ever nothice how a lot of people who write guides for gemcraft never tell you the secrets to winning the game, just tips for the really hard parts? a good example is gemcraft, which has few extreemly helpful guides, especialy for the early levels. here are some hints (tested by me) that will really help out.
1. USE THE HOTKEYS put your left pinky on 1, for gem bombs put your left ring finger on 2, for towers put your left middle finger on 3, for making gems put your left pointer on 4, for mana pool also use your pointer for 5 (for water trenches) and 6 (for gem combining. Feels wierd, good. if not, then you are one flexible player. lol if you get used to playing like this, your playing gets a lot more efficient.
2. for the first few levels, build one gem and put it in the first tower (whatever level your initial and max mana skill is at will determine the grade; just get the best one that you can if you don't have the skill that starts you off with gems.) then call the first four waves one at a time. don't worry. your tower will be able to kill them IF you wait until the previous wave is dead before call the next one. the fifth wave should be used to build trenches, towers, and gems. you can think up your own combination or just build one of each. once your comftorble with this step, expariment until you find a combination that you like.
3. IF YOU ARE TOO WEAK, THEN BUFF YOUR DEFENCES. from here, you should be spending all of your money on mana pool,unless of course, you feel that your defenses are too weak. signs of this include: A) monsters are pouring through the defences where ever they may be. B) a boss has to be banished C) your towers are doing no damage because the monsters' armor is too high. If you are facing any of these problems, you can add more trenches, andd more towers (AND FILL THEM) or else upgrade the gems that you have in your towers right now. when doing these things, it is advisable to not play the game at 3x speed.
4. GEM BOMBS ARE YOUR FRIENDS while you may feel anxious about throwing gems, because they cost mana, it is really worth it if you are in a fix. make the highest grade that you can afford,(in the early levels that will only be one or two) and throw them at the monsters to speed up the killing process. however, if it looks like your towers can handle it without problem, then you may just be wasting your mana. in this situation, just use your head.
while these strategies do work well, they are not the only way to win, they do work.
note to player: after you start to get better skills, some of these tips become obselete. try to find some that suit you, especialy after the first epic boss battle.
Hint; If a level is giving you trouble and you have blue gems availiable, USE BLUE!
Or cyan failing that... (if THEY are avalible)
and if you're on the later levels, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MAXED OUT HIGH GGRADE STARTER GEMS *AND* PURE GEM MASTERY. YOU CANNOT SUCCEED WITHOUT THEM ON THE LATER LEVELS.
View my guide, I have an alternate full out offensive strategy that works great for the whole of lvl 1 and allows you to get glowing frame score easily!
For the first few levels (read: first level and two on each path), spamming LV1 gem bombs (I sometimes call this "gemocide" for the red puffs when that gem goes off) will deal with a great deal of enemies. It also gives large numbers of points and mana, surprisingly. You kill faster, so you get to send waves sooner, so more points. Sending sooner accelerates mana gain in that time.
Translation: Early on, spam LV1 gem bombs. If you get Gem Bombs Upgrade as a skill they hurt A LOT!
good tips all around. I really like the mana pool one, since that's how i got glowing first time playing 2nd epic battle. The first epic battle is the toughest since you don't really know how to play. the difficulty jump is insane. Once you have the high starter gems it's too easy outside of epic battles. That's why i'm replaying it.
Hints on first epic boss: Go back to the first few levels and try to get more points, if not glowing. A good way to do this is the grenadier guide by nichodemus on the first few levels. even if the gem bombing starts failing for you, continue to build towers, buy low level gems, and then combine them. it makes them stronger (not the skills, but the damage, range, and speed) and it gets you amulets, which really help in the long run.
Max out intial and max mana, mana per kill, mana per second, and gem creation and combining reduction if you can, plus put a couple in the armor. Then put the rest in initial basic gems. get 1 of each poison, slow, armor reducing, and triple damage if possible, and as many shock at 14% (max) as possible. Start saving mana about 8 waves out, and then spend only when it wont take your mana below what it will cost to banish the boss. build trenches at the beginning. good luck!!!
once you have beaten the game, for a challenge, go for glowing on every level. After that, just try to beat your high score. Or replay the game like I am doing. At least until the second game comes out WHERE ARE YOU CHAPTER ZERO!!! I NEED YOU!!!
I have a trick that I have been experimenting with lately for GemCraft:
Normally what I do on levels is try to press 'M' for the mana pool as many times as possible (on most levels my max mana is about 50,000).
My NEW strategy is I do everything normal until the last wave. All I do is leave the last monster alive and let him run laps like crazy. If you have a ton of points in ARMOR already you are all set. Just let him run laps and keep banishing him while using your mana to do anything you want.
For example: What I'm doing right now is trying to build the cheapest gems so I can complete some of the 'Journey Amulets'. Or you could combine a ton of gems to get more amulets, etc, etc.
Be Creative!
For the record, I don't think I have seen anybody with this strategy before...but right now I have over 10 million mana total and I have no clue how many gems I've created.
Yes GemCraft is one of the best games. Getting the glowing frame score is very hard. I am level 45 and have only gotten 5 so far. I send all levels at once, build lots of towers and mana bomb like crazy and I get close to a glowing frame score but not close enough. I never cast mana pool. Not sure if that will help my score but I am going to try that next. If that doesn't work then....
once you get the high grade starter gems you can easily start getting the glowing. It's laughable to not get a silver or even gold amulet for creating level 7 gems. The best thing to do is use the gems, then start using mana pool since you don't need to worry about getting better gems for a while. Upgrade it so the multiplier per kill is about 2.04, then build gems and towers. You shouldnt need the amulets to get glowing. I can get over 10,000,000 on certain levels using that method. Another strategy for point (especially if you don't have high grade starter gems) is to go for amulets. That means build 9 towers, and on the last wave, go to regular speed and build as many level 1 gems as you can. Then start combining them (use control since it doesnt matter how they combine), start throwing them as gem bombs, or both. Should get a few amulets that way. Gem Bomb is the best spell for regular battles through about the second epic battle. Then it starts to become obsolete since buying effective gem bombs becomes difficult.
