GameInABottle knows how to do tower defense, and they know how to do it quite well; just look at the GemCraft series and the trail of lost productivity and addicted gemsmiths its left in its wake. With its combination of strategy and RPG elements, GemCraft has always offered up surprisingly deep gameplay in one simple-looking package, apparently expressly designed to make you lose time. Now, GemCraft Labyrinth has just hit, and this latest installment promises to be every bit as engrossing as the previous titles.
Gameplay remains the same; monsters of varying types and abilities will approach the orb on the map by means of the meandering pathways, and it's your job to place gems, which attack and otherwise hamper progress, in towers and traps at strategic points along the way. To build, you need mana, which both replenishes slowly over time and with every kill; more powerful gems and structures like shrines and amplifiers naturally cost more to make, but don't ignore simple traps or the potentially deadly power of a Gem Bomb. Make sure to experiment with walls; they cost very little mana to build, but a few careful walls at key points on a level can turn a chaotic layout to your favour. If an enemy reaches your orb, it deals damage to your mana, and if your mana runs out, their attacks turn fatal and destroy the orb, causing you to fail the level. Keep your mana reserves at a high level and you can withstand a volley of attacks, but if you're unprepared one large foe can ruin your day with a single strike.
The core of things, as you might guess from the title, still comes down to your gems. Different colours have different abilities in addition to dealing damage; cyan gems have a chance to slow enemy progress, for example, while yellow gems have a chance to deal multiplied damage. While most stages only give you a few colours to use, you can actually combine gems to increase their potency and give them new abilities. You can stick with the gems the level gives you to begin with and think strategically, or you can spend mana to instantly unlock any colour you wish for the duration of the level. With each successful battle you'll gain experience points and level up based on how well you did, which grants you skill points to spend. (If you're feeling nervy you can adjust the battle settings before each level to do increase the difficulty in various ways to earn a bonus experience modifier.)
Note that while there is a "Premium Edition" available to purchase for approximately 5.00 USD, all it does is unlock a few extra skill points, abilities, and battle settings. While these might make nice bonuses if you feel like purchasing them, the game is still completely playable without them.
Analysis: Labyrinth doesn't really look or feel any different from the other games in the series, but for most of us that's a good thing; it's fairly easy to ruin a solid hit by trying to top what you did before with too many changes, and if you're already a fan, having more (a lot more) of the same is about as comfortable and relaxing as sinking into your perfect butt-groove on a recliner. It's just one of those things where you either love it or you don't get what all the fuss is about. At this stage in the series, GemCraft really doesn't appear to be trying to win over any naysayers (or neighsayers) and seems to be just concentrating on refining what it has. There are a few small changes and additions, but for the most part it's a return to form with a whole ton of new maps designed to eat up your time as you work to earn all the new medals.
Of course, a good chunk of that time is going to be spent choking back a big, heaping helping of grind. Before you sink a few dozen skill points into them, early mana cost for building towers and creating gems are so high that the farther you get, the more unlikely you are to win a level on the first go unless you go back and replay the others to get more experience first. For some people, this is just how the GemCraft series is, and we don't really question it; we enjoy the gameplay enough that it doesn't really bother us ( ... much... ) and we just take it as a given we're going to have to do it. But for other players, the initial need to grind out levels smacks of far too much repetition to be worth it, and we can hardly begrudge them for it.
In most stages, careful manipulation of the map winds up being the key to victory while slapping down towers and gems without planning is the key to shameful failure. The addition of walls is a welcome one, allowing you to block off more direct routes and force monsters down longer pathways that you can line with traps and towers. Since you can pause and place anything at any time, you really can go at your own pace and think strategically, adjusting your game plan according to how badly you appear to be losing. The high cost of shrines means you probably won't even get to use them for a long time, and while the amplifiers can be nice for bringing a level to a close early on, you might not find yourself using them that often in the beginning; while they can help you dish out large amounts of damage to huge enemies, it's hard to break yourself of the habit of just building more traps and towers, or improving on the ones you have.
