04-02-2015, 04:27 AM
Hello and welcome to IOU. Here's a simple guide to playing the game. Hit the big red attack button and you're off on your idle adventure.
Ray is the developer, have any questions feel free to ask him. He's very open minded to changes, complaints and questions.
Tips, Tricks and Stuff
When you first begin you will be very weak, since this is an idle game, your best bet is to put your initial gold earnings into auto damage and auto related skills. While click damage does more damage than autoing, it is a limited means of attack for farming.
However, clix is not used in events, challenges and exploring further in your adventure. So you can put it up and get more out of it, for those cases. How you choose to go about it is up to you.
Hunting upgrades are also useful as they relate directly to your gold income, not only from regular mobs but also from treasure chests. Spending gold into gold upgrades is very useful, as the more gold you earn the faster you can upgrade your skills.
So are skills the only way to get more damage? No, as you level up you will also gain damage per level. Certain levels have bigger bonuses as far as damage boosts. You also get abilities when you level up. You get 1 point per level to choose the ability of your choice. Abilities need to be activated and have a cool down. They do however, make you dish out a lot more damage.
The freeze skill while good on regular mobs, should be known that in challenges, it's time is divided among the group. Which makes it less useful imo. Splat is good but is one attack with a cool down. The other skills, are used for 10 seconds with a minute cool down, I think. So to me those are worth it to level instead. Up to you ofc.
On the right you'll see a treasure chest with a timer. lol When the timer reaches 0, click it to claim some gold, diamond(s) and Ap
Tree cutting: In IOU you have the ability to cut down trees. Woot. When you cut down a tree you get logs. As a beginner these logs can be sold for 1,000 gold a piece, which is a lot of gold. It is better to sell them initially than to save up for upgrades (imo). Later on when 1000's of gold aren't as useful, save up for the tree cutting upgrades.
Mining: You also have the ability to mine. Instead of logs you mine, stone. The only difference now though between stone and logs are, that stone is going to be used for guild building upgrades. So if you want to start saving for your future guild..up to you. If you prefer to sell them for gold, that's also fine. You also get a crystal after you clear a platform which is worth 100,000 gold when sold (also going to be used for guild upgrades) but as you can guess would be great for selling and buying upgrades.
IMPORTANT: When mining or wood cutting, never click the quit button. As the game takes it as you actually wanting to quit and back out from that job. If you hit the x button on the other hand, the screen just closes and when you resume the activity, you will start off from where you left off. ( lol Complain to Ray to have this changed)
Space Expeditions: You have a spaceship. It's a way to get Ap, Gold and Diamonds for free, all you do is go on an expedition wait the designated amount of time and claim your rewards. Gold is pointless imo. Diamonds are good because it goes towards your VIP support level. Ap is actually the most efficient one. 5 diamonds = 1 ap. There are 4 hour, 8 hour and 20 hour expeditions. The 20 hour is the worst one, as it only gives 150%, which is 50% less than the other 2. I hate it as well, complain to Ray lol.
You can also upgrade your ship. The best upgrade is costly but well worth it. It allows you to do more than one expedition at a time.
While AP is technically the most efficient use of time, If you're not overly far from a support level, go with diamonds to raise that instead. As it will help you out more so than accumulating a few more Ap.
You get a daily reward for logging in. You need to refresh the game once a day to claim it. Free stuff, it's great.
Currencies
Diamonds: So like me, you're probably wondering what the heck Diamonds and Ap are, and what they're used for. You may think, hmm, maybe I should convert some diamonds into Ap, since Ap looks way more useful. Well before you decide to go that route, check out the Upgrade>VIP tabs. You'll see that if you invest your diamonds here, you'll get much more out of it than using it for other reasons.
I would suggest using diamonds only for this upgrade. Silly me, I converted mine into Ap when I first started to buy more pet food. Big mistake. I would also never suggest using it to replenish energy. Huge waste of diamonds.
Another cool method of obtaining more gold and experience is a collection of Diamonds. Ray made it so that with a collected amount of diamonds, (doesn't matter if you spend them) you get a bonus. Character tab> Info. Make sure you claim them once you get the amount needed.
AP: Ap is very useful and the hardest currency to come by ( though it isn't that hard). As you explore further, every new map you conquer you'll get some ap and diamonds. Sweet.
Trophies: lol Interesting idea for a currency, gj Ray. You can upgrade with trophies in this game. You get trophies by doing certain tasks. Time reduction upgrades. Some of them, are iffy with the reduction. Tasks, that require more time such as expeditions and pet training are better uses, since the time between them are greater than say skills. So a 2% off of a minute skill isn't that great but 2% off of 8 hours is.
Event points: This is a newer currency, and I guess can be argued is even harder to get than Ap since it's a limited income only available during events. However, during event's its quite easy to obtain (up to a certain amount ofc). EP are used to unlock damage boosts which are passively obtained when points are accumulated.
