This guide is considered as a step-by-step or a piggyback walkthrough and can be taken as a major ⚠ SPOILER ALERT ⚠ . If you wish to not ruin your own progression experience, turn around right now, although the reason why you've clicked on this guide might be completely opposite.
Proceed at your own risk, you've been advised.

The goal of this guide is to make your journey towards Spiritforge relatively simple, clear and comparatively fast without many detours, and so that you can boast with your Iron Skills achievement, which is arguably the most difficult one in this game, as evidenced by the total amount of its owners.

please note that this guide is NOT about achieving your destination in the shortest amount of time/fields, which is by no means not casual-user-friendly and deserves a guide on its own, if such goal is even possible

Several credits and information sources need to be mentioned:

• I'm going to be using terms and abbreviations used in the Extreme end game guide, mainly in the Introduction section, with few additions as followed:
  
  • c - cyan (heal suppressing); g - green (poison); p - purple (armor tearing); w - white
    
  • several target priority abbreviations, such as SE/CO, S/HA - will be explained when used
  To avoid any misconceptions, be advised to familiarize yourself with them.
  
• Path chosen to go through has been inspired by a roadmap placed in the Basic Strategy guide.

Differences between Casual and Iron Wizard modes are:

• in IW, there is only one preset difficulty beside Casual's Haunting and those other two lame difficulties
  
• there is no XP, leveling up, battle traits, talismans, shadow cores to upgrade your talismans, no endurance, simply no grinding in IW, instead you receive 5 skill points for each beaten field, Vision Fields including
  
• obtaining achievements do not give you extra skill points
  
• your Orb is by default equipped with 5 iron orblets (similar to Orblets Battle Trait), heavier than normal orblets - making their carriers extra slow, which do not give any extra mana gain bonus, but upon losing from the battlefield giving a -2% penalty for mana gain per each lost orblet; these add up by one after completing fields with Wizard Tower
  
• nevertheless, you must be ≥100 Wizard Level in one of your Casual games to get access to IW mode

The order of progressing between fields and hextiles is listed as descending; otherwise reminded with directions. Also I do strongly recommend to read summary by each corresponding field in advance to get an idea of what are you diving into.

Easiest of them all, simply press Space, fast forward, get your free 5 skill points, move on.

Put your given g1r gem into bottom right tower, create a g2r gem and place in the other tower, press Space, fast forward, done.

Place your given gems as followed:

• g2gy (grade 2 green&yellow) in tower closer to your Orb
  
• g1y (grade 1 yellow) in the other tower
  
• g1g (grade 1 green) in the far right trap

..create a g2g (grade 2 green) gem, place it in the middle trap. Start first wave, kill few monsters, create another g2g gem and put it into the last trap. Fast forward, easy victory.



Before advancing to the next field, upgrade the following skills:

• Mana Stream 0 → 2
  
• Fusion 0 → 2

Create a g2p gem, combine it with your already placed purple gem at the bottom of the map and place it in one of the towers amplified by a blue gem. Begin the match, as you kill monsters keep upgrading your purple gem, a g5 is enough to lead you to victory.



Create 2 lines of walls and place a g2r gem in one of the towers by Tome Chamber as shown on provided picture.



Keep upgrading your red gem up to g4, which is enough to beat the field, remember though to keep its range in line with the closer wall as you upgrade by simply hovering over your gem and scrolling down with your mouse wheel, otherwise it might kill some monsters outside of chamber's range. Once the chamber is opened, you can extend its range back to 100%.

Build a tower next to the Shot Lock above Wizard Tower, place there your g2p from the tower in the middle of map - no need to change priority target. Create a g2y, place it into north-west tower. Press Space, upgrade your yellow gem as soon as possible up to g5. Fast forward, your first Wizard Tower level is completed.

I've chosen this path first for two reasons: to hoard more skill points and skills that you can work with as you go, and to get access to poison and armor tearing gems as soon as possible.

Instead of the shorter, or even the shortest path - (which is making an already difficult challenge even more challenging and can be a topic for its own guide), you'll be making progress towards critical gem on fields without it relatively easy due to one simple trick that will be explained later on. (This map is a precursor to acquiring the second skill from another hextile first. You are laying the groundwork to advance once that is obtained.)

Create a g2y gem, place it into your already built tower on the right, press Space. Keep upgrading your yellow gem, you might also place a g1y gem into the second Amplifier to increase your killgem's range a little. You should be able to get your killgem to g6 before the first wave of Swarmlings arrives, once on g6, fast forward, field done.



Combine together a g2p and g1o gems, place the combined gem in tower in the middle of the map, set its target priority to Shielded/Highest armor (furthermore just 'S/HA'), place 3 walls as on the picture, begin the assault.



As soon as you can, duplicate your gem by using D while hovering over it, and place the second one in the tower to the right, upgrade that one to g4 as soon as you can, then the same with the first one. As you have them both on g4, fast forward, eventually raise them both to g5, victory screen appears, moving on.

