This thread is a compilation of information about Shadow Cities and a good place to start if you have questions about the game. If you have information to add or questions to ask, feel free to comment here. If you have any suggestions for things to add or topics to research, let us know!

The Info and Answers thread is now being maintained by Teknik and Kieri, with a lot of assistance from our friends and a lot of guidance from Gabriel.

Quick Links:
This Thread: http://bit.ly/SCguide
Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms: http://bit.ly/SCglossary

Index:
GUIDE FOR NEW PLAYERS If you're overwhelmed, start here!
New Things
Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms
Attributes
Gateways, Harvesting, Dominion Buffs, and Realms
General Tactics
Levels
Spells
Spirits
Structures and Power

Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 18, 2012 11:33:08)

New links! Thanks to Justine for making
http://bit.ly/SCguide (goes to the top of this thread)
and http://bit.ly/SCglossary (goes to the Glossary post)

For the Frost Beckoning and Master of Tides Campaigns, the water spirits have become stronger, and the energy rewards for capturing them have increased. New HP and unbuffed rewards below:

 
House Tiermes
Name      HP     EXP    Energy
Huldra    70     55      6
Aarni     220    80      7
Hiid      260    102     8
Jotunn    370    100     7
Vittra    530    182     10
Eksitaja  550    127     8
Ajatar    590    173     8
Fenrir    770    242     10
Einherjar 790    489     8
Etti      970    190     9
Peikko    1090   286     9
Valkyrie  1130   365     8
Staalo    1500   481     10
Vanr      1710   500     13
Magni     1740   433     10
Muspel    2380   493     20
House Drioma
Name      HP     EXP    Energy
Domovoi   70     55     6
Beregenia 130    64     6
Bagiennik 310    91     7
Vodianoi  350    137    9
Skrzak    370    487    8
Mara      520    125    7
Devana    670    145    8
Leshii    800    489    9
Rusalka   810    252    10
Vytiaz    850    489    8
Polevoi   910    181    9
Ovinnik   1240   395    11
Bogatyr   1380   483    9
Bolotyni  1810   488    10
Likho     1850   500    17
Lugovik   1930   585    13
House Inrik
Name       HP     EXP    Energy
Rarog      70     55     6
Cikavac    190    73     7
Irod       250    100    8
Vesna      430    109    7
Kikimora   430    157    9
Veela      470    146    8
Psotnik    640    143    8
Alkonost   730    154    8
Bannik     830    492    9
Samodiva   870    267    10
Bayard     1030   199    9
Marzanna   1420   359    10
Zmey       1690   500    11
Koschei    1900   500    20
Gargouille 2010   607    15
House Dannan
Name        HP     EXP    Energy
Kelpie      70     55     6
Ellylldan   130    64     6
Urisk       280    89     7
Korrigan    300    502    8
Gwyllgi     380    144    9
Bucca       490    118    7
Phouka      610    136    8
Nuggie      660    214    10
Far Darrig  670    190    9
Cu Sith     820    170    8
Gwyllion    960    289    10
Ellyyllon   1180   498    9
Sidhe       1260   400    10
Banshee     1520   381    10
Theena Shee 1750   500    15
Bean Nighe  2040   615    17

Data gathered by Kieri, Teknik, Snogripple, Snagglepuss, Lotus11, and JustDi


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Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 19, 2012 01:35:22)

ABC/AHC: Architect Battle Control/Animator High Command beacons, large, 20000 HP beacons that spawn in heavy harvest areas to encourage PvP.

AL: Attribute Levels

Animator: One of the two mage Academies, characterized by a tree and the color green.

AP: Attribute Points

Architect: One of the two mage Academies, characterized by a compass and the color orange.

Awaken: To reach level 15, considered a major milestone in the game.

Avatars: Currently decorative-only designs for your mage ball. Visible only to others and on your profile.

Banished: Characters don’t get killed, they get banished

Battlegroup: A group of up to 1000 mages from your area (country if not in USA, state if in USA) who can communicate in team chats without being friends.

BC: Beacon

BCN: Beacon

Bok: RETIRED Breath of Khaos, a 2000 HP rare air Inrik, the first air spirit and considered a boss spirit.

Bonny/Bon bon/Bonfire: RETIRED Baldr’s Bonfire, a 3000 HP rare fire Tiermes, considered a boss spirit.

Bottled: A term for defeating a spirit

Cabbages: Animators

Campaign: A week+ long event consisting of 3 rounds. Campaign winners and participants get medals. Campaign special features usually differ from one to the next.

Capped/Captured: A term for defeating a spirit

Dannan: A type of spirit, characterized by a whirly wind/tree symbol and a sphere with light radiating from the center. (Pictured below)

Devs: Developers, the employees of Grey Area, the creators of the game. They speak in blue font on the forums and two, Chadj and Khamos, speak in blue font in-game.

Dom: Dominator

Drioma: A type of spirit, characterized by a star symbol and a cloud-like sphere. (Pictured below)

End: Endurance, one of the four attributes

Factions: Currently decorative-only sigils that can be unlocked through guiding/being guided, defeating certain spirits, or purchase with mana pots. Shown in chat and forums by your name.

