> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://lethium.gitbook.io/lethium-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://lethium.gitbook.io/lethium-docs/how-to/balance-the-game.md). # Balance the game How progression is shaped so the start hooks players and the end is a long grind, which dials control each phase, and how to adjust them safely. ### The design goal The game is balanced in **two phases**: | Phase | Where | The feeling it aims for | How it is achieved | | --------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Hook** | The first hour and World 1 | Fast, generous and obvious. Something new every few minutes. A new player should **want one more zone**. | Cheap first purchases, a free starter kit, frequent rewards, weak mobs, small gaps between unlocks. | | **Grind** | Worlds 4 and 5, and rebirths after World 5 | Slow, deliberate, earned. Every step takes real time, but progress is always visible. | Prices and mob health that keep climbing, level and rebirth gates, boss requirements, scarce drops, hard caps. | The design is **one continuous curve**, not two separate games. Every zone asks for about the same multiple of the last one, while the player's own power grows a little slower than the mobs. That gap is what turns a quick start into a long end. {% hint style="info" %} All timings on this page come from a **simulation** of the shipped numbers, not from real players. Treat them as a starting point, then adjust with your own playtest data (see [Measuring](/lethium-docs/how-to/balance-the-game.md#measuring)). {% endhint %} ### The shape of the curve These are the shipped values, read from `zones.yml`, `ClickEm_Zonasf.yml` and `mob-rewards.yml`. | Zone | Price to unlock | Profile Level needed | Mob health (f1 to f3) | Coins per kill (f1 to f3, base units) | | -------------------------------- | --------------- | -------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------- | | **World 1, zone 1** | free | 0 | 33 to 76 | 1 to 2 | | World 1, zone 2 | 1.5K | 1 | 58 to 140 | 1 to 2 | | World 1, zone 5 | 2.97K | 6 | 240 to 572 | 2 to 5 | | World 1, zone 12 | 14.6K | 16 | 1.5K to 3.7K | 12 to 28 | | World 1, zone 24 | 224K | 34 | 17K to 41K | 190 to 440 | | **World 2, zone 1** (Rebirth 1) | 281K | 36 | 41K to 99K | 230 to 530 | | World 2, zone 24 | 52.5M | 70 | 4.0M to 9.6M | 44K to 101K | | **World 3, zone 1** (Rebirth 3) | 65.9M | 72 | 17M to 42M | 55K to 127K | | World 3, zone 24 | 12.3B | 106 | 1.9B to 4.5B | 10M to 24M | | **World 4, zone 1** (Rebirth 7) | 15.5B | 108 | 3.8B to 9.0B | 13M to 30M | | World 4, zone 24 | 2.9T | 142 | 351B to 843B | 2.4B to 5.6B | | **World 5, zone 1** (Rebirth 15) | 3.63T | 144 | 672B to 1.6T | 3.0B to 7.0B | | World 5, zone 24 | 680T | 178 | 59T to 143T | 569B to 1.3T | What to notice: * **Every step is about 1.25x the last.** Zone prices, mob health and payouts all grow by roughly the same factor per zone (`price 1.5K, 1.88K, 2.36K ...`). A player who is exactly keeping up spends about the **same time per zone** all game. The grind comes from **that time being spread over 120 zones**, and from the player's power growing more slowly than the mobs at the end. * **World 1 has the smallest gaps.** The first five zones cost 0, 1.5K, 1.9K, 2.4K and 3K. Health starts at 33 and only reaches 240 by zone 5. * **Levels and rebirths are gates, not just prices.** Profile Level needs are `floor(1.5 x (zone - 1))`, one continuous ladder. Rebirth unlocks each new world (1, 3, 7 and 15 rebirths). * **Payouts per kill are not flat.** Because payouts scale with the zone, the same action feels rewarding at every stage. See [Reward scaling](/lethium-docs/configuration/reward-scaling.md). ### Why the start hooks Everything below is something a new player gets **without waiting**. If you want to make the start stickier, these are the levers. | What | Value today | Where | | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Free starter kit after the tutorial** | 750 Coins and 10 Essence, once. Covers the first upgrade so the player gets visibly stronger at once. | `tutorial.yml` `first-join.reward` | | **Free starter pet, ability, Echo and gear** | Pet `Z1_1`, ability `cleave`, a COMMON Echo, tier 1 of all five gear pieces. | `pets.yml` `starter-pet`, `ability.yml` `starter-ability`, `echoes.yml` `starter-rarity`, `gearsets.yml` | | **Zone 1 is free** and zone 2 costs 