Before proceeding, upgrade the following skills:

• Mana Stream 2 → 4
  
• Fusion 2 → 3

Combine 2 of your already placed g1g gems into g2, place a tower between your 2 amplifiers with cyan gems by chamber, place there your green gem and set its priority to Special entities/Carrying orblet (furthermore just 'SE/CO'), place a wall to block the path leading below your tower, create another g2g gem and press Space. As soon as you can, build a trap to the right of Tome Chamber and place there your green gem from inventory with priority target set to Swarmlings.



As you progress, build a second trap on the intersection above your Tome Chamber with the same trap green gem. Upgrade both trap gems to g3 and your tower one to g5, fast forward, Poison Gem skill is yours.



The first time we're going to try the trick with poison and armor tearing gems I mentioned before. Combine together a g2p and g1g, place it in the middle one of your 3 pre-built towers, set S/HA target priority, build some walls to block a sidepath and to lengthen monster's path in gem's range, smash that Space.



This gem will consecutively target enemies without the random factor of the Random target priority, reducing armor of every hit enemy whilst increasing raw gem damage to such monster while also prioritising the biggest threats and also applying a poison effect to all hit enemies! (later on, this will be your holy gem with Beam skill) Although the gem alone won't win you this field, once you have enough mana, put g2g gem into each one of your 3 traps leading towards Orb with priority target Swarmlings (later on upgrade them all to g3), continuously upgrade your tower gem to g6, which is enough to win you this field, and perhaps place some more walls.



For now we're done with this hextile, as to proceed further it requires Freeze skill. If you wish to beat few more or even all of the fields I didn't cover to get some extra skill points to ease your further progress, you're more than welcome to do so.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Post-Freeze continuation

Create a g3rg gem and place it in the only tower present on the field. Place few walls to force path of enemies around your orb, push Space. Once you have enough mana, place a tower near your Shot Lock with 420 shots to unlock first with a g1 gem of any kind with target priority set to Structure. Keep upgrading your killgem, use Bolt if necessary, around g5 place another tower next to second Lock with duplicated gem from your other tower near Lock. Remember to use your Freeze spell on Freeze locks; with g7 killgem you shall beat this field.



Once completed, please refer to Field A1 article in Hextile A section to continue.

Very simple map, create a g2yr gem, place it in tower near one of several U turns, upgrade few times, field done.

Place a g2p and g1g combo with S/HA priority in the tower under your Corrosion Shrine, close the path below that tower with some walls. Once you possess enough mana, build a trap above shrine with g3g gem with Swarmlings priority. G4 tower gem is enough to win you this field.



Make a g2g gem, combine it with your pre-made g2p gem, set S/HA priority, and make its home in the tower above chamber, you can also combine the rest of 2 gems in your inventory and put it in the other tower. As you go, place 2 or 3 traps with g3g gems with Swarmlings priority around your chamber, upgrade your S/HA gem to g6, voilá - Bolt skill is now yours.



Make yourself 2 g2g gems, place them in top right and bottom left corner towers with SE/CO priority, place few walls to lenghten monsters path around your gems, Space push. Once you can, duplicate your g2g gem twice, and place them onto the next tower closer to your Orb on both paths. Upgrade all four of your gems to g3, fast forward, winning.



Relatively simple wizard tower field - move your already placed g2cr gem onto one of the two towers with amplifier, place a g1r gem in that amplifier and place few walls to create a zig-zag path pattern around your gem. Place one tower with g1r above 3 Shot Locks; later on add second tower with the same gem, which is enough to unlock them before last wave comes. G6cr is enough to guide to you to victory; use your Bolt skill if necessary.

Make a g3rb gem, place it in tower on one of the U turns near your Orb, place few walls to force all monsters to go around it. As you go, raise your gem to g6, and make all monsters go BOOM!



Before advancing to the next field, upgrade the following skills:

• Mana Stream 4 → 5
  
• Fusion 3 → 4
  
• Poison 0 → 3

Make yourself g3gw SE/CO gem in the closest tower to your Orb and upgrade/bolt whenever you can.


note: please disregard the excessive amount of gems and skills available on these images, as this field was written down past completing the IW walkthrough as pointed in the comments was missing due to my error; however I've recreated the same exact conditions (skill distribution, gem usage, spells etc.) as would be at this point, so all should be relevant

Around wave 22 place a trap with g3g gem above your killgem, keep upgrading killgem to g7 to ensure victory.



Place a tower directly above your Tome Chamber and a g3rg gem in it. Start the assault, keep upgrading up to g7, use Bolt for giants and this field is conquered.



Block northern path leading towards your Orb with a block of wall, put a g3g gem set to SE/CO in the provided tower, begin assault. As soon as you can create and combine your gem in tower with g2b gem, do it. Use Freeze or Bolt to instantly socket your gem or when necessary. G7 shall make you victorious.



Create two towers - each directly above set of Locks, and place in them both of your pre-made gems. Once you obtain enough mana, place another tower on the intersection below your Wizard Tower with g3gp gem with S/HA priority. G8 of this gem is your key to victory on this map. Just remember to focus on destroying Bolt Locks targeting them your bolted gem(s). And the Specter that appears on this field won't be a match for your gem.



To continue from this point further on, please refer to Field E6 article in Hextile E section.

