I think I prefer that they just sort of wove poolbound into other stuff, although I have to think about it more.
I do not like having to sit on piles of skill points for mana, but it’s not easily fixed (e.g. I’m not wild about having a skill for it and then just dumping points into it for half the game either; I think perhaps another mechanic might be preferable).
FWIW the 1.07 patch (which slightly reduced gem damage from 1.06, but left it higher than <1.06) has made the game a touch easier in ways I can’t easily describe. I haven’t tried either yet, but O1 and N1 were giving me fits because I could get to the last few waves and it was like running along an incline and suddenly there’s a sheer rock wall facing you. I was experiencing the same thing on T4, and I had seen a version of this previously but nothing quite so dramatic.
Post 1.07 I beat T4 and O or N 1 (can’t recall which). Not easily, but it was suddenly just doable at the end.
Great question, I have not been able to find the answer. Surely it’s something wrong in the wording. Maybe it means “initial mana and also xp gain” but IDK.
I’m really digging this, partly because it’s nice to start over from the beginning. GemCraft can get so intricate that when you come back after being away for so long, it’s like trying to get back into an MMO. I guess I’m thinking of this as rolling up a new character.
So what’s actually new? I know the puzzle screen is new, but what about the actual tower defense stuff? Lanterns are new, right? Are all the gems just direct imports from the last game?
I haven’t really noticed anything being different in the actual levels, except now you just just put a gem at the top of the incoming waves meter thingy instead of having to bomb it. That is a very nice change. I assume you don’t still have to bomb it at least, I haven’t tried.
Edit: If anyone cars, they added all 636 achievements to Steam.
The change to bombing waves, as @LeeAbe noted (it’s a nice change, IMO)
The Red gem changed, it’s not chain anymore. It causes subsequent hits to do more damage. Other gems might have changed. Orange (mana leech), Blue (slow), Purple (shred), Yellow (crit), and Green (poison) have not. I haven’t seen anything else.
It’s honestly more moving mechanics around here and there than anything else. You start capped on endurance waves, but any time you beat an endurance on a map you get +5 max endurance waves (I’m up to like 50). I think some of the traits are new but I may be mistaken. Although some might really just be reworked slightly and renamed.
There are skills for each type of gem structure and also each enhancement skill. Was that in the previous? I can barely remember.
Lanterns are proving to be a lot of fun. Some of the maps let you do some nice chains around them, and combined with traps you can do some serious damage. The more I play the more I like it. Except trials, I still don’t like those.
I’m just not doing them. I find them interesting at first, but then just frustrating. I know I am missing important stuff, but I have enough mana that I can beat most journey and endurance levels.
I have been referring to this to avoid chasing trials that don’t yield anything worthwhile. One think I do like is that you can select a trial (or an endurance map) and see if there’s a stash waiting in the little graphic. If a trial lacks a stash, I just ignore it at this point. If it has a stash, I check to see if it’s something I need before proceeding.
I had no idea, thanks for the info. Or that I have anywhere near enough of them with symbols yet. I have mostly been trying to get all the pieces shapes collected.
I regret the ones I’ve junked now as I’m sure some had symbols. I have the center 3x3 grid unlocked. Just two runs of 3 identical shapes out of a possible 9 and I have +34% initial mana and let me tell you it’s been a nice bump. I don’t think the “send early” mana is as helpful right now as I’m still not at a point where I can do anything crazy in terms of setting up an xp farm, but eventually it would be massive. So now I’m looking to boost initial mana more and pushing for more key unlocks.
FWIW when you match a row/column there’s a little decoration on the outside of the puzzle area that lights up. But it’s very subtle.
Every trial seems to grant a skill point bonus now (+5 skill points, not amazing but cool none the less).
Played with xp numbers heavily on some traits.
I never got to experience the joys of the swarmling parasite trait, which was apparently way too strong at first. I suspect, but have no basis for this beyond my own observations, that one of the things they did to make the game easier was to make waves abit easier to a certain point. I say this because after a few patches I noticed the game got easier but I’ve progressed farther that I’m hitting significant difficulty bumps again. I at least have better tools at this point, and I have passed some of those bumps.
There are no longer third levels in those cases. I suppose it will make the field tokens look odd in the interim (they’ll all be sitting there with 2/3 dots at most), and the devs will probably do something else in the long term. What, I have no idea.
I’ll tell you something, the fact that you can undo talisman stuff, until you shift out of whatever mode you are in (e.g. add to shape collection, or delete), is super awesome.
I have a number of fields that do not have trials, period. Didn’t count how many. Didn’t start a new game or anything. They just have journey and endurance.
Yes. However doing so is rather involved and also obnoxious (the UI sucks).
Firstly you have to claim shapes for your collection - it’s one of the menu items up at the top. Once you do that, you can switch any shape to another claimed shape of that “type”. The types are inner, corner, edge. You cannot take an inner piece and change the shape to an edge shape. Only to other valid inner shapes you have claimed.
It costs cores, a non trivial amount. And the UI for it is, well. . . not fun to use. FWIW I wouldn’t sweat that much early game. Even with a rarer piece.
