Infinity Realm: Mana Cycle

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*Not to be confused with **Infinity Realm: Mana Cycle Mini**.*

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*Infinity Realm: Mana Cycle* is the 38th entry in the Lemniscate series and is the fourth entry in the Infinity Realm series, with its first public build initially releasing on threehalves's GitHub in March of 2023 with a later on infinityJKA's itch.io in April of 2023. The game is a puzzle-battler features characters from *The Tale of the Infinity Realm: Expedition* and takes place before the events of the novel.

*Infinity Realm: Mana Cycle* won first place in the Missouri Technology Student Association's video game design competition, and is the first Lemniscate game to win an award.

## Gameplay

The objective of the game is to survive by clearing blobs of mana to cast spells. This is done by matching three or more conductive colors of mana as dictated on the mana cycle and casting a spell. Successfully casting a spell will cause the affected mana to clear and increase the player's score.

After a cast, if the clearing of the mana causes the same color of mana to fall into another clearable position, a cascade clear will be performed with an additional score multiplier. It is possible to cascade into another cascade clear for a exponentially increasing multiplier. This multiplier additionally stacks on chain multipliers.

If no cascades are possible or all possible cascades have been completed after a clearing, the mana cycle will progress and attempt to automatically cast the next mana color as a chain clear, which will result in an additional score multiple that is lower than that of a cascade. It is possible to trigger a chain into a cascade, and the chain multiplier will be kept until the end of the final chain clear (cascade multipliers are only kept for the duration of the cascade and not carry over to different cascades performed during different points of a chain).

Clearing every color in the mana cycle will result in the cycle resetting and awarding the player a permanent score multiplier that will last for the rest of the match. This multiplier stacks with both cascade and chain multiplers.

Additionally, every playable character has a unique ability that can be performed after clearing enough mana (with the exception of IBN Trainbot, whose ability does not require a charge).

### Singleplayer Modes

#### Story Mode

Story Mode consists of a sequence of mission-based stages that must be completed in an order. Missions each have unique objectives such as surviving for a certain amount of time or clearing a certain amount of mana within a timeframe. Missions can also have varying properties regarding fall speed and the number of colors on the mana cycle. Every stage in Story Mode additionally includes a cutscene at the beginning of the stage that progresses the plot of the game.

#### Endless Mode

Endless Mode features an array of endless stages in which the player can attempt to get a high score in. There is no way to beat any of the endless stages, and endless stages have unique properties similar to some Story Mode and Z-Challenge stages.

#### Arcade Mode

In Arcade Mode, the player will select a character of their choice and battle through a set of predetermined computer-controlled opponents. These battles use the versus battle format unlike the rest of singleplayer modes. There are three difficulties of the mode available. A non-playable character known as Mirrored appears in the final battle of Arcade Mode.

#### Z-Challenges

Z-Challenges are extremely difficult singleplayer missions similar to those of Story Mode. Like Story Mode, each Z-Challenge must be completed in order, but there are no cutscenes. Additional special properties not seen in Story Mode appear in Z-Challenges, such as constantly falling Trash Mana.

### Versus Mode

Versus Mode can be played between either two real players in local multiplayer, one real player versus a computer-controlled player, or as a spectator match between two computer-controlled players.

In Versus Mode, score is replaced with HP, and clearing mana will remove HP from the opponent after a 6-action delay. While the attack in incoming during the 6-turn delay, any attacks sent by the defender will instantly reduce their incoming damage instead being sent as damage to the opponent. A battle is won if the opponent's HP reaches 0 or they top-out.

Players can select any character to play as in Versus Mode. Players can also individually select the amount of Lives they have, which allows a player to return to full HP with an empty board when defeated, as well as individually toggle the visibly of ghost pieces, and disable or enable their character's ability. Computer-controlled players can additionally be toggled between ten skill levels.

### Playable Characters

The game initially launched with five playable characters, With the 1.1 Update released in May of 2023, Geo and z?man were added as additional playable characters.

* Infinity
* Aqua
* Pyro
* Psychic
* IBN Trainbot
* Geo (1.1 Update)
* z?man (1.1 Update)

### Other

#### Achievements

A variety of achievements can be obtained by completing certain tasks in the game. These achievements are viewable in the settings menu on the home screen.

##### Blackjack Minigame

A secret Blackjack minigame can be played against Geo by entering a secret code on the home screen.

## Plot

In year 3248 IR, Infinity, Aqua, Psychic, and Pyro enter the Infinite Battle Network to train their magical abilities. They meet the program's AI, IBN Trainbot, who tests them with a series of increasingly difficult exercises. Eventually, the group partakes in a training activity in which they role-play as heroes adventuring to stop an evil wizard. This wizard turns out to secretly be Psychic, who promptly defeats the rest and ends the activity to the anger of the rest of the group.

## Appearances

Characters

* Infinity
* Aqua
* Pyro
* Psychic
* Geo
* IBN Trainbot (first appearance)
* z?man
* Electro (mentioned)
* Electric Chicken Mech Man (mentioned) (first canon appearance)
* Romra (blackjack card design)
* Repins Blaze (blackjack card design)
* Winged Boots (blackjack card design)

Locations

* Infinity Realm
	+ Infinite Battle Network

Items

## Trivia

* *Infinity Realm: Mana Cycle* was the first-place winner of Missouri Technology Student Association's high school video game design competition.
	+ This make the game the first Lemniscate entry to win an award.