Spell popularity

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

0.28 Tournament Spell Usage Table

This table below is a compilation of spell usage by all winning characters in the 0.28 Tournament.

• Spell Name - The name of the spell. It may be truncated, due to the formatting of the morgue files.
• Total Count - The number of times the spell was cast.
• Early, Mid and Late count - The number of times the spell was used by characters with XL1-XL9, XL10-XL18, XL19-XL27.
• Total Games - The number of games the spell was used in.
• Of the 1157 winning characters, only 739 of them casted any spells.

Spell Name	Total Count	Early Count	Mid Count	Late Count	Total Games	Early Game	Midgame	Late Game
Agony	948	2	657	289	12	1	12	6
Airstrike	52274	1038	31717	19519	62	20	57	53
Alistair's Intoxication	286	0	65	221	11	0	10	8
Anguish	3754	65	2636	1053	34	4	27	26
Animate Armour	1886	5	635	1246	29	2	18	25
Animate Dead	1191	4	684	503	26	1	21	22
Animate Skeleton	1214	87	704	423	26	13	19	10
Apportation	12052	61	1318	10673	263	7	80	249
Beastly Appendage	1304	996	289	19	34	28	15	8
Blade Hands	2251	0	1626	625	19	0	17	12
Blink	4493	174	1354	2965	263	37	141	247
Borgnjor's Revivification	23	0	0	23	11	0	0	11
Borgnjor's Vile Clutch	88202	0	29234	58968	217	0	125	215
Call Canine Familiar	10812	2711	7408	693	73	64	72	36
Call Imp	5056	3027	1877	152	78	72	58	11
Cause Fear	561	8	362	191	37	2	32	24
Chain Lightning	29034	0	0	29034	55	0	0	55
Confusing Touch	15896	841	9482	5573	56	38	51	32
Conjure Ball Lightning	3432	0	412	3020	31	0	13	30
Conjure Flame	1354	141	962	251	53	28	45	14
Corpse Rot	167	12	98	57	19	6	15	6
Dazzling Flash	2195	87	1612	496	51	15	41	20
Death Channel	4228	0	997	3231	45	0	24	41
Death's Door	199	0	0	199	26	0	0	26
Discord	1730	0	46	1684	28	0	2	28
Disjunction	458	0	0	458	17	0	0	17
Dispel Undead	8059	57	952	7050	82	5	32	80
Dispersal	807	0	305	502	37	0	18	34
Dragon Form	6482	0	1583	4899	52	0	20	49
Dragon's Call	2065	0	143	1922	30	0	4	30
Enfeeble	10291	0	1547	8744	63	0	23	61
Ensorcelled Hibernation	19587	2527	13245	3815	63	35	57	35
Eringya's Noxious Bog	2707	0	1064	1643	34	0	21	31
Excruciating Wounds	150	0	104	46	6	0	2	5
Fire Storm	39291	0	421	38870	80	0	5	79
Fireball	36704	9	19662	17033	78	2	64	73
Flame Wave	3125	96	2521	508	50	19	48	24
Foxfire	31875	11221	18455	2199	68	62	58	27
Freeze	10290	6061	3966	263	75	72	57	11
Freezing Cloud	28474	0	16801	11673	129	0	102	121
Frozen Ramparts	17611	2744	11455	3412	111	80	107	65
Fulminant Prism	16594	1103	13217	2274	88	49	84	51
Gell's Gravitas	2205	24	1549	632	13	5	10	10
Hailstorm	18299	491	11827	5981	71	28	67	54
Haunt	5956	0	219	5737	40	0	7	39
Ice Form	1644	203	1352	89	23	11	22	6
Ignite Poison	18652	150	9536	8966	80	12	64	66
Ignition	41181	0	714	40467	124	0	19	124
Infestation	2657	0	27	2630	35	0	2	35
Inner Flame	8062	278	5599	2185	54	19	49	29
Iron Shot	156441	0	31271	125170	219	0	131	217
Irradiate	59126	6	17031	42089	280	1	183	277
Iskenderun's Battlesphere	4086	0	2759	1327	36	0	31	22
Iskenderun's Mystic Blast	26594	726	15545	10323	97	39	85	85
Leda's Liquefaction	123	2	50	71	10	1	8	9
Lee's Rapid Deconstruction	43713	32	14072	29609	162	3	105	156
Lehudib's Crystal Spear	27418	0	117	27301	127	0	7	126
Lesser Beckoning	2602	0	216	2386	28	0	12	28
Lightning Bolt	10795	0	5462	5333	40	0	34	34
Magic Dart	48386	19966	22228	6192	116	110	90	42
Malign Gateway	2731	0	332	2399	47	0	10	47
Manifold Assault	45204	0	7535	37669	77	0	34	75
Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling	6693	0	213	6480	82	0	8	82
Mephitic Cloud	9161	745	6308	2108	130	62	116	81
Metabolic Englaciation	1153	0	681	472	18	0	14	17
Monstrous Menagerie	5138	0	2036	3102	28	0	10	28
Necromutation	12393	0	0	12393	70	0	0	70
Olgreb's Toxic Radiance	29816	581	17944	11291	101	31	92	86
Orb of Destruction	37558	0	6385	31173	132	0	66	129
Ozocubu's Armour	9810	1271	6107	2432	96	58	84	68
Ozocubu's Refrigeration	75752	0	18571	57181	120	0	65	119
Pain	6302	3083	3080	139	26	25	17	6
Passage of Golubria	6618	6	579	6033	142	1	24	138
Passwall	7006	117	2155	4734	225	23	114	205
Petrify	9891	179	6526	3186	74	22	65	40
Poisonous Vapours	26761	4306	15591	6864	77	54	70	41
Polar Vortex	15261	0	130	15131	100	0	5	100
Portal Projectile	384	1	54	329	26	1	11	20
Sandblast	21927	8348	12119	1460	97	93	83	28
Scorch	49490	13525	30536	5429	120	108	112	52
Searing Ray	13426	4799	8161	466	96	86	89	26
Shatter	71941	0	632	71309	136	0	5	136
Shock	13174	7309	4889	976	41	39	29	10
Silence	1035	0	187	848	47	0	15	43
Simulacrum	724	0	271	453	24	0	14	20
Slow	2065	901	1146	18	47	40	34	7
Spellforged Servitor	10348	0	803	9545	77	0	20	77
Spider Form	585	341	242	2	18	17	12	2
Starburst	28917	0	9862	19055	86	0	65	83
Static Discharge	6286	1538	4022	726	48	40	38	19
Statue Form	28764	0	6098	22666	165	0	87	165
Sticky Flame	5058	66	3643	1349	56	10	52	32
Sting	7661	5061	2394	206	40	37	35	4
Stone Arrow	99429	6892	76683	15854	149	96	144	99
Storm Form	8115	0	1739	6376	55	0	28	51
Sublimation of Blood	18230	1	3205	15024	61	1	28	60
Summon Cactus Giant	6700	2	3583	3115	47	2	37	43
Summon Forest	5246	3	2610	2633	49	1	39	45
Summon Guardian Golem	6831	999	5125	707	63	51	62	26
Summon Horrible Things	2574	0	75	2499	31	0	4	31
Summon Hydra	9770	0	2277	7493	36	0	16	35
Summon Ice Beast	3440	30	2853	557	37	7	35	25
Summon Lightning Spire	18676	615	14340	3721	86	42	79	73
Summon Mana Viper	10030	9	5773	4248	81	2	56	77
Summon Small Mammal	4310	3769	519	22	68	64	38	9
Swiftness	620	15	206	399	64	10	33	51
Teleport Other	423	30	383	10	16	4	16	5
Tukima's Dance	3951	332	2366	1253	51	27	45	15
Vampiric Draining	14375	921	10191	3263	44	29	38	26
Wereblood	6818	253	2065	4500	100	19	47	92
Yara's Violent Unravelling	6550	0	1598	4952	111	0	55	106

