History Videogame / GemCraft

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.

** In ''Labyrinth'', the four maps in the corner can only be opened by performing special field challenges.
** In ''Chasing Shadows'', Vision fields are levels that only need to be cleared once for full reward and lock you into specific challenges. Other fields only unlocked after another field was beaten on at least Glaring.

The newest game, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1106530/GemCraft__Frostborn_Wrath/ Frostborn Wrath]]'', which was released on January 10, 2020, reduces the number of gem types to six, while both Poolbound and Bloodbound becomes passive properties of each gem:

** 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 restricted you to a single gem color.

** In ''Chasing Shadows'', Vision fields serve this purpose, being levels that only need to be cleared once for full reward and locked you into specific challenges. Other fields only unlocked after another field was beaten on at least Glaring.

** ''Chapter One'' has epic bosses strewn across the main story.

** ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'' introduce the special non-boss enemies such as Spire or Wizard Hunter this way. [[spoiler: And the FinalBoss of ''Frostborn Wrath'' is Forgotten's Gatekeeper.]]
* BrutalBonusLevel: Pretty much any bonus level either already is this, or can be made into this with appropriate difficulty modifiers.

* DamageSpongeBoss: The five epic bosses in the first game. Aside from absurdly high HP, armor and banishment cost, they 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.

** For ''Frostborn Wrath'', combining the Overcrowd and Parasitic Swarmlings traits. The first raises the number of enemies per wave, while the other guarantees that [[AsteroidsMonster each enemy drops two swarmlings]] after it is killed. The number of swarmlings does not increase with rank of trait, so you can set it at one and still have little problem handling them if you can kill the monsters that spawn them. If you can handle this combination, you can rack up high amount of mana and [=XP=] rather quickly. In fact, the [=XP=] reward in the first version of the game was so {{Egregious}} that the devs had to nerf it just a few days after the game's release.

** In ''Labyrinth'', the Shadow will perform TheSlowWalk towards your orb as a DesperationAttack. If it touches your orb before you destroy it, your lose instantly regardless of how much Mana you have left. In ''Chasing Shadows'', this ability is given to Spires. And in ''Frostborn Wrath'', Wall Breakers can do this as well.

** Prior to ''Labyrinth'', crafting worked like this; you received a random-color gem based on those available in the level. If you wanted a gem of a specific color, you had to keep on creating gems until you got it.
** Dropping Gem Bombs on enemy-spawning buildings may or may not actually destroy the building, due to randomized damage.

** The Beacon Storm trait adds random beacons in random unoccupied spaces of the level. Depending on your luck this can affect your run little to not at all, or be a catastrophic hindrance (such as placing a disrupting beacon next to your key towers, multiple speed/shield beacons at a chokepoint, or two protection beacons next to each other and also protecting a third, more dangerous one)

* MetalSlime:
** Apparitions in ''Labyrinth''. They are uncommon foes that [[AirborneMook fly slowly across the map]] and have a ''ton'' of hit points, but they can't harm you at all and will just enter and exit the map. However, killing these gives the player 3 free skill points.
** Any so-called non-monster enemy in ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'', including Apparitions from above as well as Shadows, Spires and so on. They are much more dangerous than regular monsters, but killing them nets a handful of valuable Shadow Cores.

* TwistEnding:
** [[spoiler:In ''Gemcraft 0'', the protagonist finally unseals the Gem of Eternity... only to find that it was the one thing keeping the Forgotten sealed away. Now free from its prison, the Forgotten takes control of the protagonist, turning him into the main antagonist of Chapter 1.]]
** [[spoiler:After defeating the corrupt wizard at the end of ''Chapter 1'', the Forgotten, who has been controlling him all the while, slips out of his tower and possesses the protagonist.]]
** [[spoiler:At the end of ''Chasing Shadows'', the Gem of Eternity you claimed from the corpse of the protagonist of ''Labyrinth'' turned out to be a fake. It taps into the powers of the other replicas scattered across the map, and it all breaks open the barrier keeping demons away from the Spiritforge.]]