Pets
When you get it, train it. Don't waste any pet food you get on feeding it though. Not yet anyway. Why? Well after you ascend, you get prestige points. With those points one upgrade is to increase the amount of 'train' each pet food gives. So to get the most out of pet food, it is suggested that you wait ( a long time) to use it there. Tbh the amount of damage that your pet does isn't even that much, so I'd refrain from using any other currencies to level it up. Ofc if you choose to, by all means go for it. When pets get to lvl 10 20 and 30, they evolve into stronger pets. You also get a second pet after you ascend the first time ( it's not free lol). More damage, sweet.
Ascension
This is what most of us idle players look forward to when playing an idle game. Well I do anyway. This is what gives the game it's replay value. The prestige system in this game is a little bit different. When you prestige, while you do gain ways to increase your damage, be warned that the enemies after you ascend...also become harder. In this game when you prestige you don't have the option to start back at the first level. No, you start at a much higher level. So make sure that you can idle solo high level mobs before you prestige.
There are tons of prestige upgrades here are a few: Auto dmg (+5%), Auto speed (5%), Auto crit (10%), Click Damage (10%), Click Speed (10%), Double Train (+1 pet food value), Party Boost (+10%) and so many more.
Leeching like a boss
Party boost. While you won't get the ascended version as a beginner. You can get the leeching version. That is to leech with a player of a higher level, to help you kill faster and to get their hunting bonuses ( that apply). Everyone does it. If you don't like it, you can put up a password to block people or only allow people that you want in your party. It's appropriate to ask before you join but if you don't, at least tell the person thank you. Have some manners. Also put them back to where they were when you partied them. There are party limitations but you can see what they are in game.
Challenges
Challenges are one of the most fun parts of the game to me, it's a way to increase your damage. Higher difficulty challenges reward with more base damage but are harder to beat lol. There are Single, duo and group challenges, each reward once. So for instance Bronze Rat Solo, gives 2 base damage. Bronze Duo Rat also gives 2 damage. In this way, you can rack up a ton of base damage.
Furthermore you get even more base damage with points called milestones. As a beginner, you'll need to leech off of stronger players to try and obtain the first level of milestone. You will get AP, and Diamonds from completing each boss in the challenge once, which is always a big plus.
Guild
Not something you have to do as a beginner but having friends to talk to and ask advice from is always nice. Guild building are not implemented as yet, so it's up to you if you choose to join one.
I'll edit the guide as needed, I probably left a ton of stuff out. Feel free to ask.
Ray is the developer, have any questions feel free to ask him. He's very open minded to changes, complaints and questions.
Tips, Tricks and Stuff
When you first begin you will be very weak, since this is an idle game, your best bet is to put your initial gold earnings into auto damage and auto related skills. While click damage does more damage than autoing, it is a limited means of attack for farming.
However, clix is not used in events, challenges and exploring further in your adventure. So you can put it up and get more out of it, for those cases. How you choose to go about it is up to you.
Hunting upgrades are also useful as they relate directly to your gold income, not only from regular mobs but also from treasure chests. Spending gold into gold upgrades is very useful, as the more gold you earn the faster you can upgrade your skills.
So are skills the only way to get more damage? No, as you level up you will also gain damage per level. Certain levels have bigger bonuses as far as damage boosts. You also get abilities when you level up. You get 1 point per level to choose the ability of your choice. Abilities need to be activated and have a cool down. They do however, make you dish out a lot more damage.
The freeze skill while good on regular mobs, should be known that in challenges, it's time is divided among the group. Which makes it less useful imo. Splat is good but is one attack with a cool down. The other skills, are used for 10 seconds with a minute cool down, I think. So to me those are worth it to level instead. Up to you ofc.
On the right you'll see a treasure chest with a timer. lol When the timer reaches 0, click it to claim some gold, diamond(s) and Ap
Tree cutting: In IOU you have the ability to cut down trees. Woot. When you cut down a tree you get logs. As a beginner these logs can be sold for 1,000 gold a piece, which is a lot of gold. It is better to sell them initially than to save up for upgrades (imo). Later on when 1000's of gold aren't as useful, save up for the tree cutting upgrades.
Mining: You also have the ability to mine. Instead of logs you mine, stone. The only difference now though between stone and logs are, that stone is going to be used for guild building upgrades. So if you want to start saving for your future guild..up to you. If you prefer to sell them for gold, that's also fine. You also get a crystal after you clear a platform which is worth 100,000 gold when sold (also going to be used for guild upgrades) but as you can guess would be great for selling and buying upgrades.
