GYROMANCER Guide to Game Mechanics and Monster Strategy,
An Unofficial Guide for new players by DrGinx
(FINAL)
Copyright 2009 Xing Gao
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Gyromancer is a bejeweled like puzzle RPG game published by
SQUARE ENIX and POP CAP. Like it's precursor game Puzzle Quest,
the game is focused on doing battle by clearing gems.
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About the Author. This is my first time playing a puzzle game, as
I never played puzzle quest before. I found Gyromancer a lot of fun,
great music and game system. This is also my first faq, as other games
are too daunting a task for a newb like me to write faqs.
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Mechanics
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Grid and Gems
The Grid: The grid size is 8 x 8
Type of Gems: There are six different color of gems, each one associated with
an different types of monsters.
Yellow Diamonds - Lighting type (Beetles and Werewolves)
Orange Hexagons - Earth type (Dinosaurs and Golems)
Green Hexagons - Plant type (Fairy and Treants)
Red Squares - Fire type (Dragons and Elementals)
White Spheres - Ice type (Spiders and Owls)
Purple Triangles- Dark type (Ants and Gnats)
There are also other types of gems/non-gems that appears on the grid.
Stones: Blocks that can't be cleared normally. Some skills create or destroy
stones.
Locked Gems: Gems that are locked can't be rotated, but can be cleared
normally. Some abilities can create or destroy locks.
Gems with Auras: Gems that are enchanted with your creature's ability, which
is activated by clearing the enchanted gem.
Gems with Skulls: Gems that are enchanted with your foe's ability, has a
countdown timer before activation.
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Mechanics
Rotating Gems: You may rotate any 4 adjacent gems 1 position clockwise(and
only clockwise, an item in the game allows you to turn counter clockwise).
Clearing Gems: At the end of a rotation, any 3(or more) gems of the same color
horizontally or vertically is cleared. If gems on the bottom cleared,
uncleared gems on the top will fall down to fill the gap. New gems are also
created randomly from the top to fill the 8 x 8 grid at all times.
Attack gauge: All monsters have attacks skills that has a charge gauge. Once
the gauge is full a random gem on the grid is enchanted with the attack
ability. Clearing that gem will cause HP damage to your and/or activate any
special effects. Some attack gauges activate passive effects and do not
create gems. Attack gauges reset once ability is used.
Enemy Attack gauge: Whenever you make a move, you foe's attack gauge will
charge. When it reaches full, a random gem on the grid will be enchanted with
a skull. This gem has a countdown timer, if you cannot clear it with in the
number of required turns, the enemy's ability will activate and your monster
will be damaged.
HP gauge: If your opponent's HP is reduced to 0 he loses. If your monster's
HP is reduced to 0, that monster is defeated.
Monster HP start at full at the beginning of a map and do not recover
between battles. You can recover some HP by using shrines.
Switching Monsters: The main character is in control of 3 monsters.
Switching monsters require visiting the Summoner's den between maps.
Switching monsters cost gil.
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NEWB TIP! Conserve HP
Since you can't heal or Revive your monsters, this means any small HP damage
you take will accrue over time. This can make boss fights hard later on.
However, the key is to not take damage. This means clearing your foe's
attack gems is of high priority. You might also want to consider using
monsters that have higher HP as they can soak up more damage.
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Affinity:
Clearing gems with the same affinity color as your monster will fill your
attack gauge more than clearing non-affinity gems.
Clearing gems with the same affinity color as your foe will not charge the
attack gauge of your foe.
As you can see, luck plays somewhat of a role in your starting screen. If
you are using a Fire aligned monster, having a lot of red gems on the screen
will give you a strong start.
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NEWB TIP! Advantage of same Affinity
Taking on monsters with the same affinity monster isn't a bad idea! When you
clear gems of your affinity color, you charge your attack gauge more and you
foe don't charge at all!
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Special clears: (Why use them?)
While clearing any 3 gems will fill the attack gauge for your monster's
attack skills, using special clears fills them faster. This way you can
cause damage sooner.
To demonstrate:
X = Gem color Y = Different Gem color, ? = any other color
There are different special clears:
Match: Clear more than 3 gems of a same color is a match.
XX ?X
?? -> ?X
X X
X X
Rotating the top will get you a Match "4"
Combo: Clearing multiple rows with 1 turn
?X ??
?Y -> YX
YX YX
YX YX
Rotating the top 4 will get you a combo, clearing both X and Y rows.
Cascade: Falling gems after a clear cause another clear.
Y?? Y?? Y
XX?X -> XXX? -> -> Y
Y Y Y Y
Y Y Y Y
Rotating the ?? will clear X, then the Y falls down and cause the cascade
clear. ?X
Chain: Continuing to clear every turn without idle twist, this will allow
you to fill attack gauge quicker, and may eventually lead to Gyro Chain if
you max chain at level 5(an absolutely 1-hit kill kind of attack I hear.)
Break: If you destroy stones and locks using special means, you fill you
attack gauge more.
Concept of Idle Twist:
If you twist and don't clear anything, it's called a idle twist. Your foes
will stil charge their attack gauge if you idle twist. Later on in the game
you are penalized for idle twist. The enemy gauge charge TWICE and foe
ability gems count TWICE when you idle twist. This puts a big damper on
what kind of special clears you can setup. It also severely limits your
ability to remove you foe's attack gems.
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NEWB TIP! Cascade Usage
All this stuff is pattern recognition, you have to be able to see hidden
special clears, or be able to setup them up. Since I am newb, I use Cascade
the most out of all special clears. I don't want to stare at the screen
forever to squeeze out the best comobo. So Whenever possible, I tend to
clear gems near the bottom of the grid, causing more shifts and falls which
through random chance will sometimes cascade(even multiple cascade).
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Monsters and Strategy:
Now we move on to the fun stuff! Monsters :)
Monsters have different affinity, and also different level caps. As your
summoner defeat foes, he will level up. Your monsters take your level or
their level cap whichever is lowest. So if you are level 10 but one of your
monsters has a level cap of 9, that monster will show up in battle as a
level 9.
Levels:
Higher level monsters have more HP and cause more damage with attacks.
