It seems like there’s always a new battle royale now, but at least at this point they’re beginning to splinter off and try new ideas. Fall Guys has been dominating this space, but a new free to play battle royale romp has garnered some attention since its recent release date. We’re talking about Spellbreak, a battle royale based around elementally-charged magic combat. So, how does Spellbreak differ from other games in this genre? Let’s go over the very basics of how to play this new game.
Spellbreak Beginning Guide
Spellbreak is a free to play game, meaning you can grab it from your platform of choice and give it a whirl without paying a dime. Spellbreak is available on the Xbox One, the PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. It’s also on PC, currently as an Epic Games Store exclusive. Once you download the game, you’ll first have to set up a Spellbreak account. This will assign you an in-game handle, which you’ll use across platforms in case you want to bounce around.
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Once you get started, you’ll immediately jump into a tutorial, which shows you the basics. There are a few core mechanics that define Spellbreak, as well as a metasystem that will no doubt fuel all kinds of strategic play styles. For the most part you’ll understand what to do if you’ve played other battle royales, but the magical abilities are what sets Spellbreak apart. For example, by holding the jump button you can levitate, which uses your mana pool to launch your mage super high into the air.
Your primary attack method comes in the form of gauntlets, which you can equip on each hand. You’ll start with one based on the class you choose, and can find others during play. Each gauntlet has a primary and a secondary, both with special properties. If you find a second gauntlet, or you’re playing on a team, you can find different ways to smash spells together to create new effects. For example, shooting the ground with a basic fire spell, then shooting the flames with the basic rock spell sends a linear, flaming fissure across the ground. Experimenting with the different interactions between elements is key to getting stronger in Spellbreak, but watch out – friendly fire is a factor.
Alongside your gauntlets you can find Runes, Scrolls, and Equipment. These are color-coded in rarity like any other game, and follow the same color conventions. Equipment items boost your mana, armor, and run speed. Amulets are additional abilities you can equip (one at a time) than can often serve as good ways to escape a bad situation by drastically altering your movement. Scrolls also increase your stats, and if you take out an opponent who has scrolls equipped, they’ll drop them for you to use. You can also find health potions and armor shards, which restore the associated resource over time.
Naturally, this game also features a shrinking safe area, and in this case it’s surrounded by The Spellstorm. The safe zone will appear after around 20 seconds, and reaching it will give players a stat bump. Each time the Spellstorm takes over a new safe area, the damage over time it deals doubles. So yeah, good luck not getting caught in that!
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Those are the basics, and if you figure this stuff out you’ll be all set in learning the ins and outs of how to play Spellbreak. There will be new features added to the game, as evidenced by greyed-out options like “Chapters” and “Duos.” But for now, either you or a three-person squad can compete for various rewards, and make big, magical explosions happen. Let us know what you think of this game over at the Prima Games Facebook and Twitter channels!
