What it is
Aether Refiner is part of The Great Cloud. It is a puzzle game you can play anywhere, built on the MMORPG's own crafting: the five chains its world runs on — metallurgy, forestry, alchemy, arcana and textiles — become the pieces on your board, and the creatures that trouble the Cloud turn up to get in your way.
It is also becoming the mobile companion to The Great Cloud MMORPG: a way to carry a piece of the world with you between sessions and, in time, to earn cosmetic things in the puzzle that show up in the world. The first release is the puzzle, complete in itself. The companion side arrives in later versions, and what it will and will not do is set out below.
How a level plays
- Swap two neighbours. Ordinary match-three controls — one swipe, no hidden gestures.
- Three become one. Line up three of the same piece and they do not simply vanish: they refine into a single piece of the next tier, right where you made the match. Three copper ore become a bronze ingot; three ingots become a forged blade.
- Make bigger matches. Four in a row leaves a cleave that clears a whole row or column. Five leaves an Arcane Catalyst that sweeps every piece of one resource off the board.
- Meet the objective. Each level asks you to forge particular pieces, defeat particular creatures, or both, within a move budget. Creatures appear from level four: Gloammite that infest your pieces, armoured Carapace Goliaths, Cinder Stalkers that lock pieces in embers, Lens Sentries that steal moves.
What is in the first release
Version 1.0 — the one going to Google Play.
- Over 2,000 levels, with more coming. Six hand-built tutorial levels, then 2,004 generated ones across 67 chapters themed on the five factions of The Great Cloud. Every level can be beaten without paying anything — each one is played through to a win before it ships.
- No lives, no energy, no timers. Nothing stops you playing. Lose a level and you try again straight away, as many times as you like, for free.
- Plays offline. No account and no connection needed. Progress is saved on your device, and if you sign in to Google Play Games it follows you to a new phone.
- 43 achievements in Google Play Games, from your first refine to the long haul.
- Five boosters, earned by playing. Herd's Lantern, Spark Conductor, Order Cleaver, Mind Harmony and Echo Pulse. You start with some and earn more at milestones through every chapter. None is ever needed to win.
- Looks you can collect. Piece sets, board themes, tile frames and spark trails. Several are earned by finishing chapters; others are in the store.
- An optional store. Booster packs, and permanent cosmetic looks that come back if you reinstall. Bought through Google Play, at Google Play's prices. Nothing in it is needed to play or to win, and nothing bought here reaches the MMORPG.
- Companion features are not in this version. The "World" tab shows you where the MMORPG is; linking an account and earning things for it come later.
What is coming
Planned for later versions. None of this is in version 1.0, and each item ships as its own release with its own review.
- Optional ads for free power-ups. For example: run out of moves, and you can choose to watch a short video for five more, free. Only ever your choice — never an interruption, never needed to finish a level.
- More levels. The generator keeps going; new chapters ship as updates, every level beatable for free.
- More looks. New piece sets and board themes as they are painted.
- Companion mode. Link your Great Cloud account and carry the world with you: lore, world art, and the companions you have met in the MMORPG.
- Rewards that cross over. Puzzle achievements that unlock cosmetic items for your MMORPG character — appearance and prestige, never power, resources or trading advantage.
The rules it follows
These are design commitments, not release notes. They hold for the first version and for every version after it.
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Free to play, as much as you like
No lives, no energy bar, no waiting for a refill, no timers. Purchases and ads are optional extras on top of a game that is whole without them.
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Every level can be beaten without paying or watching anything
A solver plays every shipped level within its base move budget using legal moves only, with no boosters, and checks that no level can reach a dead board. A build does not ship if that test fails.
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Purchases here never buy power there
Anything sold or earned in Aether Refiner is cosmetic or convenience for the puzzle. It can never grant combat power, levels, resources, crafting advantage or an economic edge in The Great Cloud MMORPG — and when rewards do cross over, it is the game server, not your phone, that decides what you have earned.
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Ads, when they come, are opt-in only
Rewarded videos you choose to watch, for a free power-up. No interstitials, no pop-ups mid-puzzle, nothing disguised as part of the game.
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No dark patterns
No countdown sales, no "only 3 left", no fake players celebrating. Every booster pack shows exactly what is in it — nothing random is sold. If a level is hard, it is hard on purpose.
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You are told before the app changes what it does with data
The game sends no personal data to us. Its only connections are Google Play's billing and, if you use it, Google Play Games for achievements and cloud save. A version that sends anything — ads included — updates the privacy notice and the Play Data Safety declaration before it is released, not after.
See it in action
A 31-second trailer and eight screenshots, all captured from the real game on a phone.
Play it before launch
Aether Refiner is in a closed playtest on Google Play right now. Sign up with the Google account on your Android phone, and we email you the link to join and install it.
Stay in the test until it ends and send us some feedback, and you get codes for a paid board theme and a booster pack, free, when the game launches. You don't need to rate or review it.