General Guide
[This guide is still under construction]
This page contains general information on how you could progress in the game, as well as the recommend steps in doing so. This page will spoil 100% of the game so players who want to go blind should avoid it at all cost. The objective is not to give you orders, even if the wording makes it look like so, it's mostly a humorous way of emphasising the importance of some suggestions. Avoid those at your own peril. Most of those comments are referred to later on to explain why they were a mistake in the community's opinion, since about 95% of this guide is roughly in line with the consensus.
Note: I have opted to replace "level/lvl X" by the notation "vX" for brevity and ease of reading. Same for Tier, which will sometimes be replaced by "T".
Please @Brewer or @kennyubasterd00 in the discord if you have comments or suggestions on the guide, or if you just want to say thanks. Special thanks to Shadow (chaoslord_) for their guidance across multiple months in my playthrough.
The Devouring
This section about figuring which station is best for food farming in specific circumstances was removed from this guide due to heavy whining from the community. See this page instead.
The 16 Commandments
These guidelines are valid for the entirety of the game and therefore should be considered before trying to apply particular strategies:
1. Patience is key. | 2. Lair space > Crate space > Cage space > anything else |
3. No reckless gem & coin spending. | 4. Fight or feed champions quickly. |
5. No stray stations. | 6. Keep stations at lvl 2, 3 or 5. |
7. Only make T1 legendaries for their feat. | 8. Level up alongside feats. |
9. Use cravings. | 10. Merge runes and potions. |
11. Grind daily. | 12. Events are the GOAT. |
13. Don't needlessly tap. | 14. Don't needlessly merge. |
15. Get runes early. | 16. Leave space for eggs. |
- This game is and remains an idle game, thus you will make incremental progress that build up over time.
- Lair space is nearly always preferable to any other bonus. Crate space is more valuable than Cage space. In addition, it's often worth it to get rid of useless items to get more free space. Don't keep unmerged items spawned with mana if you are out, when your other 2 resources are full.
- Spending gems on refills is to be avoided at all cost. gold will have dedicated use for progress at some point.
- Always beating or feeding champions when they appear is a good strategy in most cases, otherwise their % progress and space is wasted.
- Ideally one would only make resource cap items by powers of 2 so that no stray low level ones remain in the lair. Same principle applies to stations.
- Using a v5 station when one could be using a v2 station will waste a ton of resources. It will eventually be worth it to own both v5 and v2 versions of a few stations. Some stations should be on v3 instead of v2, but those levels are the most efficient in terms of space and resource efficiency.
- Crafting most Legendary creatures only once is recommended (they can't be fed to the devourer), only doing so when they are required is optimal.
- Progressing level and feat at the same time is usually the most efficient way to progress while avoiding roadblocks.
- Cravings will be the biggest source of food in this game. Focusing on the required minion will be most efficient 90% of the time.
- Holding onto most runes is a stressful but rewarding strategy since waiting until v3 for all runes will yield heavy rewards. It will be necessary to feed some v1 and v2 since limited space will inevitably become an issue. Only keeping the hardest ones to earn is also viable. Potions are better when merged to max (except darkness at v2 due to a bug).
- Opening the game to collect daily rewards and deplete free daily refills and chests will be very useful for progress, thus you should invest at least some of your time everyday to collect those rewards if possible. Daily ads will likely become a chore, making the no-ads bundle very worth it if you can afford it.
- Events such as NectarMerger and Sibling Rivalry will be huge time sinks and should ideally be started in available periods (3 days straight might be difficult for 9-5 workers). Their rewards are worth the pain (especially sibling).
- Don't needlessly tap if it can be avoided, carpal tunnel is an enemy to us all. Tapping the Necromerger will quickly become almost pointless.
- You usually gain the most advantage by merging items and minions to their max level*. Although, for some circumstances, it is better to keep some items or minions seperate. These pitfalls will rarely cost you much but mindlessly merging could prove extremely inefficient on the long run in very specific cases (mainly during completion of cravings and feats).
- Plan ahead to not get stuck in an awkward position (upgrading stations out of their optimal level before a grind is completed or running out of space due to lack of runes).
- Having 8 empty spaces while leaving the game is usually preferable, to earn offline eggs.
*Note that gold, as opposed to runes and gems, can reach v4.
The Beginning
Level 1–10
You will go through the tutorial and progress through the game. Most players will not struggle before v10. If you still require help for this part, you can refer to the above section and/or ask in the discord.