* TheJuggernaut: Spires. They have extremely high HP, move towards your orb in a straight line, instakill your orb if they reach it, and to top it all off, their [[DamageReduction maximum damage taken per shot is capped]]. Fortunately, they're slow... ''very'' slow.

* NostalgiaLevel: Some of the vision fields resemble levels from older games, particularly fields 19 to 23 (whose layouts are taken from the Arcane Guardian battles in ''Chapter 0'', and which also feature Arcane Guardians as final bosses), and field 3 (with the same layout as the final level in ''Chapter 0'' and the same 228 waves that you have to face if you forgo said level's main objective).

** The Wake of Eternity spell. In addition to shredding armor, suppressing regeneration, and having a chance to banish enemies, it also deals 20% (can be boosted to 70% by Talisman Fragments) of their current health to them as damage.

* AnIcePerson: Unlike the protagonists of the former chapters, FW's wizard's strike spells are centered around using ice, complementing the established freeze spell to briefly stop enemies with a Whiteout spell that slows and exposes enemies and an Ice Shard spell that cuts their hit points and armor by a percentage. Fittingly, the last (and most difficult) levels take place in stages with lava-filled chasms torn open, severely reducing the space into which you can place buildings.

* ChargedAttack: Pylons are charged by gem firing at them and store up to three shots that pierce armor and jump to nearby enemies like ChainLightning.

* SealedEvilInACan: The Forgotten is sealed away in the Gem of Eternity, but the mage from ''Chapter Zero'' is foolish enough to lust for it... and breaks it. The Forgotten actually gets her name from the fact that she's been sealed away and released/escaped so many times that nobody can remember where she originally came from.

* CurbStompBattle: The third Vision level pits you against 228 waves of monsters... but gives you a maze which forces them to take the longest route possible, a perfect spot to set up a gem with 8 amplifiers, and starts you out with 100,000 Mana and all 9 colors unlocked. Unless the waves are heavily enraged, anything you can whip up with that much resources will one-shot everything.

** Demons and Spires will explode when you take them down, demolishing all walls in their vicinity. Not noticing that can let monsters slip through very quickly.

** In ''Chapter 3: Frostborn Wrath'', you take a control of a wizard who was frozen for a very long time, apparently even before the creation of The Forgotten. Thanks to a warmth spell casted by someone else, your future player character has thawed from the ice and thus the adventure can begin.

''Gemcraft'' is a free-to-play TowerDefense series developed by Game in a Bottle 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 ''Labyrinth'' and ''Chasing Shadows'' it's high enough to make even VideoGame/{{Disgaea}} hang its head in shame. By stacking difficulty, talisman bonuses, and battle settings/traits, you can gain billions of XP per level. and with 169 fields in ''Labyrinth'' and up to 191 in ''Chasing Shadows'' (including Magician's Pouch-exclusive and Steam-exclusive fields), your wizard level can get absurdly high. The soft level cap is generally considered to be somewhere around Level 10,000 in ''Labyrinth'' and 50,000 in ''Chasing Shadows''.

* BossBattle: ''Chapter One'' has epic bosses strewn across the main story. ''Chapter Zero'' has Arcane Guardians. ''Labyrinth'' has one guaranteed Shadow battle without needing modifiers. ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'' introduce the special non-boss enemies such as Spire or Wizard Hunter this way. [[spoiler: And the FinalBoss of ''Frostborn Wrath'' is Forgotten's Gatekeeper.]]

* CastFromHitPoints: Everything you build costs mana, which in turn is drained when monsters reach your orb. In other words, Mana is both health and [[CastFromMoney money.]]

* AnIcePerson: Unlike the protagonists of the former chapters, FW's wizard's strike spells are centered around using ice, complementing the established freeze spell to briefly stop enemies with a Whiteout spell that slows and exposes enemies and an Ice Shard spell that cuts their hit points and armor by a percentage.

