Conan Exiles Sorcery — How to Start, All 29 Spells & the Tome of Kurak

🔮

How sorcery works

Getting it. Sorcery isn't bought with Knowledge Points — you find a book. The Tome of Kurak sits in Shaleback Hollow (Exiled Lands) or the Cave of Kurak (Isle of Siptah). Pick it up and you immediately get the Arcane Staff plus two starter spells, Ice Bridge and Reveal Corruption.
Casting. The Arcane Staff has to be equipped or nothing fires. The Dec-2025 rework sped up the cast animations, so you spend far less time rooted and exposed mid-spell.
Reagents. Since the rework, tier-1 spells cost nothing to cast — the early game no longer punishes you for experimenting. Higher spells still burn Sorcerous reagents, and upgrading the Tome always needs Sorcerous Spell Pages (they drop from NPC sorcerers).
The Tome of Kurak. You grow your power by upgrading the Tome 15 times at a Thaumaturgy Bench — each step costs Spell Pages + materials and teaches new spells. The full path and its ingredients are below.
Corruption is the price. Every cast raises Corruption, which eats a chunk of your max Health and Stamina until you cleanse it. Lean on it too hard and you're a glass cannon.
Cleanse it (fastest first): a Heart of a Hero wipes all of it instantly · a Dancer/Entertainer thrall drains it passively while you're near (higher tiers cleanse faster) · a Cleansing Brew clears a chunk on demand · Champion's Leggings trickle it off while worn.
Permanent corruption is different. Soul-draining rituals leave permanent corruption that ignores dancers, brews, even a Heart of a Hero — the only thing that clears it is an attribute reset (Potion of Bestial Memory). Don't confuse the two.
Sacrificial Blood. The fuel for the dark stuff: knock out a human, drag them to a Sacrificial Stone, and a Blood Rite bottles their blood (now 3 per ritual since the rework) for summons and upgrades.
Three kinds of follower. Undead — Raise Dead reanimates a corpse at a Shallow Grave (around the 8th Tome upgrade). Demons — Abyssal Call summons a bound demon at a Circle of Power, plus rideable Abyssal mounts. Golems — learned from Master Carver Huang and built at the Guardian Assembly Station; uniquely, golems cost zero corruption.
What the rework changed (Dec 2025). Faster casts, free tier-1 spells, a quicker Tome ladder, triple Blood Rite output, and new summoning rituals (It That Hunts, the Avatar of Bokrug) cast from a Circle of Power. If you bounced off old sorcery for being slow and clunky, it's worth another look.

✨

Every spell (Words of Power)

All 29 spells by type, each tagged with the Tome of Kurak upgrade that unlocks it (or Starter if it comes with the book). Search to filter.

Offense & control

Spell	Effect	Unlocks
Blood Rite	A Sacrificial Stone ritual on a knocked-out, bound captive that drains their blood into Sacrificial Blood (bottled). Used to upgrade the Tome of Kurak, craft Sorcerous Pages, and feed higher rituals. The Dec 2025 rework bumped output to 3 bottles per action (up from 1).	Tome #1
Soul Drain	A Sacrificial Stone ritual on a captive that pulls the soul from their body to produce Soul Essence, used for Tome of Kurak upgrades and advanced crafting such as the Elixir of Rebirth. Note: this is the source of permanent corruption, which behaves differently from ordinary corruption.	Tome #1
Wall of Fire	Erupts a wall of molten rock/lava from the ground to block a path. Uncertain: multiple player reports say it was nerfed from a damage spell to mostly a heat/temperature effect (the magma reportedly still burns on contact). Whether it deals meaningful contact fire damage or blocks projectiles in the current Enhanced era is not confirmed by an authoritative source. Treat the damage behavior as low confidence.	Tome #4
Creeping Darkness	Fills roughly an 80m area with magical darkness and spider-webs that conceal you and badly slow enemies who walk through the webs. Lasts about a minute and is heavily weakened by bright light sources.	Tome #5
Mass Cull	Harvests resources from every valid node in a large radius around you at once. Area-of-effect gathering.	Tome #6
Call of Nergal	Summons a demonic bat that lifts you into the air and lets you glide a long distance under directional control, spending an energy bar to stay aloft and ascend. Effectively the game's flight / long-distance traversal spell.	Tome #11
Lightning Storm	Calls a storm of destructive lightning in roughly a 40m radius around you (about 1-4 random strikes every ~6 seconds, ~2-minute duration), dealing area damage to creatures and objects caught in it.	Tome #14

