Forspoken’s purple magic is unstoppable, if you get the right skills

Forspoken doesn’t care about subtlety. Defeating bosses in Square Enix’s open-world action game expands the categories of elemental magic you can use. These varieties are conveniently color-coded in obvious ways — red for fire spells, blue for water spells, and so on. But the first type of magic you start with is purple magic, for, uh… rock spells. (Rocks in Athia, Forspoken’s mystical setting, are brown.)

Purple magic is also referred to in menus as “Frey’s magic,” and is about, as Frey so eloquently phrases it in an early cutscene, “[moving] shit with my freakin’ mind.” You start with three projectile attack spells — the fully automatic Scattershot, the shotgun-like Shield Shot, and the precision-based Burst Shot — and a support spell.

Best Forspoken purple magic spells

As you play Forspoken, you’ll earn mana, both through leveling up and through natural exploration. You can use mana to power-up your attack spells. But you’re better off unlocking support spells. You can ultimately unlock eight support spells per element; the more support magic you have, the better situated you’ll be for Forspoken’s more chaotic fights. Plus, some of them are extremely overpowered.

Here are the four purple magic support spells you should unlock first:

• Disperse: This spell is essentially an automated turret. Disperse is invaluable against bosses, since it can continuously deal damage while you focus on dodging attacks.
• Prime: When you cast Prime, you’ll place a proximity mine where you’re standing. Any enemies caught in the blast will get knocked over, remaining immobile for a few seconds — if they survive in the first place.
• Leach: Activating Leach will remove any poison effects enemies may have afflicted you with. (You can eventually render this spell useless by applying the “immune to poison” effect to your cloak at a crafting station.)
• Genesis Lv. 2: Surge magic is the most powerful type of spell in Forspoken, allowing you to deal a ton of damage over a wide area. Unlocking the second level of Genesis means you can cast it twice in a row by continuing to hold down the DualSense’s triggers.

If you unlock a spell you don’t end up liking, Forspoken allows you to undo your choices. In the Magic menu, hover over the spell you want to refund and hold the Triangle button (on PlayStation 5). It’ll refund the mana you spent.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

How to level up Forspoken purple magic spells

At Pilgrim’s Refuges — the rest spots strewn around Athia — you can access the spellcraft library. Spellcraft libraries allow you take on challenges affiliated with a certain spell; usually, these involves killing a certain number of enemies in a certain way with that particular spell. Once you complete a challenge, you’ll be able to increase the spell’s power from the Magic menu.

What Forspoken enemies are vulnerable to purple magic?

In general, Forspoken’s flying enemies take extra damage from purple magic. Disperse is particularly effective here; in fact, the spellcraft challenge for Disperse requires you to use the spell to defeat flying enemies. Poison enemies also tend to be weak to purple magic.

At any time, you can press up on the directional pad to scan nearby enemies. Pressing up again while looking an enemy will pause time and display a list of their vulnerabilities.