If you are facing a monster whose level is significantly lower than yours
their attack gauge will fill very slowly. As your foe's levels approach
yours you will notice their gauge fill faster. Fighting a monster equal
or higher to your level will cause the foe to fill their meter extremely
fast. Penalties for idle twist is HUGE. Keep in this in mind during boss
fights.
Different Monsters(like pokemon lol) are strong or weak against different
affinity of monsters. In a strong vs weak setup, the monster with advantage
will have bonuses to attack and defense(+3), while the monster with
disadvantage will have penalty to attack and defense(-3). This advantage
however, is NOT more important than how well you play!
Type Strength Weakness
Fire/Red Ice, Plant Earth, Water
Plant/Green Earth, Water Fire, Dark
Earth/Orange Water, Fire Plant, Dark
Water/Blue Lighting, Fire Plant, Ground, Dark
Lighting/Yellow None Water
Ice/White None Fire, Dark
Dark/Purple Plant,Fire,Ice,Earth None
Breakthrough. All monsters have 3 forms from young to mature to ancient.
As you fight you might gain Breakthroughs. A breakthrough can be used to
move your monster to a special Ultimate form for the duration of 1 battle
(Good for boss fights). This often will bring enhanced abilities and increase
level caps. An unused breakthrough carries over battle and maps.
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NEWB TIP - Setting up a Beast Roster
Even a Newb sees it make sense to get 3 monsters that compliment each other's
strength and weaknesses.
If you are true N00b, you've noticed(like me) that dark monsters have NO
weaknesses So What's stopping you from getting 3 dark monsters and pwn?
Well level caps and ease of use is a issue! I will talk more on this topic
in specific monsters.
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Now for the fun stuff!
Monster specific strategies! Alright let's go through some monsters.
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Red Wyrm Level Cap: 7 Affinity: Fire
Abilities:
Flare Deals Damage, Arc of Lighting.
Fire Breathe Deals Damage, Explosion, creates 3 gems.
Kindle Increase attack by 1
Damage Rating
Flare *** Lava flow *(advanced)
Fire breath * Fever pitch *(advanced)
Kindle None
Red Wyrm is a great starting creature. It's best feature is Fire breathe,
which creates 3 ability gems! Even though individual attack power is low,
if they are clustered together, you can clear multiple gems to activate
multiple attacks. Multiple attacks greater than two is also called a Rush,
and with Wyrm it's easy to setup RUSHes. Using Firebreath and Flare you can
pummel your opponents with damage. However, after level 7 Wyrm falls
behind on HP and durability.
Advanced Versions:
Lava Wyrm is the next advanced version. Lava wyrm is the prototypical full
offense attacker. It trades in Kindle for Lava Flow, an low damage attack
skill that turns gems of the same color red. By clearing more red gems,
this can significantly speed up your recharge time on all of your attack
skills. Unfortunately I didn't get this creature until later in the game.
Even with all that attack power, Lava Wyrm falls behind on HP.
The final version is Wyvern. Wyvern loses Lava flow and gains Fever pitch.
If you set off the fever pitch gem, it sets off all of your gems on screen.
This is the ultimate rush combo starter. I must say I am impressed by the
Wyvern's offensive power. If anything, this monster can attack.
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Newb Tip - Explosion and Arcs of Lighting
Here we go into little more mechanics. When you activate an explosion attack
gem, the attack destroyes nearby gems. If one of you other attack gems is in
the explosion radius, it is ACTIVATED! If one your foe's attack gems is caught
in the explosion, it is destroyed WITHOUT ACTIVATION! This is one of the
few ways to destroy your opponent's attack gems without matching 3 of a kind.
However, the same applies to you. Some of your foe's gems can also activate
explosions, these explosions will DESTROY your attack gems! If a cascade is
triggered from an enemy explosion, the resultant clears can also DESTROY
your attack gems.(Even though it's a clear, damage won't trigger).
Explosion clears gems nearby to the attack gem. Arc of lighting clears in a
cross pattern, all gems on the same X and Y axis as the attack gem are
cleared. This allows you ability to eliminate attack gems of foes from
across the grid too. It also has big potential for cascading clears
afterwards if the lighting start low on the grid.
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Whim Bockle Level Cap: 16 Affinity: Fire
Abilities
Blaster Deals Damage, Explosion, Random Location
Camouflage Gains Random Affinity
Burst Explosion, create 1 stone
Damage
Blaster ***
Camouflage None
Burst ****
When I first saw Whim Bockle's abilities I wasn't really impressed. This fire
elemental is quick, Blaster especially. But the explosion is randomly placed,
so it's hard to use strategy on it. Camouflage changes the affinity, but it's
also random, so hard to setup a tactic based on it. It only changes
Gem affinity, the monster's inherent weakness vs strength is unchanged.
Advanced Versions:
Hex Bockle gets a big bonus as Blaster is switched to Detonator, which blows
up 3 random sections of the grid. The over all area covered can be sizable,
but it's still random.
Gremlin is the most advanced version, it has Confusion instead of Camouflage,
which changes both your and your foe's affinity to random colors. Again, I
find it hard to use strategy when everything is random. So I havn't been a
big fan of the Bockle family.
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Frost Avis Level Cap: 11 Affinity: Ice
Abilities:
Whiteout Turn all gems that has the color of the cleared gem to white.
Deals damage
Feathershot Destroy all gems of the same color as the cleared gem,
Deals damage
Frostbite Decreases foe's attack power
Damage
Whiteout ** Avalanche **** (Advanced)
FeatherShot ***
Frostbite None
When I first saw this bird, I was like...why do I want to summon a stupid
bird. The damage on this bird is pathetic. Used it once, and it changed my
mind. The most powerful move of this bird is Whiteout. For example,
Whiteout comes in enchanting a green gem, if you clear it the ability
changes all green gems into white gems! Now you can clear that many more
white gems to take advantage of its ice affinity. Sometimes switching colors
to white will result in instant special clears. Feathershot clears all gems
of the same color on the grid as the enchanted gem, this often results in
multiple "holes" on the grid that can lead to cascades. Over all this bird
is FAST, capable of recharging itself quickly by changing other gems to white.
Downside to this bird is it has no explosion or arc of lighting abilities,
so you have to clear your foe's attack gems by matching 3. If you are lucky
and his attack gem has the same color as your feather shot gem, you can
destroy it that way. It also has fairly low HP.
