Prestige Reset

A prestige reset lets the player give up the current run, with its coins and upgrades, and get permanent points back. The points come from everything ever earned, grow with the square root, and are paid only once. They stay for good and raise earnings in every later run. A reset that pays too little is refused.

Also called: Rebirth, Ascension, Soft reset, Reset for a bonus.

A tall crane-like clockmaker pulls a lever as a big clock mechanism collapses into loose gears and coins, while one glowing star-shaped gear rises from the heap into its palm and a row of jars holds the ones from earlier resets. — Cogwrought Dawn, an invented clockmaker's rebuilding game. Invented game, image generated with AI.

Paste this to your AI

Copy it into Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT. It already has good values and the usual mistakes in it.

Add "Prestige Reset" to my game.

What it should do: A prestige reset turns a run that has slowed down into a fresh start that is faster than the last one. The player gives up a lot, gets something lasting, and the game can go on for much longer without running out of numbers.

Build it exactly as this state machine. First check that it fits my game, then build it like this:

```mermaid
stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> fresh
  fresh: Fresh run
  building: Building up
  ready: Worth a reset
  fresh --> building: first coins earned
  fresh --> ready: one huge haul
  building --> ready: a point is within reach
  ready --> fresh: player resets
```

Use these starting values:
- threshold: 1000 coins
- bonusPerPoint: 10 %
- minGain: 1 points
- upgradeCost: 10 coins
- costGrowth: 1.5

Watch out for these common mistakes:
- The same coins pay twice: Tell your AI: pay only the difference between what everything earned is worth and the points already paid.
- A reset wipes the permanent bonus: Tell your AI: a reset clears only the coins, the run earnings and the upgrades. Points, the total earned and the count of resets are kept.
- A reset for almost nothing: Tell your AI: set a minimum payout, refuse a reset below it, and show the player what the reset would pay before they confirm.
- The reward grows in step with the effort: Tell your AI: use the square root, so four times the effort gives twice the points.
- Bonuses multiply each other: Tell your AI: add the bonuses up, so each point adds the same amount: ten points at 10 percent each double the earnings.
- A number too big to hold: Tell your AI: ignore any gain that is not a real number or would push the total past what can be held.
- The leftover progress is thrown away: Tell your AI: keep the total earned across resets and work out the points from that total.
- An accidental click wipes a good run: Tell your AI: before the reset, show what it pays, what is lost and what is kept, and make the player confirm.

Do not change anything else in the game. Do not claim anything without proof: model what it takes, and show me what your solution rests on and how I can see that it works. If you cannot show something, say you do not know. When you are done, tell me in plain words how to try it.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP

What it does

A prestige reset turns a run that has slowed down into a fresh start that is faster than the last one. The player gives up a lot, gets something lasting, and the game can go on for much longer without running out of numbers.

How it runs, as a diagram

Everything it can be in, and what moves it on. Your AI builds from exactly this.

How it runs, as a diagram

Fresh run → Building up: first coins earned
Fresh run → Worth a reset: one huge haul
Building up → Worth a reset: a point is within reach
Worth a reset → Fresh run: player resets

Good starting values

Value	Start with	What it changes
threshold	1000 coins	How much must be earned in all for the first point. The second point needs four times as much and the third nine times, so each point is harder to get than the last.
bonusPerPoint	10 %	How much each point adds to all earnings. The points add up and do not multiply each other. At 10, ten points double the earnings.
minGain	1 points	The fewest points a reset must pay. A reset that pays less is refused, so a player does not throw a run away for almost nothing.
upgradeCost	10 coins	What the first upgrade costs in a fresh run.
costGrowth	1.5	How much dearer each next upgrade gets. At 1.5 the price goes up by half each time. Without growth, one upgrade after another would make the run explode.

What usually goes wrong

The same coins pay twice

The game works out the points from everything earned, but forgets what it has already paid. Pressing reset again and again pays the same points every time.

Fix: Tell your AI: pay only the difference between what everything earned is worth and the points already paid.

A reset wipes the permanent bonus

The reset clears everything in one go, including the points and the total earned. The player spent hours for a bonus that is gone the moment they get it.

Fix: Tell your AI: a reset clears only the coins, the run earnings and the upgrades. Points, the total earned and the count of resets are kept.

A reset for almost nothing

The player resets after two minutes, gets nothing, and loses the run. Or the game pays one point so often that resetting becomes the whole game.

Fix: Tell your AI: set a minimum payout, refuse a reset below it, and show the player what the reset would pay before they confirm.

The reward grows in step with the effort

Points are paid in a straight line: twice the coins, twice the points. Each reset makes the next run faster, and the game reaches the end of its numbers within a day.