Summoning & followers

Spell	Effect	Unlocks
Abyssal Mount (Horse)	Summons a rideable demonic Abyssal Steed (horse) — a corrupted mount with no real-world stable cost.	Tome #3
Abyssal Mount (Rhino)	Summons a rideable demonic Abyssal Rhino — a heavier corrupted mount.	Tome #3
Summon Corpse	Recalls your own most-recent death corpse, loot included, to your Circle of Power, so you can recover your gear without trekking back to where you died.	Tome #7
Call of the Dead	Blankets roughly an 80m radius in dense fog and raises a horde of weak (~100 HP) zombies that wander until they spot an enemy, then attack. Lasts about three minutes; the horde starts dying off around the two-minute mark.	Tome #8
Raise Dead	A ritual at a placed Shallow Grave that reanimates a corpse into a permanent undead follower (a Resurrected Corpse) that fights for you like a thrall. Unlocked after roughly 8 Tome upgrades; undead spawn at level 20 with 3 perks, attributes reflecting the original corpse.	Tome #8
Summon Avatar of Bokrug	Summons the giant lizard-god Avatar of Bokrug at a Circle of Power as a pure destructive force. It is hostile to you, attacks with tail sweep, stomp, and a fireball-like spell, shatters the casting Circle of Power, and damages nearby structures. Drops a Molten Heart on death.	Tome #10
Abyssal Call	Summons a temporary bound demon pet at the Circle of Power (around Tome of Kurak level ~11) that fights for you, levels up fast from kills, and extends its own timer via kills (the Insatiable mechanic) before eventually going berserk and vanishing. Costs human flesh, demon's blood, and a flask of Sacrificial Blood.	Tome #11
Abyssal Bow	Summons a demonic agility bow at the Circle of Power that conjures its own abyssal arrows after each shot (effectively infinite ammo). Inflicts heavy corruption in use and runs on the Insatiable kill-to-extend decay timer (60-minute cap).	Tome #12
Abyssal Maul	Summons a demonic two-handed strength maul at the Circle of Power with very high damage, strong armor penetration, and a Sunder effect. Inflicts corruption and uses the Insatiable kill-to-extend decay timer (60-minute cap).	Tome #12
Abyssal Armor	Summons a full set of demonic armor at the Circle of Power with high protection and stat bonuses but heavy corruption. Runs on the Insatiable decay timer (60-minute cap) that you extend by killing enemies, stronger kills add more time, and it decays away when the timer runs out. The 'cannot be unequipped' detail fits the conjured-set design but isn't independently re-verified; treat it as lower confidence.	Tome #13
Summon It That Hunts	A resource-fetching summon, NOT a combat pet. Summoned at the Circle of Power, then sent on a real-time-gated hunting ritual via an offering (e.g. an Obsidian Gem). It returns later (reports of up to ~2 hours) bearing rare materials, notably ingredients for Potent Sorcerous Lifeblood. Skip the offering and it vanishes after ~5 minutes.	Tome #13

Utility & movement

Spell	Effect	Unlocks
Ice Bridge	Conjures a temporary bridge of ice extending from you to span chasms and gaps. One of the two starter spells you get from picking up the Tome.	Starter
Embed Wisp	Conjures a firefly/wisp that casts light at a targeted location. A stationary light source you can place at range.	Tome #1
Imbue Wisp	Conjures a firefly/wisp that lights the area around you and follows you as you move.	Tome #1
Slow Fall	Wraps you in an aura of air that slows your descent and cancels fall damage, so any drop is survivable (60-second duration). Also boosts jump height/distance and grants +30 carry capacity while active.	Tome #2
Detect Resources	A toggle that makes nearby uncommon and rare resource nodes/ores glow through terrain so deposits are easy to spot. Also grants Careful Harvest, doubling your chance for special harvest materials while active.	Tome #6
Invisibility Self	Turns you invisible to NPCs, who lose aggro and can't see you. The effect breaks when you attack or get too close to an enemy, and other players still see a faint glassy, translucent figure, especially while moving.	Tome #9
Mirror Mark	Spawns a temporary illusory clone of you that draws and distracts enemy aggro.	Tome #9
Elixir of Rebirth	Unlocks a craftable elixir (made at the Alchemy Bench, available after upgrading the Tome of Kurak ten times) that, placed in a follower's inventory and used, re-rolls ALL of that follower's existing perks. No effect on a follower that hasn't earned any perks yet.	Tome #10
Transportory Stone	Unlocks the Transportory Stone build piece (a late Basic-Sorcery unlock). Place and ignite a network of stones at least 25m apart (regardless of owner) and fast-travel between any two connected, activated stones on the server. Each trip adds corruption scaled to the distance; the Dec 2025 rework reportedly shortened that debuff to ~10s with much less corruption (re-verify).	Tome #15

Corruption

Spell	Effect	Unlocks
Reveal Corruption	Highlights nearby corrupted objects, creatures, and players for a duration (~5 minutes, or until you put the staff away). A drumming cue plays when you face the direction of a corrupted target. Sometimes labeled 'Detect Corruption' in-game; same spell. The other starter spell from the Tome.	Starter
Conceal Corruption	Masks your own visible corruption so other players can't read how powerful a sorcerer you are.	Tome #9

📖

Tome of Kurak — the 15 upgrades

Each upgrade is crafted at the Thaumaturgy Bench (every step also needs 1 Tome of Kurak + 1 Sorcerous Spell Page, not repeated below) and teaches new Words of Power.

