Magic spells

Not to be confused with the Halloween spells.

“

Grab the spells! Cast them on Blutarch's idiot army! Click to listen — Redmond Mann

”

"No Spell" HUD icon

When playing on Helltower or the Carnival of Carnage, players who have the Spellbook Magazine, Fancy Spellbook, or the Fireproof Secret Diary equipped can cast Magic Spells that appear while the carts are being pushed, when enemies are killed, or during the "Witching Hour". These Magic Spells vary greatly, from launching a player into the air to turning invisible.

On Helltower, normal Magic Spells can be found by pushing the cart, when a player dies, and will spawn randomly around the map during Witching Hour. Rare Magic Spells are found by crossing the bridges to the clocktower during the Witching Hour, killing the Skeleton King, or while in Hell. All Rare Magic Spells only have a single charge, and using one unlocks the "Helltower: Hell's Spells" achievement. All Magic Spell effects are team-colored, and each has its own killfeed icon.

Renders of Spellbook pickups

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  Book style

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  Crystal ball style

Regular Magic Spells

Fireball: Two charges. Shoots a ball of fire that sets enemies on fire in a large radius. Not affected by gravity, similar to rockets except they cannot be reflected by a compression blast. The mercenary will say "caputus crepitus" while performing the spell.

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  BLU projectile

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Teleport: Two charges. Fires a dark smoke-like ball that teleports the spell-caster to wherever it lands when it comes in contact with a surface. Also heals the user for 30 health on use. The projectile arcs under gravity. Hitting the ground under an enemy player will result in a telefrag. Cannot be used to enter the enemy spawnroom. The mercenary will say "ipsum instantarium" while performing the spell.

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  Projectile

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  Teleportation effect

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

Blast Jump: Two charges. Propels the spell-caster into the air, high enough that falling damage will result. Can be used in the air. Also heals the user for 25 health on use. The mercenary will say "amplus tripudio" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

Uber Heal: Single charge. ÜberCharges the spell-caster and all allies within 275 HU and quickly refills their health up to an overhealed amount of up to twice their maximum health. The uber lasts for 1 second and healing lasts for 3 seconds. The Heavy will not reach 600 health in a single spell cast due to the spell timing out beforehand, but a subsequent cast can. The mercenary will say "barpo kabalto" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

Ball O' Bats: Two charges. Shoots a glowing ball that quickly falls in a steep arch, exploding in a small radius upon impact. Enemies hit will be assaulted by bats, causing them to fly into the air and bleed. The mercenary will say "deus invictus" while performing the spell.

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  Projectile

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Pumpkin MIRV: Single charge. Throws a bomb that produces a ring of small team-colored pumpkin bombs once it hits something. The pumpkin bombs produced will only explode and deal damage when shot by the spell-caster's team; if they are shot by the other team, they simply disappear. Note that these pumpkins cause damage to all players, regardless of team color. The mercenary will say "pactum diabolus" while performing the spell.

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  Initial explosion

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  Primed pumpkin bombs

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  Chain explosion

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Stealth: Single charge. Temporarily cloaks the spell-caster for 8 seconds. The spell-caster is fully able to attack but is unable to push the cart while under the effects of the spell. Also heals the user for 40 health on use. Skeletons are not affected and will still attack the spell-caster even if invisible. The mercenary will say "barpo invisium" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

Rare Magic Spells

Summon MONOCULUS: Fires a skull at the area. Upon impact, summons a ghostly team-colored MONOCULUS (smaller than the normal MONOCULUS) that begins to attack enemies. Should both teams summon a MONOCULUS, they will attack each other when there are no players of the opposite team to attack. The mercenary will say "invokum MONOCULUS" while performing the spell.

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  A summoned MONOCULUS

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Summon Skeletons: Fires a skull at the area. Upon impact, explodes into several team-colored Skeletons which begin to attack enemies. If not destroyed, skeletons suicide after 30 seconds have passed. The mercenary will say "mortis animataris" while performing the spell.

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  Initial impact

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  Summoned skeletons

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Ball O' Lightning: Fires a wave of electricity that continuously damages enemies it touches and sucks them in. It will vanish after a certain amount of time or if it directly hits a large obstacle. The mercenary will say "imputum fulmenus" while performing the spell.

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  Projectile

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Meteor Storm: Fires a fire ball. Upon impact, summons several meteors above the targeted area, which do massive damage to enemies in a range about 1.5 times the size of a capture point. The mercenary will say "seismela tremoro" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Minify: Causes the spell-caster to shrink and gain a big head. Results in the spell-caster becoming more difficult to hit, gaining a significant boost to their movement, attack, and reload speed, taking greatly increased knockback, having unlimited jumping capacity, and switching over to third-person camera. Also heals the user for 100 health on use. Spell-casters under the effect of Minify can also enter tiny mouse holes that teleport them to opposite ends of the map. The mercenary will say "paidum celeris" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  Mousehole warps.

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon.

Kart Magic Spells

While competing in the bumper-kart minigames of Carnival of Carnage, a different set of spells are available.

Bombinomicon Head: Applies a bomb to the player's head, which does 50% damage upon exploding to the user and nearby enemies. It explodes either when its timer runs out or the user makes a head-on collision with an enemy.

Boxing Rocket: Fires a giant boxing glove forwards, similar to a rocket. Has a range of about four car lengths. The mercenary will say "deus invictus" while performing the spell.

