@216 there are people who made it to LV 1300 or something, how did they get there when space runs out?

Sadly after lvl 250 there is nothing fun/challenging in the game - the only limiting factor is space for gems (and patience). So you have to lose intentionally to submit score. Instead of going highest lvl possible i suggest improving time score (i can beat lvl 200 in ~13k seconds) or reducing total amount of leaks. @WGW: The combine bug was first reported in septebmer 2021 by Chr3y (i was suprised of that bug!) and it took little time untill we learned how to exploit it (little correction of "exploiting bug since JS release". If i got what u meant). Anyway, if u are still curious of more exac bug mechanic ( lets use EG example): Each time u select gem, the game is checking for combine special ( to display button or no), let say u selected fD. Then, the game loads list of gems needed (fs,FA,PA in this case) and searching the towers, naturally form first build to last. Let say the first build was PA. After finding PA its looking olny for FA + fD. Let say 2nd find was fD. If all 3 are found combine special is displayed. After click if selected gem is one of 3 found (1st PA, 1st fD, 1st FA), those gems are consumed( no chance to bug in that case). But if not - selected fD wasnt first fD , one of found gems is replaced by selected gem - due to bug its ALWAYS first. so it will be (selected fD, 1st fD, 1st FA). Bug reason is really stupid - copied similar line of code and one variable not changed (i think it was even looking similar, maybe "1" instead "i" , but i checked it much time ago so not sure)

uhmm..... so what do you do when you have 0 space left where you could place a gem but you have only placed 4 out of 5 gems this round...... looks like i'm stuck https://i.imgur.com/nkTrIMd.png

@WGW oh and i made an embarrasing mistake. the EG next to the MysticBlackOpal in the middle should have ben one space to the left and one space down. at some point i misplaced it and didnt notice until i turned it into the gold and now it cant be moved again. it slightly shortens the groud units path but at the current level that is completely meaning less since the one that makes it farthers barely gets passed the 3rd checkpoint. sometimes no one reaches the 3rd chekpoint. yeah leaking 3 - 7 fly units every 4 levels but i make so much gold that i always make more than it costs to heal back up to 11 (so even if i dont pay attention during the waves where they are immune to stun and all 10 flying units get through i dont lose the game)

@WGW heeey, so many thanks! great explanation and it makes sense now that it did happen to me a bunch of times unintentionally because i was preparing multiple batches at the same time so i had duplicates of any given ingredient. also fun fact: i'm currently on a game that's been going on for 3 days. i lucked out and got a great opal slap bang in the middle. currently LV330 and going strong through the power of luck. 2/3 of the uraniums i throw down in a single round so i picked them because you dont turn down a gift like that. the fire star i built and yellow star sapphire i built because i felt bad leaving them out. im going to build another black opal over the yellow star sapphire. can't wait to try out a run with the detailed knowledge on the CSB though so thanks again. lets see how far i can take this run. https://i.imgur.com/mxZsSRP.png

HOW TO EXPLOIT THE COMBINE SPECIAL BUG: I will use as an example building an Egyptian Gold, but the same pattern applies to building any special tower. 1: Pick a perfect amethyst. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: this must be the FIRST gem on the board that is a part of the EG recipe. If you have, e.g., a flawed diamond gem already on the board when you pick the perfect amethyst, this will NOT work. 2: Keep playing till you pick a flawed diamond, and a flawless amethyst (the order doesn't matter) 3: Once you have all three necessary gems (the first pefect amethyst, and the subsequent flawed diamond and flawless amethyst), keep picking until you get EITHER a flawed diamond OR a flawless amethyst. Place this where you want the egyptian gold to be. For the sake of this example, let's say you pick a second flawed diamond. 4: Combine special on that second flawed diamond you just picked in step three, and voila, the game will consume the two flawed diamonds and the flawless amethyst to create the egyptian gold, and leave the perfect amethyst untouched. As I said below, there are a lot of nuances to how this works, which I'm avoiding explaining to keep this at reasonable length. But you'll probably be able to puzzle out some of this yourself once you get a basic handle on how the bug works without my blathering on about it. :) I hope this helps!

