You’ve probably seen the magical girl archetype at least once. You know, the regular girl who transforms into a magical girl with superpowers, complete with a costume change, and is out to save the world? Brave, beautiful, and bubbly, the magical girl is the kind of heroine who has been known to embody admirable traits such as purity of heart, hopeful optimism, and perhaps even some measure of stubbornness when faced with overwhelming odds and imminent danger.
The magical girl is often selfless, and would fight for their friends and loved ones without hesitation. At the same time, despite having enemies that are clearly portrayed as evil, the magical girl would still try to see the good in every person, sometimes to the frustration of her companions—except she has the tenacity to stick to her guns and, in the end, she might just prove her point.
Perhaps the most notable title to feature a magical girl is, of course, Sailor Moon, which was aired in 1995—or at least, the original series was, as it was followed by different iterations throughout the years.
At around the same time, a lesser known anime called Wedding Peach was also aired, which featured not one but two costume changes, wherein the magical girls first changed into wedding dresses then changed again into the staple magical girl outfit of big bows, short pleated skirts, and sparkling shoes.
However, the term magical girl goes farther back, its first usage actually popularized as early as 1980 by the Toei anime series Magical Girl Lalabel. Still, this archetype isn’t confined solely to Japanese media as some of you might remember Powerpuff Girls Z, which is the magical girl version of Townsville’s adorable heroes, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that with the long-established popularity of the magical girl archetype, this type of character also makes its appearance in several games, one of them being Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero.
Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero follows the story of Ariel, a young magician who was tasked with the huge responsibility of saving the mystical world of Flotia after its goddess, Elysia, fell into the hands of the evil sorcerer Darklin. Darklin, who stole the seed of the World Tree, disappeared into his own world, Cartina, thus leaving Flotia in shambles without the World Tree.
Though inexperienced and lacking proper training as a magician, Ariel did not hesitate to take up the challenge of finding Darklin so she could one day retrieve the stolen seed of the World Tree and restore the peace and harmony that had been ripped away from her beloved Flotia.
Story-wise, Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero follows many of the beats of a classic magical girl story: you have a young lady who isn’t very powerful at first, but whose journey, though rife with danger, causes her to become stronger, enough that she can triumph against various enemies that would test her skills. Along the way, she will face a myriad of challenges, all for the sake of the mission entrusted to her.
Like many magical girls that came before her, Ariel of Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero is depicted as courageous and pure of heart, refusing to shirk away from the responsibility that accompanies her destiny as the savior of Flotia. Of course, how far Ariel could go to accomplish her ultimate goal will depend on how you, the player, will invest in her growth as a magician.
As an idle game, Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero doesn’t require a lot of in-fight participation from the player. There’s really no active strategy you can apply, and neither does the game generally feature actions or choices that can influence where or how Ariel attacks, or what attacks she can use to change the tide of battle.
It’s a very straightforward game with a very basic mechanic—but that doesn’t mean you’re just going to sit back, relax, and do nothing. There are still a handful of activities you have to accomplish, but given the nature of the game, it simply means that it’s not all that demanding of your time or attention.
For the most part, you’re going to spend a majority of your playtime watching Ariel fight her way through clusters of various enemies, finishing short stages, and going up levels in main battles. Each level is composed of 100 smaller stages that you can each fight for a minute or even less, as well as different sceneries that change depending on the level you’re currently in. Of course, as you fight your way through each stage, enemies get incrementally stronger than the last.
However, if you play your cards right and are diligent in investing resources into Ariel, you won’t have to worry about encountering strong enemies and can even overcome bosses with flying colors. In the event you do hit a roadblock, the game automatically repeats the stage so you can gather more resources needed for upgrades. Once you do get enough upgrades, you can switch off the repeat stage function by clicking on the map-like icon next to the level and stage number to continue progressing through higher stages.
That said, your ultimate goal as the player is to essentially make Ariel as strong as she can get, and Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero provides various avenues in which you can make this happen. Basically, you have the main quest wherein you, as mentioned, fight through levels and stages, but there are also other areas that you can gradually unlock, which will yield other pertinent rewards and bonuses that can be used to improve Ariel’s stats.
Some areas or battles may be more challenging than others, but if you equip the right items and patiently upgrade through sundry means, you can slice through your foes like a hot knife through butter.