📖 Full upgrade path & ingredients

Upgrade	Teaches	Ingredients
#1	Blood Rite, Soul Drain, Embed Wisp, Imbue Wisp	1× Stone, 1× Putrid Meat
#2	Slow Fall	1× Feral Flesh, 5× Feather
#3	Abyssal Mount (Horse), Abyssal Mount (Rhino)	1× Savoury Flesh, 10× Glowing Goop
#4	Wall of Fire	1× Human Flesh, 5× Volatile Gland
#5	Creeping Darkness	5× Blood, 20× Brimstone
#6	Mass Cull, Detect Resources	10× Blood, 15× Alchemical Base
#7	Summon Corpse	15× Blood, 10× Purple Lotus Powder
#8	Call of the Dead, Raise Dead	20× Blood, 30× Bonemeal
#9	Mirror Mark, Invisibility Self, Conceal Corruption	10× Demon Blood, 15× Weathered Skull
#10	Elixir of Rebirth, Summon Avatar of Bokrug	15× Demon Blood, 5× Soul Essence
#11	Call of Nergal, Abyssal Call	20× Demon Blood, 5× Sacrificial Blood in a Flask
#12	Abyssal Bow, Abyssal Maul	30× Demon Blood, 5× Dragonhorn
#13	Abyssal Armor, Summon It That Hunts	20× Black Blood, 10× Dragonpowder
#14	Lightning Storm	30× Black Blood, 2× Fragment of Power
#15	Transportory Stone	50× Black Blood, 100× Witchfire Powder

🔗

More Conan Exiles on GamesOMG

Conan Exiles Knowledge (Feats) — Basic Sorcery, the Thaumaturgy Bench and golem feats live in the feat tree, with their KP costs.
Conan Exiles Religions — sacrificial blood, corruption and the gods sit right alongside sorcery.
Conan Exiles Thralls — dancers/entertainers cleanse the Corruption sorcery piles on.
Conan Exiles Server Config Generator — tune your server, build a config from toggles.

Conan Exiles Sorcery FAQ

Where do I actually start sorcery in Conan Exiles?

Go to Shaleback Hollow in the Exiled Lands, or the Cave of Kurak on the Isle of Siptah. There's a sorcery chamber with a single bench holding the Tome of Kurak. Pick it up and you immediately get the Arcane Staff plus your first two spells, Ice Bridge and Reveal Corruption. No quest, no boss, just grab the book.

Do spells cost reagents to cast now?

Tier-1 spells are free to cast since the December 2025 rework, so the early game no longer punishes you for experimenting. Higher-tier spells still burn Sorcerous reagents. Separately, upgrading the Tome of Kurak always costs Sorcerous Spell Pages (dropped by NPC Sorcerers or made at benches) plus other materials, that's the real resource sink, not casting.

How bad is corruption, and what's the fastest way to clear it?

Every cast you make raises corruption, which shaves off your max Health and Stamina (normal corruption caps the loss around half; Tainted goes far higher). To clear it, fastest first: Heart of a Hero wipes all of it instantly, a dancing Entertainer thrall drains it steadily while you stand nearby, a Cleansing Brew removes a chunk on demand, and Champion's Leggings nibble ~1 point every 30 seconds passively. Pick the method that matches how fast you need to be back in fighting shape.

Why won't some of my corruption cleanse away?

Because it isn't normal corruption. Permanent corruption comes from Soul Essence and heavy sorcery investment, and it ignores dancers, brews, and Heart of a Hero entirely. The only way to remove it is to reset your attributes, e.g. with a Potion of Bestial Memory. If a chunk of your corruption bar simply won't budge, that's why, you're looking at the permanent kind.

What kinds of followers can sorcery give me?

Three separate systems. Undead: Raise Dead at a Shallow Grave turns an unconscious thrall's corpse into a permanent zombie follower (unlocks around 8 Tome upgrades). Demons: Abyssal Call summons a bound demon pet at a Circle of Power using human flesh, demon's blood, and a flask of Sacrificial Blood; you can also conjure Abyssal Mounts. Golems: built from parts via the Golem Constructor (learned from Master Carver Huang) and crucially raise no corruption at all, the clean-hands option if you want muscle without the bill.

Is the December 2025 rework worth coming back for?

If you bounced off old sorcery for being slow and clunky, yes. Casts are faster so you're not rooted in place getting hit, tier-1 spells are free, the Tome of Kurak ladder progresses quicker, and Blood Rite now bottles 3 Sacrificial Blood per sacrifice instead of 1. There are also new summoning rituals like It That Hunts and the destructive Avatar of Bokrug. A couple of the finer numbers (the 'Patch 2.16' label, the shorter Transportory Stone corruption penalty) are still worth confirming in-game, but the headline changes are solid.