1.5K | The first unlock happens in the first session. | `zones.yml` | | **Weak mobs** | 33 health at the start, tuned so a kitted player kills the frontier mob in about 0.2 to 0.5 seconds in World 1. | MythicMobs `Health:` | | **A gentle health ramp** over the first zones | So a brand new player is never stuck on a wall. | MythicMobs `Health:` | | **Cheap upgrades** | Base costs of 12 to 30 Coins. | `upgrades.yml` `base-cost` | | **A pet box on every level-up** | `level-up.pet-box.chance: 1.0`. Levels 1 to 4 also pay 250 Coins each. | `profile-level.yml` | | **Cheap first egg** | `zone_box_1` costs 45. | `eggs.yml` | | **Level-up comes fast** | The first 5 levels need about 700 Profile XP in total. | `profile-level.yml` `curve` | | **Quick wins everywhere** | `first_blood` at 1 kill, `hundred_kills` at 100, daily rewards and 157 quests, with a pool of 36 shown daily. | `achievements.yml`, `quests.yml`, `daily-rewards.yml` | | **Visible power** | Fury, abilities, damage numbers and floating loot text make early clicks feel strong. | `mob-rewards.yml` `combat` | | **Login reasons** | A daily streak with a 7th-day bonus, a Season Pass, and weekend and surprise events. | [Daily rewards](/lethium-docs/gameplay/daily-rewards.md), [Season Pass](/lethium-docs/gameplay/season-pass.md), [Events](/lethium-docs/gameplay/events.md) | #### Make the start even stickier * **Lower the first prices:** zone 2 to 1000 (`zones.yml`). * **Raise the starter kit:** `first-join.reward.coins` (750). It should still only cover about one to two upgrades. * **Add a second early unlock reward:** give a pet box or a boost at Profile Level 3 in `profile-level.yml` `rewards`. * **Show the next goal:** a hologram or HUD line with `%clickem_zone_next_name%` and `%clickem_zone_progress_percent%` (see [Placeholders](/lethium-docs/placeholders/zones.md)). * **Be careful with:** giving too much Gems. They are the scarce premium currency and set the pace of your store. ### Why the end is a grind The same curve, plus brakes that only bite late. These are the levers that lengthen the end. | Brake | What it does | Where | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Compounding prices and health** | About 1.25x per zone means World 5 prices and health are more than a trillion times zone 1. | `zones.yml`, MythicMobs | | **Level gates** | World 5 needs Profile Level 144 to 178. Profile XP needs grow 1.12x per level. | `zones.yml` `min-level`, `profile-level.yml` `curve` | | **Rebirth chain** | Each world needs a rebirth (1, 3, 7, 15). Coins needed grow 1.5x per rebirth, kills 1.2x, and after 15 rebirths 1.07x. Zones, upgrades, artifacts and Profile Level reset each time. | `rebirth.yml` | | **Boss checks** | Each world's boss must be beaten three times to rebirth out of it, and a boss respawns after 10 minutes. | `rebirth.yml` `boss-requirements`, `spawners.yml` | | **Zone caps on power** | Upgrades, skills, artifacts and abilities unlock a fifth of their levels per world. Levelling further means reaching the next world. | `zone-gates` in each file | | **Anti-shortcut rules** | Rare drops only in your latest two zones, killstreaks only near your frontier, Echo rarity capped by zone, eggs locked by zone. | `farm-window`, `killstreaks.yml`, `echoes.yml` `zone-rarity-cap`, `eggs.yml` | | **Essence scarcity** | Essence drops scale per world (roughly x6 to 7 each) and pay for Artifacts, Abilities and gear upgrades. | `artifacts.yml` `drop` | | **Long tails** | Pets cap at level 40 to 400 with prestige, gear has 2000 tiers, upgrades have 500 levels, achievement chains have 25 tiers. | `pets.yml`, `gearsets.yml`, `upgrades.yml`, `achievements.yml` | | **Hard caps** | Crit chance 75%, movement speed, auto-attack targets. | `limit-stats`, `max-targets` | The grind is meant to **stay visible**: each of those also gives the player a number to watch (next zone progress, rebirth progress, artifact levels). A grind with no visible progress loses players. #### Make the grind longer or shorter | You want | Do | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | A longer late game | Raise World 4 and 5 mob `Health`, or raise their zone `min-currency`. Leave World 1 and 2 alone. | | A shorter late game | Lower the same by 10 to 25%, or lower the rebirth `chain-multiplier` (1.5). | | Fewer rebirths to reach World 5 | Change `world-tiers` counts in `rebirth.yml`. | | Bosses as