The Magus Circle

The Magus Circle is a survivors-like roguelite where the attack button is your hand: draw arcane sigils on screen to cast spells while a Tide closes in. Between runs, retreat to the Magus Mansion — familiars, potions, upgrades.

A spell or run is blocked? Start here

Playing on 1.1.5: Steam Cloud carries saves across devices, Anima rewards survive crashes or unexpected mid-run exits, and achievements track during the run. Start with save and reward checks. Tablet registering no strokes: disable Microsoft Ink first.

Before you buy

What to do first

1. Fix your input first — tablets: disable Microsoft Ink or strokes won't register (controls).
2. Learn one sigil properly in the slow opening minutes, then weave movement and drawing (beginner guide).
3. Respect mana — cycle cheap shapes and bank mana for surges; the limit stops strongest-spell spam (spells & upgrades).

The three systems that decide a run

• Drawing reliability beats raw spell power — if the recognizer drops your stroke, the best upgrade tree is useless. Angle, speed and FPS are the failure causes players documented.
• Mana ceiling forces rotation across your 20 spells instead of one spammy favorite.
• Mansion progression (familiars, potions, garden, wagers, six mages) is what makes the next run start stronger after you die.

FAQ

Is The Magus Circle like Vampire Survivors? The store calls it a "vampire-survivors, rogue-lite game" — same wave-survival skeleton, but spellcasting is hand-drawn instead of automatic/procedural.

Is there a demo? There was — 216 reviews at 97%, 21,000+ Next Fest players — delisted on launch day. The full game now sits at 88% Very Positive (379 reviews).

Is it stable at launch? Patches now reach 1.1.4: 1.0.5 fixed gesture recognition and Elysia generation, 1.0.6 fixed wrong Assist Mode casts and unreachable chests, 1.1.0 (Oct 7) overhauled spell-vs-enemy physics and added rebindable controls, 1.1.1-1.1.2 (Oct 8-9) restored the missing Tier 2/3 level-up gems and put every unlocked spell and upgrade in the Hub Spellbook, 1.1.3-1.1.4 (Oct 11-15) added revive i-frames, stopped boss attacks during pause and buffed all spell synergies, and 1.1.5 (Oct 20) added Steam Cloud saves plus mid-run achievement tracking. Earlier fixes addressed mana-mote lag and extraction. Full patch log.

How many spells and upgrades? Store: 20 spells, 600 possible upgrades. Developer site: "250+ unique upgrades." Both sourced on the spells page.

Does it have accessibility options? Yes: slow/freeze-time drawing, button-press mode, adjustable difficulty, save anytime — full table on the controls page.