any tips for managing evolutions

[test]

So what I've gathered is that you need to buy weapons and items that evolve together as shown in the book, but you also don't want to buy weapons and items that are already on the stage because you can pick them up later and potentially use to evolve something, I am too dumb to keep all of that in my head and can't be bothered to sit there with the book and calculate what weapons and items I should buy so that I get more evolutions, so I just pick whatever and die, so are there any tips for making this easier, maybe mods that show what an item evolves with in the shop if I've discovered the evolution, and what weapons an item evolves, and shows me if an item is on the stage when I see it in the shop?

[Moonbane]

Look at the map, if guides and pickups is activated you can see what a map have of stage items. Pretty straightforward.

[test]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Look at the map, if guides and pickups is activated you can see what a map have of stage items. Pretty straightforward.

I am too dumb to keep track of all items to be able to tell what weapons and items I should buy and I have to constantly switch between the map and the book to remind myself what items are on the map and what weapons evolve with them and then sit there solving boolean partial differential equations with respect to what shop items maximise the number of evolutions given my current items, the map and the book that I constantly need to be reminded of because it is too much information at once, and then I get a shop and forget what I was supposed to buy and don't even have access to my book

[Moonbane]

Once you have completed an evolution, you get a hint of what an item is used for when choosing.

[test]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Once you have completed an evolution, you get a hint of what an item is used for when choosing.

I know but that barely helps given that I have to solve for the optimal loadout before buying the items that belong to it, meaning they won't show as hints in the shop because I haven't bought them nor their counterparts yet because I don't know what they are before I sit there and find them so that I can buy the first one and it will show me that I could buy the second one, except it isn't even right when I have to wait because one of the evolutions merges two weapons into one, and only then can I get that other weapon that evolves with that item that is part of the optimal loadout, sounds easy enough not to take it despite the shop teasing me with a hint hoping that I reflexively press on it and throw the game, but given how many different things I have to keep in my head, the whole thing becomes borderline impossible so I don't even bother with it, but I have to bother with it because otherwise I die

[Maya-Neko]

You don't really need to evolve everything. 1-2 are already enough in most cases to reach the 30 minutes, everything beyond that is mostly just for the lols.

That said, for weapons i would usually just picking it up when i see it and for passives the same, unless i need a very specific item on the last slot.

In general, having too many items can be a disadvantage as well, since if you play it optimally in terms of getting as many items as possible, then you're taking like 110-120 level to level up everything and if you've a weapon combo that doesn't level that fast (or playing on like inverted), then you might not get to crucial evolutions in time. That also why limiting your weapon slots to 1-2 items is so strong, since you can fully focus on a very strong build without wasting time on items that barely do any damage anyway (though i keep it at 6 most of the time, because it's funny^^)

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by test:

I know but that barely helps given that I have to solve for the optimal loadout before buying the items that belong to it, meaning they won't show as hints in the shop because I haven't bought them nor their counterparts yet because I don't know what they are before I sit there and find them so that I can buy the first one and it will show me that I could buy the second one, except it isn't even right when I have to wait because one of the evolutions merges two weapons into one, and only then can I get that other weapon that evolves with that item that is part of the optimal loadout, sounds easy enough not to take it despite the shop teasing me with a hint hoping that I reflexively press on it and throw the game, but given how many different things I have to keep in my head, the whole thing becomes borderline impossible so I don't even bother with it, but I have to bother with it because otherwise I die

took me like 30 hours to remember every single evolution from the base game. Also the "optimal" build is pretty much just getting crimson shroud, infinite corridor and preferably empty tome, the rest is just optional. Though usually it's not as important to be perfect, since when you truly have something that works optimally, then you would need to play like multiple hours to even see, how strong it is, which isn't really necessary for casually playing 30 minute rounds.

[Jaeus]

You get used to them over time but the Grimoire is your friend.
Know what you're going for ahead of time.

OR get the Darkasso Hail From The Future and get practically everything.