If you've never played the series before, it might be a good idea to get your feet wet in the original game, though that's by no means a requirement. There aren't a lot of games I feel like I want to keep coming back to after I've finished writing about them, but despite the grind and the familiarity Labyrinth still lands solidly in that category. Nothing about it will really surprise you if you've been playing the series all along, but it's still a solid, enjoyable game that will keep you busy for a long time. So bid goodbye to your loved ones and dust off your tactician's hat; the labyrinth awaits!
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
A helpful Gemcraft FAQ formed by this site, forums, and experience. (mostly forums, and this site)
FAQ part 1:
General Info:
What is Gemcraft?
New to the game? Play Gemcraft 0 or Gemcraft 1 first. Then you will understand.
What is this Gemcraft about?
Behold, the mystical area of the labyrinth has appeared in your mystic map. As a loyal wizard, you HAVE to go check this place out, right?
The map:
What's the map?
Its the "level select screen" of this game. It is divide into areas, denoted by a letter and a number.
What are the hidden labyrinth fileds?
These are the places that can only be accessed by possessing the correct amulet. These are located at the 4 corners.
The different kinds of monsters:
What are the different kinds of monsters?
Regular, Swarm and Giant.
I know what Regular monsters are, but what are Swarm monsters?
Swarm monsters are easy to kill (usually one shot), and cheap to banish, but they come in very large numbers, and run very fast.
OK, what about Giants?
Giant monsters have high armor and lots of hit points, but they move slowly.
Bloodbound Gem:
What is a bloodbound gem?
A bloodbound gem is a gem that takes a portion of its total kills, then adds it to the damage. This is why the gem is powerful, especially in the areas with a long number of waves.
OK, I understand what it is, but why not mix it with other gems?
If you mix it with other gems, it will just pollute the bloodbound skill, rendering it almost useless.
So is it the best gem?
Well, mathematically, yes it is. The bloodbound is the best gem you can have. But the real answer is, "It depends." It all depends on the situation, of course. If there is a swarm wave use a chain hit gem. If it is a giant wave use a multiple damage gem. For general purposes, bloodbound is the way to go.
Poisonous Gems:
What are poisonous gems?
Gems that poison the monster, surely you know what poison does.
What does poison do?
Ugh. Oh well. Poison slowly damages the monster for a period of time.
Why not mix it with other gems?
Mixing pollutes abilities.
Assigning skill points:
What are skill points?
These skill points can be used to upgrade a wide variety of your skills, they range from Focus to Bloodbound mastery to Replenish.
So how do I assign them?
As quoted from Ytaker's post:
"Focus. This allows you to buy better gems earlier on, unlock bloodbound, and reshape the battlefield to your liking. Early on, you'll want to level this up to 20, and a bit later to 30-40. It's pretty core. It's very expensive to level up so don't be afraid to drop a few points from it at times to level up more useful skills. Each point adds 24 mana.
Replenish. This means you generate mana faster, which is far too slow and useless, and that you get more mana per kill, which is very useful. You should pump quite a few points in here, more and more as the game goes on.
Construction, forge. Both incredibly useful skills as they lower the cost of buildings and gem crafting. You should max these out. Sometimes in earlier levels you'll have pre-existing towers in certain levels so you can put less points in construction but forge is always useful.
Various masteries. Mostly seless, except bloodbound mastery which should be maxed. Bloodbound gems are mathematically superior to all others.
Consider a hypothetical scenario where you compare a level 1 bloodbound gem to a level 1 yellow gem fully upgraded. Both do 4-11 damage with 18% kill ratio for the red and 14% triple hit for the yellow, or 7.5 damage on average, and 8.5 on average for the yellow. Each wave has an average of 13 monsters, and 13 mana per wave.
By level 5 the red gem will have killed 65 monsters and will have 6 more damage, or 11-17 damage. If you upgrade the yellow one up a size now it will do 8-19 damage with 19% double hit. 13.5 damage versus 16 damage (and some extra speed). So, the red gem at level 1 is close to being as good as a level 2 tower.
In early levels you can put a few points in them if you have nothing better to buy.
Flexibility. Lowers upgrade cost for mana pool, lets you buy bloodbound more cheaply. Very useful. You should max it out.