Regardless, here are some pointers that might help:
- Setting up proper resource generation will be very important in this game, so you better start early to not have to wait too long. skeletons v2 and zombie v3 are the most effective low level resource generators in early game and when you have a lot of space (you lose generation by merging them, however they are less space efficient). It might be better to generate resources to keep them at this level until you run out of space and then merge them. You should privilege eye monsters to skeletons in terms of mana generation. Speaking of, eye monsters v2 are the most effective when you have enough space. It follows that your lair will likely ressemble something like : 1 high level skeleton/zombie/eye monster, a few skeletons v2, a few eye monsters v2, a few zombie v3, the / stations to spawn them and a mana pool.
- Try to plan out what you will feed the devourer so that you don't overflow too much (20% or less). Also completing a craving while also feeding enough food for the devourer to level up will completely waste the craving food, so keep that in mind. Example: devourer requires a eye monster v2 and grants 200 food, but if you are within less than 35 food (the food value of eye monster v2) of leveling up, you will feed the devourer, complete the craving, and level up, starting back at 0 food on the next level, effectively wasting the entire craving food.
- Before you feed or fight with a minion, try to wait until they nearly refilled their resource. This will be more effective than having to wait longer for the resource to refill. This will not make any difference if you wait 8 hours between your logins, but for frequent players, this will be a lot more effective.
- Only use potions v3 when you are almost out of that resource, you can squeeze out the most out of them if you wait for your resources to regenerate and then spend it so it's close to 0 when you use the potion. (example grave v3 costs 400 mana, you can wait until you have 401 mana and then spend it to have almost 0 mana, then use the potion). This only applies to potions v3, not lower.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | ||
grave v3 | 80 | mana pool v3 | 40 /20 | ||
cupboard v1 | 20 | foul chicken v1 | 30 /15 | ||
total so far | 150 /35 |
You don't need to wait to have complete feat 6 to read the below section, but it will make more sense if you do wait until then.
Level 11–20 (Feat Tier 6 Completed)
Notable additions from now onwards:
- knights (500 hp) appear after v10. They drop Poison Chests which drop / poison runes and occasional blood runes. Try to merge some damage dealers on the field whenever it will spawn soon. werewolves v4 and snakes v2 should do the trick.
- altar will be unlocked after feat tier 7. They will spawn damage dealers ( werewolves) which will help spawn knights. They will be your only way of spending darkness for a while. altar v2 is optimal to spawn knights, and although it's not really worth it to keep in the lair, a cupboard v2 will help a lot to spawn it when you are desperate for poison runes.
- New cravings! spiders (v1 at v10, v2 at v12) and snakes (v1 at v15, v2 at v18) will start appearing so you will need to plan for those since a craving lock is very annoying and will slow down your progress a lot. The amount of chicken you make is up to you but most will get by with 1 or 2. Try to keep them in a mergeable state if you have more (example, 2 v2 and 1 v3 so you can make 1 v4 if you lack space).
- Spells! They give permanent bonuses and cost runes. You will want to get the mana spell to max as soon as possible for an upcoming feat.
- You need to kill a lot of peasant (100 hp) for upcoming feats and stations. The ice and poison runes will be unvaluable. The best stations to spawn the peasant are grave v5 and supply cupboard v5.
- Feat tier 8 requires 50k mana, for which you need many mana pools v2, don't make them until you can actually complete the feat, see below for full rune breakdown.
6 extra spaces will come at v22. Do not spend ANY gems and ideally no gold if possible.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | ||
grave v4 | 80 | 3 mana pool v2
1 mana pool v1 |
70 /35 | ||
cupboard v3 | 60 | foul chicken v3 | 90 /45 | ||
slime vat v1 | 10 /5 | altar v1 | 20 | ||
tier 1 spells | * | 155 /55 / | section total | 395 /205 / | |
total so far | 545 /240 /35 |
*50k mana cap and 3 different spells for feat tier 8, which requires ideally lvl 5 mana cap spell, lvl 1 peasant / knight appearance and lvl 1 necromerger resource. 20k base mana cap + 1 lvl 3 (feat tier 6), 3 lvl 2 and 1 lvl 1 mana pools with those spells will be enough even without any other bonuses.
Level 21–30 (Feat Tier 9 completed)
This section might prove quite challenge for beginners. You should be spending more time planning your lair and what you need to do, here's a few tips:
- DO NOT SPAWN DARK STORES UNLESS OBLIGATED. They cost way too much for their worth for now.