Thus, this beginner’s guide for Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero focuses on how you can turn sweet ol’ Ariel into nothing less than a formidable, fantastic, and fashionable war machine that churns out tons of powerful magic from her dainty little fingertips.
Are you ready to save Flotia? Then let’s dive into our in-depth beginner’s guide for Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero!
Keep Growing and Growing
Growing your character is important in any game, but more so for some idle games as this is essentially what becomes your major contribution as a player. In Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero, you’re given several ways to grow Ariel through the Growth tab on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. However, take note that these options will only become available depending on the levels you manage to reach. These options include the following:
Growth
Growth is the most basic way you can, well, grow Ariel. The only resource required to upgrade this feature is gold, which is dropped by defeated enemies from the main levels and stages, as well as from other areas and as rewards (more on these later). In the beginning, it doesn’t take a lot of gold to upgrade the stats specifically included in the Growth tab, which are:
- ATK
- HP
- Crit Rate
- Crit Damage
ATK and HP values are upgraded in increments while Crit Rate and Crit Damage stats are grown in small percentages to the decimal point. It might not seem like the stat additions are a lot, but growing Ariel this way can carry you through the early levels and stages, as well as supplement the other upgrades you’ll be able to unlock over time.
Though the expense starts rather small, the amount of gold you need to invest into upgrading Growth stats will gradually increase, compounding as you go along. Thus, rack up a lot of gold by succeeding in stages and spend all your shiny doubloons here to give Ariel that small but helpful and necessary boost.
Transcend
Transcend can be considered an upgrade that’s a notch above Growth as it boosts not only some of the stats mentioned above, but also upgrades new stats that enhance Ariel’s efficiency in combat. Here are the stats that you can upgrade once you manage to unlock the Transcend tab:
- ATK
- HP
- Movement Speed
- DEF PEN Rate
- DEF Rate
- Magic Resistance
As you can see, you’ll be adding more to Ariel’s ATK and HP values while also gaining boosts involving Movement Speed, DEF, and Magic RES—all of which increase Ariel’s survivability and battle prowess.
To continuously upgrade Ariel’s Transcend stats, you need to spend Mana Stones and Transcendence Stones. Both of these resources can be obtained by going to the Dungeon, which we will discuss in another section of this guide.
Suffice it to say that though this can turn out to be another expensive investment in the long run, it’s well worth it considering the boost you’ll get. Magic RES, in particular, becomes rather important in later levels, especially if you’re going to enter the Abyssal Expedition, which we will discuss in the Dive Into Battle section of this guide.
Rune
Upgrading the Rune tab is another way of giving Ariel an edge against her enemies. The stats included in this upgrade feature supplement some of the other stats previously mentioned while also adding in a few more that can affect other aspects of Ariel’s overall abilities. Here’s what you can upgrade when you grant Runes to this feature:
- Orb’s Enchantment Rune
- Costume’s Enchantment Rune
- Movement Speed Rune
- Crit Damage Rune
- Crit Rate Rune
- Defense Rune
- Defense PEN Rune
- Gold Acquisition Rune
The Rune tab works slightly differently from the previous two Growth tabs mentioned as it uses somewhat of a gacha mechanic in selecting which stats to upgrade. This basically means that stat upgrades are chosen by the game at random, unlike in Growth or Transcend where all stats are upgraded in predetermined increments.
For instance, in the Rune tab, if you upgrade three times, some stats will only be upgraded once or twice, or even not at all. However, if you’re concerned that this will dramatically affect Ariel’s performance, it won’t, because even though it upgrades stats at random, the upgrades even out over time and you’ll find yourself with stats that are about the same level or just one level higher or lower than others.
To accomplish upgrades in this tab, you need to spend Runes and Mana Stones. As mentioned, Mana Stones are obtained from fighting in the Dungeon, while Runes are collected from the Warped Dimension (more on this later).
Ability
The Ability tab doesn’t exactly upgrade all abilities, but rather, it also applies a gacha mechanic to upgrades, but not quite like that of the Rune tab. In the Ability tab, you roll for three random abilities with random boosts to their efficiency percentage. Abilities have ranks that can affect how well boost values can be. These ranks are, from lowest to highest:
- Rare
- Epic
- Unique
- Legendary
To get a higher Ability rank, you need to spend Ability Points and Mana Stones. However, this means you will be resetting your abilities wherein you get a new set of three random stats that will have a percentage boost. Upon obtaining a Legendary set of abilities, you may choose to improve the stats of your current ability set by resetting their numbers. This costs Ability Points and Rubies.