Flashlights: Light of the North faction

Followers: Lower-level mages that a senior mage is guiding to Awakening.

Frog: Leapfrog (a method of moving, covered in General Tactics). Occasionally can mean a single Animator.

Frogs: Animators

Fruits: Architects

GA: Grey Area, the creators of the game

GL: RETIRED Ghostly Light, a 2300 HP rare fire dannan, considered a boss spirit.

Goat: RETIRED Yule Goat. Rare fire tiermes released for Christmas 2011, 3500 HP, 600 Energy. Considered a boss spirit.

Ghost: EITHER Ghostly Light (see above) OR a destroyed beacon some players are still able to warp to due to a glitch in the game.

Grey Area: The creators of the game

Guides: Higher-level mages chosen by a lower level mage to guide them to Awakening.

GW: Gateway

Hippies: Animators

HP: Health/Hit Points-your health

Inrik: A type of spirit, characterized by a flame-like symbol and a speckled sphere. (Pictured below)

Int: Intelligence, one of the four attributes

Khaos: See Bok.

Kill-Stealing: Joining in the fight to a spirit you have not been invited to hit (with the exception of boss spirits like the Arachne Weaver). Considered extremely rude.

Leapfrogging: A method of moving. Covered in General Tactics

Lenus/Lenny: RETIRED Spring of Lenus, a 2500 HP rare water Dannan, considered a boss spirit.

LF: Leapfrogging, a method of moving. Covered in General Tactics

Lvl: Level

MP: Mana Points-your mana

OJs: Architects

OOP: Out of Power, a beacon (or ward or catcher) that pushes you over your power limit so it cannot be used for anything.

Peas: Animators

Pots: Mana Potions

Protected Mage/Protection: Any mage level 5 and below is protected from spells from stronger mages/wards/catchers. This protection vanishes the moment a protected mage begins casting.

Pumpkins: Architects

PvP: Player vs. Player

Round: an ~3-day battle for the most energy between the academies

SC: Shadow Cities

SL: Shadow Lord, someone who owns a realm

SP: Spell Points

Spider: Arachne Weaver, a massive 25,000 spirit that requires a group of players to take out.

Techies: Architects

Tiermes: A type of spirit, characterized by a torch-like symbol and an orb with light radiating from the surface. (Pictured below)

Tomato: RETIRED Tomte. Common fire tiermes released for Christmas 2011, 10 HP, 25 energy, 50 XP.

Tomte: RETIRED Common fire tiermes released for Christmas 2011, 10 HP, 25 energy, 50 XP.

Vit: Vitality, one of the four attributes

Will: Willpower, one of the four attributes

WP: Willpower, one of the four attributes

XP: Experience Points

YG: RETIRED Yule Goat. Rare fire tiermes released for Christmas 2011, 3500 HP, 600 Energy. Considered a boss spirit.

Yule Goat: RETIRED Rare fire tiermes released for Christmas 2011, 3500 HP, 600 Energy. Considered a boss spirit.

Dannan / Drioma / Inrik / Tiermes

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Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 13, 2012 11:32:59)

Attributes are found in your profile, beneath your mana and health. There are four attributes: Endurance, Intelligence, Vitality, and Willpower. Every 500 XP gives you 1 Attribute Point (AP), to a max of 2200 APs. Attribute Levels (AL) can be purchased with APs at the following rate:

  AL      How many APs     Total APs for one attribute to max this level
 0-15     1 AP = 1 AL            15 total AP
16-30     2 AP = 1 AL            45 total AP
31-40     3 AP = 1 AL            75 total AP
41-45     4 AP = 1 AL            95 total AP
46-50     5 AP = 1 AL           120 total AP
51-55     8 AP = 1 AL           160 total AP
56-60    10 AP = 1 AL           210 total AP
61-65    12 AP = 1 AL           270 total AP
66-70    15 AP = 1 AL           345 total AP
71-75    20 AP = 1 AL           445 total AP
76-85    25 AP = 1 AL           695 total AP
86-90    30 AP = 1 AL           845 total AP

(Numbers gathered by Seil and Lakuja)

Aalny has taken this information and made a very handy attribute calculator. You can use this to find your current APs, or test out various builds and see how much AP they would take.

You can reset an attribute for 10 mana potions using the blue button in the top right corner of the attribute screen. The attribute points you spent on that attribute will be returned to you for redistribution.

Endurance (Green): Every AL of Endurance gives you an extra 10 to your max HP

Intelligence (White): Every AL of Intelligence gives you an extra 5 to your max MP

Willpower (Red): Each additional level of willpower increases average spell damage by 2. This has been proven by GiantDong.

Preliminary studies indicate that each level of Willpower adds +1 HP to your base heal when casting an Aria of Light.

Vitality (Blue): Increases mana/health regen in a scale depending on your level. Health regen increases occur faster than mana regen increases.

High Vitality also means Arias of Light are more effective on you. Each level of Vitality adds approximately +3 to the HP you receive from an Aria of Light (when tested, this was off by only 1 HP from 0 to 75, that is, instead of the 513 recovery expected at vitality 75, the test recovered 514 hp).

