We mentioned in our guide to resource management in Summoner’s War that runes are often more critical to your in-game success than the monsters themselves. Although having the right summons does make life easier (and how!), these little stones hold the key to unleashing your true potential, both in PvE and in PvP. Well… that and playing Summoner’s War on BlueStacks. In this guide, we’d like to give you an overview of the rune system in SW.

Runes are SW’s version of gear. They come in different rarities, have a myriad of possible stats, can be enhanced via upgrades, and form sets when they are used in the right combinations. The better your runes, the more likely it is that you’ll succeed in the CD where you can get valuable awakening mats for your heroes, but also when farming regular chapters for gear and experience.

Basics of Summoner’s War Runes

These attachment stones come in sets of 2 or 4. In addition to the individual stats you get from each piece, a set will unlock an even better bonus. Since you have a maximum of 6 slots available, you need a bit of strategy to successfully chose which pieces/sets should go on what monsters. Once equipped, a rune will be bound to that monster. To take them off, you’ll either have to use Mana Stones or wait for the free rune removal day.

You can get runes from scenario battles, but also from dungeons such as the Giant’s Keep or the Necropolis. Because lower rarity pieces drop generously in most PvE encounters, you’ll always have something in your inventory to equip. Before moving forward, you should know that you can hold a maximum of 500 grindstones and 700 runes. While this may not seem like a problem to begin with, we assure you that it will become one as you progress through the game. To avoid giving up on good pieces, you’ll need to know which ones are dispensable.

Each of the stones has a main effect (or stat) and a secondary one. The type of bonus you gain from the primary stat is actually dependent on the slot it goes into. As you may have guessed, enhancing a rune will increase the bonus it gives you. The rarer its grade and/or star rating, the more you can get from upgrading it. A golden rule of thumb is that percentage-based stats are usually better than flat values, since the first will scale with your monster’s strength.

The secondary effect bonus will always be smaller than the primary one and (unfortunately) it can never be the same stat as the primary one. Whenever you’re trying to calculate how much bonus you can achieve, note that gear stats will always be calculated in an additive manner, rather than multiplicative i.e. if you have 5% bonus to attack from a piece, another identical one will still add 5% of your base stat.

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Rune Sets

Here’s a complete list of the Rune Sets currently available in Summoner’s War. If you need any of these urgently, you can make them yourself in the Craft Building. Fair warning, though, they tend to cost a bit of mana:

4-sets:

• Fatal – gives you a momentous 35% boost to attack power. Can be found in Mt. Siz and Giant’s Keep. Excellent on early game attack mons, as well as on late-game nukers if nothing better is available.

• Swift – 25% increase to attack speed. This will be mandatory on your healers or supports, since it gives you access to their abilities as early as possible. Also useful on units whose base damage is tied to their speed. Farm it in Mt. White Ragon and in Giant’s Keep.
• Vampire – gives you 35% of your attack value as health. Doesn’t work with percentage-based skills or continuous damage sources. Really useful farm tool you can get in Mt. Runar and Necropolis.

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• Despair – 25% increased chance to stun with a skill that has this effect. You want to keep this one around for encounters with high AoE damage. Only obtainable from Giant’s Keep.

• Violent – 22% increased chance to gain an additional turn. Subsequent turns are subject to a harsh diminishing return (50% each time). OP in PvP, but not only available in Dragon’s Lair.

• Rage – 40% increased crit damage. Extremely viable for late-game mons that have scaling nuke abilities. Farm it in Necropolis.

2-sets:

• Energy – the set effect provides the wearer with 15% HP. You can equip three of these to have +45% HP. Incredibly useful for tanks with a bucketload of health. Can be obtained from Garren Forest and Giant’s Keep.

• Blade – 12% critical rate for every 2 of these you equip, so you could potentially have a 36% increase to your crit rate. This is an excellent source of increased damage, but beware of the fact that bomb damage does not benefit from it. Obtainable from Kabir Ruins and Giant’s Keep.

• Focus – 20% bonus to accuracy for every pair. This is more of a niche pick when you need to add some accuracy to your summons, which is to say you need to increase their chance of landing a debuff. Available in Dragon’s Lair and Telain Forest.

• Guard – 15% bonus to defense for each set. This is OP on mons that do damage based on defense. Farmable in Dragon’s Lair and Hydeni Ruins.

• Endure – 20% increased resistance. Another niche, albeit sometimes useful pick, since it increases your line-ups odds of avoiding enemy debuffs altogether.

• Shield – cast a bubble on your allies that is equal to 15% of the monster’s base health. A game-changer in both PvE and PvP, since shields from multiple allies stack together and they reset with every new wave. Unfortunately, it’s a removable buff. You can get the runes in Dragon’s Lair and Vrofagus ruins.

• Revenge – 15% chance to counterattack an enemy with 75% of the original attack damage. This is particularly useful on units with high values of attack on their first skill or special attack effects. Farm it in Faimon’s Volcano and Dragon’s Lair.

• Will – Immunity for 1 turn. With three sets of these, you can give any of your heroes 3 turns’ worth of invulnerability. If this wasn’t enough, it resets with every new wave. The bad news is that it can be dispelled. Very useful on squishy mons. Get it in Aiden Forest and Necropolis.

• Nemesis – gain 4% attack gauge with every 7% health lost. A must on tanks that have strong passives. To prevent trolling, you can’t activate it with HP drains or continuous damage sources. Available in Ferun Castle and Necropolis.

• Destroy – 30% of the damage you deal reduces the opponent’s maximum HP (with a ceiling of 4% at a time). Keep it around, as it will come in handy in long fights. You can get it in Necropolis and Chiruka Remains.

All of these are available in the Craft Building only:

• Fight – 8% bonus to all your allies’ attack.
  • Determination – 8% bonus to the defense of all your allies.
  • Enhance – 8% bonus to ally HP.
  • Accuracy – 8% bonus to ally accuracy.

With this information in mind, you are now better equipped to manage your runes in Summoner’s War. Getting the good ones might take some time but, we assure you, it will all be worth it in the end.