Resetting numbers means you get to keep your three current abilities but roll randomly for how much they improve Ariel’s stats. Take note that you will only be allowed to reset numbers when the Ability rank has reached Legendary.
Additionally, since the rolls are still random, some stats may get a higher percentage boost while others might get a lower percentage. It’s up to you to decide whether you’d want to keep your current roll result or roll again for stats that you feel are better.
You have eight Ability slots available, but you can’t use other slots unless the Ability slot you’re currently rolling for has reached the Unique rank. That said, it’s better to keep rolling until the Ability rank reaches either Unique or Legendary so you can maximize the features of this tab. Abilities can be easily swapped just before going to the different Battle areas depending on the enemies you will face.
Dimensional Power
Dimensional Power upgrades work somewhat like the Transcend tab, but instead of upgrading various stats all at once, you’re going to have to unlock the other stats by continuously enhancing your Dimensional Power levels.
For instance, you’ll be able to first enhance your HP then enhance your ATK power when your Dimensional Power reaches a higher level, and so on. You have a total of six stats you can upgrade through the Dimensional Power and will be able to unlock the last slot when your Dimensional Power level reaches 40.
To upgrade Dimensional Power levels, you will have to spend Guardian Soul Stones and Transcend Stones. Soul Stones can be obtained if you enter and fight in the Dimensional Border.
Eternity
This tab in the Growth section works similarly to that of the Dimensional Power tab, the only difference being that you need Unstable Eternity Crystals to unlock the stat bonuses included here. Unstable Eternity Crystals are obtained by clearing stages in the Abyssal Expedition tab of the Battle section.
Growing Ariel via Eternity will primarily improve her Magic RES stat, which is a necessary stat to triumph in Abyssal Expedition. You can say that Abyssal Expedition and Eternity go hand-in-hand as you cannot have one without the other.
Now that you know the different ways you can grow Ariel, it’s time to take a look at another important factor that will help you enhance her efficiency even more: your Equipment and Magic.
Enchant and Enhance Your Equipment
Ariel’s stats aren’t solely reliant on upgrades you can find in the Growth tab. You also have the Equipment and Magic sections, which add to both her active and passive skills. As a side note, active skills don’t need to be activated as they will be automatically activated anyway.
Going back, the Equipment and Magic sections can be separately accessed through their own buttons on the lower right-hand side of the screen. The way these two sections work are similar, wherein duplicates are needed to Synthesize certain equipment and magic skills. If you Synthesize enough duplicates, you get to unlock the next level of these equipment or magic, wherein a higher level provides better stats.
To understand these better, here’s a breakdown of both the Equipment and Magic sections:
Equipment
The Equipment section has five tabs that correspond to different equipment features that provide varying degrees of improvement. These are the following:
- Orb: This is what Ariel uses as her main weapon, which is why the stats that are directly tied to the Orb is a passive effect for ATK as well as bonuses for both ATK and DEF PEN Rate. There are 25 types of Orbs that you can unlock through Synthesizing. Enchanting Orbs basically mean improving the bonuses they already provide. For this, you will have to spend Mana Stones.
To acquire duplicates of Orbs, you can either collect them from fighting or you need to spend Rubies in the Orb tab of the Summon Shop. You may summon once or 10 times with a +1 summon and the duplicates you’ll acquire will be at random. If you happen to like how a particular Orb looks, you can simply apply its skin without sacrificing the stats you’ve gained from a much stronger Orb.
- Costume: Not only are Costumes aesthetically pleasing, but they also contribute to stat improvements. Basically, Costumes work like armor as they provide a passive effect for HP and bonuses for both HP and DEF. Like Orbs, there are 25 Costumes available and higher-level Costumes can be unlocked through Synthesizing duplicates.
Enchanting Costumes using Mana Stones will also improve the stat bonuses they provide. To acquire duplicates of Costumes, you’ll have to kill enemies or spend Rubies in the Costume tab of the Summon Shop. Summoning for Costume duplicates works similarly to how you summon for Orb duplicates.