@Aris, yeah, unfortunately the comments page has very quiet lately (it was also not working for a while recently), which led me to not check as often. Nice to see that folks are still playing and getting hooked! I'll try to explain how to exploit the combine special bug one more time. Probably your difficulty is because there are SO MANY comments on this page to digest, and the bug itself is more than a little confusing in how it works (there are nuances I still don't fully understand), but if you follow these steps, you should be able to use it. I don't think it's absolutely essential to exploit this bug to get a long run going (meaning a run that will go past level 150), just as it isn't absolutely necessary to get a great opal. But survival mode is already hard enough even *with* a great opal and exploiting the combine special bug. I really never continue runs past level 100 unless I get a great opal anymore. And I've been exploiting the combine special bug shamelessly since the Javascript version of GTD introduced it (the old Flash version didn't have this bug). fwiw, I think you're doing very well, good maze layout and good placement and choice of gems. I could suggest some minor tweaks, but you're not doing anything majorly wrong that I can see. EXCEPT. . . you should not upgrade the bloodstones. Getting a bloodstone early (by level 30 or so) is a HUGE advantage as it will rack up tons of kills and get a huge a damage boost as a result. The upgraded bloodstone, with the flame attack, is only good once you have a ton of stun power via dark emeralds. Usually you should leave the bloodstones (which should be near the center of the map) unupgraded until level 100 or so. If I hav e a ton of dark emeralds, I will maybe upgrade them as early as level 80, but usually not. And remember too that even if you do everything right, there's RNG in this game that can screw you over beyond what gems you pick-- primarily, the effect of dark emeralds on flyers. If they don't get stunned effectively in later levels, which can happen even when you have a ton of dark emeralds hitting them all along the air path, they escape anyway and you're screwed. This is, to say the least, often an extremely frustrating game. :) This is a very long comment so I'll leave a separate one with instricutions on the combine special bug. Cheers!

LV108 yesterday. i still dont know how the CSB Exploit works but i got to keep a flawed emerald and a normal aquamarine by accident haha. i just dont know what i need to do differently so i don't have a mid game phase where leak ground units. i could get so much further if i didnt have to spend lives on ground units. i got a great aquamarine in an almost perfect location pretty early in the run and it did some HEAVY lifting especially with the black opal, perfect opal und parabia up. i also got a great topaz late in the run but that didnt do much i think. https://i.imgur.com/7OiSaGZ.png

Whelp, made it to LV100, without understanding the Combine Special Bug. i got lucky in some regards. dropped a complete Gold and a complete jade and got 4 perfect opals in total, sadly never together for a great opal. the blood stone took forever though and i was leaking a few ground units in the early 80s before i finally got it. without those leaks i probably would have made it to level 104. dunno if i could get even further with a different distribution of EGs, LAJs and DEs.... though i am convinced that my BO, Paraibas and BSs where really really good. for a brief moment during LV99 and very early in LV100 i though it could make it through 100 and could rebound and build up lives again until LV104... alas it was not so... also not sure about the GPD but i always seem to have a bit of a ground crisis at some point and i feel it would always be worse without the GPD.... sad that apparently im the only one visiting the comment section regularly... guys where are you? i need someone to explain the CSB Exploit to me like im 5yo xD https://i.imgur.com/1fDjP0J.png

made it to LV76 without CSBE hehe. dunno how far i could have made it if it had been with a great opal instead of a perfect one, maybe even more LAJ for more gold to buy more lives or repicks but i i dont think that would go very far. the bats just start leaking hard at some point. https://i.imgur.com/56wz8fs.png https://i.imgur.com/WOqY2O4.png

so, i made it to LV68. lost some fly units early on and nearly restarted. i still dont understand how combine special bug works but i actually lost a perfect aquamarine due to the bug.... guess that's why someone said to not make duplicate gems hehe. got kinda unlucky with the dark emeralds, the first one was pretty far into the run as i just wouldn't get a perfect emerald or would have another higher prority gem dropped in the same round.... man i really do like this game and survival mode i just wish it was a tinsy bit easier so one could get further with a bit less luck and without the combine special bug. https://i.imgur.com/pvkWZ6C.png

can someone give a detailed step by step exlenation on how to do the combine special bug exploit? ive read through the comments but maybe i need an explenation a 5 year old could understand because i don't get it. i have had it happen to me but i don't understand what conditions i created for it to happen

man i love this game but its so frustrating. i only got over level 50 once and i got so very very lucky and had 2 perfect opals in a single drop to create the highest tier opal and it was even in a good location where it was able to buff a bunch of special gems and some other perfect gems...... i feel like my maze is pretty damn good so i have no idea what i could do better apart from just getting insanely lucky with drops and locations

this is quite off normal topic but important for you to know my computer is currently hacked but will be fixed tommro afternoon until the do not trust any word I say also have a great day yall

@brad, if you do a search on this page for the phrase "combine special bug", you'll find lots of comments discussing/explaining how it works. @s is correct that this bug applies to ANY tower you build, not just Golds. But what at first seems like a bug that only screws you over (e.g., by consuming two perfect gems when it shouldn't), once you understand how to properly exploit it, the bug actually makes the game SIGNIFICANTLY easier. If you exploit the bug properly, you can build towers off of a single perfect gem endlessly without ever consuming the perfect gem. Also. . . hi, @s! :)

your right i think

@ brad that does tend to happen from time to time but it could be for any thing not just gold so you know

ive noticed when i make gold by selecting a perfect amethyst and upgrading it, if I happen to have a second perfect amethyst on the field it also gets consumed

thanks you @peter I figured that something was up but I thought it was only on my part @wgw. And cheers to you as well