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Arcanists
Arcanists
Genre Strategy
Release 27th February 2008
Multi-player Yes
This page is for objective, encyclopaedic content. There is a separate forum page to discuss tactics and strategy.

Arcanists is a turn-based strategy game. Players take turns to utilise one of sixteen spells, chosen by the player beforehand, in order to defeat their opponents. Members have many more spells, clothing and abilities than free players. Arcanists can also be played at www.arcanists.com, although account management and server switching is still done via the main FunOrb site.

Gameplay

Basics

Arcanists character2

Arcanists character

You play as a wizard who can deploy various spells, most of which deal damage, protect you, or summon minions which you can then command. Each player starts with 250 health and, unless they have used a special ability (Soul Jar), will die when it hits zero. After the player dies, he/she may still spectate the game. After each player has had 60 turns, the game will automatically draw, saying the game was out of time. Some players stall in order for this to happen. Playing the tutorial will help you to get the hang of movement, aiming, and firing, and is recommended before joining a multiplayer game. It is worth noting that you can customise your spell book: non-members, new players, and new members won't have access to the full range of spells, but can still benefit from examining the options available. You can also customise your appearance and unlock more clothing items by completing achievements or purchasing them with orb coins on the Orb Downloads section of the FunOrb website.

Movement and Direction

All of the basic movement actions have alternative keys. Note that these vary between the localised FunOrb sites, as assumptions are made about the keyboard layouts players on each site will be using. This table documents the keys for the English-language version:

Move Key 1 Key 2
Left Z Comma
Right X Period
Long jump
or
Down (while flying)
Enter Ctrl
High jump
or
Up (while flying)
Backspace Shift

The mouse is used to target and fire most weapons.

The cursor keys are used to look around the battlefield, although this will cause the camera to stop automatically following the active player or minion. On your turn N and C will loop through your team's minions and your Arcanist; on someone else's turn, N and C will centre on the active player and return the camera to auto-follow mode. Pressing Q on your turn will skip the current go and move on to the next player without you doing any action.

Under certain circumstances, you may find yourself with the ability to fly, or controlling a flying minion. In this case high jump becomes movement upwards, and long jump becomes movement downwards. If your Arcanist has mounted a minion, you have to control the minion rather than the Arcanist. Something important that you must remember is that you cannot attack while mounted on a minion, you can attack but any attack WILL hit the minion, even a bomb will get stuck on it.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to jump from one location to the next if your character is facing the wrong way, as turning around may mean you fall from where you are standing. To change direction without moving, choose a weapon and target it in the direction you wish to face.

Spells

Main article: Arcanists/Spells

Maps

Arcanists features 9 distinct maps to fight in: one for beginners, and one each for every spellbook except Seas and Cogs. All the maps except Grassy Hills contain an Armageddon spell that starts firing and continues firing from both sides of the map while slowly converging inwards after all the players have moved 10 times.

Grassy Hills
These green slopes are where all young Arcanists train to become great mages. All that can be found here is a clean battleground in which to test your skills.

Armageddon Spell: None
Grassy Hills
Giants' Mountains
Steep slopes and rugged terrain. Stay here too long and the volcanoes will erupt!

Armageddon Spell: Volcano
The volcano's power is affected by the current turn's player's familiar.
Giants' Mountains
Elven Isles
These living islands offer much in the way of places to hide, but watch out, as the ancient magics guarding the area will start raining comets down!

Armageddon Spell: Comet
Elven Isles
Goblin Caves
The dank caves of the goblins are a common battleground. Intense mining has disturbed the deep and the ground is liable to erupt from under your feet!

Armageddon Spell: Fissure
Goblin Caves
Murky Swamp
Amid the witches' huts and rotten trees, Arcanists battle to control the arcane sources of magic within the swamp. Keep hidden, as the high concentration of power draws storms in from afar.

Armageddon Spell: Storm
Murky Swamp
Graveyard
The gentle slopes of the graveyard are covered with the remains of past Arcanists who have failed in this arena. Evil spirits haunt this place, sending bolts of pure chaos down onto anyone who disturbs them.

Armageddon Spell: Rain of Chaos
Graveyard
Sky Castles
The angels of the sky have opened their heavenly gates to allow Arcanists to engage in battle between their castles in the clouds. Choose your tower and allies carefully to achieve victory in this realm.
This map might be based on the Castle Wars minigame in RuneScape.

Armageddon Spell: Sky Ray
Sky Castles
Mos Le'Harmless
Make your way to the islands of Mos Le'Harmless to get your hands on some 'rum', but watch out for the monkeys - they might just rain on your parade.
This map is based on an island in RuneScape of the same name, and shares its theme tune, Life is a beach!, with RuneScape.

