Welcome to Elderfield Rituals Guide
Last updated: 2026-09-28 · 9 min read
Rituals are Elderfield's spell list, and the game is quietly generous with them: several are sold from a vending machine for pocket change, one is free from an NPC who never mentions it, and two more are handed over by characters you would not expect. This page is the full table of what each one does and costs, followed by the order worth collecting them in — because the cheapest rituals are also the ones that carry the early game.
Three purchases do most of the work early: Lesser Mending (25g), Cosmic Premonition (50g) and Torrent of Darkness (100g) from the Mall vending machine. Warp is free — talk to the shopper on the far right of the Ultra Video store in Mall F1, next to the camera display, and it costs you nothing. And before you ever use Heretical Blow, read the last column of the skill table: it inflicts a random curse on you, and the curse stays after the battle ends.
Rituals vs Skills
The game files them together under one menu and the official wiki lists them on the same page, but they are two different things and it matters for what you can do outside a fight.
- Rituals are the magic side. Some are usable outside battle — Lesser and Greater Mending are the ones that matter, because they let you heal on the road without spending food.
- Skills are the physical side. They are battle-only, and several add combat points rather than raw damage.
- Both cost MP, and both are learned rather than levelled — you either have the ability or you do not.
MP is therefore the real constraint, not the ability list. That is why the cheap rituals matter more than the expensive ones for most of the game, and why Lesser Mending at 10 MP for 20 HP is a better early investment than anything at 25 MP.
FIG. 01 — Ritual rooms and braziers are where several abilities come from. The Old Woods and Sewers chamber doors each hide one.
The Ritual Table
Every ritual and skill in the game, with its cost and where it comes from. Where a cost is left blank, the game does not state one.
Unlock conditions come in three shapes, and knowing which one applies saves a trip. Free pickups are objects and people you simply interact with — the Old Braiser near your house, the shopper who teaches Warp, and the chamber doors in the Old Woods and the Sewers. Buying means the Mall vending machine: you buy a tome and then use it from your inventory before the ability appears in your list. Everything else is task-locked, and those are the ones worth planning around — Dark Blast waits on Build-A-Wife, and Ghost Blast comes from a character rather than a shop.
| Ritual | Effect | MP | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Warps you home | Free | Taught by the shopper on the far right of the Ultra Video store — the first shop you reach inside Mall F1, next to the camera display |
| Energy Shot | A weak shot of energy | 2 | Learned from the Old Braiser, which sits on a large tree stump north-east of your house. The game begins you with Guard only |
| Dark Shield | +20% Defence and M. Defence for 3 turns; adds +1 Recovery | 3 | Loot from the Office Slime in front of the Mall F1 Hallway door |
| Cosmic Premonition | Reduces enemy Attack and Defence by 20% for 3 turns; adds +1 Recovery | 3 | Mall vending machine, 50g |
| Induce Anxiety | +20% Agility and Hit Rate for 3 turns; adds +1 Swift | 3 | Found in the Lost Woods Mines, and from a book in the Mall Mine |
| Dark Blast | Darkness damage; adds +1 Fatal; may inflict Hex | 5 | Taught by Old Man Jackson after completing Build-A-Wife |
| Ghost Blast | Curse damage; adds +1 Fatal; may inflict Fear | 5 | Gifted by Pete, the laundry ghost in the apartment laundry room |
| Mind Blast | Insight damage; adds +1 Lethal; may inflict Chaos | 5 | Found in the Library |
| Lesser Mending | Restores 20 HP; adds +1 Recovery; usable outside battle | 10 | Mall vending machine, 25g |
| Torrent of Darkness | A wide wave of energy; Darkness damage; hits all enemies | 10 | Mall vending machine, 100g |
| Greater Mending | Restores 40 HP; adds +1 Recovery; usable outside battle | 20 | Found in the Library |
| Mark of Death | Reduces enemy Defence by 40% for 3 turns | 25 | Found in the Library |
| Energizing Blast | 15% chance to generate 1 AP | Not recorded | Found in the Library |
| Pumpkin Blast | Not stated in game | Not recorded | After opening the chamber doors in the Old Woods |
| Chaos Thorns | Not stated in game | Not recorded | After opening the chamber doors in the Sewers |
Worth noticing how much of this one table gives you: four separate rituals are found in the Library, including both Greater Mending and Mark of Death. The Library is not a story detour, it is your spell shop — and it is also where the Stone Tower task starts, so a single trip does double duty.