Fix: Tell your AI: use the square root, so four times the effort gives twice the points.

Bonuses multiply each other

Each point multiplies the earnings by 1.1 again. Ten points give 2.6 times, thirty give 17 times, and the numbers soon explode.

Fix: Tell your AI: add the bonuses up, so each point adds the same amount: ten points at 10 percent each double the earnings.

A number too big to hold

Earnings grow until the computer can no longer hold the number. The total becomes 'infinity', the points become 'not a number', and the save file is ruined.

Fix: Tell your AI: ignore any gain that is not a real number or would push the total past what can be held.

The leftover progress is thrown away

The player is at 3000 of the 4000 needed for the next point and resets. The game forgets the 3000 and starts counting from zero.

Fix: Tell your AI: keep the total earned across resets and work out the points from that total.

An accidental click wipes a good run

The reset button sits next to the shop buttons. One slip and hours of progress are gone, with no way to see what was lost or gained.

Fix: Tell your AI: before the reset, show what it pays, what is lost and what is kept, and make the player confirm.

How to check it works

A fresh game. the player earns 100: the coins, the run earnings and the total earned all read 100.
A player with 10 coins and an upgrade that costs 10. the player buys it and then earns 100: the coins read 200, since each upgrade adds a whole earning.
A fresh run with a first price of 10 and growth of 1.5. you look at the prices of the first four upgrades: they are 10, 15, 23 and 34, rounded up.
A player with 9 coins and an upgrade that costs 10. the player tries to buy it: the buy is refused and nothing changes.
The first point needs 1000 coins earned in all. you look at the points for 999, 1000, 3999, 4000, 9000 and 16000 coins: they are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3 and 4.
A player who has earned 999 coins in all. the player asks for a reset: the reset is refused and the run stays as it was.
A player who has earned 4000 coins in all and bought an upgrade. the player resets: the coins, run earnings and upgrades are zero, the player has 2 points, the total earned is still 4000 and one reset is counted.
A player who has just reset for 2 points. the player resets again straight away: the second reset is refused and the player still has 2 points.
A player with 2 points and a bonus of 10 percent per point. the player earns 1000: the coins read 1200.
A player who earned 1500, reset for 1 point, and then earns 2500 with a bonus of 10 percent. the screen is drawn: the total earned is 4250, one more point is ready, and 4750 more are needed for the point after.
A player who has earned 9500 coins. the screen shows the points a reset would pay and the player resets: the reset pays exactly the points that were shown, which is 3.
A player who has earned 1000 coins. the player buys an upgrade: the coins drop to 990 but the reset still pays 1 point.
A player with 50 coins. the game earns minus 5, zero, or a number that is not a number or is infinite: the coins stay at 50 and the game notes that nothing changed.

Works well with

Currency Wallet: A reset clears one and keeps the other, so they must never share a number. Points are not spent, they only count. Keep run coins and permanent points in two separate balances from the start.
Achievements: Goals such as a number of resets must survive the reset, so they read the permanent values, never the run values. Count resets and total earned as counters that only go up, outside the run.

Common questions

how do i add a prestige or rebirth system to my game

Let the player reset the run and pay out permanent points based on everything ever earned. Keep the points and the total earned across resets, and clear only the coins and upgrades. Tell your AI to pay only the points not paid yet.

how many prestige points should a reset give

Use the square root of the total earned divided by the first threshold, rounded down. With a threshold of 1000, you need 1000 for the first point, 4000 for the second and 9000 for the third. Four times the effort gives only twice the points.

when should the game let the player prestige

Only when it pays at least one point, or whatever minimum you set. Show the player what the reset would pay, what is lost and what is kept, and ask them to confirm. Below the minimum, refuse and change nothing.

what do i tell my ai to add a prestige reset

Paste this: Add a prestige reset. Points are the square root of the total ever earned divided by 1000, rounded down, minus the points already paid. A reset clears coins and upgrades but keeps points, the total earned and the reset count. Each point adds 10 percent to all earnings, added up and not multiplied. Refuse a reset that pays no points, and show the payout first.

Where it comes from

We could not find a reliable origin for this one yet.

Where this mechanic comes from has not been researched yet.

Games are named only as references. Names and marks belong to their owners, and nothing here is endorsed by them.

What was checked

25 tests pass on the reference code.
The state diagram was checked against the code, at the default values and at every listed low and high value.

This is what separates the blueprint from a catalogue entry: the values on this page come from code that runs.

Your AI gets the code

Tested example code comes through the Spielerando connection, so your AI can use it right away. How to connect it