- You should essentially speedrun to v24. At v22, you get a lair expansion and at v24, Clerics (2500 hp) start appearing. They drop blood chests which drop / blood runes and occasional moon runes. Beating it a few times will be necessary to progress, try to prepare in advance for its appearance with werewolves v5 and snakes v3. Altar v5 is the best to spawn it.
- Improved resource generation will be a must in the near future. If you haven't already switched your skeletons, zombies and mummies yet, you should start swapping them out for eye monsters, spiders and bats.
- Cravings will trip you a lot in this section. v24 requiring lectern for shade cravings (great way to spawn the Cleric at v2) and v26 requiring the foul chicken v4 for golden egg cravings. And the big boss of them all, the ghoul cravings...
- Feat 12 will give you a ham. DO NOT FEED THE HAM UNTIL REACHING LEVEL 29. Players who do not follow this advice will get walled by ghoul cravings for a full level (80k food) otherwise.
- Two legendaries will need to be spawned, only do so once absolutely necessary since they can't be tossed afterwards and they waste 1 space.
- Even if you unlock the Harpy already, don't try making it yet. Only do as much farming as necessary for now since v31 will give you your maximum lair size, making farming much easier.
- 50k slime feat is the same as for mana, but worse. Max the tier 1 spells, the same can be done for tier 2 spells but it is not mandatory.
- Even if Forgotten Minions are unlocked already at this point, using them is inefficient since they are too costly at this point.
You could probably spend on the wizard skin in the shop if you have enough gold. If 250 gems have been amassed, you must now buy a crate. The objective is to always have 1 lvl of crate higher than cage or them being equal. V1 crate then v1 cage, then v2 crate, so on so forth.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | ||
Lich* | 620 | mana pool v5** | 50 /25 | ||
Gorgon* | 680 | foul chicken v4*** | 120 /60 | ||
altar v4 | 140 | lectern v1 | 50 /20 | ||
1 slime vat v4
6 slime vat v2 |
130 /65 | tier 1 spells | *4* | 300 /160 / | |
tier 2 spells | *5* | 200 /80 / | section total | 1340 /1135 / | |
total so far | 1885 /1375 /310 /60 |
*The rune cost includes rebuilding a v3 station to fulfill the cravings. Note that legendaries give back a v1 station.
**Not obligatory but heavily recommended, the rune cost assumes no lower lvls were tossed for space.
***v26-28 cravings require a golden egg, which drops at 5% from chicken v4 and 10% at v5.
*4* The missing spells from tier 1 spells should all be max level by now.
*5* 50k slime cap and 12 different spells for feat tier 12, which requires ideally lvl 5 slime cap spell, all tier 1 maxed and tier 2 to lvl 1. 15k base slime cap + 6 v2 and 1 v4 (feat tier 11) slime vat with those spells will be enough even without any other bonuses.
Level 31–40 (Feat tier 13 completed)
This is the last section before the game radically changes. It will be your toughest challenge yet, so some advice are in order:
- You should essentially speedrun to v32. At v31, you get your final lair expansion and at v32, paladin (7500 hp), start appearing. They drop moon chests which drop / moon runes and occasional death runes. Beating it MANY times will be necessary to progress, try to prepare in advance for its appearance with several werewolves v5 and snakes v3. The best (accessible) way of spawning paladins at the moment will be lectern v4 (later on, it will be v5).
- Once you unlock the rival (15k hp) at v37, you will only want to beat it twice (unless very unlucky with death runes). The best way to spawn it at this point is fridge v4, with supplements from occasional golden eggs.
- Killing paladins and rivals will be a chore, but access to banshees, ghouls for damage will be nice.
- In this section, you should focus on farming peasants for ice runes so that you have at least enough to make an extra lich (640 ice runes minus the graves owned) at v40. You will also need to make extremely costly stations that require ample amounts of ice, poison and moon runes. It is therefore recommended to plan ahead.
- You will likely not want to spawn higher than a lectern v4, fridge v4 and portal v2 due to their important rune costs. The order of making stations should be like so:
- It is recommended to not spawn Harpy before: 1- reaching v38, 2- having 80 extra blood runes and enough to get 50k max darkness (these are 2 independent requirements). Altar v2 should be kept (the pain will only last 2 levels) unless you really want 2 options for cravings.
- To optimize resource generation, it would be best to replace eye monsters, spiders and bats progressively by banshees, ghouls and imps.
- Max out tier 2 spells and only do the darkness cap spell in tier 3 spells.
- If by this point you haven't invested yourself in the events, you will have to start or you will suffer a large time cost from the loss of efficiency. The relics earned through these events are a lifesaver in terms of generating champions to farm runes.
