Alchemy Stars

Overview

A RPG with puzzle elements developed and published in China, but released worldwide on June 17, 2021 exclusively for Android and iOS devices. Players take on the role of the Navigator (named in-game by the player), who must recruit a team of characters and "attack" by drawing lines across connected color squares on the battlefield, to eliminate enemies and progress through the game.

Story

The game takes place on the world of Astra, where The Navigator, one of the last remaining Caelestites alive, is inadvertently rescued by a team of Aurorians. The Navigator uses telepathy to guide the Aurorians out of danger and onto a path that efficiently allows them to defeat their enemies, the Eclipsites. With the Aurorians help, The Navigator manages to get their Colossus skyworthy again, but soon finds themselves drawn into a conflict between various factions of Aurorians and the Eclipsites, who are joined by a traitor who sold out her fellow Caelestites for power.

Gameplay

The player directs a team of up to five Aurorians spanning up to four different element, each with a pair of skills: one that can be triggered actively between turns, and one that can be triggered after stringing together a Chain Combo. Each round, the player must find a way to string together Chain Combos by plotting a path for their character across adjacent tiles. If the path runs directly by enemies, the squad Captain and any Aurorians matching the tile color element will perform a normal attack on the enemy. After finishing their move, the active Aurorians on that turn will unleash their Chain Combo skill if conditions have been met.

In-between turns, the player can switch the Captain of the team up to 3 times, allowing them to take advantage of another Aurorian's Chain Combo skill without worry about an elemental mismatch. The player wins the stage if they eliminate all enemies, though some stages may have different victory conditions, such as landing their party on a specific tile to escape, or surviving an unlimited wave of enemies for a certain amount of turns. The player loses the stage if their party's HP is reduced to 0, or they run out of available turns.

Aurorians

The playable characters in the game, most Aurorians fall under one of four elemental affinities, and one of four classes. Players must mix and match their team to play to the strengths of both the map and the enemies being faced. Aurorians can be upgraded with "Jasper" to increase their level. When they reach their maximum level, they can be further upgraded through Ascension, using certain resources to reset their level but give them greater stats and a passive ability through their unique Equipment, which itself can be upgraded.

Elements

Aurorians are either:

• Fire
• Forest
• Lightning
• Water

Using an element with an advantage (Fire > Forest > Lightning > Water > Fire) will deal 120% of normal damage to the opponent. Likewise, using an element with a disadvantage will result in only 80% of normal damage to the opponent.

At maximum Ascension, a high-rarity Aurorian may gain a second elemental trait allowing them to attack when drawing a path on that color, but their attack will be much weaker for that round.

Classes

There are four main classes that Aurorians fall into.

• Sniper: Their abilities allow them to target enemies anywhere on the field, from long distance.
• Converter: Converts other tiles to ones that match their element.
• Support: Healers and buffers who provide utility to their team outside of raw attack power.
• Detonator: Powerful AOE damage-dealers that can blow up enemies around them or on a specified grid.