped clarify quite a bit of info for me.

Some other useful links:

Discussion topic newbie guide by zorp the surveyor

JD_2020 official developer writeup on the magic system by xav josh - [game developer]

Simple efficiency beginners guide by Jendar

First thing, access inventory and turn off the built-in Smart Inventory by hitting the 'custom inventory' button. The "smart" inventory hides the information that you will need to make good choices. More specifics on that later.

Second thing, the anatomy of a spell. Its a recipe with 3 main parts, like you might use for a food dish:

The "Sigil" is the type of food (veggies, meat, bread, dessert, etc).
The "Shape" is the tool/cooking implement (stove, griddle/grill, oven, microwave, etc)
The "Augments" are the flavors and seasonings (salt, pepper, sugar, etc)

You start with a sigil (food), then you pick a shape (tool) to make it with, and then you choose which augments (flavoring) to give it.

Each type of Sigil (food) can be useful to (nourish) you, and help accomplish your goal of defeating your enemies (not being hungry). How they each react to the various Shapes (cooking implements), and the Augments (flavorings and seasonings) you include in the spell (recipe) will vary. OK done with the food analogy, because I'm hungry now :P

When you go to Custom Inventory and access the Spell crafting menu, after choosing which "Sigil" to start with you can choose any "shape" you like (Area, Pool, Trap, Missile, Lob, Nova, etc). Shapes define the magical energy field that will apply the effects of the spell. Shapes determine where the spell's magical energy field is located, how big the field is (and so how many things it can affect), and whether the field will persist only for a few seconds, or last a while longer.

• Area = a 3 meter diameter field that you can place at a spot you choose at close/medium/long range, and each cast of the spell will generate the spell's magical field in that area for one mometary strike, applying the spells effects immediately and then the field dissipates.
  
  
• Pool = a field that shares almost all the characteristics of an area, except that it will persist for a significant period of time and will continue "ticking" (which means applying the spell's effects repeatedly every .25 seconds) and can even affect targets that enter the area after you cast it as long as the field has not yet dissipated.
  
  
• Trap = also similar to an area, the trap can be placed at range, but the magical field only becomes active when an enemy approaches the trap at which point the magic is released and leaps at the enemy affecting the 3 meter diameter around them like an area.
  
  
• Nova = almost identical to an area, but the magical field seems a bit larger (maybe 4 meters?) and can only be centered on you (emanating out from you), not cast at range. Charging your nova, if your shield allows Charged Blink, will not interfere with charging other spells, and will not slow your movement speed like charging other spells will.
  
  
• Missile = like what the names says. Essentially unlimited range, homes in on a single target that is closest to your center of view at the time of casting and applies the spell's effect upon impact.
  
  
• Ray = a short range, but continuous beam of magical energy. Sort of a combination of a missle and a pool, except you have to hold down the casting button. While casting a ray, your movements is slowed (just like when charging other spells). As the spell is maintained, it will quickly "charge up" from doing normal hits to doing critical hits (and then potentially apocalyptical hits). Obviously you can spray this around like a "hose of doom" and hit many targets as long as they are close enough. I have also read that an active ray may potentially "eat" incoming enemy projectiles, possibly giving you some extra defense while active. If you do this with a kinesis destruction spell, the repeated knockback would operate like a repulsor beam preventing melee enemies from closing.
  
  
• Lob = pretty much a missile with an arcing trajectory and no homing capability... so it has a limited ability to float over barriers and terrain to strike targets behind cover, and when it impacts the magical field will explode into 3 seperate projectiles that fall near the initial point of impact, so it can potentially affect more than one target.

After choosing a shape, the next choice is what type of "augment" to set into the shape. Augments are used to determine the category of spell (Mastery, Control, and Destruction) and to modify the statistical effects that will be applied when the magical field contacts an enemy.

A spell gains it's category by the type of augment you use to make the spell. These categories define the general aspects of how a spell may work, *however* the specific way in which the statistics of a spell will adjust/respond to an augment will *vary* depending on what Sigil you started with.