Armageddon Spell: Monkey (not a spell from any spellbook, but based on the Book of Nature)

When the Armageddon starts, each player will in turn have a monkey summoned and placed in one of their minion spaces. These monkeys are controllable, but have a pathetic jump height, and will refuse to walk into water. On the "owner's" turn, the monkeys will all fire thorn balls at him or her. The monkeys can be zombified, in which case the zombifying players gain ownership of them, and therefore extra thorn balls thrown at them on their turn.
Mos Le'Harmless

Arcane Crystals
This map will provide a very different style of gameplay; imps will surely find their home there...
This is a members-only map. It has unique dimensions — it is half as tall and twice as wide as the other maps. To accommodate the wider mini-map it rearranges the spell book layout.

Armageddon Spell: Variant of Arcane Arrows

The Armageddon Arcane Arrows fires considerably more arrows than the normal Arcane Arrows, and it fires them from below the waterline. The target is initially random, however the server may later begin to target the player whose turn is starting. The arrows, dealing Arcane damage, do not damage the player whose turn was starting when the spell was cast.
Arcane Crystals

Game Modes

There are two styles of game: team and free-for-all (FFA). A team game requires an even number of players: the top half of the list of players form the red team and the bottom half form the blue team. The host of an unrated game cannot start a team game with an odd number of players. In rated games, however, the teams are divided by who waits the longest and shortest for the game to start.

Although nothing prevents people from forming informal teams in an FFA game, the handling of turn order between the two styles has an important difference. In FFA the turn cycles through the players, but in team games it alternates between the teams and so offsets a lot of the advantage which would otherwise be gained by eliminating a player from the opposing team. In a 2 v. 2 team game, if one person dies, their teammate gets double turns to even the difference. In a 3 v. 3 team game, if two people of the same team die, their surviving teammate gets triple turns.

Rating

Main article: Rating

Awards

At the end of a game, certain awards are given out to the players who did certain things during the match. In a rated game, players who get awards usually get wands; however the number of wands gained seems to vary greatly. It may depend on you, your team's, and your opponents' ratings; how many awards you each received; and whether or not the average rating of the game is less than the level for your prestige hat. As a general rule, more awards are given in games with multiple opponents and many turns.

Note that the meaning of the awards has not been officially published, and so is intelligent speculation for the most part.

Award Meaning
Most Damage The player who caused the most damage.
Most Powerful The player who used their spells most powerfully.
Most Minions The player who summoned the most minions.
Most Kills The player who killed the greatest number of people during the match.
Most Skillful The player with the most successful hits.
Minion Master The player who used their minions most powerfully.
Most Wet The player who fell into the water the most times. (Minimum - 2 times)
Most Useless The player who caused the least damage to their opponents, and healed themselves the least.
Most Resilient The player who moved across the map more often from one side to the other.
Most Cruel The player who caused the most damage to themselves or their team.
Most Honourable The player who caused the least damage to themselves or their team.
Most Annoying The player who repeatedly used the same spell.
Most Fit The player who moved around the most.
Most Bouncy The player who jumped around the most and who bounced the most.
Dragon Master The player who used their dragon most powerfully.
Imp Master The player who used imps most powerfully.
Zombie Monkey Killer The player who killed the most zombie monkeys on the Mos Le'Harmless map. Only available during Halloween.

Wands

Wand

Wands are like a form of currency in Arcanists, and they can be used to buy spells at a rate of 5 wands to unlock a spell book (gaining all its level 1 spells) and 2 or 3 respectively for level 2 and level 3 spells. Like rating, they can be gained only in rated games, and so are available only to members. They are gained by winning or by achieving awards. However, players with prestige hats can only win wands while the match's average rating is above a certain number, and players who leave the game before the end will not only lose rating but also fail to receive their wands.

Prestige Hats

Buy hat icon

Prestige hats are an optional series of icons which players can earn after purchasing all spells (or getting enough wands that would allow them to do so). The spells are traded in for a prestige hat, and the player is left with the initial spell sets (most of the arcane and flame books) and the Book of Cogs, which is only unlocked by obtaining a prestige hat. They have to repurchase the lost spells with more wands. Each Prestige hat makes gaining wands more difficult. To make sure players don't accidentally buy prestige hats and lose all their spells, you must hold 'CTRL' and then click the buy button (right) before you can actually buy the hat. Gaining the first five prestige hats will unlock the Lord of Wands achievement. Gaining all ten prestige hats takes time and persistence but is a huge milestone, and gives you the Wand Hoarder achievement.