The following table shows how many AL of Vitality you need for each regen rate, health and mana:

      |           MANA REGEN RATE          |             HP REGEN RATE        
Level |  30   45   60   75   90  105  120  |  30   45   60   75   90  105  120  135  150  165  180  195  210  225  240
------|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1  |  ??   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |  11   22   33   43   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   2  |  ??   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   9   20   31   42   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   3  |  ??   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   8   19   30   40   51   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   4  |  ??   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   6   17   28   39   50   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   5  |  11   47   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   5   16   27   37   48   59   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   6  |   5   41   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   3   14   25   36   47   58   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   7  |   0   36   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   2   13   24   34   45   56   67   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   8  |   0   30   66   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   0   11   22   33   44   55   66   76   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
   9  |   0   24   60   XX   XX   XX   XX  |   0   10   20   31   42   53   64   75   86   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
  10  |   0   18   54   90   XX   XX   XX  |   0    8   19   30   41   52   63   73   85   96   XX   XX   XX   XX   XX
  11  |   0   13   49   85   XX   XX   XX  |   0    7   17   28   39   50   61   72   83   94  105   XX   XX   XX   XX
  12  |   0    7   43   79   XX   XX   XX  |   0    5   16   27   38   49   60   70   82   93  104   XX   XX   XX   XX
  13  |   0    1   37   73  109   XX   XX  |   0    4   14   25   36   47   58   69   80   91  102  113   XX   XX   XX
  14  |  XX    0   32   68  104   XX   XX  |   0    2   13   24   35   46   57   67   79   90  101  112  123   XX   XX
  15  |  XX    0   26   62   98  134   XX  |  XX    0   11   22   33   44   55   66   77   88   99  110  121  132   XX
  16  |  XX    0   20   56   92  128   XX  |  XX    0   10   21   32   43   54   64   75   86   97  108  119  130   XX
  17  |  XX    0   15   51   87  124   XX  |  XX    0    8   19   30   41   52   63   74   85   96  107  117  128  139
  18  |  XX    0    9   45   81  117   XX  |  XX    0    7   18   29   40   50   61   72   83   94  105  116  127  138

(Numbers gathered with help from Sinesis, Abbarrax, Teknik, Kieri, KrazyPete, tristero, Rubao, Yurasyuk, and Raelyne)

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Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 19, 2012 01:37:01)

GATEWAYS

Gateways are bright flames in the world of Shadow Cities, where cracks in the seal between the Shadow World and ours have appeared. Magic leaks through the cracks in the form of these bright flames and can be tapped through the use of Dominators. A conquered gateway will provide power and energy to anything friendly attached to it.

The first dominator attached to a gateway conquers it for that team regardless of how many enemy dominators are attached to that gateway. To conquer a non-neutral gateway, you must both attach one of your dominators to that gateway as well as destroy all enemy dominators attached to that gateway.
(Thanks to KrazyPete and his daughter for confirming this)

Neutral gateways are white.
Animator-controlled gateways are green.
Architect-controlled gateways are orange.

HARVESTING

When you harvest a dominator, you gather a set amount of energy based on how many friendly gateways are in the area and what the value of each gateway is. There are two types of gateways, CONNECTED, the one your dominator's energy line is drawn to, and VISIBLE, ones your gateway counts when you get the message "Your team has X gateways in the area." Flipping that and reversing it, a gateway gives a boost to CONNECTED doms (doms feeding directly from it) and VISIBLE domes (doms that count it as 'in the area').

Realm Value   Energy Boost to CONNECTED doms
    0-50           0
   60-520         +3
  530-5000+       +?
Realm Value   Energy Boost to ALL VISIBLE doms (max 3 of this boost)
    0-90           0
  100-490         +1
  500-???         +2

Much help, as always, from Lakuja in gathering this data.

These two values stack, so a 100 value gateway will give +3 to its connected doms for being over 50 and another +1 for being at 100. Four 100 value gateways will give +3 to a dom connected to one of them, plus +1 three times for three of the visible boost.

The more of YOUR dominators attached to a gateway, the less energy each pulls. Allied and enemy doms do not affect your harvest in any way (unless they change the alliance of a gateway)

The more friendly gateways visible from a dom, the more energy each dom pulls.

A gateway is counted as visible if the dominator can “see” the gateway. It is unsure right now how that sight is measured. It seems to neither be the number of visible gateways in cloud view nor the number of visible gateways in local view, however, it does rely on the dominator’s positioning. If one of your doms is reporting a different number of friendly gateways than the rest, try moving it to see if the value changes.
(conflicting information provided by PhenixRose, Lakuja, and Axlar)

Seil
First off there's a base value depending on how many dominators are attached to a specific gateway.

1 dom on a gateway has a base value of 7.
2 doms have a base of 5 each.
Any more than 2 has a base of 2 each.

Then one is added for every friendly gateway in the area.
If there is only one friendly gateway then you add 1, if there are two you add 2 and so on.

If the gateway is owned by you and you have invested at least 50 potions into it(the value of the realm would be 60+) you get an extra 3 to the dominators in that realm as well.

Next we take into account realm values, which is where things change. We were already aware that at value 60, there was a +3 bonus to dominators on the gateway. We now know that at realm value 100 another +1 bonus is applied, but not only to the dominators on the gateway itself, but all dominators in the area.

