Songs & spells

Playing the flute

1. Take out the flute and play the spell’s notes in order. The flute has eight notes, and every spell is built from them:

2. These are the default controls; if you remapped them, go by the Note column.
3. Things to know:
   1. The spell fires when you release the last note, and the game only listens to the latest notes — a slip in the middle doesn’t ruin it. Just start again from the first note without putting the flute away.
   2. On keyboard, don’t hold Space while casting: it shifts the flute up an octave for free play, and the normal keys stop producing the notes you need.
   3. Get close to the target. Restoration Round, Sandcastle Jingle and Song of Silence only work next to the shrine, sand pile or cursed object, and Hymn of Sea’s Abyss needs you right on top of the spot. If there’s nothing valid in range your character says so and no mana is spent.
   4. Watch your mana. If you’re short the bar shakes and buzzes. Tilling, chopping and mining charge per plot, tree or rock you mark — unmark them before confirming to get it back.

Every spell

1. Default keys and Xbox buttons. The cost in brackets is what it drops to once the song is perfected.

Learning and perfecting songs

1. Each song has three ranks. You acquire it when someone teaches it to you, and from then on you can cast it by playing its notes. Practise it to reach Learned (one star) and Perfected (two stars).
2. What the ranks give you:
   1. Learned adds the spell to the flute quick-cast button, so you can cast it from a menu (keeping the reduced cost if it’s perfected). The button only offers spells that are useful where you are — Tilling and Rain Dance in the garden, Sandcastle Jingle and Restoration Round elsewhere.
   2. Perfected cuts the mana cost by 20% — great for spells you use all the time: Song of Tilling saves 7 per plot, Restoration Round drops from 140 to 112.
   3. Each new star gives 1 experience when you close the lesson, so perfecting every practisable song is a steady source of experience.
3. The practice rooms are at the back of the Etchery’s music classroom. Time slows down inside, so you can practise without losing your day. Go in, take out your flute and pick a song from the list to start a lesson. The whole piece scrolls along the staff and each note scores 6 (Sloppy), 8 (Okay) or 10 (Perfect): Learned needs 6 per note — just finish with every note at least Sloppy — and Perfected needs one point under 90% of the maximum, so most notes have to be spot on. The lesson screen shows both targets.

4. Only the songs below can be practised. Song of Silence, Alchemical Resonance, Lakedew Lily Song and Tangleknot Remover are always played by hand at full cost and never appear on the quick-cast button.

Where to get each song

1. Roughly in the order you’re likely to get them:
2. Song of Tilling and Chant of the Woodcutters — Dean Clary teaches both in the “Campus Career” tutorial when you become the gardener: Tilling for plots, then Woodcutters for dead trees.
3. Melody of Stones — Professor Linnea in your first music class (either answer about your job works). Linnea also explains the practice rooms at the back of the classroom.
4. Sandcastle Jingle — talk to Fern on the beach at the Seaflower Festival. Fern learned it from a grandmother, teaches it to you and points out a sand pile to try it on.
5. Fish Trap Refrain — during “Mel’s Journey”, Mel needs a Potion of Healing for a jellyfish sting. Hand it over and you get the song.
6. Rain Dance — in “The Tool Thief”, Linden asks you to hide in the rosebush by the house after 21:00 to catch the thief. When you find out the Gobbling Bluebells are sick, brew and deliver a Munchitis Treatment.
7. Song of Earth — free Codrin in “Fairy Ring” (you need 5 Chamomile, a Potion of Befuddlement and an Iron Bar). Codrin teaches you the song and asks you to seal the ring so nobody else gets caught; use it on the other rings too.
8. Restoration Round, Desolation Dirge and Whirlwind Aria all come from the Ancient Shrines. The Anthropologist gives you Restoration Round and asks you to repair the other shrines — on the beach, in the mountains, in Nocturne Forest, on the cliffs and in the lake inside the Ochre Woods. Gary the Silencer turns up asking you to destroy them; agree and you get Desolation Dirge. Whirlwind Aria is the reward for restoring them: repair at least three of the five and go back to the Anthropologist on the moor, who teaches you the harvest spell in honour of the Witch of Harvest. Destroy three or more and you don’t get it. You can say yes to Gary as well and still keep Desolation Dirge (see Collectibles).
9. Hymn of Sea’s Abyss — in “Lighthouse Keeper”, bring Azara 4 Spring Tuber and 4 Rhubarb, then come back with a boat. Azara teaches you the song and asks you to play it at the deepest part of the sea, south of the Shell: a sea temple rises out of the water.
10. Song of Silence — when the mill is cursed with Cacophony (“The Cursed Mill”), the gremlin responsible sends you to the Temple of Silence in the mountains. To get an owl’s chalice back inside you need a Sunray Salmon; the Silencer then hands over the song, grudgingly. Play it at the mill to lift the curse.
11. Alchemical Resonance — buy it from the Alchemist (the one trying to turn pinecones into gold) for 300 Gold Petals. You need it for the moonstone riddle in “Ghost Treasure” (“when silver fades to gold”).
12. Lakedew Lily Song — from “The Briny Bathhouse”. After Acorn shows you the serpent egg, Chicory sends you to Gwen for Lakedew Lily seeds. Gwen says the song comes from birds on an island to the south: sail there and listen to learn it, then go back to Acorn and play it to grow the lily.
13. Song of Awakening — during the library study session for the Winter Practical, read the Leafkin Book. You learn the song and the Leafkin potion recipe together; the exam has you visit the island’s Leafkin, and this song wakes them up for a chat.
14. Tangleknot Remover — in “The Secret Key”, Nettleine’s toad friend helps fix the music box. When it plays you learn the song; play it by the Tangleknot wall to reach the heart of Nocturne Forest, which leads to the Harp of Six.
15. Festival Song — Professor Linnea hands it out in the first Summer music class. The class plays it at the Summer Music Festival, which goes on your calendar then. Practise before the big day.
16. Band Practice — Antoine gives it to you at the first rehearsal in Mary’s dorm room (“Antoine and the Band”). Practise before the first concert at the Old Amphitheatre.
17. Clary’s Challenge — Dean Clary covers a music class in Autumn and presents one of the most complex spells there is, leaving the scrolls in the practice rooms — the only place it can be played. At 143 notes it’s by far the hardest lesson. Perfect it and talk to Clary for the Technical Challenge Trophy, a statue for your garden.
18. Harp of Six — learned during the Harp of Six finale. Gather six witches willing to help, find the harp with Zinnia and meet at the Green Sprites Headquarters. When the group reaches the harp the song is added to your spellbook and you play it together to heal the Tree of Six and Nocturne Forest. Afterwards you can practise it for its two stars.