With more than a hundred spells to learn across Forspoken, there are plenty of attacks and buffs to choose from when trying to understand how best to spend magic points. However, while there are plenty of impressive spells that go a long way toward adding depth to Forspoken's magic combat, there are a handful of spells that don't quite match up to the competition.
Thanks to the massive number of available magic in Forspoken, this list will be separating each across their rankings without going too in-depth on any specific spell. Additionally, there are a number of movement spells, such as Zip or Float, which can just take an honorary S-ranking for how they improve traversal and become a necessary part of the tool kit for exploration as the game progresses. There are also another 32 spells choices that are just higher levels of the charged R2s and Surge Magic, meaning they shouldn't be counted separately.
F-Tier: Displacement, Suppression, Sublimation, Compensation, Inundation, Ablution
These spells make up the worst pieces of magic in Frey's toolkit. The majority of these spells are buffs or cures that can remove debuffs. While strengthening Frey for a moment or removing harmful status effects might sound alright, none of these effects last long enough to warrant swapping out to them and casting during most fights. Outside of Forspoken's toughest boss fights, there is rarely any reason to bother with the majority of these buffs.
The majority of these spells also come from Forspoken's Olas Magic list, with many of her deceptive illusions being less than impressive on normal enemies than they are on Frey. This is a bit of a trend for a lot of the magic from the worst spells available in Forspoken. However, while Olas' buffs aren't the best available, her other spells do have a bigger impact on the game.
D-Tier: Leach, Beacon, Fusillade, Legion, Distortion, Brume
Upgrading from useless to middling, these spells are very similar to the previous ones by being mostly cures or buffs themselves. However, Fusillade, Legion, and Brume all stand out among this group for being poor examples of Frey's abilities without being related to increasing specific attributes. Instead, these three could have easily been much more valuable if the actual effect was more useful during Forspoken's more difficult encounters.
In the case of Fusillade and Legion, specifically, the extra attacks and helpers that they summon should be a much larger boon by taking aggro from enemies or dealing extra damage. The only problem is that the delay between when Fusillade is able to attack means that it might only strike one or two times before disappearing. Similarly, the flaming Breakzombies summoned by Legion rarely attack on their own, and they only take occasional opportunities to actually attack any of Forspoken's plentiful enemies.
C-Tier: Tempest, Cluster Bolt, Shield Shot
This is an odd bunch of abilities, as they are certainly more useful than anything in the previous ones, but due to some lackluster utility, none of these quite reach the heights of the most useful spells in Frey's toolkit. Most notable is the Tempest spell, Olas' Surge Magic, which is mostly dropped down from the others of its type due to a massive lack of range. Considering that these types of spells tend to leave Frey's defenses down while casting, needing to be so close to enemies means that casting Tempest is the riskiest Surge Magic available.
Looking at Cluster Bolt and Shield Shot, these two spells have their own issues when it comes to the timing required to actually be able to damage enemies. Additionally, Shield Shot could be more impressive if Forspoken didn't often throw enemies at Frey from all sides, making a spell that only guards the front of the character less useful than it initially appears. Still, all three of these attacks are perfectly suited to kill groups of enemies as long as the player takes care to keep an eye on their positioning and make wise use of Forspoken's combat and movement.
B-Tier: Dart, Seeker Dart, Cataract, Alb, Maelstrom, Aggression, Projection, Rage Slice, Scatter Shot, Bind, Screen
These spells are all forms of magic that could easily fit into any fight, but likely won't be the flagship attacks for most players. Again, Olas is a standout here, as her basic attack Dart and the charged Seeker Dart both end up in this category. While it can't be denied how important Dart is to Olas' other attacks, her basic attack is the only one among Forspoken's Tantas that isn't able to stand on its own without the addition of the charged R2 attacks.
Another notable inclusion in B-Tier is Cataract, which is Prav's Surge Magic, standing above the Tempest, but still not quite hitting as hard as Sila or Frey's own special attacks. Aside from these notable spells, the rest are all mildly good at dealing with enemies and could easily become any particular player's favorite. However, none are the most efficient spells to cast when trying to end any of Forspoken's boss fights quickly.
A-Tier: Compulsion, Storm Dart, Eagre, Prime, Tendril, SLice, Blast Slice, Bombardier, Crucible, Charge, Firetrap, Conflagration, Fan Bolt, Oubliette
It's no surprise that a large portion of the great spells comes as a reward from completing Forspoken's 5th Chapter and earning Sila's signature magic. As the Tanta of War, it makes complete sense that most of Sila's magic would be some of the best to use in combat, relying heavily on melee combat and keeping Frey in aggressively close quarters to her enemies. So, against any enemy that isn't specifically resistant to Sila's magic, players can't really go wrong with the majority of her attacks if they're looking for intense, flashy combat.
Of course, a handful of other spells stand out from the other lists of magic, including Eagre, which is easily one of the most powerful pieces of crowd control available in Forspoken. The ability to push a whole group of enemies away from Frey is an invaluable tool when hounded by a hoard of Nightmares or Breakzombies. Additionally, the damage and control given with the styles of combat in these A-Tier spells can make improving the player's Forspoken battle ranking a breeze.
S-Tier: Shot, Burst Shot, Disperse, Genesis, Burrow, Arc Slice, Pulse Dart, Chain Bolt, Up and Away, Cut and Run, Drag and Drop, Hide and Seek
It is certainly surprising that a number of the spells from the opening of Forspoken are some of the strongest attacks that can be cast throughout the game. However, the standout of Frey's Magic might actually be Disperse, a simple spell that summons a friendly flower who shoots oncoming enemies. Combined with Burrow, which allows players to auto pickup loot at a distance, Frey's Magic becomes the best class of spells available.
On top of the class-specific magic from Frey's own list, each set of skills earned from the formidable Tantas of Forspoken comes with its own unique way to tie movement directly into combat. These include attacks like Cut and Run, which allow players to attack with powerful magic before quickly backing away from enemies. All four have their own impressive aspects, and each also acts as one of the better ways to quickly switch between combat styles.
Forspoken is available for PC and PS5.