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Anachronox Hints
How do the Elementors work?
1 of 9: First, you will only be able to use the Elementor after Grumpos has gained access to the library on Hephaestus. You must also find empty Elementor hosts. Until then, the only MysTech you can use are pieces you find or buy.
2 of 9: Elementors let you create your own pieces of MysTech. There are two parts to each Elementor. You start by placing one of the bugs in the bottom half of the device. That bug determines the effect (Fire, Bane, etc.) and unlocks at least some of the slots in the top half. If the bug you place is a level 1 bug (has no lines inside it), then only the center slot on the top half is unlocked. Otherwise, the lines on the bug will indicate which slots are unlocked, with one slot for each of the bug's levels.
Once you've placed the bottom bug, you can then place bugs in whatever slots have been unlocked in the top half. To be somewhat simplistic about it, the more bugs you place in the top half and the higher level those bugs are, the more powerful your MysTech device will be. * * * * * <-- bugs here determine device strength * * * <-- bug(s) here determines device effect, unlocks top half
3 of 9: There are two "costs" that you need to pay attention to. One is the cost of the entire piece of MysTech, as shown at the top of the screen, just below the device's effect. This is the total number of NRG needed to cast the device's lowest-level effect. (Remember there up to four levels of effects for each piece, and each level costs twice as much as the previous one.) This cost is just the total of the levels on the top half of the device. For example, if you have four bugs up top, one of level 1, one of level 2, and two of level 3, the total cost is 1 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 9. The level of the bug at the bottom does not *directly* affect the output, but the higher the bottom bug, the more bugs you can put up top.
4 of 9: Then there's the "cost" of a specific bug, visible in the bottom-left corner. For most bugs, this will be 4. The only exception is for the Obsidian Beetles you'll find later, where the cost is 6. This cost has nothing to do with the number of NRGs needed and instead determines the *output* of the device. Again, only the costs of the top beetles affect the output -- the cost of the bottom beetle seems to have no meaning whatsoever.
5 of 9: There's one other factor that influences the output of the device, and that's a "harmony" bonus. If you place a beetle in the upper half of the device and then move your mouse cursor over it, you should see a percentage in the very bottom-left corner of the screen.
6 of 9: Basically, the way the harmony factor works is that the closer the beetle is to the slot of the same color, the greater its effect, and thus, the greater the effect of the entire device. For example, here are the harmony factors for the different possible positions of a Red Beetle: 200% 150% 150% 100% 50% 50% 0% The same principle applies to all the other colors. For the white beetle, you get a 200% multiplier for putting it in the center (white) slot, and 100% if you put it anywhere else. For the more rare obsidian beetle, the effect is 0% in the center and 100% elsewhere.
7 of 9: To determine the total output of a device, compute the following for each beetle in the top half -- (level) * (cost) * (harmony factor) -- and then add up those numbers. For example, let's say you have a level 2 Yellow Beetle in the yellow slot (harmony 200%) and a level 3 Red Beetle in the center slot (harmony 100%). Your device would have a total effect of (2 * 4 * 200%) + (3 * 4 * 100%) = 28. If you instead put a level 3 White Beetle in the center slot, you'd have (2 * 4 * 200%) + (3 * 4 * 200%) = 40. If you don't feel like working out the math, just try to keep beetles as close as you possibly can to the slot of the same color.
8 of 9: There is one catch here, and that's that you can never have two beetles of opposite colors in top half of a device. Opposite colors are those pairs across each other on the Elementor: cyan and red, blue and yellow, purple and green, plus the pair of white and obsidian. If you can help it, try to use bugs in the bottom slot which unlock slots that are close together -- for example, look for a level 3 bug that has a "V" pattern instead of a straight line. This way, you can put as many bugs as possible in their optimal slots on the top half.
9 of 9: You may also later find devices with multiple slots on the bottom half. If two slots are side by side, you will cast two effects at the same time, and the output of each effect is determined separately. If the two slots are on top of each other, you will have to choose one of the two effects. Either way, it helps to use bottom bugs with similar patterns on them, so that each effect uses the same top bugs.
