Gemcraft Labyrinth

Gemcraft Labyrinth is a Tower Defense game and the third game in the Gemcraft series. The goal of each level is to kill the monsters before they reach your Wizard Tower. You use gems to power your towers, each gem color having its own properties.

Gameplay
Gemcraft Labyrinth is a Tower Defense game where your towers are powered by gems. The game has an in-game tutorial. The primary resource in the game is Mana and you gain Mana from killing monsters. If a monster reaches your Wizard Tower, you lose Mana and if your Mana drops below zero, you fail the level. In other words, Mana also acts as your Lives in the game. You can create gems of grade 1-12 or combine two gems to create higher grade gems. Higher grade gems have better damage, range and special abilities.

You can build walls, towers and amplifiers beside the monsters' path or on the path to influence which path the monster take towards your base. This is the first game in the series which allow for maze building. You may also demolish walls and towers by dropping gem bombs on them. The number of demolishions available on each level is limited, so the game does not allow for complicated juggling techniques used in other mazing tower defense games.

Placing a gem in a tower or a trap enables it to shoot at monsters. Gems placed in towers each have a target priority which the player may change by holding shift and clicking on the gem. Placing a gem in an amplifier enhances the damage, range and firing speed of adjacent towers. If a gem is placed in a trap instead of a tower, it does very little damage but the special ability is much stronger. Gems can be dropped on monsters as gem bombs, consuming the gem.

Some levels have shrines of various types on them which can be activated. Shrines can also be built on levels by spending Mana. By sacrificing a gem, you may activate a shrine and get the effect for that particular shrine type. Spending a gem on a shrine causes more damage than spending it on a gem bomb. Some levels have beacons placed on the map. A beacon gives heals or temporary buffs to any monsters in its proximity, depending on the beacon type. A beacon may be destroyed by dropping a gem bomb on it or by shooting it with your towers. On some levels, there are Mana Shards containing an amount of Mana. Any towers in the proximity of a Mana Shard may shoot at it and drain Mana from it. When a Mana Shard is completely drained, it is considered regular ground and the player may build towers on its location.

There is a Premium Edition of the game available for purchase, unlocking a few extra abilities, battle settings and awarding you with some extra skill points. Your game can be upgraded to the Premium Edition for 50 kreds.

Gem Types
Each gem type has a different ability.
 * Red gems - Gem's damage increases with each kill done by the gem
 * Yellow gems - Chance of doing double damage
 * Blue gems - Slow
 * Green gems - Poison damage
 * Orange gems - Steal Mana
 * Purple gems - Reduce armor
 * Lime gems - Chance of chain hit
 * Cyan gems - Chance to shock

Gemcraft Labyrinth is the first game in the series where you can choose the color of the gem you create. Each level only has certain gem types available for you to create, but you can spend Mana to unlock any gem type on that level. Gems of different colors can be combined. Dual gems does more damage than Pure gems, but their special abilities are reduced. Combining gems of all 8 colors creates a Prismatic gem.

Levels
There are 169 levels, including the 4 secret levels in the corners of the map. The levels form a labyrinth with the monster paths connecting the levels. Completing a level unlocks the connecting levels. There are five Epic levels in the labyrinth, including the final level. Each of these levels have an unlimited amount of waves and contain one or more Crafting Pylons. In order to beat these levels, your towers must fire at the Crafting Pylons until all of them are fully charged. The corner maps does not connect to any other levels, but each of the corner maps can be unlocked by achieving two specific Amulets.

Waves
Waves can come from paths from outside the area or minor monster bases. The wave stones on the left side of the screen show you what kind of monsters will appear and where they will arrive from. Minor monster bases can be destroyed with your towers or by using gem bombs. If a minor monster base is destroyed, the monsters that would have come out of it will come out of the main monster base instead. You can drop gem bombs on the wave stones to increase the number of monsters in a future wave.

Monster types

 * Normal
 * Armored - slower, but tougher, can have a very heavy armor on harder levels
 * Runner - weaker but much faster
 * Swarm - lots of weak and fast monsters that only take a small amount of mana when reaching your wizard's tower, yet they can be dangerous though by attracting your firepower and letting the tougher monsters pass through
 * Giant - a few strong and armored monsters, a great source of mana but can be very dangerous

Battle Settings
Before each battle, the player is given options to increase the difficulty of the level by adjusting the battle settings. Each option also adjusts the XP multiplier, increasing the XP gained from completing the level. You may only choose one setting in each category, except for Battle Traits.

