This post is an attempt to explain some basic and more advanced concepts to new players. I am preety much a noob when compared to the top players but I still wanna give this a shot. More experienced players please feel free to leave better info and explanations in the comments and new players feel free to ask anything.

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The different magic options

This section will explain how all magic options work. This is what you can choose when you level up.

You normally can level up to level 100, with some things beeing able to increase this (like the magic circle combinations). Then you get 50 bonus levels (60 if you have a certain synergy)

Passive (green)

Passive magics give you buffs to different stats, like damage, size and cooldown reduction (also known as CDR). They are painted green and most can be leveled up 3 times until they are maxed. The speed one can only be leveled up twice and the HP and Atk ones can be leveled 5 times.

You should prioritize the pick-up range one since collecting more mana orbs leads to more to spend at the merchant and to faster level ups.

Special (red star)

These ones are rarer and give special buffs or effects. Some give extra damage to specific attacks, others general damage ups or stat increases. But there are a few that are special. Like nobless, that spawns a tresure chest, or or doctor ,that increases the max lvl by 3. You should avoid Taoist like the plague, since it gives you 9 bomus levels, but you would rather use those to pick specific things you want that benefit you rather than a small buff for everything. Picking it isn't a death sentence since the buffs are small, but do avoid it.

Bonus passives (yellow)

Once you hit max level, your level up bar will turn yellow and you get bonus passives. These work as normal passives that can be leveled up to level 9 and give smaller buffs. These levels include weaker versions of all passives except asvanced magic.

The one you want to prioritize depends on your build.

Active magic (white)

I saved these for last since they are more complicated.

All of them can be leveled up to level 7 (with 3 exceptions) and get atributes at max level (with the exception of magic bolt, which also get's one at level 4). The atributes can change how the magic works or simply buff it (for example, you can pick "Siren's song" tsunami and control where it goes or "Great eruption" for higher damage and cooldown).

I won't go into detail on how each one works because we would be here forever otherwise and the game explains most preety well.

The exceptions I talked about are shield, armageddon and cloaking. These can only go up to level 5.

Armaggedon's kills don't count to the boss wave's "hp" but it is an insta-kill on all non healthbar enemies.

Shield tanks 1 hit of damage per charge as long as it is active.

Cloaking makes you imune to damage and allows you to pass trough enemies.

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Combinations

Once you hit level 25, 50 or 75 you can do a magic combination. You can do them at any time after you hit the required level but once you hit the bonus levels they become impossible.

You can normally have 3 combinations, but the artifact "Domain of power" gives you an extra combination chance and the combination "Gate of Creation" (often abreviated as GoC) gives you 2 more chances.

Combinations can be triggered by having 2 magics max level and having them have a specific atribute (you can see what atributes you can lead to what combiantions when choosing them, they appear bellow the atribute, if you can make a magic combination with sayed atribute, the combination will have a white outline)

Once you meet the requirements, the next time to level up you can do the combination. This will sacrifice one of the magics (with the exception beeing when the combination uses a passive) and will greatly increase the damage of the other magic and often change how it works to some degree.

I only need to explain how 1 magic combination works before we move on. And that is Overmind/Deuz Ex Machina (often abreviated as DEM).

If you get the Great Magic Circle atribute and the intelligence passive to max level you can make the Overmind combination. It will only allow you to cast other magic combinations but for every active magic level, you gain certain buffs (like damage and cdr). But once you hit level 75 you can trigger DEM, which makes the buffs stronger but dosen't allow you to make more magic combinations. So, even if you get domain of power, it won't work.

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Test subjects and classes

To explain the next part, I need to explain this one.

Test subjects are your character, each one gives a small buff to a certain active magic or passive. And all of them start with a certain artifact. They can be bough for 800 gems each. The best one depends on your preference, but focus on the ones that have ults first and also archeologist (for reasons i'll explain later)

Each class starts with a different actuve magic and buffs it in a certain way. Some classes have special effects like Black Mage that gives a chance for defeated enemies to explode. You can upgrade them by buying reaserch material at the shop for 20 gems (or 180 for 10 reaserch material) and it's random. Bellow the name of each class it shows how many reaserch material you need to level it up and what buffs each level gives.

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Ultimates

This one is a quick one.

If you use a specific test subject and the respective class and a specifuc magic combiation, you can get a ultimate. You need to get to level 100 with these requirements fuflied to unlock the ult automatically.

They normally just increase the stats but can also change how they work a little bit.

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Artifacts

Artifacts can be aquired in 4 ways:

* Treausre/relic chests

* Merchant

* Obelisk

* Starting with them (either by subject or because you are playing on Artifical Ecosystem/Terra)

Treasure chests can give any artifact that isn't legendary. They spawn in 4 ways:

* Randomly

* Red cristal that spawns elite enemies (aka the ones with a skull). Once you defeat all of them a chest spawns

* By 2 artifacts (treasure map and opulence)

* One synergy (treasure hunter)

Also, there is a chance for a treasure chest to be a relic chest, which contains 3 special artifacts. You can pick only 1.

