Dawncaster Imbue or Memorize? Keep the Upgrades You Need

If an enchantment disappears from your deck after you pay Bolgar to Imbue it, check your character's Imbues before assuming it was deleted. Imbuing removes the card from your draw deck and gives you its effect from the start of combat. You no longer need to draw and cast that card each fight.

The important catch is upgrades. Current community guidance describes Imbue as using a base copy, and players have reported losing an enchantment’s extra strength when they imbued it. If those upgrades are the reason you want the card, Memorize may be the better purchase: it helps you draw the actual card early, but you still have to play it.

The card examples below use Dawncaster 1.19.005 entries. The upgrade resets are player reports, so treat them as a warning before spending gold, not a promise that every modified card behaves identically.

First, check what you bought

Open your character sheet by tapping your portrait, then look for the Imbues section. If the missing enchantment is listed there, its absence from your deck is expected. This exact situation has confused players who paid the Enchanter and thought their build's key card had vanished.

Keep these three states separate:

A card in your deck is something you must draw and play.
A Memorized card is still a card in your deck. It starts at the top when combat begins.
An imbued enchantment is already active when combat starts. The original card is removed from your deck.

“Permanent” here means carried between fights during that run. It does not mean a permanent unlock for every future character.

If you did not use Imbue, or the effect is not in your Imbues, do not dismiss the disappearance as normal. Check the last event, card transformation or removal effect you used. The explanation above covers an enchantment deliberately imbued, not every possible missing-card problem.

Imbue saves setup; Memorize preserves the card

Imbue is useful when an enchantment's ordinary effect is already good and you want it working without spending a draw or opening-turn energy on it. It also gets that setup card out of the draw deck, leaving more room for the cards you still need to play.

Memorize solves a different problem. It changes the starting position of a card, not its energy cost or effect. The developer describes Memorized as placing the card at the top of your deck at the beginning of combat. It does not cast the card for you.

That distinction matters when your first turn is already crowded. A Memorized enchantment that costs more energy than you can spare may arrive exactly when promised and still fail to help. Plan which card you will play first, what it costs, and what you can do with the remaining energy.

Imbue removes a setup step. Memorize makes the setup card easier to reach. They are not two prices for the same result.

The upgrade trap: compare the base effect before paying

Do not value an Imbue purchase by reading only the upgraded card in your hand or deck. Compare the base card's effect with the version you have built. The community's current beginner reference describes imbuing as creating a base copy, consistent with separate reports of upgraded enchantments reverting to their starting values.

Two useful examples make the trade-off clearer:

Polished Steel: automatic Armor or your upgraded amount?

Polished Steel grants Armor when you activate Equipment. Its base effect starts at 1 Armor, and the card is upgradeable. A player who imbued a +11 copy reported that its extra upgrades did not carry across. The same player said an earlier run had kept the upgrades, so this report alone does not establish a universal rule.

If you built your defense around the upgraded Armor amount, switching to the automatic base effect can be a serious downgrade. Keeping the card and using Memorize lets you set up that upgraded effect by playing it. If you only need the base Armor trigger and want to save setup energy, Imbue can still make sense.

Inevitable End: starting strength matters

Inevitable End inflicts Doom at the start of your turn and increases that amount as the combat continues. Its base starting amount is 1, and it is upgradeable.

Players have reported the starting value returning to 1 after imbuing a heavily upgraded copy.

An automatically active base effect and an upgraded card you cast are therefore different plans. The first gives immediate setup. The second can start from a stronger value once played. Choose the effect your deck needs, rather than treating Imbue as an upgrade to an already upgraded card.

Before spending gold on either card, read the base version as well as your upgraded copy. If the larger number is essential to your build, keeping and playing the card is the safer plan.

A quick way to choose

Ask these questions before selecting the service:

Is the base enchantment strong enough for this deck? If not, keep the upgraded card rather than paying to automate the weaker version.
Can you afford to cast it early? If yes, Memorize may solve the draw problem without giving up the card's upgrades.
Does the opening turn need that energy for something else? If the base effect is enough, Imbue can remove the conflict.
Are you paying to fix a real weakness? An enchantment that does little for your deck is not worth buying just because the service is available.

For an expensive enchantment with a useful base effect, Imbue can be a large improvement. For a cheap, heavily upgraded enchantment, Memorize can preserve more of the work you have already put into the deck. Neither is a universal rule: the deciding factor is the effect you will actually get in combat.

Compare the result first, then the price. A cheaper card to draw and a free-to-start effect solve different problems.

Budget for the next Imbue, not just the first

Bolgar's standard Imbue price begins at 100 gold and rises by 50 after each purchase. That makes the first three purchases cost 100, 150 and 200 gold, for 450 gold in total. Memorize costs 25 gold per card. The escalating Imbue price was introduced in the developer's 1.5.08 notes and remains listed in the Enchanter reference.

Use those totals to rank your purchases. If you have 175 gold and have not bought an Imbue yet, buying one for 100 leaves 75. That can cover a 25-gold Memorize, but not the next 150-gold Imbue. Two desired enchantments do not become affordable just because the first button says 100.

Read the price in the current encounter before committing. These are Bolgar's standard service costs, not a claim that every talent, shrine or card effect that grants an Imbue charges the same amount.

Why didn't my Memorized card arrive first?

Memorized sets a card's position at the start of combat. It is not protection against every later change to the deck. An effect that shuffles your deck can move it away from the top. Players have specifically encountered this when a Terror was shuffled into their deck.

Before assuming Memorize failed, check whether an enemy, a modifier or another effect changed the deck after the starting order was set. Also avoid planning around every Memorized card fitting into one opening hand: adding the keyword to more cards does not give you an unlimited opening draw.

Before leaving the Enchanter

After Imbue, check the Imbues section rather than searching the deck for the removed card.
After Memorize, check the card and remember that its play cost still matters.
If an enchantment was upgraded, compare its base effect before choosing Imbue.
Keep enough gold for the next purchase you actually need.

The safest habit is simple: decide whether you want an automatic base effect or reliable access to the card you have customized. Then buy the service that delivers that result.