Talisman (GCFW)

The talisman is a returning feature in Frostborn Wrath from Chasing Shadows. The format is quite different however as each fragment is shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece and can hold up to 25 fragments. Each fragment can have symbols etched to it. All of the talisman properties from Chasing Shadows return here, but there are also additional new properties unique to Frostborn Wrath. Players start with 5 talisman slots available, with additional slots unlocked with high payments of shadow cores.

Unlock Costs

The following is a table of the costs to unlock the slots of the talisman. Slots with a cost of 0 are unlocked at the start.

9000	3000	1000	3600	10000
4200	200	0	300	4800
1200	0	0	0	1400
5400	400	0	500	6000
11000	7200	1600	7800	12000

In order to unlock all talisman slots, it will cost 90600 shadow cores.

Drop Rules

The number of waves a battle has is used to determine how many fragments will be dropped from monsters. These fragments will be dropped by monsters in waves with numbers between 45% and 90% of the total number of waves. If the battle started with an unopened stash then the number of fragments which will be dropped from monsters will be capped at 3.

Fragment number	Chance of dropping	Minimum number of waves needed	Number of waves needed to guarantee drop
1	waves / 40	1	40
2	(waves - 20) / 60	21	80
3	(waves - 60) / 80	61	140
4	(waves - 100) / 100	101	200
5	(waves - 170) / 150	171	320
6	(waves - 250) / 250	251	500

When a fragment drops from a monster, the chances of it being each fragment type are determined by your wizard level.

Wizard Level	Inner Chance	Edge Chance	Corner Chance
1-35	1	0	0
36-70	1/3	2/3	0
71+	1/3	1/3	1/3

Rarity distribution

When a battle is started, the rarity of any fragments dropped in a battle is set to a range. The following factors affect the range:

• The first wave HP of the field (with 0.8 multiplier in endurance and 0.76 in other modes).
• The value of the selected battle traits. Higher level battle traits increase it more (roughly N*(N+1)/2).
• The number of waves (for endurance, the maximum of the wave count of the field and the endurance wave count up to 500)

There is at least a difference of 15 between the minimum and the maximum. The minimum caps out at 85.

When a fragment is dropped, its rarity is chosen according to the formula (Y-X)*max(A*B, C*D) where X and Y are the minimum and maximum rarity and A, B, C, D are random numbers between 0 and 1. This results in the following distribution:

Note that when the minimum is pushed higher, the distribution doesn't change, so with a range of 85-100 there is a very low chance to actually get a rarity 100 fragment.

When a rarity booster is added (costing 100 shadow cores per fragment), the rarity is increased by 10 after the initial calculation based on the range, with the result capped at 100. This means that using a booster with a 85-100 range drastically increases the chance of getting a rarity 100 fragment.

Runes

A new addition to the talisman system in this game is the runes that some fragments have. A fragment has a 50% chance of having a rune, independent of the rarity and type of the fragment, and there are 5 different runes. When a row has at least 3 fragments in it with the same rune, the lights on the sides of that row will turn on and a percentage bonus to initial mana is granted. When a column has fragments with at least 3 different runes, the lights on the sides of that column will turn on and an amount of mana will be granted every time a new wave starts in a battle.

Rune Bonuses

The row bonus is based on the most common rune in that row. The percentage initial mana bonus is calculated by adding together the rarities of the fragments with the relevant rune and multiplying them by number based on how many of the relevant rune is in the row.

Highest Rune Count	Rarity Multiplier
0-2	0%
3	50%
4	60%
5	70%

The mana per wave given by the column bonus is equal to the sum of the rarities of the fragments in that column with a rune (even those which have the same rune as another in that column) multiplied by a number which depends on the number of different runes in that column:

Different Runes	Rarity Multiplier
0-2	0%
3	100%
4	120%
5	140%

Rune Types

Rune	Probability
0	7.4%
1	10.7%
2	11.1%
3	11.5%
4	9.3%
None	49.9%

Because of the skewed probabilities, it is easier to fill the middle rows with runes 0 and 4 rather than waiting for the corresponding top/bottom edge and corner fragments to drop.

