Chapter
The difficulty curve
The Story Bible's outline already brings spells in tier order: mirrored, then parallel, then asymmetric, then composites across the sides. This roadmap keeps that order and grades the spells inside each tier, so every act asks something new of the hands.
| Act | Tier it teaches | What is new for the hands | Spells | Longest breath needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prologue | Mirrored, simple | One hard stop in sync (Repel), or one unbroken mirrored curve (Coil) | Repel, Coil | 700 ms |
| Act 1 | Mirrored, two parts | Two hard stops in a row (Brace); a curve joined to straight sides (Mend) | Brace, Mend | 650 ms |
| Act 2, Long Road | Parallel | Both thumbs moving the same way, which no mirror shows. Gale has one corner, Drift none, Tailwind one, Squall two. | Gale, Drift, Tailwind, Squall | 700 ms |
| Act 2, faction visits and the midpoint | Mirrored, harder | Two corners joined by a diagonal (Tally, Weigh); long arches and waves (Wither, Root); tiny strokes drawn slowly at 12 mm (the Still Choir) | Tally, Weigh, Wither, Root, Hush, Calm, Echo, Listen | 900 ms |
| Act 2, Lanternfall and the Shardfield | Asymmetric, first | A curve on one thumb against a square or a line on the other | Facet Seal, Table Mend | 850 ms |
| Act 2, threading | Composite, first | Keeping both thumbs down from one spell into the next | Headwind first, then Tempest, Bulwark, Thornshield, Wellspring | 1,275 ms |
| Act 3, Corran and the Hour Stair | Mirrored loops; asymmetric, hard | Loops and spirals in sync (the Keepers); a triangle against a line (Bevel Lash, usually whole by now); corners on both thumbs at different moments (Prism Snare); three corners on one thumb against a circle or line on the other (Girdle Gate, Crown Surge); crossing diagonals against a wave (Pavilion Wake) | Bevel Lash, Recall, Toll, Linger, Hasten, Prism Snare, Girdle Gate, Crown Surge, Pavilion Wake | 1,000 ms |
| Act 3, climax | Composite across the sides | A long cross-side thread under pressure | Thaw, plus Blight, Rebound, Deep Cut (Knell is on hold) | 1,445 ms |
| Act 4 | Composite mastery | Long threads in a two-phase fight, with no new base spells | The First Pair | 1,190 ms (the Act 3 threads still reach 1,445 ms) |
Hasten adds 40% to the breath window for 12 s. Keeper Hale teaches it at the Hour Stair before the hour trial, on the main path (on the fallen road it is a stolen fragment from the Undermere fence instead), so every player has it before the longest threads: Thaw at 1,360 ms at the Unstilling, Deep Cut at 1,445 ms. That lets the Act 3 threads be cast before breath has grown much with level and gear.
The main path needs only these: Repel and Coil (Prologue); Gale and Headwind (Act 2, the caravan defence); Facet Seal (Act 2, the glass storm); Hasten (Act 3, before the hour trial); Pavilion Wake and Thaw (Act 3, the Unstilling). Thaw is Repel into Pavilion Wake, so every player can cast it: Repel can never be sealed. Brace and Mend (Act 1) are optional but strongly recommended for the Sallow Wyrm; at the Unstilling it is Aske who casts Brace, not the player. Linger is found on the climb up the Hour Stair, and the hour trial is built around it. Act 4 adds no spell: the First Pair shows in the Pane at dawn to every player, who learns it if they know Brace and Facet Seal. It counts double in the hold, but any cross-side thread will do. Every other spell comes from an optional chapter or a side quest. The optional spells make fights easier but never gate the story.
Letter order. Act 2 lets the player deliver either letter first. If Lanternfall came before the Long Road, the player would meet asymmetric spells before parallel ones. The roadmap assumes the Long Road caravan is how the player travels from Halfway to whichever court they choose, so Gale is always learned first (open question 1).