GemCraft Chapter 0

[Magical Trevor]

Have you guys played it yet? I don't know if there are many fans of the flash TD-style games, but I've played my fair share and I consider myself to be pretty good at them.

I played through the first GemCraft game, found here, without much trouble, except on the last level, which still only took a few tries.

Chapter 0 (found here) just seems... insurmountable in comparison. It is one of the most challenging flash TD games I've played to date.

Hoping to get into the swing of it soon. I'm playing Chap. 0 like I played Chap. 1, and I think that's my problem, lol, so I suggest playing Chap 0 first.

[Dlorak]

gemcraft 0 is kicking my ass, too.

5.16 is delayed because it is so hard... tips??? I'm at level 17 and leveling slooowly cause I have to try 3-4 times to beat any given level!

[Magical Trevor]

Heh, I'm afraid I won't be much help. I'm only Lv21 and can't even get past the first map segment.

If it helps, I have 'Focus' and 'Flexible Pool' maxed and I'm working on 'Mana Gain Mastery' and 'Replenish'. I always put a trap near the main monster lair and put an Orange gem in it, for that little bit of extra juice.

Other than that, I get pretty much spanked by the Arcane Guardian level. It's.. restupidiculame.

I can't beat the left-most two in the 2nd row from the top, either.

[Dlorak]

whoa dude, we're stuck at the same point....
if you want an easy 500+ points on endurance (1500 for the 3xers!) dump all your MP into starter gems and "angry" up 200+ monsters. build no towers, no traps, use no bombs. Ta da! 500 in 0.008 sec!

I'm at 37800 points and need 39600 before I can do heroic level difficulty... and I don't see myself getting there, I just can't beat any other levels... I get like 400 pts when I do... 1800 total points required!? BLEH!

good luck.

[Magical Trevor]

lol, good luck to you, too.

I'll let you know if I manage to find a way to beat the Arcane Guardian, lol.

[hoya999]

yeah, the first gemcraft is so much easier lol, i tired it after trying chapter 0 and i move along much facter in the original. im already lvl 13 in the original after maybe a half hour of playing.

[Magical Trevor]

lol, yeah, definitely.

First one I rarely had to try a level more than once with the exception of the last level.

And if you play it on ArmorGames you get the other skill that reduces banishment costs when monsters get to your tower, so it makes it even easier.

GemCraft 1 had different traps... I miss the traps that just slow everything down and give your towers more time to kill them. This whole 'put gets in your traps!' thing is killing me.

Oh, and a little tip for GemCraft 0:
Use Dual Gems in Towers (but keep them down to 2 colors each, if possible) and use Pure gems in traps. I didn't realize, but traps make the gem's special ability a heck of a lot stronger. Hopefully you've already figured that out by now, it makes things much easier. Dual Gems have higher base damage (before specials).

[Dlorak]

towers waste a TON of shots overlapping on one monster.. so try to have 3-4 strongholds of 1 tower.

also, poison + traps = no brainer. Put em as early as often.

I don't think poison stacks (??) so its really one poison trap, with a second way out.

[hoya999]

lol in the original gemcraft, ive gotten up to using lvl 5 gems so far, and thats after only the first 5 or 6 maps.  also, i think i should point out that "dual gem" implies its a gem made of two colors, so saying to keep it down to two colors is useless, since they aren't dual gems if u use more than two colors to make it. pure gems have higher max damage than dual gems i believe, and i havent gotten around to using traps in gemcraft 0  but im sure i'll use one eventually, even though from reading the instruction they gave about traps i already knew traps made the specials stronger lol.

[Magical Trevor]

@hoya999: Anything with more than 1 'type' or 'color' is classified as a 'Dual Gem' and gets a bonus from the 'Dual Gem Mastery' skill. That's why I say 'Dual Gem'.

Also, there are some big differences between GemCraft 1 and GemCraft 0.

In GemCraft 0, Pure Gems do *not* do more damage than Dual Gems. Pure Gems get a larger special ability bonus while Dual Gems get more range, damage, and faster firing speed. I've tested this quite a few times after I got that tip from someone else.

In GemCraft 1, however, Pure Gems do deal slightly more damage. (I never used Dual Gems during my first playthrough of GemCraft 1, they were pretty much useless...)

@Dlorak:
Yeah, the overlapping hits are a huge pain in the butt, I hate having wasted shots.

And no, I don't believe poisons stack. I put Orange traps at each spawn and intersection, then just chain Green traps along the major pathway.

[Lyrael]

I clocked gemcraft a few months ago and its nice that this new version offers so much more strategy, variety and challenge. I'm level 39 and I've found that for harder levels you really do need to rebuild your skill tree on pretty much every level. Don't take things like replenish or mana pool skills for shorter fights, just getting big gem stocks and a big initial pool and ride on that. When you unlock new modes play them on every level. When you get a few levels up go and replay levels you've already passed to get that little more exp out of them and try and find those lost amulets. If you need a quick exp boost try and get some '1-time' amulets (look through the amulet page for something that looks easy and shoot for it, I find the level 6 jewels in shrines ones are good to aim for).

Traps are pretty ineffective at higher levels. Poison is the only thing that will damage through armour and the best jewels will hit for 10% of the target's health at best. Even on a full length 'poisoned path' there is an effective limit on the damage it will do, whereas towers are always upgradeable/stackable.

Gems bombs are great when skilled up if they save you from mobs reaching your base then they effectively pay for themselves.

When I get level 40 I'll upload my save game if any of you guys wanna try it out.Edit: This is Jonny, btw.

[Acdc]

i suggest a poison trap followed by a slow trap <.< i have a lvl going right now pew pew pew pew in the background is ammusing <.<


:edit: TREV I HATE U IM ADDICTED

[Magical Trevor]

Teeheehee.

I haven't played it in a while. Got too frustrating once I got to Lv50 or so. So much Respec'-ing.

[Acdc]

im only lvl 13 but i only played for like 2hours