A prestige mechanic (or simply, prestige, or prestiging as a verb) is when you reset a significant chunk of your progress to the start of a game. In incremental games, this is done with a more permanent benefit, and can sometimes span multiple layers. This was first introduced in Call of Duty 4, where you gain a “prestige level” when you reset your rank back to 1.
Multi-layered prestige
In incremental games, the prestige mechanic(s) often span multiple layers. For example:
- The first prestige layer resets the progress of the entire game, and say you get +10x Attack.
- Prestiging again within this layer does not reset the +10x Attack. It still resets the whole game. If you get +10x Attack again, this will stack.
- The second prestige layer resets the progress of the layers above it.
- So if you have +1000x Attack from the first prestige layer, that will also be reset. But you will usually be rewarded with more powerful upgrades. Tedium-wise, prestiging in incremental games will make progressing through layers faster in each reset. For example, in Antimatter Dimensions, you may spend a few days or weeks in the base game; but after a number of prestiges, you go through the base game (or the base layer) in a matter of seconds.