Advanced Versions:
Platinum Avis is the advanced version of the Frost Avis. It has Avalanche,
which does the same thing as whiteout. Except it does much more damage.
So it's a welcomed change.
Vulture is the final version of the Avis, it loses frost bite and gains
chillbains which lowers foe's attack power by 2. Not a really great
improvement by my oppinion.
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WebSpinner Level Cap 21 Affinity: Ice
Abilities:
Web Hunt Destroy 1 locked gem, create Arc of Lighting, Deals Damage.
Freeze Turn all gems that has the color of the cleared gem to white.
Deals damage
Entangle Creates 1 locked gem
Damage:
Web Hunt *****
Freeze *****
Entangle None
Past level 11, Webspinner quickly made the replacement for my bird. This
spider has the things I wanted from Frost Avis and more. It has Freeze,
an ability same as whiteout but does more damage. Web Hunt and Entangle
are a strong combination. Entangle creates a lock, and Web Hunt destroyes
that lock. This also counts for the Break special clear bonus.
The downside to web spin is that the location of the locked gem created by
entangle is random. Since you can't move locked gems, it's hard to
strategize using it. However, you can move foe's attack gem onto the
axis before you activate web hunt.
Overall, Freeze allows you to quickly recharge Web Hunt and entangle,
allowing you to frequently launch attack gems. Just remember not to clear
your locked gem before you use Web Hunt.
Advanced Versions:
Huntsman Spider is the next form, trades in Entangle for Capture. Capture
decreasesfoe's attack power and defense and locks one of their attack gems.
This is a devastating ability when used against you. Your attack gem can't
twist, and it's prone to be blown up by Web Hunter.
On the flip side, you can use the same strategy against your foes, but
locking their ability gems hinders your ability to clear that gem normally.
So you better be ready to launch Web Hunter. If Web Hunter gets placed
into a corner with no easy way to clear, you can be in a world of pain.
The most advanced version of the spider is Goliath. Goliath loses Web Hunt
and gains Roaming Hunter, while capture is replaced by Entangle. Web Hunt
is the ultimate anti-lock attack, allowing you to destroy all Locks. However
since capture is lost, the Goliath loses debuff and ability to lock foes
attack gems. I must say this makes the Goliath more of a anti-lock
specialist, but not a good monster for general purposes.
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Green Arum Level Cap 17 Affinity: Plant
Abilities:
Mold Deals Damage, Explosion, # of gems created vary
Poison Mist Decrease Vitality of Foe by 1
Chlorophyl Increase Vitality of Caster by 1
Damage:
Mold *
Poison Mist None
Chlorophyl None
Don't frown upon this tree. While most monsters have 2 damages skills, he
has only one, and the one he has deals utterly low amount of damage.
Lowering opponents vitality deals only a pathetic amount of damage, but it
does damage every time you twist gems. Chlorophyl however, raises your
vitality, this is good because it gives you a small amount of HP regen
everytime you twist.
You must have patience to use this tree. Because Mold get more powerful with
time. Each time you use Poison mist, your foe's vitality goes down by 1.
Mold generates attack gems based on how negative their vitality is. At -1,
mold gives 1 gem, at -2 Mold gives 2 gems and so on. So technically speaking,
you can get 5 gems at -5. Arums have high HP, which means allows you to be
patient. You can build up mold to give out a large number of gems. If you
stack up two uses of mold, you can detonate a ridiculous number of gems all
at once, creating a powerful rush. Arum's weakness is against foes that
can restore their own vitality. This will prevent the build up
on your Mold attack and you won't be able to combo.
Fighting against Arums you should go for a speedy finish, or use monsters
that can recover from negative auras.
Advanced Versions:
Green Arum's Next Incarnation Ancient Arum, gives up Chlorophyl for Leave
Purge, which allows you to decrease any debuff and increase your own buffs.
Honestly I rather have Chlorophyl, but the Level cap is much higher for
Ancient Arum. The overall Mold build up strategy does not change.
The most advanced version is Colossal Watcher. Leave purge is changed to
Terraform, an attack skill. When Terraform is cleared, it changed all stones
and all gems of that color to green. This does speed up this tree monster
quite a bit, although the skill itself could use more damage.
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Cait Sith Level Cap 14 Affinity: Plant
Abilities:
Tail Slash Deals Damage, Arc of Lighting
Mimic Use your foe's first ability
Trick-or-Treat Set all Auras to your foe's values.
Damage:
Tail Slash *** Temptation *(Advanced)
Mimic Depends
Trick-or-Treat None
Cait Sith is one of the weak monsters you first start fighting, but it's
actually a pretty solid monster in your hands. It's low HP makes it
somewhat frail, but it's abilities are useful. Now I know Square Enix
had a hand in making this game :P.
Tail slash comes out extremely fast, usually on first few twists. Mimic's
power depends on the foe you are facing. Cait Sith's most useful trait, is it's
ability to negate all affinity based penalties with Trick-or-Treat. Say you
are fighting a fire aligned foe who is at +3 to attack and defense, while you
are at -3 for attack and defense. You use trick-or-treat, and suddenly you
are also at +3 to damage and defense. Using this ability, you can actually
fight fire and dark monsters so long as you don't get hit early.
Mimic is one of the most Unique abilities in the game. It gives you access
to moves you don't normally have...that you want. Several Boss skills can
copied by Mimic, and they pack serious damage. Mimic also is great for
fighting against monsters with a very powerful first skill. Monsters such
as Bunyip, Phalanx, Fafnir are such examples. Bubble cluster, Overwhelm,
Trident can be devastating when you copy them and use it against your foes.
Mimic also allows you to copy Soulsteal, an 1 hit kill attack. This makes
The Fairies the Premiere monster to take on such foes.
Advanced Versions:
Puca trades in Trick-or-Treat for an attack skill temptation that turns gems
to match you foe's affinity. The biggest thing is that it's an attack skill,
even if the damage is super low. With 3 attack skills, Puca actually has
reasonable damage output.
Gremalkin is the final version. It trades in Temptation for Interlude.
Interlude creates a gem, when activated, increases the countdown timer
on all enemy gems. This is can be a life saver, but it also has the
potential to get poor placement and unable to be effectively used.
The problem is it doubles the timer. If it's 5 it will be 10, if
it's 1 it will go only to 2. so it's useful only if you can activate
early. It's more useful when you have alot of enemy gems on the field.
