Magic spells

This article is about the special Halloween pickups. For the tool items, see Halloween Spells.

“

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

”

"No Spell" HUD icon

Magic Spells are pickup items unique to the Haunted maps. They were introduced in Helltower and are found on several later Haunted Halloween maps.

Maps with Magic Spells

• Bloodwater
• Brimstone
• Carnival of Carnage
• Erebus
• Ghoulpit
• Gravestone
• Graveyard
• Hassle Castle
• Hellstone
• Helltower
• Helltrain
• Lava Pit
• Los Muertos
• Mannsylvania
• Monster Bash

• Moonshine Event
• Pit of Death
• Precipice
• Sandcastle
• Sinthetic
• Slasher
• Slime
• Spineyard
• Terror

When playing on maps with Magic Spells, players who have the Spellbook Magazine, Fancy Spellbook, or the Fireproof Secret Diary equipped can cast Magic Spells that they can pick up around these maps. These Magic Spells vary greatly, from launching a player into the air to briefly turning invisible to summoning MONOCULUS.

Several normal Magic Spells have multiple charges. 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 (except Overheal and Stealth). Players cannot pick up a Magic Spell if they already have one, but can always pick up a Rare Magic Spell regardless.

Strategy

Main article: Community Halloween maps strategy: Magic spells

Pickups

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  Book style

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  Crystal ball style

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  Flask style

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  Book style (Rare Spell)

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  Crystal ball style (Rare Spell)

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  Flask style (Rare Spell)

Regular Magic Spells

• Shadow Leap: 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 an enemy player deals 10 damage. Cannot be used to enter the enemy spawnroom. The mercenary says "ipsum instantarium" while performing the spell. This spell only appears on Helltower and Sandcastle.

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  Projectile

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  Teleportation effect

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

• 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 attack deals 100 damage and sets the target on fire for 5 seconds. The mercenary says "caputus crepitus" while performing the spell.

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  BLU projectile

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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 to cause fall damage on landing. Can be used in the air. Also heals the user for 25 health and deals 4-12 damage to nearby opponents in a small radius on use. The mercenary says "amplus tripudio" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

• Overheal: Single charge. ÜberCharges the spell-caster and all allies within 275 Hammer units and quickly refills their health up to an overhealed amount of up to twice their maximum health. The Über lasts for 1 second and healing lasts for 3 seconds. The Heavy does not reach 600 health in a single spell cast due to the spell timing out beforehand, but a subsequent cast can. Also pushes back enemies from the user. The mercenary says "barpo kabalto" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

• Swarm of Bats: Two charges. Shoots a glowing ball that quickly falls in a steep arch, exploding in a small radius upon impact. Enemies hit are assaulted by bats, causing them to fly into the air and bleed while melting the Spy-cicle if equipped. The attack deals 40 damage and targets bleed for 3 seconds. The mercenary says "deus invictus" while performing the spell. This spell does not appear on Carnival of Carnage.

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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; if it hits a player, it immediately explodes. The pumpkin bombs produced 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 can also cause damage to the spell-caster or any teammate that detonates them, however, they do not affect nearby teammates should the spell-caster detonate them and vice versa, unless friendly fire is enabled. Pumpkin bombs that did not explode disappear after 40 seconds. The mercenary says "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 unable to push the cart, capture a control point, or block either while under the effects of the spell. The caster is fully able to attack, but attacking immediately breaks the spell. The spell also heals the user for 40 health on use. Skeletons are not affected and can still attack the spell-caster even if invisible. The mercenary says "barpo invisium" when casting 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 floats upwards a fixed height and attacks enemies. Should both teams summon a MONOCULUS, they attack each other when there are no players of the opposite team to attack. Unlike the real MONOCULUS, the one created by this spell does not move. The mercenary says "invokum MONOCULUS" while performing the spell. This spell can only be obtained from Rare Spell pickups.

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  A summoned MONOCULUS

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

• Skeletons Horde: 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 says "mortis animataris" while performing the spell. This spell does not appear on Carnival of Carnage. This spell can only be obtained from Rare Spell pickups.

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  Initial impact

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  Skulls on the floor

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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 deals 20 damage to enemies it touches and sucks them in. It vanishes after a certain amount of time or if it directly hits a large obstacle. The mercenary says "imputum fulmenus" while performing the spell.

