Looking for No Rest For The Wicked Runes? Runes in No Rest For The Wicked are special skills or powers you can equip to weapons. Using these Runes in combat uses Focus. You’ll start the game with one bar of Focus but this can be increased if you put levels into your Focus stat.
Runes will vary in function and can even come already equipped to certain weapons. Below we’ll tell you how to unequip and equip Runes to your weapons, where you can get new Runes for your playthrough, how to use Runes and also how to use Gems to buff your combat even more.
In this guide:
Where to get Runes in No Rest For The Wicked
You can get Runes already equipped to weapons from chests throughout the map. Loot in chests is randomised, however, so it’s pretty much down to luck which ones you get this way.
Alternatively, you can buy Runes from Eleanor the enchanter in Sacrament. This is the main town you’ll visit first in No Rest For The Wicked where several merchants offer different services.
You can find Eleanor located in the Merchant square, as seen on the map above. In her shop, she will have the following Runes (note that as of writing, there is no way of seeing Rune effects before applying them to gear. We’ve managed to ascertain the following Rune effects):
- Pulse of Health: Use Focus to instantly heal a portion of your health.
- Channel: Cast a charged spell that fortifies your next attacks.
- Heal Aura: Use Focus to summon an aura that will heal you over a portion of time.
- Repair: Repair a portion of durability back to your weapons and tools.
- Return: Teleports you to a Cerim Whisper.
What do Gems do in No Rest For The Wicked?
Eleanor also sells various Gems which, when infused with weapons or armour, will give the item a passive buff. The following Gems have these effects:
- Chipped Quartz: Attacks deal 4-15% extra electric damage.
- Chipped Ruby:Attacks deal 4-15% extra heat damage.
- Chipped Saphire:Attacks deal 4-15% extra cold damage.
- Chipped Amethyst:Attacks deal 4-15% extra plague damage.
- Chipped Blood Stone: Gain 3-10% health on a kill.
To infuse a Gem with weapons or armour, select the Infuse option in Eleanor’s menu.
How to equip Runes in No Rest For The Wicked
Once you have bought a Rune, you can infuse it onto a weapon by selecting the Rune option in Eleanor’s menus. From here, select the weapon you wish, then pop a Rune into one of the available Rune slots.
You can also extract Runes in this menu. Extracting a Rune will place it into your inventory and give you the option to infuse it to another weapon. In doing so, you’ll destroy the weapon the Rune was originally in, however.
This means that you can only extract one Rune per weapon, so make sure you prioritise your favourite as once one Rune is extracted the whole weapon is forfeit.
Although the durability system has since been patched, the ‘Repair‘ rune is an excellent way of keeping your gear intact without having to report back to a blacksmith often. We recommend having a secondary weapon with utility Runes like this so you can swap to these and get the buffs without having to give up the opportunity for high-damage Runes on your main weapon.
Enchanting weapons and rarity values
From the enchanter’s menu you can also ‘Enchant‘ weapons and armour which will essentially wipe all the Runes and Gems already attached to them. In doing so, you will increase the rarity of the item. Rarities in No Rest for the Wicked fall into these categories:
- Common: No enchantments or Gem slots. These will appear white in your inventory.
- Rare: Can hold enchantments and a Gem slot. These will appear blue in your inventory.
- Plagued: These are capable of holding strong enchantments and a Gem but carry a negative enchantment also. These will appear in purple in your inventory.
- Unique: These carry unique enchantments and a Gem slot. These will appear as gold in your inventory.
Transforming a Common gear item at the enchanter will turn it into either a Rare or Plagued Item. Beware, as although Plagued items allow you to equip better enchantments, they will also have a random negative effect applied.
It is not possible to gain a unique weapon or piece of armour through enchanting. These are usually picked up from boss fights.
How to perform a Rune attack
Most weapons will be able to hold up to 4 Runes, which can be mapped to your number keys. You can apply these Runes to your offhand by pressing the R key.
In combat, press the number key that corresponds to the Rune you wish to cast. You’ll notice a white ring around the Rune that is currently equipped in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Now, to cast the Rune, right-click. Note that if the Rune is a spell, they will sometimes require you to hold the right-click to charge it up.
That rounds off our guide to Runes in No Rest For The Wicked. For more No Rest For The Wicked tips and tricks, see our guide to the best stats to level up first in the game or see our guide to repairing equipment.