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Power Beetle Level Cap 16 Affinity: Lighting
Abilities:
Bolt Spear Deals Damage, Arc of Lighting
Power Smash Deals Damage, Explosion
Empower Increase Attack Power
Damage:
Bolt Spear **** Trident ****(Advanced)
Power Smash *****
Empower None
Power Beetle is one of the monster you start off with. It's advantage is
that although it's not strong against any affinity, it's only weak to water
monsters. The power beetle's skills takes time to charge. However, it has
an lighting arc type and an explosion type attack skill and both cause
solid damage. Backed up by decent HP this is a great monster. If you
focusing on the basics and throwing solid attacks this is a monster you
can rely on.
Advanced Versions:
Spear Beetle is the advanced version of Power Beetle, and it's got a reserved
seat on my beast Roster. Why you ask? Spear Beetle trades in Bolt spear for
Trident. This attack gem clears three rows of gems horizontally and
Vertically. This is THE Gem for a tactic I call: Camping. The amount of
gems cleared by this attack is huge, and the damage dealt to foes is very
high. It allows for Grid resets if you find yourself unable to perform
good special clears.
The most advanced version of the Beetle is Phalanx. It loses Power smash
and gains Soaring punch. Soaring Punch is a nasty skill. While it is not
an attack gem, it can turn one of your foes attack gems into your attack gem.
But timing is key, you may want to use idle twist to hijack your foe's gems
in such a fashion if you find yourself charging this skill too fast. Since
if there are no enemy gems on the grid, the skill is wasted.
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Newb Tip! CAMPING
Camping is a Newb strategy I used to kill off monsters without taking much
damage. Basically once I get an attack gem, I position it so that I can
easily clear it with 1 twist. Then I just keep clearing gems without
disturbing that formation. I wait for my foe's attack gems to be placed.
That way there is a chance that it will come into play in the clear zone
of my attack gem and I can easily destroy it.
Naturally, Camping benefits from attack gems that have big clear zones.
Trident, Downpour and Land Smite are three of the best skills available
for camping. Countervolt has a smaller clear zone, but any attack gem
you destroy with it count as your hits, so you can really increase damage
output. Any time you destroy your foe's attack gems, you charge your
attack gauge more.
Camping has it's problems. It impedes special clears since you can't touch
that zone where you are setuped to camp. Huntsman Spider's Capture skill
can lock your attack gem. Even worse is Petromagick, it turns your gem
into a stone. So against Talos I don't camp. I will camp against Spiders
if I can establish a setup that does not require me to twist my attack gem
to complete the clear.
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Garmr Level Cap 14 Affinity: Lighting
Abilities:
Countervolt Deals Damage, Arc of Lighting, Extra Damage if opponent's
attack gem is destroyed by it
Sucker Punch Deals Damage, Explosion, Comes into play at beginning of Match
Sonic Boom Deals Damage, Destroys 1 Lock
Damage:
Countervolt *** Breakout *(advanced)
Sucker Punch ** Howling Moon *(advanced)
Sonic Boom *
These giant Wolves are FAST. It is one of the few creatures that start off
with 3 attack skills, great for the early game. Sucker Punch comes in at
the beginning of play automatically, although it doesn't do much damage.
CounterVolt is another fun skill. If you use it to destroy foe's attack
gems, you will do more damage. The down side to this monster is the low
damage potential. I camp using Garmr a lot. Continually using Sucker punch
to inflict low amount of damage, waiting to setup a big damage spike by
camping with countervolt.
Advanced Versions:
Thunder Garmrs are the next version. They lose Sonic Boom and gain Break Out.
Break out has the same damage potential, but destroy all locked gems instead
of just 1. This is an excellent counter to Monsters that use lock gems.
Huntsman spider locks you ability gem? No problem, set off a combo by
clearing it with Breakout. Stupid Gnats firing off Locked attack gems?
Blow it up with Break out all at once!
Sol Volt is the most advanced version of Garmr. It loses Sucker Punch and
gains Howling Moon. Howling moon does not come out at the beginning of the
match and it has lower damage, but it turns all gems the same color as
cleared gem yellow. Like Birds, Dragons and Spiders, this is a skill that
allows you to clear more gems that are of your own affinity and increase
the speed of skill recharge,
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Drone Ant Level Cap 11 Affinity: Dark
Abilities:
Dark Razor Deals Damage, Explosion
Acid Rain Lower foe's defense
First Blood Deals Damage, Explosion, Comes into play at beginning of Match
Damage:
Dark Razor *** Purple Haze *(Advanced)
Acid Rain None
First Blood *
Drone Ant is a good monster for the early game. First blood comes into play
automatically. That combined with Dark affinity which is strong against 4
different affinities and weak against none makes it powerful. However you
will not unlock Warrior ant until much later in the game. All Ants have
issues with low level caps.
Advanced Versions:
Warrior Ants trades in First Blood for Purple Haze. Like birds and dragons,
this attack gem when cleared turns all gems of the same color purple. The
goal is to create more purple gems which you can clear to fill you attack
gauge quicker.
Dark Hunter is the most advanced version, but the only thing it gets is
upgrading purple haze to nightmare, which increases the damage only slightly.
Not a real upgrade in my opinion.
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Stinger Gnat Level Cap 21 Affinity: Dark
Abilities:
Scratch Deals Damage, Explosion, comes in Locked
Swarm Lower foe's vitality based on # of locked gems.
Sting Spear Create 1 lock
Damage:
Scratch **** Scar Cross ***(advanced)
Swarm None
Sting Spear None
Stinger Gnat is a pain to use, and a pain to fight against. Why? Because this
Monster strives on using locks. Scratch creates an attack gem, but it's
locked, so hard to get it cleared. Sting spear creates more locks, and
Swarm decrease your foe's vitality based on the number of locks on the grid.
So technically the more locks you have the better. Although the more locks
you have the harder it is to play the game, and pretty soon you won't be
able to clear anything. Playing against Gnats is just as painful. All
their ability gems comes in locked, so much harder to clear.
Having monsters that can destroy locks will help a lot when fighting Gnats.
Advanced Versions:
The pain increases, Needle Gnat replaces Scratch with Scar Cross. It creates
2 Locked attack gems! The pain... I had considered at one point using Gnats
in conjunction with magic keys, but since you can't buy items. The limited
number of magic keys kinda stopped me from trying that strategy.
