This guide is currently in Early Access, and is still being updated by the devs. As new updates come and go, this guide should be updated for things like Augments, New Main Weapons and so on. If you'd like discuss potential changes to the game, please use the Discussions tab for any developmental feedback.

I am also not a pro at this game. While I do have all the current achievements unlocked, this guide is a representation of my understandings of the game itself, which can hopefully help out a little bit:



This guide is meant for people who need some introductions to game mechanics, or some strategies that I've picked up while playing, but players should ultimate also try out the game themselves and see if it makes sense and make their own strategies. This guide is simply a starting point.

Anyways let's begin

Glyphica's core gameplay involves the player defending themselves from hordes of enemies through the power of typing:

By typing the word above the enemy, your weapon would be direct towards that enemy. Additionally each time you type the word, the enemy will then switch to another word. In the above pic, the word "fact" is actually the second word, not the first word that I typed.

Defeating enemies grants you some XP, which goes towards the "level" of the weapon. Levelling up grants access to both upgrades and secondary weapons:


Upgrades give players access to secondary weapons, which are weapons that aid the main weapon.
Most weapons are triggered when specific letters are typed (like the Minefield), while other weapons are triggered automatically when you type (like the Chopper). Depending on the weapon you'll get upgrades like damage, crit chance, and attack rate. You'll also notice each weapon has a specific classification. The repeater is classified as Kinetic/Main while the Sentry is Heat/Turret. This is important, as your upgrades will be based on this.

While fighting, enemies have a chance to drop various items. These items are:

• Loot
  
• Shields
  
• Freeze
  
• Double Damage
  
• Rerolls
  
• Health

When items are dropped they are not permanent. Players need to type the word for the item before it times out if they want to collect it.

(*note the bar underneath the treasure chest icon, that's the timer).

Broadly speaking each item is pretty straightforward:

• Shields => Negates damage from one enemy hit
  
• Freeze => Temporarily stops time (the icon is a stopwatch)
  
• Double Damage => Temporarily doubles damage, but also speeds up enemies
  
• Rerolls => Used to reroll upgrades when main weapon levels up (check above image)
  
• Health => Only drops after health drops below 300, adds health back to player

The main thing that isn't as straightforward is loot. When loot is triggered it brings up the loot page which gives players additional upgrades. Instead of being upgrades obtainable through levelling up the main weapon, Loot Upgrades are targeted at categories like Heat Damage, D.O.T (Damage Over Time) or changes in loot drops:
The weapons and statuses it will impact is listed below each upgrade, so players can reference that too when they are upgrading.

That pretty much sums up the core gameplay loop of the current Glyphica build. Players fight against enemies, pick up XP and upgrades and weapons to fight even more enemies. This is where strategy and weapons come in, because players are not likely to go very far purely on typing WPM alone.

During the course of the game (both Trials and Endless) players will come across a few different enemies with their own unique characteristics. Normally, these characteristics are in how they attack the player, and usually scale in terms of health as the player progresses (especially in Endless).

Additionally, I have no clue what the actual names of these enemy types are. I'll be naming them purely based on their functions and their connection with various other enemy types. We'll do a quick run down of these enemy types:


Basic enemies are enemy types that you will encounter throughout the game. These enemies are represented by circles, and they possess no particular abilities.





In particular you'll notice that, as the game progresses, these enemies will have a "ring" that surrounds it. These rings represent stronger basic enemies, and they have more health than their ring-less counterparts.



As the game continues, they will only get much larger. These enemies attack by making direct contact with the central turret, meaning that if you can get them before reaching the turret, no damage will ever be done. In fact this is the only way to get hit at all, it's the other abilities that make it difficult.


These enemies take the form of an arrow, rather than a circle, and are called Turret Enemies because, if the player doesn't freeze them, they will move into position before firing projectiles at your central turret.



There is an additional variation which has an extra line in front of the arrow, which works similarly to basic enemies to represent stronger enemies:



These enemies will charge up a shot before firing a projectile at the turret, with the player needing to quickly type in the word for the projectile before it hits them. Projectiles are slightly faster than regular enemies so they are somewhat of a priority as an enemy


Named after their distinct shape, enemies in the shape of Pentagons have more lives than a regular enemy. While usual enemies have one health bar (that scales up with size as mentioned above), these enemies have several health bars (about 3), making them beefier, and thereby a tank.



