History VideoGame / Gemcraft

** In ''Chapter 1'', you had to reach the "glowing frame" score on every level within a certain section of the map in order to unlock the bonus levels, all of which restrict you to a single gem color.

* GiantMook: The appropriately-named Giants; they're basically boss versions of normal enemies with more health. They [[MightyGlacier deal more mana damage to your orb than normal mooks, but move very slowly]].

* MarathonLevel:
** All levels become this in ''Chapter Zero'''s Endurance Mode which, contrary to what it claims, is limited. It's actually 510 waves of monsters, not that you're likely to reach the end of it, considering that monsters will grow in power exponentially, with the last waves of monsters having HP levels well into the decillions. The last level is also similar, though it's "only" 228 waves.
** ''Labyrinth'' and ''Chasing Shadows'' are no different, having 1337 and 999 waves in Endurance mode respectively. They ''can'' be completed (and in ''Chasing Shadows'' the completion icon on the map changes colour to reflect this), but doing so requires ''very'' extensive grinding well beyond what's needed to just complete the game.

* BonusBoss: Some Vision Fields feature these. Notably five battles are basically a RemixedLevel from ''Gem of Eternity'', including Arcane Guardians that have ''much'' more HP than preceeding wave and high armor to boot. The key is to move your gems strategically along their path.

* MooksButNoBosses: Unlike in previous games, no enemy in ''Chasing Shadows'' could be considered bosses.

''[=GemCraft=]'' is a free-to-play TowerDefense series developed by Creator/GameInABottle and distributed by Armor Games, a major source of WebGames. It has a distinct {{Fantasy}} setting with a rudimentary storyline that varies between installments.

* SequelDifficultySpike: WordOfGod stated that this would be the case for ''Frostborn Wrath'', and they delivered. It doesn't help that skill tomes are now mostly locked behind either Endurance Mode or Trial Mode, the latter of which is basically the Vision Fields from ''Chasing Shadows'' with difficulty to match, where no amount of level grinding will help you due to having fixed skillsets. Complaints about the difficulty got so bad that the developers had to dial it back, adding an easier "Chilled" difficulty, moving the skills that were locked behind Trial Mode into the easier-to-manage Endurance Mode, and making various other balancing tweaks.

* '''[[color:yellow:Yellow]]''': [[CriticalHit Multiple Damage]]. The first two games gave a flat rate to deal triple damage. In Labyrinth and beyond, the multiple damage rate can be [[UpToEleven turned up to 11]] (starting with a chance for double damage).

* '''Yellow''': Multiple Damage[=/=]Critical. Changed from ''Labyrinth'' a bit; the chance for multiple damage now maxes out at 80%, though the multiplier still abides UpToEleven and beyond.

* DifficultySpike: Once you're past sector P, monsters start having enough armor and HP that you won't make it very far unless you can pull out a grade 5-6 gem on the first wave. Several maps after that, you need to have enough knack to make pathing harder for the mooks on top.

!!!In addition to the above, ''Chasing Shadows'' contains examples of:

!!!The ''Frostborn Wrath'' contains examples of:

The second chapter, ''Chasing Shadows'', was released to Website/ArmorGames in April 2014 and was released to Steam later in 2014. It removes Lime gems (moving their multi-hit to Red) and adds two more colors, changing the colors thusly:

''[=GemCraft=]'' is a free-to-play TowerDefense series developed by Creator/GameInABottle and distributed by Website/ArmorGames, a major source of WebGames. It has a distinct {{Fantasy}} setting with a rudimentary storyline that varies between installments.

** In ''Chapter Zero'', completing maps on Heroic difficulty will eventually unlock bonus levels.

* DamageSpongeBoss: Aside from absurdly high HP, armor and banishment cost, the five epic bosses in the first game have no special abilities that set them out from standard enemies. Similarly, the Arcane Guardians in ''Chapter 2'' are very tough, but their only special ability is that they cannot be banished and will instantly destroy your orb on contact.

** In ''Chapter 0'', playing a level in Arcane mode will cause an Arcane Guardian to spawn after every wave has been cleared. This Arcane Guardian is much weaker than the Arcane Guardians fought as storyline bosses, and do not come with Arcane Minions or status effect resistances.

* FlunkyBoss: Arcane Guardians fought as part of ''Chapter 0'''s storyline come with Arcane Minions, and the Grand Shadow boss in ''Labyrinth'' can summon monsters.

** Lots of it. In Chapter Zero, you'll have to level up to 200 in order to max out all your stats, and in ''Labyrinth'', there is no level cap for 3 of the skills. For the premium version, the Ritual skill will let you gain one starting and maximum mana for a set number of battle amulets you possess, based on its skill level.

** The Arcane Guardians fought as part of ''Chapter 0'''s storyline spawn with an absurd amount of armor, but every time an Arcane Minion is killed, the armor level decreases until it reaches zero, so the Arcane Minions should be prioritised first.

* TricksterGame: ''Chapter Zero'' is a fairly mild version. The Player should be wary of the premise (a sorcerer seeking the ultimate MacGuffin) since it's a prequel, and the boss-fights are named [[spoiler: ancient guardians]], but overall the player identifies with the main character, wanting to beat all of the levels. Then you get to the very last stage and have to free the MacGuffin from a seal. Destroying the seal [[spoiler: unleashes the SealedEvilInACan that possesses you, necessitating the character of the original ''VideoGame/GemCraft'' game, ''Chapter 1'', to come along and clean up the mess you made. NiceJobBreakingItHero]]!

* BonusBoss: Some Vision Fields feature these. Notably five battles are basically a RemixedLevel from ''Chapter Zero'', including Arcane Guardians that have ''much'' more HP than preceeding wave and high armor to boot. The key is to move your gems strategically along their path.

* TheJuggernaut: An aptly named ''Wall Breaker'' is a new enemy to this game and probably will catch you by surprise even if you are Gemcraft veteran. This thing has high HP and can destroy anything in its path, be it walls or ''towers, lanterns and pylons''. Note that if the destroyed tower hosts a gem, you lose it. Like Spires it must be killed before it reaches your orb, though unlike Spire it is thankfully limited to paths and is rather slow.

* DamageReduction: Besides Armored enemies, there are also Spires. Any damage higher than a certain threshold is reduced to said threshold, meaning that the best way to beat one is via DeathOfAThousandCuts or [[GradualGrinder poison status]].

Generally, AnAdventurerIsYou, assuming that said adventurer is always a noble [[FunctionalMagic wizard]] out to reach some goal on the other side of the world, come hell or high water—or in this case, come monsters by the bucketload. You, the SquishyWizard, must protect your tower ([[IncrediblyLamePun tower defense, get it?]]) at all costs, by placing towers next to, and traps on, the path leading to it. However, a key difference splits Gemcraft off from other tower defense games—instead of being able to upgrade your traps and towers directly, you must power them with gems. Gems are mostly obtained with a spell named Craft Gem (which is basically the source of the game's name), and have distinct colors (which affect the types of powers they possess) and levels (which affect their strength). By combining gems correctly, you can create better ones to better fight those evil monsters.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: There is no level cap; rather, cap on how much experience you can get due to the fact beating the same field twice gives you only difference between your new and old record—fail to beat it and you get nothing.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first game had a bunch: there were no traps—only trenches that slowed monsters instead. The only thing gem bombs could do was damage enemies; no transmuting or wave angering. There was a soft {{Cap}} in the first game, unlike later games which just kept going. There was no way to pause gameplay when building or thinking, which meant that everything was based on twitch-like gameplay, unlike later games which became closer to TakeYourTime.