The final version of the Gnat is Yowie. It is indeed a "Yowie", the Gnat
loses sting spear and gains Steal. It can steal an enemy gem and locks it and
make it yours. This is the single most annoying skill I have faced in single
player games aside from bosses. However, due to the locking nature of the
move, it makes it harder for you to use.
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Gastrosaur Level Cap 16 Affinity: Earth
Abilities:
Stampede Deals Damage, Explosion, Destroy all gem of color cleared
create 1 stone
Pulverize Deals Damage, Destroys 1 Stone
Head Bash Deals Damage, Explosion, create 1 stone
Damage:
Stampede **** Gulp *(advanced)
Pulverize *
Head Bash ***
Gastrosaur is another monster that has 3 attack skills to start. It's slow,
durable and a pretty good monster. The only reason why I don't use it much
is because of the superiority of Gigas. Stampede and Head Bash are solid
attack skills that do good damage. You can then use Pulverize to remove the
stone that was created and get extra bonus for the "Break" special clear.
Advanced Versions:
Edomasaur is the advanced version, it loses Pulverize and gains Gulp. While
Gulp does the same pitiful damage, it destroys ALL stones on the Grid.
Later on in the game you will be fighting Centipede monsters which makes a
lot of stones. Gulp can help you remove those annoying stones and gives you
a hefty break bonus.
Grendel is the most advanced version. It loses Head bash and gains Wild
Fang. This skill alone made Grendel a playable monster for general purposes.
Why? Wild Fang's gem when cleared, deals damage and destroys an enemy gem.
It can be anywhere on the board and it will work regardless. The only
downside is that when multiple enemy gems are on the grid, it destroys a
random one. This is a 100% accurate camping skill you can use to eliminate
high damage attack skills that your foe has. Compounded with good HP,
Grendel is a monster you should take into consideration.
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Stone Gigas Level Cap 21 Affinity: Earth
Abilities:
Land Smite Deals Damage, Huge Explosion, create 1 stone
Stone Hail Deals Damage, Explosion, create 1 Stone
Stonewall Increase defense, create 1 stone
Damage:
Land Smite ****** Earthquake ****(advanced)
Stone Hail ***
Stonewall None
When I first looked at the Stone Gigas, I noticed that all of the attack
gauges comes into play fairly empty. This guy might be too slow...I
thought. Well I soon changed my mind. Sure he is slow, but he has
everything else. Land Smite is one of the most punishing attack skills,
at low levels capable of killing foes in 1 hit. Land smite also has a very
large clear zone, allowing you to reset grid and destroy enemy gems that
are nearby. When I set off Land Smite I just imagine the golem grabbing
the bad guy and doing Zangief's Spinning Piledriver onto the grid. Quite
satisfying. All this is combined with the highest HP at any given level
for a monster, more than DOUBLE of the low HP monsters. If you are new to
Gyromancer, use the Gigas. This guy let you make mistakes. Can't clear
an attack gem? Messed up on your twists? He can take the punishment.
Stone wall is a pretty useless skill, that's a downside I guess.
Advanced Versions:
Mythril Gigas is the advanced version of Stone Gigas. Loses Stone Hail and
gains Earth Quake. Earth Quake destroys gems of the same color as the
attack gem. It does more damage than Stone Hail, which is good.
Talos is the most advanced version of Stone Gigas. It loses the useless
Stonewall and picks a super skill: Petromagick. Why is Petromagick great?
It turns one of your foe's attack gem into a stone, completely neutralizing
it. Sometimes when I have an attack gem on the grid I can't clear, I will
try to charge Petromagick before the countdown timer. Sometimes when I have
Petromagic almost charged, I will even do a idle twist to get my foe to fire
off an ability gem and reset their gauge, then fire off Petromagick to
neutralize their gem. Just remember you'll have to fight Talos too. You
better set off your attack gems before his Petromagick is charged.
==============================================================================
Gigantoad Level Cap 18 Affinity: Water
Abilities:
Bubble Launch Deals Damage, Explosion
Dissolve Increase foes negative aura and decrease foe's positive aura
Downpour Deals Damage, Explosion
Damage:
Bubble Launch *** Bubble Cluster *(Advanced)
Dissolve None
Downpour ***
Gigantoads are on the high end for HP and in the middle to low range for
damage potential. They are not fairly fast, but not super fast like Garmr.
Bubble launch and Downpour deals reasonable damage. Dissolve is good for
removing your foe's buffs. It also can worsen their debuffs, but since
Gigantoad don't have any debuff skills, it only comes into play when you
have affinity advantage over your foe. Downpour however, is tied with
Land Smite for biggest explosion radius. It's a great skill that should
not be over looked.
Advanced Versions:
Bubble Toad is the advanced version of Gigantoad. This toad loses Dissolve
and gains Maelstrom. Maelstrom drops all positive auras by 1 and improve
all negative auras by 1. This is Huge when you fight against monsters that
you are weak against. In three uses you can fully eliminate affinity
disadvantage. It is also highly effective against Arum's Mold build up
tactic. However, if you use this monster against lighting and fire monsters
it will actually reduce your affinity advantage.
The Bunyip is the most advanced form. Bubble launch is upgraded to Bubble
cluster, which is a water version of fire breathe. 3 attack gems per use is
very nice. The Bunyip is a water version of the Wyvern, with much more HP
and slightly less attack. However the explosion size of Downpour is an
advantage that the Bunyip has over Wvyvern.
==============================================================================
Aqua Turtle Level Cap 25 Affinity: Water
Abilities:
Hydrogeyser Deals Damage, destroy all locks and stones
Aquabunker Increase attack power and defense
Splash Deals Damage, Explosion
Damage:
Hydrogeyser *** Hydroplume ***(advanced)
Aquabunker None
Splash ***
Aqua Turtle is a slow monster that excels in HP. It has the second highest
HP second to the Gigas. It's damage potential is on Par with Toads.
Aquabunker slowly raises the turtle's attack power and defense, it's one of
the better buff skills since it ups two attributes at once. Now Aqua Turtle
is really a specialty monster. Why do I say that? Hydrogeyser is the only
skill in the game that destroys ALL lock and ALL stones at once. It is a
perfect counter against Gnats, Spiders, and Centipedes. You can Camp with
Hydrogeyser and wait for those foes to use their lock skills, and then
destroy it for break special clear bonus.
