The main reason Alloy Values is so good is that most artifacts “only” give a ~2x bonus to some element of the game (purchasing mercs, using hospitals, upgrading army camps, whatever).

In contrast, Alloy Values give a gamebreaking bonus to markets that is closer to ~20x than ~2x. Instead of buying one unit for $40 and selling it for $50 you get to buy one unit for $40 and sell it for $100. And then you get to do the same thing with a unit at $41, and at $42, and at $43, all the way through to $99. In addition, the artifact effect stacks with the advancement effect in a compounding way, unlike most combinations which have diminishing returns when stacked.

If there were no markets, Alloy Values would be fairly balanced with the other artifacts. But because of how markets work, it’s unquestionably top tier regardless of where you are in the game.

An Insane Alloy Values artifact gives you essentially infinite money on even the hardest levels in the game.

Edited 2022-11-01 23:28:24

Edited 2022-11-02 19:37:50

SaC checking in
insane alloy value
leg triple strike +25%

Added your name!

if i said i have super ascended 9999 times would u believe me, if so can i get that spot :P

Not you. At least I know that you haven't super-ascended because you don't have that achievement.

I Super Ascended this morning. Brought along my Legendary AV and my TW that’s upgrading to Insane. I also retained my Super Camp. I chose the +25% AP. I have lots of unfarmed powers (except for TWs) so I’m hoping the grind back through won’t be too painful. I will be much more liberal with using SAC/FC, SM, etc to aid in my conquest.

Added name: Jeffo8

@Jeffo8
Powers will help

But you need about 30 or so SAsc's before the "grind" truly ends (;

Well depends on your goal I guess. Even after 100+ SAsc's, it just becomes a different grind, lol

infinigrind

I think my first goal, at this point, is to get to play some new maps even though it sounds like they kinda suck. Beyond that, I’m not really sure. I could envision a future state where, based on others’ comments of what I would want, I have brought through Leg/Ins AV, TW, ACacheB, IM, and maybe one other. But a) that will take a while, and b) to what end from there? So I’m not really sure what my long-term goal is anymore. For now I’m just going to play up through the new maps, and then we’ll see.

Hex Earth is truly the best AP farm there is… it’s worth super ascending just for that!

But yeah, the rest are rough

Hex is the best AP farm ... but it's tough to actually get there, have to invest in Skip Level Adv's and play through a bunch of levels, just to do Hex a few more times before repeating

Yea. Reading what people say, seems that Hex Earth is really good. I've never tried it myself though (yea I've super-ascended for 7 times but never played Hex Earth)

Probably it was a mistake for me to not centre my strategy around Hex Earth. But given that I'm already so deep into it, maybe I shall just call my play "no Hex Earth challenge".

Is it really that Hex Earth is easy or is it that Hex Earth had the most strategie development? If people would care about the other levels, they could probably find a better way to play them. But idk, I haven't SAsc yet but will probably do by the end of the year.

The new levels are “hard” because the mercs are really really expensive.

Hex Earth uniquely puts an uncommon amount of these mercs in a single merc camp which happens to be fairly accessible from the start location. In addition, the hospitals are similarly concentrated - three of them are really good and the rest are not.

These two features combine well - if you get to the merc camp and use a power/artifact you can use the mercs to get to all three hospitals, wait two hours, and ride army caches the rest of the way (assuming you have decent advancements/artifacts).

The other levels don’t have these features. They have the same ridiculously expensive mercs but they are scattered across multiple merc camps so you can’t use powers/artifacts in the same way.

Edited 2022-11-06 22:18:35

Ah that makes sense, so it's like HEH with the 1.1t camp that you can super IM and instant win, making it easier then for example H Trisk

Yeah exactly. But the difference between Hex Earth and the other super-ascension maps is much larger than the difference between Europe Huge and Trisk. I would describe Trisk as ‘inefficient’ or similar. I would describe the post-super-ascension maps as ‘unplayable’ or similar.

Still going to play them, and still going to play them with my rules of not using any Map Screenshots or guides. Wish me luck.

Good fortune.

Tbh, I did the same, played all the levels, finished them normally ("normally" in this case means using Insane IM & Insane TW, Leg TS).

As long as you know what you're getting into, you'll be fine. It'll just take a long while.