@KeeperBvK: So, on top of the obvious problems with this unnecessary layout downgrade, some people get to have special bonus problems, for that personal touch! What fun! Totally worth changing the theme that worked for the last decade!
(I'd suggest just using the search feature, but that seems to have vanished as well.)
My own bonus problems seem to be the site now slowing Firefox, which it didn't before. Anyone else getting this too? Maybe we should make a bingo card.
Oh, just in case anyone on the Kongregate staff is reading this: that was sarcasm. I'd imagine that to be obvious, but so are many of the flaws with this new layout, and it was forced on us anyway. Could we at least have that "sticky top" thing made optional, so we don't have to manually disable it in the DOM and Style Inspector?
I stopped getting crafting crashes when I started waiting a second after finishing a craft (that is, complete one craft, wait a second, then spam-click as normal to make the next one).
@KeeperBvK: I can see recent games by hovering over "Games" at the top; they're the three games to the left of the playlist (uglier than the old way, though). But yes, the new theme is definitely worse. For example: didn't checking messages show the number of messages before, and open in a new tab? Now it just has a near-meaningless dot and opens in the same tab, so if you happen to click during a game, now you have to go back and reload the game (and probably have lost progress).
@Nitrinoxus I'm glad you didn't lose your save, but... for any game like this that's likely to take months or years, you should probably make backups of your saves (if possible), just in case. Can be nice for testing stuff, too.
A tip for people who want to play heavily monetized games like this without spending real money: figure out what the premium currency is (rubies, in this case) and avoid spending it on little things like temporary bonuses or timeskips until there's nothing better left to use it for. Those tiny expenditures add up, and you won't finish a game like this for a long time anyway (unless you spend a ridiculous amount of real money, that is). Don't fall for those offers to buy an item directly with a ruby when you can buy for shells in the shop, and don't be fooled by the game seeming to throw a lot of it at you when you're starting out; that'll almost certainly slow down later, and if you spent it like you were expecting that generosity to continue, you'll probably end up regretting it.
Some tips for people who are struggling with this: choose the wand, then go after the doom upgrades (makes your hits sometimes explode for AoE damage) while also focusing on upgrades that give you more shots, splitting shots and the like (more hits means more explosions); doom works with all attacks, but it's easier to get lots of attacks out of the wand. The starburst uprgade (middle bottom wand upgrade twice) is particularly good for this, though not so great for focused damage.
Also, choose Barb Barian once you have her unlocked; her roll skill lets you get an occasional burst of speed (during which you can't fire but can reload) and can be upgraded to be invulnerabile during the roll and do AoE knockback with damage when it ends, so you've an escape route if surrounded.
For some reason, the menu music never stops playing; while in-game, it plays simultaneously with the in-game music, but only the latter responds to the volume slider. I can turn both sliders to 0, muting the non-menu music and all in-game sounds, and the menu music continues playing at full volume.
KeeperBvK: the treasure hunter is one of the four people shown down the left side of the screen; click one and you can spend energy to summon that one for the next wave, if it's ready.
To reply here too: after you “hear sounds outside”, go out and you’ll see a cloud above a pipe to the right. Jump into that cloud and use the arrow keys or WASD to steer in mid-air (same goes for other clouds).
Also, in a lot of places, there are lines or symbols in the background; they provide hints. In particular, a symbol matching a powerup usually means “this is a good place to use that powerup”.
To expand on what randomboy839 said: to restore energy for free (assuming you're low enough level), click Guardian in the bar of blue buttons and you'll see an option to "Refill your energy" on the top left.
A small trick for new players: after you start your first map mission, the game'll give you some gems so you can finish it instantly. This is a waste of gems, so you might want to wait until the game autosaves (happens every 5 minutes), then reload the page to keep the gems.
Sorry, a mistake in that last comment: for all except maybe the last two girls, each level gained in a reset raises the amount your Reset Boost is increased when you next reset (capped at 2048); this means that there's benefit to raising their level every time. Ayano does give very little for the effort involved, though. Pretty sure that's intentional.
@Reibear: There actually is an indicator of your maximum progress for each girl (in the achievements tab), but there's also a hidden bonus to (at least) the talk button that's based on the number of girls you've reached Lover stage with.
Also, they all contribute to raising your Reset Boost (though later ones increase it more), which makes things faster and is required for some of the later girls.
I know that a lot of monetized games try to make the experience inconvenient for non-payers to encourage them to spend money on making gameplay less annoying (I don't like it, but I understand it). This, though, has many UI problems with no paid for solutions, such as the lack of undo, and both scrolling and dragging using the same control making the lack of undo worse... oh, and why buy extra locations when that means struggling with the bad map scrolling even more? The lack of confirmation of ruby spending would also discourage people from stockpiling because a misclick could waste them on unwanted stuff, too. Ironically, we stubborn non-payers are probably bothered less by these UI flaws because we're not expecting quick progress anyway, while people impatient enough to pay are also likely to be driven away by the annoyances built into the game.
N7791: I've been consistently over the energy limit for maybe a week now and it hasn't stopped the energy lottery giving me getting 60 energy a couple of times. Of course, remaining over the limit has its own energy gain problems, but that's a different issue.
A tip I forgot to mention: when the spend 5 rubies daily quest appears, you can complete it without wasting rubies on junk by clicking the buy button for an order you're exactly two items short of (for example, one that requires 4 strawberries when you have only 2); each one will cost 3 rubies, so you're breaking even once you claim the 6 ruby reward.
Recna: Considering I received the badge the moment I got the King's Barracks to 1, something seems to have gone wrong for you. I'd suggest using the "Report missing achievement or bounty" link (under the achievements tab to the right of the game, at least if you're playing on desktop) but, failing that, I suppose you might also be able to get it from similar structures? But reporting'll probably be faster.
Some tips: you can close popups quickly by pressing esc instead of waiting for the X to appear, and you can do this right after throwing the axe for the energy lottery (without waiting for it to tell you how much you got) and the energy will still be added.
Holding an item over at least two other things it can merge with will bring up a message if you'd get a more efficient merge by gathering more items. Merge breakpoints are at 3, 5, 9, 17, 33, and probably so on.
In Dragon's Den (the minesweeper minigame), you can rightclick squares to flag them, so you don't have to drag a flag from the bucket. The number at the bottom before "/45" is the number of safe squares you've opened; sometimes knowing how many are left can help with figuring out where they are.
Recna: I got the Grand Architect badge when I built the King's Barracks (final step in a long series of merges). It might also be awarded for the Royal Citadel or the like.
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 "Monster Tiles TD"){kind=icon}
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 "Mergest Kingdom"){kind=icon}
We'll look into this, thanks for letting us know!