Mandatory internet connection is back on consoles as new PlayStation DRM disables your license after 30 days

Those who were around leading up to the Xbox One’s release in 2013 will not-so-fondly remember all the drama about Microsoft’s initial plans to make the console always online. There was total outrage during those days, and the sentiment of preserving offline play on all platforms has largely remained, though I can’t say that it isn’t dwindling nowadays.

And it seems Sony is well aware of the evaporation of offline gaming, as its new DRM solution seems to require players to check in with the company every 30 days at risk of losing their license. To put it simply, you have to go online at least once every month or so to avoid your license being disabled, preventing the game from being launched offline as long as the license isn’t reactivated by connecting to the internet.

This seems to have been put in place for a while now, generally targeting PlayStation 4, but as per Lance McDonald, it could be that every new digital purchase on both the PS4 and the PS5 is affected. “Every digital game you buy now requires an online check-in every 30 days,” he said.

DRMs requiring license reactivation are nothing new. Denuvo, one of the most popular DRM solutions among mainstream publishers, can sometimes require you to go online so it can reissue a valid token to your machine, allowing the related game to run offline. These tokens apparently expire after a few weeks and need to be reissued.

The same mechanism could be in place here, though there’s also a chance that it’s a bug of some kind. If it is, it’s pretty elaborate for a “mistake” and is, to my eyes, at least a segue into a future of more invasive DRM measures of which I had written before.

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Vampire Crawlers has a huge list of gems that you can unlock and draft in your run, and you should always aim for the overpowered ones. While all gems have their respective use-case scenarios, a few work well with almost any card. These gems offer widespread synergy that will help the applicable cards to elevate the strength of the deck and raise the odds of you completing the stages without an issue.

Which are the best Gems to use in Vampire Crawlers

The table below has a list of some of my favorite gems in Vampire Crawlers. I have also given brief explanations on why I have considered them.

Name	Effect	Reason
Double Damage/Triple Damage	Doubles/Triples the damage done by a card	Works well with any card that deals damage, but more so with single-target choices. Cards that target single enemies typically have serious damage. You can amplify it by putting a Double/Triple damage Gem. Those cards can be extremely useful against all enemies, but more so against bosses.
Drain	Heals when the card kills an enemy	While you’ll always take some damage, it’s not an easy task to heal yourself. You can use a specific high-damage card as a healing item if you manage to land a kill with it.
Easy Combo	The card always benefits from the combo	This is my favorite gem out of all options since it completely bypasses the traditional rule of playing cards in ascending mana order to trigger the combo. You can create combos with cards that won’t be possible without the Easy Combo Gem.
Refund	Refunds mana to play the card	Having more mana makes it easier to create combos and deal with enemies. When you play a card that has the Refund gem, you’ll get back the mana you spent. That way, you get the chance to play more cards and trigger any resulting combo if that’s applicable.
Evolution	Evolves the card into a more powerful weapon	This is an amazing gem to get if you’ve one part of a powerful evolution. You can then automatically complete the evolution (without the full requirements) and create a more potent item.
Countdown	Mana cost reduces when not used.	This is another smart way to manage mana, but it’s slightly complex. The idea is not to play the card with this gem, which will then reduce the mana cost. When you play it the next time, it will cost less than the previous turn. You can again refrain from playing it to further reduce the mana cost, and it can drop down to zero.
Wild	Makes the card Wild	If you insert this on a card, it will turn it into a Wild Card. While Wild Cards can be played only once per turn, they can become a part of a combo chain even if it doesn’t meet the basic requirement of the ascending mana cost. Combined with Easy Combo, this is a useful way to trigger more combos per turn.
Reverse Combo	Allows the next card to continue the combo while breaking the base rule of increasing mana ascendancy	When you play a card with the Reverse Combo gem, the next card will always trigger a combo, irrespective of its mana cost.

There are plenty of other gem options that you can also utilize on your run. This guide will provide you with a quick rundown of what each does inside the game. Also, pay attention to your Power Ups since they will also play a key role in determining how impactful a gem will be.

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