Stronger enemies have a priority in this game, and in the earlier stages the Tank is rather dangerous without enough damage. Pentagons also have a stronger variant:




These enemies are easy to spot because they are shaped like a circle, with additional circles on that original circle, making it look like beads on a bracelet:



You'll notice that the words above the enemy have only the first two letters, while the rest is blocked out by a grey rectangle. This is the "hidden" aspect of this enemy, meaning you need to type out the first two letters to continue getting the rest of the words.

These enemies aren't particularly tough, it's just tricky to figure out what the word is. But once you get used to the word list, it'll be easier to guess the appropriate word.


This enemy type is straightforward, they have shields.



Shields come in two forms. The first is the semi-circular grey band that surrounds the central star. Using a regular projectile (e,g. Repeater), damage is negated if it hits the grey area. Additionally, it also links up to nearby enemies which, by the image and the stats, also results in the shielding of these enemies. As support units, they should be eliminate fast especially in large numbers.



During the Trials, players will notice that there are actually boss types. The first boss is the same in both Trial I and in Trial III, while the boss in Trial II is a one off.



The first boss requires players to type an extract of text while defending themselves from enemies. Originally, the boss would be able to add an extra "typing layer" onto enemy units, but now this has been removed. No space or punctuation is needed for this boss, so it comes down to balancing between typing the extract and fighting enemies.



The second boss is a scrambler. Unlike the previous boss, this boss is more active, and works by scrambling the words around it. It has an area of effect, marked by it's black circular line, and anything caught in it will become nonsense, with players expected to type the nonsense rather than the original word. The enemy itself is also nonsense, there is no proper word attached to it, and this time beating them is a matter of typing the corresponding nonsense to take it out.

The basic strategy of Glyphica boils down to being able to handle large amounts of enemies at once. This is achieved through increasing weapons damage, but also being able to leverage typing certain words in your favour. We can get this in two ways, Perfect Inputs and Secondary Weapons.

You might have noticed that, while typing away, that a small counter appears under your turret with the words "Perfect Input"



This is the number of perfect inputs, or the amount of correct letter inputs the player has achieved. The combo number is counted from two places: enemy words, and dropped item words. Perfect inputs from either one will count towards the total perfect input number. The higher the number of perfect inputs, the higher the critical chance (maxing out at 5% chance), making it a powerful thing to maintain during the course of the game.

So when is the combo lost? The perfect input combo is lost when a letter is typed incorrectly, but this does not necessarily mean within the word. A quick example to demonstrate this is with the words "fact" and "yobs". If I am typing the first "fact" and I type a y instead of a c, this will not count as a combo lost, because the game registers the y as being for "yobs". However if I type a o instead of c, then it will be a combo loss because it does not start another word.



Additionally, Loot upgrades can also add onto the 5% crit chance. There are separate upgrades for a) increasing weapon rate of fire and b) doing damage to enemies when combos are lost. Crit chance and rate of fire are important in the early game, but doing additional damage based on your combo is also important further into the run when there is a higher chance of slipping up and making a typing mistake.


Secondary weapons are your main helper in the game. Without them, later stages (like the major enemy wave around the 12-minute mark) would be impossible solely on WPM and your main weapon. Each secondary weapon works different, with some reliant on certain letters being inputted while others are directional and act as direct aids to the main weapon. They are obtainable when your main weapon levels up, filling in 4 slots for a total of 5 weapons (including the main weapon).

Each weapon has a category labelled on them (e.g. Turret, D.O.T, Drone). These categories are crucial for Loot Upgrades and deciding how to upgrade them. While secondary weapons are already upgraded through your normal main weapon level up, Loot Upgrades allow for upgrades that can affect non-weapon categories like Heat Damage or Bleed. Loot upgrades are especially strong because they can affect multiple weapons in one go, making it a strong advantage to have similar weapon types.



To make these secondary weapons stronger, Weapons Evolutions play a key role. Instead of Vampire Survivor and needing two specific weapon types, evolutions are triggered when weapons reach a certain number of kills (kill counts go in increments of 50, i.e. 50, 100, 150). This is achieved either through actual kills or obtainable through main weapon upgrades. Triggering evolution upgrades grants access to unique modifiers for weapons like adding heat damage, or giving additional letters that can trigger these weapons.

Currently Glyphica has two weapons (and therefore I will update this as we go). In theory, strategy between the two are the same, but in practice it is not. Each weapon is unique in how we attack enemies, and damage output is equally different, so let's talk about them.



This is the basic weapon, and also the first weapon players get, so its also the most straightforward. The Repeater is a central turret that fires projectiles when enemy words are typed, meaning that your WPM dictates how fast the Repeater attacks. The faster you type, the faster your turret shoots.

