Hey,

JK is right on all of them but I wanted to offer a different wording to make it clearer in case there still is ambiguity

1. The chance is low, but to my knowledge equipping it right before the bar/item is finished is sufficient. Hence, as you don't have to block a full artifact slot you surely can from time to time test your luck if you are active either way. Just wait for something to be almost done, equip and hope and then swap back to your usual artifact (because having it equipped all the time isn't worth it at all).

2. Speedy artifacts work as long as they are equipped for the time they are equipped. If an item/an alloy takes an hour and you have a 50% reduction equipped for 10 minutes, those 10 minutes are worth 20 minutes smelting/crafting time (reducing the whole hour to 50 minutes while only having occupied the slot for 10 minutes). No matter the progress of this alloy/bar. Whether the artifact covers the whole alloy/item time or just a part, you will get the reduction for the time the artifact was active.

4. You CAN abandon a level whether or not you used a Skip Level if you really want to. So, in general I would agree with JK that you want to decline the dialog, but there are already reports (especially from super-ascenders) that it works best (in some circumstances) to earn some APs but don't fully finish the level. If you want to do this, you should however not try to attempt to clear the level before doing an (super-)ascension because re-doing the level at that point is not worth your time. You will earn some APs relative to the progress you had in the level but with a penalty, so usually completely finishing the level is the most effective way to earn APs.

Additional note on this point.

4. If you skip a level, it simply unlocks the next level. You do get a popup asking if you want to start the next level, but always decline that. If you accept it, you auto-abort your current level.

If you're planning on using a Skip Level but also plan on finishing the level you're playing and not aborting the level, then DO NOT use a Skip Level. Using the Skip Level is wasted, b/c it will unlock the next level which would also automatically unlock simply by clearing the level you're playing.

Always use Skip Levels AFTER finishing or when aborting a level. If you finish the level already & closed it, you will need to start a new level to be able to bring up the Power tab to be able to activate the Skip Level, and then go ahead and abort the level.

By FINISHING the level first, you will actually unlock an additional level.

Thank you all so much! I understand everything.

Though just to clarify one last point, super charge army artifact is worth 10x army for its duration? I assume so, but since JK only mentioned "mine" (I worded my question poorly) I wanted to make sure.

The Supercharge Army Camp (SAC) artifact boots the army camp you choose to 20x the army camp production it usually has: eg. Gislic has a production of 20 A/s.
After using the SAC artifact Gislic produces 400 A/s for the given time (depends on the quality of the artifact).
You cannot choose the 'Super Camp' though, in case you bought that one.

Oh so its even better than the power, that only boosts them by 10x, didnt expect that, nice! Thank for the reply.

Both the SAC power and artifact are both 20x.

Quoth the raven:
"Supercharge Army Camp
An army camp of your choice produces 20x armies for 5 minutes"

(this is from the Power tab)

Yeah its 20... I could swear it said 10.. I dunno. Im crazy i guess. Sorry and thanks haha

4. You CAN abandon a level whether or not you used a Skip Level if you really want to. So, in general I would agree with JK that you want to decline the dialog, but there are already reports (especially from super-ascenders) that it works best (in some circumstances) to earn some APs but don't fully finish the level. If you want to do this, you should however not try to attempt to clear the level before doing an (super-)ascension because re-doing the level at that point is not worth your time. You will earn some APs relative to the progress you had in the level but with a penalty, so usually completely finishing the level is the most effective way to earn APs.

I left that out for 2 reasons:
1. idle is already complicated enough for newbies
2. i dont understand that start either 😅

Though just to clarify one last point, super charge army artifact is worth 10x army for its duration? I assume so, but since JK only mentioned "mine" (I worded my question poorly) I wanted to make sure.

I never mentioned "mine" either, I mentioned resources in general (including both armies and ores) =p

I didn't even ascend yet, so super-asc stuff just sounds crazy to me. Don't even have t3 stuff unlocked yet.

But I might as well ask another question, there's a bar behind the money you have and another behind the army you have. What do they mean? sometimes they are full others almost empty often bellow middle and i have absolutely no clue why and am curious about it, even though I'm sure its irrelevant.

It's some form of visualizing your current balance. If you start a new level you can watch these bars increasing until they suddenly shrink back to a smaller size and again start to increase but slower than before. Or sometimes when you spend a lot of money/armies you can see the bars move. But usually the bars don't change (much) when you are well within a level.

I don't know exactly what they show or how (or why) but as far as I know the bars don't show anything meaningful/useful. It's just to have something graphical underneath there.

Yeah I also dont think its anything useful I was just curious. I often don't even notice it.

Those bars aren't terribly useful, but if I recall correctly, the amplitude of the bar indicates the amount of money/armies you have relative to most expensive items purchasable/visible uncaptured territories.

Not sure what role they're intended to play, but as it's not valuable information, I just ignore them.

I 10x'ed skip level. Am I dumb?

Ohhh o see that makes sense then! Thank you.

I also 10x skipped. But Just to use them because im playing levels by order. Dont think its a problem. But If you are not skipping levels save them for the future. They might become more useful later.