Magic has been added! (Patreon)

Magic has been added to the game, you will be able to get your first spell during the main storyline.

Spells essentially work just like a normal attacks, with the exception they use your magic ability which should be 0 during this point of the game... So for most people, spells will deal far less damage than your knife, especially if you have been grinding your strength to a high rank.

However, what sets spells apart and makes them actually useful are the newly added monster resistances vs physical and elemental damage.
While uncommon among the monsters in the currently added floors, some of them already feature elemental resistances and even physical resistance (which is pretty rare).
Of course that also means some monsters have acquired weaknesses to some elements, and that is when spells will start to be more useful than your knife once you have properly trained your magic.

By now you must have guessed that you will not get Firebolt by default, but you get to pick your beginner spell... All of them are pretty much the same but with a different element, except for the last one: Earth.

Earth spell shows another useful element to magic, and that is utility.
The Earth spell is "Earthquake" and with a high enough magic ability, you could get rid of an army of monsters in a single turn, which is something impossible to do with just your knife.
The catches for such power are that all flying monsters are immune to it, and it costs slightly more MP to cast compared to all the other spells.

Speaking of MP cost, you will not be limited to casting spells only if you have enough mana to do so, in fact you could cast any spell with 0 MP if you so wished; The catch is that you will enter Mind Down status for a number of turns equal to the negative MP amount you have.

For example if you casted Lighting Bolt (3 MP cost) while having only 1 mp, you would get to -2 MP and enter Mind Down status for 2 turns.
When you are in Mind Down, you are left completely vulnerable and monsters will try their best to target you.