balance: crystal income post-transcendence feels insufficient to buy all upgrades #258

New Issue

2026-05-06T12:22:23-07:00

hikari commented

2026-05-06 12:22:23 -07:00

Description

After completing their first transcendence, deusmortis reported being 1.07 × 10¹⁴ crystals short of purchasing all available upgrades. With most achievements already unlocked (depleting that source of crystal bonuses), the remaining income path felt insufficient.

"I feel like I'm even further away from having crystals for all the upgrades because I didn't have many achievement bonuses to earn... so I'm 1.07E14 crystals away from having enough crystals for everything with all upgrades."

Context

Crystal income should scale primarily through achievements, transcendence-tier upgrades, and ongoing gameplay. If a player who has already completed the main achievement list finds themselves dramatically short of crystals for all upgrades after their first transcendence, either:

Crystal upgrade costs are tuned too high relative to post-transcendence income, OR
Achievement crystals are a disproportionately large share of total crystal income, leaving repeat runs feeling underpowered

Suggested Investigation

Review total crystal cost of all upgrades vs. expected crystal income from a typical first transcendence run
Check if transcendence-tier crystal multipliers are intended to close this gap over multiple transcendence cycles
If multiple transcendences are needed to afford all upgrades, consider whether that expectation is communicated to players

Reporter

deusmortis, Discord #activity, 2026-05-03

✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

## Description After completing their first transcendence, `deusmortis` reported being **1.07 × 10¹⁴ crystals short** of purchasing all available upgrades. With most achievements already unlocked (depleting that source of crystal bonuses), the remaining income path felt insufficient. > *"I feel like I'm even further away from having crystals for all the upgrades because I didn't have many achievement bonuses to earn... so I'm 1.07E14 crystals away from having enough crystals for everything with all upgrades."* ## Context Crystal income should scale primarily through achievements, transcendence-tier upgrades, and ongoing gameplay. If a player who has already completed the main achievement list finds themselves dramatically short of crystals for all upgrades after their first transcendence, either: - Crystal upgrade costs are tuned too high relative to post-transcendence income, OR - Achievement crystals are a disproportionately large share of total crystal income, leaving repeat runs feeling underpowered ## Suggested Investigation - Review total crystal cost of all upgrades vs. expected crystal income from a typical first transcendence run - Check if transcendence-tier crystal multipliers are intended to close this gap over multiple transcendence cycles - If multiple transcendences are needed to afford all upgrades, consider whether that expectation is communicated to players ## Reporter `deusmortis`, Discord #activity, 2026-05-03 ✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

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Reference: nhcarrigan/elysium#258