The newest game, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1106530/GemCraft__Frostborn_Wrath/ Frostborn Wrath]]'', which was released on 10 January 2020, reduces the number of gem types to six, while both Poolbound and Bloodbound component becomes passive property of each gem:

** In ''Chapter 3: Frostborn Wrath'', you take a control of a wizard who was frozen for very long time, apparently even before the creation of The Forgotten. Thanks to a warmth spell casted by someone else, your future player character has thawed from the ice and thus the adventure can begin.

** ''Frostborn Wrath'' throws in Wraiths, who don't ''seem'' to do anything ... at first glance. Look at their description and you notice each of them reduces damage to ''everything'' on field by 15% ''per Wraith, up to'' '''90%'''. Worse is Wizard Hunter, who instead can destroy towers with gems (which forfeits any gem that was socketed in said tower), giving you a moment to remove the gem from the tower.

* AndManGrewProud: According to one of the journal entries in ''Chasing Shadows'', the Forgotten was summoned because of this. The wizards of old, convinced that they were invincible, and greedy for more power, began summoning and enslaving ever more powerful demons, until they finally pulled up one they couldn't control. In one of the Vision fields, you get to oversee the ritual that started the whole mess. In ''Frostborn Wrath'' you find out that the wizards opposing such experiments were exiled and hunted down. In fact, your [=PC=] is one such wizard from the time before the Forgotten who was frozen for this reason and thawed out just because of a luckily placed warmth spell. Even in game you're not safe from them and there is specifically a creature called Wizard Hunter that is stated to hunt down rogue wizards (ie. you) that can destroy your towers and amplifiers.
* BonusDungeon: Getting a glowing frame (equating to a really high score) in the original on all levels in certain section would open one of the hidden levels, all of which were a one color level. In Chapter Zero, completing maps on Heroic will eventually unlock bonus levels. In ''Labyrinth'', the four maps in the corner can only be opened by doing special field challenges. In ''Chasing Shadows'', vision fields serve this purpose, being levels that only need to be cleared once for full reward and locked you into specific challenges. Other fields only unlocked after another field was beaten on at least Glaring.

* CastFromHitPoints: Everything you build in all games cost mana, which in turn is drained when monsters reach your orb. In other words, Mana is both health and [[CastFromMoney money.]]
* DamageReduction: Via Armour level. Some particularly annoying mooks ''gain'' armor every second. In ''Frostborn Wrath'', Wraith does this ''to all monsters'' while on field.

** In ''Chapter 0'', playing a level in Arcane mode will cause an Arcane Guardian to spawn after all waves have been cleared. This Arcane Guardian is much weaker than the Arcane Guardians fought as storyline bosses, and do not come with Arcane Minions nor status effect resistances.

** In ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'', each special enemy is introduced as a boss. It then starts to appear more frequently as (still kinda rare) regular encounter. Notably, ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Ritual'' battle traits from CS and FW respectively raise the probability of these encounters taking place for a hefty Shadow Core rewards.

** One of the early stages in Gemcraft: Labryinth has a tower surrounded by eight amplifiers. Place a gem in each of the amplifiers, and the tower gem will '''kick ass'''. This nuke becomes MUCH more powerful if the player has the Premium content and uses endurance mode with this strategy to get a ridiculous multiplier to their XP gained. A similar setup occurs in ''Chasing Shadows''.
** Red gems in ''Labyrinth''. They add a percentage of their kills to their damage, meaning a red gem that's been there since the first wave can have a damage of over 1000 by the final waves. The gem won't dominate the game by itself, but becomes much more powerful when combined with the lime or yellow gems (which multiply the offensive power.) This power was nerfed slightly in ''Chasing Shadows''. The black gems now multiply both damage and specials and count hits rather than kills, but use hit levels rather than raw hits.
** A different Disc One Nuke in ''Labyrinth'' (the ability to juggle monsters over mana leech traps by building and demolishing walls to keep them going back and forth over them) led to the developers putting a hard cap on the number of demolitions one could use on a level.
** For ''Frostborn Wrath'', combining Overcrowd and Parasitic Swarmlings'' traits. The first raises the number of enemies for each wave, the other guarantees that [[AsteroidsMonster each enemy drops two swarmlings]] after it is killed. The number of swarmlings does not increase with rank of trait, so you can set it at one and still have little problem to handle them if you can kill the monsters that spawn them. If you can handle this combination, you can rack high amount of mana and [=XP=] rather quickly. In fact, the [=XP=] reward in first version of the game was so {{Egregious}} that the devs had to nerf it few days after the game's release
* DungeonBypass: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. The wizard in ''Labyrinth'' mentions that he can't just "hop over" to the labyrinth's center due to some kind of energy forcing him to pass labyrinth the usual way, field by field.

