This is not an incremental game, it's a tower defense game.

[PeaceShot]

In Gemcraft Chasing Shadows you could beat every map with the same strategy if you had amplifiers, yellow gems and red gems. Every field played the same and you could largely ignore the layout of the maps unless something was blocking your desired spot to place your tower surrounded by 8 Amplifiers. Sure it was a nice feeling to rack the wizard levels up higher and higher and feel more and more powerful. But this game tries to bring back the strategy to the tower defense genre. I'm pretty sure that if you progress far enough into the game you can get that exact same feeling of incremental gameplay Gemcraft:CS had. But I love about this game that it actually requires to think a little bit to solve the trials. It makes me sad that people are spending time complaining about that this game is too hard instead of just trying to think a little bit about how to solve the trials. I already played the first 13 levels including their trial version. Some people say that you have to grind for experience and replay levels over and over to progress in this game. This is simply not true, because I didn't do this and had no problem with the story fields so far. I had to restart sometimes in trial mode but that was mostly when I tried to brute force my way through the level without any strategic planning. It is actually pretty fun for me to be required to think about how to spend my mana best or when to use a gem bomb. Please try to remind yourself what you are loving about tower defense games. If you decide for yourself that you would much rather play an incremental game where you just see numbers rise and get satisfaction of that, then by all means return to play Gemcraft:CS. If you like incremental games but also like to think about strategies and not doing the same thing over and over then please give Gemcraft Frostborn Wrath a chance.

[V38]

Uh, beat V1 first time I tried it, iirc I just built a tower in the bottom-middle area of the map so it was partly on the path with a g3, then another one at the far left, that I put a 2 in. After that I put a couple of towers in the top right and swapped gems around if anyone got past the other ones and slowly upgraded and added a few more to finish.

[Shadolance]

Publicado originalmente por Smeester:

Publicado originalmente por tayzyboy:

Closest was making it to the final wave, with about 20 mobs left, when I ran out of mana. Not had anything spare to bomb the wizard trove though.

Not found the magic solution yet :)

Just sell one of your gems if you're running out of mana during the last few mobs.

[Smeester]

Publicado originalmente por V38:

Uh, beat V1 first time I tried it, iirc I just built a tower in the bottom-middle area of the map so it was partly on the path with a g3, then another one at the far left, that I put a 2 in. After that I put a couple of towers in the top right and swapped gems around if anyone got past the other ones and slowly upgraded and added a few more to finish.

HA! Thanks - just completed it. My dumb mistake was not moving gems, just trying to fill more and more towers. Thanks :)

[Dakre]

I can't get far enough in V1 to upgrade either of my 2x G1 gems into G2, and the few that get through keep me from earning enough mana to upgrade or get a third tower with a third G1. I managed one run where the RNG was great, as i managed enough for a G2, third tower, and a third gem (2x G1, 1x G2) before losing. Tried same placement multiple times, and never managed to get past the 2 towers and 2x G1 gems.

And each run i start with 2 towers + 2x G1 gems placed at different points to see what works the best. each time results in the same thing (except the 1 lucky run?). that's what you call frustration, because i quit after more than 10 tries. I'll likely give it a try later, but right now the demotivation is enough to uninstall and never touch it again.

[Cloud Ring]

Publicado originalmente por Smeester:

Publicado originalmente por tayzyboy:

OK I'm asking for a git good reply here - but V1 trial for example. Only purple gems. I've tried using G2 in towers, one G3 and whatever else I can afford. A trap at the start.. Nothing works so far, and nothing is pointing me in a direction to improve. I know there will be "some" solution, I just need to get into the head of the developer.
I'm getting to the "meh" stage with it now.
Rather than a puzzle, this is feeling more like - "I'm thinking of a specific number -if you guess it you win" type thing.

Seriously though - whats the solution.....

Lol - I've just tried about 30 times.... spamming G1s, a single G3, a bunch o' G2s .... beginning of map, end of map, middle of map...

Closest was making it to the final wave, with about 20 mobs left, when I ran out of mana. Not had anything spare to bomb the wizard trove though.

Not found the magic solution yet :)

The strategy for V1:

1. Note there is a place in the bottom of the map where you can make the path for creeps a bit zigzaggy with three towers. You'll need 3 G2 here. It may appear as if you have no sufficient mana for third G2, but in fact you can.

