Chaos Trials

The **Chaos Trials** are an annual competition in Lanova held by the Council of Magic to seek worthy wizards. The strongest members of the council shape sections of Lanova's Castle into a labyrinth of hazards and creatures of chaos energy, each personalized to their own element and personality. Wizards from around the world compete to defeat these challenges, and the council members who made them, to earn the title of Wizard of Legend.

## Rules

Wizards who enter the Chaos Trials are allowed to start with only four arcana—a basic spell, a dash spell, a standard spell, and a signature spell—and one Relic. so wizards will typically bring their favourite ones. Additional arcana can be collected throughout the trials through random enemies, chests, shopkeepers, and as rewards for beating the council members.

## Structure

The Trials are divided into three randomly ordered sections of levels based on the element of the three of the five Council Members that are chosen: Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, or Earth.

Each level consists of three stages. The first two stages contain a randomly generated selection of enemy encounters as well as a relic shop, arcana shop, mystery room and miniboss room which are guaranteed to spawn. To progress to the next stage the miniboss must be defeated. The final stage is a boss battle with the Council Member corresponding to the stage's element.

The stages become progressively more difficult by giving basic and elemental enemies more abilities. Minibosses gain additional abilities such as heal phases, spawning enemies mid fight. Council Members are able to perform more attacks, gain new attacks, have shorter vulnerability phases and are overall faster.

The wizard always encounters Master Sura on the fourth level, regardless of the order of the preceding sections. Initially you enter a hallway consisting of 3 rooms of enemies with a miniboss in the final room. Relic and arcana shops also appear at the end of the hallway before a portal which takes you to the final boss.The Strange Timekeeper is to the right of the portal.

## Strategy/Tips

For those having difficulty completing the Chaos Trials, certain basic strategies can help the player survive and complete the Trials.

### Arcana

When picking starting arcana, be aware that some elements will face less resistance than others during the Trials because there are only three different elements utilized by the enemies during one attempt. For instance, fire arcana would be weak against water enemies, resisted by fire enemies, have normal effect against earth enemies, and are super effective against wind enemies. In comparison, earth arcana would be weak against wind enemies, resisted by earth enemies, but have normal effect against both fire and water enemies. For further comparison, lightning arcana would be weak on earth levels, have normal effect on fire levels and wind levels, but be strong on water levels.

If one is having particular difficulty on certain levels, bringing starting arcana that benefits against that element might increase one's chances. Alternatively, a player could choose four different elements strong against each type of enemy in each of their starting arcana slots that deal damage (basic, dash(although less so), standard, and signature). Air, lighting, and water and fire are the elements that would be strong against the current enemy elements. Note, however, that lightning would be weak against earth, while water would be weak to electricity, resistant to itself, strong against fire, and have normal effect against earth.

The player should prepare for the final section of the Chaos Trials (typically the most difficult) by taking note of the element of the final section and obtaining arcana that work well against that element.

### Relics

Relic combos and synergy depend on whether one has the opportunity to obtain the specific relics. players can utilize the maximum benefit of relics by obtaining relics at certain times and discarding others when they cease to provide benefit.

* Consider picking up relics that require killing enemies, obtaining healing, or other acts to "build up" that relics benefit (i.e.  Tiny Crocodile Heart,  Takeout Box, or  Cartographer's Quill) in the earlier parts of the trial to ensure that you obtain the maximum benefit. Getting these items late game would likely not be worth the cost, or the potential benefit of obtaining a relic with immediate benefit.
* Distinguish between relics that benefit only during the actual level and not against the boss. Relics that only provide short buffs when defeating regular enemies would not benefit during boss fights where those enemies are absent (i.e.  Special Snowflake,  Boots of Frenzy,  Destructive Abacus, or  Whimsical Explodium).
* By the end of level 3-2, items that earn gold, reduce prices, and other level-specific benefits cease having benefit. After clearing level 3-2 and defeating the mini-boss, there is no need to earn more gold because the rest of the Chaos Trials would not have merchants. Therefore, items like  Tears of Midas or  Glove of Midas cease having any benefit. If available, sell these relics to the Cremire the Collector to earn extra gold to purchase other relics. The same should be done for relics that have level-specific benefits, such as  Pathfinder's Map. Just like gold earning relics, there would be no need to have the map revealed because revealing the succeeding boss levels would not benefit the player. Other relics that cease having benefit on 3-2 include:  Jewelry Box,  Hummingbird Feather, and  Charming Teddy Bear.
* There are a number of cursed relics that, when picked up at the conclusion of level 3-2, bare no negatives against the player. Just like how items that provide increase gold or price reductions become less useful past level 3-2, the negative aspect of all cursed items that would burden gaining gold or increase prices would be negated. These items include:  Golden Armor of Envy,  Golden Saber of Envy,  Ominous Loan Note, and  Armor of Greed. With no further need for gold, essentially all of these items are just beneficial and free. Another cursed relic that has its benefit outweigh the negative after level 3-2 is  Paronomasicon, because although it increases damage from all enemies, the increased damage against Council Members may outweigh it (or at least it would not be wasted when still needing to fight against regular enemies).

## Rewards

In addition to earning the title of Wizard of Legend, the winner will be awarded with the  Insignia of Legend and one of 24 Chaos arcana, extremely rare and powerful arcana that can only be crafted by the head of the council, and that most wizards can't control.