Apparently an Apprentice Alchemist

Apparently an Apprentice Alchemist is a short incremental game about practicing alchemy, conducting research and advancing through an academic career. You use a wand to transform stones, herbs, gems and liquids into more advanced materials, earn Knowledge, improve your alchemy, write research papers and conduct experiments.

Practice alchemy

Move your magic over materials to fill their alchemy gauges and transform them into higher tiers. The game has 32 materials across four categories and eight tiers; as your alchemy improves, you handle more advanced materials and earn more Knowledge from discoveries. You can travel to specialized locations to find more minerals, herbs, gems or liquids.

Improve your craft

Spend Knowledge on permanent upgrades to your magic power and radius, research time and material output. You can also develop the Initial Magic Surge, Residual Magic and Combo techniques. These upgrades shape your alchemy runs, making them faster, stronger or more productive.

Research and degrees

Start research papers and complete their objectives during alchemy runs. You can specialize in minerals, herbs, gems or liquids, or research techniques that change how your magic works. Seven five-level Research Papers support progression through the academic ranks of Undergraduate, Bachelor, Master, PhD and Professor.

Experiments and skills

Experiments are short, specialized challenges with their own maps, time limits and objectives. Completing every stage of an experiment unlocks a permanent Skill for normal runs. The five multi-stage Experiments include challenges such as throwing stones, making a slingshot from herbs, shining light on things and eating suspicious plants.

Five unlockable Skills change how materials and magic interact: materials can be launched across the workshop, pulled together, given temporary states or sent flying toward your cursor. These Skills work with the existing alchemy systems and create new ways to build powerful runs.

Final alchemy

At the height of your academic career, you can begin Final Alchemy and use what you have learned to create a sequence of extraordinary trees. Create a Baobab, transform it into the Tree of Life and reach the World Tree to discover what comes after it. This progression leads to an ending.