Olden Era skills, creature abilities and spells explained

Identify who owns the effect

A skill belongs to a hero's progression, a creature ability belongs to that creature's rules or actions, and a spell belongs to the magic a hero casts. Similar wording does not make them interchangeable. A bonus to spells should not be applied to creature abilities unless the effect explicitly supports that interaction.

Use the hero skill catalog for levels and branches, the creature ability reference for creature effects, and the spell catalog for schools, mana and effect variants.

A skill and its subskill are separate choices

The official Hooded Horse Skills page describes Basic, Advanced and Expert progression and subskill choices. Read the core skill separately from the selected subskill: a list of possible branches does not mean that your hero has every branch active.

For example, the Arcane Magic record inspected on September 8, 2026 includes a subskill that reduces mana costs. That is a separate selection, not a reason to reduce costs for every hero with Basic Arcane Magic. Check the exact requirement in the subskill reference.

Check the resource and availability

For a spell, check mana and whether the hero has access to it. For an activated creature ability, check its own conditions and Focus; do not treat a passive trait as a separate button you must activate. The official Spellcasting and Focus pages explain these different resources.

Build a short chain before the fight: user → valid target → resource → availability. If one link is unknown, your planned combination is still a hypothesis. Do not generalize one action's restriction to every other ability or school.

Read an effect in five passes

• Target: one creature, a stack, all allies or a hero. The word 'all' changes the scope, while creature-type restrictions may exclude your intended target.
• Magnitude: a flat amount, a percentage, a reduction or a replacement value. Do not automatically add percentages together; the calculation order needs its own verification.
• Condition: a magic school, another skill, an attack, a stack's death or terrain. Leave the bonus out of your calculation until the condition is met.
• Timing: rounds, uses per battle, cooldown or a daily restriction. How long an effect lasts and when you can use it again are separate properties.
• Level: compare a specific variant. Combining the strongest phrases from every level produces an effect that may not exist.

Test one clear interaction

Choose one effect, one target and consistent conditions. Write the expected change in plain language, such as 'selecting this subskill should reduce the mana cost'. Compare the game display before and after the selection. If it differs, check the level, active modifiers and exclusions before treating an unexpected number as a bug.

The Unnatural Calm record, checked on September 8, 2026, separates level variants from duration scaling with Spell Power. The example demonstrates why the whole level entry matters; it does not establish a formula for every spell.

This guide explains how to interpret records. After balance changes, check disputed effects against your current game and Unfrozen's official news. A wiki record's date is not a substitute for the game version.