Gameplay
This game has a unique gameplay for Gachas, I had some doubt before trying it myself – but now I think it’s genuenly interesting. It’s not very complicated but has some depth to keep you interested.
As always you start by choosing your team. You can have up to 5 Aurorians in one squad. Every Aurorian belong to a certain class and element.
There are 4 elements – Forest, Water, Fire and Thunder. And they counter each other in this way:
There are also 4 classes – Detonator, Converter, Support and Sniper.
Detonator and Sniper are DPS units. First deal damage in area and second specialize in dealing with single small targets.
Support do support things – heal, buff, debuff.
Converter is unique for this game – they can paint the tiles in a certain or random color, or some of them can teleport your team to a better spot so you can do a better chain combo.
This is how battleground looks like in this game. Each tile present a certain element (you can guess easily which color is which element). You team presented as your captain and occupy one tile. Enemies are all by themselves. There small enemies who occupy 1 tile and large enemies to occupy 4 or even more tiles. Detonators are good vs large enemies because they attack in area and for every hit tile, occupied by a large enemy, they take an instance of damage.
You can connect tiles of one colour into a chain every turn. If an Aurorian matches the element of that colour they will act this turn, Captain act every turn no matter the tiles’ colour (btw you can change a captain 3 times per stage). Aurorians do normal attacks when running through every tile adjacent to enemies. At the end of chain they will do a Chain Attack if the chain was long enough. Chain Attack of every Aurorian have a few versions and require certain numbers of tiles in chain. For example Nikinis with 5 or more tiles in a chain will attack the whole row at the end, with 9 or more range extends to 3 rows. Also each tile adds 0.1 to damage modificator starting with 1.0 up to 2.5.
If chain includes 15 or more tiles you can do one more turn in the same round. It’s called Aurora Time and can be activated once per round.
Also Aurorians have Active Skills, which have a cooldown and can be activated at the start of your turn.
Some stages have interactive elements like boosters (med kit, cooldown reduction), or traps which can hit both you and your enemies.
That was kinda basic knowledge, and I am not writing guide here so let’s stop here with the gameplay.
Game modes
Story stages to progress the story. Story itself is not as good as AK’ story in my opinion. But it’s not bad, and I certainly can’t say its just there to fill the space. I am at chapter 4 and the story seems to have a kernel – it’s not about some random events happening out of nowhere, there is a good start and a certain final destination.
Also some character are really good – funny, charismatic and interesting.
Resource stages to farm certain resources – one for each of Jasper, Nightium, building materials and Sublime. You can use Carriers you spend twice more Prism and gain twice more resources per run. They are limited and IMO not really useful, they just save you some time.
Extra story doesn’t require Prism so you can just play it for fun or to test some Aurorians.
Secret territory is a rogue like mode, similar to AK’s Fungimist. But you can play it every week, it’s not a limited event.
Number of rounds are mutual for all stages and is called MS. MS is produced by Colossus. So if you run out of MS you can’t progress further in this mode. If an Aurorian dies you can ressurect them at rare Fountain stage (1 per fountain) or wait for a weekly reset.
Each level of Secret territory contains a number of stages with a boss stage at the end. There are 5 levels initially, but you can unlock more levels by upgrading a special facility at Colossus. By clearing stages you earn a special currency.
You can obtain Relics – they are modificators that ease your battles in one way or another. Relics can improve your stats, decrease enemies’ stats or have some special effects like killing enemies at 10% or lower HP. There are a lot of fun Relics and I wish they will add more in future.
As for Spire – I haven’t unlocked it yet.
Economics
Recruitment
There is no anything like AK’s recruitment, so if you want an association – it’s a Headhunting. It’s your gachapon machine, here you pull and obtain new shiny Aurorians. There are 3 to 6 – star rarity. No 1-2 rarity Aurorians yet 🙁 And personally I doubt they will add them in future.
You can use Lumamber or Star Flares to recruit. 300 Lumamber or 1 Star Flare for 1 recruitment. Bad news – there are Special Star Flares for focus banners – same as different Fates in Genshin Impact. You mostly get usual Star Flares for free, so better save all your free Lumamber for focus banners.
Currently there are two focus banners with a featured 6-star on each – Carleen and Uriel. You can’t get those 6-stars by pulling in mainstay banner. I think they will add them to mainstay banner in future, but I am not sure.
Addition of Special Star Flares (it wasn’t a thing in CBT as far as I know) and focus banner chars exclusivity lead me to some bad thoughts. But I won’t say anymore for now.
By the way there are 17 6-stars, 26 5-stars, 23 4-stars and 17 3-stars. Good propotion if you ask me, but let’s see how it goes.
Also low rarity characters feel good, some 3-stars are even seem strong IMO. There are also 3-stars with interesting and unique skills – like Leah, who can return your team to a start point in the end of turn.
Energy
Generally you use Prism to enter the stage – it’s a local energy just like Sanity in AK. It recharges at the same rate – 1 per 6 min, 10 per hour. There are potions to restore Prism, but you only get it as a reward for some unique quests. Colossus produce a fair amount of extra Prism every day.
Aurorians Upgrade
There are 4 ways to upgrade your Aurorians.
First is Upgrade – it is a simple level up. There are special material for leveling up – Jasper, 5 types of it – one for each element and one is general. If you use Jasper of the same element as an Aurorian, latter will get 50% more EXP.
You also need Nightium – its a local common currency. You mostly spend it to upgrade Aurorians, but you can also buy some mats in shop with it.
Leveling gives more stats than in AK and it feels more important.
