Helium

Helium is a resource unlocked after beating the Dimension of Anger, a unique map that is created by buying Anger, an upgrade awarded for completing zone 20. It can be used to level up Perks. Along with Helium the player also unlocks the Portal, which allows for soft-resetting your game. Perks and Helium last throughout Portals.

How to get Helium

There are currently six ways to get Helium:

1. If you've played in the Beta (before version 0.9), importing the beta save export into the newest release will award you an amount of Helium which correlates to the zone you finished in.
2. Completion of The Dimension of Anger, which awards 45 Helium (not affected by any perks).
3. Killing any Blimp or Improbability or Omnipotrimp after completion of The Dimension of Anger. Those imps spawn in the last cell of every zone after zone 21. You need to beat The Dimension of Anger at least once in your save to gain Helium from them. If it was beaten in another run, they will award Helium even if The Dimension of Anger hasn't been beaten in your current run. Check Rewards for exact values.
4. Killing the Cthulimp at the end of a Void map, which rewards helium equal to twice the amount earned from the Blimp or Improbability or Omnipotrimp of the current zone. The only exception is zone 59, which awards Blimp's helium through Void maps even though the zone has an Improbability at the end.
5. Clearing cells which do not have any loot on them in the Spire. Also rewarded by clearing certain cells in the Spire. Check the Spire page for more details.
6. Buying Bone Portals in the Bone Trader menu for 100 Bones each. The Helium awarded corresponds to the highest Helium one has ever obtained on a single run.

Rewards

Note: You must beat The Dimension of Anger at least once in your save file to gain Helium from completing zones. If you've completed Zone 21 or above before doing so, the Helium you would have otherwise gotten is lost. This only matters during the first run.

Helium rewards from completing zones can be increased with the Looting and Looting II perks and other bonuses. The final Helium after base formulas and Looting is rounded down.

For sources of Helium below zone 21 (such as Void Maps), base Helium is 1 for z1-z19 and 2 for z20. Increased by Looting and rounded down as normal.

Formula

This is the formula for calculating Helium awards for each zone from defeating that zone's cell 100 boss. The Base Helium is calculated as follows:

a1 =  1.35 * ([Current Zone] - 19);

a2 =  1.23 ^ sqrt (a1);

a   =  round (a1 + a2)

This part of the formula applies if the zone number is 59 or higher (Improbabitity Bonus):

b = 5

This part of the formula applies if the zone number is after the beginning of Magma (zone 230) (Omnipotrimp Bonus):

b = 15

This part of the formula applies if the zone number is after the beginning of True Corruption (180 by default but can be lowered by Headstart masteries) (Corruption Bonus):

c = 2

This part of the formula applies with the Scientist V challenge completed in the run:

d = (1.005 ^ [Current zone reached number])

This part of the formula applies only with the Toxicity challenge enabled:

e =  (1 + ([Toxic stacks] * 0.0015))

This part of the formula applies only with the Lead challenge enabled if current zone is an odd number:

e =  2

This part of the formula covers the bonus from Golden Helium:

f =  (1 + [Golden Helium Bonus in %] * 0.01)

This part of the formula covers additional bonuses from the Looting and Looting II perks:

g =  (1 + [Looting level] * 0.05)

h =  (1 + [Looting II level] * 0.0025)

This part of the formula applies if the player beat a minimum of one row in the Spire (this bonus goes above 10 for additional Spires):

i =   (1 + (0.02 * [Spire rows beaten]))

This part of the formula covers the bonus from Wind (only on zones with Wind):

j =  (1 + ([Wind empowerment level] * 0.1) * [Number of Wind stacks] * 0.01)

This part of the formula covers the bonus from Challenge²:

k =  (1 + [Challenge² bonus in %] * 0.01)

The Helium reward is then obtained from the formula below and the final number is rounded down (if bonus is absent then corresponding letter is assigned a value of 1):

l = a * b * c * d * e * f * g * h * i * j * k

Final = floor (l)

Math functions:

• round - round to the nearest number (ex. 1.3 = 1; 1.5 = 2)
• sqrt - square root
• floor - round number down to the nearest integer (ex. 1.3 = 1; 1.5 = 1)

For Void Maps, the helium bonus is further multipled by 2 (Void Map Bonus) and Void Specialization (25% per 100 Zones cleared last Portal) if the Mastery is purchased. In addition, all mutations (Corruption and Healthy) in the current zone are also taken into account and added to this for the final value.

One can see the Helium breakdown clearly by clicking on the present icon next to the enemy imps and then clicking on the Helium category.

Trivia

• Starting patch 3.22, Megablimp now drops 45 helium up from 30.