History YMMV / GemCraft

** 'Hatred' in ''Chasing Shadows'', which causes first enemy wave have their HP multiplied and those of subsequent wave scale quicker. Everyone will tell you that [=XP=] multiplier for this is not worth it.
** The same thing is back in ''Frostborn Wrath'', but there are now other things to not bother with such as 'Thick Air' (damage is capped at certain fraction of enemy's max HP) and Insulation (adds a shield to enemy, needing a supplementary attack to get rid of it).

** K1 Trial Mode in ''Frostborn Wrath'' is nothing but an [[LuckBasedMission RNG antics]] with you praying that the three Watchtowers there (that cannot be destroyed since you have not Bolt) don't target your towers too often, especially during the waves with swarmlings which require towers to deal with them.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: There is a grand total of ''one'' field that features Watchtowers in ''Frostborn Wrath'' (so far anyway). Considering only Journey Mode there is a single Watchtower in the entire game, and three if you count in Trial Mode. Kinda sad considering they are interesting ally/enemy.

* DemonicSpiders: In ''Chasing Shadows,'' it's possible for monsters of all classes to have up to three "marks" that determine secondary abilities. This means there could potentially be a wave of monsters that [[LightningBruiser move twice as fast as normal, burn a set percentage of your mana in addition to normal banishment costs, and have extra armor, health or health regeneration.]]

* DifficultySpike: In ''Chasing Shadow'': The jump from Hardcore to Insane difficulty is ''staggering'' to say the least. It's at this difficulty where the game starts punishing you severely for not being a master of the ''Gears of War'' mechanics. Enemies gain god-like accuracy with weapons while you can be killed in 1 to 3 shots from any weapon. Any melee attack is a OneHitKill and players WILL be rushed by enemies if they camp at their cover for too long. Enemies have almost twice as much health as usual and can only be taken down efficiently with [[ActionCommands Active Reloads]] and [[BoomHeadshot headshots]]. The worst part, however, is there is no going DBNO for you: if you lose all your health, you '''die''' on the spot. The only saving graces are that [[AntiFrustrationFeatures your AI teammates have more health and will not bleed out if they go DBNO, so they can help you get through the campaigns solo]].

*** ''Chasing Shadows'' particularly enjoys sending waves of giants followed shortly or even directly by waves of swarmlings. Focus on the swarmlings? Giants will get through and do massive damage. Focus on the giants? Swarmlings will race through by the dozens and deliver a DeathOfAThousandCuts. If you have maxed out Giant and Swarmling Domination, Endurance mode will be effectively ''only'' Giants and Swarmlings.

* GoddamnedBats: Swarmers. These appear in [[ZergRush large groups]], and while weak, they're fast and require that you either use a SplashDamage[=/=]ChainLightning tower (the latter of which chains less than half the time), or build lots of weaker towers and therefore making your strategy weaker to armored units (while spending money on towers). Furthermore, these easily distract your towers from attacking the stronger enemies. Thankfully, Swarmers do not do much damage to your Mana.
** ''Chasing Shadows'' particularly enjoys sending waves of giants followed shortly or even directly by waves of swarmlings. Focus on the swarmlings? Giants will get through and do massive damage. Focus on the giants? Swarmlings will race through by the dozens and deliver a DeathOfAThousandCuts. If you have maxed out Giant and Swarmling Domination, Endurance mode will be effectively ''only'' Giants and Swarmlings.
** Beacons in ''Chasing Shadows'' are also a nuisance. They can't attack you directly, but they can support the monsters that do attack you and take up precious space from where you could be placing other buildings. Hope a Discharging Beacon doesn't appear next to your DPS gems. Or a Static Beacon doesn't appear where you were planning on building.

** K1 Trial Mode in ''Frostborn Wrath'' is nothing but an [[LuckBasedMission RNG antics]] with you praying that the three Watchtowers there (that cannot be destroyed since you have not Bolt) don't target your towers too often, especially during the waves with swarmlings which require towers to deal with them.