a real wall | Raise boss `Health` in `ClickEm_Bosses.yml` (a geared player should need about 1.5 to 3 minutes). | | More reason to come back | Add quests, events and Season Pass rewards rather than making kills easier. | ### Rough timeline From the simulation of the shipped numbers. "Arrive" means reaching the first zone of that world. | Milestone | Perfect play, fully kitted | Typical player (about 2x) | | --------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------- | | Arrive in **World 2** | about 4.5 hours | about 9 hours | | Arrive in **World 3** | about 10 hours | about 20 hours | | Arrive in **World 4** | about 22 hours | about 45 hours | | Arrive in **World 5** | about 99 hours | about 200 hours | | Later rebirths | | hundreds of hours | The shape matters more than the exact numbers: **hours** for the first world, **tens of hours** for the next two, **hundreds** at the end. An earlier, stricter version of the simulation put World 5 at about 480 hours. If real players finish faster than the table, slow the **late** worlds only. ### Rules that keep it healthy 1. **Never touch the start to fix the end.** If the late game is too fast, change World 4 and 5, not World 1. 2. **Tie new costs to zone price or Essence, never to a flat number.** Flat numbers are cheap late and huge early. See [Reward scaling](/lethium-docs/configuration/reward-scaling.md). 3. **Power, Coins, Essence and Boss Damage multiply** between sources. A new +100% Power source doubles everything. See [Stats](/lethium-docs/configuration/stats-and-limits.md). 4. **Change one dial at a time** and test with `/bosskit` and a fresh account. 5. **Growth rates compound.** `cost-growth: 1.056` over 500 levels is enormous. A tiny change at the end of a long ladder is huge. 6. **Keep the gap, not the numbers.** The curve works because mobs grow about 1.255x per zone while pets and gear grow about 1.09x, and the rest of the stack covers the difference. Changing one side breaks the pace. 7. **An easy early zone must never beat progressing.** That is what `farm-window`, the Echo zone cap and the killstreak gate protect. 8. **Keep Gems scarce.** They come only from rebirth, levels, quests, Season Pass, VIP drips and your store. ### Common requests | Players say | Try | | ------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "I quit in the first hour" | Raise the starter kit, lower zone 2 price, add a reward at Profile Level 3. Check the tutorial is not too long. | | "World 2 is too slow" | Lower World 2 mob health by about 20%, or lower zone prices in that world. | | "Nothing to spend Coins on at the start" | Lower early upgrade `base-cost`, or the first zone prices. | | "Bosses die too fast" | Raise `Health` in `ClickEm_Bosses.yml`. | | "Coins pile up late" | Add sinks: higher gear or egg costs, the Auction House fee, clan creation. | | "Rebirth feels pointless" | Raise `bonus-per-rebirth` and `milestones`. | | "Rebirth takes forever" | Lower `chain-multiplier` or the boss `kills`. | | "Too many Echoes" | Lower `drop.echo-chance`. | | "AFK farming is too good" | Lower `idle-earnings` `coins-per-minute`, `max-targets`, or `idle-timeout-seconds`. | | "The end is not a grind, people finish in a week" | Slow Worlds 4 and 5 only. See [Make the grind longer or shorter](/lethium-docs/how-to/balance-the-game.md#make-the-grind-longer-or-shorter). | ### Measuring Decide what "hooked" and "grinding" look like **before** you launch, then watch them. | Checkpoint to time (suggested) | Where to read it | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | First zone unlock | `[pace]` lines in the console log every zone purchase and rebirth with minutes played | | First egg opened, first rebirth | Same `[pace]` lines and `/ceadmin` stats | | Progress spread across players | Leaderboards: `PROFILE_LEVEL`, `REBIRTHS`, `KILLS`, `STAT_DAMAGE`, `PLAYTIME_HOURS` | | Players who came back the next day | `DAILY_STREAK` board and your server's join logs | | How long a geared player needs for a boss | `/bosskit grant boss2` on a test account | **A simple playtest:** create a fresh account, play the first hour without admin help, and write down when each of these happened: first kill, first upgrade, first zone, first egg, first level 5. If any gap is longer than about 10 minutes in the first hour, add a reward or lower a price there. Then repeat for the start of each world.