IMPORTANT: When mining or wood cutting, never click the quit button. As the game takes it as you actually wanting to quit and back out from that job. If you hit the x button on the other hand, the screen just closes and when you resume the activity, you will start off from where you left off. ( lol Complain to Ray to have this changed)
Space Expeditions: You have a spaceship. It's a way to get Ap, Gold and Diamonds for free, all you do is go on an expedition wait the designated amount of time and claim your rewards. Gold is pointless imo. Diamonds are good because it goes towards your VIP support level. Ap is actually the most efficient one. 5 diamonds = 1 ap. There are 4 hour, 8 hour and 20 hour expeditions. The 20 hour is the worst one, as it only gives 150%, which is 50% less than the other 2. I hate it as well, complain to Ray lol.
You can also upgrade your ship. The best upgrade is costly but well worth it. It allows you to do more than one expedition at a time.
While AP is technically the most efficient use of time, If you're not overly far from a support level, go with diamonds to raise that instead. As it will help you out more so than accumulating a few more Ap.
You get a daily reward for logging in. You need to refresh the game once a day to claim it. Free stuff, it's great.
Currencies
Diamonds: So like me, you're probably wondering what the heck Diamonds and Ap are, and what they're used for. You may think, hmm, maybe I should convert some diamonds into Ap, since Ap looks way more useful. Well before you decide to go that route, check out the Upgrade>VIP tabs. You'll see that if you invest your diamonds here, you'll get much more out of it than using it for other reasons.
I would suggest using diamonds only for this upgrade. Silly me, I converted mine into Ap when I first started to buy more pet food. Big mistake. I would also never suggest using it to replenish energy. Huge waste of diamonds.
Another cool method of obtaining more gold and experience is a collection of Diamonds. Ray made it so that with a collected amount of diamonds, (doesn't matter if you spend them) you get a bonus. Character tab> Info. Make sure you claim them once you get the amount needed.
AP: Ap is very useful and the hardest currency to come by ( though it isn't that hard). As you explore further, every new map you conquer you'll get some ap and diamonds. Sweet.
Trophies: lol Interesting idea for a currency, gj Ray. You can upgrade with trophies in this game. You get trophies by doing certain tasks. Time reduction upgrades. Some of them, are iffy with the reduction. Tasks, that require more time such as expeditions and pet training are better uses, since the time between them are greater than say skills. So a 2% off of a minute skill isn't that great but 2% off of 8 hours is.
Event points: This is a newer currency, and I guess can be argued is even harder to get than Ap since it's a limited income only available during events. However, during event's its quite easy to obtain (up to a certain amount ofc). EP are used to unlock damage boosts which are passively obtained when points are accumulated.
Pets
When you get it, train it. Don't waste any pet food you get on feeding it though. Not yet anyway. Why? Well after you ascend, you get prestige points. With those points one upgrade is to increase the amount of 'train' each pet food gives. So to get the most out of pet food, it is suggested that you wait ( a long time) to use it there. Tbh the amount of damage that your pet does isn't even that much, so I'd refrain from using any other currencies to level it up. Ofc if you choose to, by all means go for it. When pets get to lvl 10 20 and 30, they evolve into stronger pets. You also get a second pet after you ascend the first time ( it's not free lol). More damage, sweet.
Ascension
This is what most of us idle players look forward to when playing an idle game. Well I do anyway. This is what gives the game it's replay value. The prestige system in this game is a little bit different. When you prestige, while you do gain ways to increase your damage, be warned that the enemies after you ascend...also become harder. In this game when you prestige you don't have the option to start back at the first level. No, you start at a much higher level. So make sure that you can idle solo high level mobs before you prestige.
There are tons of prestige upgrades here are a few: Auto dmg (+5%), Auto speed (5%), Auto crit (10%), Click Damage (10%), Click Speed (10%), Double Train (+1 pet food value), Party Boost (+10%) and so many more.
Leeching like a boss
Party boost. While you won't get the ascended version as a beginner. You can get the leeching version. That is to leech with a player of a higher level, to help you kill faster and to get their hunting bonuses ( that apply). Everyone does it. If you don't like it, you can put up a password to block people or only allow people that you want in your party. It's appropriate to ask before you join but if you don't, at least tell the person thank you. Have some manners. Also put them back to where they were when you partied them. There are party limitations but you can see what they are in game.
Challenges
Challenges are one of the most fun parts of the game to me, it's a way to increase your damage. Higher difficulty challenges reward with more base damage but are harder to beat lol. There are Single, duo and group challenges, each reward once. So for instance Bronze Rat Solo, gives 2 base damage. Bronze Duo Rat also gives 2 damage. In this way, you can rack up a ton of base damage.
Furthermore you get even more base damage with points called milestones. As a beginner, you'll need to leech off of stronger players to try and obtain the first level of milestone. You will get AP, and Diamonds from completing each boss in the challenge once, which is always a big plus.
Guild
Not something you have to do as a beginner but having friends to talk to and ask advice from is always nice. Guild building are not implemented as yet, so it's up to you if you choose to join one.
I'll edit the guide as needed, I probably left a ton of stuff out. Feel free to ask.