Make a g3rg gem with SE/CO priority target and put it in tower with some walls as on picture bellow.



When Giants come around your gem, don't hesitate to use your Bolt and Freeze skills to shred their numbers, and perhaps build some more walls as you go. Some monsters may go past your gem, worry not - they shall bite the dust as they come back carrying your precious orblets. G8 of your gem is your ticket to the next field.



This is a pretty fun field, as it generously pre-built 4 amplifiers around one tower for you. Shame to not take advantage of that! Make a g3gp gem with S/HA priority and put in tower, with 2 g1g gems in amplifiers. Place some walls to force path of enemies around your gem, and begin. In the first few waves you may need to do some micromanagement, as its range won't be enough to cover all the surrounding pathways, but once you put the rest of g1g gems in amplifiers, later on upgrade them all to g2, and the tower gem itself to g4, you don't have to worry too much about monsters passing by.



As you go, place few more walls to make one corridor around your gem, place few traps with g3g gems with Swarmlings priority to reduce their pesky numbers, use Freeze or Bolts when Giants come by, with g7 tower gem you shall achieve victory.



A bit more challenging field, as expected as you progress further - block the path coming on the left to your Orb, tower directly above your Tome Chamber with g3yg gem with SE/CO priority, and few walls to make monsters go around the chamber.



The first few waves are probably the most difficult ones. Make a good use of freezing enemies when those carrying your orblets meet with fresh new ones, bolts for Giants, carefully upgrading your gem with enough mana leftover in your pool for any possible banishment reasons, build more walls around your gem, place few traps forwards towards monster spawns with g4g gems with Swarmlings priority to reduce their numbers, upgrade your tower gem to g8 to lead you to the end. There should be enough Giants to open the chamber without the need to enrage their waves. And also keep one charged Freeze cast for that filthy gem-stealing Specter that appears on this field. If done correctly, you'll receive an Armor Tearing skill, yahoo!

A very important field awarding a must-have skill - the almighty and by all means the most powerful skill in game - True Colors. Create a zig-zag path under your Tome Chamber with tower nearby with a g3ry gem. As plenty of monsters are about to fill your maze, reduce your gem range to 0%, wait until there's plenty of them in your maze, pause the game, freeze them, increase your gem's range back to 100%, make them go poof - repeat. G6 gem is enough to unlock next field.



Before entering the next field, upgrade the following skills:

• Mana Stream 5 → 6
  
• Fusion 4 → 5
  
• True Colors 0 → 3

note: at this point you may want to skip to Hextile D section Field D1 to get access to Beam skill and making the fields further in this hextile noticeably easier; if you do so, remember to get back to this point

Fairly open field, so are your options to defend. Placing 2 towers with few walls, combining your given gems together and making a g2pg, both with SE/CO priority, and raising them to g6 is one of many options.



Make a g3rg gem with SE/CO priority, place it in a tower near the Haste Beacon, block a path leading bellow it with some wall. Freeze and Bolt when necessary, g8 gem is fine to advance.



Before beginning the next field, upgrade the following skill:

• True Colors 3 → 6

Make a zig-zag path in the middle part of map, put a tower with g3y gem in the middle of it with SE/CO priority, begin. As you go, put a trap with g3g gem with Swarmlings priority in front of it, upgrade your yellow gem to g7, easy peasy lemon squeezy field.




This field might take you a few tries, as you can only work with with green and purple gems, it will also take a fair amount of micromanagement - meaning selecting specific type of monsters, switching between S/HA and SE/CO priorities on your gem and also keeping an eye on unlocking Wizard Locks.
Start by making a g3pg gem with S/HA priority and placing it in the second closest tower to your Orb, and making an empty trap on the instersection bit forward.



As soon as you can, make g2g gem, later on upgrade up to g4, with Swarmlings priority and put it in trap. Quickly upgrade your tower gem to g4, keeping an eye on saving enough mana in pool for any banishments, freeze, bolt (or even beam if you've picked it before), or switch to SE/CO to kill monsters carrying orblets if necessary. Once your gem is g5 duplicate it and place in tower inbetween those 2 Healing Beacons, also make 2 towers by locks with g1 or g2 gems. Try to focus fire on beacons to destroy them as soon as possible, while saving your other gem's work by killing some weak monsters with orblets. Don't forget to freeze that special lock and also keeping an eye on the Specter that should arrive sometime soon.



Once beacons are destroyed, combine your gems into g6 with priority depending on current situation, and place 2 more towers by locks. Add another trap with duplicated gem from your trap somewhere on that backwards C turn. With some micromanagement, bolt-freezing, upgrading gem to g8 and perhaps adding an extra tower to destroy locks in time, you should achieve victory.



G3y gem for SE/CO in tower with some walls as on picture.

Block the path from closest Monster Nest, upgrade yellow gem to g5, place trap with g3g, later on g4, for Swarmlings, freeze&bolt when required, field liberated.



Make yourself a g3rg SE/CO gem, put near the zig-zag path above your Orb, block the shorter path, begin. Place a poison Swarmling trap on forward intersection. Use some casts, get yourself a g8 gem and cruise to victory.