- Forgotten Minions are probably unlocked by now, they will not prove that useful on the short term but could be helpful if one wants to reduce their grind, especially for ice runes.
- DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE A REAPER, IT'S NOT WORTH THE TIME INVESTMENT YET.
You're expected to have (or be close to having) v2 crate and v1 cage or better at this stage, granting you 10 extra spaces for your lair.
At level 35, the keeper will appear in the Central Chamber, don't worry about him just yet. Once you're at level 40, have completed feat tier 16 and have 25 moon and 25 death runes, read the section below.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | ||
Harpy* | 500 | 11 Dark store v2**
1 Dark store v5 |
380 /190 | ||
lectern v4 | 350 /140 | fridge v4 | 400 /160 | ||
portal v2 | 60 /60 | tier 2 spells | *** | 175 /100 / | |
tier 3 spells | *4* | 150 /50 / | section total | 675 /550 / | |
total so far *5* | 2510 /1925 /1355 /615 /125 |
*The rune cost includes rebuilding a v2 station for damage. Note that legendaries give back a v1 station.
**Can be heavily reduced if using the darkness cap relic from Sibling Rivalry.
*** The missing spells from tier 2 spells should all be max level by now.
*4* 50k darkness cap, which requires ideally lvl 5 darkness cap spell. 10k base darkness cap + 11 v2 and 1 v5 (feat tier 14) Dark store with that spell and harpy will be enough even without any other bonuses. Note a lvl 1 darkness relic will reduce this to 10 v2, a lvl 4 relic will reduce this to 9 v2 and a lvl 8 relic (which is not attainable for you just yet) would reduce this to 8 v2.
*5* This total doesn't account for the 2nd lich since you can technically complete all of this without it and this total will be reused later.
The Keeper
The keeper will appear in the Central Chamber at level 35. He will be essential for further progress. The first unlockable from this NPC is the time machine, which costs 25 moon and 25 death runes.
Once you are at v40, have completed feat tier 16 and own 4 legendaries (2 lich, 1 gorgon, 1 harpy), you should use the time machine. If your level isn't capped at 40, you should refer to the section below (hopefully having not spawned your 2nd lich already).
Here's a quote about the time machine (for the anxiety-prone) that can be read if you hit ''continue''. You would need to confirm twice past this point before you can actually mess up.
"You will keep all Relics, and any Skins and Lair Themes unlocked. The Cage and the Crate will remain at their current levels (and can be reclaimed for free). If you've purchased Golden Boosts or Remove Ads they will remain. You'll still be able to access any unlocked rooms. Aliens will remain unlocked, as will boosts purchased from them EXCEPT for the Inventor's experiments which will reset. Any boosts gained from Spirits will reset. Your main lair will be cleared (you'll lose items, stations, creatures - including legendaries) both in the lair and in storage. The Devourer will reset to lvl 1 and you'll lose any unlocks earnt through it. Your feats will also fully reset. If an event is active, it won't be affected and you'll still be able to access it." -The Small Print
Note: Some players have entertained the thought of remaining at max level and farm gems and gold due to the higher amount of chests and thieves spawning at v40 than in the earlier levels. This is a horrible noob trap since higher level players will be able to reach new legendaries, minions and Forgotten Minions, which all grant discovery gems. In addition, the leveling and feat rewards will more than compensate for the lost gems and gold incomes during that period. Staying at v40 here is a fool's errand. DO NOT do this.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | |
Lich | 560 | 2 Rifts | 25 /25 | |
section total | 560 /25 /25 | |||
total so far | 3070 /1925 /1355 /640 /150 |
The Inventor
After using the time machine, the lair is reset and max level is set to 50. You will want to use the keeper twice for a total of 15 time shards and unlock the 2nd NPC of the central lair, the inventor. These 15 time shards are the reason why a 2nd lich was basically required before using the time machine (which will now be known as prestiging).
Spending all the available time shards with the inventor is mandatory after each prestige since it gives great bonuses, speeding up the playthrough by a large factor. This guide is not going to help on which inventions are best since there are already other guides for this. Dedicated strategies concerning inventions are mentioned here: time machine strategy.
Restarting after this prestige will have 3 important factors on top of inventions:
- The Body snatcher will allow you to kill a champion twice in a row which will facilitate feats that require to kill a specific champion twice. It also makes farming easier.
- Forgotten Minions, although their spawn mechanics are quite limiting, will allow you to make a lot of extra progress, especially Hydra, Kraken, Siren, Faerie and Idol.
