Spellborne casts a spell on its players with its monster-catching, classic Pokémon-style gameplay and overall vibe, combined with fun mini-games and a bit of farming simulator on the side. So, if you're ready to be the best that no one ever was, let's get started with this Spellborne guide:

Getting Started

Spellborne is available on web browsers, so you can play it on multiple devices, including PCs and mobile devices. You can sign in to the game using your Google or Apple email. Take note of which email you use, as this will be tied to your game account. The game starts by introducing you to the world of Spellborne, where creatures known as Mons (monsters) exist, which can be caught, trained, and fight alongside their respective "hunters," which, in Pokémon terms, are their trainers. The game has a handy and simple tutorial that guides you on game controls and hotkeys.

You will then be introduced to the trio of main characters in our story: Atom, Bellatrix, and Cosmo. You will then choose which you prefer to stand in the story. The game will then lead you to Yorokobi Town, where we'll meet helpful NPCs along the way that will further progress the story. Before you venture out on your own Spellborne grind, a great tip is to first clear all the game's main story quests. These will often lead you to explore new portions on the map and meet helpful NPCs who can give you useful items as rewards.

Characters

Now, let's tackle the basics of Spellborne gameplay. As mentioned earlier, you start the game by choosing a character. This actually has an effect on gameplay as in-game characters serve as interchangeable skins that provide players with unique boosts. Upon creating an account, players can choose from three characters: Atom, Bellatrix, and Cosmo, each offering distinct attributes—Luck, Intelligence, and Charisma. Spellborne also has an NFT character collection if that might be of interest.

• Charisma: Enhances NPC interactions, making them more agreeable and increasing rewards from NPC battles. This can be boosted by the player's skin and may fluctuate.
• Intelligence: Affects crafting and wild battles, increasing the chances of receiving double items and rewards. This can also be boosted by the player's skin and may fluctuate.
• Luck: Impacts fishing and farming, improving the odds of catching fish and obtaining double items. This can be boosted by the player's skin and may fluctuate.

Since characters also serve as skins, you can also flex certain partnered NFT collections as playable in-game Spellborne characters, such as our very own GAM3S.GG skin.

Monsters

Spellborne is all about catching, training, adventuring, and eventually leading your Mons into epic battles with other Mons. Let's cover the basics of Mons here so you get the gist of it:

In Spellborne, monsters are collectible pets with unique attributes that players can capture and collect based on their play style. Upon creating an account, players receive a non-tradable starter monster named Woodot. Each monster belongs to a specific breed that determines its potential mutations as well as other characteristics. Monsters can evolve into stronger forms through a mutation tree influenced by factors like morality, game season, and capture location. They have two types: primary and secondary, with specific advantages against other types. For example, land monsters are more effective against air types but less effective against water types, creating a strategic layer in battles.

Monsters are differentiated by their attributes, including core statistics such as health, stamina, attack, defense, special attack, special defense, and speed. These attributes influence a monster's performance in battles, dictating its strengths and weaknesses. In addition to base statistics, monsters possess "potential," which is divided into innate and visible. Innate potential is fixed and influences stat calculations, while visible potential can change during battles, allowing players to customize their monsters by distributing potential points.

As monsters level up to a certain level threshold, the hunter has the option to mutate (evolve) them into new forms, changing their appearance and unlocking new moves. The mutation tree provides various strategic possibilities, allowing players to decide which mutations to pursue and creating unique, personalized bonds with their monsters. Players can also choose to skip certain mutations, affecting the monster's learning curve for new moves. The moves that monsters can perform in battle are categorized into physical, special, and status classes, each with attributes like accuracy, skill power, and stamina cost. Mon types, mutations, special attacks, and stats can be quite complex, so you can check out these monster details on the Spellborne wiki.

Monster Capture and Battle

As mentioned earlier, you will be given a starter Mon (Woodot) that you can use to battle with other Mons. You can find wild Mons by walking on certain patches of land (or bodies of water) in the game, leading to an encounter with a wild Mon. The gameplay is similar to the classic Pokémon turn-based mechanic, in which your chosen Mon will enter the battlefield against the opposing Mon.

With each "turn," you (the hunter) have options to either Fight, Bag, or Run. The Fight option will open up your Mon's available moves, which usually cost a portion of their stamina. The move will then be done by your Mon and it will do damage and/or apply status effects such as burn or sleep, according to the opposing Mon's type. The next turn will then be the opposing Mon's turn, and the process will repeat until a Mon faints (by taking damage and dropping to 0 HP).

The option "bag" will open up the hunter's inventory, where you can use various items such as health and stamina packs. This can turn the tide of battle, especially if you have high-grade consumables. But do take note that during battle, this option counts as a turn, so after you use a consumable, the next turn will be the opposing Mon's, so be careful. You can also use consumables outside of battle by opening up your inventory and using the consumables for your Mons. This is particularly helpful when you are out venturing into the wild and you want your Mons at full health to keep adventuring. The bag option also lets you switch out other mon's in your party to replace the current one in the battlefield.

