Idle Wizard

One of the best Idlers i know.

I love this genre. Which is why it's so hard for me to see the same game printed over and over again. Luckily not this time though: Idle Wizard is a magnificent entry and deserves a spot on my most favourite incremental games.

Let's get the bad out of the way first:
The game heavily encourages you to let it run. Both idle and active time don`t compare to going offline, which yields close to no progress whatsoever. Due to there being class that utilized the offline boni while you play, they had to be balanced around that, and thusly don`t come even remotely close to what you can gain while casting spells. You also don't increase your stats (casting spells, autoclicking, leveling, etc) while being offline, and since a lot of achievements require those, you are again encouraged to leave the game running, even over night.

Secondly: there are far, far too many achievements that simply require time. "Have a playtime of 7 days", "Cast spell X 10 million times." or "earn X amount of stat". All of these could be replaced by "do nothing for several days" (or rather "leave the game running for several days", since again: offline doesn't progress stats). Which isn' really the point of an idle game. I want to actually play the game (be it active or not) but i also want all those achievements which give boni. But me simply putting off the game for several days without doing anything will probably not make me come back to it.

But what this game shines at is the sheer amount of variety. There are several classes and pets, all unlocked in a reasonable amount of time between eachother. And all feel fairly unique and offer a different kind of playstyle. That alone makes you want to unlock juuuust one more class so you can see how it plays and what's it all about.

And the progression simply works well here. There are constant unlocks, the next one being not too far off, which is exactly what keeps me motivated in these games.

So if you`re looking for the next incremental game to spend countless hours on, i can only recommend to check this out. It kept me going for quite some time already and i don't see myself quiting anytime soon...

Most recent update added things that I was leery about, decided to give it a proper try before being too critical. There are other games with "Soft/Hard" resets that aren't nearly as punishing as this one. Restarting progress with limited resources isn't a new concept, but this one takes it to the point of being a chore rather than a game; removing progress on things that take an extraordinary amount of time (for example, one that on average would take 500 days to complete). They throttled progress across the board, and then offered you upgrades in their mandatory soft/hard reset to crawl your way back up to what it used to be. Updates and extra content should feel like breathing fresh air into the game, not smothering it with a pillow.

If the devs read these, here are a few suggestions:

Your bat catcher which costs $8-$10 should move faster. "It's better than nothing" isn't a selling point.
Your Forge shouldn't cost any dust at all, OR shouldn't take 16 hours PER PIECE of gear. It already took loads of resources and time to get that.
Resetting the progress on your Trails bonuses makes no sense, you generate Runes so slowly that getting real progress on that is already an accomplishment.
Maybe rebalance those classes. It was exciting to see different playstyles, and then frustrating to find out that there were only a couple that actually gave decent progress.

I've played Idle Wizard for 66 days now so I think it's time to write a review about one of my favourite games of all time, and absolutely my most favourite idle game (since stumbling upon IW I have not had any want or need to continue looking for other idle games to play).

So, first off, some pointers - if you don't like idle games (games that are long-term based and reward patience, will play and progress without needing you constantly at the screen, and are practically endless in gameplay value, though a bit repetitive) you will not like Idle Wizard and I recommend you move on.

Also, if you prefer idle games with "money" or "coins" or similar, not the game for you (most likely irrelevant for most, but I know I'm picky about what the main number in my idle games is, and my preferred material by far is Mana, so naturally IW was a perfect fit!).

Finally - the game is extremely biased towards remaining online (being afk is fine, you just should keep the game open and running) 24/7 and going offline/closing the game as little as possible, besides for unlocking one of the classes and for a few achievements (henceforth referred to in Idle Wizard slang as "cheevos"). So, if you will be annoyed at being slower if you close the game often, want to save some (marginal amounts of) money, or think your computer is too loud to keep the game open all the time, do keep that in mind.

Now, onto the good stuff! :D Warning: A fair amount of spoilers! But proceed if you want to be well-informed before trying Idle Wizard, if that's your jam!

First of note: Unlike most other idle games, Idle Wizard's numeric system enables you to go above the typical maximum of 1.79e308. Heck, 1e308 mana (and even mysteries) is really low, in this game. So if obtaining extremely obscenely high values is your style, you've come to the right game!

Second: This game is 100% not pay-to-win, the Market offers only minor, temporary bonuses, the VIP is indeed somewhat good, but it's mostly a small bonus as thanks for supporting the Dev, no big increases (Yes, +150% looks big, I get it. It's actually extremely low in a game like this, so chillax). There are some "get through parts of the game a bit faster" content, such as dust packs, and also cosmetics (change your wizard portrait with Alteration Sands which are very reasonably priced).