Close the northen path to your Orb, put a g3gp S/HA gem in closest tower to the left from your Orb. Upgrade do g7, freeze bolt when necessary, perhaps put some poison gem in traps for those pesky Swarmlings, cakewalk field.



Extend wall to force path of enemies to go to the ghost town, place a g3rg into tower in middle for SE/CO, then a trap near enemy spawns with g2g, later on up to g4, for Swarmlings. Watch for banishments, use freeze and bolt carefully.



With g8 tower gem you'll succeed.

Build a tower with g3gp S/HA gem near your chamber with walls as on picture.



Upgrade to g4 as soon as you can, perhaps switch to SE/CO once orblet carrying monsters are about to get in range and then back to S/HA. Once you possess enough mana, place a tower directly above your first one with g4y SE/CO gem. Use freeze when a lot of Swarmlings are about to pass by, keep upgrading your gems, g6 or g7 are enough to get you a Beam skill out of this Tome Chamber.

Combination of g3g and g2p S/HA gem in tower ending at g7 with some walls, trap with g4g Swawmlings priority gem, occasional beaming, freezing, and perhaps using the Gem Enchantment Shrine few times make this field pretty easy.



Before entering the next field, upgrade the following skills:

• True Colors 6 → 9
  
• Fusion 5 → 6
  
• Poison 3 → 6

Place g3rg SE/CO gem in bottom of the 3 pre-build towers with some walls blocking path below and g2g gem in amplifier. Some trap with g3g, later g5, Swarmlings priority, tower gem upgrading to g8 or g9 will unlock you the next field.



A hellish field - 6x 999 Shot Locks. Might sound pretty scary and difficult... not really.
Make a g3gp S/HA gem, as soon as you can a trap forward with g3g Swarmlings gem.



Once you get the beginning push under control, start to duplicate your g3 gem, but setting SE/CO priority - meaning you keep one killgem with S/HA priority, that you keep on higher grade than the rest and you use all your fancy skills with that one gem. Eventually ending up with plenty of duplicated gems to surround your locks and path to Orb. Also set a second trap on the intersection futher along the path.



As waves go by, remember to eventually upgrade all your gems regardless of priority to at least g4, the higher the safer, and remember to keep an eye on the amount of HP Swarmlings are about to enter in following waves, so you can adjust the poison damage in your traps by upgrading your gems to let your gems focus on locks. As you eventually destroy all of them, with plenty of waves before last one, combine them together to 2 or 3 ones, one with S/HA and the rest with SE/CO, and you can laugh at this hellish field!

Make a g3gp S/HA gem and put it in tower with some walls as on picture. Prepare a g2r gem to combine with g2g gem as you have enough mana, set combined gem to SE/CO and place in middle tower by Orb.



Use beam on your S/HA gem when Giants are around, bolts on SE/CO, freeze when necessary. Put an anti-Swarmling trap forward with g3g gem. Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, g7 SE/CO and g6 S/HA gems will win you this field.


Make a g3g and g2p combined S/HA gem, place in tower with blocked right and bottom Orb paths as on picture.



Keep upgrading, use beam to decimate surrounding enemies, place one or two towers to gather Mana Shards. G8 gem to victory.



G3ry gem near Orb with one wall to force enemies go around your gem, later on trap with g3g gem, upgrading tower gem to g8... not much to talk about here.



Start with blocking sidepaths to your Orb, forcing enemies around your g3gp S/HA gem as on picture.



Upgrade to g4, put trap below with enough poison dmg gem to kill Swarmlings. Start putting 2 towers with g2 gems near each set of Shot Locks, and a tower to each Beam Lock with g1 gems to destroy them as you go.



Eventually a Shadow will show up. Once that happens, place 3 towers with g3g gems to protect your Orb from its projectiles. With fair amount of time and few flybys around your main killgem, it should fall to death fairly quick. G8 killgem is the way to beat this field.

Not gonna lie, this field is a true pain in the butt. (Most likely) Prepare for a restart spree, unless you've picked a decent amount of skill points from other fields.
First couple of waves you're gonna be sticking close to your Orb. Make a g3gp SE/CO gem and some walls as on picture.



Freeze, beam, bolt immediately as you can to prevent monsters taking too many orblets out of your reach. Upgrade gem as soon as you can, and when you get it to g5 right before the first wave of Giants arrives, you'll need to move it under that Corrupted Mana Shard, setting it now to S/HA. Once confident enough and with plenty of mana, place a tower with g3y gem between Shield and Cleansing Beacons, Shield one being priority, to destroy them both as soon as possible.



Once both are destroyed, set yellow gem to SE/CO. Use beam on S/HA gem, bolt on yellow, freeze when necessary, place a g4g poison trap forward to reduce Swarmlings, and after some upgrading of both tower gems to g7 you'll beat this field.



Pretty straight forward field - block path to force enemies go around chamber, place a tower with g3gp S/HA gem by it and a g2g Swarmling gem into trap behind your chamber.



