The RuneShift Codex
Glossary
Rune effects, combat terms, and mechanics explained.
Development-build reference. Includes discoverable characters, bosses, and items; browsing may reveal spoilers. Progress and unlocks remain in the game.
46 entries
Affinity & Aversion
Your hero pulls the board toward one element and pushes another away, so you see more of the first and less of the second from the opening rune. Thor draws Lightning and thins Earth, Skadi draws Frost and thins Fire, Sinmara draws Fire and thins Water, Freyr draws Earth and thins Frost.
Barrier
Barrier soaks up damage before any of it reaches your HP. Items like Aegis Shard hand you some at the start of every battle, and whatever you spend stays spent until the next fight begins.
Bless
Dawn's light turns one of your blocks into a healing block. It goes to an afflicted block first and cleanses whatever was on it, and to a block picked at random when nothing on the grid is afflicted.
Boss
The foe waiting at the end of a realm. Every boss is an Elite, so it shrugs off part of every debuff you land on it and pays out richer loot when it falls.
Burn
You've set them alight. A burning foe loses HP every second until the fire goes out, and you don't have to do anything to keep it going.
Chain
Clear a match and the blocks above it fall. When they land in a fresh match on their own, with no swap from you, that's a chain, and every link in it hits harder than the one before. The running total above the board counts them as they go.
Chain Lightning
Thor's bolt arcs through every Lightning and + Healing block on your grid before it lands on the foe. Each Lightning block it touches adds to the damage, and the bolt scours freeze, ignite and curse off whatever it passes through. Each Healing block heals you and adds to the hit as well.
Channelling
A foe is holding an ability open, pouring a healing beam into a wounded ally. They do nothing else while they channel, and the beam keeps flowing until you cut them down.
Combo
Clear more than three blocks in one match and you have a combo. Match four at once and it's a 4-combo, five is a 5-combo, and up from there. The bigger it is, the harder it hits, and some items pay out more the further you push it.
Common
The rank and file you cut through in waves. A common foe wears no marker on its nameplate, so a bare plate tells you it is exactly what it looks like.
Cursed
Purple corruption is creeping over one of your blocks, and the cloud thickens as its timer runs down. Match the block before the corruption takes hold and the curse breaks harmlessly. Let the timer run out and it damages you and takes the block with it.
Daily Streak
The number of days in a row you have finished the daily challenge. Play today's to keep it climbing; miss a day and it starts over.
Drench
The tide rises and turns one of your runes to Water. If that rune was alight, the water puts it out. Frozen, cursed and healing blocks are left where they are.
Earth
Berkano (ᛒ), the green rune. Freyr is built on it. He sees more of it than anyone, Gullinbursti feeds fastest on Earth runes, and his sword strikes with it. Jotunheim is the realm of stone, where the foes turn your blocks to stone and shrug off Earth damage in return.
Echo
A dark reflection of one of the old gods, still standing in a realm long after the god has gone. It waits among the ordinary battles on the map with nothing to mark it out, and it hits far harder than anything else you meet on the road to a boss. Beat one and it gives up a hero or a relic. They only begin to appear once you have cleared a realm, and if you keep walking past one, or it puts you down, it comes looking for you.
Elite
The dangerous rank: bosses, mini-bosses, and the echoes of the old gods. An elite shrugs off part of every debuff you land on it, and pays out richer loot when it finally goes down.
Fire
Kenaz (ᚲ), the red-orange rune. Sinmara is built on it. Pyre-Heart spawns Fire blocks already alight and gives her hits a chance to leave a foe Burning, and both feed Leváteinn's Edge, which cuts hardest through blocks that are already burning. The foes of Muspelheim fight with Fire of their own.
Frost
Isa (ᛁ), the teal rune. Skadi is built on it. Her charge builds faster off Frost matches, Winter's Hold gives her hits a chance to leave a foe Frostbound, and she hits far harder into anything already held. Frost Arrow gathers every Frost block on the board into one shot and always binds what it strikes. The foes of Niflheim turn the same ice on your grid.
Frostbound
You've locked a foe in frost. Their strike timer stops dead until they thaw, so the swing they were winding up sits there unspent.
Frozen
Ice has locked one of your blocks. You can't match it, but you can still swap it out of your way, and it thaws on its own over time.
Hard Mode
A realm you have already cleared can be run again on Hard. Enemies carry more health, hit harder, and their strike timers come round sooner. The realm adds a hazard of its own to your board, and the road to the boss runs longer with its echo planted where every route has to cross it. That one cannot be turned down, and there is no free retry waiting if you fall — a defeat ends the run. Beat the boss and you keep a bronze key on top of the usual spoils.
Healing Block
The green '+' block. Match it and you get HP back, and you never need three of them: any match you make touching one clears it as well.
Ignited
Fire has taken one of your blocks, and it can't be matched while it burns. Swap it and you smother it back into play at the cost of some HP, otherwise it burns itself out over time.
