Wizardry Spells | Wo Long Wiki

Wizardry Spells and Elemental Properties

Each Wizardry Spell in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty belongs to one of the Five Phases — a concept of Chinese philosophy. The Five Phases influences each Spell's Elemental Properties and Affinity.

• Wood Phase - Utilizes Lightning as its main element. Offensive Spells of this nature can afflict targets with the Shock status effect. The Wood Phase also has access to healing and buffing spells of various types.
• Fire Phase - Utilizes Flame as its main element. The Fire Phase is primarily an offensive spell category and its spells are centered around dealing damage and can afflict targets with the Burn status effect. Its buffing spells are focused on increasing the caster's offensive capabilities.
• Earth Phase - Utilizes Stone as its main element. The Earth Phase excels in defense and buffing but also has offensive spells that can afflict targets with the Faint status effect. Earth Phase spells typically have knockback effects and are great at keeping multiple enemies at bay.
• Metal Phase - Utilizes Toxin as its main element. The Metal Phase's spells are centered around Damage-Over-Time and increasing the potency of status effects inflicted on opponents. Toxin attacks can afflict targets with the Poison status effects.
• Water Phase - Utilizes Ice as its main element. The Water Phase offers quick-firing offensive spells of both the single-target and AoE variety that can inflict the Frostbite status effect. It also has spells with traversal components as well as those that cater to stealth-oriented playstyles.

Elemental Affinities

Each Wizardry Spell category or Phase corresponds to the player character's Five Phases Virtues. The amount of investment in each phase will improve the damage or potency of the matching spells as well as the accumulation rate of their relative Status Effects.

For example, a high invesment into the Wood Virtue will increase the damage of your Wood Phase spells, as well as the potency of healing effects and buffs within the spell category.  Moreover, the Shock status effect can more easily be inflicted on opponents, requiring less Lightning-elemental hits to fill up the status effect bar.

Elemental Counters

Wizardry Spells employ the Five Phases to interact with each other in various ways, with certain elements coming out superior or inferior depending on the situation and opposing elements met:

• Wood Overcomes Earth
• Earth Overcomes Water
• Water Overcomes Fire
• Fire Overcomes Metal
• Metal Overcomes Wood

This is essentially a 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' mechanic that allows you to use an element to counter another one it is strong against. This applies practically by allowing you to destroy enemy elemental projectiles and AoEs by using a similar projectile or AoE from the superior element. For example, when an opponent throws a Fireball at you, you can cast the Water Phase's Frost Lance spell to meet their projectile and cancel it out. A spell's hitzone size matters when it comes to countering and in general, it is safest to use spells that release in a cone or large AoE to counter multiple projectiles. Some enemy projectiles may also be released in a staggered fashion, and one counterspell may be able to deflect the early parts of a barrage but not the rest so experiment with the best strategies depending on the situation.

Enemy spells that cause the accumulation of or inflict a status effect can also be counteracted by using a buffing spell from the superior opposing element. For example, when you are hit by a Toxin spell or effect and are afflicted by the Poison status, you can cast the Fire Phase's Overpower Burst to completely negate the status effect or its buildup. However, this is conversely true when you have a buff from an element and are hit by any attacks from the superior opposing element. The Earth Phase's Enhanced Defense or Stone Weapon buffs will immediately be canceled when hit by taking damage from a Lightning spell or effect. Lastly, when you are already afflicted by a status effect such as Shock, Burn, Faint, Poison or Frostbite, casting a buff from the inferior opposing element will cause no effect while still consuming Spirit and performing the cast animation.

When opposing elements clash, Chinese characters for both elements will flash briefly around the impact point, signifying a countereffect taking place.

Aside from counterspell effects, players can also raise specific Virtues and equip gear with high Elemental Resistance to better defend against certain elements and their effects.

Unlocking Wizardry Spells

It is currently unknown how Wizardry Spells are unlocked in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. However, in the September 2022 Demo, there is a section under the Status screen with entries for Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water Phase Spell Points so it can be speculated that these points are acquired via the Leveling mechanic or some other source and used to obtain new spells.

Each of the Five Phases has a corresponding Spell Point counter and it can be assumed that each Spell will require a certain amount of points in its matching Phase.

