Video Game / Spellstone

Unravel the mystery of the Void.

"An ancient island, cloaked in a veil of ice, has been rediscovered. Adventurers arrive in waves, with hopes of power and rare treasures. The treasures they seek are Spellstones, which contain magical creatures from a time long past. Hopeful adventurers speak of one of the Elder Treasures - a Heart of Blue Fire. You are here to find it."

— Opening

Spellstone (also known as Spellstone: Dungeons Unearthed) is an online CCG released in late 2015 and developed by Synapse Games, the makers of Tyrant 2011 and its successor, Tyrant Unleashed. The company was later bought out by Kongregate, who continue to update the game to this day. It can be played here, but it can also be found on Steam and mobile platforms.

Set in the mystical land of Arcantica, Spellstone takes place in an elaborate fantasy setting populated with all manner of collectible creatures. The game is "free-to-start", with the option to purchase Shards and certain bundles using microtransactions. The gameplay is simple: each player assembles a deck of fifteen cards and a "hero" to represent them. The object of the game is to defeat your opponent by emptying their hero's health bar. Each card and hero can use up to three skills, allowing for countless strategies — as of this writing, there are upwards of 1300 cards and 30 different skills.

Not to be confused with the collectibles from Star Fox. Or the similarly-named Hearthstone and SpellStorm.

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Tropes found in the world of Spellstone include:

• Abandoned Laboratory: In a once-available trip to the Center of the Void, Tarian and Malchior discover one of these that's full of Void-infected zombie scientists. It turns out they were the ones who inadvertently unleashed the Void in the first place.
• Abandoned Mine: The Fireshard Mine, once used by the Chaos to mine for the Heart of Blue Fire, was left behind when all they discovered were the Fireshards.
• Achievement System: By clicking the Raven at the top left corner of the Airship, you can view the Quests screen, which lists various objectives such as clearing all the levels on a given map, collecting Bounties, crafting Runes, and reaching certain milestones in the Arena. Depending on the quest, you can earn gold, Arcane Dust, Runeshells, and even Shards.
• An Adventurer Is You: To the point where the game averts Hello, [Insert Name Here] and flat-out calls you "Adventurer" all the way to the end.
• Alice Allusion: The postgame's revisit to the Abyss has the player chasing a goblin wearing a waistcoat as a stand-in for the White Rabbit. Many events similar to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland follow, like a long conga line full of elementals, a party, and a climactic trial that culminates in the entire story being All Just a Dream. Except it wasn't. That "White Rabbit goblin" turns out to be Remi, the Big Bad of the postgame!
• All Your Powers Combined: The Champion card "Uncommon Allies", released in January 2022, depicts Leyla, Alyel, and Freya joining forces to fight the Void. Accordingly, the card has no faction, and its skills are a combination of Leyla's Empower, Alyel's Dualstrike, and Freya's Barrier.
• Anomalous Art: The mural at the heart of Skyhaven's Arcane Library is full of magic, and Razi uses it to explain the legend of Lev, the forgotten hero worshipped by the Crimsonwings.
• Apocalypse How: The Void is seemingly attempting a Class 2 at the least, as best shown when the player visits the remains of Red Feather Valley and finds the landscape burnt black, devoid of plant life, and crawling with feral creatures that have permanently lost their minds, forced to wander the ashes forever and locked in a state of mindless rage.
  General Garrick: The entire world would be like this if you had failed to seal The Void.
• April Fools' Day: Each April Fools' Day, a special, temporary level is unlocked. These are full of poorly drawn characters and fights against the developers of the game... but even though the tone is silly, these levels are still more than capable of posing a challenge.
• Arc Villain:
  • The first arc's Big Bad is none other than Samael, who plans to use the Heart of Blue Fire to wipe out the Chaos once and for all.
  • The Corruptlings and Corruptrex are responsible for the poisoning of Dawnglow Swamp, though not intentionally — they're simply native to the Void.
  • The Frog Emperor, of all people, turns out to be this when his Guardian Stone turns out to be strengthening the Void behind his back. He gets better.
  • Dr. Oppenhinder, an undead Mad Scientist hiding out in the Center of the Void, is the one responsible for unleashing the Void in the first place. Although she's trying to fix her mistake, she still gets into conflict with the heroes.
  • Magistrate Agni of Red Feather Valley masterminded a Hostage Situation, kidnapping a young boy to stop his mother from hunting and eating her citizens.
  • Reks, the evil king of the Goblins, seeks to Take Over the World by assembling an army of dragons to ride on and burn everything that stands in his way.
  • Xerkahn, Reks's sister, is a swashbuckling goblin pirate with a vengeance. She appears after the player defeats the Big Bad, Bluefire, serving as a temporary opponent before the Crimsonwings take control of the story.
  • Scyer the Fury Mecha is a dangerous robot warden from Fireshard Mine who refuses to allow any intruders in his territory. He's much more on the level with his critical thinking protocol engaged, which causes him to make a Heel–Face Turn and join the heroes.
  • Boldur is the third of the Goblin leaders to make this list, but aside from having the Spellstone Hammer in his possession, he doesn't really do anything all that evil. He even gives it up willingly after losing his part of a "wager" against the heroes. When the party meets him again, he's an outright good guy who pitches in to rebuild Duskwillow.
• The Artifact: There are a few cards in the Reward and Premium sets that were released very early on and aren't a part of the ten tribes. Ever since tribe-specific Battleground Events started, these have been pretty much left by the wayside as unobtainable Junk Rares, seen only in early-game enemy decks or by particularly eagle-eyed players browsing the in-game card list.
• Artifact of Doom: The Heart of Blue Fire turns out to be the source of The Corruption plaguing the lands in the game's first arc. Also, the Frog Kingdom's Guardian Stone is actually feeding the Void with its energy.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: According to Orgoth, this is how goblin society chooses its rulers.
  Orgoth: The strongest or the craftiest... a goblin needs one of those traits to become a leader.
• Author Avatar: In some of the April Fools' Day levels, you can fight the developers of the game, and they all have decks full of poorly-drawn cards that can still mop the floor with you.
