Synergism: A Guide to Optimizing Your Progression 'Arsenal'

In the incremental game Synergism, the concept of 'best weapons' doesn't refer to traditional combat gear. Instead, it encompasses a synergistic combination of upgrades, automation, and strategic resource allocation across various game mechanics. This guide will outline the most impactful 'tools'—such as specific research, cube upgrades, talisman configurations, and corruption settings—that players should prioritize to maximize their progression.

Understanding 'Weapons' in Synergism

Synergism's progression is divided into multiple stages, each introducing new features like prestige layers or challenges. Therefore, the 'best weapons' are not static items but rather evolving strategies and upgrades that become powerful at different points in your gameplay journey. The focus is on enhancing resource generation (coins, cubes, tesseracts, hypercubes, obtainium, offerings), speeding up game processes, and automating repetitive tasks.

Early Game & Pre-Ascension Fundamentals

Before reaching the Ascension era, foundational upgrades are crucial. Initial research priorities often include those that accelerate reincarnation and obtainium (ob) generation. For instance, researches like 1x1-5 are important for faster reincarnations, leading to quicker Obtainium acquisition. Research 3x11 (and subsequent 3x12, 3x13) provides automatic Obtainium generation. Quality-of-life (QoL) researches such as 4x6, 4x7, 4x8, and 5x11 offer cheap automation, while 5x7 unlocks the next tier of particle upgrades.

For rune management, once you can level runes, prioritizing the Thrift Rune to level 200 is recommended for increased EXP per offering. Beyond that, the Duplication Rune also offers tax reduction benefits.

Ascension Era: C10-C11 Progression

The Ascension era, starting from your first completion of Challenge 10 (C10), focuses heavily on farming cubes by ascending as quickly as possible. Cubes are vital for both cube tributes and upgrades. To successfully complete C11, a significant investment in cube tributes (at least 20,000, with 25,000+ recommended for an easier run) and specific cube upgrades are necessary.

Key cube upgrades for this stage include:

Additionally, reaching research 5x23 to approximately 15 levels is necessary to obtain red talisman fragments, which are required to beat C11. Levelling talismans to around 180/180/150 (for three talismans) or 180/150/150/60 (with the shop talisman) is also crucial.

Ascension Era: C11-C12 & Beyond

After beating C11, you gain the ability to Ascend frequently, boosting cube gain. A primary goal is to acquire a Three-Space (under Tesseract Buildings) to significantly increase Constant, which further weakens taxes and strengthens runes.

Automation becomes increasingly important:

As you progress through challenges like C12 and C13, you'll accumulate more offerings, enabling you to level blessings and spirits. C12x1, for instance, links ascension time to cube gain, boosting it by 50% and doubling tesseract gain, which is beneficial for longer runs and offline cube/tesseract grinding. After C13x6, grinding 4 billion cube tributes and increasing corruptions to 2/2/2/3/3/13/3/3/3 is advised to boost cube, tesseract, and hypercube gain.

Key Research Upgrades for Efficiency

Research plays a continuous role in empowering your progression. Some highly recommended researches include:

Optimizing Talismans

Talismans provide added rune levels for three chosen runes at the expense of two others. They are leveled up through 'Fortify' and their level cap increased through 'Enhance'. Respeccing talismans allows you to change their buffs/nerfs.

The 'best' talisman specifications depend on your current goal:

Leveraging Corruptions

Corruptions are a complex system that can significantly impact resource gain. Optimizing corruption settings is crucial for maximizing cube, tesseract, and hypercube production. For example, after C13x6, a corruption setting of 2/2/2/3/3/13/3/3/3 is suggested to boost these gains and allow for Hypercube acquisition.

Monitoring your cube rate while adjusting corruption stats is a good strategy: increase one corruption level, observe if the rate improves, and continue until it no longer improves, then use the highest effective setting. It's also important to pay attention to bottlenecks. If offerings aren't filling rune levels, consider reducing corruption of offerings. If talisman levels aren't maxing out, reduce corruption of ant speed. The goal is to achieve the highest possible score to get the most cubes, ensuring that major power boosters like rune and talisman levels aren't lagging.

While specific 'weapons' in the traditional sense don't exist in Synergism, mastering these interconnected systems of upgrades, challenges, and strategic choices forms your most potent 'arsenal' for continuous progress.