Rose Lalonde and Quasar Nebula present THE PRESTREESTUCK: A GUIDE IN PROGRESS. If you find this document in your possession, it is yours with which to do as you will. Released into the public domain. TIME POWER: AN INVESTIGATION Please note that these initial findings are the result of observations only of the first tier of The Prestreestuck, Time Power. First, an introduction to The Prestreestuck, henceforth referred to as "the game". The basic unit of production is simply titled a "point". Upon starting the game for the first time, 10 points are automatically provided. As in most clicker games, the (initial) drive of the game is to produce more points. The Prestreestuck forgoes even the primitive model of labor clickers tend to provide; from outset the game produces 1.00 points per second. This will increment without any input from the player; my own score has tallied to over 380 just while writing this paragraph. (This shall be the only indication I so directly provide of my abhorrent writing pace.) From outset a simple graph is visible. It is two circular nodes attached by a horizontal edge. The one on the right is labeled "0 Time Power", and is a bold red color, reflective of the symbol of its eponymous aspect. (That symbol is in icon form on the bubble-shaped node too.) The node on the left is dimmed out and left unnamed, though we can intuit from iconography that it represents Space Power. Its label reads: "Reach 4.130e21 points to unlock." We won't be reaching this point for some time. Clicking on the node for Time Power opens a screen with a prominent button to "Absorb +8 Time Power." (Or, +9, as it just rolled over.) There is also a header indicating: "You have 0 Time Power." Beneath this we have a single rounded rectangle. It is labeled "Multipliers", and appears to be interactive, though there aren't any other such rectangles to confirm or deny this. Finally, a set of seven buttons. Six are arranged in a grid and read various forms of "Time Multiplier". The seventh is spaced slightly from the rest and reads "Time Boosters". (We will come back to Time Boosters at a later point.) From outset the Time Multiplier cells are all much the same, labeled in the form "0 ...which are boosting your point gains by x1.00," and indicate at bottom a distinct cost for each cell, all specified in the Time Power unit. They read: - 0 Time Multiplier ..... Cost: 1.00 Time Power - 0 Time Multiplier^2 ... Cost: 15.00 Time Power - 0 Time Multiplier^3 ... Cost: 200.00 Time Power - 0 Time Multiplier^4 ... Cost: 15,000 Time Power - 0 Time Multiplier^5 ... Cost: 1,200,000 Time Power - 0 Time Multiplier^6 ... Cost: 612,000,000 Time Power We have a ways to go. (Solely to whet the reader's appetite, the separate "Time Boosters" cell reads "...which are making all Time Multipliers 1.00x cheaper," and indicate a "Req" - not Cost! - of "1.000e10 Time Power". That's 10,000,000,000, for your reference.) Time Power is absorbed as an instantaneous process of convertsion from stored points. As one might intuit from the language of higher operations throughout this overview thus far, this conversion does not occur at a flat, linear rate. Currently, my "Absorb" button indicates I would absorb 12 Time Power if I were to press it now. Beneath this line it reads: "Next at 1,690 points." While some may find this nice, I don't intend to wait. Here are the numbers of points required to absorb each of the first 8 Time Power. --Drat, it rolled over. For reference, the button now reads "Next at 1,960 points." Let's use this soon as check for a conjectured formula, shall we? - Absorb +1 Time Power at 10.00 points. - Absorb +2 Time Power at 40.00 points. - Absorb +3 Time Power at 90.00 points. - Absorb +4 Time Power at 160.00 points. - Absorb +5 Time Power at 250.00 points. - Absorb +6 Time Power at 360.00 points. - Absorb +7 Time Power at 490.00 points. - Absobr +8 Time Power at 640.00 points. Consider that the rate at which the base unit of points is produced, hence referred to as "point gain" (as this is the rate's in-game name), is in fact linear; that is, if your point gain is 1.00 points per second (as is the default rate), the duration which you must wait before absorbing a given amount of Time Power may be determined by dividing its cost by 1.00 p/s. Thus, for example, absorbing +4 Time Power would require (160 p) / (1 p/s), or 160 seconds - two and two-thirds minutes. To contrast, absorbing +1 Time Power at a point gain of 1 p/s takes only 10 seconds. If this point of Time Power is absorbed promptly (that is, before reaching 40.00 points, the requisite amount for the next level of absorption), the second point at which +1 Time Power may be absorbed will arrive exactly 10 seconds after the first. Repeating this process until 4 Time Power have been absorbed in total will take only 40 seconds, a duration 400% as efficient as waiting til the point where +4 Time Power may be absorbed