You probably have a favorite Costume and are worried that picking a higher-level one might mean changing Ariel’s attire. Fortunately, you can just use the apply skin option to retain the Costume you want Ariel to wear without affecting her stats.
- Earrings, Rings, and Necklaces: These items can be dropped by enemies at random but your chances of obtaining them can be a bit rare. Unlike Orbs and Costumes, Earrings, Rings, and Necklaces all have different passive effects and stat bonuses, making them items you can swap around depending on your battle or survivability needs.
For instance, if you find yourself continuously dying on a certain stage or against a particular boss, you might want to switch to an Earring, Ring, or Necklace that provides an HP or DEF boost. You may also pick any of these three items to complement one another.
For example, you might pick an Earring with an HP boost, a Ring with an ATK boost, and a Necklace with an ATK Speed boost to give you some well-rounded stats. Enchanting any of these items using Dimensional Fragments will increase their level until they reach an Ultimate level rating.
Magic
The Magic section only has three tabs, but you’ll mostly be focusing on the Active and Passive tabs for quite some time. This is because they’re easier to obtain and upgrade, and the requirements to unlock them are not as costly as the third tab, which is the Magic Attribute tab. Below is a summary of these tabs in the Magic section:
- Active and Passive Magic: These two tabs work similarly in that Ariel has a predetermined set of Active and Passive Magic skills that each grant different stat boosts. Some add bonuses not only to basic stats like ATK or HP, but also offer enhancements to other stats like cooldown speeds, HP recovery, or skill triggers.
Stat boosts for Active and Passive Magic skills can be obtained by Enchanting these skills through duplicates. You can get duplicates in the Shop through the Summon tab in exchange for Summon Tickets. These Summon Tickets are collected mostly as rewards for completing tasks or achieving milestones.
- Magic Attribute: When you manage to reach Level 21 of Ariel’s Transcendence, you’ll be able to unlock the Magic Attribute tab. From hereon, every time you Transcend, you’ll be able to gain one Magic Attribute point that you can spend on any of the Magic skills in this tab.
Each Magic skill has different enchantments and effects, and spending a Magic Attribute point on any of them will improve their specific stats by a small percentage. You may focus investing in one skill or allot Magic Attribute points to multiple skills. If you’re not happy with the way you’ve invested points, you can always reset in exchange for Rubies.
Upgrading both your Equipment and Magic skills all require different resources that you may either get from simply playing the main quest, collecting them as rewards, or by entering Battle areas, which we will discuss in the next section.
Dive Into the Battle Areas
Battle areas are found in the Battle tab of the game wherein you get to deviate a little from the main quest. Battle areas allow you to challenge other enemies, particularly bosses, in exchange for keys and resources like Rubies. Each Battle area offers different modes of playing as well as enemy drops like stones and fragments. This is basically where you farm for additional resources you need to keep upgrading Ariel’s stats.
Similar to the main quest, some Battle areas can increase in difficulty the more you play and the higher your level in each specific area. In other cases, you will only have a limited number of tries to play a certain Battle area as you will be going head-to-head with bosses.
To understand how each Battle area works, below is a summary of what you need to enter these areas, what they drop, and how their individual gameplay is structured:
Dungeon
This is the very first Battle area that you will unlock. It plays very similarly to the main quest wherein defeating enemies will allow you to go to the next stage. To enter the Dungeon and keep playing stages, you need to spend only one Dungeon Key each stage. The main difference between the Dungeon’s gameplay and that of the main quest is that, in the former, you have around 16 seconds to keep on fighting enemies each stage.
If you don’t die within that time frame, you get to collect the resources dropped by all the enemies you’ve killed. After which, you may either proceed to the next stage or exit the Dungeon. Here, you can get a ton of Mana Stones and Transcendence Stones. The higher the stages you move to, the more stones you can collect by the end of your run.
Before entering the Dungeon, you may notice an option that allows you to skip going through stages for one key or 10 keys. While this essentially skips battling monsters, this doesn’t actually mean you’re going up stages.
Rather, you’re just repeating the last stage you’ve played and automatically farming it over and over. Now, this can work if you find it difficult to beat succeeding stages as this auto-skip feature simply lets you effortlessly collect stones that can be used to improve your current stats.