In Endless (and in Trials really), the basic strategy of the Repeater is to target stronger enemies first. This is because, with the addition of secondary weapons, the main damage dealer of anything that slips between the gaps will be the Repeater. Doing initial hits and activating secondary weapons really helps to target smaller, weaker enemies, but larger enemies require more aggressive typing to focus attack power on them.

Equally, it's good to target special enemies with the Repeater as well, just in case secondary weapons do not get them.The Repeater is more reactive as a weapon, so prioritising certain enemies will be the main strategy with this weapon.



The Heat Ray, as the name suggests, is a beam that shoots out from the central turret. Instead of instant damage, the damage from the Heat Ray is done over time (and qualifies as both Heat Damage, and Burning Damage later).

Strategically, the Heat Ray is less direct for the player. This is because of 2 things:
1. The Heat Ray requires time to swivel around, therefore it is not as reactive
2. Damage output is lower, and is more reliant on secondary weapons.

In my time playing with the Heat Ray, I've found that the most strategic thing is to prioritise enemies based on clusters (especially early to mid-game ish) which reduces your swivel time, and giving you a better chance to hit enemies. Also increasing Rate of Fire for the Heat Ray is important to improve damage, and also adding Burning Damage helps massively.

There is a major Evolution suggestion for this weapon and it's the reflective upgrade that allows the beam to bounce of the screen. This helps to cover more area, and makes the Heat Ray a more strategic option than if you only had one singular beam on the screen at the same time

In Trials, the basic strategy of typing, upgrading, getting more secondary weapons works great, because the enemy intensity is comparatively not as bad. In Endless, however, this gets more complicated and nerve racking. As Endless extends beyond the wave count in Trials, you'll quickly notice that each wave is way more intense, with more variations of enemies and impossible odds as they get increasingly faster and stronger. So what's the strategy for Endless and getting to 30 minutes?



Preface: This comes from my experience of reaching to 30 minutes

You'll quickly notice that most weapons have some form of D.O.T damage that can be evolved over time. Secondary weapons like the Tesla Mine and the Hunter both have Static D.O.T damage, while you can evolve the Poison D.O.T on weapons like the Mines.



D.O.T damage is important because we're adding an extra source of damage than just the secondary weapons, and it adds to the versatility of secondary weapons and making them stronger. Furthermore, certain Loot upgrades have upgrades that target both D.O.T damage and weapons simultaneously, so it adds an extra way to increase damage.

There is also a Loot upgrade that allows D.O.T damage to Crit. This is pretty important once you've evolved several D.O.T weapons. Again it just adds towards the total damage count, and especially with weapons with a larger area of effect, D.O.T helps with crowd control.

Quick preface, but I love using drones in my runs. Not sure if its entirely the meta but the main reason a drone is preferable is because they can run crowd control further away from the central turret.



Being further from the central turret gives the player a better chance at targeting larger enemies, while also spawning even more drones by typing the relevant letters. Weapons like the Sentry can be good in a pinch, but ultimately don't do rapid damage at a close range. Considering that most enemies are very likely to hit you when they are close, using drones to attack at the far reaches of the screen helps.

Additionally drones move, and are more consistent with overall damage. Tesla Mines are great but they are stationary, meaning their range plays the biggest factor in defending. However drones like the Spectre and the Mines move, which means speed becomes the deciding factor in defence. Being able to have a larger number of drones mobile helps with fast defence before the enemy gets there.

Despite everything I've said above, there will come a point where one will be completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, that not even damage can do. It's especially tough in the last few minutes of a 30-minute run so what do we do?



We need to rely on methods to stop enemies cold in their tracks. On possibility is the Repeater evolution which has a Cold Damage evolutionary path. These temporarily stop enemies in their tracks on impact, but comparatively it isn't the most effective thing.

The most effective is actually the Freeze power-up. You get a lot in the early game but it slows down as the game progresses. Several Loot upgrades can help to increase the Freeze power-up drop rate from weapons and from enemies. Using these to stop time and clean up enemies massively helps, especially when working with drones to give more time for them to attack on enemies. It's a tough one, but also the way to squirm past the 30-minute mark.

Hey there, thanks for turning in to this giant chunk of words.

Hopefully this guide gives you a first initial idea about what to expect, what to do when it comes to Glyphica. I definitely have a few things I haven't figured out yet (like how to get the DPS achievements) but I'm here sharing the first few hours, and hoping it helps someone else who's just starting out.

Any suggestions and corrections are much appreciated, and this guide is subject to change as the devs continue to polish and add onto it.

~peace