Lightning
Thurisaz (ᚦ), the yellow rune. Thor is built on it. Chain Lightning arcs through every Lightning block on your grid, and Storm-Caller splashes his Lightning matches across the whole enemy line, then calls a bolt down on a deep chain to turn another rune Lightning. Lightning Focus and Thunderhead lean the build harder still.
Minion
A guard posted beside a boss: a Rime Witch with Hrym, a Stone Sentinel with Thrym. A minion outlives its master, so you have to cut it down yourself, and the fight isn't clear until you do.
Petrified
One of your blocks has turned to stone. You can't swap it, but you can still match it by working the blocks around it, and a match right beside it cracks it free. Clear below it and the stone drops like anything else. Left alone it crumbles away by itself.
Platinum
The currency that carries from one journey to the next. You spend it on loot chests for new charms, and a duplicate pull levels up a charm you already hold. Finishing a journey earns a little, and clearing a realm refines your unspent gold into more. Echoes carry it, treasure rooms keep their own share, and the Achievements screen lists milestones worth chasing.
Relic
The signature item of a journey, and you carry exactly one. Most relics give you a tappable active that spends a charge, and each relic builds its charges off a different action. You choose a starting relic before you set out, and boss kills and elite encounters unlock more for the journeys after this one.
Reroll
Rerolling swaps all three shop offers for a fresh set. It costs gold, and the price climbs each time in the same shop. You can also trade a charm you are carrying for rerolls instead.
Resistance
Every foe has elements it shrugs off. Match one of those runes and the hit lands soft. Tap a foe's name to see what they resist.
Rooftop Pressure
When the stack reaches the top row the board is full, and the RAISE button locks out until you clear room. Nothing pushes the stack up on its own at the moment, so a full board costs you no HP. It just leaves nowhere to refill into.
Shadow
Naudiz (ᚾ), the dark violet rune. The Ginnungagap Shard, the Kraken's legendary prize, answers to Shadow: while its Void window is open, everything you deal ignores weaknesses and resistances alike.
Splash
Your hit spills onto every other foe on the field. The one you struck takes the full weight of the chain, and the rest take a share off the side, which is how a crowded fight comes apart.
Storm
Hagalaz (ᚺ), the purple rune. No hero and no realm claims Storm, and a standard journey never deals it at all — you will only meet it somewhere the colour set has been widened.
Storm-touched
The storm has struck this rune and turned it to Lightning. It wears a pale ring and crackles for as long as it holds the charge, and the crackle quickens as the charge runs low. Spend it while it is yours: match it for a small bonus to damage, or send Thor's ability through it. Let the charge run out and the rune burns away with the block.
Strike Timer
The orange bar beside a foe. When it fills, they swing. Every swing takes them the same length of time, and nothing you match on the board slows it down.
Summon
Something an enemy calls up mid-fight, like a Kraken's tentacle or a Frost Warden. It dies the moment its summoner does and never counts toward clearing the fight, and a summoner will keep calling more, so put your damage into the one doing the calling.
Sun
Dagaz (ᛞ), the orange rune. No hero and no realm claims Sun yet, so it works as pure fuel: it chains and combos exactly like anything else on the board. A realm will lay claim to that radiance eventually.
Sunstruck
Midsummer light has burned a foe's guard away. An Elite that would normally shrug off part of your Burn and Frostbound takes them in full instead, and they bite harder than usual for as long as the light holds. Gold motes rising off a body tell you the window is open.
Swapping
Drag a block to swap it with its neighbour. You swap sideways only, the original Panel de Pon rule. A few effects, like the Ginnungagap Shard's Void window, open vertical swaps for a while and let you build chains you otherwise couldn't reach.
Target Lock
Tap a foe's sprite to lock onto them, and every damaging match you make goes to them alone. Tap them again to let go, or tap another foe to move the lock across.
Void Damage
Void damage ignores the matchup entirely, so every hit lands at its base value whatever the foe is weak to or resists. While the Ginnungagap Shard's Void window is open, everything you deal turns Void — chains, splash, Ability bolts, status ticks, charm procs alike. You stop losing damage to resistances, and you give up your weakness bonus for the same window.
Water
Laguz (ᛚ), the blue rune. No hero draws on Water, and Sinmara sees less of it than anyone, which leaves it the thinnest colour on most boards. When it does turn up it makes reliable filler for a chain.
Weakness
Every foe has elements it cannot stand. Match one of those runes and the hit lands harder than it should. Tap a foe's name to see what they are weak to.
Wind
Tiwaz (ᛏ), the pale grey-green rune. No hero and no realm claims Wind, and like Storm it sits outside the colours a standard journey deals. Nothing in the game leans on it yet.
Wrapped
A Kraken tentacle has one of your blocks in its grip. You can't match it or move it, and cracks spread over it as the grip tightens, until the tentacle crushes the block outright. Match right beside it and the tentacle lets go, though it will reach back for another. Kill the tentacle and the block is yours again for good.
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