Game logic
Progression
How Isaac and his team grow from battle to battle: experience, the level of each element, the results screen, New Game+ and checkpoints.
Isaac’s element levels
- Each element has its own level, from 1 to 50; they all start at 1. A level only changes on the results screen after a battle, from how many spells of that element Isaac cast in it: one per spell, for the element of its last rune. A chant cancelled before casting does not count.
- Up to level 20: +2 with 10 casts or more, +1 with 1 to 9.
- From 21 to 30: +1 with 10 casts or more.
- In both bands, +1 more for the element cast strictly the most in the battle; none on a tie.
- Above 30: +1 only for the element cast the most, and then its opposite element loses 1 if it is at 22 or more.
What a level changes
Only three things, in bands of ten levels: the MP of each rune, the power and the chance of statuses.
| Element level | Fireball MP | Power | Status chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | 10 | ×1 | ×1 |
| 11–20 | 9 | ×1.25 | ×1.25 |
| 21–30 | 8 | ×1.5 | ×1.5 |
| 31–40 | 8 | ×1.75 | ×1.75 |
| 41–50 | 7 | ×2 | ×2 |
Simulator
Spells of each element Isaac casts in every battle, starting with every element at level 1.
- Fire:
- Wind:
- Water:
- Earth:
- Dark:
- Light:
Reaches level 50 in battle
| Battle | Fir | Win | Wat | Ear | Dar | Lig |
|---|
Experience
- Every enemy, boss or ally on the map that dies gives 10 × its level, whoever kills it. Captured monsters give nothing.
- A battle gathers 9,999 at most. On a win, Isaac and every squad of the team each get the whole amount; a defeat, a draw or retiring gives nothing.
- Going from level 1 to 50 takes 316,905. Stats come from the level when each battle starts.
| Level | To the next | From level 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 0 |
| 2 | 70 | 25 |
| 3 | 140 | 95 |
| 4 | 220 | 235 |
| 5 | 330 | 455 |
| 6 | 460 | 785 |
| 7 | 600 | 1,245 |
| 8 | 770 | 1,845 |
| 9 | 970 | 2,615 |
| 10 | 1,200 | 3,585 |
| 11 | 1,450 | 4,785 |
| 12 | 1,740 | 6,235 |
| 13 | 2,060 | 7,975 |
| 14 | 2,420 | 10,035 |
| 15 | 2,810 | 12,455 |
| 16 | 3,240 | 15,265 |
| 17 | 3,720 | 18,505 |
| 18 | 4,230 | 22,225 |
| 19 | 4,800 | 26,455 |
| 20 | 5,400 | 31,255 |
| 21 | 6,000 | 36,655 |
| 22 | 6,600 | 42,655 |
| 23 | 7,300 | 49,255 |
| 24 | 8,000 | 56,555 |
| 25 | 8,750 | 64,555 |
| 26 | 9,000 | 73,305 |
| 27 | 9,100 | 82,305 |
| 28 | 9,200 | 91,405 |
| 29 | 9,300 | 100,605 |
| 30 | 9,400 | 109,905 |
| 31 | 9,500 | 119,305 |
| 32 | 9,600 | 128,805 |
| 33 | 9,700 | 138,405 |
| 34 | 9,800 | 148,105 |
| 35 | 9,900 | 157,905 |
| 36 | 10,000 | 167,805 |
| 37 | 10,100 | 177,805 |
| 38 | 10,200 | 187,905 |
| 39 | 10,300 | 198,105 |
| 40 | 10,400 | 208,405 |
| 41 | 10,500 | 218,805 |
| 42 | 10,600 | 229,305 |
| 43 | 10,700 | 239,905 |
| 44 | 10,800 | 250,605 |
| 45 | 10,900 | 261,405 |
| 46 | 11,000 | 272,305 |
| 47 | 11,100 | 283,305 |
| 48 | 11,200 | 294,405 |
| 49 | 11,300 | 305,605 |
| 50 | — | 316,905 |
Results screen
- After a win it shows, in this order: experience and element levels, the items found, the captured monsters and the new spells.
- It counts the time (up to the battle’s limit), the kills, the survival of the squads (survivors out of those deployed) and the experience. There are no ranks or grades.
- After a defeat or a draw there is no results screen: nothing from the battle is kept.
New Game+
- It starts after the credits. Isaac keeps his level, experience, element levels, runes, monsters, team and items; the story starts again.
- Enemies get +30, +28, +25, +21, +20 levels in chapters 1 to 5 (up to 50), so they give more experience and are captured at higher levels.
- Chest items are 2 levels higher, up to 6.
- The story uses harder versions of its battles.
Checkpoints
Each of the 138 missions and scenes the map offers, in the order of the flowchart, and each of the 88 free battles takes a checkpoint when it starts. A battle inside a mission and saving do not take one.
End of a battle
What the DS shows when a battle is decided, read from the game’s code and checked in an emulator on the first battle.
- Units stop at once: nobody moves, thinks or attacks, and there is no victory pose. A chant in progress is cancelled.
- After half a second the chant’s magic circle and dark layer appear on the bottom screen; 31 ticks later the word shows in its centre for 92 ticks and goes at once, while the circle spins away and fades in 31 (154 ticks in all, 1/60 s each).
- A win plays the short victory song; a defeat, a draw or a lost-but-cleared battle plays the defeat song and waits for it to end. Both screens then fade to black.
- The same banner says START before a battle, except in battles that skip it, like the first one.
The banners, in the console’s language
The results screen after a win
Top screen and the two pages of the bottom screen, put together from the published data (the menu font is not decoded, so the numbers are missing). Experience counts down, then the bottom screen scrolls to the element radar.
