Like in many other tower defense games, the major goal of this game is to prevent monsters reaching their goal (here being the player's "Orb of Presence").
However, some unique features make this game special and very addictive. No wonder the newest member of the family "GemCraft Chasing Shadows" is the 4th sequel already in this family (depending how you count it) and has his own entry on Wikipedia! (How many online games can claim this, heh?) Wikipedia-Link
But what is it that makes this game special (and one of my favorite online strategy games)?
The Background-story is easily told:
You are a Wizard who comes into this world to stop an evil creature (The Forgotten), a demon which was once summoned by accident by some wizards and now threatens to overwhelm the world. The center of your magic force is your "Orb of Presence" to which all monsters are attracted to and which you need to protect by any means. Luckily you possess the ability to forge magic gems which shoot blasts of magic energy, eventually killing the monsters. Each monster killed gives you mana (the ultimate "currency" of the game) and experience points (XP). However, any monster reaching your orb will steal mana from you. If you fall below zero, you die. And be careful, the more your experience and powers increase, the stronger your enemies get. Can you stop the final boss?
Gameplay
First of all, compared to those strategic complexities the monster variety seems rather simple. In fact there are only swarmlings (small, but fast and numerous), reapers ("average guy" - monsters) and giants (large and robust, but slow). Thats it. OK, the three standard monster-types are later amended by spells and curses and there are sometimes also some nasty flying monsters as well, but compared to other TDGs the variety is rather simple.
The complexity (and challenge) comes rather with the way how you forge and use your "weapons" in order to defend against those monsters.
The true difference is the Gem crafting system: The "Gems" have different colors and quality and are used to shoot at the approaching monsters. Each color is associated with a unique feature, e.g. yellow gems cause multiple damages and green gems poison the monster for a while. In total, there are nine different colors (in "Chasing Shadows", in older episodes were only eight).
By investing "mana" (which you get over time and by killing monsters) you can improve the gem quality thereby increasing the damage, range and special features of the gem.
But that is by far not all of it:
By combining two or more gems, you can create gems with combined features:
Fancy a gem which slows the enemy down and deals splash damage at the same time?
Well, just combine a blue and red gem and there you go. But be careful: To many combinations reduce the damage and specialities of of the gems, so that combinations of three or more colors are normally not preferred.
To add another layer of complexity: Gems can be placed either in towers or in traps. Whereas towers have more range and focus on general damage, traps increase the special features of the gem. So if e.g. you really like to poison a monster, you may want putting it in a trap instead of a tower.
On top of this there are spells, gem bombs, walls, amplifier towers, shrines, tombs, monsters nests, mysteroius shadows and many more features which add to the complexity and make GemCraft one of the most variable and addictive online strategy games out there.
Strategic Tips
Since GemCraft is very variable and differs also between episodes, it is difficult to give general strategic tipps. However, here are some tipps which worked well for me in the most recent episode (Chasing Shadows):
- Use all tricks possible to increase your mana income:
+ Level up the skills for "mana leech", "true color", "resonance", "beam", etc.
+ Before you have the Beam spell: Use orange gems in traps for effective mana leech; As soon as you have the beam spell: Use orange gems in towers with beam spell to boost your mana leech to a new dimension
+ Mana shards can be leeched best by a strong gem with the beam spell
+ Leave an "Initial mana bonus" of at least > 1000 (thus, do not spent everything on skills)
+ Use fragments in your talisman which increase starting mana and mana gain
+ Do also repeat lower levels with higher difficulty (call monsters early, use gem boms on monster tiles, use battle traits, use glaring and haunting difficulty) to increase XP, wizard level (and starting mana)
Mixed Tips:
- You can use "gem-bombs" also on the tiles on the left to increase the strength of specials (e.g. appearance of mana shards)
- Like in any other TDG building a labyrinth with walls helps winning the level
- Use green gems in traps to effectively poison the enemy
- Try to get as many achievements as possible
- Here is a nice walkthrough for the mysterious compasses in some levels: Mysterious Compass Explanation
- Open "Tombs" only at the very end of a level (when you have strong gems) and consider rebuilding the maze in order to prolong the path the monsters have to follow
- The "armor piercing gem" (lilac) may not be very strong on its own, but is sometimes the key to defeat strong final monsters.
- Use the black gem as soon as possible, since it gets stronger with each kill (target also swarmlings with beam or use barrage spell to get it strong faster). I also like to combine it with yellow or red, since the chance of a kill is then even higher.
- You can use the spells "bolt", "beam" and "barrage" also on gems in traps
- You can skip the "recharge-time" of gems (for example when changing positions or upgrading them) when you equip them with a bolt, beam or barrage spell right after
- Don't get carried away by existing buildings like traps or towers. You don't need to fill all of the with gems and you may still want to place a tower in a more strategic position.
- In early levels I prefer to have at least on poison-trap and one or two gems in towers which I regularily update (use shortcut "U").
- In later levels (starting when you have beam and bolt spell) I prefer to have only two, respectively three gems which I regularily update:
+ One orange gem in a tower, which I use with the "beam"-spell to leech as many mana as possible (thus, this gem is also the first the monsters pass). Furthermore, I normally set this gem to attack "swarmling" or monsters with "least hit points" (use right mouse on gem to define). Thus I not only leech as many mana as possible, but I also kill all minor monsters, so that the real power gem (the second one) does not waste bolts on small enemies.
+ The second gem is a dual-gem with a combination which deals as much power as possible (e.g. red-yellow, black-white, yellow-blue, etc.). This I place also in a tower and set it to attack eihter giants or "neares to orb" monsters. This gem is also the one which gets "equipped" with the bolt-spell.
+ As soon as I got the barrage spell I produced also a third dual gem with the same color combination like the second one. This one gets also into a tower and is "equipped" with the barrage spell. I use this one to attack crowds of monsters (ideally frozen with the freeze spell).
+ I then regularily update the gems with emphasize at the beginning on the orange one, later on the other two. Normally orange gem is always one grade higher than the other two. As soon as the enemies get to strong (around wave > 50 - 60) I combine the two dual-gems into one to have a real killer gem (Grade 10 or higher) ready for the final waves. (Of course you need to adjust this to each level).
Links (in historical order*):
(*Don't get confused: Chapter 1 was before Chapter 0)
1. Episode "Chapter 1" (on towerdefence.it)
2. Episode "Chapter 0" (on Kongregate)
3. Episode "Labyrinth" (on ArmorGames.com)
4. Most recent Episode "Chasing Shadows" (on ArmorGames.com)
Nico's Rating
13 points out of 15 (A-): A complex and addictive game with a nice epic story, absorbing graphics and music. The only negative thing I can find, is the large amount of lifetime I already wasted with that game. On the other hand, there are worse ways to waste your lifetime, e.g. waiting until your girlfriend is finally dressed up...
