Game Mechanics

## Calculations

All calculations, with four exceptions, are additive in nature.  This means that any benefits are added together, and that the listed amounts are demonstrated to be less when applied.  This applies to Generators, Creature Skins, Chants, Tokens, and upgrades (e.g. Library).  As such, the formula is:

**current damage = base \* (1 + standard total) \* exceptions (if none, then use 1)**

Example: You have a basic Gremlin that does 10 damage.  You also have a Generator for 75%, a Library upgrade for 100%, and a Chant for 300% - for a total of +475%, or 4.75.  Plugged into the formula, this would be current damage = 10\*(1+4.75)\*1 = **57.5**. If you then leveled up the skin for +100% damage, your total damage would then be brought up to 67.5.

The four exceptions are:

* Dark Energy doubler from the Boost store will always double the final amount.
* Apocalypse Soul doubler will double the amount of total souls after the apocalypse.
* Red Wool boost from Gran's Wool & Tech Shop
* Spell effects are added together, then applied.  This means that maxed Hell Fury and Metamorphose will add 7.5x (4 + 3.5) to the listed damage of a creature.

## Champions

All Creatures attack Champions on the left-most screen of the game.  When you fully deplete their hit points, they will stop attacking for 2 seconds after increasing the Stage Number.

Their death will also reset the Unholy Bind spell effect, regardless of remaining duration.  This means that you need to be able to clear a Stage in under 2 seconds for your Creatures to never be attacked.

Champions deal consistent damage as long as there are less than 10 Creatures spawns. The champions will deal 1 heart worth of damage if there are less than 10 creatures on queue, 2 hearts of damage if the queue counts 10/25 to 19/25, and finally 3 hearts worth of damage for any creature queue over 20/25. The exception is when using Treachery, as all Creatures spawned will die within 2 seconds, regardless of queue size. If you are planning to summon a set of high value Creatures (e.g. Her + 2 Mummies), pause all other Creature Farms so that the queue does not grow.

* Base damage: 1
* Hit Points: 500 + (3% + 500/level)

For a breakdown of health per stage, check Stage Number.

## Creatures

All Creatures have a set amount of hit points (shown as hearts) that dictate the number of hits they can take before dying.  The only way to prevent damage is to either use the Unholy Bind spell, or while the Champions are recovering between Stages.  Given the delays in spell casting, it may be that the Creature dies before the spell actually takes effect.

As you level a Creature, only the hit points stay the same.  Each level will increase the number of drops, the damage of the creature, and the amount of Dark Energy.  This often also increases the amount of materials consumed to spawn the Creature.  These levels are reset upon Apocalypse.

It is important to note that the amount of Dark Energy provided per second will always be higher for the more difficult Creatures.  For example a maxed out Gremlin (2 skins) provides 255/s, while a level 1 Her provides 458/s.  In that sense, if you want to maximize your Dark Energy production, a rule of thumb is to always use your highest level Creature.

Time creatures (Mummy, Troll, Dragon) do not provide Dark Energy.

Nether Beasts are by far the best Dark Energy Yielding creatures.

## Daily Doubling

Every 24 hours, you can double your offline production.  This will only work after 24 full hours have completed, and if you're depending on this for progress, it's best to note the last time that you used it, and then use it again 5 minutes after that time.  At higher level of offline production, this can make a significant difference.

* Doubling affects only production, not consumption.
* Best saved for rare resource productions (e.g. Chemical X) and/or a boost to Dark Energy.

Daily doubling does not double Trinkets, Time Resources or Nether resources. The last two due to the fact that when closing the game all creatures automatically die, which can also cause you losing the Time and Nether creature's drops.

## Events

There are currently 4 events that will be triggered following the start of any new game, in the following order: The Other Tower, Sid in Space, Happy Time and Aqua Adventure.  Each follows a similar model, where gains are made through progress bars with a prize list based on the total amount of a specific resource produced, over a 72 hour duration.  Without spending Gems, each requires a near-perfect timing to get the final prize.  With moderate attention, you will need to spend 350 (100+250) Gems to boost your production rate high enough to get the maximum prize. An additional 5th event will trigger once Gran's Wool & Tech Shop has been unlocked and Aqua Adventure has been completed. This 5th event is called Lost in Time.

Events are 1 time only, but can be repeated once you unlock the Time Expansion.  For 500 Gems, you can purchase a Replay Token to re-do any single event.  You can receive multiple rewards, but the Skin rewards are 1 time only.

For a breakdown on all events, check Events.

## Offline Production

Initially provides a 4 hour window where production continues at 25% the normal rate, for an equivalent total of 1 hour.  With the HR Department, you can extend the number of offline hours to 8.  It can also increase the production rate to a maximum of 50% for an equivalent total of 4 hours.  As the costs for upgrades are negligible, and even the quickest run takes 2 days, it's a generally a good investment.  Offline production does not impact spawned Creatures (of note for Mummy, Troll, Dragon).

Additionally, you can extend permanently the offline time by 3 hours with a Gran's Wool & Tech Shop Chip Upgrade, that unlike the HR upgrades does not reset after an apocalypse.

Of note is the Sap cost for rank 3 (rank 4 is Chef's Surprise, much easier to acquire) effectively doubling your production rate.  The value of this upgrade is generally limited to how demanding your run is on Sap. With the introduction of Nether Trades at Gramps Nether Shop, Sap becomes a more scarce resource that may be better invested on Nether Trades.

The effects of offline production take place after 60 seconds of the game no longer being active.  If the application is simply paused (by swapping to another application), the game will return to the last screen with all the creatures still spawned.  If the application is closed (or restarted), the game will return to the Great Hall and all spawned Creatures will be killed without their rewards.

## Skins

Most creatures have alternate skins that can be acquired through the Soul Shop, Boost Store, or one-time events.  The largest benefit to acquiring a Skin is the increase in drops from that Creature at a given level - without impacting the number of resources consumed.  It can also increase the damage, and Dark Energy provided, but given the additive nature of this mechanic the benefits are generally small.  Skin levels are not reset following an Apocalypse.

You can check Skin types and more info about them at Skin.

## Spells

Spell effects can stack with each other (additive) but cannot stack with themselves.  In that sense you cannot apply Metamorphose more than once to any given Creature.  Spell effects cancel when a Creature or Champion is killed.

Spell cool-downs are managed in real-time, regardless if the game is active or not.  Spell duration is only impacted when the game is active.  In this way, you can artificially extend the duration of Unholy Bind for a near infinite duration by casting the spell, pausing the game 2s before the end of the duration, waiting until the cool-down completes, returning to the game and recasting the spell.  This allows a high powered Creature to clear multiple floors without getting attacked. Be aware that large queue sizes (especially 25/25) cause Champions to attack at a much higher rate.