• Backtracking: The second temporary Tarragon Peak expedition starts out as a straight retread of the first, with the exact same plot and enemies... then the "Molten Eruption" level unlocks and the player is tasked with closing a rift full of angry elementals.
• Balance Buff: Once every BGE, the developers take player feedback into account and buff a few of the game's many, many cards. A more drastic one was applied to all of the game's playable Heroes on February 16, 2022.
• Bewitched Amphibians: At one point in the postgame filler campaigns, the frogs of Dawnglow Swamp turn the player character into a frog. The whole situation, if the level titles are any indication, is reminiscent of being hung over and forgetting what happened the night before. Turns out an entire village is full of these, courtesy of the shadowy Froggsters.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Several locations, particularly during an Undead-tribe BGE (Battleground Event). For starters, there's the Center of the Void, the second half of Fireshard Mine, and Desolate Red Valley, a mix of this trope and The Lost Woods.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The legendary delicacy of Tarragon Peak turns out to be fire fruit, which even dragons consider spicy.
• Bookcase Passage: In the main Skyhaven campaign, one of these was hidden away in the Mystic Library, leading to an even more hidden library overseen by Razi.
• Bookends:
  • The first three maps in the entire game are Elaria, Luminis, and Karthos. In the final section of the game's story mode, these three locations are finally revisited after a long and intricate series of campaigns in other dungeons.
  • The very first and very last battles of the main story are sparring matches with the Elaria Captain.
• Breather Episode:
  • After the party's first visit to the Void and their climactic battle with Samael, there are two short missions in Dawnglow Swamp and Seastone Citadel to tide the player over before the story continues.
  • Once the Big Bad, Bluefire, is subdued and defeated, there is a short arc where the player must stop Xerkahn, the sister of Reks, as well as a brief visit to Fireshard Mine before the Crimsonwings show up, starting the second main Story Arc.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: All over the place. Players can use Shards (a form of in-game currency) to buy premium cards from the shop, refill their energy meter, get more Bounties, and a whole host of other perks. While it's possible to accumulate many Shards over months by grabbing the daily bonus, it's much faster to simply buy them with real-world money.
• Brick Joke: Samael's Flavor Text reads, "Don't ask him about the difference between bird wings and angel wings." In the postgame, it's revealed that this is Serious Business, to the point where there is scholarly debate about it In-Universe. Skyhaven keeps the truth of the matter locked away in a secret vault, and when the player reads it, the narrator can only say that it's "so terrible you realize your life is immediately in danger from two tribes instead of one".
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Dawnglow Swamp, home of the Frog Kingdom, is the fifth map. It serves as a Breather Episode after the first visit to the Void, and has the player investigating a mysterious case of water poisoning. It's visited a few more times later on, including once in an expedition that's no longer accessible.
• Butt-Monkey: In many card arts, the character depicted in the card is shown attacking some human knights or goblins. There was even a time-limited campaign where the knights decided they were sick of such treatment, forming their own "Knight" tribe and challenging the player as an act of rebellion.
• Celebrating the Heroes: After the ultimate defeat of Bluefire, Beetleton Bunker's campaign involves a great celebration for the player. Unfortunately, nothing can go right even there — the party is crashed when the insects' mechanical helpers go haywire.
• Charm Person: The "Confusion" skill, introduced in August 2022, causes an afflicted enemy to attack a random ally on either side of them.
• Christmas Episode: Each Christmas season, there's a special, time-sensitive level that features the characters getting into the Santa Clausmas-flavored holiday cheer.
• Chronoscope: Staring down the crater of Tarragon Peak works this way, causing the dragon Teroxis to relive memories of his meeting with the Forgotten Hero. It is somewhat unclear whether this is a natural property of the volcano or Teroxis's own magic.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each level is marked on the map by a large pink gem that appears on the overworld. Postgame levels are yellow instead, and bosses have a purple gem with a blue skull in the center.
• Coming in Hot: At the end of the Forgotten Island campaign, Typhoeus awakens and attacks the airship, forcing the party to crash-land in Golden Crown Village.
• Cool Chair: The Throne of Skyhaven is quite impressive, but what really turns it into this trope is its secret elemental defense mechanism, which will freeze any and all intruders solid. You can even obtain it as a card.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: The Void originates from the Void Plane, a realm of evil which seeps into Arcantica through gaps in the fabric of reality. All the heroes' efforts to stop it have treated the symptoms, not cured the disease.
• The Corruption: The Void, a powerful force of evil, poisons the minds of several named characters and various monsters in the story, and even seems to affect the environment. On the party's first visit to Dawnglow Swamp, the whole location has become purple and foul thanks to the Corruptrex and her babies, who came to Dawnglow from the Void.
• Counter-Attack: Four different skills are various forms of counterattack. Vengeance will deal damage to whatever hits the card with a direct attack, and Emberhide and Poisonhide apply burn and poison damage instead. Then there's Backlash, which deals damage to any card on the enemy's team that targets it with a skill.
• Creation Myth: The game's cosmology and the origins of the factions are explained during the boss battles against the Power Coil Constructs. In the beginning there was nothing but the Void, until the first life, the fire of Chaos, flickered into existence to encompass the world. To regulate the Chaos's unchecked growth, Aether was formed, and gave the world order. Then the seeds of Wyld scattered themselves around the barren wasteland, finally realizing the lush greenery of life itself.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: The second map, Luminis, has the eponymous City of Luminis. It's a bright golden city home to many higher-ups in the Aether faction, such as Yuriel and Samael.
• Cult: The Crimsonwings are a shadowy group dedicated to the worship of Lev, the Forgotten Hero. They take center stage in the game's second Story Arc, where they replace the Void as the game's main villainous faction.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Any card hit by the Hex skill will take extra damage from direct attacks and most other skills, barring status effects like poison and scorch.