* 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 until it was too high. 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.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Forgotten gets her name from the fact that she keeps escaping for so long, she is now so forgotten that nobody knows why she exists.
* ExpansionPack: Gemcraft: Labyrinth and Chasing Shadows contain a five-dollar "premium" version which unlocks extra modes, skills, and battlefields. There are many achievements, levels, and skills that can only be found by completing certain maps in certain sectors, and those that require completing a Premium-only level are thus inaccessible. Labyrinth's premium version has since been released for free on developer's website, due to complications that have arose with buying it properly years after release.

* GameBreakingBug: In Labyrinth, the glitch that allows the creation of near infinite strength gems has a chance of deleting your save file.

* 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]].

** In Sudden Death mode, no banishment is possible: the game will instantly end in a loss if an enemy reaches your tower. If Swarm waves weren't annoying enough, now any one of them can kill you, no matter how tiny and pathetic they are.
** In ''Labyrinth'', the Shadow will perform TheSlowWalk towards your orb as a DesperationAttack. If it touches your orb before you destroy it, your lose instantly regardless of Mana left. In ''Chasing Shadows'', this ability is given to Spires. And in ''Frostborn Wrath'', Wall Breaker can do this as well.

** A Focused tower, a gem tower accompanied with a complete 8 supporting amplifiers in a 3x3 box, qualify in this trope. As amassing powerful gems in each amplifier (taking a fraction of its damage, range and firing speed), the tower gets a significant boost so wide it can fire across the map, disintegrating anything that simply spawns into battle. While Amplifiers alone are expensive, skill investment can be only thing that stops you from making one. (this also applies to traps, in an even more insane degree since traps multiply every special but bound specials after everything is taken into account.)
** Watchtower from ''Frostborn Wrath'' is this as well, as it can hit anything on field, including your towers.

* LuckBasedMission: Prior to ''Labyrinth'', crafting causes you to receive a random-color gem based on those available in the level. The same goes for using Gem Bombs on enemy-spawning buildings -- they may or may not destroy the building due to randomized damage.
** The trial on K1 field on ''Frostborn Wrath'' depends on how lucky you'll be about Watchtowers targeting monsters instead of your towers.

* {{Mana}}: This is needed to build things, craft gems, cast spells, and as a last ditch ManaShield to banish monsters that get too close. It builds up slowly every second, but largely comes from monsters you kill, and you can get more by using orange gems.
* ManaShield: If a monster reaches the destination, it's automatically sent back to the beginning by a banishing spell. If you don't have enough mana for that, it's game over.

** All levels become this in ''Chapter Zero'''s Endurance, 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 last waves being able to have HP well in decillions or somewhere around that mark. The last level is also similar, though it's "only" 228 waves, which, while not the proper way to beat the level, is more feasible.
** ''Labyrinth'' and ''Chasing Shadows'' are no different, having 1337 and 999 waves in Endurance mode respectively. They ''can'' be completed (and in Chasing Shadows you get even differently colored light at map completion icon) but doing so requires ''very'' extensive grinding well beyond whatever is needed to just complete the game.

