Gemcraft Lore

[Guagno333]

Hello people.

So, I played the original Gemcraft a few years ago, and I remember how it ended (but I don't remember if there was any other "extra" story related thing in the original game, apart from the ending). I'm now playing Chapter 0 in order to get to the lore up to now, is there any advice? And can someone gave me a reminder about the story in the original gemcraft?

Sorry for the silly question, but for each game I play I love to know the sory in the previous one :)

Thanks in advance

[darthmohawk1]

Gemcraft 1's story is as you remember it: you reach the hut of the corrupted wizard and defeat his monsters, only to be possessed by the Forgotten herself. Chasing Shadows picks up a few months later, when the wizard you play as manages to pass through the Scythe Gate and free himself from the Forgotten's grip.

In Gem of Eternity (Chapter 0), the best gems are the Prismatic ones (all 8 colors), followed by dual gems using Red (splash damage). From what I remember of it, it's not that difficult a game; the hardest thing to deal with is the fact that you can't freeze time.

[Guagno333]

Thank you darthmohawk1! I'll give shot at chapter 0 since I didn't play it enough. What about labyrinth?

[darthmohawk1]

Labyrinth is the closest to Chasing Shadows, design-wise. There is no longer a bonus to prismatics, but triple gems can be used to great effect in their place. You can also build shrines, a feature unique to this game; Labyrinth shrines are very similar to the Shrine of Blades from this game: they shred 2% of their HP per gem grade, maximum 90%, plus a secondary attack to actually kill monsters.

I suspect Labyrinth is actually easier than Gem of Eternity; the player gets a lot more tools with which to break the game. It is also the first game in which Endurance mode is beatable; in fact it is much easier to beat endurance in Labyrinth than it is in Chasing Shadows, mostly because enemy HP caps at 3.3 billion (or 10 trillion with "Monsters grow faster" enabled). Endurance can be played in Gem of Eternity as well, but by wave 70-80 the monsters will be far too strong to kill, even with all skills maxed out.

I should probably mention that each game in the series is longer than its predecessor:
Gemcraft 1 has 35 normal stages, 5 "epic" stages with boss monsters, and 8 secret stages
Gem of Eternity has 78 stages. 10 of these are secret, and not all of the rest are required, but there are still a good 50 you'll have to go through.
Labyrinth is played on a 13x13 grid of stages, for a total of 169. The shortest route through the game, however, only requires you to beat 77 of them. Although the paths do branch, the objective is to reach the center field, G7, and you will be forced to pass through D10, J10, J4 and D4 in that order.
Finally, Chasing Shadows has a total of 191 fields (29 of which are Steam-exclusive). Somewhat curiously, the shortest path to the Spiritforge traverses only 55 fields, which is less than in Labyrinth. Of course, if you try to get to the end that way you'll be missing a number of important skills...

[Guagno333]

Woha! 191 fields! I always try to take out the most from each game, so I won't be leaving anything behind! :) Thank you for your precision!