Crafting and pet evolution
Crafting turns several pets of one form into a single pet of the next form up. The chain runs Basic, Golden, Rainbow, Astral, Nova, and each step multiplies mining power by 3: a Golden is 3x a Basic, a Rainbow 9x, an Astral 27x and a Nova 81x.
For everything below Nova the system is one number: how many copies you feed the machine. Feed one and it is a long shot. Feed six and it cannot fail. Everything in between is a gamble you are choosing on purpose.
How many pets, what chance
| Step | Chance |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | 13% |
| Step 2 | 29% |
| Step 3 | 47% |
| Step 4 | 63% |
| Step 5 | 88% |
| Step 6 | 100% |
| Nova (6 Astral) | 50% to 80% |
The craft odds ladder
These chances are fixed and they apply at every step from Golden up to Astral.
| Pets fed in | Chance of success |
|---|---|
| 1 | 13% |
| 2 | 29% |
| 3 | 47% |
| 4 | 63% |
| 5 | 88% |
| 6 | 100% |
Nova does not use this table
The Nova Machine has its own model. It always takes exactly 6 Astral pets, it starts at 50%, and the Nova Forge nodes in the Supernova tree raise it to a hard ceiling of 80%. There is no rung at which a Nova is guaranteed.
At the guaranteed rate on the ladder above, the chain compounds fast. One Astral is six Rainbows, which is thirty six Goldens, which is two hundred and sixteen Basic pets. Worth remembering before you release a bag of Commons.
If crafting fails
A failed fusion burns every copy you loaded into it, which is what you are paying to avoid when you feed the machine six.
For a Golden, Rainbow or Astral fusion the loss is not always final. The game writes you a receipt at the moment it fails and quotes a rewind price in Gems or in TimeStars depending on the pet. Pay it within twelve hours and the pets come back. The price is frozen at the moment of the failure, so it cannot climb while you think about it.
Two things narrow that. The cheapest failures are treated as a plain loss and no receipt is offered at all, and recovered pets come back at base size with new zodiac signs. A Paradox in between also voids the receipt, because those pets belong to a Cycle that has ended.
A failed Nova is different. There is no receipt and no rewind. The six Astral pets are gone.
The Shiny carry rule
Craft from a Shiny input and the output is Shiny, guaranteed, on every rung. Shine doubles a pet's mining power and multiplies what it is worth by 10, so a Shiny Basic does far more for you as fuel than as a sale.
A Shiny source also doubles the coin fee the machine charges to run.
Where the machines are
The four evolution machines open one at a time, spread across the whole run.
- Level 6: the Golden Machine, one of the first real decisions in the game
- Level 28: the Rainbow Machine
- Level 40 and your first Paradox: the Astral Machine
- Level 60 and your first Supernova: the Nova Machine
Crafting gives experience too
Fusing is a real experience source at the higher tiers. A hatch pays experience equal to its world number, so one point in the first world and ten in the tenth, and a single Astral craft pays three hundred.
| Craft | Experience |
|---|---|
| Golden pet | 30 |
| Rainbow pet | 90 |
| Astral pet | 300 |
| Nova pet | 300 |
| Any item craft | 1 |
Item crafting is a different system
Pets are not the only thing you craft. The shuttle carries a chain of industrial stations that turn ore into components, and consumable stations sit beside them. Those stations share one console, and by default a tap makes exactly one item.
The quantity slider on that console is a research purchase. Until you own the mass craft research the slider stays locked at one, so the same station can be a slow grind for one player and a quick job for another.
How does crafting work in Time Heroes?
Crafting in Time Heroes feeds copies of one pet into a machine to produce one pet of the next form. Below Nova the success chance depends only on the input count, from 13% for a single pet up to 100% for six.
What happens if a craft fails in Time Heroes?
The pets you loaded are burned. For a Golden, Rainbow or Astral fusion you get a receipt and twelve hours to buy them back with Gems or TimeStars at a frozen price. A failed Nova has no recovery.
How do I get a Shiny pet from crafting?
Craft with a Shiny pet as an input and the result is guaranteed Shiny, which means double mining power and 10 times the worth. From a plain input, only the Shiny Pet Craft research gives the output any shine chance.
Is a Nova ever guaranteed?
No. The Nova Machine starts at 50% and the Nova Forge nodes stop at 80%. It always takes exactly 6 Astral pets and it can always fail.