* ThatOneLevel: Field U8 in the Steam version of ''Chasing Shadows'' contains a tome to unlock the Chain Hit gem. The problem is that the tome requires significant effort to accomplish - defeat '''2700''' monsters in the range of the tome chamber. For comparison, the next highest such requirement after that just requires 790 monsters. You ''will'' need to extend the level with difficulty modifiers and/or do extensive wave-enraging just to squeeze out enough monsters to fulfill the requirement. Even worse on Iron Wizard mode due to scarcity of skill points and the fact you have to enrage them there, since you don't have Battle Traits.

* GoddamnedBats: Swarmers. These appear in [[ZergRush large groups]], and while weak, they're fast and require that you either use a SplashDamage[=/=]ChainLightning tower (the latter of which chains less than half the time), or build lots of weaker towers and therefore making your strategy weaker to armored units (while spending money on towers). Furthermore, these easily distract your towers from attacking the stronger enemies. Thankfully, Swarmers do not do much damage to your Mana.
** ''Chasing Shadows'' particularly enjoys sending waves of giants followed shortly or even directly by waves of swarmlings. Focus on the swarmlings? Giants will get through and do massive damage. Focus on the giants? Swarmlings will race through by the dozens and deliver a DeathOfAThousandCuts. If you have maxed out Giant and Swarmling Domination, Endurance mode will be effectively ''only'' Giants and Swarmlings.
** Beacons in ''Chasing Shadows'' are also a nuisance. They can't attack you directly, but they can support the monsters that do attack you and take up precious space from where you could be placing other buildings. Hope a Discharging Beacon doesn't appear next to your DPS gems. Or a Static Beacon doesn't appear where you were planning on building.

* ThatOneLevel: Field U8 in the Steam version of ''Chasing Shadows'' contains a tome to unlock the Chain Hit gem. The problem is that the tome requires significant effort to accomplish - defeat '''2700''' monsters in the range of the tome chamber. For comparison, the next highest such requirement after that just requires 790 monsters. You ''will'' need to extend the level with difficulty modifiers and/or do extensive wave-enraging just to squeeze out enough monsters to fulfill the requirement.

** In the same game, bloodbound/mana leech/chain gem is another contender. This combo allows you to rask insane amounts of mana incredibly quickly, especially on enraged waves. And if you put this after bloodbound/slow/chain, the waves that this gem can't kill will give you immense amount of mana that will allow you to create stronger gems and retaliate.

** In ''Chasing Shadows'', a bloodbound/poison/chain hit gem is this. Poison ignores armor and bloodbound increases the damage and special according to the number of hits, which means that with chain hit... you may instakill several waves at once, if you're playing a long level. This effect is increased if the gem is placed in a trap directly after a bloodbound/slow/chain hit gem trap.

** ''Chasing Shadows'' particularly enjoys sending waves of giants followed shortly or even directly by waves of swarmlings. Focus on the swarmlings? Giants will get through and do massive damage. Focus on the giants? Swarmlings will race through by the dozens and deliver a DeathOfAThousandCuts.

** Also in ''Chasing Shadows'', the True Colors and Resonance skills. The former improves stats for pure-color gems and reduces the penalty on multicolored ones. The latter increases the stats on ALL gems. Using both it's possible to double or even triple your damage output with ease and still have plenty of points left for other skills, making beating the rest of the story super easy.

* GameBreaker: There a concept known as supergems, which are specially constructed gems to maximize damage output for as cheap as possible. Such a construction is practically the only way to hold back enemies for all waves in endurance missions (Gemcraft 0 or Labyrinth). The exact construction differs among the different Gemcraft versions, but the most common method is combining a gem with another gem that's two grades lower.