Methodology

The 0.28 Tournament had 1160 winning games by 357 players. Due to a server being down, only 1157 morgue files were used to gather these statistics. Of the 1157 games available, 418 games were played without a single spell being cast. Statistics were gathered both for the number of times a spell was cast and the number of games the spell was cast in. A further breakdown into early, middle and late game usage is provided to see how starting spells held up and which spells were sought after.

Casting vs. Non-Casting

A tournament with specific goals can skew the use of spells in a game. Speedruns, aiming for time, will most likely ignore all forms of spellcasting. Meanwhile, those going for a high score would want to pick spells which are near game-breaking. So, for comparison, here are some statistics on the 0.28 Tournament results.

Stat	Casting	Non-Casting
Games Played	739	418
Average Time	5:56:16	3:57:26
Average Turns	92501	74901
Minimum Time	0:42:40	0:27:44
Minimum Turns	8492*	10553
Maximum Time	54:38:58*	13:48:34
Maximum Turns	507290	200314*

There were some extreme min/max results for single games. These are indicated by an * in the table. The second place values are mentioned here:

• The minimum turn count for a game with casting was 8492. However, the second shortest turn count in this category was 14875.
• The maximum time for a game with casting was 196858s (about 54.5 hours). However, the second longest game took only 83560s (about 23 hours).
• The maximum turns for a game without casting was 200314. However, the second longest turn count was 151422.

Notable Results

• All 111 available user spells were used in at least six games.
• 36% (418/1157) of the winning characters did not use any spells, and only 72 games played with the Berserker background. Data seems to suggest that melee only characters are able to compete against spellcasters or hybrid builds. However, this ignores the higher prevalence of real-time speedruns, and the viability / games of those only casting low level utilities.
• Of the 10 most frequent spells, 6 were at least partially Earth Magic, and 3 were Translocations. Shatter and Crystal Spear trail behind at 11th and 15th, respectively.
  • Irradiate was a dark horse -- it was cast in the most winning games. It also took the number one spot for the most popular mid-game and late-game spells. The runner-ups were Apportation, Blink, and Passwall - all low level, Translocation(-like) spells which are more broadly useful.
• In total casts, Iron Shot was used 50% more than the runner-up (Stone Arrow). Both are pretty simple spells that deal damage with no resistances. You need to cast these spells multiple times to kill each monster.
  • Specifically, the most cast spell in the early game was Magic Dart, in the mid game it was Stone Arrow, and in the late game it was Iron Shot.
• The worst ranking spells are Necromancy:
  • Excruciating Wounds appears in the least amount of games. Possible causes are the unpopularity of 3-rune Necromancy outside of Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, that most Necromancers are taking Kiku's pain blessing anyway, its tedious means of recasting, a natural aversion to melee as a caster, and the inability to be used by Djinn.
  • Borgnjor's Revivification was the least used spell, with less than 1/5th the casts of any other spell. It's too expensive to realistically use in a 3-rune game, which is used intentionally sparingly due to its permanent max HP cost, that is also impossible to use under Necromutation and forbidden by common extended gods The Shining One and Zin.
• Of the spells introduced in 0.28, Scorch appeared the most, and Anguish appeared the least. It's noteworthy that Scorch appears in 2 distinct starting backgrounds.
• Of level 1 spells available with a background, Animate Skeleton was cast in the early game the least. Of all spells that you can start with, Ice Form appeared the least (followed by Pain and both Animate spells).

History

• 0.14: [1]
• 0.11: [2]