2. A bit later, add fourth tower close to the end of the path, with fourth G2. Try to minimise creeps going through. It's okay if you miss 1-3 at this stage.

3. You can add fifth tower at the top, but not really necessary. You can survive it with this. Select one tower which you will upgrade to G3. There will be the last wave. As it goes through, bomb it with your G2s like it no tomorrow (obviously AFTER the wave passes through your starting position). The remains will be banished, and killed by your only G3.

[Dakre]

Publicado originalmente por Cloud Ring:

Publicado originalmente por Smeester:

Lol - I've just tried about 30 times.... spamming G1s, a single G3, a bunch o' G2s .... beginning of map, end of map, middle of map...

Closest was making it to the final wave, with about 20 mobs left, when I ran out of mana. Not had anything spare to bomb the wizard trove though.

Not found the magic solution yet :)

The strategy for V1:

1. Note there is a place in the bottom of the map where you can make the path for creeps a bit zigzaggy with three towers. You'll need 3 G2 here. It may appear as if you have no sufficient mana for third G2, but in fact you can.

2. A bit later, add fourth tower close to the end of the path, with fourth G2. Try to minimise creeps going through. It's okay if you miss 1-3 at this stage.

3. You can add fifth tower at the top, but not really necessary. You can survive it with this. Select one tower which you will upgrade to G3. There will be the last wave. As it goes through, bomb it with your G2s like it no tomorrow (obviously AFTER the wave passes through your starting position). The remains will be banished, and killed by your only G3.

You are missing something. How much initial mana? Are you saying to start with 3x G2 and 3 towers before the first wave? Because i just realized i spent more of my skill points, giving me less initial mana as well. Something i haven't had to remember in 1-2 years.

[Cloud Ring]

Publicado originalmente por Dakre:

You are missing something. How much initial mana? Are you saying to start with 3x G2 and 3 towers before the first wave? Because i just realized i spent more of my skill points, giving me less initial mana as well. Something i haven't had to remember in 1-2 years.

Oh. Sorry, this was the V1-trial instruction. Main game will probably be different for you: I keep all my points almost entirely unspent. with 1700 starting mana. If you play in the same vein, then yes. Otherwise, sorry, unable to help.

[Godless Pudding]

I liked the game a lot that it changed but the RNG on V2's trial has nothing to do with smart level design. Mana is so thin that every monster escaped with 1 health remaining makes the level harder. Other than that I'm having fun

[feliscon]

Publicado originalmente por Ellye:

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of complaints that seem to boil down to "I don't like strategy in my tower defense games, I just want to beat everything by grinding".

That's weird for me, because it's the exact opposite of what I want from this genre.

I get that, but one of the reasons I love Gemcraft so much is because it's an RPG-TD, not just TD.

That's what I play it for and the main reason I like it more than most other TD games, I like the feeling of progress and getting stronger to push further than was possible before, I like thinking about how to distribute the skill points more effectively etc.

I don't just want to mindlessly grind until I can bulldoze everything without thinking, but I can understand the general idea of wanting the strategy of build and xp-gaining decisions to be more impactful than micromanaging tactics in the fields. Everyone will fall on a different point on that spectrum, and now with every field having the trial mode there are large parts of the game catering to either end.

[Masterfr3d]

Publicado originalmente por Shadolance:

Publicado originalmente por Zaflis:

Yeah you haven't played long enough yet. It's when you start thinking actual strategies and they keep failing that the frustration starts to really kick in, the feeling of wasting time while you're not getting anything out of it. 3 shadow fragments maybe... whoop. Now i'm at a point where 2 simple journey levels (R3 and T1 if i recall) form similar obstacles. I have done endurance on every single played field and trial on many. So there's not alot of xp i can gain to add more skills. You were never stuck this way in CS.

You can still redo story missions with maxed out traits. I avoided doing any endurance at all so far (am now in the O, N and T areas) because I want to do only the ones with stashes before I add new waves.

You don't have to do that since there is no obligation to finish an endurance level to get the stash. Just rush the stash, then let you die. Then, you can do an endurance run with traits to get lots of XP.