Advanced Versions:
Wave Turtle is the advanced version of Aqua Turtle. It replaces Hydrogeyser
with Hydroplume. Hydroplume does the same damage, but on top of destroying
all locks and stones, also destroy all gems of the same color as the attack
gem. This makes the ability much more applicable. It's usable even against
foes that don't use locks or stones.
Aspidochelon is the final version of the turtle. It upgrades splash to
Stormbringer, which does slightly more damage. The explosion size is also
increased. It combines an explosion with an arc of lighting, granting
an extra clear zones.
==============================================================================
Ultimate Forms - The Breakthrough Guide.
There are ultimate forms of creatures that can only be reached by using
a breakthrough on a creature already at most advanced form. They often
have some really awesome abilities, I am still working to compile them.
I will compile them as(Superb, Average, and Inferior compared to non-
breakthrough forms.)
Wendingo (Average)
Wendingo is the Ultimate form of the Bockles, it loses Burst and gains
Big Bang, which does huge damage and creates a massive explosion radius.
Basically it's like Landsmite, so that's a real big gain in the
performance. However since Bockles's other two abilities arn't that
great, I am not sure I'd keep a Bockle in the party just for the
Breakthrough.
Cerberus (Superb)
Cerberus is the Ultimate form of the Garmr wolves. It loses it's second
ability and gains Grand cross. Grand cross is a wide area attack similiar
to Beetle's Trident, great damage. An excellent breakthrough form.
Since Garmrs are pretty good anyways, Cerebrus is definitely a bonus.
Alruane (Superb)
Alruane is everything you wanted out an Arum, that was never offered to you.
Poison mist is replaced by Deadly Thorns, a vitality attack that's twice
as strong. This pretty much doubles the speed you accumulate gems for the
Mold attack. I have fought this monster and actually lost. Because I
allowed too much time to pass and Mold became too much to handle.
Fafnir (Superb)
Fafnir is the Ultimate form of the Rex monsters. Stampede is replaced by
Overwhelm, which is basically 3 Stampede gems all in one sitting.
Overwhelm alone is worth having Fafnir. Since Grendel is a great monster
I see good reason for you use breakthrough on it for boss fights.
Juggernaut (Average)
Juggernaut, the Ultimate version of the spiders, is the fix that
the Goliath needed, but never got. Bind will lock all foe's attack
gems, and Roaming hunter will destroy all locked gems. This is
perfect, granted you can set off Roaming hunter
in time with all those locked gems on the grid. Or else you will be
in a world of pain unable to clear those gems. And by the way,
Bind is a huge pain when you are fighting a Juggernault. The more
Attack gems you leave on the grid, the more it hinders your twists
and opens up potential for you to get crushed with Roaming Hunter.
This monster is top 3 for most annoying monsters to fight.
Beezlebub (Average)
I hate fighting the ultimate form of Gnats, and as much as I hate it,
I can't play this monster well. It has Quill Storm which creates THREE
locked attack gems. It's a pain to clear for you, and it's even more of a
pain when the CPU uses the ability. I heavily recommend using Garmr
against it since they have Break out which destroy all locks. While
Spiders with Roaming hunter, and Turtles with Hydroplume can also
destroy locks, they are weak to Gnats due to its dark element. On
top of all that, you have to watch for Steal. This monster is top 3
for most annoying monsters to fight.
Manticore (Average)
Manticore is the ultimate form of the Ant, but is really not that great
of an Ultimate form. Aqua regia replaces Acid Rain, decreasing foe's
defense twice per use. However, this is not a powerful enough ability
to warrant a use of Breakthrough.
Dullahan (Inferior)
While the Gigas monsters are totally sweet. Dullahan is a complete
letdown. It does not have petromagick, and instead gains Stonewall, which
creates 3 stones and ups defense greatly. There is nothing you can do
with those stones, they just hinder your play. So I don't think I would
use breakthrough on a Talos, it makes your monsters less powerful.
Hecatoncheir (Average)
Hecatoncheir is the ultimate form of the beetle. It's the same as the
Phalanx, but Supercharge will increase your attack power twice as fast
as enhance. Every round your beatdown potential increases greatly. This
is excellent for drawn out fights. Howevever, it is not an Ultimate
form that gains a lot fromt the most advanced form.
Behemoth (Superb)
Behemoth is the ultimate form of the turtles. It gains Aquafortress
instead of Aquabunker. This buff is actually very nice. It beefs
both defence and attack by two. It has the potential to really power
your turtle both offensively and defensively if used two to three times.
However, what the turtles lack is damage, unfortunately the ultimate
form only offers it through buffing effect of Aquafortress.
Leviathan (Inferior)
Leviathan is the ultimate form of the giant frogs. However it's more
of a level down that level up. Compared to the Bunyip, it loses
Downpour and gains Rain Dance. While Rain dance can turn gems blue, it
doesn't have the damage or the massive clear zone offered by downpour.
Bunyip, with Bubble cluster and Downpour is definitely the more offensive
of the two.
Brass wyrm (Superb)
Just when you thought Wyrms are all about attack. Brass Wyrm, the
ultimate Wyrm is MORE about attack and any other wyrm. Megaflare
replaces Firebreath as a more damaging/multi attack gem type move.
Brass wyrm retains Fever Pitch, allowing you to setup dangerous
RUSH attacks.
Garutman (Superb)
Garutman is the Ultimate version of Owls. Absolute Zero replaces
Feathershot, providing EXTRA punch. I am quite impressed with
Absolute Zero. It doesn't just destroy gems of the the same color, it
EXPLODES them. If you have many gems scattered on the grid that is
of the color as the attack gem, you essentially blow up the ENTIRE
grid. Absolute zero's high attack power combined with the ability
to set off multiple gems using it's wide attack range has made it
probably one of my favorite attack gems. Garutman is absolutely
worth it for the breakthrough. The combination of Avalanche and
Absolute Zero can really hit hard and fast.
Kikimora (Average)
Kikimora is the Ultimate version of the Fairies. It gains
Victory March as its third ability. Victory March is unique.
