Path of Idle Prison guide: rarity, growth and the Conviction meter

Three separate things happen in the Prison, and they are easy to confuse. Bewitch spends gold to turn a prisoner into a Godsworn. Torment spends blood to change a prisoner’s primary attribute growth. Warp spends blood to change a prisoner’s rarity. Only Bewitch actually recruits.

Rarity is the largest single decision

The game’s own description is direct: higher rarity grants greater attribute growth and additional talent points. The numbers are on the hero qualities page.

A Mythic hero starts with four more talent points than a Common one and gains twice the pool per level. Across eighty levels that gap is not closable with gear.

Higher rarities do not appear at all until you buy them. Rare prisoners cost a 400 bone Prison upgrade, Legendary costs 1,000, and Mythic costs 2,200. Until those are bought, refreshing forever will not produce them.

Torment and the Conviction meter

Torment changes a Godsworn’s primary attribute growth, and it moves a meter called Conviction. Pushing that meter too far in either direction ends in Breakdown or Frenzy, and a prisoner at either extreme is no longer recruitable.

So Torment is a limited number of attempts, not a slot machine you can pull forever. Stop while the meter still has room.

Two Prison upgrades soften this. Enhanced Torment gives a 10% chance that Conviction does not change at all on a Torment, and a later node raises that to 15%, with a third node at 15% again. Those are the upgrades to buy if you intend to reroll growth seriously.

There is also a way around the limit entirely. The Blood Crystal curio rerolls the attribute growth of the current Godsworn after recruitment, so a prisoner whose growth is wrong but whose rarity and class are right can be recruited first and fixed later. Blood Crystals can be unlocked for Combine through Sanctum upgrades.

Warp

Warp changes rarity, and it moves Conviction the same way Torment does, with the same Breakdown and Frenzy risk.

Two upgrades raise the odds it moves rarity upward rather than downward: Enhanced Warp at 1,900 bone gives +25%, and a second at 6,100 bone gives +35%. Without them, Warp is close to a coin flip on an expensive prisoner.

The practical pattern most players settle on is to refresh until the class and rarity are close, Warp if the rarity is one step short, then Torment a few times and stop, then Bewitch.

Which Prison upgrades are worth it

The Prison has 62 upgrades: 20 building levels, 2 unlocks, and 40 boosts. Some are clearly better than others.

Prisoner Count appears seven times, each adding one to the number of prisoners shown. More visible prisoners means more choices per refresh, which compounds with every other upgrade in this building.

Prisoner Rarity Up appears five times: +30%, +30%, +40%, +40% and +50% to the chance of high rarity prisoners appearing. Combined with the three rarity unlocks, this is what turns a Mythic sighting from rare into routine.

Skill Count appears three times, each showing one more skill on new prisoners. This matters because a prisoner’s skills are visible before you pay, so seeing more of them means fewer surprises after recruiting.

Two late nodes are worth calling out: Legendary Prisoner Mutation at 4,400 bone gives Legendary prisoners one Mutated Skill, a random skill from another class, and Mythic Prisoner Mutation does the same for Mythic prisoners. Cross class skills are otherwise only reachable through runewords and Temple Inspire.

Cost reduction nodes exist for all four actions: Bewitch at 10% each across five nodes, Replace at 10% across three, Torment at 10% across three, and Warp at 15% across three. Buy these when gold or blood is the thing stopping you rather than choice.

Prison level raises the floor

The 20 building levels raise the level range that new prisoners spawn at. Level 1 gives prisoners at levels 2 to 4. Level 10 gives 30 to 33. Level 20 gives 80 to 86.

This matters more than it looks late in the game. A newly recruited hero at level 80 skips the entire levelling problem, which is otherwise solved by feeding souls. The farming guide covers where the best souls drop.

Every Prison upgrade costs bone, and the building’s full tree is 178,200 bone in total. The town upgrade planner will price a specific path before you commit.

What to do first

Buy the three rarity unlocks in order as bone allows: Rare at 400, Legendary at 1,000, Mythic at 2,200. Then Prisoner Count and Prisoner Rarity Up nodes, because they multiply everything else. Torment and Warp support nodes come after you actually have prisoners worth improving.

For what a recruited hero does next, see the Temple guide, which covers Blessing, Baptism and Inspire.