• A Day in the Limelight: The very first temporary event in the game was called "Aria's Fall", starring Aria the Necromancer on a journey through the Salt Wastes. It's meant to explain what got her corrupted by the Void in her first in-game appearance.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Aria the Necromancer, Yuriel the Owl Mystic, Decim the Firebringer, and Samael all antagonize the player during the first four maps of the game (roughly forming the first Story Arc), but after they're defeated, they return many times throughout the game as allies, and it's possible to set them as your Hero once you reach a high enough bounty rank.
• Defeat Means Playable: Zig-zagged. Several Champion cards are also bosses fought throughout the story, but it's possible for the player to obtain their cards before ever fighting them. Scyer, a playable hero, has to be unlocked through a mission that only opens after the player clears Fireshard Mine.
• Defend Command: Cards with Shroud will block any and all attacks and skills while they are frozen or on delay, effectively giving them this if they are incapacitated.
• Detectives Follow Footprints: During the Dawnglow Swamp map, Groc and Ursurio track down the Corruptlings and Corruptrex by scanning the swamp until they can find footprints to follow. In the postgame, the Player Character follows another set of tracks in search of some mercenaries who kidnapped Terragon's hatchling, but finds Alyel instead.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Happens thrice — The Void, The Void Plane, and The Abyss all seem like they're going to be the absolute final dungeon, only for more of the campaign to open up. There's more content beyond The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Conflux Convergence, but that is treated like postgame content instead, so it doesn't count.
• Double Meaning: The Heart of Blue Fire is a mystical heart-shaped stone that glows with blue fire. Take away the last space, and it's the heart of Bluefire.
• Draw Aggro: The Taunt skill, used by a few enemies the player can never obtain, can be used to draw direct attacks.
• Dressing as the Enemy: In the Red Feather Valley expedition, Cedric and Ursurio manage to infiltrate the Avian city in Red Feather Valley by beating up some soldiers and stealing their cloaks. Somehow, despite being a bear and a frog in a city of birds, this works.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Up until early 2017, event maps would vanish for good after the event ended, resulting in many new players losing track of the story by winding up In Medias Res. This was corrected starting with Duskwillow and every map thereafter.
• Earthquakes Cause Fissures: In the first Tarragon Peak expedition (which can't be accessed anymore), the dragons have gone berserk thanks to a mysterious earthquake that has torn the ground apart.
• Eldritch Location:
  • The Void Plane, the eldritch dimension where the Void originated from, is a plane of existence that "leaks" into Arcantica through weak spots in the fabric of reality and corrupts everything. When the party actually enters it, they find a bizarre world where the sun is cold and dark, and broken objects float suspended in the atmosphere.
  • The Celestial Vault's inner sanctum is a mystical spring where Elementals cross from the spirit world to the physical world. It can only be accessed through the three orbs holding the Vault suspended in the air, which create a converging trio of energy beams that open up a portal to the spring. It is inaccessible to anything that can't fly up and into the rift.
  • Distorted Beetleton is an alternate plane of reality from the regular Beetleton Bunker, with a huge dark hole in place of the city, mushrooms everywhere, and bright, odd colors all over the place. It was created by a profound elemental disturbance, and is inhabited by Amaroks. Just being there seems to have driven the native insects mad, and according to Rayne, it is close to the Void.
  • The Abyss is the final Disc-One Final Dungeon of the game, and the place where Bluefire briefly condemned the player during the Void Plane campaign. A pitch-black hellhole deep in the spirit world, the Abyss is the place where the "river of darkness" that is the Void collects and pools. It is also where the Forgotten Hero has been locked away.
• Electric Jellyfish: The main collectibles of the Pharos Temple map are Mini Jellyfish, which are used to power parts of the city and aid the player as long as they're in the area. A few cards are electrical jellyfish, too, such as the Deepcharge Caller, a mermaid who controls jellyfish and has the Bolt All skill. There's also Medusozoa the Immortal, an enormous jellyfish monster who takes the trope to another level by outright having tentacles made of lightning.
• Elemental Embodiment: Many Elementals fit the trope. They can do it in both the "classical elements" sense (for example, the Moss Golem is one of the first Elementals you'll get) and the scientific sense (one Premium card is the Gold Elemental, a sentient mass of molten gold).
• Element No. 5: The game's three main elemental factions are the Aether (typically ice, wind, or light), the Chaos (fire or darkness), and the Wyld (earth, grass, or water). And then there's the Void, who take bits and pieces from all these factions but are generally lumped together with "evil magic" and "evil darkness".
• Endless Daytime: The climate of the Salt Wastes is very unusual compared to the rest of Arcantica. There are months where the sun seemingly never sets.
• Enemy Civil War: After Kensho arises to become a new leader of the Aether, the Return to Luminis campaign opens with a battle breaking out between those Aether still loyal to Samael and those wishing to join Kensho on a more extreme path.
• Evil Power Vacuum: The defeat of the Big Bad, Master Bluefire, temporarily brings peace to the world... but there's still a lot of adventure left to go, leaving the player to fight all-new villains in his place.
• Extra Turn: The "Dualstrike" skill allows a card to attack twice, as well as use certain other skills twice. Because of how dangerous this ability is, it is one of the few with a cooldown.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: To give you an idea, there are deities from all sorts of world mythologies, like Nidhogg and Viracocha, mixed together with gigantic robotic bugs, fallen angels, and totally original beasts like the Noctrus Flintclaw.
• Featureless Protagonist: The playable "Adventurer" is never seen in the flesh. Instead, the player can choose one of various important characters in the game to be their Hero, who helps the deck out with skills of their own and serves as a de facto avatar.
• Fictional Sport: Goblinball, the goblin equivalent of basketball. It's described as being "basically regular basketball but way more dangerous and with the hoops being humorously low". The narrator calls the name unoriginal. When the player inevitably dominates the game thanks to being taller than the goblins, they become incensed and challenge them to Limbo instead.
  After apologizing to the goblins they decide to invite you to play their version of basketball called "Goblinball". Not very creative these devs, I mean goblins, yeah let’s blame it on them.
