Time Machine
( ⚠️ Spoiler Warning: Please be warned that the following information will most probably spoil most of the current endgame content ⚠️ )
Description
The time machine is the crux of the Prestige Mechanic, being required to gain the Prestige Currency: Time Shards. Using the Time Machine also increases The Devourer's Max level by 10 each time a certain time shard earnings milestone is reached.
The Time Machine is unlocked at Lvl 35.
The first NPC that will appear inside of the Central Chamber is The Keeper.
After him the The Inventor, The Archaeologist, The Dietician, The Architect, The Surgeon, and finally The Stylist can be summoned into the chamber.
With the Time Machine and the new Alien Shops, additional game content can be unlocked such as:
- 3 new Currencies: Time Shards, Astro Coins and Energy Cubes
- 3 New Stations: Crashed Saucer, Telepad and Soul Grinder
- 6 new Legendaries: Robo Chicken, The Cursed, The Colossus, The Infernal, Shield Bot and Soul Stalker
- 1 new Rune type: Cosmic Runes
How It Works
The Time Machine uses four variables to determine how many time shards you get per prestige :
- Devourer Level: Every level (After 35) increases the base amount of time shards. This value rises considerably for each increments of 10 levels, growing between 233% and 50%, thus maximizing your level before prestiging is a must.
- Feats: Every completed Tier gives a +10% boost to time shards.
- Legendaries: Each legendary gives a boost and if you complete a "set" of legendaries you gain an extra boost. The first legendary of each type grants twice as much boost as duplicates, which means it is always better to make new legendaries instead of ones already acquired if possible.
- Ex: The Lich, Gorgon, and Harpy each give +10% boost each (as first of their kind), and when you have all three you gain an extra +20% boost. For a total +50% boost. The next Lich, Gorgon and Harpy will only give an additional 5% each and no set bonus.
- The Calculations for time shards seems to be Devourer level base * (100%+Feats bonus) * (100%+Legendaries bonus) * (100%+Other bonus)=Total Shards
- (Simplified equation with single letter variables) B*(100%+F)*(100%+L)*(100%+O)=T
| Base shards vs level | |
|---|---|
| Devour Level | Base Shards |
| 35 | 150 |
| 40 | 275 |
| 45 | 500 |
| 50 | 750 |
| 55 | 1000 |
| 60 | 1500 |
| 65 | 2000 |
| 70 | 3250 |
| 75 | 4500 |
| 80 | 5750 |
| 85 | 7500 |
| 90 | 10000 |
| 95 | 12500 |
| 100 | 15000 |
General Strategy
It is generally in your best interest to maximize your level and feats before each prestige. Keep in mind that one doesn't lose time shards if they are not spent so any unearned time shard is a loss.
In addition, having a large amount of legendaries at the time of the prestige is often recommended to gain ample amount of time shards. The best legendary to mass produce is the Lich due to the ease in farming ice runes through the Peasant. In addition, one of the first bonuses that will be purchased with the Inventor is an increase in taps for the ice chest which facilitates ice rune farming even more. After farming significant amounts of ice runes, it is also possible to have earned enough residual poison runes so that one can spawn one Gorgon, which is literally free time shards. The total amount of ice runes necessary for this farming is 620 x n, n being the amount Liches to span, and granting 5 n % bonus time shards. Note that each time a legendary is merged, its lvl 1 station will be given as a bonus, which can reduce the necessary amount of runes by a substantial amount.
Depending on the amount of poison and blood runes already available from normal play, it is also advisable to spawn some knights and clerics to reach the necessary amount of runes to merge your stations into Gorgons and Harpies. This depends heavily on how motivated the player is since to some, farming 200 poison runes and 100 blood runes (out of the 640 necessary for each) may prove too tedious for the mediocre 5% it will give them. Some could also choose instead to farm 640 extra ice runes instead, the efficiency of doing so depends on available stations, bonuses, resource caps and space, so it will forever remain subjective.
One will want to avoid making legendaries as they can afford them however since they take valuable space in the lair, instead opting to only spawn them right before the prestige.
Detailed breakdown of optimal playthroughs
This list assumes no mistakes were made across the playthroughs such as buying things when one should be planning for the future instead (primarily speaking of the Architect).
Below is a table of expected time shards provided by reaching the maximum level and completing max feats possible every prestige :
| prestige | max lvl | lvl shards | feats/L1/L2/L3/L4 (%) | LEL (%) | total shards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 40 | 275 | 260 | 50 | -* | - | - | 5A | 1072.5 + 35.75A |
| 1 | 50 | 750 | 280 | 50 | 100 | - | - | 5B | 5250 + 105B |
| 2 (RB**) | 60 | 1500 | 300 | 50 | 100 | - | 20 | 5C | 12150 + 225C |
| 2 (NRB**) | 60 | 1500 | 280 | 50 | 100 | - | - | 5D | 10500 + 210D |
| 3 (CU***) | 70 | 3250 | 310 | 50 | 100 | 30 | 40 | 5E | 32240 + 503.75E |
| 3 (NCU***) | 70 | 3250 | 300 | 50 | 100 | - | 40 | 5F | 28275 + 487.5F |
*You could make a Reaper on your first playthrough but the amount of grinding is ungodly and this is believed to be inefficient time use.
