Hearts

Help Marika become “heartier”

Healing Hearts

The heart collectable restores Marika’s health. Unlike the Emerald and Sapphire Elixirs, the heart is consumed when Marika touches it. Each heart is worth 6 “ticks”. Each tick will heal Marika by one HP. Once her health is full, each extra tick awards 50 points.

Heart ticks that are not needed for healing also add to the area’s style bonus—so you must decide if you want to consume a heart for health or for points.

Upgrading the Heart

Marika’s friend Desaka runs a store in Lyrika Village. One of the upgrades she sells will increase the number of HP each heart tick restores.

The first heart upgrade costs 5 Denarii (or one gold coin). The cost $C$ of the heart upgrade at level $L$ is computed using a variation of Binet’s Formula.

$$C = 5 \times \frac{\left( \frac{1 + \sqrt{5}}{2} \right)^{L + 2} - \left( \frac{1 - \sqrt{5}}{2} \right)^{L + 2}}{\sqrt{5}}$$

Tip! Upgrading the heart to level 2 (healing 12 HP instead of 6 HP) is a good first purchase to make.

In high level areas, Marika will find hearts that have a higher number of ticks.

Tip! While at the beginning of the game the maximum point value of a heart is modest, eventually hearts become a significant source of EXP. Be sure to level up the heart so that there will be more leftover ticks to contribute to score.