However, if you’re not having any difficulty with higher Dungeon stages, it’s recommended to play manually as the drop rates increase with every stage accomplished. You’ll be spending the same amount of keys anyway so unless Ariel’s current stats can’t handle it, it’s best to go through the Dungeon without skipping to ensure better drop rates and higher resource collection.
Warped Dimension
Compared to the Dungeon, the Warped Dimension requires 30 Dimensional Keys to play each stage. It can seem like a steep price, but this is where you can get not only Dimensional Fragments but also accessories, namely Earrings, Rings, and Necklaces. Dimensional Fragments are, of course, used to Enchant the aforementioned accessories. Unlike the Dungeon as well, the Warped Dimension has no time limit, but you will have to face bosses that each possess various buffs. That said, you’re given the option to swap accessories or abilities before entering any stage in the Warped Dimension.
Speaking of accessories, you’ll only be able to collect them from this Battle area depending on what stage you’ve reached. Earrings can be obtained from Stage 1 to 139, Rings from Stage 140 to 179, and Necklaces from Stage 180 and above. Thus, as a beginner, the only accessory you’ll be working with for quite some time will be Earrings, and this is where you will have to spend all your Dimensional Fragments to improve their stat boosts until you’ve maxed them out.
Drop rates for both Dimensional Fragments and accessories will naturally increase the higher the stage you’re playing in—but so will the difficulty. As mentioned earlier, different accessories provide different stat boosts, which can really come in handy against enemies, particularly bosses that have their own buffs.
To succeed in the Warped Dimension, consider swapping accessories and abilities whenever bosses become too overwhelming. It might be the case that you simply need the right buffs to counter what the enemy can dish out.
World Boss
Fighting against the World Boss means you have to contend with, well, a boss that possesses different enchantments that can change each day. You may challenge the World Boss a total of 10 times per day at the cost of 125 Rubies per entry. Aside from defeating the World Boss, the goal of fighting in this Battle area is to compete with the rankings of other players.
As a beginner, though, you might not achieve a very high rank, but the good news is that you can still earn Medals of Honor or Faded Medals of Honor, which can be used to purchase resources for upgrades, Costumes for Ariel, and even Skins for your Spirit (more on Spirits later).
Costumes and Spirit Skins aren’t merely for aesthetics but, as mentioned before, also provide buffs for their corresponding character. Keep in mind that the World Boss has its own shop separate from the Shop tab that you can access on the main screen.
As expected, a World Boss will get stronger over time and you’ll be able to fight it within 3 minutes. If you haven’t beaten the World Boss and you’re on your last 30 seconds, its final attack power will bump up to 100%. Fortunately, you’ll be able to use three skill cards anytime to boost your chances of winning. These skill cards are:
- Concentrate: Increase ATK x100k for 10 seconds.
- Seal: Boss cannot attack for 3 seconds.
- Save: Restore HP to 100%.
You can only use each of these skill cards once, and doing so will increase your score dramatically. However, you have to observe how the actual battle is going so you can properly time the use of these skill cards in order to fully maximize their effects. If you survive the fight to the end, your score will increase a hundredfold.
Even though you might not achieve a high ranking, it’s still worth the effort to challenge the World Boss 10 times a day if only to rack up rewards that can get you items from its shop.
Before challenging a World Boss, you’ll be given the option to swap accessories and abilities that will aid you best, especially if you consider the World Boss’ current Enchantments. You’ll see which Enchantment a World Boss has just before entering a challenge and you can find what type of effects an Enchantment provides by checking out the Info button.
Monster’s Nest
Monster’s Nest is another Battle area wherein you can gain tons of Spirit Stones, gold, magic, Dimensional Keys, and Transcendence Stones. Here, you will have to fight three waves of monsters every try, with the last wave solely dedicated to fighting a boss. There’s no time limit for beating the Monster’s Nest, though its difficulty level will depend on where you currently are in the main quest.
Unlike the Dungeon or the Warped Dimension, which requires keys, you can only enter the Monster’s Nest a limited number of times per day: three times for free and two more extra times if you spend Rubies, for a total of five times per day until the in-game day cycle resets.
