Loop Odyssey: Core Mechanics Guide

Welcome to my mechanics guide for Loop Odyssey.

On the surface this game appears to be fairly simple. With only three actions and four directions at our disposal I wouldn’t blame you if your initial reactions were that this game was too simple. However, that is not the case. It is deceptively complex in its mechanics, and below I will explain them.

This guide will contain spoilers. I will try to keep them below the non-spoilery mechanics, but be forewarned.

Changelog:

• v1.0 (12/10/21):
  • Initial Release
• v1.1 (12/10/21):
  • Corrected game name in guide (d’oh)

The first thing we should talk about is stats.

Mana
An incredibly important stat. When mana is depleted the loop will end, but fret not for it can be restored and the maximum amount of mana can be increased.

At the beginning of each loop you will have access to 500 mana. Each action you take will deplete your mana by whatever the cost of that action is on the specific tile. Each time you perform a relevant action on a tile you will gain familiarity with that action on that tile, and the cost will be reduced. To see the relevant actions of a tile, and their cost simply left-click on a tile.

Mana can be replenished at tiles that contain fairies. To do so simply use the interact/cog action on a tile with fairies. Doing so will replenish 500 mana, and will consume 1 fairy.

Health
Almost as important as mana. As would be expected if you run out of health you die, and the loop will end.

At the beginning of each loop you will have 4 filled hearts where each heart is equal to 2 points of health for a total of 8 health. In combat you will take 1 point of damage per tick (I haven’t sat down to figure out what each “tick” is), so the longer the fight takes, the more health you will lose. As you regain health, covered later, you will eventually see the hearts change color to denote any health above 12 as there are only six hearts.

Attack

Defense

Mana Spent

Attributes directly impact stats, and are increased by interacting with the Green Shrines. Depending on the action taken at the shrine a different attribute will be increased. You must have available points to spend in order to increase your attributes. The available points to spend are indicated to the right of the three attributes. You gain 1 point per level gained.

Green Shrine

Attributes can be increased by performing one of the three actions (interact, speak, or fight) on a Green Shrine.

Spirit

Increase Spirit using the interact, or cog action .

This does not replenish spent mana. It only increases your maximum mana by 220 per point invested.

Heart

Increase Heart using the speak, or head action .

This increases the speed of the game by 30% per point, and increases the mana cost per tick by 0.3. There is a balance to maintain when increasing efficiency by increasing speed. Depending on the goals of the loop you will want to adjust how much you spend in this attribute.

Body

Increase Body using the fight, or sword action .

This will increase your damage by 0.50 per point, and will also restore health by 1 per point. The tooltip is slightly misleading when it says “+ X Health”. This is not increasing your maximum health, but instead simply tracks how much health you have gained by investing points. I am currently unsure what happens when upgrading Body while health is at the 24 point max (probably just doesn’t heal, but should still increase damage).