Use casts when necessary, frozen monsters do also count towards opening this chamber, later on put another trap forward, or force path to go around of one already placed, with poison gem with enough damage to kill Swarmlings. Eventually destroy closest Monster Nest to get some breathing space, switch priority when needed, g8 tower gem to win.

At first, make a wall and tower around your Orb with a g3 2g1b SE/CO gem.



Freeze, bolt and beam the initial push, once you gather enough mana, finish the wall to force enemies around, and make a tower to the right of 3 amplifiers, where you'll put your gem.



Make a good use of Freeze spell around your Nodes to get some extra damage to your enemies. Put a g3 gem near some Mana Shard to start gathering, upgrade your killgem and put some g3g Swarmling traps forward and near Orb. Once on g5, make a g4gp S/HA gem inbetween amplifiers, and put some g2g gems in amplifiers. As usual, beam on S/HA gem, bolt or even beam to gather more hits on your gb gem.



Keep constantly using your spells. Later on put your gb gem inbetween amplifiers, fill the rest with g2g gems, upgrade traps, and this field won't give much troubles.



A fairly relaxing field, block the bottom right path to your Orb, place a tower with g3gp S/HA gem and with some walls.



Later on, put a g3g Swarmlings trap in front of your maze, remember to freeze/curse when monsters fill your maze, beam/bolt, switch to SE/CO when orblet-carrying monsters are trying to escape, all that fancy stuff. G7 gem is confident enough to win you this field.



A quite tricky field that might take a few tries, as it did me to figure out how to beat. Make a g3 2p1g S/HA gem in tower near your Orb, freeze/bolt the initial push, try to save as many orblets as you can, block the northern path, switch to SE/CO when needed or do some micromanagement and save beam for Swarmlings that will arrive very soon.



Once you have enough mana, block all the sidepaths so the only entry point is the furthest left intersection, make a g3b SE/CO gem, that will be your main killgem, and switch it with your S/HA gem to tower forward near left intersection, perhaps with some walls to make a tiny maze.



Soon a quite significant number of Swarmling waves will arrive, counterattack it by placing 2 traps forward with g3g gems, adjusting their upgrades by keeping an eye on the HP of upcoming waves. Use beam on your black gem to get its damage multiplier growing, upgrade both of your tower gems to g7, black being priority, with a careful use of spells you'll win.



Before proceeding to the next field, down/upgrade the following skills:

• True Colors 9 → 12
  
• Poison 6 → 0

note: at this point the following fields might become far too challenging with the current state of skill points, so I do advise you to revisit some earlier, much easier, fields to gather some more and perhaps save yourself a lot of restarting on upcoming fields, but you should be able to progress without doing so regardless

Another tricky field with lots of Giant waves, where you'll utilize a maximum potential of given Replica Eternity Gem together with a careful crowdcontrolling usage of your spells around it. Make yourself a g3yb SE/CO gem in tower near Eternity gem with blocked sidepaths as on picture.



Freeze/bolt the initial push, make yourself another gem - g3yr - and combine it with your gem in tower as soon as you can and start saving mana to upgrade, use beam to get your black damage multiplier going up, do some micromanagement by selecting monsters carrying your orblets when necessary, try to not lose many. By the time your gem is g5, start building a maze around the whole range of Eternity gem, but keep up saving mana for upgrading your gem - you want to get it to g7 as soon as possible to get that handy 10% damage and multiplier bonus from Critical Hit coming into effect. Keep an eye on upcoming waves, when you see a Swarmling wave approaching, get ready to switch your gem's priority to them and use beam to melt the horde.



Be aware of wave 40, where shielded Swarmlings come - use freeze, beam and set priority. Save one freeze in case a Specter appears, as it did to me. Remember to prioritise faster enemies when micromanaging, as they can steal your orblets much faster than Giants, which in most cases will be banished by Eternity Gem. In the end g9 gem is enough to win you this field.



Before beginning the next field, downgrade the following skills:

• True Colors 12 → 9
  
• Mana Stream 6 → 3
  
• Fusion 6 → 3

The sacrificed skill downgrades were made in order to make you a good start with g4gp S/HA gem with plenty of mana left for further use, so create one, and place in tower near Wizard Tower while also closing both southern paths and furthest north.



Save yourself enough mana to upgrade your gem to g5, close the remaining wall gaps to force enemies go aroud your Wizard Tower. Put any g1 gem in tower near that one Shot Lock and start using Bolts on it, and a trap with g2g Swarmlings gem upgrading it up to g4 depending on Swarmlings HP in upcoming waves to save your gem at early stages some work, remember to use Freeze and Curse on the other two locks. Keep an eye on keeping your orblets in your gem's range, try to not lose many, you'll need plenty of them near the end.



Around wave 30, by the time your gem should be at g7, a Spire will appear from the east. Save yourself one, two at best, beams to quickly deal with it by placing a tower near it, moving your gem there and using Beam to instantly socket it. Use Freeze to keep monsters at bay from pushing too far from your gem's range once you put it back.