** Apparitions in ''Labyrinth''. They are uncommon foes that [[AirborneMook fly over terrain]] slowly and have a TON of hit points, but they can't harm you at all and will just enter and exit the map. However, killing these gives the player 3 free skill points.
** Any so-called non-monster enemy in ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'', including Apparitions from above as well as Shadows, Spires and so on. They are much more dangerous than regular monster, but killing them nets a handful of valuable Shadow Cores.

** Wall Breaker from ''Frostborn Wrath'' can even destroy any structure in its path barring barricades and has even more HP, but it is even slower.
* MultiMookMelee: Because it's tower defense.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Forgotten. Also, epic bosses in the first and Arcane Guardians in the second game. Meanwhile ''Frostborn Wrath'' introduces Wizard Hunter.

* PathOfMostResistance: Much of the game's strategy is based around deciding how difficult you want to make the level in the name of more experience.
* PinballProjectile: Lime gems (red gems in Chasing Shadows) can strike chain hits.

* SealedEvilInACan: The Forgotten is sealed away in the Gem of Eternity, but the mage from ''Chapter Zero'' is foolish enough to lust for it... and breaks it.
* SequelDifficultySpike: A WordOfGod stated this before the release of ''Frostborn Wrath'' and they surely delivered. It doesn't help that the skills are now locked mostly behind either Endurance Mode or Trial Mode, the latter of which is basically Vision Fields from ''Chasing Shadows'' with difficulty to match where no amount of level grinding will help you due to set skillset. It got so bad with players complaining about the difficulty mere ''hours'' after the release of the game that the authors promised adjusting difficulty as well as an easier way of obtaining skills. Few days after the skills were moved in more manageable Endurance mode.

** Ditto for [[spoiler:Gatekeeper of the Forgotten at the end of ''Frostborn Wrath''. It has numerous 'fangs' and any of them must be harmed before he becomes temporarily vulnerable]].

* SoundOfNoDamage: The game plays a metallic clink if an attack on an enemy is nullified by DamageReduction.
* SplashDamage: Red gems give splash damage in first two games. Lime gems give a multi-hit version (which is likely why red gems were changed). Red takes the happy medium between splash and chain in ''Chasing Shadows'', while the Barrage spell fires shells that do splash damage as well.
* StringyHairedGhostGirl: The Forgotten gives this vibe, despite being a faceless skeleton with long hair.

** Bloodbound increases the efficiency of the gem the longer it stays in the middle of the battle. Constantly killing (or hitting in ''Chasing Shadows'') enemies will make the corresponding gem stronger.

** The maximum health of enemies is '''1e300''' (that is, 1 followed by 300 zeros). Even on the highest difficulty with all Battle Traits turned on, the last endurance wave enemies have nowhere around that HP.
** Endurance Mode has 999 waves, despite making you think it's EndlessGame (but good luck getting there). The maximum number of monsters per wave is 999 as well.

* CurbStompBattle: The third Vision level pits you against 228 waves of monsters...but gives you a maze which forces them to take the longest route possible, a perfect spot to set up a gem with 8 amplifiers, and starts you out with 100,000 Mana and all 9 colors unlocked. Unless the waves are heavily enraged, anything you can whip up with that much resources will one-shot everything.

* DualBoss: Demons and Spires occasionally attack in pairs or couples. On higher difficulty, even three or four can be on the battlefield at once.

* DiscOneNuke: The Beam attack deals low damage, but hits 10 times per second, making it ridiculously easy to stack specials on a monster. Paired with an Orange gem, it can harvest mana by the thousands as early as in Wave 3. Paired with the black gem, it can make it grow uber powerful in a hurry. It becomes a ''self-boosting'' nuke later in the game, in levels where you have access to White gems, which improve the gem's damage and special (i.e. they make it harvest even MORE mana) the more times you hit the Mana cap, giving you a gem that basically upgrades itself for free provided that you spend your Mana wisely.