In the custom inventory view, you will see that each "shape" (except for shields) has 3 numbers on it. From left to right, these are the values for Destruction, Control, and Mastery respectively. The higher the number, the greater the statistics of any effects of the spell tied to that category will be. For example, a Fire-based Destruction spell will do more damage if the shape has a higher Destruction value. (Example screenshot included below)

Every augment (except for 'defense/shield' augments) has these same 3 values, and when slotted these numbers will then adjust the statistics of the spell's effects proportionally to how the Sigil responds to those categories. For example, Kinesis Destruction spells respond with above average scaling (compared to other sigils) to Destruction augments that also include some Mastery.

Both Shape and Augment icons also include a 'Tier' value positioned in the middle, just above the control value. Items of a higher tier typically have higher values for the 3 types of magic which will have increased effects on the spell's statistics (and most importantly, higher tier "Shield" shapes offer improved base health). The Tier value will also be color-coded to show the rarity of the item: white for basic, green for common, blue for rare, purple for epic, orange for legendary, and red for Unique. Higher tier shapes and augments will typically have more 'bonuses' listed to the right.


You cannot mix & match augments of more than 1 type in a single spell - once you slot a control augment in the spell, if there are other slots available, they must also be the same type of augment (control) - this of course also goes for spells that you initially set with mastery or destruction augments. If you want to change the category of the spell before finalizing it you need to remove all the augments and then slot a different type.

How many upgrades an item can undergo, and how many augment slots a shape has are clearly listed and should be obvious and not need explanation (I hope). The process of upgrading can be tedious and time consuming, and could have been streamlined with better inventory sorting/filtering, but do soldier on, it will pay off.

As I mentioned above, the Destruction, Control, and Mastery categories define the general aspects of how a spell may work, *however* the specific way in which the statistics of a spell will adjust/respond to an augment will *vary* depending on what Sigil you started with. This is where the 3 values at the bottom of the augment icon come into play.

As a quick example, Destructions spells are generally made to inflict damage. A Destruction spell made using the Kinesis sigil will tend to have lower base damage than other destruction spells, but will gain a great deal more "mastery consumption" stat (for extra bonus damage on critical hits if the target has been debuffed with a Mastery spell) when you use a destruction augment that also has some mastery value in it. This is opposed to, for example, the Delirium sigil, where a Delirium spell does not do direct damage to the target, but instead debuffs the target to have damage reflected back on them when they hit you.


So, augments determine spell type, and sigil determines how that spell type will generally behave with augments of that type.

Some shapes are not great tools for certain sigils, and some augments (spell types) are not great with certain shapes and/or sigils. Some examples to illustrate the kinds of thinking involved in figuring out the particulars when you start experimenting:

One example would be that an Area of Effect "Pool" shape will work great for a Mastery spell that has a disabling side-effect (like the "Anchoring" effect of the Kinesis Mastery spell, or the "Cowering" effect of the Delirium mastery spell), since it will keep ticking and adding more and more mastery because the enemy cannot just run past it, and it can also catch enemies that walk into it after you cast it. Compare this to if you used a "Pool" shape with a a Phase/Mastery spell that has no way of keeping the enemy in place - they will just run through it and you would need to spend time casting another spell to hold them still (probably a control spell), or you would need to lead off with the control spell which would eliminate the chance of the control spell's effect gaining the boost from consuming mastery on those targets.

The Pool shape is also not so great for spells which use Destruction augments. The reason being it would require the enemy to stay still to inflict its best damage over time, and anything beyond the initial tick will not critically hit or be able to trigger other special effects like an Apocalyptical hit (though the initial crit would consume mastery and improve the damage of each tick), compared to shapes that would be recast multiple times and have access to crits and apocalyptical hits with each casting (and therefore higher overall damage output - though you pay for this with attention and action investment over that same timespan). In similar fashion, Nova shapes work best with Control or Destruction type spells, though certainly not useless with mastery spells (especially mastery spells that have a disabling effect to help you deal with getting surrounded).

As for augments, one example would be using a "Destruction" augment with the "Delirium" or "Necromancy" sigils. Damage reflection (Delirium + Destruction) requires you to be struck to have an effect, and/or minions that deal slightly more base damage (Necromancy + Destruction) but nowhere near the kind of output that you can have are both not overwhelmingly optimal choices compared to if your minions' attacks are instead stacking mastery on your enemies, or reducing incoming damage by disabling enemies with control effects . Maybe something fun to experiment with later on once you've got a solid handle on how to survive and thrive, but this guide is about getting you to that point, and those augments with those sigils won't help.