In addition, not only do you gain free relics fairly often once you reach the later stages of the game (from trials and experiments, and also dev codes), but things like time warps and get mysteries are available for free, though rare (they drop from experiments).

It is 100% possible for a long-term player to purchase many cash-shop items with free relics, even up to VIP 5 if patient enough.

Moving on, this game has serious depth to it and is more complex than at first glance. It has a base class, Apprentice, 12 Tier 1 (T1) classes and 6 Tier 2 (T2) Advanced classes to choose from. T2 classes unlock after reaching e300 Mysteries.

The main progression line in the game is through collecting "Mysteries", which you will begin to obtain after reaching 1e12 total mana (oh yeah, one more thing - if you dislike scientific notation, don't play Idle Wizard - it is impossible to play without scientific notation, as its numbers grow to insane reaches and the shorthand system stops eventually even if you have it selected in Options).

You will gain approximately e1 mysteries for every e2 maximum mana you reach. Thus, for example, e12 mana = 0 mysteries, e22 mana = e5 mysteries, e112 mana = e50 mysteries, e412 mana = e200 mysteries, and e612 mana = e300 mysteries (what you need to unlock T2 classes).

When you gain enough mysteries that you stop gaining them, it's time to Exile. Exiling resets your mana, class, pet, and so on, while giving you a permanent increasing bonus based on mysteries (initially, each mystery boosts mana gain by 3% - though later on in the game, this will increase greatly).

To gain mana, you do a few things. First, you start by clicking the orb a bit. Early on, there's a lot of manual clicking. I agree, it's annoying and sucks. But don't worry! Past about the first 2 hours, you will almost never need to manual click much again!

You buy sources in order to passively produce mana. These are your main source of managain in the game and everything else for the most part stems from them.

You buy upgrades in order to improve all sorts of various production modifiers, such as boosting source mana gain, idle bonus, and so on.

Periodically, void entities will spawn in 4 different locations around your orb, remaining for a short (eventually long) duration. Clicking on them gives you Void Mana, which is a massive multiplier to the mana you gain. Void mana will degenerate over time, at a rate of 1% of current void mana + 3.5, every second. This can be reduced eventually through certain mechanics, thus improving how much void mana you'll be able to sustain.

You also have spell slots! Up to a maximum of six, eventually. Spells are very powerful, and provide many different and often unique ways to help boost your mana gain. Spells are also what differentiates classes to a large extent - all classes have multiple unique spells that focus on their unique strengths. Spells are filled with spellshards, which are gained passively and also through clicks, autoclicks, and a few pets.

Pets - there are 11 Tier 1, 11 Tier 2, and 2 special pets in the game. Those two pets are only for one T1 class and one T2 class, but on the flip side, the only pet those classes can use are these two special pets (which both count as T1).

The classes are all unique and fairly diverse while being decently balanced for the most part.

T1s - Druid, Demonologist, Necromancer, Arcanist, Prodigy, Voidmancer, Exorcist, Chronomancer, Umbramancer, Alchemist, Ironsoul, and Abolisher.

T2s - Shaman (Druid+Necro), Heretic (Exo+Void), Oni (Ironsoul+Demono), Archon (Arcanist+♥♥♥), Temporalist (Prodigy+Chrono), and Desolator (Alchemist+Umbra).

Later on, you also unlock craftable items which are a very core gameplay and rpg mechanic, as well as the ability to enchant them, further on.

Once you craft all items, you may Experiment which allows you to gain enchanting dust, trial runes, long-lasting Market buffs, time warps, and get mysteries.

You also have challenges which grant rewards upon completion, and trials, which either allow you to redo challenges for a further reward, or fight monsters in your orb for rewards.

In short, the game starts off pretty slowly but will quite quickly ramp up in pace and things to do, while still remaining relaxed and idle if that's your style (the classes help facilitate these kinds of choices quite well). As you progress you will unlock new features and core mechanics of the game. Also, if you're into that sort of thing, there's little bits and pieces of interesting lore of the game world scattered around in various locations.

In terms of the community - they are for the most part very, very nice, and quite accepting of all people (which is important to me as a trans girl) and the Dev is also very active, friendly, chats with the community in the Discord, and posts a pretty generous number of codes every week or so.

Updates are frequent and I believe the game will only get better in time.

I highly recommend Idle Wizard, it is a wonderful gem in the rough.