* ExpansionPack: Purchasing the full Flash version not only unlocks higher difficulties which, with some practice, can boost your level in the thousands in the earlier stages, but you also unlock levels and even entire map pieces which in turn give you otherwise unattainable achievements and skills. Also, without it even the final level at the highest difficulty still won't get you the highest tier talisman pieces. The Steam version comes with the entire package and then some, but also ups the ante with Iron Wizard mode (which precludes grinding altogether) and adjusting the basic difficulty.

* FunSize: The Orblets Battle trait. Orblets appear around your Orb with each an adorable chime sounding at the start. While Mana increase provided by these orblets is minuscule, they help prevent up to 9 enemies from being banished by your main Orb, securing more experience in return. Lose any of the orblets by letting the monsters carry them away from the map, on the other hand, will significantly reduce Mana gain from any source.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: The wizard from ''Labyrinth'' meets this fate sometimes during this game, courtesy of the Forgotten]].

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: ''Chapter 1: The Forgotten'' and ''Chapter 2: Chasing Shadows'' both see the player control the same character, but the other three games in the series use entirely different protagonists.

* MightyGlacier: Giants do more mana damage to your orb if they reach it and have much more health than normal mooks, but they're much slower too.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In Chapter 0, you spend the game searching for the Gem of Eternity. When you find it and capture it, [[spoiler:it turns out to have been containing a monster (for eternity, hence the name) which then possesses you, setting the stage for the first game]].

** Ditto for [[spoiler: Gatekeeper of the Forgotten at the end of ''Frostborn Wrath''. It has numerous 'fangs' and any of them must be harmed before he becomes temporarily vulnerable]].

** Ditto for [[spoiler: Gatekeeper of the Forgotten at the end of ''Frostborn Wrath'', wha has numerous 'fangs' and any of them must be harmed before he becomes temporarily vulnerable]].

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Unlike in ''1'' and ''Chasing Shadows'' where you controlled the person walking towards Spiritforge, you take a control of a wizard who was frozen for very long time, apparently even before the creation of The Forgotten. Thanks to a warmth spell casted by someone else, your future player character has thawed from the ice and thus the adventure can begin.

** Depending on the style of the game either Bloodbound overshadows Poolbound or vice versa. For shorter lower level plays Poolbound dominates Bloodbound, meaning those playing Iron Wizard mode will have no use for the latter, especially since a bigger detour is required to get it. For Endurance Runs however Bloodbound quickly superannuates Poolbound in every way.

** Considering the number of various traits that increase [=EXP=] multiplier to ridiculous levels, and the fact each game mode has its own [=XP=] score this time as well, one can assume this applies to ''Frostborn Wrath'' as well.

* AndManGrewProud: According to one of the journal entries, the Forgotten was summoned because of this. The wizards of old, convinced that they were invincible, and greedy for more power, began summoning and enslaving ever more powerful demons, until they finally pulled up one they couldn't control. In one of the Vision fields, you get to oversee the ritual that started the whole mess. In ''Frostborn Wrath'' you find out that the wizards opposing such experiments were exiled and hunted down. In fact, your [=PC=] is one such wizard from the time before the Forgotten who was frozen for this reason and thawed out just because of a luckily placed warmth spell. Even in game you're not safe from them and there is specifically a creature called Wizard Hunter that is stated to hunt down rogue wizards (ie. you) that can destroy your towers and amplifiers.

* BossBattle: ''Chapter One'' has epic bosses strewn across the main story. ''Chapter Zero'' has Arcane Guardians. ''Labyrinth'' has one guaranteed Shadow battle without needing modifiers. ''Chasing Shadows'' and ''Frostborn Wrath'' introduce the special non-boss enemies such as Spire or Wizard Hunter this way.

* ShieldedCoreBoss: 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.

* SchmuckBait: At one field you'll have plenty of mana shards with thick shield, so you probably set your gems so you can harvest them. [[spoiler:One or two waves into battle, Forgotten passes through the field and corrupts all shards, meaning if your gems were targeting them at moment they could be weakened, especially if you set Structure as priority target. [[CallBack Well, now you know where these shards are coming from]].

