I really like this idle game! The BGM is quite soothing, the formula convinced me to brush up on summation notation from Calc 1, the offline bonus is REALLY GOOD honestly - having the game off accumulates points that you spend on a 20x speed boost for the game during active play time, which can be paused and unpaused if you want precision upgrade timing for challenges. As expected, the click-to-upgrade aspects can all be automated if you persist for a while.
The negatives are - tutorializing is rough, and the user-interface is rougher. This game could inspire you to become a graphic designer just to draft something halfway decent! There are options that are visually unlocked, but shouldn't be for clarity's sake, and many locked options that don't explain how to unlock them, which is a real pet-peeve of mine. The text can be changed, in size and font, but it can also wrap weirdly, hidden by its own box so you can only read the bottom half of the top sentence, and the top half of the bottom sentence. If you really need to read it, mess with text size in the settings menu, which is the gear in the bottom-right of the main spiral screen.
The game does have an explanation section that you can refer back to whenever you want, but it's kind of... incomplete. Thankfully, with this game being several years old now, there's plenty of good guidance in the forums, but you'll have to search the forums with the keyword of what you're stuck on to find it. My problem was that my battle progress stalled because I could not figure out how to unlock Boss 4 - boss 1 is open at the start, and 2 and 3 open from reaching number-defeated milestones, but Boss 4 and beyond all unlock from require Tornado Prestige levels.
Basic gameplay has a few modes you will switch between - first, beef up your main spiral by clicking on the upgrades to the variables of the equation. There are several layers of prestige (reset progress for bonus to speed) right out the gate. First you will encounter w-prestige, which resets your basic upgrades. Then P-prestige, which persists thru repeated w resets, but does not accumulate constantly, P-points are only paid out upon P-prestige, which resets your w progress as well. Then Z points, which accumulate and are spend-able immediately, AND don't get reset by Tornado Prestige, which is REALLY NICE. Z-points accumulate faster the bigger your spiral is, which may convince you to leave the spiral un-prestige-reset for a while, even when progress has stalled and it is just a single white circle, just to rack up the Z-points some more.
And finally, the main spiral can also be reset with Tornado Prestige, in the bottom-left button labeled only "T". Tornado Prestige is the ultimate goal - doing this unlocks everything from new spiral colors to battles and challenges. The first set of challenges has no restrictions, it's just a waiting game to introduce you to the concept. Each challenge wants to be run multiple times, like climbing stairs to reach the next floor. The later challenges will require actual strategy.
Battling is the other piece of the game you will likely spend a lot of time on. It's essentially a race, between you and the boss. It's like an auto-battler rpg here, you bring down the opponent's HP to zero, and you earn one bonus in the panel in the bottom-right of the page. The last bonus earned is EXP, and then you start the same panel over, with the bonuses and the opponent stats both increased very slightly.
You can pause and resume a battle, or exit and reroll the panel's bonuses. BEWARE, the UI is horrible here. If the battle has not started, the upper white icon will reroll the panel, and the lower button will start the battles. If the battle HAS started, the upper white white icon will pause-or-resume the battle, and the lower button will reroll the panel. They literally FLIP. THIS WAS A HORRIBLE DESIGN CHOICE. You can lose a really good set of panel bonuses SO EASILY. So click carefully!!
Once you earn some EXP from each 20 victories, you can upgrade battle stats and main spiral stats by clicking the "to upgrade" button on the center-left. They show way too many options here. Focus on the top section upgrade 13, attack speed. Middle section 1 thru 4. Bottom two sections, ignore. Poke around the other options just to see what they are, and if they are very cheap, you can put points into them, nothing is useless here, but attack speed is king.
On the main spiral page, you can also access the Spiral Points menu. This one... I can't help you with. It mystifies me. Just click 'claim all' and then Daily to do 3 attempts at something, I don't know what. The Spiral Points (should have a different name, imo) can be spent on a wide variety of in-game bonuses like new colors and patterns for the spiral - that are not just cosmetic - as well as levels to battle section, and other things. Prices vary wildly, and the text might wrap weirdly here too, so you might want to change text size to be able to see the whole description of a thing. But also, there is the option to regain all Spiral Points and reallocate them, which is nice. (Wish they had that for the Battle upgrades tab.)
Gameplay loop on a wider scale will start you on the Main Spiral, where you check if you can do a Tornado Prestige or spend Z-points. Then check the daily tab for Spiral Points and spend those. Then you'll want to click the coffee icon in the bottom-right, and choose 'start boost'. Then look at Battles and micro-manage the stats there, and watch the numbers zoom with Boost going! After you're bored with Battles, you go back to Main Spiral, maybe contemplate doing a challenge if not already in one that takes days, like Slow or Drink.
Stare at the spiral and contemplate fluid dynamics and wave functions. Listen to the calming music. Wait for the upper-left x5 counter to come back to full to take a cool screenshot. Then probably close it for the day, comforted by the knowledge that your offline time will be well-rewarded with those boost points :)
TL;DR - yeah, it's got some UI weirdness, and the dev seems AWOL, so they won't fix it. The music is pretty, and it reminds me of math, and it was free, and I can't even SEE a way to pay for micro-transactions, which is a big plus! So yeah, to me, is a solid recommendation for someone who has played idle-clicker games before. Shout-out to Tower Wizard and Magic Archery, which are quite different from Idle Spiral, but are excellent at teaching the basics of basics of the genre!