• Field Power Effect: Every 4 weeks in real time, the developers will release a brand-new "Battleground Event" (BGE for short) favoring one of the game's ten tribes, giving every card in that tribe a substantial boost in power. For example, in May 2022, the BGE "Exalted Warfare" granted every Angel card the Legion and Fervor skills. Starting in Duskwillow, each map has their own ways to strengthen the player, which can be upgraded with collectibles from that map.
• Fight Like a Card Player: Much like Tyrant before it, the story of Spellstone has absolutely nothing to do with cards or card battling. The card-based gameplay is more of a proxy for the characters' in-story actions.
• Filler: The first postgame levels were very much Breather Levels with very, very little in the way of plot. For example, one involves the player going to Tarragon Peak for a nice hot spring rest after saving the world, followed by a ping-pong game against the locals and a visit to a Hell Hotel run by dragons. All the while, the narration is cracking groan-worthy puns.
  Maybe you should have listened to everyone but Decim when deciding your vacation destination. Well... At least after dealing with all these third degree burns, you will be able to relax in the hot springs.
• Floating Continent: The Celestial Vault, a mysterious plane high in the sky that's home to countless Elementals. It's also where the player is meant to encounter Groc for the first time, although this meeting is no longer possible. The floating is justified in-universe, though — it's the byproduct of three mystical orbs that imbue the islands of the Vault with their magic. If the orbs were to suffer enough damage, the Celestial Vault would come crashing down.
• Foreign Queasine: The narration notes that the insects of Beetleton Bunker have decided to celebrate your victory over the Big Bad with a buffet of "slimy substances", which the player does not find appetizing. When the party is crashed, it has this to say.
  The decorations have been washed away. You're secretly glad that the buffet table didn't survive.
• Forever War: Without the Void to keep the three Titans in check, there is nothing stopping the three factions from perpetually warring with one another over the fate of the world.
• Fragile Speedster: Cards with low (1-2 turns) delay or no delay at all will typically have less than 40 HP and weaker skills to compensate for being so fast.
• Freemium: An odd stratified version, where the more real-world money you spend, the higher your "VIP Rank" becomes. The highest VIP ranks have access to all of Drake and Drake's Emporium, more energy, more bounties, larger inventories, Dust Packs, and a button that will instantly raise a card to its maximum level (provided the player has the resources).
• Freemium Timer: Spellstone uses an energy system that regenerates by one point every ten minutes. Once you get the Heart of Blue Fire, it regenerates by one point every eight minutes and raises the cap by 30.
• Freudian Trio: The three factions are collectively one of these. Aether is the stoic, rational Superego that prizes structure and order; Chaos is the fiery Id that values personal freedom; the down-to-earth Wyld is left as the Ego between two extremes.
• Frog Men: Many members of the Frog tribe are humanoid. There's a whole civilization of sapient frog-people in Dawnglow Swamp, ruled by the Frog Emperor. His second-in-command, Cedric, becomes a playable Hero after beating the Dawnglow Swamp campaign.
• Fusion Dance: A core gameplay mechanic. If you upgrade two copies of the same card to their maximum level, you can combine them and create a "dual-fused" version with a new name and higher stats. The strongest "quad-fused" cards are made by combining two dual-fused cards in much the same way.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The insects of Beetleton Bunker built mechas to help them rebuild following Reks's bombing.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The infamous "Error Code 11" glitch, which started to happen around February 2023 and was finally patched out in late April. In this bug, the Raven's dialogue portait would appear on the title screen to say "11", which prevented players from actually entering the game unless they refreshed the page.
• Gaming Clan: Players can join Guilds for more gold, camaraderie, and a chance to participate in events like Guild Clashes, Raids, and Guild Wars. More selective Guilds screen players by bounty rank, and the top Guilds in the game may require a direct invite from higher-ups in the Guild to enter.
• Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: The postgame visit to Healed Dawnglow introduces the Froggsters, who are essentially a frog version of The Mafia. Turns out they're feeding genetically modified flowers to non-frogs in order to grow their ranks.
• Gilligan Cut: One is used in a now-inaccessible expedition to Dawnglow Swamp, when Aria tells Elyse she'd sooner freeze to death than explore the swampland. Cue the next part of the level, and...
  Aria: I can't BELIEVE we are wading through this filth!
• Gladiator Games: As you might have guessed from the name, this was the original purpose of the Gladius Arena. Any Divine Crest angels who "cast aside their principles" became fallen angels, and were sent down there to win their freedom by becoming champion of the arena. Unfortunately, the Divine Crest had to rely on these competitors to defend themselves in the war, as they were pacifists with no self-preservation instinct.
• Gold Fever: In the Void Plane's second postgame campaign, it looks like the Angels of Skyhaven have gotten themselves obsessed with gold, but it turns out their massive hoard is actually meant to strengthen Midas, an enormous golden golem that serves as their final trump card.
• Great Big Library of Everything: The Aether faction owns the Mystic Library of Skyhaven, the biggest archives in all of Arcantica. It's curated by Yuriel, the Owl Mystic... but even he doesn't know about the Bookcase Passage leading into the even more esoteric Arcane Library.
• Great Escape: The first expedition to Goblin Rise Stronghold features Decim staging a prison break after he is captured by goblins.
• Grimy Water: In the Dawnglow Swamp campaign, Groc, Ursurio, and the player are asked to help the Frog Emperor after something's been poisoning the swamp water and harming his citizens.
• Hailfire Peaks: The Celestial Vault is divided into three main floating islands, each one roughly corresponding to the three factions. The Wyld island is a grassy plain with an enormous tree that has purple leaves, the Chaos island is an active volcano with a constant stream of lava, and the Aether island is a rocky cave area featuring an enormous Waterfall into the Abyss.
• Halloween Episode: Each Halloween, there is a special, timed-exclusive level that features the legend of Pumpking. The standard plot for these levels involve an antagonistic character (Decim, Scyer, Garrick, Yuriel, Daknak) going out of their way to invoke Pumpking, only to be Horror Struck when they find out he's not merely a legend. The episode then ends with Pumpking disappearing mysteriously, leaving behind a pumpkin full of candy.