On the other hand, a hunter can catch and collect Mons by using items called "Crystals." These are basically Spellborne's version of Pokéballs. They come in different rarities, with each succeeding rarity providing a higher catch rate than the previous one. During a battle with a wild Mon, a hunter can choose the option "bag" and use a crystal to try and catch the opposing Mon.

The success of the catch depends on the rarity of the crystal and the remaining HP of the opposing wild Mon, so it's generally better to try and drop a wild Mon's HP low enough before trying to catch it.

Hospital, Daycare, and Greater Market

The Hospital is simply explained as Spellborne's version of a Pokémon Center. The NPCs in the hospital will revive your fainted Mons back to full health and stamina. Take note that the hospital only "revives" fainted Mons, which means they don’t offer healing for your Mons, so it's better to bring health packs while exploring.

The Daycare is another useful feature in the game, where you will find the PC in which you can store Mons that you caught but are unable to carry. Take note that only a maximum of 5 Mons at a time can be carried in battle by the hunter. The PC automatically stores the Mons that you caught past the 5 Mons you carry, and it also allows you to switch Mons you want to bring with you.

The Greater Market is the game's all-around supermarket, offering a variety of goods ranging from health packs, crop seeds, crystals, and many more. The market generally accepts the common in-game currency of gold nuggets.

Farming and Crafting 

Once you finish certain quests, you will soon unlock Heiwa Village and the plot of land within it. Within this plot of land, you can plant your crop seeds. Seasonal crops can only be planted in their specific seasons and will wither when the season changes, while multi-season crops can grow across multiple seasons without being affected by these changes. Crop growth times follow real-world time, not the in-game clock.

Fully grown crops must be harvested within 18 hours, or they will wither. Harvested crops can feed monsters or be crafted into valuable items. If a crop dies before harvesting, players receive compost, which can be traded with NPCs for items like new seed packs, though the exchange rates may vary.

And that brings us to crafting, another concept of the game where you can use and combine various items in the game to create a new one. The crafting items usually come from harvested crops, taskboard rewards, and daily mission rewards. The craftable consumables provide battle buffs that can turn the tide of battle.

These crafting items and consumables can sometimes take up all your inventory space, as you only have a limited amount when you are adventuring. As a solution, you can use storage chests, placed in various locations in the game, to store items that you might not need at the moment. You can place inventory items into and retrieve them from your storage chests.

Tips and Tricks

And that’s basically it for everything you need to know as a beginner for Spellborne. But before we conclude, let's talk about some tips and tricks to make your grind easier:

• When you start your journey, you might encounter some problems with not having enough resources and crystals to catch new Mons for your team. You can check out your daily missions by pressing Q (on PC) and see what missions have crystals as rewards. These are often easy missions like daily and weekly log-ins. Look out for Spellborne-partnered events, as they are often limited-time events that give out certain quests to finish.

• Each time your monster faints, it loses "trust points". To maintain a high trust level, try to prevent your monster from fainting often. Low trust levels can make it difficult to level up, train, and get your monster to obey you. Winning battles will increase your monster's trust points. You can also boost trust by feeding your monster its favorite crop, which adds 2 trust points each time. Remember, you can only feed your monster once every 18 hours.

• Scouring dumpsters placed in various locations in the game will open up a mini-game that will test your reflexes. You can do this daily and get various useful in-game items such as gems, seeds, etc.

• Ride your skateboard to quickly travel across the map. Also, if you are keen on exploring a body of water, you will need to equip your surfboard first. Both can be equipped using your radial tool selector (by pressing R on the PC).
• Sometimes when adventuring, all your Mons are low on HP and you don’t think spending health packs will be worth it. In this case, you have the option to purposely let them faint by fighting against wild Mons and just spamming their weakest or neutral moves until all the Mons on your team faint. This will instantly teleport you to the hospital with all your Mons revived with max HP and stamina. But do take note that this will affect your Mons' trust, so do this only when necessary or when your Mons' trust is already high and can take a hit.
• You can also finish taskboard quests which you can find in various dashboards near certain buildings, finishing these quests often gives rewards such as gold nuggets.  

• Before you enter a battle, you can select and organize which Mons on your team should go first, second, etc. You can do this by lining them up in your preferred order by opening up your inventory, and then pressing on your Mons to either move them up or down.

Thank you for reading our Spellborne guide! We hope the tips and tricks we provided will help you get started with catching all those awesome Mons! Spellborne is still in its early phase of development, and we have much to see, such as more map locations, further Mon mutations, and of course the integration of web3 via Spellborne NFTs! So get excited and be the very best to catch 'em Mon!