As i was reading through the old gemcraft posts, I saw some of your comments (and your guide/description).

I'm level 875 now (thanks primarily to 39 million exp from map 48 on a replay, previously 522), so your guide can't help me any, but it aligned with what i figured out while playing...
And yes, level 2 is a bit harder than the surrounding levels.  Unecessary levels tend to be that way, throughout the journey. :)

So with bug #3 on Frontier, does it give you a stop button? Because whenever I choose autofight, it remembers that for the next battle and I have to click stop to bring the options back.

so i tried ur map at crush the castle. took me 19 shots with the 3 explosive balls. but when i tried it the second time, strangely took me 6 shots. Something glitched. one of the walls that was on top fell through the castle, which conveniently made the whole thing unbalanced and fell to the right crushing the king.

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   This review contains in-game spoilers and tips
                 Caution is advised

Review created by Coolhead101

This review may not be subjected to copyright
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Ahh... the sequel to the THE best Tower Defense game of 2008. Brings back good memories...and some bad ones. However, this game deserves to be named Gemcraft's sequel/prequel in so many ways. The most awaited Flash Tower Defence game surely introduces enough to outdo the first, be it a handicap or an aid in the field. Instead of writing the features and their "Uniqueness," I'd rather list them one by one. Yeah..I'm lazy.

1. Gameplay- 9/10 - Alot of people were excited upon its release but were somewhat let down by its increased difficulty. Some were even speculative of the benefits of the new gem-required traps. I can agree with many that the game was hard at the beginning, but not hard enough that it was undoable.
    The second level (Top left of first level) proved to be unanimously difficult according to my time reading the comments. My tip is to space out your towers, don't bother destroying the monster-aiding towers, use grade 2 gems instead of grade 3, do not spam waves, and invest in "Higher intial mana at start." The thing that hurts people the most is the fact that they tend to spam waves or click on them too early. Certainly not a good idea.
    Anyways, the additions of the monster-aiding towers and traps are quite interesting. Most of the time the MAT(Monster-aiging towers) are a waste of time to destroy. In later levels you MUST destroy them. Also, Giant monsters don't come in until the 8th level or so, so you don't have to be worried of being defeated early on. Traps, have proven to be effective...only if you place a gem Grade 5 or higher. Otherwise there is little use for them unless you have spare gems and mana. However, If you have 3+ traps and fill them with Grade 2 or higher, it infinitively helps. You could also place traps where towers couldn't (One of the MAT's block you from placing a tower in its parameter).  Another interesting feature is the modes. This is interesting because if you look at the "Amulets" section you find that you get an amulet after beating 60 levels in Normal mode. Safe to say there are ~60 levels * 8 = 480 different playthroughs. Of course, I'm only on the 13th level, and have played through three of those modes (Pathetic, I know). When I progress and play through more modes, I'll give you some info and tips about them.

Normal- Any level- Just your regular waves of monsters that want to kill ya.

Sudden Death- Level 8 required - This could be really hard to some of you because even if one monster went through, then you're history. This requires you to spam Grade 2-3 gems for the earlier levels. Some require you to go as far as Grade 4 (Levels 7+). Traps work well here. You also should destroy Healing MATs. Start low and build up.

Endurance- Level 16- A very easy way to make EXP..thats if you can handle the onslaught of monsters that want to tear your mind and limbs. This mode can go on forever until you die. I would not recommend this to those who are not level 18 or above. You should have maxed your initial mana by now, and start maxing out "Mana increase per kill/gain." You should destroy all MATs so that it doesn't hurt you in the long run.

Thats all for gameplay for now. Pretty nice when you get the hang of it. By the way, the gems and their abilities remain the same but the effectiveness of those abilities from Gemcraft Chapter 1 is toned down
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Graphics- 10/10- Obviously the best out of the other Flash TD games. Some designs look better than the first and the outlines are more crisp.
There are also some more special effects, like the spell towers and stuff like that. The rest? Ahh..I won't spoil too much for ya'.

Sounds- 8/10 - The sounds of blasting those monsters are refreshing, and if you listen to it, you can pick up a great beat or rhythm. However, some effects are annoying, like the Healing MAT's healing (Woah, that was weird). A major thing that they left out would be a song for each level. Its better than the monotone of killing the enemies.

Overall (for now) - 9/10

A review from Coolhead101 ~Keep your heads cool

My dad bought a new mouse. This means that I can now strt on my track.