* AndManGrewProud: According to one of the journal entries, the Forgotten was summoned because of this. The wizards of old, convinced that they were invincible, and greedy for more power, began summoning and enslaving ever more powerful demons, until they finally pulled up one they couldn't control. In one of the Vision fields, you get to oversee the ritual that started the whole mess. In ''Frostborn Wrath'' you find out that the wizards opposing such experiments were exiled and hunted down. In fact, your [=PC=] is one such wizard from the time before the Forgotten who was frozen for this reason and thawed out just because of a luckily placed warmth spell. Even in game you're not safe from them and there is specifically a creature called Wizard Hunter that is stated to hunt down rogue wizards (ie. you) that can destroy your towers and amplifiers.

* MarathonLevel: All levels become this in ''Chapter Zero'''s Endurance, 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 last waves being able to have HP well in decillions or somewhere around that mark. The last level is also similar, though it's "only" 228 waves, which, while not the proper way to beat the level, is more feasible.
* MetalSlime: Apparitions in ''Labyrinth''. They are uncommon foes that [[AirborneMook fly over terrain]] slowly and have a TON of hit points, but they can't harm you at all and will just enter and exit the map. However, killing these gives the player 3 free skill points.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Forgotten. Also, epic bosses in the first and Arcane Guardians in the second game.

* VeteranUnit: Bloodbound and Poolbound gems are two variants that revolve around this trope. In ''Frostborn Wrath'' every gem becomes stronger as it deals more hits.

** ''Frostborn Wrath'' throws in Wraiths, who don't ''seem'' to do anything ... at first glance. Look at their description and you notice each of them reduces damage to ''everything'' on field by 15% ''per Wraith, up to'' '''85%'''. Worse is Wizard Hunter, who instead can destroy towers with gems (which forfeits any gem that was socketed in said tower), giving you a moment to remove the gem from the tower.

** For ''Frostborn Wrath'', combining Overcrowd and Parasitic Swarmlings'' traits. The first raises the number of enemies for each wave, the other guarantees that [[AsteroidMonster each enemy drops two swarmlings]] after it is killed. The number of swarmlings does not increase with rank of trait, so you can set it at one and still have little problem to handle them if you can kill the monsters that spawn them. If you can handle this combination, you can rack high amount of mana and [=XP=] rather quickly. In fact, the [=XP=] reward in first version of the game was so {{Eggregious}} that the devs had to nerf it few days after the game's release

** Depending on the style of the game either Bloodbound overshadows Poolbound or vice versa. For shorter lower level plays Poolbound dominates Bloodbound, meaning those playing Iron Wizard mode will have no use for the latter, especially since a bigger detour is required to get it. For Endurance Runs howevers Bloodbound quickly superannuates Poolbound in every way.

* AndManGrewProud: According to one of the journal entries, the Forgotten was summoned because of this. The wizards of old, convinced that they were invincible, and greedy for more power, began summoning and enslaving ever more powerful demons, until they finally pulled up one they couldn't control. In one of the Vision fields, you get to oversee the ritual that started the whole mess. In ''Frostborn Wrath'' you find out that the wizards opposing such experiments were exiled and hunted down. In fact, your [=PC=] is one such wizard from the time before the Forgotten who was frozen for this reason and thawed out just because of a luckily placed warmth spell. Even in game you're not safe from them and there is specifically a creature called Wizard Hunter that is stated to hunt down rogue wizards (ie. you) that can destroy your towers and amplifiers.

** Considering the number of various traits that increase [=EXP=] multiplier to ridiculous levels, and the fact each game mode has its own [=XP=} score this time as well, one can assume this applies to ''Frostborn Wrath'' as well.

* '''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.

