#twsteng

|| Basic Terminology ||

Magic, Mana: A natural element that flows through the earth and all living things within it (like qi or chi).

This element can be condensed in certain unknown conditions that allows for the formation of magic crystals.

Can be harnessed and utilized to power various mediums, such as spellcasting, development and growth of magical plants, as well as being used as fuel for specialized magical technology.

Not all living creatures can interact with magic energy. Those that are born with the ability to do so gain their abilities later in life, and cannot use them from birth.

Magic Spell: An ability that uses magic as an energy source to manifest the desires of the caster.

The stronger a mage's ability to visualize what they want to do, the easier it is to cast spells. The success of the spells, as well as the overall flexibility of their forms and manifestations, depends almost entirely on the imaginative ability of the caster.

Many mages and spellcasters often pick up creative hobbyworks such as writing, sculpting, drawing, ect in order to help with their ability to visualize, thus further developing their magical abilities.

Many spells have been cemented in how they are evoked throughout the passage of time. These spells can be considered basic spells or cornerstone spells for a spellcaster to learn and utilize (EX: color changing spells, housekeeping/cleaning spells, etc).

Blot: A natural element that is produced through the use (or "burning") of magic energy to produce spells. Blot collects on the soul of the spellcaster and is only able to be shed through routine maintenance of the body (IE: resting, eating, sleeping, etc).

Is described as being a waste product from the spellcasting process, and is produced much like how exhaust is produced when gasoline is burned to fuel a car.

When blot collects in excess to a spellcaster's natural limit, they are then pushed into Overblot.

Magic Crystals / Magestones: The result of a massive amount of magic energy being condensed and crystallized into a singular unit. Can be used for a variety of purposes, and are considered very rare and very expensive, particularly depending on the size of the resulting crystal.

Are typically given to mages undergoing spellcasting education (like students at NRC/RSA) to allow them to more easily harness their magic pools for spellcasting.

Can be used to collect and offset blot that would otherwise accumulate upon a spellcaster’s soul, allowing for higher spellcasting ability with lower risk levels.

Blot Crystal: The result of a massive amount of blot being condensed and crystallized into a singular unit. Modern usage is unknown.

|| Technical Terminology ||

Spellcasters, Mages, Magicians: Human or Human-adjacent entities (beastkin, merfolk, faeries, etc) that have been born with the ability to utilize magic energy to perform spellcasting abilities.

Magic Beasts: Non-human or human-adjacent entities (animals, monsters, etc) that have been born with the ability to utilize magic energy to perform spellcasting abilities. (IE: Grim)

Magic Output / Efficiency: The relative amount of magic used to power spells that are evoked, executed, and manifested by their respective caster. The lower a level of magic output is needed in order to fuel spells is better, and can be achieved through magic training.

Blot Output: The relative amount of blot that is produced when magic is used (or “burned”) to evoke, execute, and manifest a spell by their respective caster. The lower a level of blot output is better, but will always, at its lowest, match the same level of production as is relative to a spellcaster’s magic output levels.

Simplified: Blot Output levels >= Magic Output levels. Will never fall below magic output levels, but can rise above magic output levels due to mental/emotional distress.

Magic Power: The relative "strength" of the spells manifested from the spellcaster. Magic power is the most flexible variable in spellcasting training, and can be increased or decreased through training, studying, and general control.

Magic Invocation Speed: The relative “speed” at which a spell manifests and travels after it has been evoked and executed by the spellcaster. Can be increased through the reflex speed of the caster.

Magic Reserves: The internalized "pools" of magical energy that any living being can hold within them at any given time. Inflexible, and cannot be changed through any form of training.

Blot Reserves / Blot Limit: The body's natural limit on how much blot can be accumulated on the soul of the spellcaster. Inflexible, and cannot be changed through any form of training.

Generally speaking, all souls have a very similar limit as to how much blot they can handle being accumulated upon them.

Blot Accumulation: The speed at which blot accumulates on the soul of the spellcaster. Typically accumulates at a standard range speed, but can accumulate faster when the spellcaster is under mental stress or distress. Extreme mental stress/distress can also trigger a spellcaster to go into Overblot.

|| Magic Types ||

Magic Elements: In the TWST universe, all magic falls under four basic elements.

Fire

Water

Flora / Nature

Void / Null / Cosmic    - Also known as “light” and “dark” magic. This element changes depending on the user’s personal affinity.   - In NRC, there are currently only 3 known users of light magic: Kalim, Silver, and Rook. All other playable characters and staff use dark magic attacks.

Attack Magic: Magic that is used for an offensive purpose in battle. Generally takes on one of four elements and strikes an opponent with an attack that deals relative damage. Can also take on the form causing lingering poison/burn/frostbite damage to an opponent.

