A fusion creates a tile and a new reaction
Alchemia: The Great Work is Bitwise Gaming’s Defold puzzle, created for the 2026 jam’s Chain Reaction theme. You drop reagents onto a bench. Three or more alike fuse upward through tiers including Ash, Salt, Quicksilver, Vitriol, Solar Phial and Aetherium, toward the Philosopher’s Stone.
A new tile also fires a pulse. That second effect matters when choosing a placement: the board after a fusion may differ from the board you aimed at. The developer describes cascades that heat the crucible and multiply gold as the chain continues. No exact multiplier formula or guaranteed chain length is established here.
Aim with the mouse, a drag gesture, arrow keys or WASD. Drop with a click, tap, Space or Enter. The top-right pause button or Esc pauses the game. These are the published controls; this guide is a rules reference, not a completed campaign playtest.
Check the pulse before committing your drop
The official page names the following effects. Use this list to identify what a newly created tile can change nearby. It is not a diagram of a particular chamber or a claim that every tier has the same range.
| Tile / feature | Published pulse | What to inspect |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | Pulls in Salt from two cells away | Nearby Salt before the fusion |
| Quicksilver | Draws the nearest reagents inward | Which reagents are nearest |
| Vitriol | Dissolves lead | Lead on the bench |
| Solar Phial | Transmutes its row and column | The line through the new tile |
| Vortex | Spins its ring | The surrounding ring |
Use grand fusions and Catalysts with different expectations
Fusing five or more matching reagents is a grand fusion and produces a bonus tile. It has an additional benefit beyond the normal three-or-more merge. Whether you can safely wait for five depends on the current board and objective; the listing does not establish “always wait for five” as a winning rule.
Long chains earn a Catalyst, described as a wild reagent that becomes whatever makes the biggest fusion. That is an automatic rule in the published description, not a promise that you can freely select any tier. No exact chain threshold, tie-break rule or reusable Catalyst farming route has been verified for this guide.
Before dropping a Catalyst, inspect the matching groups around your intended placement. That follows from its stated biggest-fusion behavior. It remains a planning suggestion, not a tested solution to a numbered chamber.
Choose a mode by the task you want to finish
Campaign contains seven towers and 70 hand-built chambers. Each chamber has a goal and up to three stars. The towers introduce mechanics such as freezing rime, powder kegs, turning gear rails, sigils, mirrors and aether rifts; the final tower combines them. Read the chamber goal rather than assuming a long chain alone earns all three stars.
Endless runs until the bench fills, using towers opened through Campaign. The Workshop spends banked gold on Endless upgrades such as insulation, a stash slot, bellows and a scrying glass, as well as bench themes. Do not assume those purchases change Campaign rules: the official page specifically labels them Endless upgrades.
Daily Crucible gives everyone the same bench and pieces for that day, with a daily leaderboard. A route from a different date may start from a different setup. There is no current daily solution or 70-room walkthrough in this reference.
The developer also lists chamber, tower, total-star and chain leaderboards on WaveDash. This confirms the intended score categories, not a score submission or leaderboard entry tested by Nisu.
Keep local progress and WaveDash cloud saves separate
The developer says progress saves locally, with cloud save on WaveDash. Those are different storage arrangements. Returning to the same local browser is distinct from expecting a cloud-backed account on another host to contain that progress.
The listing links to the WaveDash edition, but does not document automatic migration from an itch.io save or a conflict-resolution process. Do not assume switching hosts moves a campaign, Workshop purchase or daily score. We have not tested cloud synchronization or account recovery.
If keeping a run matters, check the edition and save state you are using before switching browsers or clearing site storage. Use the host’s own account and save interface for cloud features; no account credentials are needed by this article.
Quick help
How many matching reagents make a fusion?
Three or more alike fuse into the next tier. Five or more also produce a bonus tile, according to the developer’s grand-fusion rule.
What does the Catalyst become?
The published description says it becomes whatever makes the biggest fusion. The exact long-chain threshold for earning one and tie-break behavior are not documented here.
Do Workshop upgrades apply to the campaign?
The official page calls them Endless upgrades. This guide does not assume that they also change Campaign chambers.
Does everyone get the same Daily Crucible board?
Yes, the developer says the bench and pieces are the same for everyone on that day. That does not make a solution from another date applicable.
Does an itch.io save automatically move to WaveDash?
No automatic transfer is documented in the official listing. It distinguishes local progress from WaveDash cloud saves; cross-host migration has not been verified.
Source and scope
This independent guide draws on Play Alchemia on itch.io, checked on Oct 12, 2026. Published requirements and rules come from the linked sources; practice routines and examples are Nisu editorial suggestions.