• Harmless Freezing: The Freeze skill encases an enemy card in ice for one turn, preventing it from taking any action. Mercifully, this is one of the few skills with a cooldown.
• Heart of the Matter: The Heart of Blue Fire, the item you're initially after in the first arc, is an immensely powerful heart-shaped stone that glows with blue flame. It's also the source of some of the Void's corruption, as well as the literal heart of Bluefire, the dragon who rules the Void Plane.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: During the tutorial, the Raven will walk you through the first battles by telling you which cards to play and what each skill does.
• Hell Hotel: Less "hellish" and more "crappy", but in the postgame, the player visits a "hot-el" run by an old dragon couple. The amenities leave much to be desired.
  It's just a dark cave filled with hot lava and smelly sulfur, but the old dragon couple made it look very cosy. You even find melted chocolate mints over your rocky pillows!
• Hidden Depths: In the postgame visit to World's Center, you find out that some goblins are hosting a basketball tournament — quite unexpected, as this is the first in-game mention of a real-world sport. When you arrive, you find they play the similar goblinball instead.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Several Chaos-aligned characters, such as the necromancer Aria and the Dragon Tamer Fiona, use "fire lord" in place of "God" (e.g. "thank the fire lord you've arrived"). This may be referring to Vulcanos.
• Hostage Situation: The Red Feather Valley arc features Frobert, the young son of the Golden Crown Mayor, getting kidnapped by Avian soldiers who want to avenge the deaths of their comrades, and are using him as leverage to stop his mother from killing any more civilians.
• Hub Level: The Airship is where players can find the shop, the bounties, their guild, and the crafting table, so they'll be returning to it often when they aren't taking part in special events or clearing levels.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Champion cards, especially once they've reached a high enough level, are a player's bread-and-butter once they reach endgame thanks to having higher stats and stronger skills than most Legendary cards.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The final Champion card, Lev the Forgotten Hero, can only be obtained by grinding another Champion all the way up to level 10. Any more Champion Stones for that Champion will be converted into stones for Lev from then on.
• Initiation Ceremony: In order for Oda to become a Keeper of the First Order and obtain the Seastone Staff, he must undergo a ritual of fending off several undead while inside a magic circle. The last opponent is some sort of bizarre demon with a huge eye on its stomach and two sets of tentacles.
• Interface Spoiler: Some of the obtainable cards spoil key plot twists of the game, namely the existence of Bluefire, the dragon who rules over the Void Plane, and Kensho's transformation into an air elemental.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: In the postgame revisit to Frigore, the narration notes that the area has become eerily silent, and the Player Character feels as if they're being watched. Cue Ashanti.
• Jungle Japes: The very first map, Elaria, takes place in a lush jungle with a large Mayincatec pyramid taking up much of the background. There are a few Wyld cards, mostly dragons, that are apparently native to it.
• Justified Tutorial: Working with Spellstones is a dangerous job that entails fighting against all sorts of fantasy creatures, so the captain of the Elaria expedition wants to make sure you have what it takes to find the Heart of Blue Fire.
• Lethal Joke Character: The April Fools' Day enemies are either intentionally poorly drawn cards with viciously strong skills, or Common-rarity cards that have been buffed to hell and back.
• Lethal Lava Land: Karthos, the third map, is a volcanic locale known as the "lair of Chaos". It's home to aggressive lava crabs and the castle of Tarian, the Lich Lord. There's also Tarragon Peak, an enormous volcano famous for its dragons and hiding secrets about Oda's order of monks.
• Level in the Clouds: Skyhaven, the land of the angels, takes place high in the heavenly sky above Arcantica.
• Level-Locked Loot: The player is given a treasure chest at the start of the game that will open after reaching a certain level... to reveal another treasure chest and a few rewards. Fortunately, this disappears around the time the player can start holding their own.
• The Lost Woods: Golden Crown Village is a Treetop Town-themed area, home to peaceful tree frogs and their wizened mayor. Red Feather Valley, home to their Avian neighbors, also counts — though it becomes a mix of this trope and Big Boo's Haunt after the Void razes half of the map, turning it into "Desolate Red Valley".
• MacGuffin: The Heart of Blue Fire is a so-called "Elder Treasure" that the player's after. Obtaining it makes the Freemium Timer much more lenient than before. In the wrong hands, however, the Heart serves as a major source of The Corruption — and the bad guys getting their hands on it forms the game's first story arc.
• Magic Dance: The Seastone Citadel is locked behind the First Order's magic, and needs to be opened using a dance. According to Oda, this is proof that the Citadel is ancient; his tribe no longer uses these sorts of locks because, in his words...
  Oda: The drinking enthusiasts of my country had a way of figuring out the dance...
• Magikarp Power: Low-level Champions aren't much more useful than Epics, and serve as good crutch cards to rely on in the early game. High-level Champions, which you get by collecting hundreds of Champion Stones, are among the absolute strongest in the game. There are also three Mythics (Narix, Scylla, and Verus) that follow a similar principle.
• The Magnificent: Several cards, most of them Champions and Mythics, are named this way. For example, "Atlas, the Ancient", "Cordelia the Twinblade", and "Nuvis, the Eye Collector".
• Malevolent Architecture: Whoever built the Arcane Library inside Skyhaven clearly didn't want people trespassing — the books inside are spell books that can summon angels, and there are spiky death traps that shoot out when the wrong pressure plate is pressed. Thankfully the player doesn't have to deal with this, as the library's caretaker Razi triggers them herself for the party's benefit.
• Matryoshka Object: The beginner's treasure chests the player receives at the start of the game will open to reveal some goodies... and the next tier of treasure chest. Eventually, this stops when the player reaches a high enough level and doesn't need the rewards anymore.
• Mechanically Unusual Class:
  • Downplayed with Champion cards. These are legendary cards that can't fuse, but can be upgraded to rival the Mythics in sheer strength... if the player collects enough Champion Stones, which are unique to that Champion and are required to raise them to the next level. It requires a total of 4,000 Champion Stones to fully upgrade one, which is very difficult to do without spending or years of persistent grinding.