Defense Magic: Magic that is used for a defensive purpose in battle. Can take the form of disabling/blocking attacks, increasing a user’s passive magical defense or attack strength/damage, decreasing an opponent’s passive magical defense or attack strength/damage, increasing a person’s evasion, blinding an enemy, healing an ally, etc.

Practical Magic: Magic that is not used for any form of combative purpose. Generally used outside of combat for everyday purposes such as cleaning, cooking, gardening, etc.

|| Overblot ||

Overblot: A state of being that a spellcaster falls into when certain specific parameters are met.

The spellcaster's blot reserves have exceeded their natural limit, causing the blot to overflow from their body.

The spellcaster is under extreme mental stress/distress, which causes their emotions to become extreme and hypersensitive compared to their usual temperament.

When a spellcaster enters the state of Overblot their body undergoes a drastic and painful transformation, whereupon after their magic power is drastically increased as well as their mana usage rates for casting spells. During an overblot the spellcaster’s blot accumulation rates reach their peak, and the overflowing blot causes the manifestation of an Overblot Phantom which attacks alongside them in battle.

An Overblotting spellcaster is described as being like a “seedbed” for their respective phantom to feed from; the more magic that the spellcaster uses, the more blot that is generated from their body, which in turn causes their respective phantom to grow ever larger and stronger.

When an Overblotting spellcaster's mana reserves hit 0, their body dies and is absorbed into the body of their manifested Overblot Phantom.

Overblot Phantom: A massive creature composed entirely of pure blot, whose form takes on the appearance of a faceless creature with a bottle for its head. Phantoms are directly connected to the Overblotting spellcaster and use their blot and negative emotions as an energy source to superpower both their and the spellcaster's attacks.

Overblot Phantoms can only be defeated when they are separated from their respective Overblotting spellcaster and their connection is severed before the spellcaster's mana reserves reach 0.

1. ALWAYS be gathering ingredients. Keep that timer on cooldown and set it back up the minute it becomes available.

For me, I always use the 150min timer, because that’s exactly 2½ hours, which is how long it takes for 10 full classes to recharge. So if you check your game and set a party out to collect ingredients, then immediately after do your classes and set your game aside then by the time your classes have recharged your ingredients will be gathered too!

The only exception to this technique is when I go to sleep. Obviously I can’t check my game every 2 hours when I sleep, so I make a party and send them out to collect the primary ingredient for the event (spices, fish, eggs, potatoes, etc) for 360 minutes. This way when I wake up I’ll get a HUGE sum of the main ingredient and can run recipes back to back without stopping!

2. Check the Recipe. Obviously you’re gonna get nowhere if you’re fumbling around in the dark not knowing how to make the recipes, so having a cheat sheet on hand makes running the event SO much easier. I’ve got two resources for this!

If you’re on tumblr only, I highly recommend following or at least paroosing the account of @/twstgameplay. If you’re on twitter, look up @/twst_eng! Both accounts post simple guides and cheat sheets that are useful both for TWSTjpn and TWSTeng gameplay. I usually stick with the twitter account because they pump out the guides faster, but that doesn’t mean twstgameplay isn’t a valuable wealth of information in their own right.

Anyway, one of these two accounts usually posts a guide on the event which reveals all the ingredients for said event. Once you have that, it’s smooth sailing!

3. Run your recipes and check the quality of ingredients. Running gold ingredients out the gate is gonna get you nowhere because your skill level will be too low to make good use of them (just like in real life with cooking, hehe). From 0-30% skill (or about that) you can run all gold ingredients and still get 1 star quality, so here’s the perfect time to use the worst you’ve got and quickly get your skill level up to a decent amount before you start dealing in with higher quality.

By the time you reach about 40-70% quality you can start getting 2 star quality dishes more easily, and thus your skill level will grow much quicker with each dish. If you want to use silver and gold level ingredients, or a mix of quality with all three, to get those two stars out, then go ham in doing so!

By the time you reach 70%, go all in with gold ingredients to quickly speedrun those sweet 3 star dishes and get the +12% skill level boost. From there, it’s all smooth sailing~

4. Don’t be frugal! If you know that you want a recipe to quickly get done and you have lots of the right ingredients to do so, don’t be frugal with the quality ones! An easy way to quickly run recipes is by using the quick-fill feature to slap in all one color of ingredients, setting it to “low quality” and just letting it ride until that ingredient quality runs out. Keep the autofill at low and it’ll move on to silver, then onto gold. The slow build usually rises alongside your skill level (to some extent) so you don’t have to think too much about planning your ingredients to use. Just let it run while you start collecting more! If you run out of ingredients, move onto another dish that doesn’t require any of them and start grinding that one next.

If you run out of the main ingredient while you’re grinding, do NOT start collecting for it until it’s time for you to go to bed. Instead, keep grinding for other ingredients throughout the day (especially the ones that have high usage for that event!) then run a 360 collection while you sleep for the main ingredient and you should get more than plenty for at least a day’s worth of grinding.