How prestige works in incremental games

Why resetting makes you stronger

Growth in an incremental game slows as costs rise faster than income. Prestige turns that slowdown into a decision: the progress that is getting expensive to extend is traded for a currency or multiplier that makes every future run cheaper. The second climb is quicker than the first, and it goes past where the first one stopped.

It also lets you see the whole game again at speed. The early upgrades that took an hour take a minute, and the choices you made slowly the first time become a routine you can improve.

How much a reset pays

Most games pay prestige currency from how far you got, and many use a root of your total earnings, so doubling your progress pays well under twice as much. That is deliberate: a reset only pays well when you have gone meaningfully further than last time.

When to reset

A common rule of thumb: reset when progress has slowed to a crawl and the reset would pay a real improvement, often when it would at least double what you already hold. Resetting too early wastes the climb; resetting too late wastes time spent pushing against a wall. Most games show what a reset would pay right now, and watching that number grow is the easiest guide.

Layers of prestige

Deep incremental games stack several resets, each one wiping more and paying more. Antimatter Dimensions moves through Infinity, Eternity and Reality, and each layer changes the rules rather than just the numbers. Clicker Heroes adds transcendence above ascension; Realm Grinder goes from abdication to reincarnation to ascension.

Prestige in Marrow March

Marrow March has two levels. When the wall falls, the run ends but its Essence and the Essence Tree, 100 permanent upgrades, are kept. Above that, a whole line of commanders can end on purpose: everything it built is lost and becomes Legacy, spent on the gifts of the Ancestral Sky, which make every later line climb the same ages faster.