For example, we'll use the scenario Bigtail had set up:

Gateway 1, value 110, 2 doms
Gateway 2, value 100, 2 doms
Gateway 3, value 70, 2 doms

2 doms = 5 base harvest
3 gateways = +3 = 8
60+ value = +3 = 11
Two 100+ values = +2 = 13

All dominators will provide 13 energy per harvest.

(above information also contributed by Bigtail)

DOMINION BUFFS AND REALMS
If you want to go further, you can purchase a gateway with mana potions in 10-pot increments to become Shadow Lord of that particular realm.

Lakuja had some nice information on Realms

Purchasing realms give you bragging rights and a minimal boost to energy harvested from attached dominators as well as a boost to the dominion buff. Harvest boost goes toward ALL attached doms of the same team as the gateway color, not necessarily that of the gateway’s Shadow Lord.

It costs 500 potions to increase the value of a realm to silver, 5000 to increase it to gold.

Pots you have invested into a realm stay as credit until that realm's value is maxed out at 5000.

Lakuja
The mana that you have previously invested into a gateway will be taken into account if you buy it back. For example you paid 60 bottles at first, then someone raises it to 80 with 80 bottles. So to get it back you'll need to pay 30 bottles and the gateway value will raise to 90.

If you harvest an owned realm, you receive a vitality buff based on how many likes a realm has (this value scales along with the amount of likes on all realms: as average realm like value increases, it’s harder to get a bigger buff).
If YOU harvest YOUR OWN realm, you get an additional willpower buff based on the value of the realm.
If you harvest an unowned realm (even if it's liked), no buffs are given.

The buff also functions similar to an individual spider buff in that your energy gains are increased.

0 likes = 0 vitality boost
20 value (10 pots in) = 11 willpower boost

The highest recorded boosts so far are:
6000 value (5990 pots in) = +84 to willpower (confirmed no cap to willpower buffs)
+50 vitality boost for the best-liked realms (confirmed to be the cap)

Numbers we have found thus far (a ~ means we do not know that side of that range):

WP Boost      Value (pots spent +10)
   11                20
   12                30
   13                40
   14                50
   14                60
   15             70-80
   16                90
   17           100-120
   18               130
   19           140-160
   20           170-190
   21           200-210~
   22          ~230-250~
   23          ~270-280~
   24          ~300-320
   25           330-360
   26           370-390
   27           400-440
   28           450-480
   29           490-520
   30           530-570
   31           580-620
   32           630-670
   33           680-720
   34           730-780
   35           790-840
   36           850-890
   37           900-960
   38           970-1020
   39          1030-1080
   40          1090-1150
   41          1160-1220
   42          1230-1290
   43          1300-1360
   44          1370-1440
   45          1450-1520
   46          1530-1590
   47          1600-1680
   48          1690-1760
   49          1770-1840
   50          1850-1930
   51          1940-2020
   52          2030-2110
   53          2120-2200
   54          2210-2300
   55          2310-???
   77             ~5000~
   78             ~5100~
   84             ~6000~

Data gathered with much help, especially from Pati, Seil, and Rincwind

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Edited by Gabriel (Dec. 15, 2011 02:59:21)

**This section will assume you have successfully completed the basic tutorial and are at least level 2.**

Topics covered include:
* ABC/AHC
* Arachne Weaver
* Fighting Lag
* Friends
* Guide to Guides
* Guide for Healers
* Kill-sharing
* Low-Level Usefulness
* Movement/Dodging
* Spirit Spawning Patterns

ABC/AHC
These monster beacons are 20,000 HP behemoths that are summoned by the game in places of large enemy activity—Architect Battle Control beacons show up around Animator hotspots, and Animator High Command beacons show up at Architect hotspots. When summoned, a message is displayed on the screen of all allied players in that battlegroup if they are on the main display. The beacon is also available in the beacon list of all allied players in that battlegroup.


Beacons seem to be summoned by excessive harvesting. Though they are meant to be summoned more frequently by the losing team, this does not seem to be the case. Factors that DO seem to summon enemy beacons include:
· Harvesting with five or more friendly gateways in view

(tips provided by Axlar)

ARACHNE WEAVERS

With the update to 1.3.0 on September 26, 2011, Shadow Cities introduced the Arachne Weaver. This 25,000 HP “Spider” spirit is not an easy spirit to take out.



The spirit appears as a Shadow Spirit of House Dannan. The spirit starts off sunken into the ground with pulsing blue legs drawing energy. When it wakes up, it rises out of the ground and walks around, wreaking havoc by destroying beacons.

The spirit can deal massive amounts of damage, but it also creates patches of ‘sparkle’ which will drain HP from mages caught in its range and heal itself.



The Arachne Weaver has several attacks, all of which are good to familiarize yourself with. Aside from the vampiric sparkle, they also have summon/control spirits and reflect/recover

Summon/Control: Arachne Weavers will sink down and rise back up, ‘bouncing’ in place. They will draw their legs under them and then spin, throwing their legs out wide and high. This summons multitudes of spirits, some of which will begin attacking mages who have attacked/are attacking the Weaver.