A large number of Spells were made available from the beginning of the demo although this is unlikely to be the case for the full release and that players will need to unlock spells one at a time.

It is also unknown if Spells need to be purchased or obtained as loot/rewards before being able to unlock them. We will update this section as more info becomes available.

Equipping & Using Wizardry Spells

Wizardry Spells can be equipped at any Battle Flag. Players can equip up to 4 different spells at once, with each spell corresponding to a face button on the controller — △, Ο, ⨉, ▢ on Playstation / Y, B, A, X on Xbox. 

Spells can be cast by holding R2 / RT and pressing the corresponding button as long as certain conditions are met. Each Spell has a Virtue Level requirement before you can equip them. These are denoted by a number after the following icons on the Spell's info screen:

Wood Virtue Fire Virtue Earth Virtue Metal Virtue Water Virtue

Essentially, you will need to meet each Spell's Virtue requirement in order to equip them on top of learning the Spell.

Spells & Spirit Consumption

Each Wizardry Spell uses a certain amount of Spirit to cast, denoted by the  icon and a numerical value on the spell's info page. While the Spirit mechanic in Wo Long is not as restrictive as energy resources in other similar titles, there are still certain key mechanisms that can improve or limit your ability to cast spells.

The Spirit Gauge is a fluctuating resource that powers your abilities. It starts off in the neutral state and can be raised into the positive range by landing basic attacks on enemies. Conversely, it can be pushed into the negative range by performing Spirit-based abilities such as dodging and deflecting, using Spirit Attacks, Martial Arts and casting Wizardry Spells. When you are at the lower-end of the negative range, you risk being staggered by an enemy's attacks and certain spells use a large enough amount of Spirit to place you in this range more often. Being too far in the negative range will also prevent you from casting Spells if there is not enough leftover Spirit to meet the requirement. 

However, when you are in the positive range, using Spirit-based abilities will consume Spirit to empower the ability. This extends to Wizardry Spells, improving their damage or raising their effect potency. Therefore, it is of great advantage to players to first raise their Spirit Gauge towards the positive end before casting spells to maximize their efficiency. Spirit will slowly return to neutral after a while of not performing any Spirit-based moves, regardless of whether you are in the postive or negative range.

Investing points into the Metal Virtue will reduce the amount of Spirit consumed by your Wizardry Spells.

Spells & Morale Rank

Morale is another important mechanic pertaining to the use of Wizardry Spells. Each Spell has a minimum Morale Rank in order to cast. This is denoted by the  icon and a numerical value in the center. Some of the most powerful spells are locked behind a high morale rank. For example, the Poison Corrosion spell requires Morale Rank 3 while the Heaven's Rage spell requires Morale Rank 18 in order to cast. Until these conditions are met, the Spells are greyed out and cannot be cast.

Morale is a fluctuating modifier for both Player and Enemy strength, adding another layer to combat. Defeating Enemies and landing certain attacks will raise your Morale Points and it will increase in Rank after reaching certain thresholds. The higher your Morale, the more damage you do to enemies and the less damage you take from their attacks. However, the same is true for enemies and you will often encounter opponents that have a much higher Morale Rank than those of surrounding basic units, making them more difficult to take on. When you are hit by an enemy's Fatal Strike, you will lose a portion of Morale Points and losing enough will cause your Moral Rank to decrease. Conversely, landing Fatal Strikes on enemies will give a large amount of Moral Points, making it easier to rank up.

When you fall in combat, you will lose all of your accumulated Morale along with half of your Genuine Qi, and the enemy that dealt the killing blow will have their Morale Rank increase by 1. You can regain your lost Morale and Qi by successfully defeating the same enemy, but they are lost forever if you fall in combat again before doing so.

As you progress throughout a mission, you will encounter Battle Flags which will act as your checkpoints. Each Battle Flag that you interact with for the first time in a mission will raise your Fortitude, a stat that prevents your Morale from falling below your current Fortitude Rank even if you fall in battle. There are also Marking Flags that can be found near Enemy Leaders. Defeating these leaders for the first time in a mission will allow you to take their flag. These do not act as check points but they do increase your Fortitude Rank. The more flags you find throughout the mission, the more Fortitude Ranks you can obtain, allowing you to more easily maintain your Morale and cast your most powerful spells. Morale Rank starts at 0 with every mission.