Just dropping this off from Discord.

Buying Nodes does not increase prices for the diamond and circle skills. Diamond skills cost less than Circles. Buying a Diamond skill doesn't increase the Circle's price, and vice-versa. Buying either of the above doesn't increase node prices.

Since they share the same "Type." Basic nodes increases other basics. Diamonds increases diamonds. Circles increases circles. But none increases the other types. And crit% and damage are diamonds, which costs considerably less than circles.

If you happen to buy 3 Resist Skills before buying Bullet Eraser, tha's 1500 more to it's cost. ~3k to buy. Ideally, to go through the grid, you'd want to go to diamonds first. Taking the least nodes path possible. So if you focus getting circles you WILL run out of shards, and fast. If you focus nodes (like extra damage/armor nodes) you can increase 1 node (3-parts) cost to be higher than a diamond's cost.

This is such a balanced leveling tree, but it's also a nightmare.

(Easy) Base Stats: Armor 0 Health 200 Shield 50 Luck 133% Damage 53

(Without Discount Mask) Node cost: 30 base. 5 increase per "tick" Health: +15, 45 total Damage: +4, 12 total (it says +3, but easy gets +4 per tick. With Melee+15% it changes to +5) Shield: +5, 15 total Luck: 2%, 6% total Armor: +1, 3 total

Diamond skill base cost: 100. 350 for the next, so 250 increase. Circle Skill base cost: 200. 800 for the next. 600 increase.