Resonance, recharge. They increase your damage and should be maxed out. Very useful. Recharge is more useful than resonance.
Radiance. No need, good tower placement removes the need for this.
Dual gem. No need, bloodbound works better on its own.
Wild gem. Max it out, rarely gives you useful gems but you can sell it on the forge for good mana early on.
Premium skills. Banisher can be useful for cheaper banishment, and resonance is good for enhancing towers. Spend in them as you wish. Demolision could be useful if it suits your playstyle with mazing.
Violent explosions is bad as it means you are wasting mana on gem bombs, triple gem is useless as bloodbound is the only useful gem so if you can make three gems you have no need for triple gems. Powerful shrines is useless as it means you are wasting mana on a single round of foes, deadly traps is useless as you can get more benefit from upgrading a gem mastery, readiness may be useful in some levels as you can move stuff faster, ritual is underpowered- I have gone halfway through the game and have 400 battle trophies. When I have 4000 I will get 100 mana, or the equivelent of 4 points in focus."
Amplifiers:
What are these Amplifier thingies?
Place a gem in them, and they cannot shoot but the Amplifier gets a portion of his damage, range and firing speed, and carries it to all adjacent gems.
So it's useful to put powerful gems in Amplifiers?
If you can't find a good place to use it in a tower, then yes, it's useful.
Should I use it?
You probably can't in the early levels because of mana shortage, but you will use them A LOT later on.
Shrines:
What are shrines?
YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED GEMCRAFT 0? Or did you just didn't get to that part? Anyway, Shrines take gem sacrifices, uses their power, and unleashes their special power.
What type of shrines are their?
There is a lightning shrine, which shoots lightning in all 4 directions, and charged bolt shrines shoot bolts in a circle.
How does the gem affect the shrine?
A shrines power is just as powerful as the gem. So use powerful gems a sacrifices if you need something dead, and those pesky level ones to take some damage to that monster that bugs you.
Well, hopefully I answered all your misconceptions about Gemcraft.
Part 2 will come soon.
Posted by: CJ
|
February 22, 2011 7:59 AM
FAQ part 2:
Red gem:
What's the fancy name for this gem?
Bloodbound.
What does it do?
Converts kills to power.
Tell me its strengths.
Well, if it killed a lot, it gets powerful.
Weaknesses?
Only useful early and mid-game, then you need to combine it.
Orange gem:
The fancy name?
Mana Gathering. Wait, that's not fancy.
What does it do?
Get you more mana than usual.
Tell me its strengths.
Ummm, gives you mana? I suggest putting them in traps, so you can maximize their ablities, and DON'T place a tower nearby before you squeezed all that mana. Combine with the gems that kill a lot for easy mana.
Weaknesses?
Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak gem.
Yellow gem:
Yeah, name?
Multiple Damage.
Yeah, use?
Chance to inflict multiple damage.
OK, strengths?
Um, multiple damage? Combine with other strong gems for DEVASTATING effects, this gem is also useful for multiplying a gem's power.
Uh huh, weaknesses?
Rather weak gem.
Lime gem: (this is the yellow-green gem)
N...A...M...E...
Chain Hit.
U...S...E...
Chance to inflict damage to multiple monsters.
S...T...R...E...N...G...T...H...S...
Damages many enemies at a time, useful for swarm. Combine with other strong gems so they can shoot more monsters at a time!
WE...AK...NE...SS...ES...
Not so useful alone.
Green gem: (the darker shade of green)
Nam-
Poisonous.
Us-
Poisons enemies, if you don't know what that is, check Part one of the FAQ.
Strength-
Deals gradual damage, so even if nothing is hitting them, poison makes use of that precious time.
Weaknesse-
Slow firing rate.
Cyan gem: (the lighter shade of blue)
N-n-n-name?
Shocking.
U-u-u-use?
Shocks enemies, that is, leaves them immobile for a period of time.
St-st-st-strengths?
Leaves enemies immobile, place near towers for maximum effect.
W-w-w-weaknesses?
Not so useful alone.
Blue gem: (the darker shade of blue)
NaMe?
