Antimatter Dimensions is a browser idle game. What this means is that the game runs itself in a lot of instances, but a lot of active input is still needed to optimize the game.
AD centrally runs on a theme of “antimatter”, which is a type of material in the universe. This theme is shown further throughout the game due to the dimensions and general theoretical physics theme, which is initially shown in the game, and strongly echoes throughout the game. Furthermore, there are a lot of mods for this game, which affect the difficulty of the game and adds certain mechanics to counter-balance the difficulty. For instance, one mod makes the game a lot easier, so more late-game content is added to counterbalance the difficulty shift, while another does the opposite.
What is AD about?
When you first load into the game, there are a lot of things you can do. One, you can start playing the game, but you can also look at the achievements and settings for the game. Many people initially go to the settings and enable dark mode, but this is due to your preferences. Furthermore, since this is a number idle game, you can easily change the notation of the numbers.
Just a warning, numbers get very big in this game, so scientific notation or suffix notation is important. Furthermore, the statistics screen shows general statistics and information about your playthrough. When discussing the game with other people and players, this screen is important as it is very informative.
Finally, the achievements screen can be seen at the game start, but it is split into two different sections: secret achievements and normal achievements. As seen, the achievements screen can be quite overwhelming at first, due to it not scaling with the game difficulty.
However, initially, this screen is not very important, as the game achievements in the beginning act as more optional, while as the game furthers in progress, the achievements become more and more important. This is because the achievements that you achieve later on actually give bonuses that can be very powerful and useful in certain areas of the game. Furthermore, secret achievements are hidden from the player, and they must be sought out either independently or with the assistance of another site or player.
What’s so interesting about AD?
If you have never played idle games before, this section will be very useful for you. Basically, an idle game is a game where the game essentially plays itself, and time is the main limiting factor. For instance, an inactive player in a normal game will not make any progress, since player input is needed to make progress. For instance, they are playing an RPG and they haven’t killed any monsters, so they don’t make any progress compared to the guy who no-lifes the game. However, this game is much more similar to Politics & War in the sense that time is a big factor in your success, but it is not as much of a hard line as you see in P&W. What this means is that your productivity can still be substantially improved through activity, while in P&W you need to wait ten days for a city timer, even if you are the most active person ever (assuming you have not spent any money).
How To Survive in AD:
However, in order to start playing, you need to understand the core game mechanics! The goal of the game is to reach e308 antimatter. However, there are a lot of steps to this, and this should not be expected to be achieved shortly, as it is a long process. What this means is that the currency that you see now at the top of the browser “You have 10.0 antimatter” needs to reach e308. This may seem difficult, as it seems like a massive number. However, game mechanics make this a lot easier. You may have noticed that the first dimension begins with the cost of 10.0 antimatter. This is important as the only way to get antimatter, in the beginning, is through these dimensions, which create antimatter passively. Therefore, your first step should be to purchase the first dimension.
Concept of Dimensions:
This first dimension will start to create antimatter for you. You can watch it increase, but what is more important is the unlock you get from buying the first dimension. You unlock the second dimension. This reveals the chaining mechanic of the dimensions in this game. Basically, the first dimension creates antimatter for you. You may think that the second dimension is even better at creating antimatter, and while this is in a way true, is not actually true. Instead, the second dimension creates more first dimensions, and the third dimension creates more second dimensions, etc. Additionally, the rank of the dimensions also matters in its productivity. You may have noticed that once you purchase the 10 first dimensions or 10-second dimensions, the productivity of the dimensions increases and the cost for the dimension goes up dramatically.
This is important as it is a substantial productivity boost. Anyways, with your new antimatter from your first dimensions, you can buy the 10 first dimensions or build more second dimensions. You can see the number of dimensions you have next to the name, as well as the percentage increase of dimensions that the greater dimensions contribute to the lower one. The rest of the initial grind is pretty self-explanatory, as you continue building up your first/second dimensions.
Mid-Game Progression in AD:
Eventually, you will reach ten thousand antimatter, denoted in the game as K. This will unlock the tick speed upgrade, another important aspect of the game. If you were previously looking around the achievements list, you likely saw a few achievements that affected the tick speed of the game. Essentially, tick speed is how fast the game goes. Tickseed is the length of time that the game computes the antimatter production, so when you decrease your tick speed, you are decreasing the interval in ticks. Therefore, you get more antimatter production.
When you first unlock the tick speed, you can spend 10k to reduce the tick speed by 11% from 1000 to 890. This is very effective, as it essentially improves the production of antimatter by 11%. After this, the games become idler and idler, as you start to build more third/fourth dimensions and continue to invest in the tick speed. The price of tick speed increases by a magnitude of 10 every time, so it isn’t wise to throw everything you have into it. You may think that the rest of the game is pretty self-explanatory, as you will just continue to buy more and more dimensions and tick speed upgrades until you reach greater amounts of antimatter.
Late Game Strategies:
when you are more progressed in the game, you may notice that after purchasing the fourth dimension, the fifth dimension does not appear to be bought. Instead, a dimension shift is required, which is reflected in the game as it requires 20 fourth dimensions. Therefore, your progression is soft-locked by this dimension shift. This dimension shift qualifies as a prestige layer. This is one major departure that P&W has from other idle games. In idle games, there exists a concept where you remove all your progress in order to gain some meta bonus that you can use in future playthroughs. While this may seem initially not really that great of a decision, it often ends up being one. This is because there are a lot of bonuses when it comes to essentially rebirthing, and it becomes easier to progress in the long run. Therefore, when the opportunity arises to dimension shift, it is most optimal too, as the fifth dimension will be unlocked, unlocking the chaining mechanic for the fourth dimension. Additionally, when a dimension shift occurs, the first dimension becomes twice as effective. This is denoted through the x2.0 next to the first dimension title, so it becomes much easier to reach higher antimatter levels. This is supported by the traditional x10 increase as well.
After your first dimension shift, the game becomes more and more similar, as your dimension shift until the next prestige layer. This is because every dimension shift unlocks the next dimension one at a time, so until you reach the ability to create at least eight dimensions, dimension shifts will be the only way to essentially progress. This does not sound as tedious as it may seem, however, because, after every dimension shift, the dimensions become more and more effective at their jobs, leading to an exponential increase in antimatter. Furthermore, due to the power of chaining dimensions, antimatter drastically increases during this stage. However, after you are able to reach antimatter galaxies, the game reaches another prestige layer. Antimatter galaxies, as the tooltip says, are very helpful in reducing tick speed by a substantial amount, making progress even easier. After antimatter galaxies are purchased, the game continues to grow in a similar manner after a while. Make sure to look at achievements, because at this point, some achievements that give bonuses are achievable. A common theme with this game is the prevalence of many different forms of prestige layers, which is later seen with the dimensional sacrifice and challenge mechanics, both of which gives separate bonuses.
Good Luck and Have fun!