Get skill points. Make purchases count.

Look for Skill Point Diamonds in the shop, then use the machine containing the Skill Tree. If an upgrade will not buy despite a sufficient balance, check its prerequisite and try holding the purchase input. The last two checks come from one player's reply, so treat them as troubleshooting suggestions, not a guaranteed fix.

The most important version check is Update 1.3. It adds more diamonds for early progression, fixes a bug that prevented picking them up, improves tree readability and adds ability cooldown and duration information. Update the game before spending a long time troubleshooting behavior described in an older launch video.

Points are a resource, not ordinary experience

The store describes an incremental character progression system, but that does not mean every case grants traditional RPG experience. Diamonds are explicitly named Skill Point Diamonds in the official 1.3 notes. A player answering the level-up question says that diamonds can be found around the shop and obtained through the slot machine.

Keep those paths separate. Searching for a visible diamond is a direct collection task. Using the machine spends another resource for a random result. A spin that does not produce a diamond is not proof that the progression system has failed. Nor should an old promotional screenshot showing a large point balance be used as a target for a fresh save.

Patch 1.3 also adds an early explanation of the machine that contains the Skill Tree. Follow that introduction and inspect the machine's current prompt. The official screenshots show the tree interface, but they do not establish a reliable launch-version map coordinate or a complete route through every node.

Read the node before committing points

For each upgrade, check the effect, currency, cost and connection to already owned nodes. A balance displayed elsewhere on the HUD may belong to a different currency. Compare the symbol beside the price with the symbol beside the balance instead of assuming that every number is spendable on the same screen.

The tree is visibly connected by branches in official imagery. That makes prerequisites a useful diagnostic question, but it does not establish that every line has the same unlocking rule. Let the current node description tell you whether an earlier upgrade is required. Do not buy an unrelated branch merely because it is close to the one you want.

Promotional imagery includes a Triple Jump node. Its pictured price is from a promotional capture, so it is not reproduced here as a current cost. The live tree should be your price list. This matters even more after a patch that changes progression and ability balance.

Have gems but cannot buy an upgrade?

In a Polish community thread, a player reports having 22 gems while being unable to buy an upgrade costing three. A reply suggests holding rather than clicking and checking whether another upgrade must be bought first. There is no confirmation from the original poster that either action solved the problem, and the developer has not identified that exact report as a fixed bug.

Try these checks in order:

1. Confirm that the game has downloaded the latest update.
2. Select the intended node and read its full current description.
3. Match the cost's currency symbol to your available balance.
4. Inspect any stated prerequisite or locked connection.
5. Follow the purchase prompt; if a short click does nothing, try holding it as the player suggested.
6. Check whether the balance changes and the node becomes owned before buying another upgrade.

Stop if the display becomes inconsistent. Record which node you selected, its shown cost, the balance and the input you used. Those details make a useful bug report; repeatedly buying other skills to see what happens can spend the points you were trying to protect.

Choose upgrades around your current bottleneck

Movement and whole-series pickup are confirmed ability examples in the Steam description. Their best order depends on your routine. Movement helps when you know where boxes belong but spend most of the time travelling. Collection abilities help when gathering the pieces of a series is the slow step. Read the effect rather than choosing by icon alone.

For active abilities, compare cooldown and duration as well as the headline effect. Update 1.3 adds those base statistics to the tree and makes cooldowns substantially shorter when abilities are upgraded. An old demonstration of a long cooldown can therefore understate an upgraded ability's current usefulness. The patch does not publish a complete numerical table, so there is no justified universal rotation or fixed cooldown chart here.

Buy one relevant upgrade, use it during a familiar sorting pass and assess whether it reduces the work you actually repeat. This is a decision method, not a tested fastest build. It also makes a confusing result easier to diagnose than buying many different effects before trying any of them.

Protect a no-spend challenge

Masochist requires finishing without spending any skill points. The official wording does not say that merely collecting a diamond fails the challenge. It also does not fully explain how non-point rewards interact with the achievement, so do not assume every alternative upgrade is safe.

If you want to attempt that challenge, keep the run distinct from an ordinary upgraded shift and avoid point purchases. If your aim is to explore the tree or pursue BIG BOSS, plan an upgraded run instead. Those two goals ask for opposite decisions about spending. Our achievement guide lists the conditions together so you can choose before committing.

If your problem is the machine rather than the tree, continue with Jeff and tokens. If a collected-item reveal seems wrong, remember that 1.3 corrected its displayed information; compare the current screen with the shop before assuming a collectible is missing.