Below is an Allomancy chart of the metals used throughout Brandon Ssanderson’s Mistborn series.
| Metal Name | Alloy | Type | Push or Pull | Misting User | Allomancy | Feruchemy | Hemalurgy |
| Iron | Steel | Physical | Pull | Lurcher | Pulls on nearby metals | Stores physical weight | Steals strength |
| Steel | Iron | Physical | Push | Coinshot | Pushes on nearby metals | Stores physical speed | Steals physical allomancy |
| Tin | Pewter | Physcial | Pull | Tineye | Increases senses | Stores senses | Steals senses |
| Pewter | Tin | Physical | Push | Thug or Pewterarm | Increases physical abilities | Stores physical strength | Steals physical feruchemy |
| Zinc | Brass | Mental | Pull | Rioter | Riots emotions | Stores mental speed | Steals emotional fortitude |
| Brass | Zinc | Mental | Push | Soother | Soothes emotions | Stores warmth | Steals cognitive feruchemy |
| Copper | Bronze | Mental | Pull | Smoker | Hides allomantic pulses | Stores memories | Steals mental fortitude |
| Bronze | Copper | Mental | Push | Seeker | Reveals allomantic pulses | Stores wakefulness | Steals mental allomancy |
| Atium | Malatium | Time-Affecting | Pull | See other people’s futures | Stores age | Steals any power | |
| Malatium | Atium | Time-Affecting | Push | See other people’s pasts | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Gold | Electrum | Time-Affecting | Pull | See your own past | Stores health | Steals hybrid feruchemy | |
| Electrum | Gold | Time-Affecting | Push | See your own future | Unknown | Steals enhancement allomancy | |
| Aluminum | Duralumin | Enhancing | Push | Destroys allomantic reserves | Stores identity | Removes all powers | |
| Duralumin | Aluminum | Enhancing | Push | Enhances next metal burned | Stores connection | Steals connection & identity |
Allomancy Basics
Allomantic Metals
Allomancy is the practice of swallowing certain metals, which allows a Misting or Mistborn to draw on those powers later. The power surges through the users body, allowing them to enhance physical, mental, or spatial abilities.
The more pure the metals the allomancer uses, the more effective they are. Alloys (like pewter) are tricky, because the metal percentages have to be mixed exactly right if you want maximum power. If the metal percentages are slightly off, you can still get some power out of it, although they’re not as efficient. If the percentages are really far off, you can get sick from burning the metals.
There are two metals for every power – one that Pushes, and one that Pulls. The second is usually an alloy of the first. You don’t have to have two metals to make an alloy, however, just one metal and something else – for example, steel comes from iron and carbon.
Mistborn
A Mistborn is someone who can perform Allomancy using two or more metals.
Ministry doctrine claims that the Mistborn are descendants of the only men who remained true to the Lord Ruler during the days before his ascension. Other legends say they are something beyond Lord Ruler’s power, born on the day when the mists first came upon the land.
Mistborn identities are closely guarded house secrets, and rumors regarding who is Mistborn are always a focus of high noble gossip.
Vin originally thinks the title “Mistborn” had come about because Allomancers tended to do their work at night. However, there is a stronger connection with the name:
“Mist reacts to Allomancy. It swirls when an Allomancer uses his abilities nearby. And…what did I feel at the end? It was like I drew something from the mists” (1.637).
Misting
A Misting is someone who can only perform Allomancy using only one of the eight basic metals. Sometimes these abilities appear in Skaa, but solely if that skaa has noble blood in his or her near ancestry. The better, and closer, the noble ancestry, the more likely a skaa is to be a Misting. You would typically only find one Misting in ten thousand mixed-bred skaa.
Snapping
Allomantics have latent powers at first. They only come out after some traumatic event. Something intense, something almost deadly. According to Kelsier, “the philosophers say that a man can’t command the metals until he has seen death and rejected it” (1.286).
Burning
When you activate an Allomantic ability, you ‘burn’ the metal associated with that power.
It’s best to burn away any unused metals you have inside you before you sleep for the night. Some of the metals can be poisonous if digested – it’s best not to sleep with them in your stomach.
Flaring
Flaring allomantic metals just means that you burn them more more powerfully, but it makes the metals run out that much faster. It is difficult to maintain, but it can give you an extra boost when you’re in a pinch.
Perpetually flaring metals is dangerous, and it does strange things to people. Metals like tin and pewter stretch your body. Flaring these metals pushes this stretching even further, and if you stretch it for too long, things start to break inside of you.