Slowing.
UsE?
Makes enemies slower.
St*&^rengh./,.ths?
Dude, is your keyboard broken? Anyway, makes enemies slower, place near strong towers and traps for maximum effect.
W@eak^$&ness*(es?
Not so useful alone.
Purple gems:
Let's test your memory of the format.
Armor tearing.
Degrades armor.
Busts their shields so they are wide open and absorb more damage. Place before strong towers.
Not so useful alone.
Hope that cleared your misconceptions about gems.
This FAQ focuses on gems, weaknesses and strengths. Part 3 will come soon and is about the diffrent gem combinations.
Posted by: CJ
|
March 5, 2011 12:08 AM
My tips are the following: (the free version, not premium)
Lime/Yellow is the best tower combo once you get Dual Gem Mastery. One adds a chance to deal multiple damage and the other chains to multiple foes. A higher level gem with several amplifiers can easily hit a 100% chance of triple or quad damage and hit 3 or 4 foes per attack. That multiplies your damage MANY times over.
Summoning is important. The theory is that the mana you spend on gem bombs to increase monster count, you get back by actually killing them. This is particularly important if you are using ORANGE mana leech towers or traps.
Even if you aren't, ideally summon more of the monsters that naturally have LESS of them in a wave...especially GIANT monsters! In the early game, you can easily kill the 4 giant monsters on say wave 7. So you use a rank 2 gem, add +8 of them, with each one giving 100 mana per kill. Throughout the game, try to summon more Giant monsters since they give so much mana per kill.
What this does is give you more mana faster. This snowballs into a lot more mana later on when the waves get much harder. You want to use the time when the waves are easy to boost your power as much as you can. It also works wonders with Bloodgems.
When summoning, the lower level gems are cheaper but will give less monsters added per use yet still boost the enemy power. Higher level gems are less efficient, but add a lot more monsters for a minimal power level. (i.e. 3 rank 1 gems = +12 monsters and THREE power jumps! 1 rank 3 gem = +13 monsters and only 1 power jump...but costs about 3 times as much as using 3 rank 1s).
Max Wild Gem ASAP. At each wave, use M to increase mana multipler and use X to sell the wild gem for around 6000+ mana!! Even though it is only a rank 5 or 6 gem. Go figure.
Mana farms are a good idea. You simply drop say 3 traps where the monsters are forced to go (use walls as needed) and put lower grade Orange gems in, with an amplifier possibly. This gives you a constant influx of mana. Make sure the traps are close to where they enter and that your tower won't kill em later.
A Gem with multiple amplifiers around it is more efficient than a higher ranked gem by itself. It is also easier to upgrade it in parts and without upsetting the currently working gem.
Max DUAL GEM ASAP. Adds a whopping 15% bonus to range and attack power.
Use the PYLON levels to MASSIVELY boost your overall power. What you do is create your main towers AWAY FROM the Pylon, and then have 2 small gem towers that are charging the pylon up with Structure targeting on. Make plenty of Mana Traps as discussed previously to boost mana hugely. Make sure you fight armored monsters only, preferably with Double the # of monsters active, banish cost more, etc.
You fight like normal, trying to summon a lot more than normal.
Once your Pylon is ALMOST charged, pause and remove those gems. You now have control over when you win.
Build up mana, last as long as you can. Upgrade towers n stuff. When you can no longer keep up, PAUSE THE GAME. Sell your gems as needed for this next part.
Make tons and tons of rank 1 gems, bombing some random wave of baddies to summon. Looking at your STATS, bomb until your summoned is ONE LESS THAN your acutal kills. So if you killed 1684, make sure to summon 1683. THis takes forever and is tedious...but worth it. Use the rank 3 gems to add +13 and ensure you can get exactly 1 under with lots of +4s from rank 1 gems.
Then, put a gem to charge Pylon and unpause. You will get a 50(!!!!) summoning multipler. I.e. Whatever your final score was... TIMES FIFTY. I got 700,000 on my first Pylon and 1 million on the 2nd. I got SERIOUS level up!
Posted by: MikeP | July 18, 2011 2:52 PM