@krinid, Tulsi

I unlocked phase 4 almost 3 weeks ago. I'm aware of auto-market. I wasn't suggesting it's a bug. I was referring to the observation that Fizzer tends to nerf things that goes too well, for example nerfing merc camps when our merc-based strategy goes too well.

My Increased Cache Armies is only at 50% atm so in later levels I want to upgrade hospitals once to make sure that I don't run out of merc or money. Basically after capturing the first market it's pretty much a 2 hour wait before I finish the level.

But my actual times are far from that because of real life. I'm not a full-time gamer and my auto-advancement isn't that far yet. And also often there're items not available in markets for important merc/cache techs and I need to make them myself. I may not actually need those techs but I didn't have time to do precise calculations for each level yet so I just do it the safe way:
-get first market
-get all markets and all hospitals
-upgrade hospitals once and get all merc techs and the 50% cache tech
-clear the level
Some of these steps are probably not needed but doing all these step will always safely guarantee a reasonable level time for me.

I'm planning to write a guide for each level actually, but it'll take at least some months because I have stuff to do in real life as well, and probably my strategy is far from optimal and only fit for people with a similar advancement setup as I do. The only guide I've finished so far is Hardened Far Land:

Overview:
The markets give you everything you need, except for nails.
The nail receipe is a bonus.

Strategy:
Go straight towards the first market at Bethesda Path.
Using that market, take all markets and hospitals and unlock all merc techs and hospital cost techs and take the nail receipe.
Upgrade all hospitals at the same time while crafting nails.
Wait for 2 hours.
Unlock the cache tech and complete the map.
There is no need to keep switching artifacts for caches. The markets give way more than needed for buying enough merc.

@Sefer

Now, let me analyze how scalable this strategy is and how to automate this strategy. Note that if we want to automate the process, then we cannot let the money go to where it should not go, such as army camps after reaching the first market.

# Reaching the first market

Manual: About 10 minutes.

Automatic: Auto-Conquer + Auto-Upgrade Army Camps.

Equip Army Camp Boost, Bonus Money Boost, Territory Money Boost. No crafting needed.

# Getting all markets and all hospitals

Manual: About 10 minutes.

Automatic: I do not think it is possible.

Equip Hospital Boost, Item Values, Mercenary Discount.

# Upgrading hospitals

Manual: 10 seconds followed by 2 hours waiting if upgrade is needed, and 0 otherwise.

Automatic: Auto-Upgrade Hospitals.

# Getting techs

This step can be skipped entirely.

# Clearing the level

Manual: 10 minutes constant clicking.

Automatic: Auto-Conquer + Auto-Purchase Mercenaries, if Auto-Conquer is smart enough.

Equip Hospital Boost, Mercenary Discount.

Edit: Add artifact choice.

Edited 9/4/2021 05:52:25

@Sefer

> It does seem like at some point the time it takes to finish a level will entirely be based on how much time someone has to devote to it.

For players with enough AP and want to have a real life, this market-based strategy basically means 10 minutes active time (getting markets and hospitals) in exchange of a level finish. It is up to the players to decide how many levels they want to do in a day.

@krinid

> But essentially Auto-Market combined w/Auto-Conquer, Auto-Sell, Increased Idle Time, Auto-Purchase Mercenaries, Increased Army Camp Production, Auto-Upgrade Army Camps, Mercenary Discount, Additional Mercenaries make it possible to actually clear a level by just enabling AQ and walking away.

Combining Auto-Market and Auto-Upgrade Army Camps may not be a good idea. Army camp may absorb too much money, and there may not be enough left for mercs.

@Master Jz

> I was able to beat most regular levels without upgrading anything but the first 1-4 hospitals (the ones that don't count for much).

In terms of relative merc amount, the two worst regular levels in my opinion are Final Earth and Drakemor's World.

@Mathematician

> I may not actually need those techs but I didn't have time to do precise calculations for each level yet so I just do it the safe way

> I'm planning to write a guide for each level actually, but it'll take at least some months because I have stuff to do in real life as well, and probably my strategy is far from optimal and only fit for people with a similar advancement setup as I do.

I can provide some raw data if you need some.

@functor

Oh yea raw data will help me a lot. Thanks.

Maybe I can use those raw data to plan a concept run like you did, but as a phase 4 player, and then share the results here.

Yes pls RE: Raw Data. We started doing a little bit in some threads but it dropped off.

@Math,
Yes, it is almost certain that at some point, anything effective will get nerfed. (; It's almost like it's a challenge for us to find efficient ways of playing a game that's constantly changing.

