I am writing this guide as a helpful tool for all those who are curious about all the unique and fun aspects of this game. I hope that you will enjoy this game as much as I do, and I highly encourage you to experiment with skill tree builds, weapon crafting, and finding out how the game progresses as you go.
Area 0
You’ll start here with a NoName Dagger as your only weapon. Click to attack the enemies headed your way, and use the rubies they drop to upgrade the dagger as you go along. There’s not a whole lot of technical information at this point, but the enemies with stars above their heads are called “Champions”. Take note of the Quests tab (the grail icon) to see what your goals are. Have fun with these first few areas and read the Achievements tab (the shield icon) to see some of the optional goals.
Areas 1-9
Once you have 10 candles from champions, look into the Rituals tab (the circumscribed pentagram icon) and get familiar with the fundamental mechanic of Grim Clicker. If you’re struggling to progress past Area 2, it’s likely because after ever 3 areas, the enemies’ health will increase by a small scale factor. I recommend performing a ritual after you’ve killed all the champions in Areas 2, 5, 8… After performing a ritual, spend your black wax at the Black Wax Store (left-most tab of the Shop tab, or the pink crystal icon). Try to pay attention to which of these categories is really slowing you down the most.
How do I know what to spend my wax on?
“Value of Rubies” is fine for a few investments, but realize that while x2 is two times greater than x1, x21 is only marginally better than x20. “Initial Damage” is probably not a good investment for you at this point since your dagger will quickly scale damage faster than the higher base damage you’ll receive. Instead of these two, try to opt for the multiplicative “Total Damage” instead unless you’re strapped for black wax. I rarely touch “EXP From Monster” since it is an additive bonus, and I opt for the multiplicative “Experience Gain” instead. “Usurpation Return” is going to greatly accelerate your farming speed once you want to start grinding out rituals over and over for black wax. This will allow you to use a Usurpation Potion from your inventory without consuming it. Be sure to get in the habit of right-clicking these potions which appear in the lower right-hand corner of the screen just above and to the left of your Mana orb. This will ensure that you don’t accidentally consume one during your farming.
What’s a good build at this point?
Before the first ritual, specializing in the Wisdom tree for Blizzard is likely your best option since it does more damage than your dagger right now. After a few rituals, try opting for a pure Strength build in Rage of Darkness supplemented with Bloodthirstiness to sustain. Adding Blizzard to this is fine, but after enemies start getting into the 1K HP range, it might be best to spend more points in Rage of Darkness.
Area 10
There is only one enemy in this area, a tanky “Boss” enemy. You’ll need to defeat him within three minutes or you will warp back to Area 9 with no penalties.
Having trouble here?
Perform rituals until you get enough skill points to sustain (or nearly sustain) Rage of Darkness through Area 9 by supplementing it with Bloodthirstiness. Be sure to invest to 3 Strength and put in 1-2 SP into Flame Flow. Once you get to Area 10, make sure your Rage of Darkness is still activated and then cast 5 casts of Flame Flow into him to take him down.
I beat it! But now what happens if I do a ritual?
Upon your next return to Area 10, the boss will be gone and an alter will be available for you to click on to gain a large sum of candles.
Areas 11-19, 21-29, and 31-39
These are essentially all just different flavors of the same 1-9 that you’ve become familiar with at this point. Remember that after a few waves (every 3 or so), you’ll hit a wall that you’ll need to grind rituals and spend black wax to get past.
Areas 20, 30, and 40
Each of these areas has a boss that must be defeated within three minutes or else you’ll be warped back to the previous stage without penalties. Each boss will be significantly tankier than the last, but the build strategy mentioned in the Area 10 section will still suffice to knock these guys out.
Are there any other viable perk builds at this point?
Yes! Depending on how much black wax you’ve farmed from rituals, you might be at a point where a March build is possible. March is a 5 Strength skill which stacks 1% total damage per second as long as the march is sustained. Each additional point put into March will extend the march by three minutes. You won’t be building Rage of Darkness with this since clicking will have a 10x energy penalty while the march is active. Instead, you’ll only spend points in March, Greed for additional rubies to spend on your weapons for more damage, and {FLAME MASK SKILL} (optional until probably areas 30 and 40) which takes away your chance at hitting critical hits at the expense of multiplying your damage by 10… which is your current critical hit multiplier…
The downside of this mask will become apparent later in the game when you see that your crit multiplier can be altered… I never bothered supplementing this build with Dexterity skills like Huntsman since you can put points into Greed instead, but there might be some interesting synergies here that I’m overlooking.
Area 41
Welcome to the village countryside! You’ve reached civilization, and you are now faced with a choice. Do you want to perform a ritual and start back at Area 0, or do you want to learn Knowledge of the World and leave the Shard?
Shards 2 – 3
You’ll notice that these two shards are nearly identical to the first except that when you perform rituals now, you have a hellfire modifier (visible in the top left corner of the Ritual screen) that increases the amount of black wax you receive from each candle consumed during the ritual. This will help you clear the shard quicker, and in later shards, this will help you keep up with the health scaling that enemies receive as you progress through the shard.
Your hellfire modifier will not change while you are in the shard, but once you accept the deal to leave the shard, it will update its value. You can increase the deal offered at the city at the end of shard by performing a ritual and spending more black wax on another run to the city.
Shards 4 and On…
Eventually, around Shard 4, the city will not appear at Area 41, but rather it will begin showing up at Area 51. The method to reach the city is still the same, but the final 10 areas are tougher than the rest due to increased health scaling. You’ll have to perform a few more rituals to reach the city from here on out!
Other Shard Info
As you progress through the galaxy, you’ll come across a few new gameplay elements that haven’t been mentioned yet. One of these will be the “SHARDS RESIST” message that is displayed as you travel to somewhere around Shard 5. From this point on, select enemies will glow orange periodically and be strengthened to have 5x their normal health. This can happen to normal enemies and champions, but not bosses.
Additionally, you will start to encounter special shards that have a unique element about them.
- Rainbow Shard – Every hit is a critical hit.
- Cursed Shard – Your energy and mana (along with any attempts to increase these two) are cut to 1/6 of their original value.
- Rust Shard – Your weapons take much more money to upgrade. Any boss chests opened in this shard will contain metal.
- Tree Shard – Your energy is restored over time. I believe your Dexterity does not reset after a ritual is performed.
- Blood Shard – Every 4s, a ruby will fall from the sky. Every 10-20s enemies will regenerate 25% of their maximum health.
- Flaming Shard – Your Strength is not reset after a ritual is performed.
- Magic Shard – Your mana is restored over time.
- Fate Shard – You are given one of four different masks each time you perform a ritual.
You can receive either the Mask of Fire (Strength), Assassin Mask (Dexterity #1), Wind King Mask (Dexterity #2), or the Pilgrim Mask (Wisdom). - Ice Shard – Your wisdom does not reset after a ritual is performed.
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