  • In the same vein as the Champions, the Mythic cards Narix, Scylla, and Verus don't start out as Mythics. They need to be upgraded through the various rarities using Embersouls, Brinesouls, and Windsouls respectively.
• Mighty Glacier: Cards with higher (3-4 turns) delay will typically have 40 or more HP and stronger skills to compensate for being so slow.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: In the postgame, the frog mercenary Caesar tries to kill Terragon, a dragon. Turns out he was acting on the orders of the new Big Bad to invade Skyhaven as a distraction, with the culmination of the plan being a full-blown return of the Void, and was trying to pull a She Knows Too Much on Terragon to stop that information from leaking.
• Monster Is a Mommy: Subverted with Kerlor, the Ice Dragon fought during the first Tarragon Peak expedition. It's been driven mad by earthquakes, and the dragon eggs it's protecting were stolen from other nests.
• Mundane Solution: In the second expedition to Golden Crown Village, the frogs of Golden Crown have been attacked by frogs from Dawnglow Swamp that were driven mad by Void-tainted water. Unfortunately, Cedric and Ursurio don't have any holy artifacts to banish the Void. They settle for plugging up the corrupted portions of the river with a boulder.
• Mysterious Mist: In the (now unavailable) first expedition to Frigore, Oda and Malchior discover the presence of "Arcane Vapor" — a mysterious fog made of fine, powdery spellstones. Malchior (and, as it turns out, other teams of adventurers) let the vapor collect on sheets of cloth.
• Mystical Plague: Close contact with the Void can cause infections, fevers, and evil deeds.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: There's always something amiss in the world of Arcantica, from water pollution all throughout Dawnglow Swamp to damaging earthquakes on Tarragon Peak that have been driving the local dragons crazy.
• Not Always Evil: In the Goblin Rise Stronghold campaign, Orgoth cautions Fiona about distrusting the goblins when Decim enters the fortess, citing this trope. And, sure enough, the main thing their leader Boldur wants with the Spellstone Hammer is rebuilding Duskwillow.
  Orgoth: Well it ain't like the goblins are inherently evil, missie. He might have a reason.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Parodied (where else?) in the April Fools' Day levels. In "Some Gloomy Lake", the individual stages are titled "Doomsday", "Doomsday 2: Electric Boogaloo", "The Day That Doomed", and "Doomest Day".
• Olympus Mons: The eight Mythic-rarity cards are some of the strongest in the entire game, and they're distinguished from other cards by having animation and a unique skill. Champion cards, special Legendaries that rival them in power, can also count if they're at a high enough level.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: There's a barrier in Red Feather Valley that only allows the living to pass through, but it doesn't really come into play until Desolate Red Valley, when Tarian joins the heroes on an expedition.
• Palmtree Panic: The Forgotten Island map takes place on a beach of the titular island, with craggy cliffs, palm trees, and a deep cavern to explore. There's also the ruins of the Rhynio civilization, the race of insects that raised the Crimsonwings' hero.
• Parody Commercial: The now-unavailable "Knights on Strike" level features a parody advertisement for the Knights of Arcantica.
  NOW HIRING: Seeking young, able-bodied heroes with a thirst for adventure. Tasks may include heavy manual and skilled work including hacking, slashing, and beast slaying. No experience required.
  HELP WANTED: Love exotic animals? Want to travel Arcantica? Have an itch to save the world? Apply within! Must maintain immune response to exposure to infectious and parasitic diseases. Health benefits not included.
  SUMMER INTERNSHIP: Gain exposure, real world experience, and a life-time of bragging rights. Must be available to work all necessary hours, including weekends, holidays, special events and all shifts. Unpaid.
• Place of Protection: The Seastone Citadel, located on the easternmost coast of Arcantica, was meant as a safeguard against the Void. It's sought out by Elyse and Oda once they deduce that it may contain an ancient Artifact of Hope that could aid in the fight against the Void.
• Playable Epilogue: Subverted. Beetleton Bunker's main campaign mission plays out like this, but there's much more of the game left afterwards. Disc-One Final Epilogue?
• Player Versus Player: You can face players' decks that are controlled by the AI by playing Bounties, but you can also fight other players in real time with the Arena. If you're in a Guild, you can also challenge your fellow guild members to battle using the "Live Battle" function, which won't affect either player's standing in the Arena.
• Play Every Day: Spellstone has many incentives to play every day, from the Daily Bonus (which gives better and better rewards through the month) to many limited-time events.
• Playing with Syringes: In the postgame visit to Goblin Rise Stronghold, the player briefly runs into a cohort of goblins who are trying to use recently-mutated Beetleton insects to breed "super-insects" in birthing pods.
• Please Select New City Name: The Center of the Void, a bleak, Void-overrun cliff where Dr. Oppenhinder first made contact with the Big Bad, is renamed "World's Center" after the Void is defeated in both the physical world (the Void Plane) and the Spirit World (the Abyss).
• Precision F-Strike: Mild. While the game is appropriate for children, a few cards have the word "Hell" in their names, mainly demons and other creatures that look like they'd be native to the place. And then there's the boss fight against Krampus, which mentions that he puts up "one hell of a fight".
• Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage: The Arcblaze Dragon, an Epic-tier reward card first released at a very early point in the game's lifespan. Unlike pretty much every other card in the game, Arcblaze cannot fuse with other cards at all, and it has succumbed HARD to six years' worth of Power Creep. Only diehard collectors will miss it. Interestingly, the game's files contain art for a quad-fused Arcblaze Dragon, so this trope could have been Averted entirely.
• Psychic Block Defense: Those touched by the Void are immune to telepathy, as shown when Aria attempts to take control of some corrupted undead and fails.
• Port Town: Duskwillow, the first campaign not to be Temporary Online Content, is a rather dilapidated town by the sea.
• Power Equals Rarity: The weakest cards are "Common", and they get progressively stronger as the player progresses from "Rare" and "Epic" to "Legendary" and "Mythic".