Soon tougher Swarmling waves than your trap can mostly handle approach, deal with them switching your gems priority to them and melting them with Beam. Near the end prioritise killing weaker enemies to prevent losing too much mana from banishing costs, even if you let some Giants leave with your orblets. Be very much aware of the last, 60th wave, as it brings shielded Swarmlings of significant amount of health. Prepare for that by saving enough spells, beaming them with Swarmlings priority does the trick. With g9 tower gem you'll win this field and another orblet.


note: have you noticed this field layout being in shape of a pesky Swarmling?

Before continuing to the next field, upgrade the following skills:

• True Colors 9 → 12
  
• Mana Stream 3 → 5
  
• Fusion 3 → 6

At last, the main destination of this last detour - the hideout of the critical gem skill.
Kind of a simple field for a change. Start with creating a g4y gem, and beginning - oh yes. The placed gems are good enough to kill few monsters to give you enough mana to place a tower near Tome Chamber with your yellow gem and some walls to force enemies around it. Once you gain enough mana, upgrade your placed g2r gem to g4 and combine with your yellow gem to make a g5yr SE/CO killgem.



Around this time you should start with killing cursed Giants to save yourself nerves later on, a good way to do it quickly is to with some micromanagement bring multiple Giants to red HP numbers, then freeze&curse the area around your chamber, use Bolt on your gem, maybe even switching to Giants priority, and swiftly obliterate chamber's surroundings with the help of frozen corpse explosions, which also count towards opening chamber granted your targets are still cursed. With a careful use of skills and micromanagement, around wave 35 chamber should open.


please disregard the northern placed trap, as it's there to soften possible incoming Swarmlings waves - luckily, there are not many of those and your killgem can easily deal with them

From now on it's just a matter of upgrading your killgem, perhaps harvesting appearing Mana Shards, and using spells. With a g9 killgem you can celebrate your freshly acquired Critical Hit skill, yaay!!

Before unleashing hordes on the next field, upgrade the following skill:

• Critical Hit 0 → 6

With your buffed critical hit gem hit in hands, you'll cruise through following fields with noticeable ease. Start here up by blocking northern path to your Orb and placing tower near the Monster Nest under your Orb with g3yr SE/CO gem.



Once it falls to the ground, move your gem to some tower forward. When you save enough mana, create a g3y gem and combine with current to make a g4 2yr, keeping SE/CO priority. With some upgrading later to g9, or even to g10 for all you fancy round number OCDers out there, you'll be one step closer.



A true cakewalk field, which generously gives you a g5y gem in placed amplifier. Take it and combine with g3r setting to SE/CO into top right tower in middle area, and later on put g3y into amplifier. The only issue you possibly can encounter on this field is lacking on frozen & cursed Reaver kills around your chamber. To make sure this doesn't happen, past the first few waves, once your spells are charged, be sure to enrage every Reaver wave with either g1 or g2 gem to get a few extra onto battlefield. A good strategy to make the most kills from your spells is to, once you notice Reaver waves incoming, call 2 waves at once, once closing in on your gem's range, reduce it to 0%, wait until the leading Reavers are about to leave your gem's range, pause the game, freeze those in range, wait for more to come into range, freeze again, curse, set range back to 100% and either beam or bolt the surroundings with some micromanagement - repeat. To win this field enraging Reavers waves is not required, as I've experienced it myself. G8 tower gem is enough to sustain necessary damage and get you the last missing piece to make your way to Spiritforge!

A g3y SE/CO gem in middle part of map with some walls, some upgrading up to g9 and use of all available spells opens you next field.


A Giant/Swarmling field only. Put a g3ry SE/CO gem in tower near the S turn next to your Orb, then combine with g3y. The only issue you might come across on this field is some hordes of Swarmlings carrying away your orblets, which you can counterattack with using Beam and set priority against them, then switching back to SE/CO - this pretty much goes throughout all 40 waves; and perhaps some unfortunately placed beacon from dead Giants you might need to destroy. With g9 gem and dozens of dead monsters you can progress to the next field.


A very similar field to the previous one - same gem, same strategy. Placing killgem on top right backwards C turn and some walls to force enemies around it is a very simple way to go, as around wave 35 Spire will spawn near it, so you don't have to shuffle your gem around. Harvest given Mana Shards, upgrade your gem to g9, 50 waves later you'll be victorious.


Before beginning next field, downgrade the following skills:

• True Colors 12 → 6
  
• Mana Stream 5 → 3
  
• Fusion 6 → 3

Again, some skill sacrifices needed to be made in order to give yourself a decent start, however, even so you'll most likely need to restart on this field quite a lot, granted you haven't gained more skill points, as it involves a lot of micromanagement and focusing on multiple objectives at once. To start up, put a g4y SE/CO gem in bottom left tower, and close all the other entries.

Freeze/Bolt when a lot of enemies gather around your gem, upgrade to g5 as soon as you can. Make a good use of all your spells to hit as many enemies with it and perhaps soften some Locks to save yourself worries later on. Try to keep all, at best, your orblets on Orb or within your gem's range, if you do manage to lose a significant amount of them before Forgotten appears for the first time, you might consider restarting. Around time the Forgotten enrages first 3 waves, your gem should be a g6, keep a close eye on those enraged Giants as they'll be most troublesome at this point. Once those enraged enemies bite the dust, and your gem is upgraded to g7, put 3 g1 gems in all remaining towers with priority to Structure, and begin using your spare enhancements.

