Scholar’s Wormstone is an Ability Tarstone you earn by defeating Sir Isaac, the Scholar-Prince, the boss at the end of the Faded Citadel — equip it to your primary weapon and it sets a chainsaw spinning that adds bonus damage to every attack while steadily draining Resolve.
Scholar’s Wormstone is one of the standout single-target DPS options in the Ability Tarstone pool, and it turns your main weapon into a grinding chainsaw that chews through anything you connect with. The catch is that it feeds on Resolve the whole time it’s spinning, so it’s a stone you switch on for a fight and manage carefully rather than leave running. Here’s where it drops, exactly what the chainsaw does, and how to push it to its highest damage tier.
What Scholar’s Wormstone is at a glance
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tarstone type | Ability |
| Compatible slot | Primary Weapon |
| Source | Defeat Sir Isaac, the Scholar-Prince (Faded Citadel) |
| Core effect | Chainsaw spin that augments every attack and drains Resolve |
Key Before you go hunting for it, this is the short version — an Ability-type Tarstone that slots into your primary weapon and comes from a single end-of-gate boss.
Reaching Sir Isaac to claim the Wormstone
Scholar’s Wormstone isn’t a chest pickup — it’s the reward for clearing the boss chain at the far end of the Faded Citadel. The route runs through a sanctum, a beacon checkpoint, and a room full of servants before you reach the boss himself. One thing worth stating plainly up front: the Servants of the Scholar-Prince you fight along the way do not drop the Wormstone. Only Sir Isaac does — the servants hand over Gloom and nothing else.
Enter the Faded Citadel
Go in through the Faded Citadel gate, sometimes reached via the southern Corrupt Gate path.
Push through the Ashen Sanctum
Fight your way forward until you reach the next checkpoint.
Clear the Citadel Atrium Beacon
Light this beacon — it’s your last checkpoint before the boss chain, so rest here.
Clear the Servant’s Hall
Fight the Servants of the Scholar-Prince and extinguish the blue lights so the pack can actually be killed.
Defeat Sir Isaac, the Scholar-Prince
Beat the boss to receive Scholar’s Wormstone x1 plus a large Gloom payout of around 54,254.
How the chainsaw effect works in combat
| Level | Chainsaw spin damage |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | 15% of weapon base damage |
| Level 2 | 25% of weapon base damage |
| Level 3 | 35% of weapon base damage |
Once equipped, holding your primary weapon out sets the chainsaw spinning at full speed, and while it’s running every attack you land is augmented with bonus damage. That bonus scales as the stone levels up, climbing from 15% of your weapon’s base damage per spin to a maximum of 35% when it’s fully upgraded — which is why it’s a favorite pairing for high-damage weapons like the Clockwork Scythe.
The tradeoff is the thing to respect. The chainsaw consumes Resolve continuously the entire time it’s active, not just when you swing, so leaving it spinning between engagements will quietly starve you of the Resolve you’d want for other abilities. Flick it on for the hits that matter and let it stop when you’re repositioning.
Upgrading the Wormstone at the Tarforge
Leveling Scholar’s Wormstone up to that 35% tier runs through the Tarforge at Marrow Keep, and it has a prerequisite that’s easy to walk straight past. You need the Etching Needle, a quest item that expands Franz’s upgrade options — and its bone chest sits just off the path on the way to a much bigger fight.
Grab the Etching Needle bone chest before you fight Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods — it’s tucked off the main route and easy to run past, and without it Franz can’t expand the Tarforge to upgrade your Tarstones at all.
Loot the Etching Needle
It’s in a bone chest right before the Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods fight — when you see Ruk past the bridge, drop down the opening and turn right before the tunnel to reach a small section with the chest.
Give the Etching Needle to Franz
Hand it over at Marrow Keep to expand the Tarforge’s upgrade options.
Equip the Wormstone and farm kills
Slot the stone in and slay enemies to build its experience — a stone has to gain experience before it can be upgraded.
Spend coins to level it up
Once the experience is there, pay the coin cost at the Tarforge to push it to the next damage tier.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do the Servants of the Scholar-Prince drop Scholar’s Wormstone?
No. The Servants of the Scholar-Prince in the Servant’s Hall only give Gloom — roughly 1,579 for the pack — and some older reward lists that credited them with the Wormstone were simply miscopied. The stone drops exclusively from Sir Isaac, the Scholar-Prince, so don’t stop at the servants and assume you’ve missed it.
Can you still upgrade the Wormstone if you’ve already beaten Magdalena?
The Etching Needle chest sits right before the Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods fight, and it’s off the beaten path, so the safe play is to grab it on that run rather than pushing into the boss without it. Because the needle is what unlocks the Tarforge’s Tarstone upgrades through Franz, treat it as a must-grab on the way to Magdalena rather than something you can casually circle back for.
How many upgrade levels does Scholar’s Wormstone have?
What’s consistent across the board is the damage scaling — 15% → 25% → 35% of your weapon’s base damage per spin, topping out at 35% fully upgraded. Where guides differ is how the levels are counted: some list three damage tiers, while one entry frames it as four UI levels by counting the initial “activate the chainsaw” text as Level 1 and the 15/25/35% steps as Levels 2–4. Either way, the endpoint is the same 35% per spin.
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