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I'm sorry but this game sucks at getting the glowing achieves. I'm so close so often but hardly ever get them There is no way of know what score you will have till the end and if you did not do EVERYTHING perfect you will not get it. Otherwise its a good game. Oh and I hate having to GRIND! There are much better more fun ways to get where you need to be in order to beat a game.
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It tells you in Gemcraft Chapter 0, the prequel(though it was released after this). Basically, a random dude killed lots of monsters defending a gem of eternity, and then that dude took the gem of eternity, except that gem was the seal to a prison imprisoning the forgotten, so the forgotten took over that wizard dude & now that wizard dude is the one wrecking havoc until you beat him in GC 1 & the forgotten takes over YOU.
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For an unknown reason, he summoned monsters to kill everyone, it should at least tell us why, even a generic reason would have been better then nothing.
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Then call 15-20 waves & make sure to keep your hand pressed on the M key, because you WILL lag, and your gem WILL kill 5-10 monsters per hit, or so, making huge fast mana gains(because they're all clumped up, & the grade 9's splash range is quite big) You will feel like a GOD when every single wave together cannot pass your single-gem defense. :)
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Sorry for spamming comments- Kong has a limit of 1000 characters per comment, & there's sadly no forum for this awesome game(I've completed both the others, just revisited this one in anticipation for Gemcraft 2) but anyway. The very best pure gem is get it, splash. Go to red hidden level if you don't believe me. Max out mid grade & high grade gem skills, along with the others that you normally put skill points into. All those starting gems combined(minus 1 grade 3 as said earlier) will give you a grade nine red. Place it 1-2 squares away from the path, preferably near a curve, because its range is great & you'd be remiss to waste that. Then, place water trenches on the path that is in your gem's range.
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@Lifeisacarride Mmmm...maybe. The orange gem's special maxes out at 12 mana gain/hit * mana pool bonus. I tried that too(well my goal was to find out the max mana pool size given limited waves(40)). Well, I got about 4 million max mana at the very end :D each monster was giving 40.000 score or so...well the last 4 monsters haha. But my highest grade is 9(max mid lvl & high lvl gems gives you one inherently if you combine them all except for one lvl 3 gem) the damage is around 150-550 & you only need more then that for an epic level(but then you have multiple gems, not just one lol). Plus, the increase in cost to get a lvl 10, when each grade of gem seems to multiply its core stats by around 1.6 per grade, & cost is 2/grade....not really worth it. Rather, by using around 70 grade 1 gems(only 8000 mana or so compared to 32K for a grade 9 gem to combine with) I upped my pure green gem(no pure mastery for that) from 150-500 damage to a nice 400-1300 damage.
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I only post the first because, for me, it was the only one other then the last which I had to redo again to win. IMO its the toughest one besides the last because you're quite weak compared to the boss if you face it without grinding other levels(after the 1st boss I took the most direct way to the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th). For the fifth, be at least level 40, max high grade gems, initial mana, gem creation cost, building cost, & place remainder in mid grade gems or mana/kill. Then keep going to options & pressing restart till you start with at least 1-2 purple gems. Armor pierce as well as enough mana for the boss to run 3 times(needs 21k total) is vital. Shocking gems help. Build a long line of water trenches, they are also important. The boss has 140 armor so not even grade 6 gems will give it much of a scratch, which is why armor pierce is super vital to win that level.
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A few grade 5 poison, triple damage, & slowing gems, along with grade 2-3 shocking & armor pierce, along with water trenches, is the key. Make sure to cluster your towers, so that when the boss is slowed, the maximum amount of towers can hit it. & vice versa, place the most amount of water trenches where the most towers will be able to hit it more. Finally, after wave 26-28, save up your mana, only using mana pool if you are nearing your max. The boss should die on the second lap, worst case the third, so remember to have at least 10k mana & you should be fine! :)
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You want Cyan & Purple. for shocking & armor removal. Use the rest(remember not to go further then dual gems, or you'll lose out on important specials like poison(ignores armor!) & triple damage(get a strong component of this & armor becomes meaningless mostly) to combine & get grade 3-4 gems. Slowly keep even distribution of upgrading manapool(final pool size should be at least 10k, for 2 laps(boss banish cost is 4920) and also start building your final defense.
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For the first boss: Having an above-average level doesn't hurt. Be level 19, at minimum, & probably best to be around 25+ to max initial mana, lower gem creation cost, & low grade starting gems. To start, plop/combine the gems you got from LGSG skill into the first 2 towers provided & possibly make a 3rd. then, for the first 10 waves(only call the next early if you haven't got any monsters to kill, survival is more important then score the first time) just expand manapool, then start getting more mana & start making multiple grade 2s.
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for all those that think that things written above should be done i will tell it's just first version of gemcraft and in newer versions those things are availible
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The best trick for the boss is have maximum starting mana, lower mana cost, more mana gain per kill and everything else to basic starting gems. The first waves should be waay too easy, upgrade every time you can the mana pool (8% more mana per kill every time this is upgraded) I upgraded it until it costed something like 1300, then its just water traps and placing armor gems at the beggining. I passed it in my first try, without even letting the final boss go through once.
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i spam towers and lv 1 gem because the special effects are more.. special plus it gave me a ton of mana saved so i couls use mana pool more and get the glowing levels easier