Q: How do I beat game modes for the mini-game upgrades in the bottom right?
I got really big numbers & bought lots of upgrades!
A: Game modes means standard, idle, pacifist, not apples, fishing, mining.
Keep touching darkness & talking to NPCs to find out how to actually beat game modes.

Q: Is the spirit fishing minigame infinite?
Yes. But, I didn't find it very fun, so I stopped after unlocking the item/getting the achievement.
If you find it fun, around 200 cumulative spirit is where you don't really need to keep going.

Q: How do I unlock character X I saw elsewhere?
A: All unlockable characters are tied behind completing game modes (by quantity, not specific ones).

Q: Why wasn't Froggy right outside town on a new run/ how could I have missed Froggy w this amount of progression?
A: Besides standard, all game modes randomize party member starting locations. The pool of party member location spawns is also larger than the number of party members that exist, so some locations you remember party members have spawned may be empty in your run.

Q: I have questions about combat mechanics/specific bosses kicking my butt!
A: I posted a separate guide for that.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3488196780

Q: I have questions about puzzle mini-games.
A: Other Steam guides have already been posted with those solutions. Fump makes it so you don't have to do these more than once.

Q: How does auto gather work?
A: The amount gathered is the average of your top 5 high scores in each minigame. Complete quests on a single file to reduce the number of high scores used. Game modes completed will not increase by replaying the same game mode, i.e. 4 standards = 1 standard.

Q: Is there progression while the app is closed/across files?
A: It does not have to be the active window, but does have to be open. Only the currently open file will gain idle resources, but your progress on the current file for shadow & first game completion will apply a multiplier at the rates displayed on the bulletin board.
I have not tested if profile darkness on repeated game modes counts.
Profile spirit counts 180 from quests + however much from spirit fishing. I do not think it counts the 50 floor arena & sometimes you have to collect spirit fished w Fump on a particular save slot in order for it to count.
Also, Pacifist applies a 10x bonus & Idle applies a 0.10x penalty.

So, first of all, what you find fun is best & what you don't find fun is worst.
I'll try to do my best to cover what is some 10 minutes of bad medicine for hours of benefit, what you can skip forever, and what you can skip for a while & come back to when it's not as bad.

If you don't like a minigame, pacifist is the only mode that requires you play all of them.
And, after beating any game mode, the "auto play" option becomes available for all game modes, so you can still use it to beat pacifist mode...
But, depending on the minigame, idle AI is *pain* without the upgrades in the bottom right being available, so be patient & know there will be a section for the particular mini-game you aren't having a good time with to see if the idle AI is good at it yet.

You can start other game modes without completing standard.
This will boost your profile darkness high enough to unlock an item that I apparently included in my Jake standard build.
Each darkness gives 0.5% boost to your passive resource generation, which builds up to 88% when clearing all the way to Jake, but should be at least a 20% boost for some pretty small time investment.

You find towns periodically that have X/15 spirits.
The reward for doing all 15 is reducing autogather from top 5 high scores by 1 until only your highest high score matters, which means you don't have to play a minigame 5 times in a row to get your 100x improvement to not only count as 20x improvement.
Even if you don't find these fun, these take an hour total & the minecart minigame has 10 minute runs you'd be repeating 4 times to get your incremental improvement to actually feel.
Frogtown puzzles have a hint in the menu, but the other puzzles don't. Ice fishing doesn't have to get all spirit in a single trip & becomes inevitable w extra weight & good fish. Ice fishing is still manual in idle mode, sadly. There are steam guides for how to do all of them.
You only have to do it one time total across all game modes.

Standard, idle & pacifist can/should all be completed in any order you feel good about.
Standard/idle, tougher enemies, double trouble, evil is the difficulty progression of enemies, but you also get boosts in the higher difficulty modes.

So, you want a game where number goes *up* that plays itself?
Yes, yes, good good.
You are *not meant to* grind a specific mini game in a single sitting.
Every 10 minutes or so, you should switch mini games & let your passive income build up so that your high score of each play goes up by orders of magnitude.
Some upgrades will not be good in idle mode, but *most* of these are finite & it doesn't really matter that you have 1e6 spent while you're making 1e12 every 6 seconds.
It is quite annoying that there are like 4 infinites in the ice minigame, but that one has a pretty easy cheese solution for manual play.

Apples:
What high value upgrades should I manually buy *before* hitting autobuy?
Blinkie width, apple doubling, laser uptime/width/recharge
When does the AI get good?
It's really good at targets after 4 games complete, but decent with all the left upgrades & some laser upgrades.
What numbers can the AI get?
The e33 achievement!


Fishing:
What high value upgrades should I manually buy *before* hitting autobuy?
Hook weight, gold mults.
When does the AI get good?
Right away, but it looks bad. Dodging all fish is good because it means you get to deeper fish worth more.
What numbers can the AI get?
Without Henry, around e10 to 12. With Henry, around e28.

Mining:
What high value upgrades should I manually buy *before* hitting autobuy?
For idle mode, bombs bombs bombs.
When does the AI get good?
Dig "wide" upgrade w 2 game modes, or bombing to the center of the earth.
What numbers can the AI get?
Without plinko at 4 game modes, it's capped around e10-12 on the way down, and around e20 from plinko.

Gems:
What high value upgrades should I manually buy *before* hitting autobuy?
Party size, gem value, and party level...
As well as the 2 game prereq upgrade.
When does the AI get good?
Right out the gate!
What numbers can the AI get?
With the 4 game mode DVD screen bouncy ball upgrade, e33 with enemy toughness 90-95.
Additional info:
Use the menu to always play at the highest level you have unlocked.
Increase enemy toughness to where you kill a slime 90 seconds in, don't hang low trying to kill skeletons 15 seconds in.

Ice:
What high value upgrades should I manually buy *before* hitting autobuy?
Magnets, starting ice, game complete infinite.
When does the AI get good?
About 5 runs deep. The magnet upgrades go brrr.
What numbers can the AI get?
Around e12-e14 without the "empty cell" upgrade, then at e27 it really stalls & new upgrades actually cause my score to go down.
Additional info:
Increasing the starting ice so that you're destroying at least 1/3rd of the screen is better than destroying 100% of the screen.
You may also want to manually exit while balls are still bouncing, but aren't generating more score.