Edited 9/4/2021 21:43:18

Inspired by functor's Africa concept run, I just finished a focused Africa run myself as a phase 4 player.
Rules: No powers, no active artifacts, no clan requests.

functor suggested

Below is what I expect a Phase 4 player on revision 17 Africa to do.
* 0 - 10 min: Reach the first market.
* 10 - 20 min: Get all markets, cash in, get all hospitals.
* 20 - 40 min: Clear the level (auto-conquer might help).
No artifacts/upgrades/techs needed.

Nope I didn't do that well. The time I used was 2 hours 15 minutes. It took me 45 minutes of babysitting the level to reach the first market, not 10 minutes.

If I have more AP and get a higher level of Increased Cache Armies and Additional Mercenaries, I think I can skip the metal pipe crafting part and the waiting for drafts part and reduce the level time further to around 1 hour. I don't see a way to significantly reduce the time I need to reach the first market though.

Details are in my next reply.

Africa run. App version v5.14.1.2
Rules: No power, no active artifacts, no clan requests
Artifacts, techs, upgrades, ads are allowed

Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes

0:00 start level
0:01 ad for +30% army production
0:09 Kimiti army camp
0:14 Barh Signaka Hospital
0:24 Pantelleria Island army camp
0:44 Unlock Drafting tech
0:45 Sidi Bel Abbes market
0:48 Markounda market
0:49 Djibouti market
0:50 Taleex market
0:51 Kebbi hospital
0:51 Wa hospital
0:52 Boutilimit hospital
0:53 Louga hospital
0:55 unlock all merc tech, alloy sell value tech
0:56 Boke hospital
0:57 Guinea bonus market
0:59 Abyei Area hospital
0:59 Haut-Nyong hospital
1:01 Kibaya hospital
1:02 Burgersdorp market
1:03 unlock medical refinement tech
1:04 Danielskull hospital
1:05 obtained metal pipe recipe at Ese, starts crafting (for the 50% cache tech)
1:10 obtained all 7 crafters for metal pipes
1:12 Katete hospital
1:12 Caxito hospital
1:13 Bizerte hospital
1:14 unlock craft dupe tech
1:14 starts spam clicking non-cache territories while waiting for metal pipes
1:38 all merc purchased, 269B money left
1:40 unlock Mandatory Draft tech and upgrade army camps
1:49 finished crafting metal pipes, unlock +50% cache tech
1:50 Angola bonus market
1:52 runs out of army and army caches. Need to wait for drafts
1:52 unlock Enforce Mandatory Draft
1:55 unlock 2nd army camp cost tech, starts upgrading army camps again
1:57 just sit there and wait for drafts...29B armies left on the map
2:15 level completed

No clan war effects used

Advancements:
Phase 1
Increased Army Camp Production 430%
Increased Copper Production 20%
Increased Cache Money 100%
Joint Strike 25%
Increased Ore Sell Value 100%
Discounted Mine Upgrades 25%
Increased Smelters Speed 50%
Additional Mercenaries 130%
Statistics 4
Increased Idle Time 420

Phase 2
Auto-Conquer 5%
Increased Cache Resources 100%
Army Camp Discounts 30%
Mercenary Discount 50%
Increased Alloy Sell Values 100%
Increased Draft Sizes 300%
Auto-Upgrade Army Camps 5%
Increased Crafters Speed 50%
Increased AP 25%

Phase 3
Can Skip Levels 1
Mercenary Camp Visibility 50
Increased Money from Bonuses 100%
Increased Item Sell Values 80%
Market Visibility 15

Phase 4
Better Hospitals 50%
Auto-Draft 0
Faster Digging 25%
Increased Cache Armies 60%
Simultaneous Levels 2

Artifacts:

Main starting phase artifacts:
Epic Army Camp Boost
Epic Territory Money Boost
Legendary Bonus Money Boost

Used a little bit during starting phase:
Rare Mine Boost
Rare Army Cache Boost
Rare Money Cache Boost
Rare Resources Cache Boost
Rare Army Camp Discount
Rare Tech Discount

During spam clicking:
Rare Hospital Boost
Rare Army Cache Boost
Rare Cache Boost

During metal pipe wait:
Rare Speedy Crafters
Uncommon Craft Double
Rare Hospital Boost

Ends with:
Epic Army Camp Boost
Rare Draft Boost
Rare Hospital Boost

Other swap ins used that haven't been mentioned:
Rare Alloy Values
Rare Merc Discount

Finishing stat: https://imgur.com/a/0gEk7Wt

I made a stab at it, without using any powers, upgrading any hospitals, or buying any techs I couldn't get from markets (so no cache boost or second hospital boost)- and I ran out of armies with 72 territories left at an hour and a half. Dumped all my money into army camps to increase my draft size and my next draft gave me what I needed to finish, at 1:37. I got interrupted part way through so I might have been able to shave a little off of that (especially if I just dumped a bunch into camps earlier to get more drafts, I'm sure there was a ton left in my pool). Took me about 25 minutes to reach the first market.

