Briars of Punishment

Costs 50 HP for the confirmed cast. This is separate from its FP cost and self-inflicted blood-loss buildup. Healing modifiers do not reduce this HP cost. A chained cast needs its own confirmed casting event.

FP cost9

Memory slots1

Requires21Fai

Location View reference values Browse Spells

Reference values

Type: Sorcery
FP cost: 9
Memory slots: 1
Stamina cost: 22
Damage types: magic
Requires: 21Fai
Spell school: Thorn sorceries

Effects

Adds 25 blood-loss buildup to you once per confirmed cast, separately from the spell's HP and FP costs. Your current bleed meter and Robustness threshold determine whether it triggers hemorrhage. A proc removes 15% of your maximum HP plus 100 HP. Enemy contacts do not charge this casting penalty again.

Technical details

Health Points

activation: once
attribute: Health Points
model: additive
type: negative
value: -50

Bleed Buildup

activation: once
attribute: Bleed Buildup
model: additive
target: self
type: negative
value: 25

In-game description

An aberrant sorcery discovered by exiled criminals.

Theirs are the sorceries most reviled by the academy.

Wounds the caster with thorns of punishment, sending a trail of bloodthorns running over the ground to impale enemies from below.

This sorcery can be cast repeatedly.

The guilty, their eyes gouged by thorns, lived in eternal darkness. There, they discovered the blood star.

Where to find

Corpse by a dead tree near the great stone bridge

Mountaintops of the Giants

Starting Site of Grace: Zamor Ruins

After defeating Morgott, receive the Rold Medallion from Melina and take the Grand Lift of Rold to the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Follow the route north from Zamor Ruins toward the long stone bridge. Before crossing it, search the western cliff edge on the southern approach.
Loot the corpse beside the dead tree among the thorn-wielding enemies for Briars of Punishment.
The corpse lies on the approach side of the bridge, near the three small thorn sorcerers. Collect the glowing item at the dead tree; the spell is not a random drop from those enemies. You do not need to cross toward the distant archer golem for it.

Notes

Requires 21 Faith and one memory slot. Cast it through a glintstone staff, not a sacred seal. It deals magic damage using the casting staff's sorcery scaling, so the attributes that strengthen it depend on that staff.
Every cast or repeated cast costs 9 FP and 50 HP and adds 25 blood loss buildup to you. The immediate HP loss and the risk of filling your own bleed bar both matter during a long chain.
Sends a crawling line of thorns toward the target, then erupts beneath it. It has useful reach and tracking, but the eruption is delayed. An enemy walking toward you can leave the final burst behind.
Each main hit inflicts 72 base blood loss buildup before any casting-staff status scaling. It also deals direct magic damage, so hemorrhage immunity removes the bleed payoff without making the spell deal no damage at all.
You can repeat the cast to keep pressure on a distant target. It is not chargeable and does not gain Godfrey Icon's charged-spell bonus. Leave enough health to survive a return hit instead of counting only the small FP cost.
Staff of the Guilty increases the direct damage by 20%, including when held in your other active hand while a different staff casts. Two copies multiply to 44%. This bonus does not increase blood loss buildup.
Alberich's Pointed Hat, either version of that hat, the unaltered robe and the bracers each give a 6% damage bonus. The trousers and altered robe do not. These are damage bonuses rather than extra bleed buildup.
An Arcane-scaling casting staff, such as Albinauric Staff or Maternal Staff, can increase the spell's blood loss buildup with Arcane. Merely carrying one in your other hand does not lend that status scaling to a spell cast through a different staff.