Reflect/Recover: Arachne Weavers will sink into the ground with their legs thrashing and spiraling around. When it moves in this fashion, it will reflect all damage inflicted upon it back to the caster AND heal itself for the same amount of damage.

Spider sigils are randomly given to some of the attackers upon the defeat of the Arachne Weaver. In addition, the person who first hits the spider gains a 60-minute energy buff for their entire battlegroup. All activities that would gather energy (harvesting, capturing spirits, destroying enemies/structures, and completing missions) are given a 20% minimum boost until the orange spider mark in the upper left corner wears off. This boost scales in accordance with how many rounds your team has lost in this campaign.



Arachne Weavers give a good chunk of energy for all participants who were not banished or who didn’t run away between their last blow to the spirit and it’s demise. The fewer attackers, the greater this reward.

Fighting Lag
Lag (the slowdown of your iDevice, not the Animator), is a frequent cause of many headaches, banishments, and frustration among most mages. Currently, the following strategies can be used to possibly help reduce lag:

* DELETE AND REINSTALL YOUR APP. A main source of lag seems to be not how many friends you have, but how many you have visited. Every beacon you hop to saves some information in the cache. The more beacons you hop to, the more information is stored up, until you can’t do anything. This means that frequent PvP battlers and spirit-hunters will need to reinstall frequently, but if you only have a few beacons you frequent, you should be fine.

* Cull your friends list. This is easiest done on the forums, as you see all your friends listed in order of most-recently to least-recently active. Also consider removing friends with excessively long status posts, as these can slow down your device

* Sync your iDevice regularly, as crash reports can build up and slow down your game (and submit those crash reports to GA so they can improve the game for everyone, but especially you!).

* Play with your iDevice resting on a cloth-covered icepack to keep it cool. Excessive heat can slow things down.

* Close out of any apps running in the background.

* Play during off-peak hours.

FRIENDS
The number one thing you can do to have an advantage in Shadow Cities is to make friends. Lots of friends. The more friends you have, the more beacons you can warp to, the more spirit hunting grounds are available, and the better your chances of finding and surviving PvP battles.

To make friends, begin by introducing yourself in your battlegroup team chat. Offer everyone in the chat a friend request (tap their name to visit their profile, then tap “Add Friend” in the top right corner). As you gain friends, you will notice status posts appearing below the team and cross-team chats. Unfamiliar players may be responding to your friends’ statuses. Offer them friend requests as well. Offer friend requests to people you see and like on these forums.

GUIDES AND RECRUITMENT
Experienced mages are encouraged to recruit and guide new mages and help them Awaken. All mages receive a mission to this extent, either Looking For a Guide or A Guiding Voice. Level 8 and below are asked to follow a guide, while all levels receive the A Guiding Voice mission. Being a guide is not level-dependent.

After selecting your Choose Your Guide button, you will be taken to a screen like the following (Animators will have the green sigil). Simply enter the mage of your choice in the text box, and you have selected your guide!

Note: Once you select a guide, you cannot change. Make sure the guide you are picking is one who has truly helped you.

Right now, guiding/following is a way to unlock new sigils for the social areas of the game and to show respect for those mages you admire. A guided mage can select the Shadow Cities knot in the color of their team as opposed to the neutral grey. A guide receives the bronze Envoy sigil when they have guided one mage. The silver Diplomat sigil comes at 7 mages, and the gold Ambassador sigil comes at 25.



When a mage is chosen as a guide, they are given a completed mission. At the moment, this is the only way to know who your followers are, as they are mentioned in the text of the mission and no where else. Currently, you can only receive one of these completed missions per login, so if you suspect you have gained additional followers, close and reopen the app. You will need to make a list of your followers by hand.

In addition, guides earn rewards as their followers level up, at levels 8, 10, 12, and 15.

Follower Level    XP    Energy   Pots
 Follows you      50      10       1
       8         150      25       1
      10         150      50       1
      12         150      75       1
      15          25       5       0

GUIDE FOR HEALERRS
Protonius has written an excellent guide for people interested in playing healers.

KILL SHARING

Starting with the 1.3.0 update, kill-sharing has been enabled for all spirits.

Anyone who hits a spirit before it is banished and remains alive and in the area is granted an equal share of the total energy and xp of that spirit, rounded up. (This does mean if two people take out a 3 energy spirit, the total energy gain from that spirit is 4). Energy rewards are not dependent on how much damage you deal to the spirit.

If you warp away from the area, any spirit you had aggravated will return to a steady state. No more raging, mana-draining spirits running around. Spirits go docile almost immediately upon departure, and you are removed from the list of mages to receive energy/xp rewards. If another mage keeps the spirit aggravated, you remain on the list to receive rewards, at least for a short period of time.

If you attack a spirit that was attacking someone else, the spirit will target you instead. Any spell it was already casting will hit the previous target, but any new spells will be aimed at the latest attacker.

All mages who receive energy/xp rewards for attacking a spirit receive mission credit as well.

LOW-LEVEL USEFULNESS
If you are a new player, level five or below, you can be a HUGE asset in battle for your team! Scorpienne has written a great guide to just how you can help your academy be the best that it can be.

