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!

Index:
Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3208
Attributes: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3209
Gateways, Harvesting, and Realms: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3210
General Tactics and How to Move: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3211
Levels: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3212
Spells: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3213
Spirits: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/237/?page=1
Structures and Power: http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3214

Edited by Gabriel (July 1, 2011 02:10:11)

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.

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.

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

Bottled: A term for defeating a spirit

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)

Dom: Dominator

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

Frogs: Animators

Fruits: Architects

GA: Grey Area, the creators of the game

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)

Leapfrogging: A method of moving. Covered in General Tactics

Lvl: Level

MP: Mana Points-your mana

Pots: Mana Potions

PvP: Player vs. Player

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

SC: Shadow Cities

SL: Shadow Lord, someone who owns a realm

SP: Spell Points

Techies: Architects

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

XP: Experience Points


Dannan / Drioma / Inrik / Tiermes

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Edited by Gabriel (July 1, 2011 02:37:33)

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 1000 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

(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 seems to increase average spell damage by 2. This has not been thoroughly tested.

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. Health regen currently maxes at 120 HP/15 seconds, while mana regen maxes at 75 MP/15 seconds.

High Vitality also means Arias of Light are more effective on you.

Seil
Alright now for a lesson in vitality. I'm fairly certain this is how it works at least in general. I don't know the actual specifics seeing as I'm not one of the programmers =p but from what I have gathered from testing and from staff posts this seems to be about spot on as far as the concept goes.

Mana regenerates every 15 seconds. There are five different mana regeneration rates: 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75.

Which rate you have is linked to a value which is determines by a combination of your level and your vitality. For the sake of simplicity and to actually have a reference, we'll say this value ranges from 0 to 4. For every level you gain and every point of vitality you have, the value increases by a fraction. The value is rounded to determine what rate you will receive.

ie. If you have a value of 0.49 or lower, you will receive 15 mana per regen. 0.5-1.49 = 30, 1.5-2.49 = 45 and so on.

Due to this, the amount of vitality required to receive a certain regeneration rate varies with level. The maximum rate at level 14 requires over 70 vitality but only 62 vitality at level 15 for example. It is likely that this behavior will change to a more static system in the future but for now this is something that should be understood and taken into account.

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  |  30   45   60   75   90  105  120
------|---------------------|------------------------------------
   1  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   2  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   3  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   4  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   5  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   6  |  ??   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   7  |   0   ??   XX   XX  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   8  |   0   ??   XX   XX  |   0   ??   ??   ??   ??   XX   XX
   9  |   0   24   XX   XX  |   0   10   20   31   42   XX   XX
  10  |   0   18   ??   ??  |   0    8   19   30   41   52   ??
  11  |  ??   ??   ??   ??  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??
  12  |  ??   ??   ??   ??  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??
  13  |  ??   ??   ??   ??  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??
  14  |  ??   ??   ??   ??  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??
  15  |  XX    0   26   62  |  ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??   ??

(Numbers gathered with help from KrazyPete)

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Edited by Gabriel (yesterday 11:49:52)

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.

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

Right now, purchasing realms give you bragging rights and a minimal boost to energy harvested from attached dominators

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.

Realm Value   Energy Boost
    0-50           0
   60-490         +1
  500-5000        +2

The more dominators attached to a gateway, the less energy each pulls.

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 3.
2 doms have a base of 2 each.
Any more than 2 has a base of 1 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 1 to the dominators in that realm as well.

I have 6 dominators on a single gateway in a 60 value realm with no other gateways around.
1(base) + 1(gateway) + 1(shadow lord bonus) = 3 energy per dominator

Lakuja has noted that some harvest values tend to fluctuate, possibly based on attribute distribution. We will need to look into this more.

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Edited by Gabriel (July 5, 2011 02:45:13)

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

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.

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. Begin by selecting your destination, which can be ANY friendly object: gateway, mage, dominator, ward, catcher, or beacon. 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.

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.

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Edited by Gabriel (July 1, 2011 02:16:17)

All numbers are given for an unimproved mage—no attribute points spent, spell points only spent to get first level of spells. See Spells (http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3213) for spell costs and Structures and Power (http://www.shadowcities.com/forum/topic/517/?page=1#post-3214) for how many beacons/wards/catchers you can summon at each level and their starting HP.


