Reset layers and research

Regrowth Incremental stacks soft resets. Each one trades current progress for a currency or a shop. Pressing every glowing button is how a run loses its spine. Badge text is the reliable map of what each button does.

Four questions before any reset

1. Does it open a system, or only a small percentage?
2. Can you name the first purchases with the new currency?
3. Is Energy, plus any boost that still shows, ready for the rebuild?
4. Would one more soft-cap cycle clearly raise the payout?

If you cannot answer, keep grinding the current layer. Costs move in BETA. The questions do not.

Layer order

This is an editorial push order based on badge text and what each reset spends, not an official rank.

1. Jewels. Earn Jewels by doing your first Reset. Do this after the Crystal Generator is online and Energy machines are not starving. Spend Jewels immediately into throughput.
2. Stage Reset. The First Evolution badge is your first Stage Reset. Push the first one when Jewel income can rebuild and the stage board accelerates Energy. Later stage cycles follow the same payout test.
3. Fossils. The badge calls this your second small reset. It feeds the life and fossil family. Do not farm it before Jewels and basic machines exist.
4. Terraform. The first Terraform Reset changes how the world looks. Reset for a shop or a chapter gate, not for the visual alone.
5. Gold Bars. First Upgrade Tree reset. Push when the tree is soft-capped and you can rebuild it. One planned tree reset beats three empty ones.
6. Prestige. Resets Factory and Upgrade Tree progress for Prestige Points and stronger upgrades. This is the flagship permanent layer once it is unlocked. Timing is the only debate.
7. Emerald Coins. The second Upgrade Tree reset also resets Gold Bars progress. Require a fast Gold Bar rebuild and three named Emerald buys. Badge completion alone is a bad reason.
8. Barn Reset. First Barn Reset on the crystal side. Raise it only while barn upgrades are the wall.

What to buy after Prestige

Exact node names shift. The spending order that stays useful is:

• Energy and machine research so the rebuild is faster than the last run.
• Automation research so you are not re-clicking the same boards.
• Crystal research once the generator is part of every run.
• Chapter research when a gate demands it.
• Narrow or luxury nodes last.

Perks that multiply Energy or cash, speed machine unlocks, or cut reset pain come before perk branches for dungeons, life, or barns you have not opened. If multi-buy exists, turn it on only after you trust that order. Auto-buying the wrong tree is worse than one careful manual run.

Rebuild

1. Write the first research or perk buys.
2. Note the machine unlock and crystal tier you must reclaim.
3. Confirm boosts and codes.
4. Reset.
5. Buy the planned nodes immediately.
6. Rush Energy and the critical machine unlock.
7. Reopen crystals and field boards after the spine is back.

Dungeon soul or rank resets are not Prestige. Train Strength and Health, clear a tier you can actually finish, then reset ranks when the rebuild to that clear speed is short. Sap resets on the tree follow the same rule.