Fortunately, if you fail to defeat the monsters or the boss, your entry won’t count and you can try again until you succeed. Just like the World Boss, we recommend maximizing the number of times you can challenge this area to get as many rewards as you can. This area is especially important if you’ve already unlocked your Spirit as this is the place where you can find Spirit Stones to upgrade your companion.
Dimensional Border
If the World Boss and the Monster’s Nest have one boss to beat, the Dimensional Border has two. In this area, you will be entering what is called a parallel universe where you can acquire primarily Guardian Soul Stones that can be used in the Dimensional Power tab of the Growth Section.
To enter the Dimensional Border, you will have to spend 85 Dimensional Keys per stage, but this will only be credited if you win and will be refunded if you lose. The challenge here is that the bosses may either be classified as melee or ranged enemies, and the difficulty increases every time you proceed to a higher level of the parallel dimension.
The upside, though, is that the more difficult the stage, the higher your chances of acquiring Guardian Soul Stones. Each boss also has their own enchantment and buffs that you can see under their icons just before you enter the area.
Since you use keys to enter, you can challenge the Dimensional Border as many times as you want until you run out of keys. Try to see how far you can reach in terms of stages as you’re going to need a lot of Soul Stones to unlock all the stat bonuses provided by the Dimensional Power tab in Growth.
Darklin’s Legion
Darklin’s Legion is a co-op area wherein your kills will be tallied alongside that of other participants. Though you don’t need to join an actual group to enter Darklin’s Legion, your rewards will be based on how well individual participants perform.
You can only challenge the Darklin’s Legion area once a day and are given Hunter’s Medals as rewards, which can be used in the Shop. Take note that the Shop specifically accepting Hunter’s Medals as payment is found in the Shop tab of Darklin’s Legion itself.
In this Shop, you can buy a Hunter’s Random Chest, which contains rewards like keys, Ability Points, Transcendence Stones, Dimensional Fragments, etc. You may also buy a Mysterious Dimension Crystal, as well as various Hunter’s Techniques, which can provide additional buffs and can also be leveled up in every purchase. Keep in mind that some of these items can be costly, so we suggest saving up your Hunter’s Medals for a thoughtful purchase.
The gameplay mechanic for Darklin’s Legion is structured in such a way wherein enemies keep appearing continuously without stage breaks, but their difficulty level gradually increases depending on how many you’ve already slain.
For every monster you kill, you’re given an additional 5 seconds on the clock, with a maximum of 30 seconds to continue killing the horde. Once your timer runs out or you die, your run is considered finished for the day.
Similar to the World Boss area, you have a chance to use five cards during Darklin’s Legion so you can increase your chances of killing more monsters as well as surviving for as long as you can. These five cards are:
- Solidity: Received damage -99% for 10 seconds.
- Save: Instant recovery of 100 HP.
- Execution: Execute enemies with below -90% of HP.
- Swap: Enable Quick Swap for abilities and accessories.
- Copy: Reactivate the last card used.
You can only use each card once, and timing is key to using them productively. For instance, if you’re beginning to get overwhelmed by monsters, activate the Execution card to instantly kill off all enemies that are on their last 10% of HP.
If this happens again, activate the Copy card so you can perform Execution for the second time. You may supplement the effects of this card by activating Solidity right after. If you’re extremely low on health, use the Save card just before your HP bar fizzles out.
Additionally, you can use the Swap card if you feel as though the abilities and accessories you’re currently equipped with aren’t effective on your enemies. Using these cards are situational so observe how the battle is going to decide which is the most appropriate card to use.
It goes without saying that making your entry count in Darklin’s Legion means leveling up Ariel to the best of your abilities. Take advantage of the cards you’re given and time them right so you can kill as many monsters for the highest possible rewards.
Abyssal Expedition
Abyssal Expedition may be the most difficult Battle area among the rest. This is because you need to specifically improve Ariel’s Magic RES stat in order to survive or even enter one stage in this area. If you fall below the recommended Magic RES stat, the boss will gain a buff that can stack and instantly kill you. If your Magic RES stat is too low, you won’t be able to enter the area at all.
Aside from having the appropriate Magic RES stat, you also need one Exploration Key to fight in a stage. If you clear 15 stages of one area, you’ll be able to unlock the next area. Here, you only need to fight one boss monster each stage and you can check what kind of skills or buffs they possess by clicking on the Boss Info button next to the boss’ icon.