- Serv-o: a 1 space invention that grants either: 10 generation + 6k max , 8 generation + 4.5k max , or 6 generation + 3k max ; Serv-o will make a huge difference in terms of diminishing rune requirements for the cap feats and impact idle max caps for added benefits. This will change the rune requirements by a noticeable margin once relics are also applied, below shows the minimum requirements with and without serv-o (assuming no relics):
This Changes Everything! Part 1
Changes to the strategy from 31-40:
- You will now want to make the Reaper, Cyclops and Archdemon, they should therefore plan for ice, poison and moon runes farming short term and for blood and death runes farming long term. This also means that one doesn't need to limit themselves to lectern v4, fridge v4 and portal v2 anymore. In fact, it is recommended not to stay at lectern v4 and fridge v4, and to actually reach lectern v5 first, leaving the other to v3, then reaching fridge v5 afterwards since banshees are the best way to spawn (and therefore farm) the paladin. The order of making stations should be like so:
- You should now max all tier 3 spells as soon as possible.
- Usage of the Body snatcher on the paladin as soon as possible and as often as possible until one reaches enough moon runes is recommended. Other champions can be farmed this way as well.
- Killing all champions until a player has at the very minimum the value from the below section is recommended.
Level 41–50 (Feat Tier 19 half-completed)
Warning: DO NOT. I REPEAT. DO NOT. TOUCH. THE. KEEPER. AGAIN. UNTIL. SPAWNING. A. SAUCER.
From v41 onwards, you will have 3 goals:
- Reaching v44 ASAP for the next lair expansion and last one before a max 70 run. This makes a huge difference for farming champions.
- Making the Reaper, Cyclops and Archdemon. The latter should NOT be spawned until the last Protector is beaten ( Portal v5 is the best damage source and is far too costly to remake right before prestiging). Note that the amount of runes required from 41-50 is almost the same as 1-40 and should take at least the same amount of time for now.
- Acquiring as many AC (Astro Coins) and EC (Energy Cubes) as possible. This implies beating the v47-unlocked Protector (25k+ hp) a minimum of 3 times and keeping ALL non-maxed AC and EC piles until you prestige again. It may be useful to keep the galactic chests instead of opening them unless other rewards let you feed max lvl piles to acquire space. If you complete feat tier 18 and still don't have at least 1 EC v1 and 1 EC v2 pile, you should consider beating a 4th Protector, although this is not obligatory and can take a very long time.
Arriving at feat tier 17, a feeling of dread should accompany you as you prepare to farm for countless hours for at least 1200 moon runes (see below table for required runes, although they don't include a lectern v5 and fridge v5 so if you have both, you are at least ahead by a little). This will be the most tedious part of the grind yet. In addition to beating many paladins, all other champions will be required in this section due to the unilateral requirements. Once the Reaper has been spawned, it is heavily recommended to spawn another lectern v5 again for the upcoming grind (AKA you need 1550 ice and 620 moon runes before spawning the Reaper). You may decide to spawn the Cyclops right after the Reaper, making a fridge v3 and forfeiting one cravings slot until their next prestige if you want, this can be done if you are v45+ since only 1 abomination-related craving appears past this level.
After feat tier 17 is completed, you will unlock the crashed saucer. If you used your cosmic runes acquired thus far on the keeper, you will probably not be able to spawn one (the keeper costs 35 and the expected value from ALL the rewards is 53, so the average player will lack 2). You would need to wait for a chest leveling reward or worse, purchase one from the merchant or the shop. A few players have reported this happening to them and none recommend it. Only once you have spawned a crashed saucer at minimum should you think of investing on the keeper, but it would be advised to wait until you have acquired a lvl 3 saucer first, since the next NPC is absolutely useless short term.
Now that a crashed saucer is available, the grind continues. They spawn undead aliens and the required resource will alternate between the 3, spawning either : shades, ghouls or imps materials on the side. This will syphon resources very quickly due to its high costs, especially darkness. However, undead aliens will need to be spawned, they are a good source of food and runes but must be the final hit on a kill to spawn free runes. alien v3 is probably the best darkness rune source in the game ( portal grinding coming soon). Saucers v4 can spawn guzzlers but that requires more grinding which is not recommended for now. Note that you can abuse the Body snatcher to keep the Protector on the field nonstop until their third kill so spawning it once is good enough. Using the siren is also a valid strategy to spawn the Protector. Filling the lair with imps and doing chip damage with occasional banshees and ghouls will prove most efficient to kill the third 650k hp Protector. If the player is still lacking in death runes, it would be advisable to still kill rivals if they spawn in the lair while mass spawning demons for the Protector since a large amount of death runes will be required soon either way.