It can increase your Chain level. This isn't very useful if
you are at Chain level 1. But it can be huge if you are on Chain
level 4 or 5! The amount of gain you get from that can be enormous
==============================================================================
Non-playable Monsters
I didn't detail the Bosses! That's for you to fight and and discover
they are challenging and fun, so no spoilers here.
Paleofungus (Plant)
Abilities:
Hypha
Restore
Spore Bomb
Paleofungus is one of the non-playable monsters. It focuses
on healing itself to prolong the battle while wearing you down
with Sporebomb. Hypha creates 3 stones and increases the fungus's
Vitality. Restore simply heal a set amount of HP. Spore bomb
creates 3 gems, each one capable of causing an explosion and dealing
damage. The way to deal with this monster is to cause massive
damage to it quickly. Motu and Wyrm are both excellent choices to
destroy this monster.
Paintrader (Earth)
Abilities:
PayBack
Paintrader is an earth affinity creature that only has one skill,
payback. Payback deals damage equal to the amount of life your
monster has lost. So if you monster have lost over 50% life, it's
an instant kill. However, the gem can easily be destroyed using
a variety of means. So you can easily defeat paintraders
most of the time without taking any damage.
Lifetaker (Ice)
Abilities:
Soulsteal
Life taker only has Soul steal. It has a long countdown timer but
if left unchecked it is an instant kill. So destroy the gem using
various means, and so long as you can do that you won't take any
damage from this monster.
SoulShaver (Water)
Abilities:
Thwart
Impede
Reverse
Soulshavers is not playable. It has no attack gems, it's abilities
focus on degeneration and stalling. Thwart decreases your monster's
attack power significantly and create 1 stone. Impede decreases
your monster's Vitality significantly and creates 1 lock.
Reverse changes the direction of the twist.
Using a monster than can remove negative auras helps alot. Monsters
that uses skill such as soaring punch and incinerate will have
a disadvantage since this monster do not create gems.
Mightcrusher (Dark)
Abilities:
Quick Draw
Compress
Graviton
Another non-playable monster, Mightcrusher's most dangerous skill is
compress. Graviton lowers your attack power, and quick draw is a
low damage attack gem with a shortened count down timer.
Compress however will cut your HP in half, this can
weaken your team significantly if not cleared.
Centipede (Earth)
Abilities:
GroundShaker
Upheaval
The Centipede is a non-playable monster that focuses on creating and
destroying stones. Upheaval deals a small amount of damage and
turns all gems of the same color to stones, this can potentially cause
problems for you in clearing gems. Ground shaker destroys all stones
and does quite a bit of damage. You can defeat centipedes by using a
monster that can destroy stones. Edomasaur and Grendel are great
choices for stone destruction. You can technically beat this monster
with ease, so long as you clear the attack gems it creates.
==============================================================================
Hidden Monsters. There are 5 hidden monsters that can only be obtained
by going through the Four, and Dragon's Haven.
These monsters have no advanced forms, and cannot undergo breakthrough.
But they are very powerful, carrying some of the best attack and support
skills present in the game. They all have the maximum level cap which is 70.
To obtain each you must first defeat its form guarding the
Gyro Code. I will also offer some tips on how to do so.
==============================================================================
Motu (Fire)
This demon is a fire element, but wait it has massive HP?
Motu is the opposite of the Wyrm, while the latter focuses on multihit
RUSH attacks, Motu is the one that finishes with small number of extremely
powerful attacks.
Abilities:
Big Bang Deals Damage, Massive Explosion, leave 1 stone
Fire Wall Increase attack and defense significantly
Incinerate Replace a foe's gem, Deals Damage, Explosion
Damage:
Big Bang ******
Fire Wall None
Incinerate *******
Big Bang is basically a Fire version of Land Smite. It's only available
otherwise by using the breakthrough version of Bockles, the Wendingo.
Big Bang does big damage, and that's that. Fire wall does not protect
Motu from malicious hackers(LOL), It is basically a Fire version of
Aquafortress, only available to the Leviathan, breakthrough version of
Turtles. Incinerate, a unique skill, is similar to Soaring punch. It needs
an enemy gem on the field to deploy. This gem does the most DAMAGE out
of any single attack in the game.
The key in beating Motu is to not get hit. You should try to clear all
of his gems when made. Since he does not use locks, or create multiple
gems, clearing his gems should be pretty simple. I did it easily with
Fafnir, Talos will be a good option as well. Watch out for incinerate,
it will replace one of your attack gems. If you don't get hit it
doesn't matter how high Motu raises his attack power with Firewall.
==============================================================================
Rasheph (Lighting)
This crazying looking bird is dangerous. It's attacks are powerful and quick.
Abilities:
Grand Cross Deals Damage, Giant Cross of Lighting
Spark Sphere Decrease foe's attack and defense significantly
Lighting Arc of Lighting, Deals Damage, Create 3 gems, appears at
start of battle.
Damage:
Grand Cross ******
Spark Sphere Decrease foe's attack and defense significantly
Lighting *
Rasheph has some nasty skills. Lighting for example, Appears at beginning of
Battle? Create THREE gems? Who cares if it only does a small amount of damage!
It's awesome! Once you start using spark sphere, even a little damage will
become a lot. Grand Cross is a skill possessed by Cerberus, the breakthrough
version of Garmrs. It is basically Trident on crack. Since I love Trident
dearly, I also love Grand Cross. The down side of Rasheph is it's fraility.
It has very few HP, and you should avoid getting hit when using it.
The key in fighting Rasheph is to focus on hitting it. You gotta keep
dealing damage to it. You can try to clear his gems, but the only one
that really matters is Grand Cross. If you only get hit with Lighting's
little weak attacks you'll be fine. Rasheph's lack of HP means even doing a
few idle twists to connect is worth it. I defeated Rasheph with Talos.
Took some hits. Petromagick countered his Grand Cross and Land Smite won
the day. I imagine monsters with good HP and good damage will work just fine.
==============================================================================
Nahar (Ice)
A flying Octopus looking thing that is also an Ice monster. It's got
some ability that uses locks.(That's never good news, for you.)
Abilities:
Absolute Zero Deals Damage, Explodes all gem of the same color
Ice Prison Decrease foe's vitality significantly, create 1 lock
Downburst Deals Damage, Explosion, Comes into play locked
Damage:
Absolute Zero *****
Ice Prison None
Downburst *****
I am not sure what to say about Nahar, it has two skills that create locks.