Below is a chart showing the average game rating needed to gain wands at the normal rate. For example: If you have the fifth prestige hat, you don't need 1250 rating to gain the normal wand rate, instead the average of all players' rating in the game needs to be equal to or greater than 1250. This means that if you're fighting someone with a rating of 100 and your rating is 1600 you would not get the normal wand rate if you win because the average of 100 and 1600 is only 850 but if you're fighting someone with a rating of 1050 and your rating is 1600 you would get the normal wand rate because the average of 1050 and 1600 is 1325.

Symbol Prestige

Hat

Average Game Rating Needed

for Normal Wand Gain

1st hat 1 250
2nd hat 2 500
3rd hat 3 750
4th hat 4 1000
5th hat 5 1250
6th hat 6 1500
7th hat 7 1750
8th hat 8 2000
9th hat fake 9 2250
10th hat fake 10 2500
  • In total it takes 153 wands to buy a prestige hat, meaning it will take 1.530 wands to buy all prestige hats, and 1.683 wands to earn all prestige hats and all spells.
  • You will NOT gain any more wands if you have bought all the spells, unless you buy another prestige hat.

Achievements

Total Achievements: 91
Total Orb Coins: 275
Total Orb Points: 27500
[Secret Achievements] | [Hidden Achievements] [Halloween Achievements]

Image Name Requirement Orb Points Orb Coins Members? Sorter
Enchanter Enchanter

Win a Rated game

100 1 Yes AA
Apprentice Apprentice

Win 5 Rated games

200 2 Yes AB
Acolyte Acolyte

Win 20 Rated games

200 2 Yes AC
Mage Mage

Win 50 Rated games

300 3 Yes AD
High Mage High Mage

Obtain a Rating of 2000 after winning 50 Rated games

500 5 Yes AE
Arch Mage Arch Mage

Obtain a Rating of 4000 after winning 50 Rated games

1000 10 Yes AF
Wrath Wreaker Wrath Wreaker

Deal 1,000 damage to your enemies in Rated games

100 1 Yes AG
Storm Seeker Storm Seeker

Deal 5,000 damage to your enemies in Rated games

100 1 Yes AH
Comet Chucker Comet Chucker

Deal 25,000 damage to your enemies in Rated games

100 1 Yes AI
Volcanic Volleyer Volcanic Volleyer

Deal 250,000 damage to your enemies in Rated games

100 1 Yes AJ
Fissure Finisher Fissure Finisher

Deal 1,000,000 damage to your enemies in Rated games

100 1 Yes AK
Arcanists Winning Streak Winning Streak

Win 2 Rated games in a row during one session

500 5 Yes AL
Winning Storm Winning Storm

Win 5 Rated games in a row during one session

1000 10 Yes AM
Master of Flame Master of Flame

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Flame

200 2 Yes AN
Master of Frost Master of Frost

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Frost

200 2 Yes AO
Master of Storm Master of Storm

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Storm

200 2 Yes AP
Master of Stone Master of Stone

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Stone

200 2 Yes AQ
Master of Light Master of Light

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Overlight

300 3 Yes AR
Master of Darkness Master of Darkness

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Underdark

300 3 Yes AS
Master of Nature Master of Nature

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Nature

300 3 Yes AT
Master of Seas Master of Seas

Win a Rated game with the full Book of Seas

300 3 Yes AU
Master of Cogs Master of Cogs

Win a rated game with the full Book of Cogs

300 3 Yes AV
Flame Arcanist Flame Arcanist

Win a Rated game, over 1500 rating, using a Harpy Flame familiar

100 1 Yes AW
Frost Arcanist Frost Arcanist

Win a Rated game, over 1500 rating, using a Frost Sprite familiar

100 1 Yes AX
Storm Arcanist Storm Arcanist

Win a Rated game, over 1500 rating, using a Storm Cloud familiar

100 1 Yes AY
Stone Arcanist Stone Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 1500 rating, with the Pet Rock familiar

100 1 Yes AZ
Overlight Arcanist Overlight Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 2000 rating, with the Cherub familiar

100 1 Yes BA
Underdark Arcanist Underdark Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 2000 rating, with the Soul Jar familiar

100 1 Yes BB
Nature Arcanist Nature Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 2500 rating, with the Fungus familiar

100 1 Yes BC
Seas Arcanist Seas Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 2500 rating, with the Seahorse familiar

100 1 Yes BD
Cogs Arcanist Cogs Arcanist

Win a rated game, over 3000 rating, with the Alarm Clock familiar.

