How to unlock Runes?
The Rune system is one of the ways to make your characters in Archeland stronger. The system isn't available on day 1 as you need to clear stage 7-2 to gain access to it - it should take you 2-3 days of casual game play to reach it. After that a new mode in the Secret Realm will unlock for you - Magical Vortex.

Bosses
Once you enter the Magical Vortex, this screen will appear for you:

Every day, a different boss will be available here. There are four in total and each boss is weak to one of the elements and drops different sets of Runes.
The four bosses are:
- Whirlpool of Fire - available on Monday and Thursday,
- Whirlpool of Water - available on Tuesday and Friday,
- Whirlpool of Lightning - available on Wednesday and Saturday,
- Whirlpool of Darkness - available only on Sunday.
Levels and difficulty
The boss levels increase by 5 and as they get stronger, the drop more runes and they have a higher chance to be better rarity. The bosses are quite hard, especially if you try to to attack one above your team's level and while initially you will be able to use a team created from opposite or neutral element characters, soon you will have to build dedicated teams that not only counter the boss's element, but also counter the mechanics in the fight.
Thankfully, you only need to beat a boss once to unlock the Sweep functionality on that level - it still costs stamina to attack the boss, but at least you don't have to do the fights daily.
Starting from level 25 you will usually also need to bring 2 Priests to the fight as the amount of damage the boss outputs is really scary - also Priests can deal with some of the mechanics as they can dispel debuffs from your party or dispel buffs from the boss.
Rune rarities

There are three rarities and the higher rarity, the more substats a rune can have:
- R rarity - 2 substats
- SR rarity - 3 substats
- SSR rarity - 4 substats
Initially a rune has the substats hidden and you need to level the rune up to unlock them - leveling is done by either sacrificing other runes or using a special dust. We will provide a full list of all possible substats soon!
Rune sets
Each Rune belongs to one of the 17 Sets that have both 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses. With each Character having 6 slots for Runes, this means you can use one full 4-piece set and then another 2-piece one.
Keep in mind that each rune also has a number attached to it, which tells you to what slot it belongs:

Here's a list of all the sets available in the game and their effects:
Image | Name | 2-piece effect | 4-piece effect | Who wants it? | Boss |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Battle Axe | PDEF Penetration +5% | During Active Attacks, increase the damage dealt by 10% and decrease the damage received by 10%. | Best rune for physical damage dealers. | Whirlpool of Darkness |
![]() | Cross | HP +5% | +20% Healing Effect | Best rune for Priests. | Whirlpool of Lightning |
![]() | Direwolf | Critical Rate +7% | After killing a target with an Active Attack, deal 0.5x PATK damage to surrounding enemies. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Darkness |
![]() | Dragon | PDEF Penetration +5% | Increase all stats (excluding HP) by 8% when there are no allies within 3 tiles. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Darkness |
![]() | Gladiator | Critical Rate +7% | During Active Attacks, deal 20% increased damage against enemies with 70% or more HP. | Good for Assassins that rely on Critical Hit, but even for them Battle Ax often is a better choice. | Whirlpool of Lightning |
![]() | Hawk | PDEF Penetration +5% | +5% damage dealt. After dealing damage, gain [Nimble 2] for 1 turn. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Lightning |
![]() | Horse | HP +5% | Increase PDEF and MDEF by 20% when attacked (activates once per turn). | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Lightning |
![]() | Hourglass | MDEF Penetration +5% | After using a skill to damage an enemy, there's a 50% chance to reduce its cooldown by 2 turns. | The most universal rune for Mages. | Whirlpool of Water |
![]() | Knight | HP +5% | Gain 4% all stats (excluding HP) every time an ally dies (up to 3 times.) | It's an interesting rune, but there's no character that can use it - a tank/summoner hybrid would love it. | Whirlpool of Fire |
![]() | Magic Eye | MATK +5% | When dealing damage, there's a 40% chance to apply a random debuff to the target. | Good for Mages that rely on debuffs, but Hourglass is usually better on them either way. | Whirlpool of Fire |
![]() | Ouroboros | HP +5% | Inflicts [Poison] on the enemy after using an Active Attack. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Darkness |
![]() | Shield | HP +5% | Gain 10% incoming damage reduction. | Best rune for Tanks. | Whirlpool of Water |
![]() | Snowflake | HP +5% | Before the battle, active Attacks have a 50% chance to inflict [Slow 2] and [Magical Corrosion] for 1 turn on the target. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Water |
![]() | Staff | MATK +5% | +10% damage dealt when using skills. +5 damage dealt when using ranged skills. | Good rune for mages that already have some cooldown reduction passives, since they don't need Hourglass. | Whirlpool of Water |
![]() | Sword | PATK +5% | +20% damage dealt with basic attacks. | Since this bonus doesn't affect skills, it's only good on characters that rely on basic attacks/additional attacks (like MC or Sieghard). | Whirlpool of Fire |
![]() | Vampire | PDEF Penetration +5% | Recover 20% HP after using an Active Attack. | Best rune for Charlotte - makes her super hard to kill as she can attack often. | Whirlpool of Fire |
![]() | World Tree | HP +5% | When using a skill on ally, there's a 40% chance to give him a random buff. | Avoid using it. | Whirlpool of Darkness |