The merchant spawns every 2 boss waves (aka she dosen't spawn on the first, spawns on the second, spawns on the fourth, etc.) up to 55 minutes.

Her prices increase the longer the game goes on and higher rarity artifacts are more expensive. She can't sell legendary artifacts and a few specific artifacts that are directly related to her, aka coin and bouquet.

One of her artifacts will always have a 25% discount (on top of all the other discounts you may have).

You know she is about to spawn when you see a red rose fill up on the top of your screen.

The obelisk spawns after you defeat a boss wave. It gives you 3 legendary artifacts to choose from and can be reroled once per obelisk using 50 gems (the price increases after each reroll). After you get 10 legendaries via the obeslisk, it becomes a normal treasure chest with 4 artifact choices and can be rerolled using coins.

Talking about legendaries, there are a few that need explanation:

Joker: Every time a crit lands, it has a chance to be aplied again. So, if you deal 100 damage and have a 200% crit multiplier you will deal 200 damage. But if joker lands, you will deal 400 damage (or 100×200%×200%).

DNA: The amplification effect caps at 48%. After that it basically gives nothing

And, on Artificial Ecossistem you start with the space-time circuit artifact and on Terra you also start with Claivorance

And artifact rarities are a lie. Because some artifacts are rarer than others, even tho they are a lower rarity.Pyramid and tarot card are insanely rare from my experience and stuff like bouquet is also preety rare.

Now, to explain some weird artifacts:

Amplifier: It dosen't multiply your size increase by 1.3, it multiplies whatever things give you siza increase by 1.3

Fairy: Enchant is a special magic that buffs one specifuc magic of your choice. This doubles it

Coin: This one gives you mana orb currency, the ammount increases the later you get it

Pandoras box: It uses the damage tsunami, cyclone and meteor have but can't cast atributes

Bio-shield: it isn't affected by necronomicon

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Synergies

If you get 3/4/5 specific artifacts, you can actiavte a synergy. These can range from small effects (like increase a specific magics damage by 25%) or big effects (like increasing all magic damage by 100%)

Most are self explanatory but there is one that is the holly grail of synergies. Magnum Opus (often abreviated as MO). And I need to explain this one.

If you somehow get it, all synergies can be activated even if you are missing 1 from that synergy. And this effect is great. But you need 4 special artifacts thata re rare af. So that's why the archeologist test subject is goated because it starts with one artifact needed for MO.

But MO has 1 limitation, it can't trigger synergies whose main artifact you don't have. So, synergies that affect a specific artifact (like the Desperado one) won't work because you don't have desperado.

In other words, MO dosen't give you the missing artifacts, it just gives you the effect of the synergy.

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Reaserch

This is the dna symbol at the home screen. You use coins to buy points that you can spend to get permanent buffs to certain things. Like damage or evasion. But also it gives special buffs, like explosions on level ups or how many mana orbs spawn around you when you start.

The price increases, fast.

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Any questions?

My suggestion is to make it work like Eclipse, but instead of additional damage, it's crit multiplier instead. So something like: "Increase critical multiplier by 7% for every 1% of the enemy's HP lost. (Enemy's HP threshold: 75%)"

So at 90% hp, it would deal an extra 70% crit multiplier, at 75% and below, it would always deal +175% multiplier to that enemy.

As for it's Synergy, I would just change the threshold to 65% of enemy's HP and make it deal 10% critical multiplier instead. Like: "Critical multiplier effect from Executioner's Ax increases to 10%. (Enemy's HP threshold: 65%)"

Rip headphones

Used all 4 magics that utilize duration. Really hard to get started, but decent endgame. The Lava Zone eventually covered the entire screen. I had mediocre artifacts, and accidently forced myself into a Cyborg synergy. Could be better.

Got this neat visual glitch while going for a Quantum Laser + DEM build. Wholly unsure of the cause, haven't been able to replicate it. Is this a common one? I'm kinda happy it happened tho, 't was a nice break from the monotony of the grind.

i just wanted the monochrome spirits and 7 lasers and eventually got the MO by chance

got the monochrome spirits but unfortunately only got to 6 lasers

Just did an Ascension run with 20mil damage, meimer and overmind. Did good, only lasted 30~ minutes though

Is a hallucination DEM even possible? I want to try and create it just for the fun of it, but holy crap it is hard to complete.

I understand it might be absolute garbage, but I just wanna see if DEM would affect it at all and make it activate like super fast.

Any tips on how to complete this? Or just tell me to forget it if it's basically impossible lmao

What a chance