AbyssRium (IDLE Idea Factory) + Strategy

Tap games are a dime a dozen in the mobile world. Most (as is AbyssRium) are free with ad-supported revenue and/or provide efficiency cheats in a store.

AbyssRium sets itself apart from other tap games by leveraging a unique concept. In a Synthetic ocean, you are the ever loving caretaker of a talking 'Coralite', which to the best of our perceptions is an underwater volcanic vent. The point of the game is to build strength and vitality for your volcano and its surrounding wild life; evolving animals and fortifying new types of coral. As each element of your world is enhanced, you elicit more vitality from the creatures for use in evolution.

It is easiest to think of your mobile device as the side of a giant fish tank, and you are going to be tapping on the glass. While you were told in life this was bad for an aquarium, in AbyssRium, your Coralite considers this loving attention. It smiles at you, gives on screen hints, and makes a slightly disturbing orgasm face every time you tap the screen.

So cards on the table, this is a highly addictive game. It is very simple but combined with cute graphics and an amazing block of background music, it is easy to lose hours to this game. As with most tap games, an initial investment of time will eventually turn into a couple times a day maintenance task. Maintenance of your tank still feels fresh and enjoyable.

I often float around in the water trying to get a nice photograph of a new fish I have evolved.

The most appreciated feature of the software is power save mode. Thanks for that ;)

Less appreciated is a 3D mode for use with Google Cardboard. I often wish there were a disable button in options as I accidentally activate this frequently.

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STRATEGY INFO

Instructions for this game are minimal to none. In lieu of a real walkthrough, here are some tips:

- Time Vitality generated from coral and plant life occurs once per second even when your game is closed.

- Tap Vitality from the Coralite occurs when you tap the screen.

- Tapping a heart bubble generates both tap and time vitality at once.

- Never tap with one finger, use four at once. The game picks up multi taps and treats them as unique. You can increase manual vitality production 3-4 fold in this manner.

- Create a 'junk' Instagram account you never plan to use for real things. When you see a pop-up notice or a camera icon on a fish, take a photo. Post it to Instagram and it gives you a double reward. You can tweet it, but IDLE runs a photo contest weekly in Instagram for best photo. Winner gets 10k gems. So posting all of these there by default will get you several contest entries per week with no additional effort.

- Be stingy with your fish. Every time you 'make a new friend' all of your vitality will double, for tap and time. Strategy for fish buying varies, but ultimately, the more vitality you have, the larger the doubled amount.

- Use the free skill reset. After watching a video, your skills will be ready to use again. Use all three at the same time for max benefit.

- Watch videos to open chests or earn gems, but not to get free vitality. It isn't worth it and videos sometimes run out. Prioritize your video watching as 1) Skill reset 2) Gems 3) chests as last priority. After opening 50 chests, you will at random receive 30 gems, which is the only reason this is still worth using.

- Use gems to permanently increase skills, not to get short term boosts. While spending 100 gems to get double vitality for 15 minutes, spending 300 will turn on 'auto-taps' per minute, which simulate a person tapping your screen repeatedly every minute, even when the app is closed. Leveling this up will eventually have you at 120 taps per minute (twice per second) which greatly helps with vitality production.

- Delicious Food, when used in conjunction with boost skills it is most beneficial. When active, your tap production is increased 5000%. This is only true until all the fish-food on screen is popped or eaten, so tap fast and tap often, and tap at the top or bottom of the screen so you don't pop the food early. Auto-taps and skills highly recommended.