The 200k resource cap should not be an issue for most players, although it will be annoying and will cost runes and space that you may not have to spare.
After feat tier 18 is completed, even if you are v50, you must not prestige yet. You have to make sure to earn the free EC v1 from the saucer color change feat and the free cosmic chest if you haven't done so already. You can also complete your grind for portals if you haven't done so prior to spawning the Protector. No special strategies here, portal v5 is great to spawn rivals. Altar v5 can be remade here, if you haven't already, to speed up spawning clerics.
Once you are at level 50, completed half feat tier 19 and has 35 cosmic runes,you should read the section below.
stations/legendaries | runes | stations/legendaries | runes | ||
Reaper* | 1950 /780 | Cyclops** | 1350 /540 | ||
Archdemon*** | 900 /900 | tier 3 spells | - | 110 /285 / | |
section total *4* | 2060 /1635 /1055 /1565 / 995 | ||||
total so far *4* | 4570 /3560 /2410 /2180 /1120 |
*The rune cost includes rebuilding a lvl 5 station. Note that legendaries give back a lvl 1 station.
**The rune cost includes rebuilding a lvl 3 station. Note that legendaries give back a lvl 1 station.
***This is done at the very end of the playthrough so no extra rune cost needs to be added in.
*4* These sections are minimal values, but the player will obligatorily need to spend more due to the 200k combined resource cap requirement in feat tier 18. At this point, the amounts rely too much on available relics, inventions, available skins and events participation (even seasonal events will impact those values wildly). The optimal strategy remains to keep max cap items at lvl 2 until no more space is available. Preferably with both slime and darkness relics active and serv-o in the lair on mana. Needing to acquire ample runes after making Reaper is the reason why you would need to spawn a lectern v5 again for banshees mana generation, but it is not obligatory and could be farmed prior. The amount of cosmic runes you need is also not included since in principle a player can get by with just the free rewards and spawn aliens from a saucer v1 (especially with the appearance of the siren). My 200k cap only required as many runes as another max mana pool so that should be around the minimum requirement.
The Archeologist & Dietician
Once you are at level 50, completed half feat tier 19 and have 35 cosmic runes, you will no longer be able to progress in the current playthrough. You will want to use the keeper twice for a total of 35 cosmic runes, and unlock the 3nd NPC of the central lair, the archeologist. This NPC is not really useful for now, but will be useful much later on. Since you are already pretty much at the end of your playthrough, you should now open all of your Galactic Chest and merge all the resulting Astro Coins and Energy Cubes and feed them to the Devourer to redeem them if that wasn't already done. You should have enough now to bring out the 4th NPC of the central lair, the Dietician. The next 750 gems you collect should be going to this NPC's busted ability to restrict some annoying cravings to appear (mainly the egg spawns one). You have a non-zero chance of being able to unlock the 5th NPC right now, if that is the case, you may skip to the next section for a slight spoiler and instructions and then come back to read below advice.
Once you have made all the legendaries you can from your remaining runes and feel like you will earn enough time shards, you can prestige towards your lvl 60 run. I would recommend 3 extra liches if possible.
This Changes Everything! Part 2
Changes to the strategy from 1-50:
- Stab-o should now be unlocked. Its damage increases with every use, so it's recommended to use it as often as possible (ideally 2 times a day). Keep in mind that it won't refresh its usage unless it is in the lair. The max damage will deal a great blow (3 demons) to the Protector later on so don't forget to use it. The paladin and rival will often be its favorite victims until it has to kill the Protector.
- Craving blocks are now a thing. Here's the typical approach:
lvl | block 1 | block 2 | block 3 |
---|---|---|---|
24 | spiders | eye monsters | zombies |
27 | spiders | werewolves | eye monsters |
33 | spiders | snakes | werewolves |
36 | spiders | snakes | bats |
42+ | spiders | snakes | golden geese |
- Keep in mind that although this is a good approximation for most players, it's possible that the current lair would make some other cravings better to lock, example: if one doesn't have a grave v2, and owns a grave v5, it makes no sense to block zombies and keep skeletons.
- At this point, you should have an abundant amount of space in early game due to crate and cage spaces. This should make it easy to always keep some damage dealers in the lair for upcoming champions. Most players will want to start their day with as many snakes v1 as possible to kill off the thieves and later merge them to kill knights/ Clerics. It is also recommended to always keep all runes until they are maxed unless they prevent merging. You will also get more advantage from Forgotten Minions now that keeping them in the lair is less annoying spacewise.