MOVEMENT
New mages are offered a few random beacons in cloud view from their area to warp to before they make friends. Once mages start making friends, the random beacons are replaced with the beacons of their friends from all over the world. Warping to a beacon is as simple as tapping on it in the cloud view and selecting the warp button or tapping the upper right corner to view a list of all friends’ beacons in order of the beacon’s age. Simply tap a beacon to visit it.

Moving around in local view is a bit more challenging. The arrow at the base of your avatar always points north, and many statuses will offer directional abbreviations for things of interest from their beacons (N,S,E,W,NE,SW, etc.). Begin by selecting your destination, which can be ANY friendly object—mage, dominator, ward, catcher, or beacon—or any non-enemy gateway. Pull down the rune layer and cast the Warp spell (upside-down U. It may be helpful to think of it as a hop to remember). Your avatar will warp beside your target.

Leapfrogging is one particular method of movement in which you team up with one or more friends to travel in local view. You decide as a group which direction you want to travel in and warp toward the mage furthest from you in the correct direction. Continue to select that mage and warp until you have overshot in the direction you wish to travel. Now the other mage(s) will select you and warp to you until you have been overshot, and it is your turn again. While it may seem slow, leapfrogging can be very successful, especially in large groups.

Dom-surfing/hopping/walking is another method of travel in which you cast a dominator spell to build a dominator. If it is not in the direction you wish to travel, destroy it and cast again. Once the dominator is in the right direction, you can warp to it, destroy it, and start again. You can also use wards or catchers in this fashion, with the added benefit that wards and catchers are not visible in cloud view the way dominators are. They are more expensive to cast, though.

Of course, if you have an iPhone or are otherwise not tethered to wifi, you can physically move in the real world to move your avatar in the Shadow Cities realm.

DODGE
When you are in battle with an enemy mage, you can attempt to dodge their attacks by warping to a nearby friendly. Dewarping will not dodge, and spirits cannot be dodged. However, if you Dewarp or warp away from a fight, spirit or PvP, you will not be attacked further and can recover before returning.

SPIRIT SPAWNING
Raelyne and GiantDong did a lot of investigating to discover how the spirits spawn. Check out their findings [url=http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/2311/
]here[/url].

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Edited by Gabriel (Dec. 15, 2011 02:59:45)

All numbers are given for an unimproved mage—no attribute points spent, spell points only spent to get first level of spells. See Spells for spell costs and Structures and Power for how many beacons/wards/catchers you can summon at each level and their starting HP.


Level Cap: 18

Level  AP  HP/Regen  MP/Regen  Avg. Dam.  Max Doms Level Up at
  1     0   200/0      200/0       10        0         <510 XP
  2     0   250/15     250/15      73        0         ~200 XP
  3     1   300/15     300/15      86        0         ~300 XP
  4     1   350/15     350/15     100        2        ~3800 XP
  5     9   400/15     400/15     114        2        ~6000 XP
  6    21   450/15     450/15     127        3        ~8700 XP
  7    39   500/15     500/30     140        3       ~10500 XP
  8    61   550/30     550/30     156        3       ~13500 XP
  9    89   600/30     600/30     171        4       ~17000 XP
 10   123   650/30     650/30     185        4       ~20000 XP
 11   163   700/30     700/30     200        5       ~47000 XP
 12   257   750/30     750/30     215        5       ~74000 XP
 13   405   800/30     800/30     230        5      ~101000 XP
 14   607   850/30     850/45     241        5      ~132000 XP
 15   871   900/45     900/45     255        6      ~144500 XP      
 16  1289   950/45     950/45     270        6      ~200000 XP
 17  1689  1000/45    1000/45     285        6      ~255500 XP
 18  2200  1050/45    1050/45     299        6             N/A

Every 500 XP, you gain an attribute point. By figuring out how many AP you have already, using the Attribute Calculator linked in the attribute post, you can find out roughly where you stand in terms of leveling up to the next level. For example, if you are level 12 and have 400 AP, you are about 5 AP, 5 x 500 = 2500 XP away from leveling up to 13. This was pointed out by NightNinja. A spreadsheet to calculate this for you can be found here, but do not change anything other than what is in the yellow boxes! If anyone wants to turn this into a proper calculator like the AP calculator, let me know!

Level 1: Normal. Spells cost 0 mana. War Chant Given
Level 2: Apprentice. +50 mana. Can access the chat. Aria of Light given
Level 3: Neophyte. +50 mana, +50 HP.
Level 4: Acolyte. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, +2 Dominators. Warp, Dewarp, Dominator, and Harvest given.
Level 5: Mage. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 6: Disciple. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, +1 Dominator. Beacon given. Auto-protection ends.
Level 7: Journeyman. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 8: Conjurer. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP. Catcher spell unlocked.
Level 9: Mystic. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, +1 dominator.
Level 10: Guardian. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, Ward spell unlocked.
Level 11: Evoker. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, +1 dominator
Level 12: Channeler. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 13: Scholar. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 14: Arcanist. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 15: Awakened. +1 SP, +50 mana, +50 HP, +1 dominator
Level 16: Seeker. +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 17: Visionary. +50 mana, +50 HP
Level 18: Enlightened. +50 mana, +50 HP.