FIG. 02 — The farm, the fences, and the town beyond them. In the battle menu, Ritual sits alongside Attack, Guard and Item, and every option draws on the same MP pool.
The Skill Table
| Skill | Effect | MP | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guard | Blocks the next damaging attack; usable once per turn | 3 | Given at the start of the game |
| All or Nothing | Double damage; adds +1 Fatal; half as likely to hit | 5 | Mall vending machine, 25g |
| Heavy Blow | 25% chance to stun the target | 5 | Mall vending machine |
| Energizing Strike | 15% chance to generate 1 AP | 5 | Not recorded |
| Frenzy Slash | Hits three times; adds +1 Swift; physical insanity damage | 8 | Not recorded |
| Heretical Blow | Higher damage; adds +1 Fatal; inflicts the user with a random curse that remains after battle | 8 | Not recorded |
Every other skill on that list costs MP. Heretical Blow also costs you a status effect, and the curse persists after the fight — which means it is still on you when you walk into the next encounter, and it counts against the stack. If you have been deliberately building blessings before a boss, this single skill undoes the preparation. See the blessings and curses guide for how stacks and clearing work before you press it.
Frenzy Slash is the opposite case and the skill most people underrate because of how it reads. Three hits at 8 MP also means three chances to add Swift, and it is the cheapest way in the early game to hit a high-AP enemy more than once in your turn.
The Order to Collect Them
An ordering by return on cost rather than by power, since MP and travel time are the real limits:
| Priority | Get this | Why now |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warp | Free, one conversation, and it removes the walk home from every single trip. Nothing else in the game changes as much per gold spent as this |
| 2 | Lesser Mending (25g) | 20 HP for 10 MP and it works outside battle, so it replaces food during early exploration |
| 3 | Cosmic Premonition (50g) | Two enemy stats down 20% for three turns for 3 MP — the cheapest boss-opener in the game and it carries the early mines |
| 4 | Dark Shield | Free loot from the Office Slime you have to fight anyway, and +20% to both defences for 3 turns |
| 5 | Greater Mending | Free in the Library on the same trip as the tower task. Doubles Lesser Mending's healing |
| 6 | Induce Anxiety | 3 MP for Agility and Hit Rate, and the +1 Swift stacks with Frenzy Slash |
| 7 | Torrent of Darkness (100g) | Only worth the 100g once you are regularly fighting groups. Against single enemies it is a 10 MP single-target blast |
| 8 | Mark of Death / Mind Blast | Both in the Library. Mark of Death's 40% Defence cut is the strongest debuff available, at 25 MP; Mind Blast adds Lethal |
FIG. 03 — Several rituals come from interacting with things the game does not flag as rewards, including chamber doors and event pickups.
Where They Come From
Grouped by source, because the sources are what you actually have to plan around:
- Mall vending machine: Lesser Mending (25g), All or Nothing (25g), Cosmic Premonition (50g), Torrent of Darkness (100g). Four abilities, one trip, no quest — and what you buy is a tome, so use it from your inventory to actually learn the ability.
- The Library: Greater Mending, Mark of Death, Mind Blast, Energizing Blast. The single best building in the game for abilities.
- NPC gifts and teaching: Warp from the Ultra Video shopper, Dark Blast from Old Man Jackson after Build-A-Wife, Ghost Blast from Pete the laundry ghost.
- Mines and chambers: Induce Anxiety in the Lost Woods Mines and from a book in the Mall Mine; Pumpkin Blast from the Old Woods chamber doors; Chaos Thorns from the Sewers chamber doors.
- Loot: Dark Shield from the Office Slime at the Mall F1 Hallway door.
Getting Your First Ritual
One piece of housekeeping is worth sorting out in your first hour, because it is easy to walk straight past: touch the Old Braiser — the large tree stump north-east of your house — to learn Energy Shot. It is the ability you lean on long before the Mall shops matter.
Older references may call the ability Energy Blast. The current pickup is Energy Shot: interact with the Old Braiser before leaving the home area, and you will have a 2 MP ranged option before your first trip to the Mall.
The ability you definitely begin with is Guard, not Energy Shot. Guard blocks the next damaging attack and is the single reason your first fights are survivable — use it on the turn you cannot afford to take a hit, and remember it only works once per turn.
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