• The Power of Creation: Dilbert's Spellstone Hammer has this power. As demonstrated by the goblins that stole it from him, it's able to create an entire watchtower in just a few quick smacks.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: After the events of Duskwillow Rebuilt, the handful of goblins that still support Daknak follow him to Tarragon Peak, which becomes their new base of operations.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Scyer, the warden of Fireshard Mine, speaks this way most of the time. The Lightning Boss battle against Krampus rhymes too, for some extra Grinchy flavor.
• Ribcage Ridge: Tarragon Peak. Although it's not visible from the world map, it's described as being full of dragon skeletons, and you can even get bonus skills from three dragon fossils as long as you're there (and have the resources to spare).
• Robinsonade: The postgame visit to Stormy Seastone Citadel involves a shipwreck. Humorously, the player encounters an Expy of Robinson Crusoe during this campaign.
  A human approaches you with a ball that has a face carved into it. He insists that you call it Wilson for some reason.
• Rollercoaster Mine: In the first part of the Fireshard Mine campaign, the player and Aria have to escape from Scyer on a mine cart, which ends up turning into a dangerous thrill ride as the cart careens out of control.
• Run the Gauntlet: In the Gladius Arena, the player must defeat the "shades" of previous villains, like Reks and Xerkahn. What makes this not a Boss Rush is that these aren't the full-blown boss versions of these characters, and they're fought as part of the main campaign instead of the boss battle.
• Sadly Mythcharacterized: Spellstone's enormous Fantasy Kitchen Sink incorporates many different mythologies, so a few cards deviate heavily from the original myths. In one of the most glaring examples, the Titan Atlas is depicted here as an all-powerful deity of nature rather than being tasked with holding up the heavens.
• Sand Worm: Enormous, many-eyed centipede-like Wurms are found throughout Arcantica, first encountered in the Caverns of Crossing on the edge of the Void. Despite the trope name, many of these monsters are found in Dawnglow Swamp, where special Guardian Wurms summoned by the Guardian Stone are even used to protect the frogs' young. Of course, given where Wurms usually live, this is foreshadowing for the fact that the Guardian Stone is actually dangerous.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: A few of the boss battles against the Crimsonwings (and the enemy "Cave Writings") write in backwards text with gratuitous uses of the letter X here and there.
  VS. Hero's Blessed, Yakov: "Xi raxeh ruoy ecixov morf rafa, tey hxtiw rehxtien eman ron mrof nac Xi rewsna hxcus reyarp, kees em txen nix Nevahyks." ^Translation "I hear your voice from afar, yet with neither name nor form can I answer such prayer, seek me next in Skyhaven."
  VS. Razi, Whisper Worshipper: "Erats otnix ehxt Syba, dna ehxt Syba serats kcab ta uxoy. Rewop sesir nix ehxt nerab senredliw." ^Translation "Stare into the Abyss, and the Abyss stares back at you. Power rises in the barren wilderness."
  Cave Writings: "Xi evah detrats ot etirw nix sihxt edoc hxtiw ehxt egdelwonk tahxt ym yreve evom six ylekil gnieb dehxctaw. Neve ym sthxguohxt yam ton eb efas, dna Xi evil gniwonknu tsuj woh hxcum ehxt Diov sah deretla ym dnim." ^Translation "I have started to write in this code with the knowledge that my every move is likely being watched. Even my thoughts may not be safe, and I live unknowing just how much the Void has altered my mind."
  Cave Writings: "Erifeulb six ton ehxt redael fo ehxt Diov, tub stix nesohxc ratava. Ehxt Diov six raf retaerg nahxt a elgnis ytitne. Tix six ehxt wolf fo seiromem dna smaerd; a revir fo senkrad tahxt slop nix ehxt mlaer tix slac ehxt Syba." ^{Translation (spoilers)} "Bluefire is not the leader of the Void, but its chosen avatar. The Void is far greater than a single entity. It is the flow of memories and dreams; a river of darkness that pools in the realm it calls the Abyss."
  Cave Writings: "Xi raef ym snoinapmoc dluow riapsed fix yehxt wenk exht S'diov eurt erutan: gnicneulfni smaerd dna slaedix hxcihxw eripsnix su ot thxgif. Hxtiw S'erifeulb Treah, Ix nac retne ehxt Syba. Stix noitcurtsed liw tneverp exht Diov morf gniretne smaerd." ^{Translation (spoilers)} "I fear my companions would despair if they knew the Void's true nature: influencing dreams and ideals which inspire us to fight. With Bluefire's Heart, I can enter the Abyss. Its destruction will prevent the Void from entering dreams."
• Secret Art: Mythic cards distinguish themselves from other cards by having a special skill only they can use. For example, Atlas's "Invigorate" will not only heal all of your cards, but permanently increase their maximum HP by a few points.
• Secret Underground Passage: How Fiona and Orgoth infiltrate the Goblin Rise Stronghold during that level's main campaign.
• Shared Dream: Drinking the Dream Elixir of Dawnglow Swamp causes the player and Kachina to have a shared dream, in which the High Priestess Tanit is waiting. The Gladius Arena turns out to be one of these, too.
• Shout-Out: Decim is found singing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" when he's in jail during the Goblin Rise Stronghold campaign.
• Show, Don't Tell: Inverted. Due to Spellstone's format as a Card Battle Game, the story is told through narration and (occasionally) dialogue between characters that appears before each level. In essence, it's a full-length novel with a bunch of card battles in between.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Frigore, one of the hardest-hit locations by Arcantica's ice age, remains cloaked in an Endless Winter.
• Standard Fantasy Races: Spellstone has ten "tribes" that roughly correspond to them — Angel, Avian, Dragon, Elemental, Frog, Goblin, Insect, Mecha, Seafolk, and Undead.
• Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: In one of the now-unavailable Skyhaven expeditions, Freya briefly infiltrates the Goblins' stronghold to figure out their plans. She gains some useful intel, but as she turns to escape, she's nearly immediately found by one of the goblins. Fortunately, she escapes.
• A Storm Is Coming: After the player clears the Abyss and defeats the Crimsonwings, everything seems fine until the next level, Stormy Seastone Citadel, where the seemingly helpful old monk Kensho betrays you and ups the stakes once again.