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  Projectile

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  HUD icon

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  Kill icon

• Meteor Shower: Fires a fire ball. Upon impact, summons several meteors above the targeted area, which does 100 damage continuously to enemies in a range about 1.5 times the size of a capture point. The mercenary says "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 and any kills performed while under the spell's effect display its kill icon on the kill feed, regardless of weapon used. If the caster is on a slope or near a structure or prop when this spell runs out, they can suffer a crush death. The mercenary says "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

Bumper Cars Magic Spells

While riding in a bumper car, a different set of spells become available.

• Bomb Head: Applies a bomb to the player's head, which does 50% damage upon exploding to the user and nearby enemies. It explodes if the user makes a head-on collision with an enemy, or automatically after 10 seconds.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

• Boxing Rocket: Fires a giant boxing glove forwards that knocks opponents far away and causes 50% damage. Has a range of about four car lengths. The mercenary says "deus invictus" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

• 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 stows the parachute and ends the spell early; the parachute cannot be reactivated in the same way. Activating the spell near an enemy launches them a small distance as well. The mercenary says "amplus tripudio" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

• Overheal: 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 says "barpo kabalto" while performing the spell.

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  Effect

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  HUD icon

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 a 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 Shadow Leap 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 Shadow Leap 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 Shadow Leap 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.
• The Swarm of 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 are pushed around as if they were a player.
• Multiple MONOCULUSes spawned by the same team attack each other should there be no viable targets, or if they are spawned close enough to each other.
• A Spy disguised as a player who does not have a Spellbook equipped cannot pick up Spells until undisguised or disguised as someone who does have a Spellbook.
• The eye effect from the Eyelander does not cloak while under the effects of the Stealth spell.
• While using the Minify spell, kills with the Eyelander or its variants do not add to the player's head count.
• The spell animation for the playermodel does not play at all and instead puts the player in a melee pose.
  • If this is done with Spy, it uses the Sharp Dresser's idle animation.
• When cl_flippedviewmodels 1 is enabled, only the position of the viewmodel is changed - all spell projectiles still come from the right of the player's view.
• Attacking with the Hot Hand does not decloak a player using the Stealth spell.
• Using the Ball O' Lightning spell on an enemy in the Underworld (except Helltower) causes the text chat notification "[player] has escaped the underworld!" and the accompanying noise to play repeatedly, as well as give that enemy the invulnerability and healing buffs that escaping normally grants.
• The Bomb 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.
• Only kills with the Ball O' Lightning, direct kills with the Fireball, and kills while under the effects of the Minify spell count towards a Strange Haunted cosmetic in Carnival of Carnage.
• While under the effects of Minify, the player can enter the "firstperson" console command to enter first person, even with sv_cheats set to 0.

Notes

• The spells cannot be Crit boosted, however they can still be mini-critboosted to deal additional damage.
• If the Minify spell wears off while the player's resized character model is within any solid entity (most often a ceiling), the player forcibly commits suicide.
  • This is to prevent players from being stuck in the environment and getting out of the map.

Trivia

• The acronym MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle.
• The voice lines used for each spell are a mix of pseudo-Latin and pseudo-English words with minor connotations to the attached spell (note even the real Latin words are grammatically incorrect):
  • Fireball: caputus crepitus, "crepitus" means "loud noise" or "explosion".
  • Shadow Leap: ipsum instantarium, contains the English "instant". "Ipsum" refers to the placeholder text Lorem Ipsum.
  • Blast Jump: amplus tripudio, "large hop".
  • Swarm of Bats: deus invictus, "invincible god", probably intended for the Healing Aura spell.
  • Overheal: barpo kabalto, no connotations, although the line seems to be mixed up with the Swarm of Bats spell.
  • Pumpkin MIRV: pactum diabolus, "deal with the devil".
  • Stealth: barpo invisium, contains the English "invisible".
  • Summon MONOCULUS: invokum monoculus, "invoke MONOCULUS".
  • Skeleton Horde: mortis animataris, "mortis" means "dead", so it becomes "animate the dead".
  • Ball O' Lightning: imputum fulumenus, "fulumenus" means "lighting" or "thunderbolt".
  • Meteor Shower: seismela tremoro, mix of the English "seismic" and the Latin "tremors".
  • Minify: paidum celeris, "celeris" means "fast".