There are at least achievements for beating the hardened levels. I suspect there are for getting all the techs but it would have extended my play time a lot to try for those so I haven't bothered.

Edited 8/10/2021 02:45:18

One of the new achievements (listed in my un-completed queue) is "Unlock all Ore rewards from defeating levels fast."
That one's going to take awhile. I was at like 70% completion and now I'm back down to 68. At least I'll be 69% again soon.

I'm quite excited for the 30% ore rewards for beating levels quickly (as someone on Europe 1066, first Ascension). Assuming the difficulty of levels hasn't changed considerably with their regeneration, the target times almost all look beatable with reasonable strategy and advancement choices on first play-through. Thus, this adds an achievable baseline and also a better sense of value from completing levels.

Making late-game techs more powerful also seems like it will make the game more enjoyable - it always felt disappointing to be skipping a substantial portion of the later advancements since their costs were nowhere close to being worth the payoff.

I'm also happy to see the market price change since it will encourage better use of mines (something I personally found enjoyable) and more varied use of crafters.

Overall, looks like a solid set of changes (no comments on the ones targeted at long-time players)!

Edited 8/10/2021 04:23:00

No, I'm running Android, and my app is 5.13.0.2, even after I uninstalled & reinstalled it

Just checked, and there is no quick access list for unused mortars like there are for unclaimed powers and undug dig sites.

@Kcebnroh

The update for the android version hasn't been pushed by Google yet. Update 5.14 was released yesterday, but currently only the website and PC versions are up to date.

Edited 8/10/2021 05:50:17

Some data from the first market on Hardened Scandinavia in case anyone wants to try to figure out the formula. It's going to be slightly off because I bought a couple hundred zinc bars, but that shouldn't have moved anything much:
Tin bar: starting price 173, sell value 462, price after buying 5k 173, market price increase after buying 5k .01%, price after buying 100M worth 254, market price increase after buying 100M worth .16%
Iron bar: starting price 1.47k, sell value 3.93k, price after buying 5k 1.47k, market price increase after buying 5k .06%, price after buying 100M worth 1.69k, market price increase after buying 100M worth .74%
Zinc bar: starting price 12k, sell value 32, price after buying 5k 12k, market price increase after buying 5k .56%, price after buying 100M worth 12k, market price increase after buying 100M worth .91%
Nickle bar: starting price 38k, sell value 462, price after buying 5k 38k, market price increase after buying 5k 1.96%, price after buying 100M worth 38k, market price increase after buying 100M worth 1.02%

Changing sell value with an artifact doesn't seem to affect anything with buying. Rounding makes it difficult to get much info I'm afraid. The upside is that everything is very cheap at the start- it costs less to buy than the sell value. That changes eventually- if I were to buy 189k tin bars I'd be at the break even point based on what the slider is telling me- but it shouldn't be hard to fund quite a lot with market purchases, at least early on. I suspect a hybrid market/smelting strategy will do very well.

Peloponnesian war-->Multi Level

"There's rumor that Hardened Scandinavia gets you a 4th artifact slot."

Man, I'm finishing Scandinavia today... In the old version 😅

I have to start over when the update is in the play store

Peloponnesian war-->Multi Level

@here: what does that mean? Does Hardened Peloponnesian have another ML power?

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Man, I'm finishing Scandinavia today... In the old version 😅

@Leia: normal levels dont give special rewards (except for ore boost production), only the new Hardened levels do

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New image from Muli on discord:


I can only assume that this is for "Couch Potato" from Siege of Feldmere.

Edited 8/10/2021 06:43:36

Oh thats pretty cool, does KPX still have one as well?

Do we get more or less points per day after the update? (Is it good to upgrade the app or should i stay in the current version until the next ascension?)

How close are you to Ascending? Ascend now on mobile = free, do it on web or after your app upgrades = 100 AP. The AP of the regular levels hasn't changed, and the time required to clear also has changed, but the content RE: mortars, regenerated, etc, will be different on the new app or web.

And obviously you can't play the Hardened levels on mobile until the app updates. I'm not sure how long the app will continue to run normally on the currently released app version.

What is Ascending?

After you beat all the levels, (or now, just Europe Huge) you can pay 100 AP, and it resets all levels.

Normally, there is a 30% AP penalty for each replay.

5.13: complete all the levels and restart your level progress for free to get rid of the replay penalty on the levels

5.14: complete the last level and restart your level progress for 100AP to get rid of the replay penalty on the levels

@Nemo, When you finish the final level Europe Huge, you gain the option to "Ascend" which resets the AP for all levels and relocks all levels. Unfortunately, this doesn't affect the powers present on the maps, so the ones you've collected twice already still remain gone.

Thanks. Btw, comparing advancement price, mostly mining reduced in price:
Zinc 154 AP to 144
Nickel 240 AP to 200
Lead 356 AP to 256
Silicon 563 AP to 363
Aluminium 838 AP to 538
Skip levels 1003 AP to 600
Silver 1093 AP to 632
Gold 1395 AP to 895
etc.

Wait... hold up....

Skip Levels? 1,003 to 600?

Just after I bought it?

Skip Levels? 1,003 to 600?

Just after I bought it?

Ouchie!