• Straight for the Commander: It doesn't matter if your cards can still fight — if your Hero is defeated, it's game over.
• Stylistic Suck: Every April Fools' Day, the game adds a temporary level full of poorly drawn foes. Even the developers themselves appear!
• Summoning Artifact: The Frog Kingdom's Guardian Stone is used to protect the tadpoles and unhatched young of Dawnglow from harm. It's programmed to summon Guardian Wurms to the area in case of an attack. Its energy turns out to be feeding the Void, and when the heroes learn this, they are forced to destroy it.
• Support Party Member: Starting in Duskwillow, the player can collect certain map-exclusive items. By depositing these items at a designated area on the map, they can gain "Map BGEs", passive skills that are granted in-universe by helpful items or NPCs.
• Sweet Tooth: The goblins of Goblin Rise Stronghold have created Bonbon Sparklers, the level's collectible. They look like fireworks, and can even be rigged to explode like the real deal, but they're quite edible. Feed them to Fiona's dragonlings, and you can get passive skills as long as you're in the area.
• Technically-Living Zombie: The tragic fate of the Rhynio, the tribe of insects that raised Lev. They were cursed to lose their minds, reducing them to feral bugs that mindlessly swarm through the ruins of the Forgotten Island.
• Technicolor Fire: The Heart of Blue Fire looks like a dark blue rock wreathed in blue flames. Once the player finally obtains it, they'll be able to collect Blue Fire Souls as rewards, which look like small pebbles covered in blue fire.
• Temporary Online Content: Each challenge and special event in a given BGE lasts only a few days, and after that all the rewards are permanently gone. In the early days of Spellstone, even the maps were temporary, and were changed out for different ones depending on the BGE.
• This Is a Drill: In one postgame filler episode, the player uses an old drill-mecha arm to burrow into the walls of the Celestial Vault and hide from angry avians.
• The Thunderdome: Gladius Arena, a former scriptorium where the Divine Crest angels wrote down history before Skyhaven was built, has been repurposed into this trope by the time of the main story.
• Tiered by Name: Dual-fused and quad-fused cards have different names from the single-fused cards they were made from.
• Time-Limit Boss: A variation. While most boss levels can be challenged at any time, "Lightning Bosses" are treated as events, and if the player doesn't beat them in three days, they'll never get the chance to fight them again.
• Treetop Town: Golden Crown Village, a brightly lit town of frogs, is where Cedric's house is located and also an area explored in a few expedition missions.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Done with two once-accessible story arcs. The Red Feather Valley arc seemingly ends with The Reveal that the Golden Crown Mayor has been eating sentient birds instead of feral ones, but it picks back up again immediately after Reks's defeat with an outbreak of corrupted Void-water. Then a second mini-arc starts with Tarian and Malchior confronting Samael and General Garrick in the Center of the Void. The arcs eventually converge once the Golden Crown Mayor helps the party in Duskwillow, allowing them to continue to Frigore and rejoin Tarian and Malchior.
• Underground City: The city of Beetleton Bunker, home to all manner of insects, is located deep Beneath the Earth.
• Underwater Ruins: The Pharos Temple, found off the shores of Duskwillow, is an ancient Seafolk city powered by Mini Jellyfish.
• Unequal Rites: Each of the three factions — Aether, Chaos, and Wyld — have radically different philosophies and ideologies from one another, so all three are locked in a perpetual struggle for dominance. This, coupled with some Fantastic Racism, is what drove Samael to try using the Heart of Blue Fire as a way to permanently end the Chaos faction.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Forgotten Island postgame campaign states that Beetleton Bunker was destroyed by an unknown force (later implied to be Remi's machinations), forcing the inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere. Yet the second postgame expedition there shows the area not only unharmed, but celebrating Valentine's Day, with all the insects forming saccharine couples.
• Unholy Ground: The Void and the Center of the Void are bleak cliff areas which have been tainted by, you guessed it, the Void.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels: Beat a level for the first time, and you'll only earn one of seven stars for that level. This permanently ups its difficulty until the player earns the seventh star, which requires a fight against fully upgraded, quad-fused cards.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Due to the fact that most cards have a delay of one to four turns before they activate, once one player starts to lose cards, it's pretty much over for them unless they can turn things around very quickly.
• Unusual Euphemism: According to one of the postgame levels, getting a sudden heatstroke on Tarragon Peak is called "dragon breath".
• Upsetting the Balance: The Void's presence in Arcantica is treated this way, to the point where it drives the elementals of the Celestial Vault berserk trying to stop it from spreading. A no-longer-available arc revolves around calming them down with the Guardian Stone, found in Dawnglow Swamp.
• Valentine's Day Episode: The second postgame visit to Beetleton Bunker shows the inhabitants celebrating "the Carnival of Couples", a lovey-dovey festival presided over by a legendary hero. This being Spellstone, it gives way to Valentine's Day Violence when it turns out the "hero" is a total fraud. To highlight this, one of the new cards introduced on the expedition is "Bee in Love", a giant flaming bee who has fallen in love with a visibly horrified flower.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Conflux Convergence, a section of Dawnglow Swamp that's been completely rearranged into familiar types of terrain by the three Power Coils. It is here where Viracocha defeats the Titans for good.
• Weaponized Stench: In the now-unavailable Dawnglow Swamp expedition, Aria and Elyse encounter a monster that sprays them with something that smells like raw meat. This gets them chased by hungry swamp creatures, and Aria theorizes this is how the monster lures in its prey.
• We Used to Be Friends: According to relics found on Tarragon Peak, Oda's order of monks used to be friends with the local dragons and dragon tamers.
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: The very first Christmas mission featured a grumpy Samael in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Crimsonwings succeed in freeing the Forgotten Hero's three companions and opening a gateway in the Salt Wastes, despite the heroes' best efforts.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The Maniac General is the last enemy fought in Elaria, sitting atop the cache containing the Heart of Blue Fire. Defeat him, and Luminis opens up, where the contents of the cache are revealed to be a small, harmless Soul Wisp.

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