For example, Spook flares Tin for so long that his senses become extremely sensitive, to the point that he has to wear a blindfold and earmuffs to sleep because the noise and light are too much for him.
The Difference Between Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy
Allomancy is the practice of drawing powers from metals. Feruchemy is the practice of using metals to draw power from your own body. And Hemalurgy means using metals to draw power from someone else’s body.
Mistborn Metals Explained
Iron
Burning iron points blue lines out at all kinds of metals, assuming they are close enough and large enough to be noticeable to the user. The blue lines are only visible to the allomancer, and the size and brightness of these lines depends on the size and proximity of the metal source.
All types of metals are shown, not just sources of iron. The allomancer can then mentally yank on one of these lines to Pull that source of metal towards them.
A Misting who can burn iron is known as a Lurcher.
Steel
Like iron, Steel can give you the ability to see and manipulate the metals around you. A person burning Steel can see translucent blue lines pointing to sources of metal, just like iron. However, Steel gives you the ability to Push other metals away from yourself, while Iron gives you the ability to Pull on them.
Burning Steel is a trick that many Mistings or Mistborn can use to fly. The Allomancy user will usually drop steel coins on the ground and push off of them to leap into the sky, continuing this process to bounce along, covering far distances in short time.
Typically, the user will use clips to steel-jump, which are the smallest denomination of a coin. It is useful because of how small the cost of them are, despite giving them the ability to jump as needed. When pushing to essentially fly with steel, it’s best to have a tripod of anchors (coins) to Push yourself off from. You can do fine with a single anchor, but it is more difficult to balance.
You can use your own weight when you steelpush, which gives you a sort of force-like telekinetic power. If the object is heavier than you are, either you will be pulled toward the object or it will be pulled toward you. If you and the object’s weight are both similar, you will both move.
Knowing how much or how little you will move when you burn Steel or Iron will give you a major advantage over your opponents. They are the most versatile of metals in terms of giving its users abilities.
A Misting who can burn Steel is known as a Coinshot. Both Kelsier and Vin are skilled in burning Steel and Iron in the Mistborn series.
Tin
A person burning tin gains enhanced senses. They can see farther and smell more keenly, and their senses of touch and hearing become far more acute. This has the side effect of letting them pierce the mists, allowing them to see much further at night than even their enhanced senses should let them. It is the slowest burning of all mistborn metals.
A Misting who can burn Tin is known as a Tineye. Notable Tineyes in the Mistborn series are Spook and Straff Venture.
Pewter
A person burning pewter enhances the physical attributes of their body. They become stronger, more durable, and more dexterous. It also ehances the body’s sense of balance and the ability to recover from wounds. It can also make you react more quickly when burning it, and it can even help you avoid intoxication. Furthermore, it helps the body make new blood, and it can help you pierece the mists, too.
However, there is a downside to burning too much pewter. Once the user is done burning it, it can make them feel fatigued, in a phenomen known as pewter drag. It is also typically best to vary your pewter burning when doing it. If you use more strength then you need, you could knock yourself off balance.
Even though Pewter enhances your physical abilities, it does not enhance your innate skills, which is a mistake that many Thug pewter burners make, as they don’t train the skills they need to because they are already so strong.
Finally, Pewter is the fastest burning of the eight basic allomantic metals (the first eight metals in the table above). Allomantic Pewter is made up of 91% tin and 9% lead. Other Pewters are tin mixed with lead and perhaps some copper or silver.
One who burns Pewter is called a Thug or a Pewterarm. Ham is a skilled “Thug” in the Mistborn series.
Zinc
A person burning Zinc can Riot another person’s emotions, enflaming them and making particular emotions more powerful. It does not let one read minds or even emotions, however.
A Misting who burns Zinc is known as a Rioter.
Brass
A person bruning brass can Soothe another person’s emotions, dampening them and making particular emotions less powerful.
A careful Allomancer can Soothe away all emotions but a single one, essentially making a person feel exactly as they wish. Brass, however, does not let that Allomancer read minds or even emotions.
A Misting who burns Brass is known as a Soother. In the original Mistborn series, Breeze is a highly skilled Soother.
Copper
Copper is the companion metal (alloy) to bronze. When you burn it, it hides your use of allomancy from other allomancers. It can hide you from Inquisitors, and is therefore important for the characters to keep it on them during the story.