100 1 Yes BE
Master of Imps Master of Imps

Having 3000 rating or over, win a rated game using the Full Arcane Spellbook

500 5 Yes BG
Trainee Team Leader Trainee Team Leader

Win a Rated team game taking no losses to your team

200 2 Yes BH
Master Team Leader Master Team Leader

Win a Rated team game, over 2000 rating, taking no losses to your team

300 3 Yes BI
Diplomat Diplomat

Win a Free-For-All Rated game with over 4 players

200 2 Yes BJ
Master Diplomat Master Diplomat

Win a Free-For-All Rated game, over 2000 rating, with 4+ players

300 3 Yes BK
Master of Arcanists Master of Arcanists

Win Rated games on every map without changing your spellbook

1000 10 Yes BL
Master of Minions Master of Minions

Win a Rated game with 10 minion spells in your spell book

500 5 Yes BM
Critical Hit Critical Hit

Deal 250 damage in one attack, during a Rated game.

300 3 Yes BN
Arcanists Sniper Sniper

Kill an Arcanist in a rated game with a ball, bomb or bolt spell... from the opposite side of the map.

300 3 Yes BO
Paper Bag Paper Bag

Win a Rated game with a very weak attack.

100 1 Yes BP
Just a Flesh Wound Just a Flesh Wound

Win a Rated game with 1 health remaining.

500 5 Yes BQ
Cursed Earth Cursed Earth

Win a Rated game because the environment aided you

300 3 Yes BR
With the Fishies With the Fishies

Win a Rated game by knocking your opponent into the water

300 3 Yes BS
You got the Touch You got the Touch

Kill three or more Arcanists in the final turn within a rated game

500 5 Yes BT
Team Worker Team Worker

Win a rated game using a teammate's minion to kill the last enemy

300 3 Yes BU
Fear Me! Fear Me!

Win a Rated game with an army of at least four Hard Water Trolls.

100 1 Yes BV
Block out the sun Block out the sun

Use Flurry with at least four Elves at maximum power in a Rated game

100 1 Yes BW
Hangin' with my friends Hangin' with my friends

Only deal damage with minions and win a Rated game

500 5 Yes BX
It's Alive! It's Alive!

Win a Rated game ending as a Lich with a Zombie Dragon

300 3 Yes BY
Claustrophobia Claustrophobia

Win a Rated game, over 2000 rating, taking no towers

500 5 Yes BZ
Wand Hoarder Wand Hoarder

Purchase the tenth (and final) prestige hat for your Arcanist

1000 10 Yes CB
Celestial Lord Celestial Lord

Win a Rated game in which you exhibit great celestial control

200 2 Yes CC
Ice Hot Ice Hot

Win a Rated game having summoned forth the greatest foes

200 2 Yes CD
An Average Summer's Day An Average Summer's Day

Win a Rated game having controlled the weather blocking out the sun

200 2 Yes CE
Page Turner Page Turner

Win a Rated game where you show mastery of your whole spell book

200 2 Yes CF
Cyclone of Pain Cyclone of Pain

Deal excessive damage with control of nature

400 4 Yes CG
Arcanists Lord of the Castle Lord of the Castle

Show your superiority of tower ownership

400 4 NO CH
Cruelty Cruelty

Show how well you use your Beasts of Burden to shield you from enemy attack

200 2 Yes CI
Blade Master Blade Master

Destroy an enemy with the ultimate weapon of light

200 2 No CJ
Come With Me Come With Me

Zombify the mount another Arcanist is riding.

400 4 Yes CK
Subversion Subversion

Subvert the ultimate weapon of light.

500 5 Yes CL
Lord of Dragons Lord of Dragons

Prove yourself the lord of dragons in a six player free-for-all fight

500 5 Yes CM
Panoramic View Panoramic View

Win a Rated game in resizable mode

100 1 Yes CBM
Guardian of Souls Guardian of Souls

Destroy an enemy's Soul Jar

100 1 No CN
Sanctify Yourself Sanctify Yourself

Exhibit your skill of sanctification

100 1 Yes CO
Icarus Icarus

Kill a player with the power of plants

400 4 Yes CP
Indirect Indirect

Win a Rated game using no direct fire spells (balls, bombs or arrows)

200 2 Yes CQ
Crazy Crazy

Win a Rated game using only bombs

300 3 Yes CR
Throwing Arm Throwing Arm

Kill at least 2 enemies using bombs thrown from the ground

400 4 No CS
Circle of Death Circle of Death

Kill a player while holding the remnants of his feeble attempt to destroy the world

500 5 Yes CT
Soul Drain Soul Drain

Heal excessively using the greatest powers of darkness

200 2 Yes CU
Master of Familiars Master of Familiars

Prove mastery of your familiar in a six player game, in which all choose a different path

500 5 Yes CV
Dust to Dust Dust to Dust

Deal excessive damage using the staff of the storm

300 3 Yes CX
3rd Dimension 3rd Dimension

Kill a player using an arcane portal to circumnavigate their defences

100 1 No CW
Skimmer Skimmer

Kill a player with a skimming throw across the water

500 5 Yes CY
Drop Shot Drop Shot

Kill a player with a drop arrow

500 5 No CZ
SMASH! SMASH!