Amount of monsters (multiplier)
 * Normal (x1.00)
 * 20% more (x1.13)
 * 50% more (x1.35)
 * Double (x1.67)
 * Triple (x2.27) - Premium Edition only
 * Quadruple (x3.14) - Premium Edition only

Monster hit points (multiplier)
 * Normal (x1.00)
 * 20% higher (x1.11)
 * 50% higher (x1.32)
 * Double (x1.61)
 * Triple (x2.24) - Premium Edition only
 * Tenfold (x5.07) - Premium Edition only

Wave composition (multiplier)
 * Original waves (x1.00)
 * Random waves (x1.13)
 * Swarm only (x1.17)
 * Armored only (x1.17)
 * Giants every second wave (x1.23) - Premium Edition only
 * Giants only (x1.35) - Premium Edition only

Number of waves (multiplier)
 * Normal (x1.00)
 * +5 (x1.04)
 * +10 (x1.07)
 * +15 (x1.13)
 * +20 (x1.21) - Premium Edition only
 * Endurance (x1.00) - Premium Edition only

Battle Traits (multiplier)
 * Higher monster armor (x1.24)
 * Faster monsters (x1.18)
 * Banished monsters heal (x1.09)
 * Banishment cost extra increase (x1.15)
 * Waves getting tougher faster (x1.55) - Premium Edition only
 * Shadow clash (x1.24) - Premium Edition only

Skills
Completing levels rewards you with XP points which counts towards leveling up your wizard. Repeating a level will not gain cumulative XP as only your highest XP score for each level on each game mode counts towards your wizard level. For each level you get Skill points which you may spend upgrading your wizard's skills.

The skills are:
 * Focus - Higher initial mana and mana pool size at the beginning of each battle
 * Replenish - More mana replenish over time and more mana gain per kill
 * Forge - Lower gem creating and combining mana cost
 * Construction - Lower creating mana cost for towers, walls, traps and amplifiers
 * Poison Mastery - Higher poison damage
 * Bloodbound Mastery - Higher kill to damage ratio
 * Multiple damage Mastery - Higher chance of multiple damage
 * Chain hit Mastery - Higher chance of hitting multiple targets
 * Flexibility - Decreased cost of Extend mana pool spell
 * Dual gem Mastery - Gems having two base components gain multiplier to damage, range and firing speed
 * Slowing Mastery - Targets become slower
 * Armor tearing Mastery - Target's armor gets damaged more
 * Shocking Mastery - Higher chance of shocking target
 * Mana gain Mastery - More mana gained per hit
 * Resonance - Higher damage for all gems
 * Wild gem - Start each battle with a gem in your inventory, created as grade 1, then put through random combining
 * Recharge - Higher firing speed for all gems
 * Radiance - Higher range for all gems
 * Banisher - Decreased cost of banishment (Premium Edition only)
 * Demolition - More demolitions available during battle (Premium Edition only)
 * Violent explosions - Higher gem bomb damage, higher target limit for gem bombs, gem anvil returns more mana for destroyed gems, more monsters summoned by gems dropped on wave stones (Premium Edition only)
 * Magnify - Raises the power ratio of amplifiers (Premium Edition only)
 * Triple gem Mastery - Gems having three base components gain multiplier to damage, range and firing speed (Premium Edition only)
 * Powerful Shrines - Shrines charge up faster and are more powerful (Premium Edition only)
 * Deadly traps - Trap damage and special modifiers increased (Premium Edition only)
 * Readiness - Faster gem deployment in towers and traps (Premium Edition only)
 * Ritual - For every 25 battle amulets you earn in the Labyrinth, initial mana and mana pool size is increased (Premium Edition only)

Amulets
Amulets are achievements which give reward you with XP. Battle Amulets can be obtained in each battle, giving additional XP for that specific battle. Novice amulets are achieved by doing simple tasks and each of them can only be obtained once. Journey Amulets are achieved by accumulated stats throughout your journey and each of them can only be obtained once. Challenge Amulets are achieved by completing specific tasks on specific levels. Many of the Challenge Amulets cannot be completed without purchasing the Premium Edition.

Storyline
The game tells a story of a newly graduated wizard tasked with protection a small town. There he finds a hidden labyrinth which contained many secrets. In his journey through the labyrinth, he encounters a great demon called The Forgotten which was released when the Gem of Eternity was removed in the previous game. The wizard has to craft a new Gem of Eternity and carry it to the Spiritforge to imprison the demon once again.

Helpful Links
Gemcraft Labyrinth forum on Kongregate

Official Strategy Guide

The complete labyrinth