At each level between three and fifteen, you get one extra spell point. There are currently more spell choices than spell points available, so plan your increases wisely.

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Edited by Gabriel (Dec. 17, 2011 16:30:02)

Spells are the cornerstone of the game. Currently, there are nine different spells:



Aria of Light: Backwards Z
- Free at Level 2
- Your healing spell. Can be used on anything. Will not affect spirits, but will heal all injured mages/structures and increase the HP of undamaged structures (both friendly and enemy).
- Higher levels increase healed HP.

Dewarp: U
- Free at Level 4
- Undoes any warps you have. Will take you back to your physical location in the real world. Dewarp will not dodge but can be used to escape a fight quickly.

Harvest: -
- Free at Level 4
- Harvests a full dominator for energy. Can only be used on your dominators and can only be used within ~1 mile/2 km of your real-world physical location.

Summon Beacon: | with a crook to the right.
- Free at Level 6
- Summons a beacon for your friends to see and warp to while in cloudview. Requires power from dominators.
- Requires Warp Level 4 to cast while warped
- Higher levels give an increased starting HP.

Summon Catcher: O
- Available for purchase at Level 8
- Lures a spirit which will be released to attack enemy mages casting within range. Spirits can also be harvested for energy/missions but doing so will destoy the catcher. Requires power from dominators.
- Requires Warp Level 2 to cast while warped
- Higher levels allow stronger spirits to be caught.

Summon Dominator: Backwards L
- Free at Level 4
- Summons a dominator to gather energy for your harvest and generate power for your other summoned structures. Also conquers gateways.
- Higher levels give an increased starting HP.

Summon Ward: X with a horizontal line connecting the top legs.
- Available for purchase at Level 10
- Creates a ward which will attack enemy mages casting within range. Only three wards per local view.
- Requires Warp Level 3 to cast while warped
- Higher levels give an increased starting HP

War Chant of Light: Z
- Free at Level 1
- Your attack spell. Can only be used on enemies.
- Higher levels increase average damage.

Warp: Upside-down U
- Free at Level 4
- Your movement spell. You can cast warp on anything friendly to immediately hop beside it. Warping to the same object multiple times in succession will move you around that object randomly. Warping in local view during a PvP battle gives you a chance to dodge a spell.
- Higher levels allow you to summon structures while warped. Catchers at level 2, Wards at level 3, and Beacons at level 4.


At every level up to 15, you get one spell point to put toward improving your spells (max 12). At any time, you can spend 10 mana potions to reset your spell picks by tapping the blue button in the top right corner of the spell screen. Catcher and Ward spells are not automatically given to you.

Until you have warp level 4, you will be unable to set a beacon away from your dewarped physical location.

Your mana and health are constantly regenerating, but your bars only refresh every 15 seconds or when something happens to affect them: you get hit, you cast a spell, you quaff a potion, you get healed, etc. Dewarp, despite its 0 mana cost, counts as casting a spell, so when you dewarp, it fills your mana with all the mp you've earned since the last refresh. Spamming dewarp, therefore, will make your mana bar appear to fill up faster, however, it fills up at the same rate as it would normally. The difference is...

Well, say you have a regen of 75 mana/15 seconds. That's 5 mana/second. And say dewarp takes 3 seconds to cast. You can sit for 15 seconds and regain 75 mana, or you can dewarp 5 times (15 seconds) and regain 15 mana each time (5mp/second * 3 seconds) for a total of 75 mana. Same amount of progress in the same amount of time, but the constant dewarping means your mana bar has been steadily going up instead of going up in 15-second bursts.

The spell cost stays roughly:
1 Beacon = 2 Wards = 4 War Chants
1 War Chant = 1 Harvest
1 Aria = 1 Dominator
Aria SEEMS to equal War Chant now, but it has not been confirmed at all levels.

To find the cost of a war chant, at maximum mana, cast war chant on something attackable and immediately open your profile and check your mana level before you even finish casting the spell. Subtract your remaining mana from your max mana to find the cost of your war chant.

War Chant (WC) = Harvest = Aria = Dominator
Ward = 2xWC
Catcher = 3 x WC
Beacon = 4xWC

Warp costs minimal mana. Dewarp is always free.

Level    Warp    WC     Aria    Ward    Catcher    Beacon
  1      N/A       0     N/A     N/A      N/A       N/A
  2      N/A      63      63     N/A      N/A       N/A
  3      N/A      75      75     N/A      N/A       N/A
  4       10      88      88     N/A      N/A       N/A
  5       12     100     100     N/A      N/A       N/A
  6       14     113     113     N/A      N/A       450
  7       16     125     125     N/A      N/A       500
  8       18     138     138     N/A      413       550
  9       20     150     150     N/A      450       600
 10       23     163     163     325      488       650
 11       26     175     175     350      525       700
 12       28     188     188     375      563       750
 13       30     200     200     400      600       800
 14       31     213     213     425      638       850
 15       33     225     225     450      675       900
 16       38     238     238     475      713       950
 17       43     250     250     500      750      1000
 18       43     263     263     525      788      1050

(Data gathered with the help of Raelyne, Seil, Abbarrax, Qwit, Sniklefrits, and Sir-Gruth)

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Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 17, 2012 11:33:59)

There are four structures, falling into two types:

Power Gatherers:
Dominators: Tall magical towers that draw from a nearby gateway. If attached to a friendly gateway, Dominators will provide power for your other structures and energy for your harvest. Destroying an enemy dominator will net you between 0 (empty) and 10 (completely full) energy, depending on how full the mana bar is.
Reward for Healing allied: Varies depending on damage healed.