Punch, Bash or Whip your enemies far and wide

100 1 No DA
Axing for Trouble Axing for Trouble

Insta-Kill with the Dark Knight

300 3 No DB
Miasma Miasma

Deal excessive damage by pulling all minions into the darkness

300 3 Yes DC
Shake n' Quake Shake n' Quake

Shake the world causing the drowning of many foes.

300 3 Yes DD
Didn't see that coming Didn't see that coming

Sacrifice your windy minion and laugh at the consequences

300 3 Yes DE
Whiter than White Whiter than White

Wash your enemy's shields off for him

300 3 No DF
Multi Dunk! Multi Dunk!

Show your mastery of Flash or Vine Whip

300 3 No DG
Divided World Divided World

Win a Rated game in which you cause great rifts in the world

200 2 Yes DH
Mark of Fame Mark of Fame

Defeat an Arcane Master Moderator in an epic battle of skill and arcane cunning!

1000 10 No DI
Finally Did It Finally Did It

Win a game at the last possible moment

100 1 Yes DJ
Master of Monkeys Master of Monkeys

Play a Rated game and earn the most Zombie Monkey kills in the Mos Le'Harmless arena during the Hallow'een holiday

300 3 Yes DL
Champion of Magic Champion of Magic

Win a rated game, over 3000 rating, with any full spellbook.

500 5 Yes BF
Up, Up and Up some more Up, Up and Up some more

Launch yourself into space!

200 2 No DK
Lord of Wands Lord of Wands

Get the fifth level prestige hat.

100 1 Yes CA

All information for these achievements is stored on their respective pages, along with walkthroughs and tips for many of them. So, if you notice a mistake, or have a good strategy, go there!

Did you notice a missing achievement? You can help the FunOrb Wiki by making a page for it. Simply type the achievement name in this box to make a page for it.<createbox> width=30 break=no prefix=Arcanists/Achievement: preload=FunOrb Wiki:Achievement Articles/Preloader buttonlabel=Create page </createbox>


Events

  • During the 2008 Christmas season, the Grassy Hills theme was covered with snow, with castles and trees having Christmas decorations.
  • During the 2009 Halloween season, the Mos Le' Harmless stage had the monkeys dropping from the first turn as zombies that shot thorn bombs, which were affected by the nature familiar.
  • On 5th August 2010, the first f2p achievements (15 of them) aside from "mark of fame" were released in an update alongside 17+ members-only achievements (and one hidden members-only achievement).

Trivia

  • Arcanists is currently the #1 most played game on FunOrb, and has for a long time remained such. Only for a short period of time was it passed by Armies of Gielinor.
  • Arcanists was voted players' favourite FunOrb game in a RuneScape Poll.
  • Once a player has played 500 games the ratings menu will no longer accurately count; it will instead say 500+.
  • The Arch mage achievement was previously obtained by achieving a ranking of 5000 after winning 50 rated games, but it has now been lowered to 4000 because Jagex felt that a 5000 rating was too hard for even some of the best legitimate Arcanists players to get (and as a result the previous requirement of 5000 rating encouraged illegal transferring of rating).
  • The flame familiar Harpy flame graphics are reused from the Wizard Run Harpy king boss.
  • The Cuckoo clock spell sound is reused from Torquing! collecting hourglass power-up.
  • The Block out the sun achievement is a reference (possibly indirectly through reference to a modern adaptation) to an incident mentioned by Herodotus in the context of the Battle of Thermopylae, or a line in the movie 300.
  • On Mos Le'Harmless, you can make your monkey minions fall off without using a spell. Bring one of the monkeys to the edge of the stage, put the other monkey on top as close to the edge as possible, and simply move the bottom monkey away from the edge to make the top one fall. Normally the monkeys cannot be walked off into the water.
  • The Frost Giant's appearance may be a reference to Marvin the robot from the film version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • If you try to Zombify a paladin, you will get a dark knight instead of a zombie paladin.
  • You can get 6250 hp by playing in a 6 player match as a lich and zombify everyone's minions and use the dark defence to give them the damage, meaning that no spell can actualy kill YOU while the minions are alive, but doing this would be close to impossible as you'd have to hide 24 creatures.
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