at once. A key principle of the game reveals itself, then: waiting on banked points is not efficient. The most efficient way to gain the initial unit of currency, Time Power, is to press the button within the timeframe between 10 points and 40 points, when produced points will remain at their maximum absorption value. I neglected to mention a single portion of the Time Power screen before; it is a line of dim gray text, positioned between the absorption button and the rectangle labeled "Multipliers". This label reads: "Beginner tip: Hold T to automatically absorb Time Power" It is so easy to disregard this line, to set yourself in the ways of the traditional idle clicker game. But The Prestreestuck is not an idle game, and from the very beginning, it never pretends to be one, except through this simple facade of preconception. So, a tip for beginners: Hold T to automatically absorb Time Power. (Of note, I believe this will absorb Time Power at the rate at which your device enters key presses. I haven't tested, though it may be possible to optimize your own play by adjusting your device preferences to enter key presses at the fastest available pace when held down. On my device this is a pace of 33 hz, or 30 milliseconds between each press. It is possible that, when the T key is detected as being held down, the code will automatically absorb instantaneously (i.e. immediately after 1 Power is available), or once every frame. Also, it should be considered that if there is lag preventing the screen from updating so frequently, and the code does not "artifically" absorb as soon as 1 is available, then absorption will occur at maximum one time per frame. So if the game screen refreshes at a pace slower than 33 hz, my own key repeat speed will be irrelevant, as its inputs will always occur at least once between each frame, and buffer a single absorption for once the next frame arrives.) Finally, let us consider the data collected earlier and conjecture a formula for how many points are necessary to observe a certain amount of Time Power. (This will become relevant for performing larger calculations, such as predictions of how long it will take to reach a certain amount of Time Power necessary for a coming upgrade, or estimating point gain during idle play.) Thankfully, the game provides relatively friendly, small numbers to us, at least for the current moment. To summarize the data: - 1 TP -> 10 points - 2 TP -> 40 points - 3 TP -> 90 points - 4 TP -> 160 points - 5 TP -> 250 points - etc. As plainly observed earlier, this is not linear (as the span from a current point to the next is greater than from the previous point to the current), so an exponent is at play. Also, it appears to be ^2: 1^2 = 1, 2^2 = 4, 3^2 = 9, etc. A simple multiplication by 10 matches the observed points, so the formula would be: P(TP) = TP^2 * 10 - P(13) = 13^2 * 10 = 1,690 - P(14) = 14^2 * 10 = 1,960 So this matches our earlier observations at +12 and +13 Time Power (which, remember, indicated the requirement at which the *next* Time Power would be absorbed). Theoretically, division by the current rate of point gain will result in the time required before reaching a certain amount absorbed at once, though it should be remembered that this may be dependent on external factors such as key repeat and screen refresh rates, as commented on earlier. Now, on Multipliers. Time Multipliers are curiously named. Their function is to act as a solitary unit in a chain of multiplication, of which there may be a maximum of six in play at once. It's best to regard the label "13 Time Multiplier", for example, not as meaning you possess 13 Time Multipliers, but as having a single Time Multiplier whose "level" is 13. Additionally, you will only ever have one Time Multiplier - or, more accurately, only a single Time Multiplier^1, whose level (and thus, impact on your point gain) may be upgraded by expending Time Power. Time Multiplier^2 begins at 0 with a cost of 15.00 Time Power; it is, however, still in active play. It simply has no effect: its multiplicative value is x1.00. Dedicating the 15 Time Power to reach 1 Time Multiplier^2 will increase this to x4.00. Here are data on the first 5 upgrades of Time Multiplier^1, ^2, and ^3, including multiplicative value ("boosting your point gain") and cost (whose unit of currency is Time Power): level 1 . level 2 . level 3 . level 4 . level 5 . ^1 *p/s: x2.00 . x2.00 . x3.00 . x4.00 . x5.00 . ^1 cost: 1.00 TP . 1.12 TP . 1.25 TP . 1.40 TP . 1.57 TP . ^2 *p/s: x4.00 . x9.00 . x16.00 . x25.00 . x36.00 . ^2 cost: 15.00 TP . 18.00 TP . 21.60 TP . 25.92 TP . 31.10 TP . ^3 *p/s: x8.00 . x27.00 . x64.00 . x125.00 . x216.00 . ^3 cost: 200.00 TP . 600.00 TP . 1,800 TP . 5,400 TP . x ?? TP . Excuse the crude text alignment. Also, I missed the last TP cost out of lack of focus. If it makes up for it, the cost to reach level 6 is 48,600 TP, which may be used as a check.