Damage Healed   Energy Reward
  (roughly)
      <150            1
   150-350            2
   350-550            3
   550+               4

(Numbers determined by JimShorts365 and GiantDong)
Reward for Destroying enemy: Varies depending on how full the dominator’s mana bar is, with a max of 10 energy for a ready-to-harvest dominator.

Power Consumers:
Beacons: Glowing cylinders of light that streak up into cloudview and allow your friends to warp to your location. The more friends you have, the more beacons you’ll be able to see. New mages with few friends will be given a few random beacons from their battlegroup to visit. Feeding a mana potion to a beacon will give it a full mana bar that must first be drained by enemy attacks before the beacon itself is damaged as well as send out the ‘emergency beacon’ summon for offline players. Beacons require warp level 4 to be cast while warped.
Reward for Healing allied: Nothing
Reward for Destroying enemy: 20 energy

Catchers: Giant claws which immediately begin luring a spirit into their grasp. When the mana bar is full, the spirit is caught (feeding catchers a pot will make it instantly catch the spirit). Catchers will release caught spirits on an enemy mage who begin casting within range. Feeding a catcher a stream of mana potions while an enemy mage is attacking can cause it to catch and release many spirits. Released spirits target the enemy mage that triggered the release. Caught spirits can also be harvested for minor energy gains and to fulfill mission requirements. Harvesting a spirit from a catcher will destroy the catcher.

Catchers CAN catch boss spirits. Abbarrax has offered this screenshot of a Breath of Khaos caught in a level 4 catcher as proof.

At the time this screenshot was taken, the Breath of Khaos spirit gave you 150 energy if caught wild but only 25 when harvested from the catcher.
Reward for Healing allied: Nothing
Reward for Destroying enemy: Nothing?

Wards: Intricate circular knots of light on the ground. Wards will start casting spells on an enemy mage that begins casting within range. Only three wards can be cast in one local view.
Limit: 10 wards TOTAL (limit found by GriffinClaw)
Reward for Healing allied: Nothing
Reward for Destroying enemy: Nothing?

This table shows the base HP for each structure at each level. Base HP can be boosted by spell levels, endurance, and Arias of Light.

    Dom    Bea    Cat    War
 1  N/A    N/A    N/A    N/A
 2  N/A    N/A    N/A    N/A
 3  N/A    N/A    N/A    N/A
 4  256    N/A    N/A    N/A
 5  290    N/A    N/A    N/A
 6  328    675    N/A    N/A
 7  364    750    N/A    N/A
 8  400    825    207    N/A
 9  436    900    225    N/A
10  474    975    244    358
11  508   1050    263    385
12  546   1125    282    413
13  580   1200    300    440
14  618   1275    319    468
15  654   1350    338    495
16  690   1425    357    523
17  726   1500    375    550
18  764   1575    394    578

Catchers do not change hp based on spell level. All other structures have a minor HP increase as spell level goes up.

Power is represented by the purple bar in the upper right corner of your local view screen. Part of your power comes from your mage level and part comes from your dominators. You must have enough power for all your Consumers, or they will all fail.

If you wish to destroy one of your structures, you can tap the purple dominator button in the upper right corner of your screen. From there, you can select any structure and tap the red Destroy button.

As your level increases, the number of structures you can power increases. The following table shows the maximum number of structures you can have at each level for each combination—all beacons, all catchers, all wards, beacons and catchers, beacons and wards, catchers and wards, or a mix of all three.

Level   B    C    W    B/C    B/W    C/W    B/C/W
  6     1    0    0    0/0    0/0    0/0    0/0/0
  7     1    0    0    0/0    0/0    0/0    0/0/0
  8     1    2    0    1/1    0/0    0/0    0/0/0
  9     2    2    0    1/1    0/0    0/0    0/0/0
 10     2    2    2    1/1    1/1    1/2    0/0/0
 11     2    3    3    1/1    1/2    1/2    1/1/1
                                     2/1
 12     2    3    3    1/1    1/2    1/2    1/1/1
                                     2/1
 13     2    3    3    1/1    1/2    1/2    1/1/1
                                     2/1
 14     2    3    3    1/1    1/2    1/2    1/1/1
                                     2/1
 15     2    3    4    2/1    2/1    1/3    1/1/1
                       1/2    1/2    2/1
                    AT LEAST
 16     2    3    4    2/1    2/1    1/3    1/1/1
                       1/2    1/2    2/1
 17     2    3    4    2/1    2/1    1/3    1/1/1
                       1/2    1/2    2/1
 18     2    3    4    2/1    2/1    1/3    1/1/1
                       1/2    1/2    2/1

(Data gathered with help from Relic)

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Edited by Gabriel (Jan. 17, 2012 11:34:10)