Rune 0

Rune 1

Rune 2

Rune 3

Rune 4

Rarity

Rarity	Inner Properties	Edge Properties	Corner Properties	Skills Bonus	All Skills Chance
1-9	1	1	1	No	0%
10-19	2	2	2	No	0%
20-29	3	3	3	No	0%
30-39	4	4	4	No	0%
40-49	5	5	5	No	0%
50-59	6	7	8	No	0%
60-69	7	8	9	Yes	0%
70-79	8	9	10	Yes	10% + 1.5% * (rarity - 70)
80-89	9	10	11	Yes	25% + 2.5% * (rarity - 80)
90-99	10	11	12	Yes	50% + 5% * (rarity - 90)
100	11	12	13	Yes	100%

Inner properties, edge properties and corner properties are the number of properties a talisman fragment would have if it was an inner, edge or corner fragment respectively and the maximum upgrade level of a talisman fragment is 1 more than the number of properties it has. Skills bonus is whether one of a talisman fragment's properties will be one of the skill increasing properties and all skills chance is the probability of this skill increasing property increasing all skills (Note that even though the table suggests otherwise, a rarity 70 fragment will never have all skills since only rarity 71+ fragments can have it).

Properties

ID	Property	Maximum Value	Inner	Edge	Corner	Minimum Rarity
0	+x to construction skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
1	+x to component skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
2	+x to focus skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
3	+x to enhancement spell skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
4	+x to strike spell skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
5	+x to wrath skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	60
6	+x to all skill levels	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	71
7	+x% damage to swarmlings	25	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
8	+x% damage to reavers	25	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
9	+x% damage to giants	25	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
10	+x% xp gained	25	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
11	+x% of wizard level goes to initial xp and mana	45	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
12	+x initial mana	200	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
13	+x% damage to flying ones	15	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
14	+x% damage to buildings	15	Yes	Yes	No	0
15	+x% tower beam damage	20	Yes	Yes	Yes	30
16	+x% tower bolt damage	20	Yes	Yes	Yes	30
17	+x% tower barrage damage	20	Yes	Yes	Yes	30
18	+x% freeze duration	12	No	No	Yes	70
19	+x% whiteout duration	16	No	No	Yes	70
20	+x extra hp taken by ice shards	10000	No	No	Yes	70
21	+x% maximum freeze charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
22	+x% maximum whiteout charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
23	+x% maximum ice shards charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
24	+x% maximum bolt charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
25	+x% maximum beam charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
26	+x% maximum barrage charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	30
27	+x% maximum shrine charge	20	No	Yes	Yes	50
28	+x% mana for starting waves early	35	Yes	Yes	Yes	0
29	x% chance that gem bomb blasts summon +1 gem wasp	6	Yes	No	Yes	30
30	+x% slower killchain counter cooldown	8	Yes	No	Yes	30
31	+x% heavier orblets	10	Yes	Yes	No	30
32	+x% faster orblet rollback	10	Yes	Yes	No	30
33	+x% mana shard harvesting speed	15	Yes	Yes	No	30
34	gem wasps attack +x% faster	10	Yes	No	Yes	50
35	+x% armor tearing gem effect on frozen enemies	5	Yes	Yes	No	50
36	critical hits deal +x% damage on frozen enemies	6	Yes	No	No	50
37	+x% frozen corpse explosion damage	5	Yes	Yes	No	50
38	+x% poison damage on enemies in whiteout	12	Yes	Yes	Yes	30
39	+x% mana leeching effect on enemies in whiteout	6	No	No	Yes	50
40	+x% xp for enemies killed in whiteout	20	Yes	No	Yes	50
41	ice shards takes +x% hit points	4	No	No	Yes	70
42	ice shards shreds +x% armor	8	No	No	Yes	70
43	+x% bleeding gem effect on enemies hit by ice shards	2	No	No	Yes	50
44	+x% slowing gem effect on enemies hit by ice shards	8	No	No	Yes	50

All properties except for the skill increasing ones have no rules dictating which combinations they can appear in other than having fragment type and rarity restrictions.