Oh, side note on auto conquer- I experimented with using it, and it seems to go out of its way to pick the worst territories to grab (I think it goes for the highest possible instead of the lowest and it doesn't make any effort to take advantage of JS). You can still get some use out of it by taking territories until the highest territory it can take is less than whatever your hospitals are saving (so fill in a bunch of cheap territories once you've grabbed a few hospitals- just be ready to stop it if you auto conquer an army cache), an at the end you only need to grab enough territories so that all the territories left that are larger than your hospital value have at least two neighbors that you've taken so you get JS. You still have a lot of clicking to do at the end, but it will save you a chunk of it and it will help you fill in cheap stuff midgame.

Usually I turn on auto-conquer when the total amount of army left on the map is less than the amount of army I have. At that point it doesn't matter if they're joint striked or not.

In previous versions, the AP per hour was quite high on the earlier levels, and very low on the last 3. I could play some of the early levels 2-3 times per ascension and still get better AP returns per hour than I could get on Triskelion the first time. This makes it rewarding to play the more demanding early levels over and over again, increasing effort and reducing the "idle" aspect.

In the current version, this is no longer an issue. The later levels (and some hardened levels) now give as much and more AP per hour as the early ones do. There's now motivation to skip the early levels to go for the longer later ones, which is presumably better for an idle game. The markets have fixed the money problem in the late levels, but have probably sped them up way more than intended.

Has anyone else been tracking AP per hour on the old vs new levels, and seen this change?

I think before (v5.13) there was a clear trend where early level were better. Now (v5.14) I think it’s a sawtooth pattern based on the number of markets. The sweet spot are the levels which just barely have an extra market.

I think Triskelion is still a fairly slow level.

Any idea how well this will work for players who haven't ascended yet? I'm assuming there's a lot more waiting but how will the flow look like? More money spent on army camps and more focus on tech upgrades?

@jogar

functor's 8-hour run used a 10k AP setup.

Completing all regular levels give you 13k raw AP. So 10k AP is a pre-ascension setup.

This strategy also works pretty well as the backbone for newer players who haven't yet had the chance to invest a ton of AP in additional mercenaries (I can confirm since I am in the boat of such players). The main difference is that there there will be a substantial number of "missing" armies once you finish using up the mercs and caches, which must be mitigated. Here's what I've been doing to do so:

• Use a stack of 5 inspire mercenary superpowers on a mid-late game merc camp.
  
• Making sure to invest in the "medicine refinement", "tell your workers that it's cash" and "hire actual doctors" techs, before clearing most of the board (in addition to upgrading hospitals pretty far).
  
• Use 5 SAC + 5 FC (preferably superpowered) mid-way through the level. This will also require purchasing a decent portion of the IACP tech tree (which you'll want to do anyway to collect sliding drafts faster at the end).
  
• Fog-bust the level (again, best via a superpower) to avoid wasting armies exploring.
  
• Use legendary triple strike, possibly multiple times per level.
  

The "inspire mercenary superpower" strategy is particularly effective on Hardened Copper Creek Castle since the top two merc camps have almost enough mercs (when multiplied by 10) to clear the entire level, so you really just have to build up enough armies to take either of those camps via the most direct route. Then, you get solid AP to invest in more mercs as well as the legendary triple strike. With +40% additional mercs, I was able to beat Hardened CCC in 1 day (with 5 FC + a few SAC as well - note that the level gives you 5 FC to replace the ones you used) even though I used the superpower on the 3rd largest merc camp; just going directly to one of the top 2 would have been equally fast and provided of armies to make up the difference if you have lower + additional mercs.

Hardened Ursa: Luna should be easily beatable with a single fog-bust, careful planning of conquest routes and noting that the crafter gives effectively infinite money.

Edited 9/7/2021 03:58:16

Though completing all levels before Africa only gives you 5333 AP. So maybe you cannot go that fast when you're at pre-ascension Africa. However, this shall work in later levels before your first ascension when you have 10k AP in total and do an advancement setup similar to what functor did.

One thing to note for newer players trying this is that you can also run out of money since you'll have to spend a decent chunk of your market earnings on techs, hospital upgrades, and even army camp upgrades. If this becomes a problem, you can wait for late-game crafting (slow, but still much faster than waiting for army camps) or you can use the SM + MR combo after upgrading a few mines to cover what's missing.