Another example for augments would be using a "Control" augment in a "Missile" shape. Missiles usually only hit one target (unless you are using the lightning sigil, then maybe you can hit 1 or 2 extra if they are in range), and control effects are usually best used to lock down a group so you can debuff and explode them (the exception being a control spell that can only ever effect one target at a time, such as using the Delirium sigil to mind control a pet, since you can only have one Delirium pet a Delirium Control Missile would make sense). Otherwise, why bother levitating six enemies one at a time while the rest can keep hitting you? Hit them in groups with a Control-based Area, Pool, Trap, a Nova, or even a Control-based Ray, and be done with it.

Some general advice before we go on:

Shields
Remember to keep a close eye on the Tier of the loot you are getting. For example, when you have been getting tier 3 loot and you start seeing tier 4 drops, it means the game system has upgraded the stats on your enemies. This won't automatically make your spells obsolete, but the main thing you will notice is that the enemies start hitting you harder.

In order to mitigate that, you will need to keep a stock of solid shield augments on standby, and keep your eye out for new shield shapes of the new higher loot tier. As soon as you have the components to make an improved new shield, you should do so (focus on the 'health per pip' stat). This will greatly help your survivability, and will become critical to stay on top of in the endgame (on the default Battlemage difficulty, a tier 8-9 shield with top-notch augments will be serviceable up to the end boss. Once you start attempting portals that are tier 10, you will find it maddeningly difficult if not impossible to survive without upgrading. If you don't have the items needed to do so, consider using a vortex to fast travel back to the beginning of the game and get some additional loot where the encounters are designed to be more forgiving.


The type of shield you choose will of course be a matter of playstyle. That said, the default strategic shield does not allow you to use your Nova on demand (you can only trigger it by a galvanized block). This means you will not be able to rely on your Nova in spell combinations, because you would need to rely on an enemy hitting you at a desired moment. There are ways to work around this, but it is unlikely to be efficient, and will likely prove challenging to manage.

Between the choice of ulimited quick blink (Agile shield with less health per pip), or Galvanized block (Tactical shield with slightly more health), my thinking is to hearken back to the wise words of Mr. Miyagi: "Best defense... no be there!" I do realize there are going to be times when you get hit with an effect that locks out your Blink, and you may need to block some attacks. I personally feel these are not so common or insurmountable as to require mastering galvanized blocks to justify loss of the quick blink. An Agile shield can still block when needed, and doesn't require twitch reflexes or amazing anticipation in order to gain full benefit for the tradeoff of quick blink (just my 2 cents).

Researching what effect shape and augment stats will have on a spell
Refer to the journal to get specific details of how a Sigil's categories of spells will react to the different augment aspects, and then check a mock-up spell in the spell crafting menu to make sure you understand what the journal is telling you. For example, when the Necromancy sigil explains how its mastery spell will imbue minions created by it with the ability to apply mastery debuffs in addition to the damage of their attacks, and that using augments in your Necromancy Mastery spell that have higher mastery values will increase the amount of mastery debuff your minions will apply to targets with each hit.

Charging and Crits
Charging spells will get you a guaranteed crit, which is great. There may be times where you don't want to crit (like when you don't want to eat up mastery), or when you do not want to have a chance of an apocalyptical hit that might override an existing apocalyptical tag on the enemy (shouldn't happen, but I have observed it a number of times too soon and too numerous to be explained away by the apoc tag expiring on its own).

Spells do not need high critical chance unless you wish to be able to spam them quickly and still gain the benefits of mastery debuffs on your target.

Tactics
Being skilled in the game requires more than FPS skill with dodging and accuracy, and more than being able to craft amazing spells. You must try to pay attention to the enemies, and learn how each type will behave, and how to defeat their attacks. When you are confronted with a large, spread out group, you cannot instanly destroy them all, so you will need to evade and use cover and line of sight if you want to survive. Part of my frustration with the game was the long spans between some save points and being forced to replay certain encounters ad nauseum until I got better loot and made better spells, or until I learned what mistake I was making against certain enemies.

Pools and Mastery
AoE pools of Mastery are great (one cast, *tons* of mastery applied), especially ones that have a lock down, or disabling effect. They are also very useful against enemies that use magical shields, because they strip the shield and prevent it from being recast as long as the enemy is within the pool. Mastery pools with disabling status effects typically derive excellent benefit from Mastery augments that also contain some Control value to extend the duration of the status effect.