B.A.S.E. Jump: A variant of the Blast Jump spell where a B.A.S.E. Jumper parachute is used, allowing the player to fall slowly until they reach the floor. Pressing the jump button will stow the parachute and end the spell early; the parachute cannot be reactivated in the same way. The mercenary will say "amplus tripudio" while performing the spell.

Uber Heal: Operates differently than the normal variant. It heals 50% damage instantly and leaves the player invulnerable for significantly longer. It also does not affect teammates. The mercenary will say "barpo kabalto" while performing the spell.

Related achievements

See also: Obtaining Halloween achievements

Bereavements

Helltower: Spelling Spree Use spells to kill 25 players

Helltower: Hell's Spells Get and use a rare spell

Update history

October 29, 2013 Patch (Scream Fortress 2013)

• Added Halloween Map Helltower.
  • Equip a spell book and cast spells against your enemies.
  • Spells can be found by pushing the cart, killing enemies, and during the Witching hour.
  • The Clocktower contains powerful magic during the Witching hour.
  • Win the race to start mega healed in the final battle for your prize.

October 31, 2013 Patch

• Fixed cloaked Spies losing their spells if they attempted to cast them while cloaked.
• Fixed the stealth spell only lasting for 2 seconds instead of 8 seconds.
• Fixed players keeping their spells if they were rolling for them while leaving hell.
• Updated spells so they cannot be deflected.

November 6, 2013 Patch

• Increased speed and damage of the lightning ball spell.
• Fixed some items and spell attributes showing incorrect expiration times.
• Fixed being able to get into the enemy spawn with the teleport spell in Helltower.

June 11, 2014 Patch

• Player condition # 66 (used by the invisibility spell) has been altered:
  • Weapons now fire slower
  • Spies can attack while cloaked with only a short time of semi transparency as the cost

October 20, 2014 Patch

• Halloween spells can now be enabled and controlled on servers via ConVars tf_spells_enabled and tf_player_spell_drop_on_death_rate
• Halloween spells can now be enabled by map authors via HolidayEntity by setting the flag HalloweenSetUsingSpells

October 29, 2014 Patch

• Reduced the number of Fireball spells granted to 2. (This was already the case; the Fireball spell has always had 2 charges ever since its introduction to the game.)
• Updated the tf_spells_enabled ConVar
  • Removed the Teleport spell from the general spell list when spells are enabled outside of Helltower.
  • Added rare spells to the general spell list, except Skeletons and Monoculus.

November 4, 2014 Patch

• Fixed the Teleport spell not appearing in Helltower.
• Fixed rare spells appearing in regular Helltower spellbook pick-ups.

November 13, 2014 Patch

• Fixed an exploit that involved players killing teammates with the meteor spell by switching to Spectator.

October 28, 2015 Patch (Scream Fortress 2015)

• Lowered damage of the "bats" spell from 60 to 40.

November 2, 2016 Patch

• Updated the "tiny" spellbook spell.
  • Fixed a case where players could get outside the world.
  • Fixed not switching Heavies to their melee weapon.

Bugs

• Magic spells cannot be used if weapon switching is disabled, such as when under the restrictive effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich or Half-Zatoichi.
• While using the Minify spell, kills with the Eyelander or its variants will not add to the player's head count.
• The Ball O' Bats can hit ghosts of the enemy team, triggering the knockback and bleed visuals with no further effect.
• When decloaking from the Stealth spell as a Spy, the sound of the decloak is the same as his currently equipped watch.
• Spectators can be caught in the Ball O' Lightning. They will be pushed around as if they were a player.
• Multiple MONOCULUSes spawned by the same team will attack each other should there be no viable targets, of if they are spawned close enough to each other.
• As a Spy, if disguised as a player who does not have a Spellbook equipped, you cannot pick up Spells until undisguised or disguised as someone who does have a Spellbook.

Trivia

• The Teleport spell functions similarly to the Translocator from the Unreal Tournament series.
• The acronym MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle.
• The Bombinomicon Head spell reuses the voice lines from the Merasmus boss fight on Ghost Fort, resulting in some voice lines erroneously telling the player to "run at that wizard." despite him not showing up in any of the bumper car sections.
• The voice lines used for each spell are a mix of pseudo-Latin and pseudo-English words with minor connotations to the attached spell:
  • Fireball: capatus crepitus, "crepitus" means "loud noise" or "explosion"
  • Teleport: ipsum instantarium, contains the English "instant". "Ipsum" refers to the placeholder text Lorem Ipsum.
  • Superjump: amplus tripudio, "large hop"
  • Ball O' Bats: deus invictus, "invincible god", probably intended for the Healing Aura spell
  • Healing Aura: barpo kabalto, no connotations, although the line seems to be mixed up with the Ball O' Bats spell
  • Pumpkin MIRV: pactum diabolus, "deal with the devil"
  • Invisiblity: barpo invisium, contains the English "invisible"
  • Summon MONOCULUS: invokum monoculus, "invoke MONOCULUS"
  • Summon Skeletons: mortis animataris, "mortis" means "dead", so it becomes "animate the dead"
  • Tesla Bolt: imputum fulmenus, "fulmenus" means "lighting" or "thunderbolt"
  • Meteor Shower: seismela tremoro, mix of the English "seismic" and the Latin "tremors"
  • Minify: paidum celeris, "celeris" means "fast"