- Efficient relic usage at this point should shorten the playthrough by a significant factor since the relics should be at decent levels. The amount of relics might start to become unmanageable, so you will be tempted to purchase and upgrade the safe for more relic spaces. That isn't a bad idea but you should not buy more than immediately necessary since their gold will become critical to purchase something later on. In the same vein, you should refrain from spending gold on buying things from the merchant and shop unless absolutely necessary (something you should have been avoiding since the beginning). The same advice applies to gems.
- You might be tempted to beat the Protector and open galactic chests as soon as possible to earn the necessary energy cubes to unlock the next NPC, it's not an atrocious move but most players will prefer the caution of only feeding them at max level, just in case they would end up missing one in the end (that 15 EC cost would turn into a 20 EC cost then). You will have access to a Forgotten Minion at v55 (the trader) that lets you purchase EC but it's not all powerful, so it could become very expensive or difficult to reach the next optimal goal without prestiging again.
Following above strategies, you should be able to kill the Protector at least twice before v50. Once you have 3 galactic chests, you can bet on your luck, or you can just wait for the saucer color feat to get a statistical chance to earn enough for a EC v3 stack. In any case, you will be 100% sure to reach 15 EC in this playthrough. Once you do, you should proceed to the next section. If you are unlucky, you simply should wait until v55 for the trader and if you are also poor in gold, you can farm to v60 for the energy chest. All previous advices are valid for v51-60, but in addition, it's recommended not to level tier 4 spells too much this run.
The Architect
Once the player has 15 Energy Cubes the player will want to use the keeper twice to unlock the 5th NPC of the central lair, the architect. This NPC will let you upgrade the cage, crate and safe size and grant you additional pedestals. As soon as the player is done upgrading the Dietician, they should poor all their gems (total of 750) onto the pedestals. Do not improve the cage and crate just yet under no circumstance. The safe size shouldn't be necessary at this point.
This Changes Everything! Part 3
The player can now get more pedestals. This allows the usage of more relics at once, which improves most things in the game.
Level 5x–60 (Feat tier 19 half-completed)
First objective: reach lvl 55. Get the Astro Coins from the feat and level.
Second objective: knowing lvl 57 gives you 1 Astro Coins lvl 1 pile, calculate how many more you need to reach 100 Astro Coins. If that value is higher than what the trader can sell (19 total, 24 with a spare lvl 1 pile), the player is missing Astro Coins. The player should consider beating a 4th Protector in that case. Otherwise, they should count how much gold they need from the below trades:
- lvl 1 Astro Coins - Free Sample
- lvl 1 Energy Cubes - 100 Gold Coins
- lvl 2 Astro Coins - 250 Gold Coins
- lvl 2 Energy Cubes - 500 Gold Coins
- lvl 3 Astro Coins - 750 Gold Coins
- lvl 3 Energy Cubes - 1,500 Gold Coins
If the player will have 110 Astro Coins, they can upgrade the Crate once. At 120, the Cage can also be upgraded once.
Third objective: reach lvl 60, get the Energy Chest. Open it and do the same thing for Energy Cubes as for Astro Coins above. 25 Energy Cubes are required here. If the difference is above what the trader can sell (19 total, 24 with a spare lvl 1 pile), the player should consider beating a 4th Protector.
Everything else beyond that is a repeat from lvl 50 run, with a slight increase in time shards if the player prestiges now.
The Crossroads
There are 2 options for the player in this context:
- The player has 100 Astro Coins and 25 Energy Cubes, they can proceed to the next page section.
- The player doesn't have 100 Astro Coins and 25 Energy Cubes. Below conditions may overlap:
- The player was reckless with their purchases;
- The player didn't follow the guide;
- The player was extremely unlucky;
- The player doesn't have enough gold to purchase the missing currencies;
- The player is unwilling to beat enough Protector to acquire the missing currencies.
- The player can't/doesn't want to spend real $$$ to purchase the galactic bundle from the shop.
Option 2 means the current run is over. The player needs to prestige as soon as they can with either 12 tier 1 legendaries equivalents or 6 depending on the amount of time they are willing to spend grinding (3 of which are already present in the lair). They then should speedrun to either lvl 47 to beat the Protector for missing currencies, lvl 55 for the trader or lvl 60 for the Energy Chest. Not the end of the world but a large time loss and a colossal loss in terms of free Astro Coins and Energy Cubes. Everything that option 1 players can do right now, option 2 players will be able to do next prestige unless their run is a major trainwreck. In theory it is impossible to reach lvl 60 on a lvl 70 run without having enough unless the player has spent their currencies recklessly on the archeologist and/or architect (which this guide forbade in the relevant sections).