It also introduces new Skills (notably removing Orblets from Traits and moving them to Skill), buildings such as Pylons and Lanterns, and objects as Wizard Stashes containing various items, possibly even skill tomes, waiting to be collected. The monsters from previous games return, and new ones, such as Wraiths, introduce themselves here as well.
The ways how to make your game harder was expanded as well, with possibilities from making every monster drop two swarmlings to raise their total number to speed up the monster ways, in exchange for higher HP.

** Considering the number of various traits that increase [=EXP=] multiplier to ridiculous levels, one can assume ''Frostborn Wrath'' has (or more precisely does not have any) as well.

** ''Frostborn Wrath'' throws in Wraiths, who don't do anything ... at first glance. Look at their description and you notice each of them reduces damage to ''everything'' on field by 15% ''per Wraith, up to'' '''85%'''. Worse is Wizard Hunter, who instead can destroy towers which gems (which forfeits any gem that was socketed in said tower), giving you a moment to remove the gem from the tower.

* BossBattle: ''Chapter One'' has epic bosses strewn across the main story. ''Chapter Zero'' has Arcane Guardians. ''Labyrinth'' has one guaranteed Shadow battle without needing modifiers.

* DamageReduction: Via Armour level. Some particularly annoying mooks ''gain'' armor every second.

** In ''Labyrinth'', the Shadow will perform TheSlowWalk towards your orb as a DesperationAttack. If it touches your orb before you destroy it, your lose instantly regardless of Mana left. In ''Chasing Shadows'', this ability is given to Spires.

* KillSat: A Focused tower, a gem tower accompanied with a complete 8 supporting amplifiers in a 3x3 box, qualify in this trope. As amassing powerful gems in each amplifier (taking a fraction of its damage, range and firing speed), the tower gets a significant boost so wide it can fire across the map, disintegrating anything that simply spawns into battle. While Amplifiers alone are expensive, skill investment can be only thing that stops you from making one. (this also applies to traps, in an even more insane degree since traps multiply every special but bound specials after everything is taken into account.)

* SequelDifficultySpike: A WordOfGod stated this before the release of ''Frostborn Wrath'' and they surely delivered. It doesn't help that the skills are now locked mostly behind either Endurance Mode or Trial Mode, the latter of which is basically Vision Fields from ''Chasing Shadows'' with difficulty to match where no amount of level grinding will help you due to set skillset. It got so bad with players complaining about the difficulty mere ''hours'' after the release of the game that the authors promised adjusting difficulty as well as an easier way of obtaining skills.

* VeteranUnit: Bloodbound and Poolbound gems are two variants that revolve around this trope.

* AndManGrewProud: According to one of the journal entries, the Forgotten was summoned because of this. The wizards of old, convinced that they were invincible, and greedy for more power, began summoning and enslaving ever more powerful demons, until they finally pulled up one they couldn't control. In one of the Vision fields, you get to oversee the ritual that started the whole mess.

* DramaticIrony: Once you met your first Spire your player character will remark that Spiritforge's shield should deflect them. If you played ''Chasing Shadows'', then you know that [[spoiler: thanks to wizard's actions in that game, the shield was destroyed by its end]].

** Depending on the style of the game either Bloodbound overshadows Poolbound or vice versa. For shorter lower level plays Poolbound dominates Bloodbound, meaning those playing Iron Wizard mode will have no use for the latter, especially since it requires a bigger detour. For Endurance Runs howevers Bloodbound quickly superannuates Poolbound in every way.

* CrossHairAware: An interesting variation - when your tower is locked on by monster that can destroy it, such as Watchtower, it will be marked by a black 'fog'.

* 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''. 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.

The newest game, ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1106530/GemCraft__Frostborn_Wrath/ Frostborn Wrath]]'', which was released on 10 January 2020, reduces the number of gem types to six, while the Poolbound component becomes passive property of each gem:

* '''Red''': [[DamageIncreasingDebuff Bleeding]], a completely new gem type. Increases damage taken by the affected monsters for some time.

It also introduces new skills, buildings, Pylons and Lanterns, and new monsters, notably Wraiths.