If you succeed in clearing a stage, you have the chance of being rewarded with Unstable Eternity Crystals, which can be used in the Eternity tab of the Growth section. This tab, in particular, focuses on improving Ariel’s Magic RES stat, though you may also enhance this particular stat by Transcending Ariel or her Spirit. If you have accessories or abilities that provide a higher Magic RES stat, be sure to equip them before entering the Abyssal Expedition area.
Bonus: Enter Hot Time
Hot Time isn’t included in the Battle section, but it’s also one way of farming for resources. In the Season Pass section, you can see the Enter Hot Time tab wherein you need a Hot Time pass to enter.
For a limited duration, you can Enter Hot Time mode, which plays similarly to the main quest, except you get three times the resource drop for every stage you clear. If you decide to leave the Hot Time mode, your remaining time will be preserved and you can enter again within the day and play through what’s left of the pass’ duration.
Hot Time is a relatively easier way to farm as you can let the game idle and just watch Ariel continuously fight her way through each stage. If you’ve been diligent about improving Ariel’s stats, you’ll find that the Hot Time mode isn’t that difficult, and it will be advantageous to maximize the time limit you’re allotted. Hot Time passes can be obtained as a reward for accomplishing tasks or after you’ve watched an ad.
Charge Up Your Buffs
At this point, we’ve discussed a fair number of upgrades and buffs intended to make Ariel into a beast of a magical girl, but there’s one that you might have missed, only because its placement is so innocuous that it’s quite easy to overlook.
We’re talking about the small tab on the upper left-hand corner of the screen where you can charge up more buffs. You can find this right beneath your name represented by four tiny icons.
If you click on this tab, you’ll see that for a fixed price of just 30 Rubies each, you can give Ariel time-limited buffs for a minimum of 1,800 seconds per charge. You can charge up these buffs as many times as you like and the time limit will keep adding up to what you have remaining.
Here are the buffs you can charge up:
- ATK: +30%
- HP: +30%
- Movement Speed: +30%
- Goods (+19%) or Final Gold and Spirit Stones Acquisition Amount (+15%)
If you feel as if you’re having a bit of difficulty slaying monsters or clearing stages in the main quest, you might just need to charge up your buffs to give Ariel a boost. Regularly check this tab to make sure you still have some time remaining while these buffs are activated. Otherwise, keep charging up as the expense is quite small considering the stat boosts they provide.
Upgrade Your Spirit
When you finally reach Level 9-1, you’ll be able to unlock the Spirit section, which provides you with a companion for the rest of your playthrough. Think of your Spirit as kind of like a fairy or a sidekick. But more than just being a friend following you around, you can also enhance your Spirit’s skills and stats similar to Ariel.
If you click on the Spirit section, you’ll see that it includes the Growth, Transcend, and Attribute tab, which are all ways that you can make your Spirit helpful in battle. Here’s what investing resources in these three tabs can do:
- Growth: Adds ATK and HP to your Spirit through the use of Spirit Stones. Spirit Stones can be farmed mainly from entering Monster’s Nest.
- Transcend: Adds to ATK, HP, accessory activation rate, and Magic RES, as well as doubles the basic ATK rate. Transcending your Spirit requires Transcendence Stones, which can be obtained in the Dungeon, Monster’s Nest, Darklin’s Legion, etc.
- Attribute: Spirit Attribute points can be gained each time you Transcend your Spirit. You’ll be given one point each Transcendence level you reach, and you can invest this point in any of the stats included in this tab, namely ATK, HP, DEF Rate, stage drop rate x3, additional Magic ATK, and additional basic ATK.
You can choose any stat that you’ll invest points into and if you’re not happy with how you’ve invested points, you can always reset them in exchange for a small amount of Rubies.
As the game gets slightly more difficult, you’ll definitely need the help of your faithful Spirit to defeat enemies and progress further. Show your friend some love and they will certainly love you back!
Collect More Rewards
Aside from those already mentioned, there are more ways you can collect even more rewards that can be used to enhance the stats of both Ariel and her Spirit companion. You’ll know when there’s a reward you can obtain outside of battles when any of the buttons or tabs in the main screen are glowing. All you need to do is click on those buttons to see which bonuses are up for grabs.