**There is a certain chance that you will have enough to unlock the Robo chicken in the second prestige so we take this into account, NRB means no robo chicken. To unlock it, you need to earn a total of 110 astro coins (AC) and 40 energy cubes (EC), this is possible if you earn 12 EC after your first prestige and earn 28 EC on your second prestige (14 are assured by the energy chest from level 60), the AC are usually not an issue if you beat 6 protectors across 2 playthroughs, you would then have 8 galactic chests and 36 AC by that point. It is assumed that no player would spawn the Shield Bot at this point since it is an extremely lengthy grind and not really worth the effort (but better than farming 6 liches).
***Here you are garanteed to have enough to unlock the Robo chicken once you reach lvl 60, however it is not assured that you would have enough AC to unlock The Cursed since this requires a total of 260 AC total. Assuming you beat the protector 3 times per prestige, you have: 84 AC (+12 AC if you did the 2 RB run), 1 lvl 1 and 1 lvl 2 AC pile and 14 galactic chests. Assuming an average of 14 AC per chest (3 lvl 1, 1 lvl 2 AC pile and 1 EC), you would get 196 AC. Even with worse than average luck, since you are able to merge most of your AC, you should in theory have enough, even while buying additional crate and cage spaces. We'll still include it in case a player is exceptionally unlucky or purchased too many crate, cage and/or safe spaces.
In either cases of prestige 3, you are assured to reach the lvl 80 cap increase threshold which is 25k.
Past prestige 4, the values change too much to be able to give a proper analysis, the general guidelines should be enough at that point.
How many liches?
In the above section, a term was introduced: LEL = Lich Equivalent Legendary past first one (5% bonus).
This suggests that each prestige option mentioned in the above table has an optimal LEL. It shall be reminded that any grinding should not be considered ''mandatory'', but there is definitely a point before which one would considerably hinder their progress if they stop before, or one would lose ample amounts of time grinding, thus wasting efficiency, if they grind past. In addition, it is easy to visualize experiment costs with this calculator.
All the below paragraphs assume the body snatcher is selected.
(A) For run 0, on the first prestige, a player should aim to get 1 LEL. This gives you lvl 1 in everything but protector, death chest and cosmic chest. Ice chest gets to lvl 2 and will be VERY useful in the near future for further LELs in the next prestige. Note that the very first prestige costs you 15 extra time shards for the portal, thus at 0 LEL, it prevents the player from gaining one very useful experiment at the very beginning which could set them back weeks.
(B) For run 1, several options:
- (B1) 3 LEL for Seasoning, Capacity and Strength at lvl 2, Ice lvl 3, poison lvl 2 and blood, moon and death at lvl 1;
- (B2) 1 LEL for everything at lvl 1, but protector and cosmic chest. Seasoning, Strength, Ice and Moon at lvl 2;
- (B3) 1 LEL for everything at lvl 1, but protector and cosmic chest. Seasoning, Capacity at lvl 2. Strength and ice at lvl 3.
(B1) requires ample grind, but gives a good balance in everything and provides considerable speed boost in the early part of the run.
(B2) will ease one of the most annoying grinds of the run which is the moon grind since one needs both reaper and cyclops before prestiging. One will also want to make a lvl 5 lectern after their reaper for a large amount of moon runes, the ice runes will also be nice to have for the next LELs.
(B3) is primarily targeted at players who hated the protector grind, just to make it a tad faster and ice farming for future LELS. All 3 are valid options and one can adjust some experiments to their tastes. Death runes are recommended since portal farming will become essential later on for archies.
(C) For run 2, the large gain from Robo chicken will be visible. If one plans on fighting a lot more protectors for more astral coins to aim for the 3 RP run, they could just get 3 LELs and get the option (B3) from above with protector at lvl 1. One could also try to accelerate their playthrough as must as possible: 1 LEL for lvl 4 craving, lvl 3 damage and ice, lvl 2 capacity, poison and moon and lvl 1 blood and death. Late levels are very craving focused so starting to rely on them now wouldn't be bad at all. Everything will be a little easier but not that great just yet.
(D) For run 2, getting protector will hinder the player more than anything since they must sacrifice so much to get it. No point in doing so. One will likely want to go with 2 LELs for Seasoning, Capacity, Strength and Ice at lvl 3, moon at lvl 2 and the rest at lvl 1 except protector and cosmic. This is an upgraded version of run (B3). The other option could be to catch up with the later option of (C), but to do so, the player will need to get to LEL 9 instead of LEL 1 in their case. Curse your bad luck! At least the grind is much easier if the player had a lot of levels in ice chest before, and they will have a larger lair for the peasant grind. One should also accumulate large amounts of ice runes by normal play if the peasant is killed anytime he spans.
(E) and (F) TBC.