Evaluating loot
Don't trick yourself into only caring about your highest tier of shapes/augments. Sometimes (albeit rarely) a lower tier item will have much better stats and bonuses. Same goes for focusing exclusively on rarity colors. Don't be afraid to slot a green shape or augment if it has the exact stats you are looking for.

New Spell experiments
Before you have successfully tested that a spell combination will work as you imagine it will, be sure to test it out with some throwaway shapes and augments. Don't deconstruct your existing spells in order to make new "improved" ones only to find out there was something you overlooked and now you can't get your original spell back.

Before crafting a new/upgraded spell, if you are confident you have the recipe exactly how you want (ie. you have already tested) be sure to swap a default spell into that slot so that you can check your existing spell in the synthesis>deconstruct menu and confirm that you do not need any of the augments in your existing spell to make your new replacement spell as good as it can possibly be.

Cancelling a charged spell without actually casting it
It took me an embarassingly long time to figure out how to cancel a spell I had accidentally charged without actually casting the spell. Cancelling the spell will allow you to avoid the casting animaition and more quickly recover to cast the spell you want.

To cancel a charged up targeted spell, you will need to release the primary fire button and then immediately begin pressing the block button. If you have a targeted spell charged and you just hit block, the spell will be fired before your block comes up, you need to release primary fire a split second before you begin pressing block.

To cancel a charged up AoE spell, hold down the block button (or keep holding it down if you are already holding it down, such as using the primary fire + alt fire method for charging AoE spells) then release the primary fire button. The block animation will quickly flash and the spell will be cancelled, allowing you to switch sigils and charge the correct one.

Sadly, I have not figured out how to cancel a charged blink, but it is worth noting that you can charge your blink while blocking (as long as you have an Agile or Tactical shield equipped) and *still* switch sigils while it is charged in case you charged the blink on the wrong sigil. Switching the sigil after charging blink will allow you to trigger the Nova of the desired sigil.

Reforging
Reforging is essentially a garbage disposal. It should not be considered a primary or efficient route for manually getting legendary items (yes, you can get some nice items, but it requires too much reforging to get a legendary item to make this the primary benefit.)

Now on to the fun part...

Properly used Sigil powers in this game have an *IMMENSE* impact on the difficulty of overcoming challenging encounters in this game. Which sigil powers work best for a player will obviously vary based on playstyle, spell stats, and skill... but the point is the Sigil powers make a huge difference (once you can reliably access them). In my opinion, far more than the Synergy spells.
(click images to get pop-up with larger, more readable versions)


Apocalypticals hits are needed to activate sigil powers, so the player wants to get apocalypticals frequently to make use of the sigil powers. The problem is, the spell crafting and tutorial systems, and even the guides available online, do not give simple straightforward instructions on how to achieve this with spell crafting.

The short answer is, you need to be able to recognize the correct loot for this, and then you need to get lucky and have that loot actually drop for you. Those two things need to happen before you can actually craft a spell that will accomplish the goal.

It's not really a side point, since it is a main draw of the game itself, but Apocalypticals are *also* needed to achieve the most insane damage outputs that reliably overkill enemies to give you those awesome explody visuals and possibly even nuke enemy bosses in one hit. It is worth mentioning a significant mathematical difference between the mechanics of Critical Hits and Apocalyptical Hits. I am 95% certain this applies to destruction spells, and also reasonably confident it applies to other spells as well: there is a hidden, extra multiplier applied for Apocalyptical hits after all other math is done to determine final value. It appears this multiplier is somewhere between 7.5x and 8x. Practically speaking this means that Apocalyptical hits should pretty much always be significantly stronger than critical hits (which makes sense, since you have to fully charge the spell for any chance to score an apoc hit).

So, we definitely want apocalypticals.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can *never* get an apocalyptical hit on a spell unless you have *fully charged* that spell before casting it. This is important for actually getting apoc hits, and also can be important if you want to avoid apoc hits, but make a spell with 100% crit chance so you can spam it and still get the benefits of mastery debuffs on your targets.

There is still some strategy involved regarding which of your spell(s) you want to set up to do your apocalyptical hits, and also deciding specifically when is the best time to use those spell(s), but that can all be learned *after* you can actually get the reliable Apocalyptical chances with your spells.