Collecting rewards can sound exciting at first then tedious in the long run, but we recommend collecting any available reward as soon as possible as many of these grant your resources for upgrades or keys for farming the Battle areas. Below are other additional avenues that offer rewards and what you can do to get them:
Quests
Nearly every game has a quest line you’ll follow, which is basically another way of outlining tasks you need to accomplish. In Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero, you have three types of quests you can collect rewards from upon accomplishing them:
- Main Quests: These are mostly related to the main storyline and may serve as a guide that allows you to explore features of the game in a more in-depth way. Rewards can vary depending on the kind of main quest you’ve finished.
- Daily Quests: These are a set of quests each day, most of which are small and intended to help you enhance Ariel’s stats steadily. Daily quests tend to be very simple such as defeating a set number of monsters, clearing a set number of stages, clearing the Dungeon a number of times, challenging the World Boss, and the like. Each time you complete a Daily Quest, you get a small reward. Completing set of Daily Quests will let you increase the level for the current Season Pass (more on this shortly).
- Normal Quests: These quests are also short-term in nature but focus more on activities that involve stat upgrades such as Transcending Ariel, increasing your Spirit’s Growth level, synthesizing Costumes, enchanting Magic Skills or Orbs, etc. Completing Normal Quests will also get you small rewards like that of Daily Quests.
Attendance Check
The Attendance Check section is basically the game’s daily login rewards section. You have Normal, Start, and Event tabs present in this section, but all of them are essentially the same in that they provide various rewards for every day you login. The only difference is the duration until the rewards cycle refresh. If anything, the Attendance Check is a good reason to login to the game everyday as you can get bonuses simply by checking the game.
Playtime Rewards
Aside from daily login rewards, you can also get a lot of resources with Playtime Rewards. As its name suggests, Playtime Rewards can be obtained based on the number of hours you’ve played the game. There are two kinds of Playtime Rewards, namely:
- Daily Playtime Rewards: Items obtained from here are based on how long you’ve played the game each day. This means that the rewards cycle will also reset and you can continuously get Daily Playtime Rewards provided you’ve played the amount of hours eligible for a reward.
- Cumulative Playtime Rewards: Rewards acquired from this feature are based on how long you’ve played the game in total. The only caveat is that once you’ve collected all the Cumulative Playtime Rewards, they won’t refresh anymore.
Passes
Passes come in different forms with different requirements to obtain their rewards. Here’s what they are and what you can get:
- Season Pass: Rewards from the Season Pass tab become available whenever you clear all Daily Rewards as this increases the season level. Every season level features a single-item reward but in multiple amounts, so diligently clear those Daily Quests to make the most of what you can collect here.
- Monthly Pass: The Monthly Pass is like another form of obtaining daily login rewards as you get one reward each day. In our playthrough, the free Monthly Pass features 50 Magic Summon Tickets each day, while the premium Monthly Pass can get you a variety of rewards.
- Growth Pass: Growth Pass rewards become available whenever you reach a character growth stage. There are a total of five levels for the Growth Pass, and the rewards are the same for all levels and growth stages, which are 300 Magic Summon Tickets.
- Stage Pass: The Stage Pass is similar to the Growth Pass, except you can get rewards for the former whenever you pass all 100 stages of a level. Basically, every time you reach a new level in the main quest, you’re eligible to get 30,000 Rubies and 300 Dimensional Keys. If you reach Level 30-1, you’ll also be able to get Crystal rewards. Like the Growth Pass, there are also five levels for the Stage Pass.
Don’t pass off collecting Pass rewards! Keep accomplishing their requirements so you can get as many bonuses as you can.
Watch Ads for Freebies
You might think these are all the ways you can get rewards to upgrade Ariel and your Spirit, but we’re not done just yet! From time to time, you’re given the chance to get extra rewards if you watch ads.
You can find this option in the Season Pass shop, the Playtime Rewards tabs, etc. Look out for the play button on available rewards and take advantage of this freebie to add more to your resources so you can bring out Ariel’s maximum potential!
This then concludes our beginner’s guide for Magical Girl: Idle Pixel Hero. Hopefully, you’ve learned what it takes to turn Ariel into an all-powerful magical girl who can effortlessly slay monsters and restore Flotia—in style!
Do you have more tips or insights to share with your fellow players? Don’t hesitate to put them in the comment section below!