TheGnorp Apologueis a pixel-art clicker-idler whose simple art style belies a surprisingly complex game. You control the Gnorps, little dudes who live to beat on a mysterious rock and collect the shards it produces. Your task is to use the accumulated wealth to build structures that allow you access to new tools and units to more efficiently beat up the rock.
Do this enough, and you’ll get access to Talent Points, which you can spend at the Stone of Talents to buy game-changing modifiers for your next attempt. If you’re at a loss for how to use these Talents or are looking for some ideas, here are some builds you can use to make those shards fly.
Talent Tiers
The Talents in the Stone of Talent are sectioned off andlocked away behind how many Talent points you have, essentially separating them into tiers, though they’re not named as such.
Tier 0 doesn’t have an associated Talent and is completely available early on in the game without unlocking Talent points.
Each major “Tier” comes with a permanent passive Talent that you don’t have to buy. For ease of use, name each section with a Tier number, as outlined in this chart:
1
2
5
3
8
4
11
14
6
17
Runner Backstop
Extra Housing
This is a simple but effective combo that will serve you well in a good chunk of your games sinceyou can slot it into most builds without disrupting themor if you have nothing better to do with the points.
Runner Backstop makes Runners carry more when Slammers are over-performing. Motivation increases the damage of Slammers while Runners are over-performing. This creates perfect synergy with the two skills.
Extra Housing is always good to havesince housing gets expensive quickly, and every free house helps.
Future to the Back
Tier 5
Arrow’s Last Hurrah
This build capitalizes on the elemental attacks that you can get early on from Fire and Ice Arrows, as well as the Fire Breath upgrade for your Slammers that are available relatively early in a run.
If you’re in Tier 3,Future to the Backallows your Riflegnorps and Gatlegnorps to fire off elemental arrows as well.
It’s wise to stick to one element or the other if you’re not in Tier 4. Fire might detonate ice for a decent yield,but it makes both Notes and Supershatter ineffective, especially the former since it severely reduces the uptime of directors.
The build really pops off in Tier 4 sinceFrostfire negates all the negative aspects of fire damage, andDeals doubles your arrow output.
Descent of the King
Vulnerability Empowerment
This is a surprisingly robust midrange build that capitalizes on a strong power spike afforded by the Tier 3 Talents and the power of Rocket Arrows.
This is one of the few builds thatdoesn’t benefit from the Runner-Slammer combosince Motivation won’t see much play after a few Compression Events since the Mountaineers will be pushing the pile forward.
In-run, this build engages when you get Rocket Arrows, which turn all normal arrows into Rockets. This includes turning bullets into arrows.
This means thatthe output of Riflegnorps, Gatlegnorps, Gatling Balloon, and Slammer Bullet Breath procs are now all Rocket Arrows.
Unlike regular Rockets,Rocket Arrows also benefit from the hefty multiplier that Descent of the King provides(as well as multipliers in general), allowing for some big spikes of damage. Deals, of course, double your Rocket Arrow output.
You might sense a running theme here:arrows are pretty powerful.This is a late-game build that relies on Arrow’s Last Hurrah and the sheer number of arrows that Future to the Back uses to deal massive, consistent damage.
This build is reliant on arrows sticking to the rock; as such, arrow abilities that don’t leave an arrow behind are incompatible with this build. Rocket Arrows and Zybe Arrows are no good here.
Timeshift Delivery is optional because Return to Sender makes it redundant once you get the Garden going and have a steady supply of Directors, but it might still be worth grabbing if you’re having trouble breaking through early compression events.
Slammers do a surprising amount of heavy lifting as well here since having both the Combo Power Talent and in-run ability means that they’re constantly hitting the rock for decent damage and are far more likely to start raining arrows for Arrow’s Last Hurrah to play off.
How To Use Tier 6 Talents
Tier 6, the last Talent threshold that unlocks new Talents, is interesting because most of what it offers is generally powerful and can be slotted into most Talent builds.
The only noticeable exception isModern Warfare,which isincompatible with builds utilizing Future to the Back.
Future to the Back turns bullets into arrows, while Modern Warfare turns bullets into grenades.Modern Warfare doesn’t turn arrows into grenades.
Of the Tier 6 Talents,Agitated Zybe and Gnorpcalibur Unleashed are easily slotted into most builds, while all the others require a little extra thought.
Operation: Pocket Rocket Timeshift Retainment favors Timeshift-Pocket Rocket builds, Modern Warfare requires investment into Riflegnorps, and Drone Capacity requires you to build a fleet of Drones.