In my experience thus far (almost done with my new game plus) the best (only?) method to get reliable apocalypticals is to keep a watchful eye out for shapes that include significant bonus "Apocalyptical Chance *Boost*":

(note, the numerical values of bonuses depicted in the next two screenshots do not reflect the stats on the shape/augments used to make the delirium spell depicted in the screenshot shown after them. These two screenshots are meant simply to show the name of the bonus to watch out for)



And then fill out those shapes with augments that include "Apocalyptical chance *multiplier*":


The "Apocalyptical Chance *Boost*" property on a spell shape is added directly to the base Apocalyptical Chance for each time you cast the spell. It it says +60 apoc chance boost, then your modified apoc chance is 61%.

The "Apocalyptical Chance *multiplier*" property on an "augment" is multiplied against the modified Apocalyptical Chance of the shape (including the added "boost"), and then the result of this multiplication is added to the modified apoc chance.

As an example, let's start with a Missile shape that included +60 Apocalyptical Chance boost. This will give our spell a base Apocalyptical Chance of about 61%.

Let's now take 3 augments that each have +25% Apocalyptical Chance multiplier. Each one will add a value that is 25% of the spell shape's modified Apocalyptical Chance.

25% of 61 is about 15. So each of these augments will add about 15 to the total Apocalyptical Chance of the spell.

This means we should have 61 + 15 + 15 + 15 for a grand total of 106% Apocalyptical Chance for our spell.

(the spell shown in this screenshot was not made with augments that match the stats in the example math, which is why the Apoc chance is not 106% like the example. The example math was just to show how combining apoc chance boost bonus on a shape with apoc chance multiplier on augments will give a much higher apoc chance on the finished spell)

Even with a grand total 50% chance, the odds are solid for getting apoc hits to keep your sigil effects up and running/available. In addition, if the spell in question is a destruction spell - with 2 mastery-enhanced apoc hits on average, you will be able to *obliterate* most enemies, even bosses. (For some fun, try out a Delirium Control Missile with a super-high apoc chance on a target that you have loaded up with mastery to make that target your pet. They will murder scores of baddies for you, and if you tthen use the same spell on another enemy to instruct your pet to kill that target, there is a solid chance you will tag the target with an apoc hit - which means when your pet annihilates it, you will get the sigil effect :evil grin:).

1. While the Delirium sigil's invisibility power has active charges remaining, casting Pool Mastery and Trap spells (not sure if all 3 types) does not consume charges. This allows for one to have the possibility of keeping the sigil power active indefinitely, by crafting a Delirium Mastery AoE spell with a high Apocalyptical chance. The spell can be spammed until it procs an Apoc, and then the target (which should now be loaded up with mastery) can be nuked to recharge the sigil power. This results in effectively all spells gaining +30 across the board for as long as the player wants. It's a lot of fun, and makes farming the "loot machines" for better loot drops much easier.

2. When applying mastery to targets that you intend to mind control with Delirium, be careful not to use the Delirium Mastery spell, since it will make them immune to being mind controlled. If using the Pool shape with a Kinesis Mastery spell, be sure that once the target is anchored and has enough mastery on it, that *before* you cast your Delirium Control spell, you *re-cast* your Kinesis Mastery Pool spell in a different area. When the Delirium control spell hits the target, it will clear any status effects they are suffering (except immunity to Delirium from having already been affected by Confusion/Cowering of the Delirium Mastery spell) but if your new pet is still standing in the area of a Kinesis Mastery Pool, they will be immediately re-anchored and unable to chase enemies effectively.

3. When using the Delirium Control spell (preferably as a missile shape), be careful to avoid striking your pet multiple times and granting them the health shield effect. This is because the shield also protects the pet from status effects, such as the apocalyptical mark from Delirium spells. This means that if you allow your minion to kill all the enemies in the area, you will be unable to refresh your Delirium Sigil invisibility charges by tagging your pet with an apoc and then killing your pet. While not the end of the world, it can be rather convenient and reduces the risk of a mistake in your next encounter resulting in an unexpected loss of the invisibility effect.

More can be added here as I discover it, or if comments provide new info.

If you made it all the way through this, I am impressed by your attention span, and humbled by your interest.

If you notice something inaccurate or misleading, or if you have some additional observations to improve this guide, please share in the comments. Many thanks, and happy Arcane Supremacy :P