Yet it's not really a lock based monster. Absolute Zero is a great skill,
the other creature that has it Garutman, the breakthrough version of the Owls.
Nahar has excellent HP. It's damage potential isn't really that great, but
Ice prison forces your opponent to take damage everytime you twist. Few
use of this ability and the damage can really rack up. Downburst comes in
locked, which I see absolutely no benefit in doing so.
The key if fighting Nahar is to not get hit with Absolute Zero, if Nahar
has any other gems on the grid it will probably be comboed for extra damage.
The other issue is degeneration, so low HP monster are more like to be
killed by this kind of damage.
I defeated Nahar using Cerberus. I was able to eliminate Absolute zero with
twisting or camping with Grand Cross. Breakout nullified his Downburst. The
only damage I took was from low Vitality, but it wasn't enough to kill me.
I imagine Motu, Phalanx, Fafnir, would also be reasonable choices.
==============================================================================
Elder Dragon (Plant)
The Elder Dragon is not red, unlike the Wyrm. The Elder Dragon was certainly
one of the hardest bosses I have fought. I would almost go as far as to say
it might be the hardest boss to fight amongst the five hidden monsters.
Abilities:
Trinity Deals Damage, Explosion, Short countdown
Sonic Tail Deals Damage, Explosion, Creates 5 gems
Divine Breath Ups all caster's aura by 1, used at start of battle
Damage:
Trinity ******
Sonic Tail **
Divine Breath None
Lets talk about why the Elder Dragon is so dangerous. Trinity does massive
damage, explodes plus arc of lighting. The short countdown timer doesn't
make difference when you are using it. Now sonic tail is really the most
awesome part of this dragon. FIVE gems! It makes FIVE gems! That's
all that need said. FIVE Gems! YAY! Wait there is more, Divine breath
not only ups your attack and defense, but also your vitality! You get
regeneration with every twist! That's great! If you are good at
stalling fights and not taking damage, you can actually heal him!
Elder Dragon has great HP on top of that! What's not to like?
Well you have to beat him to get him. I had already gotten codes for
Motu, Nahar, and Rasheph when I got to Elder Dragon. So I decided to use
Motu against him. It was definitely a hard fight, trying to clear 5
gems off the screen was extremely difficult. Even given the elemental
advantage, Elderdragon was buffing himself and regenerating. I was able
to camp with Big Bang and wipe out some of gems from Sonic tail. Incinerate
was able to neutralize Trinity a few times too. Overall I succeeded due
to luck and persistence. It was a close call, there were 6 enemy gems on
the board. However Firewall buffed Motu's attack power so high that a
single attack caused over 6000 damage, and ended the match.
==============================================================================
Dragon Lich (Earth)
You'd think Dragon Lich would be of Dark Element, but he is not. He is
an Earth element. I guess if a dragon dies he gets buried? That makes
him an earth element? lol. Dragon Lich is probably the second hardest
to overcome amongst the five hidden monsters. It's focus on locked gems
puts it on par with Beezlebub in terms of annoyingness.
Abilities:
Ruination Deals Damage, Destroy all locks in arc of lighting,
Comes into play locked
Outbreak Create 3 locks, always appear at start of battle
Divine Breath Decrease foe's auras by 1, used at start of battle
Damage:
Ruination *******
Outbreak None
Toxic Breath None
First of all, like the Gnats, you can use Dragon Lich if you want a real
Challenge. Locking your own grid can make your life very difficult. I
personally consider Dragon Lich to be the weakest of the five in the
player's hands. Fighting against it is another issue completely.
The Dragon Lich is like a hybrid of the Arum and the Gnat. It interferes
with your twisting by using locks, at the same time causing degeneration.
If you can't clear Ruination, you are in for some serious hurt. Ruination
is tied with Incinerate for the highest damaging attack the player can use.
So key is all about clearing those locks. On top of that, Dragon Lich
has massive HP. You won't be able to kill him quick, so Degen do come into
play here.
I recommend using Elder dragon to defeat it. Divine Breath will counter
Toxic Breath, if you are careful you will win. I personally went a
different route. I used Grimakin to fight it. Yeah that stupid little
Fairy that doesn't even have 10000 HP. It was a very risky move, but here
is my strategy. The key is Grimalkin's Mimic ability. When fighting
Dragon Lich, Mimic will copy Ruination. Activating Ruination will destroy
all locks, INCLUDING the foe's ruination gem since it comes in locked!
Grimalkin has elemental advantage over Dragon Lich, but that advantage
will be quickly reduced by Toxic Breath. Basically I tried to camp
using Mimiced Ruination to counter foe's ruination and destroy all locks
on the field. Interlude played a big role here. Interlude doubles the
counter of all enemy gems. I used interlude few times when the enemy gem
is 5 or 6, stalling for a lot more time to set off my own attacks.
I won but my monster almost died from degeneration.
==============================================================================
Newb Tip - Rogue Gems
Some times you get unlucky, the game placed your attack gem on to a lone gem
that is hard to clear. Sometimes the game puts a enemy gem somewhere you
can't reach and clear. The question is...How many idle twists is it worth
to try and clear that gem? In my oppinion, it varies. Remember everytime
you idle twist, you foe is recharging his attack gauge like mad. 3 or more
Twists later on in the game he might have fully recharged his meters. I
don't go after my own gems unless I can reach it by spending 1 idle twist.
I don't usually spend more than 2 idle twists to reach for enemy gems.
However, situation is everything. If you can deal damage and clear an enemy
gem all at once it might be worth it. Sometimes it's even worth moving your
own gem out of the blast zone of an impending enemy gem. As you play
you will get an idea of when to spend idle twists and when not to.
==============================================================================
Final Word.
I finally finished the game
My guys are currently at Level 70. I've beaten challenger's door,
the five and Dragons haven, cleared Galia again.
I Unlocked all monsters finally.
Now I will say one thing about Gyromancer, I wish that the game allowed
you to change the monster's skills! It would be so cool if you can
level them up, and has an option to purchase different skills. That
would really make the game a lot more interesting and customizable.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the game! Thanks to Square Enix and Pop Cap for
making this game available.
Any suggestions/comments or tips pls email x1ng40@gmail.com.