Second is Ascension. Pretty much the same as Promotion in AK. When your Aurorian reach max lvl you can ascend them – they will gain more stats and unique equipment or upgrade for it, Chain combo or Active Skill. But the level will be reset. Each Ascension requires Nightium and different materials depending on Aurorian’s element and faction.
There are 3 Phases of Ascension, each has higher and higher max level, with maximum level 80 at Ascension 3.
I don’t know yet if you can reach max Ascension with every Aurorian.
Of course there are a few tiers of Ascension mats. And even mats for Asc1 take some time to farm. There are 3 type of mats and you need 10-30 of each. You go to farm one of them and you get 1-3 per run. Though with every run you get many types of different mats for different Aurorians – no such bs as in AK when you get literally nothing for a run except for some currency.
Third way is Breakthrough. Same as AK’s Potencials or GI’s Constellations. But you only need 4 dupes for any 4-6 star rarity Aurorian to reach max Breakthrough. You can do as many Breakthroughs as rarity number – 3 for 3-star Aurorian and etc. First 1-2 Breakthroughs increase HP and DEF and dont require dupes, 3-star rarity doesnt require dupes at all. Later Breakthroughs can decrease Active Skill CD(cooldown) or improve it in other way, or improve Chain Combo.
Breakthrough also require a special material – Heartstone – you get it for recruiting and it’s also produced on Colossus.
Last is – you can upgrade the unique equipment Aurorians get at their first Ascension. It requires a special material – Sublime – you can get it in Resource stage.
Also you can make gifts to increase Aurorian’s affinity – each level of affinity gives some extra stats.
You can gift anything to anyone but every gift are designed for a certain faction, element or character type (like romantic), if it matches Aurorian they will gain twice the affinity points.
There are also chat function just like in BA – your Aurorians may text you sometimes. They can tell you something or make an appointment on Colossus, which unlocks a cutscene. You can increase affinity through this system.
Quests (Missions, Tasks)
Daily quests – you get 10-20 points for each, earn 100 points to obtain all daily rewards.
Plot quests – reflect your progression tthrough the story, you gain some extra rewards for clearing story stages.
Branch quests – is your profile progression. Like Ascend 5 Aurorians or reach 4000 mood on Colossus.
Achievements – you can gain some Lumamber by completing different achievements.
There are also Daily and Monthly Login rewards.
Shop are pretty much standart. Much like AK’s shop and prices seem fair for me. Though there are no credits you can get from friends to exchange it for some mats. With Special Territory currency you can buy 2 Flares (Pulls, just like HH permit in AK or Fates in GI) per week and a lot of presents for Aurorians + some furniture.
There is Monthly Pass that gives you 100 Lumamber per day = 10 pulls in a month + some extra Lumamber instantly (~600 iirc), but, unlike AK, it doesn’t provides you with energy potions. Don’t panic, you get much more energy for free with Colossus production.
Colossus
Bridge is your Control Center, Aurorians who deployed here can increase an amount of mood provided by furniture. The more mood you have the more resources Aurorians in colossus will give you randomly every day, including Lumamber. I get 30 Lumamber by day for now.
Lumina grid is a Power Station – provides other facilities with Lumina. Upgrade it to get more Lumina so you can build and upgrade more facilities. There are maximum 4 Lumina grids can be unlocked. Aurorians deployed here increase the recovery rate of Fireflies(aka Drones). You need fireflies to build and upgrade.
Lounge, Cafe, Rec Room and Bar are recreation areas. In Cafe you can read unlocked books. You have no other use for these rooms.
Prism Pillar – gives you extra Prism (Energy). Woohoo! At level 3 you can get 100 Prism per day with 2 deployed Aurorians.
Resource Station unlocks new Resources stages and provides Carriers. Aurorians increase Carriers production efficiency.
Exploration – provides MS and unlocks new Secret Territory levels. Aurorians increase MS production rate.
Dispatch Office – send your Aurorians on expeditions for Ascencion materials and small amount of Lumamber. You can still use those Aurorians in battles. Aurorians deployed in Office decrease expeditions’ time.
Starlight Chamber – produce Heartstones (for Breakthroughs) and Star Gems. Star Gem is another currency you gain for recruiting and can spend in shop.
All Aurorians have 2 base skills, but all those skills are the same for each facility. I don’t know if developers will add different skill or if they can be upgraded with Ascensions.
So, the greatest improvement in comparsion with AK – you assign an Aurorian to a Facility once and they stay there until you remove them. You don’t need to swap them for others every day. You are no more slave of your base.
Conclusion
Overall I like this game much so far. Developers took the best gacha IMO – Arknights – as a model and even made some features better. They also borrowed some stuff from Blue Archive – most noticeble is a chat with Aurorians – nice thing to have, makes you more attached to them.
I am only concerned about Gacha economics – will we get as much resources as in AK to pull or particularly can we get enough Lumamber for free to get a focus banner character once in a while? Will focus banner characters be added to mainstay banner? Will they add more 3-star and 4-star characters?
Also remember – as I said there is no system like AK’s recruitement and you can’t buy a 6* star in shop (for now there are only two 5-stars).
There is no PvP so it doesn’t affect gameplay much – I think you will still be able to clear new stages with characters you have. But we all know why we are here – we want all those brand new and shiny waifus and husbundos in a personal collection, so we better get at least some of them without emptying the wallet.
Don’t get me wrong – I certainly recommend to at least try it. The game’s overall quality is really high – graphics (animations, effects) are beautiful, interface is comfortable, gameplay is interesting. It won’t bite and now is good time to start.
Author: Artef7
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/o3j3xg/alchemy_stars_comprehensive_review/