Option 2 players should read the below section once they have 100 Astro Coins and 25 Energy Cubes on their next run.
The Surgeon
Once the player has 100 Astro Coins and 25 Energy Cubes, the player will want to use the keeper twice to unlock the 6th NPC of the central lair, the surgeon. Contrary to all previous NPCs after the keeper, this NPC is required to proceed onwards with the game. The player should immediately purchase the robo chicken. From now on, the player's next target will be the Cursed for a total of 150 Astro Coins. With that in mind, the player can proceed until feat tier 21 and merge 7500 times for the free 12 Energy Cubes if they are in their lvl 60 run. If the player wants to, they can farm 225 cosmic runes for the next NPC already (see below).
The player will need to continue farming until feat 21 at this point. The most annoying feats will be a 400k resource combined cap and having all 6 champions in the lair at once, but the former is not essential, it's a simple cosmic chest reward at the end of the run to help you make a newly unlocked legendary, the shield bot.
First things first, once the player has amassed the necessary runes (960 ice runes and 480 poison runes total) to make a robo chicken, they should make it. This will unlock the telepad, a 30 blood runes and 30 moon runes station that spawns 3 cadets (1 at a time). Their hp is random and they give a few coins when they are killed. The ultimate reward for killing the 3 cadets is the telepad disappearing and leaving a cosmic chest as a reward. This will make a great but costly way to farm cosmic runes, especially since the player will now need to spawn the newly unlocked Shield Bot which is a total 640 cosmic runes, and the next NPC is 225 cosmic runes.
Now onto feat tier 20. If the player followed this wiki until now, they shouldn't already have the archdemon spawned. They can refrain from spawning it until they need the feat, which should be the last one they complete in this case. To get all 6 champions at once, there are a few strategies :
- The most efficient one is to spawn a siren one day and another the next, farm for 4 champions (anyone will do, but the first unlocks are faster) and spawn them at roughly the same time, then use both sirens. This can be done with whatever amount of sirens but at this level sirens aren't coming back as frequently so this could be quite annoying. One could play 5 days in a row and never see a siren...
- A mid strategy would be to simply spawn the protector first while trying to keep the % for other champions as high as possible so the player can spawn them in order opposite to unlock. This can be done relatively easily as long as the player doesn't clutter their lair with too many stations (the player can even choose to feed some to the devourer, altar lvl 2 and grave lvl 2 might not be too hard to remake if necessary, but don't feed those until knight and peasant are close to spawn), and feeds their minions as necessary.
- One could also choose to level up to 67 if they are in their level 70 run to have ample space and do the above strategies, but the amount of grinding will be unreal.
Feeding 3 max level guzzlers shouldn't be too hard since a lvl 4 saucer only requires a total of 160 cosmic runes which should have already all been provided by the rewards so far. The player will likely want to invest into a lvl 5 saucer however to speed up the process. Feeding the guzzlers to 20k should be a breeze at this point, the cravings unfortunately don't count for guzzlers however.
Once the player reaches tier feat 21, they will want to check if they can reach 150 astro coins or not and if they are in their lvl 70 run or higher:
- Not in the lvl 70 run : The cosmic chest reward is too useless to waste runes on at this point, it's better to waste 30 blood and moon runes than many legendaries' worth of runes to get 400k, unless the player is already close to that naturally. The player shouldn't stop farming until they reach the 7500 merges feat, they are max level and they have enough to get every single legendary available at least once and a few liches. Don't forget to unlock the last NPC if not done already before prestiging.
- Not at 150 astro coins: Same as above but farming to lvl 70 will be quite the hassle. Make sure not to merge the shield bot until close to the end since guzzlers might make an appearance in the cravings and they can give a lot of food. The forgotten minion that uses it can also be useful. Cravings will be the largest source of food by a mile here. It's also recommended to have the 3 max robo chicken in the lair at this point for free food and damage and the time shards they will give.
If the player can proceed further here, they should farm through. It should take a large amount of time. The player can reach feat tier 22 which is the last one available in the game so far. They will need to complete the feats which shouldn't be too excruciating, for a valuable chest, 12 AC and 12 EC. Once they are ready at max lvl with a ton of legendaries and having unlocked the last NPC/ owning 225 cosmic runes, see below section.