Note spells
The note spells are found in 2 different locations, alongside the Kantele and the Huilu (aka Ocarina).
Notes can be used:
- as part of an attack spell combination (with modifiers to add damage and lifetime),
- to perform a Musical Curiosity (see below),
- to unlock a Crystal Key,
- or just to add sounds to your casts!
Using Notes as attack spells
Note spells are exceptional damage dealers as they deal damage every frame (1 second = 60 frames) with innate player-safe piercing. Its low cost of only 1 mana allows you to easily multiply your damage by multicasting several notes. However, their lifetime is only two frames and they do not deal any damage by default. Adding modifiers to negate these downsides can turn Note spells into some of the most powerful spells in Noita.
Notes are in the "Other" class of spells which means they cannot be used as a trigger. However, Add Trigger spells can still be used in certain ways to transfer free modifier spells by using multicasts (see: Add Trigger#Copying modifiers onto spells of type Other). They also do not scale with Boomerang Spells or Concentrated Spells perks; however, they do gain the damage benefit if paired with normal projectiles. Note: make sure not to accidentally trigger any Musical Curiosities.
Damage
Because a note spell does not have any type of damage, adding damage dealing modifiers is required. Note that most damage modifiers add projectile damage; to diversify, substitute another damage type modifier (e.g. Electric Charge or Freeze Charge). Because of its similar mana costs, a note spell can be easily swapped for a Chainsaw or Digging Bolt to switch to drill or slice damage.
Bloodlust can add a significant amount of damage for a low amount of mana. Because naturally the notes expire within 2 frames, without any lifetime modifiers it is completely safe to use Bloodlust as friendly fire will only enable after 5 frames. Please note that certain perks, like Bouncing Spells, will increase the lifetime of all projectiles and therefore make this unsafe.
Though not the best use of notes, this is a very cheap way to deal high damage at only 3 mana per cast. Notes will not go beyond melee range due to their extremely short lifetime. Adding a simple trigger or timer spell like Spark Bolt with Trigger is necessary to make this wand useful, but this is just to illustrate that you can get huge damage for only 3 mana.
The low mana cost of Bloodlust and note spells allow you to cast all 10 kantele note spells in a single payload, plus a chainsaw to remove cast delay, for a total of only 28 mana, which is entirely negated by a single Add Mana. This low-mana build is excellent for using the Kantele to damage; 10 projectiles doing 33 damage each at an incredibly high rate makes this a wand an incredible build for even late-game; despite only using materials found early-mid game. If you're not using the Kantele/Huilu, the Add Mana is optional and should be placed inside the trigger payload to avoid the cast delay.
Lifetime
Adding lifetime will have a significant impact on your damage due to the high tick rate. Orbiting Arc, Spiral Arc, Phasing Arc, and Ping-Pong Path are useful for adding lifetime without costing any mana. Homing modifiers can help keep the projectile on top of the target, helping you get the most out of its extremely high tick rate. The cast delay from Notes can be reduced by firing them as a payload from a trigger/timer spell or simply pairing them with a Chainsaw. Adding lifetime, especially combined with homing, will cause such a huge increase in damage that you'll be able to instantly kill the Holy Mountain statues, which have 30000
.
This wand, though not ideal, shows all the different building blocks you can use to achieve high damage with note spells: damage, lifetime, and homing; and then multiplies that damage with a multicast. Note that each element, aside from multicasts, relies on the previous: Lifetime adds no value without damage, and homing adds no value without lifetime.
Ideal modifiers
The best modifiers for note spell damage are Spiral Arc and Orbiting Arc; they provide both damage and lifetime at 0 mana cost, and are both fairly common, low-tier spells. Ping-Pong Path or Horizontal Path are also good choices that cost 0 mana, but these only add lifetime or damage, rather than both. Phasing Arc is less useful despite also being free and adding lifetime, as the modification to its path will prevent it from hitting the target as often; which defeats the purpose of adding lifetime (though not entirely useless as it can be good for damaging larger groups of enemies). Heavy Shot is also a great option as it adds a lot of damage (even more than Bloodlust), for only 7 mana; while its major downside, slowing the projectile, is irrelevant for spells cast from a trigger payload or with homing modifiers. However, be careful as it adds a lot of recoil. Since even a basic note wand will instantly kill almost any enemy in Noita, the extra damage is usually not necessary and more than likely not worth the risk the recoil will add.
All of the aforementioned spells are incredibly cheap, which together with the low mana cost of note spells make it easy to rapid-fire while using low-mana wands.
Gallery
Musical Curiosity
To activate a Musical Curiosity, a combination of the note spells must be played in a specific order.
It is not required to play the spells with their original instruments; the spells slotted into any wand will work just as well. Notes need to expire 24 pixels or closer to your feet.
Upon completing one of the tunes, you will receive the message:
The world around you changes!
3 musical spells are known to exist, and each of them can be used once per world ( entering NG+ does not reset them). Attempting to activate them again will show the message:
Seems like the musical energy is gone...
Spells
The 3 spells are:
- Summon Worm
- Spawns a Giant Worm near the caster.
KANTELE
Shuffle
Spells/Cast
Cast delay
Rechrg. Time
Mana max
Mana chg. Spd
Capacity
Spread
Speed
HUILU
Shuffle Spells/Cast Cast delay Rechrg. Time Mana max Mana chg. Spd Capacity Spread Speed
- Summon Portal
- Creates a one-way portal above the caster, which leads to the peak of the Mountain near the starting area. This is the only bug free way to create a portal in an arbitrary location, although it's not possible to change the destination of the portal and only one can be created.
KANTELE
Shuffle Spells/Cast Cast delay Rechrg. Time Mana max Mana chg. Spd Capacity Spread Speed
HUILU
Shuffle Spells/Cast Cast delay Rechrg. Time Mana max Mana chg. Spd Capacity Spread Speed
- Summon Bomb
HUILU
Shuffle Spells/Cast Cast delay Rechrg. Time Mana max Mana chg. Spd Capacity Spread Speed
Secrets
In addition to the three musical spells, there is a fourth musical curiosity that involves a combination of Kantele and Huilu songs to be used. See the Crystal Key page for details.
Hints
Hints toward these melodies can be found in the world:
- In the horizontal portion of the tunnel that connect the Snowy Depths to the Lava Lake, there is a mural for one of the melodies:
History
- Dec 19 2019: Added Ocarina note spells.