Level Cap: 15

Level  AP  HP/Regen  MP/Regen  Avg. Dam.  Avg. Heal  Max Doms Level Up at
  1     0   200/0      200/0      ???        N/A        0         <510 XP
  2     1   250/15     250/15      73        ???        0         ~200 XP
  3     1   300/15     300/15      86        ???        0         ~300 XP
  4     2   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        160        3       ~10500 XP
  8    61   550/30     550/30     156        177        3       ~13500 XP
  9    89   600/30     600/30     171        192        4       ~17000 XP
 10   123   650/30     650/30     185        209        4          ??? XP
 11    ??   700/??     700/??     ???        ???        5          ??? XP
 12    ??   750/??     750/??     ???        ???        5          ??? XP
 13    ??   800/??     800/??     ???        ???        5          ??? XP
 14    ??   850/??     850/??     ???        ???        5          ??? XP
 15    ??   900/??     900/??     ???        ???        6          ??? XP
Level  1: Normal. Spells cost 0 mana. War Chant Given
Level  2: Apprentice. Can access the chat. Aria of Light given
Level  3: Neophyte
Level  4: Acolyte. +1 SP, +50 mana, +2 Dominators. Warp, Dewarp, Dominator, and Harvest given.
Level  5: Mage. +1 SP, +50 mana
Level  6: Disciple. +1 SP, +50 mana, +1 Dominator. Beacon given. Auto-protection ends. 
Level  7: Journeyman. +1 SP, +50 mana 
Level  8: Conjurer. +1 SP, +50 mana. Catcher spell unlocked.
Level  9: Mystic. +1 SP, +50 mana, +1 dominator.
Level 10: Guardian. +1 SP, +50 mana, Ward spell unlocked.
Level 11: Evoker.
Level 12: Channeler.
Level 13: Scholar.
Level 14: Arcanist.
Level 15: Awakened.

At each level after three, 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 (yesterday 11:50:16)

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 one ward 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, you get one spell point to put toward improving your spells. 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.

Spell cost seems related to your mana level, both max and current. As you cast spells and your mana pool decreases, the cost of a spell drops a small amount. Increasing your mana pool via Intelligence raises the cost of spells a small amount. You can use the table below as a guideline for spell costs, but it is best to figure out your own.

The spell cost stays roughly:
1 Beacon = 2 Wards = 3 Arias of Light = 4 War Chants
1 War Chant = 1 Harvest
1 Aria = 1 Dominator

Casting a spell nets you a tiny mana bonus depending on the spell and your level.

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 = 4/3xWC
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      83     N/A      N/A       N/A
  3      N/A      75      99     N/A      N/A       N/A
  4       10      88     116     N/A      N/A       N/A
  5       12     100     132     N/A      N/A       N/A
  6       13     113     149     N/A      N/A       450
  7       15     125     165     N/A      N/A       500
  8       16     138     182     N/A      413       550
  9       18     150     198     N/A      450       600
 10       23     163     215     325      488       650
 11       26     175    ~233    ~350     ~525       700
 12       28     188     248     375      563       750
 13       30     200     264     400      600       800
 14       31     213     281     425      638       850
 15       33     225     297     450      675       900

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

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Edited by Gabriel (yesterday 11:31:21)

**AS OF JULY 4, 2011, DOMINATORS’ STATS HAVE BEEN ALTERED FOR A CAMPAIGN. THIS CAMPAIGN-SPECIFIC INFO WILL BE IN ** LIKE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.**

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 20 (completely full) energy, depending on how full the mana bar is.

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. Beacons require warp level 4 to be cast while warped.

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.

Wards: Intricate circular knots of light on the ground. Wards will start casting spells on an enemy mage that begins casting within range. If a ward already exists, no additional ward can be placed within view of it.

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  302    N/A    N/A    N/A
 5  344    N/A    N/A    N/A
 6  388    675    N/A    N/A
 7  430    750    N/A    N/A
 8  474    825    207    N/A
 9  514    900    225    N/A
10  ???    975    244    358
11  ???    ???    ???    ???
12  ???    ???    ???    ???
13  ???    ???    ???    ???
14  ???    ???    ???    ???
15  ???    ???    ???    ???

Seil
The level of the player and spell level are completely irrelevant to what hp the structure will cap at. The higher the summoning player's level [and endurance] and the higher the spell's level, the higher the starting hp will be though.

At Level 15, the starting and max HP of all structures are as follows:

Dominator       Level 1   Level 2   Level 3   Level 4
StartHP           ???       ???       ???       ???
Normal MaxHP     2905      2905      2905      2905
Hide&Seek MaxHP  4358      4358      4358      4358
Beacon         Level 1   Level 2   Level 3   Level 4
StartHP         1650      1733      1815      1897
MaxHP           2749      2749      2749      2749
Ward           Level 1   Level 2   Level 3   Level 4
StartHP          855       ???       ???       ???
MaxHP           2033      2033      2033      2033
Catcher        Level 1   Level 2   Level 3   Level 4
StartHP          938       938       938       938
MaxHP           1829      1829      1829      1829 

(Data gathered by Seil and Motorslave)

Catchers do not change hp based on spell level.


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.

At level:           You can power (Beacon, Catcher, Ward):
   6                   1 B
   7                   1 B
   8                   1 B and 1 C OR 2 C
   9                   2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 2 C
  10                   2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W
  11                   At least 2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W
  12                   At least 2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W
  13                   At least 2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W
  14                   At least 2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W
  15                   At least 2 B OR 1 B and 1 C OR 1 B and 1 W OR 1 C and 2 W OR 2 C OR 2 W

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Edited by Gabriel (yesterday 11:50:34)