** In Chapter Zero, supergemming Red/Orange combo to max speed, range and specials, and then setting it into trap was equal to setting a gem that skyrockets your mana that is self-sufficient for a good while and is probably your backbone in Endurance runs.
** In Labyrinth, there are two common tactics. First is using the Red Bloodbound gem, which increases damage based on a percent of total kills. Next is the Lime/Yellow combination, which hits multiple targets with a damage multiplier.
** The red gem in Labyrinth isn't a let down by itself, because it gains increased damage based on the percent of total kills, allowing it to deal extreme amounts of damage with enough kills.
** In Chasing Shadows, a bloodbound/poison/chain hit gem is this. Poison ignores armor and bloodbound increases the damage and special according to the number of hits, which means that with chain hit... you may instakill several waves at once, if you're playing a long level. This effect is increased if the gem is placed in a trap directly after a bloodbound/slow/chain hit gem trap.

** In Chaasing Shadows, a bloodbound/poison/chain hit gem is this. Poison ignores armor and bloodbound increases the damage and special according to the number of hits, which means that with chain hit... you may instakill several waves at once, if you're playing a long level. This effect is increased if the gem is placed in a trap directly after a bloodbound/slow/chain hit gem trap.

** The red gem in Labyrinth isn't a let down by itself, because it gains increased damage based on the percent of total kills, allowing it to deal extreme amounts of damage with enough kills.

* GameBreaker: Red gems in ''Labyrinth''. While in the earlier ''Gemcraft'' installments reds did SplashDamage, in ''Labyrinth'' they are "bloodbound" which means that percentage of their kills adds to the damage they give. [[DiscOneNuke Without difficulty modifiers on earlier maps they can easily run the whole map alone]]. In later levels, ''especially'' with difficulty modifiers, ''not'' having a gem with at least some substantial red can be the difference between a CurbStompBattle for you and for the monsters.
** There is also a concept known as supergems, which are specially constructed gems to maximize damage output for as cheap as possible. Such a construction is practically the only way to hold back enemies for all waves in endurance missions (Gemcraft 0 or Labyrinth). The exact construction differs among the different Gemcraft versions, but the most common method is combining a gem with another gem that's two grades lower.

* GameBreaker: Red gems in ''Labyrinth''. While in the earlier ''Gemcraft'' installments reds did SplashDamage, in ''Labyrinth'' they are "bloodbound" which means that percentage of their kills adds to the damage they give. [[DiscOneNuke Without difficulty modifiers on earlier maps they can easily run the whole map alone]]. In later levels, ''especially'' with difficulty modifiers, ''not'' having a gem with at least some substantial red can be the difference between a CurbStompBattle for you and for the monsters.

* Red gems in ''VideoGame/{{Gemcraft}} Labyrinth''. While in the earlier ''Gemcraft'' installments reds did SplashDamage, in ''Labyrinth'' they are "bloodbound" which means that percentage of their kills adds to the damage they give. [[DiscOneNuke Without difficulty modifiers on earlier maps they can easily run the whole map alone]]. In later levels, ''especially'' with difficulty modifiers, ''not'' having a gem with at least some substantial red can be the difference between a CurbStompBattle for you and for the monsters.

* GoddamnedBats: Swarmers. These appear in [[ZergRush large groups]], and while weak, they're fast and require that you either use a SplashDamage[=/=]ChainLightning tower (the latter of which chains less than half the time), or build lots of weaker towers and therefore making your strategy weaker to armored units (while spending money on towers). Furthermore, these easily distract your towers from attacking the stronger enemies. Thankfully, Swarmers do not do much damage to your Mana.

* GoddamnedBats: Swarmers. These appear in [{ZergRush large groups]], and while weak, they're fast and require that you either use a SplashDamage[=/=]ChainLightning tower (the latter of which chains less than half the time), or build lots of weaker towers and therefore making your strategy weaker to armored units (while spending money on towers). Furthermore, these can easily distract your towers from attacking the stronger enemies. Thankfully, Swarmers do not do much damage to your Mana.