Don't forget to focus some of your enhancements on Locks by your main killgem, but there is still plenty of time left. By the time you get to g8, make a little maze in front of your Orb so you can hit even more enemies with your spells. When you have some spare gem which has no more locks to shoot, move it to gather Mana Shard that will appear - and do trust me, every little piece of mana matters on this field. In case a Spire appears, remember to put your killgem close to its spawn and use Beam while freezing pushing enemies. Once all locks are destroyed, and your killgem on g9, or even g10 to be absolutely sure, you'll beat this hextile.

Before accessing the next field, upgrade your skills to pre-Q6 state:

• True Colors 6 → 12
  
• Mana Stream 3 → 6
  
• Fusion 3 → 6

Fairly simple field rewarding the last remaining battle-affecting skill. Begin creating a g4y SE/CO gem placing it in tower closest to your Orb and few walls as on picture.



With few monster kills giving you enough mana, using Gem Bombs, destroy the second tower and part of the wall blocking the right intersection to force enemies go around the whole map, and blocking a path from south spawn right towards your Orb. Utilize all your available spells, perhaps harvest Mana Shard that will eventually appear or open all the Drop Holders on map as you might get something nice, from mana to some useful gem. If so, make use of it, or just trash it to get some free mana. Make a tiny maze in front of your Orb to affect more enemies with Freeze/Curse. Later on, once your gem is about g8 - destroy all 3 north Monster Nests, as it will make sure not many monsters push you at once.



The only real threat on this field comes in very last three or four waves, where it brings shielded Swarmlings of significant amount. Prepare for that with plenty of casts. With gem of g9 you can easily advance.



Before entering the next field, change the following skills:

• True Colors 12 → 9
  
• Mana Stream 6 → 8
  
• Fusion 6 → 7

I'll be honest here, I never was, and never will be, a great fan of this field, as I still have yet to come with a layout that I can proudly present and can be happy with. If you're in this same stubborn skill points state, prepare for a really depressing task.
Begin with g4yr SE/CO gem in tower and a wall blocking path under Orb as on picture.



With immediate use of charged spells, saving as many orblets and combining a g4y gem with your already made one, you'll have a brief breathing window to hoard some needed mana. Begin constructing a maze around your gem to further increase number of creeps being affected by your AoE spells. From now on, remember to always take care of as many Swarmlings near your gem, because of that narrow long path leading to your Orb you're not able to take care of them, even with some traps, as they'll become unreliable, if not useless, later on.



Further increasing the length of your maze and upgrading your gem to g9 right around wave 50 arrives, you'll come to the most difficult part of this field. Eventually you'll get overhelmed by a lot of Swarmlings and Reavers, mixed with Giants trying to escape with orblets, that your gem just isn't strong enough to quickly deal with. Your (probably) only option is to juggle the biggest group of enemies around your gem by clearing/making wall(s) on the closest intersection to your Orb, so that your gem has enough room and time, combined with your spells, to eventually thin out the cluster of creeps - keep on mind though that you only have 5 Demolitions to use on blocking paths, so make a careful judgement when to turn the flow around again.



Remember to save enough mana for this part, as you might use up to 8.000 mana due to banishing costs. If done properly, g9 gem is enough to send you further.



Before entering the next field, downgrade the following skills:

• Mana Stream 8 → 6
  
• Fusion 7 → 6

A very similar field to the previous one, with exception that this one generously gives you two Mana Shards to harvest (perhaps map designers showed some empathy? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Use that to your advantage, and place a g4y SE/CO tower gem near them with some walls to force southern monsters closer to the gem.



You can let northern enemies pass by without being attacked, as your gem harvests enough mana, build a similar wall from north path to smaller shard to rip them apart as they come around with orblets, and also place a tower with either g1 or g2 gem with Structure priority to keep you supplied. With enough mana, combine a g4wy gem with your g4y gem, and set its priority to Swarmlings since wave 13 or so, where it's more efficient and you can just select orblet-carrying monsters as they come close by.



Add some maze around your killgem, dozens of spells used later and your gem being g9, the next field opens you its gates.



Necessary skill changes before entering the next field:

• Mana Stream 6 → 7
  
• Fusion 7 → 4
  
• Critical Hit 6 → 9

The only difficult part on this field is the first 20 or so waves, until you get your gem to g7, which turns on all your handy skill bonuses, you might have some troubles here and there.
Begin with putting g4y SE/CO tower gem near your Orb, and eventually blocking bottom and right paths as are creeps trying to scape with your orblets. By the end of second wave you may lose up to half of your orblets until you settle down properly, that is still alright, but try not to lose more than that.



Past wave 15 you can leave your gem's priority left on Swarmlings, as it's much more beneficial to thin total number of monsters on field, with a great help of Beam, while you can just select the few monsters carrying orblets that manage to slip by. Remember to create a maze around your gem. By wave 25 you should have gem upgraded to g7, and the rest of this field becomes relatively easy...



