Idle Summoner Beginner's Guide: Summoning, Bosses and Upgrades

New to Idle Summoner: Pixel RPG? Learn how the summon chain works, what stars do, how to beat bosses, what to upgrade first and how to use cloud save.

Idle Summoner: Pixel RPG looks simple: tap the monster gate, send monsters at castles, collect gold. This guide covers the systems that matter most in your first days.

How summoning works in Idle Summoner

Every tap on the monster gate costs gold and tries to summon the next monster in the chain. Your first success gives you monster 1, the Slime. Each further success replaces it with the next one up: Poison Honey Bee, Wild Wolf, Vampire bat and so on, all the way to monster 55, Lord of the Abyss.

Before each tap the gate shows the Next success rate. It starts high and drops the further up the chain you go. When a summon fails, the monster is lost and the chain starts over. Two things soften that:

• A Resurrection Scroll brings the failed monster back. Normal scrolls cover monsters up to number 39, Advanced scrolls cover number 40 and above, and higher monsters need more scrolls.
• Every failed summon adds 1% to your success rate, up to +20%. The bonus resets when you place a monster or turn one into gold.

When you have a monster you like, tap Take to place it in a battle slot. Otherwise convert it: most monsters turn into gold, a few high ones into souls, and the payout grows with rank and stars. Summoned scrolls skip the chain and give a random monster from your Monster Book, and Advanced ones always roll 3 stars or more.

Stars and abilities: what makes a monster strong

Each summon also rolls a star rating from 1 to 5. Stars multiply a monster's damage, from x1 at one star to x3 at five stars, and every star above the first adds a random bonus such as Attack, Attack speed, Critical damage, Critical Chance or Damage per level. A 5-star monster also gets a bonus for the whole team, for example All Monsters ATK +30%.

Stars are rolled again on every successful tap. When you land a 4-star or 5-star monster, the Option change button lets you reroll its abilities for gems or souls before you place it.

Monster slots and the Monster Book

You start with four battle slots. The fifth opens at stage 10, the sixth at stage 25, and slots seven and eight are unlocked with gems. You can level up placed monsters with gold, but a replacement monster starts again at level 1.

The Monster Book sets your ceiling. It starts with three monsters, and the gate cannot summon beyond the highest one you have. New pages come from the Invasion tab, where some castles on the invasion map reward a new monster. Its auto summon keeps tapping the gate, spending gold, until the monster you picked appears, and can stop early on a 4-star or 5-star roll.

Castles, bosses and gold while you are away

Each stage has ten castles, and the tenth holds the boss. The boss fight has a timer of about 30 seconds. If it runs out, you drop back to the ninth castle and keep farming gold until you tap the boss button again. Freeze deals ice damage and stops the boss timer for a few seconds.

Castles drop gold and sometimes souls, and bosses can also drop gems. Now and then a Treasure box falls out, which you can open with an optional ad.

When you come back after more than an hour, you get a welcome-back gold reward based on your current stage, counted for up to 24 hours, and captured invasion territories keep paying while you are away. Checking in once a day wastes none of that time.

Skills, artifacts and your three currencies

• Gold pays for summons, monster levels and skills.
• Souls pay for Resurrection Scrolls, Summoned scrolls and ability rerolls.
• Gems pay for artifacts, the last two monster slots, rerolls and scrolls.

The Skill tab has ten skills, bought and levelled with gold. Eight are active skills you tap in battle, such as Lightning Bolt, Freeze and Steal Gold (triple gold from attacks for a short time). Aura of battlefield and Concentrated attack are sustained bonuses that work while equipped. You equip up to five, with separate setups for stages and invasions.

Artifacts are rolled with gems in the Artifact tab. Each has 1 to 5 stars and a bonus, such as Magic Stick (all monsters ATK) or An ancient book (lower summon gold cost). You can hold seven, upgrade them with gems and sell unwanted ones for gems, and each one you hold makes the next roll cost more.

What to upgrade first

• Fill every open slot, even with low monsters: each one attacks on its own.
• Push the summon chain as high as your Monster Book allows, and keep the best star rolls.
• Level up the monsters you plan to keep, since levels are lost when you replace one.
• Buy Lightning Bolt early, it is the cheapest skill, and add Freeze once bosses start beating the timer.
• Start invasions early: new Monster Book pages raise your ceiling, and territories pay gold or souls every minute.
• Claim the Daily bonus. It runs on a 10-day cycle, resets at 00:00 GMT and gives scrolls and gems.
• Use the speed button on the main screen (1x, 1.5x or 2x) while you are watching.

How to save your progress to the cloud

Your progress is stored on your phone. To back it up, open Settings, sign in with Google Play Games, tap Save and confirm. The cloud copy only changes when you save from Settings, so save again after a good session.

On a new phone, install the game, open Settings, sign in with the same Google account and tap Load. Loading replaces the progress on that phone with your cloud copy and restarts the game, and the Load option then locks on a 30-minute timer.

Once you reach stage 50, tapping your player icon reveals a new option: rebirth. That is where the long game starts. If you have not started yet, Idle Summoner: Pixel RPG is free on Google Play.

Idle Summoner: Pixel RPG →

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