Copper’s influence occurs in a bubble around you, called a coppercloud, which hides anyone inside of it from the senses of a Seeker (someone who is burning Bronze to find out if there are allomancers nearby). Vin, however, has the ability to pierce copper clouds, allowing her to detect nearby allomancers who are trying to disguise themselves from other Seekers.
As a side effect, people burning copper are themselves immune to any form of emotional Allomancy (Soothing or Rioting). It is also the only metal that doesn’t produce an immediate effect on its user, as it doesn’t have an obvious sensory clue to its purpose.
A Misting who burns copper is known as a Smoker. Clubs, for example, is a skilled Smoker in the Mistborn series.
Bronze
Bronze is the internal Pushing metal. It allows you to sense when someone else is using allomancy nearby.
When burned, each allomantic metal gives off a distinct signal, recognizable to one who is well practiced with Bronze. These signals come in the form of “Allomantic pulses,” something like drumbeats that are audible only to a person burning bronze.
The skilled Seeker (a Misting who burns Bronze), can distinguish between these different pulse lengths. For example, internal metals, like bronze and copper, give off longer pulses than external metals, like iron and steel.
With care and practice, you can learn to recognize minute changes in your opponents’ Allomantic burnings, being able to identify precisely which parts of a person’s emotions a Soother or Rioter intends to influence. You can also tell when someone is flaring their metals.
Burning bronze is an ability commonly used by the Steel Inquisitors to detect Mistings and Mistborn allomancers.
A Misting who burns Bronze is known as a Seeker. In the Mistborn novels, Marsh is a skilled Seeker.
Atium
Atium is a strange metal formerly produced in the Pits of Hathsin. It collected inside small geodes that formed in crystalline pockets in caves beneath the ground. A person burning atium can see moments into the future, represented by shadows moving ahead of people and objects.
“While you’re burning atium…nothing can surprise you. You can swing a dagger, knowing confidently that your enemies will run right into it. You can dodge attacks with ease because you’ll be able to see where every blow will fall. Atium makes you quite nearly invincible. It enhances your miind, making you able to make use of all the new information” (1.242).
The only way to defeat someone who is burning Atium is to burn it yourself – that way, neither of you has an advantage. When two people are both burning it, rather than showing up as a single, futuristic shadow like everyone else, they show up as multiple shadows to the other person burning atium.
Atium is used as a currency in the Mistborn world because of how rare it is, and it is typically only used by the wealthy nobles. If people didn’t burn it, it wouldn’t be worth the fortune that it’s worth; by burning it, people also make the more rare and therefore more valuable.
In the beginning of the series, Atium is the tenth and most powerful of the known Allomantic metals.
Malatium
Malatium is the rumored Eleventh metal, an alloy of atium. It was discovered by Kelsier, and nobody knows where he found it or why thought it might defeat the Lord Ruler. Even the Lord Ruler had known about it, but was just as baffled as everyone else as to its purpose.
However, we learn that a person burning Malatium can see a past version of others, or possibly an alternate version of them had their past gone differently. It leads Vin to a necessary clue that allows her to defeat the Lord Ruler at the end of The Final Empire.
Gold
Gold is a complement to Atium. While Atium lets you see, marginally, into the future, gold gives you a glimpse of another version of yourself, if things had been different in the past.
Electrum
Electrum creates a cloud of images around the user, the shadows of possible things the user could do in the future. It is the Allomantic complement of gold, and is often referred to as “poor man’s Atium.” It allows the Allomancer to counteract the effects of a foe burning Atium.
Aluminum
Once known only to the Steel Inquisitors, this metal, when burned, depletes all of an Allomancer’s other metal reserves.
For the longest time, no one had been able to figure out the proper Allomantic alloy of Aluminum. However, Vin later finds out the Duralumin is its alloy.
Duralumin
Duralumin is the allomantic alloy of aluminum with four percent copper. If an Allomancer burns duralumin, the next metal (or metals) they burn will be given explosive power, at the cost of burning away all at once every bit of that metal inside the Allomancer.
For example, when Vin burns Duralumin as she is chasing the Watcher in The Well of Ascension, it has an intensifying effect on her Tin, which makes her senses extremely sensitive, as she burns it all at once:
“She moaned, trying to make sense of the sound. It wasn’t one explosion, but many explosions. A ryhthmic thudding, like a drum pounding beside her. Her heartbeat. And the breeze, loud as a howling wind. The scratchings of a dog searching for food. Someone snoring in their sleep. It was as if her hearing had been magnified a hundred times” (2.87).