...with exception of wave 60, where you'll get Twisted Giants on field that spawn beacons upon dying - prepare for that by removing any possible 2x2 tile that is in near vicinity of your gem by placing more walls. With g9 gem you'll shred the remaining monsters.

More skill changing for this field:

• True Colors 9 → 10

Déja vu field with the inital part being the most difficult, again we start with g4y SE/CO gem in tower near one of the set of Locks (whatever side is more appealing for you, but remember to alter the layout if you choose opposite side), and making walls around Orb as monsters close to them - forcing them back around gem.



Freeze/Bolt the initial push, as usual, save as many orblets as you can. Upgrade gem asap, and slowly begin to force enemies all the way around the side you've picked. At this point also put 1 g1 Structure priority gem, preferably orange, as they'll get you a little extra mana later on, to start working on both sets of Locks. Later on also switch priority to Swarmlings.



Once you reach g7 on your gem, make a snake-like path around your Wizard Tower to split enemies targetting and to make your AoE spells more efficient. Add at least 6 g2o Structure gems to work on Locks - may sound like an overkill, but is about right to open them in time.



Save roughly 30.000 mana in your pool for last 5 waves, just to be sure. Again with g9 gem you'll get a yet another orblet and unlocked next field.



A very simple field, despite the menacing-looking pile of Beacons right by enemy spawns, worry not - they possess only a tiny threat. Begin with combining both of already placed g3y gems, whilst making yourself a g4y, combining both into g5 SE/CO, placing into one of the two towers by Orb with 2 amplifiers by it, and the rest of your blue gems with S/HA priority to remove some of extra shield layer buffs from beacons to save your killgem some time.



Beggining push shouldn't be too painful, but to be sure use your spells to keep orblets in range. Once you gain enough mana and upgrade killgem to g6, move it to that T junction and let it work on Beacons - 3 Shield being top priority, you can leave the rest. Once all are destroyed, move your gem back to its original tower, and switch those blue gems in adjacent amplifiers with g3y gems, while spacing the blue ones in towers with Random target priority to divide their slow debuff between hordes. Try to kill as many Apparitions to get that extra mana they leave behind, as there is plenty of those spawning on this field, also try to get those Drop Holders for even more mana - save roughly 10.000 for the very last part. With some gem upgrading up to g10, some freezing and beaming swarm flows, you shall conquer this field.

Before entering this next field, downgrade the following skill:

• True Colors 10 → 9

Here it is, last couple of fields keeping you from our last destination!

This field might require few restarts just to get past the initial push, which may be tedious to overcome. Make yourself a g4 3y1b SE/CO gem in tower below top-right tower near Orb, and walls on the left and bottom paths around Orb.



The first 3 or 4 waves are very crucial, as you need to effectively try to secure at least some of your orblets, 5 or higher is good enough, below that might not be enough to get you to the end. Freeze and Bolt the first Reavers, block the bottom right Orb path as they're approaching the intersection to force them back around your gem, save Beam for upcoming Swarmlings also by switching priority to them. As you upgrade your gem to g5 and you still have some orblets around, you might consider the initial push beaten. Begin to create some walls directly around Orb to force enemies counterclockwise, so you can hit more enemies with spells and your gem has more room to strike. Be sure to use Beam as often as possible to get its damage multiplier growing. If you manage to reach g7, you can consider the worst part done. Later further add some obstacles around Orb to let there fit more creeps.



From this point it's just a matter of using the right spells at the right situations. With enough orblets docked, you should get your gem to g9, or perhaps even g10. Later on last three or so waves will get quite tense, prepare for that by saving roughly 20.000 mana and switching to Least Hit Points priority, so you kill at least something, as those very last Giants will take several banishes to defeat.






...
Calling out waves earlier to gather more enemies together and to reduce your spell cooldowns-'does not work' might be a "good" idea, although consider your gem's killing capabilities so that you don't call too many early waves and eventually get overwhelmed.

Unfortunately due to a lack of spare time, motivation and interest to keep playing this game I was unable to fully complete this guide/walkthrough, but I do believe it provides good enough guidance to give you an idea how to progress through the remaining fields, and also it would be a waste of such time invested into writing this to not publish this and keep it selfishly private; please note that this guide has been created during November/December 2015 and has been since abandoned.

If anyone who is truly devoted to this game and is willing to put some effort into finishing this guide, feel free to get in contact with me and we could probably get to some sort of agreement.

So my apologies, but I hope you'll understand.

• reordered Hextile H section due to an error

Expecting guide completion in the near future...

* further changes are reserved *

Big thanks to all the following guys: BilboCGL, 12345ieee, Quinor and xande1 for undirectly helping me to understand the game by sharing their knowledge in respective Steam guides.
I'd like to also give a special thanks to miss KatherineOfSky and kindest soul miss jemmajule for grammar and spelling checking, you're awesome!
Honorary mention to sir h3llf1re456 for reminding me of this game which first title I've loved so much.

And also, thank YOU for your time spending reading this guide. If you found this guide useful or helpful for you, rating or sharing a feedback would be as always highly appreciated.

Regards and best of luck on your journeys,
NoVa