Charges and bound items
Many runes put their magic into an item. You hold a tool, weapon, or other item while you wake the rune, the pattern burns away, and the item carries the effect from then on. These are the item enchantment runes, and every rune page in that family has an Enchantment section that says what to hold.
Binding an effect
- Build the rune.
- Hold the right item in your main hand. The rune page names it, for example Hold a pickaxe. A wrong item gets The rune stirs, but rejects your hand.
- Right-click the heart.
The item now shows a purple lore line with the effect and its charges, such as ◆ Power Tool (64), and it shimmers with an enchantment glint. You see a message like Power Tool binds to your Diamond Pickaxe (64).
Gear must be forged first
Tools, weapons, and armour take rune magic only after they have been forged at a Runic Anvil. Forged gear carries a ⚒ Runic lore line. Unforged gear gets The magic slides off unworked metal — forge your … at a Runic Anvil first.
Items outside those groups, such as sticks, paper, books, or a glass bottle, take magic straight away.
Charges
Most effects run on charges. Each time the effect does its work, it spends a charge, and the lore line counts down. What counts as one use depends on the effect: a block mined, an arrow shot, a step taken. Each rune's notes say how it spends.
The rune's Tier sets how many charges it grants. The Settings by Tier table on each rune page lists them, from Tier 1 up to Tier 7. Higher Tiers grant far more: a Tier 7 Smelter, for example, grants over two hundred times the charges of a Tier 1 Smelter.
When the count reaches zero, the effect fades from the item. The item itself stays, along with any other effects on it.
Unlimited effects
Some effects never run out, and their lore line shows (∞). Aether Goggles, for example, are unlimited from the start. Server owners can make any effect unlimited by setting use-charges: false in that rune's file.
Permanence makes every spendable effect on an item unlimited, and it also keeps the item safe. See below.
Recharging
Wake the same rune again while holding the item. The new charges add to the ones left.
An item can hold up to five times the rune's Tier 7 grant. Past that, the rune refuses: This … already holds as many charges as it can bear.
More than one effect
An item can carry several effects at once. Some effects repel each other, and the second one refuses to bind: The … already bound to this item repels …. The four light tools, for instance, each repel the other three. Each rune page lists its conflicts under Enchantment.
A hexed or cursed diamond holds only its hex or curse. See Hexes and curses.
Keeping a bound item safe
Permanence is the great fixative. Offer a magic item to it, and the item:
- keeps to you when you die,
- returns to you a few seconds after you throw it,
- never despawns,
- shrugs off fire,
- and never runs out of charges.
Ankheg Armor and Dragon Heart levels stay as they are.
Removing magic
Dispel at Tier 1 strips every effect from the item in your hand. See What a rune spends for the other ways magic ends.
Other bound items
Not all bound items are tools. Several runes leave you holding a small magic object:
- Designators mark blocks for automation and for toggles and locks. Each mark spends one charge.
- An Oracle item tells you the Tier of any block it touches.
- A school's Tome, written at an Athenaeum, lists that school's runes.