I see 2 hardened levels, they both suggest being at or midway through the second tier of advancements.
Would it be a horrible thing to go for it anyway?

You can try but they'll take longer. Espacially Ursa Luna, which gives Superpowers is really useful. I played hard Luna when it came out and I was around beggining of phase 2 and it took about a week so it will probably take like 2 weeks if you have 25% Joint Strike and some Increased Army production.

I only have IIRC 17 or 19% JS and a small smattering of artefacts. Perhaps I should wait then.
OTOH I have the zinc bonus map coming up, would those extra JS, superpower et al help on getting the bonus. I missed copper, tin and iron.

would suggest unlocking phase 2, advancing increased alloy values there, and getting at least a rare alloy values artifact first, then those hardened maps will be much quicker

Well Hard Ursa Luna only has one market and I think it's like the most armies on the map so you don't really need Alloy Values. Also Ursa Luna has crazy profit by crafting Copper Wire so that should be enough.

ah true, I forgot how "easy" the early ones are

Also the ore boost are really hard in the first ascencion. I got one so far(Neodymium) and it used a Superpower Inspire Mercenaries.

You can beat all hardened levels up through H. Scandinavia in a reasonable time before unlocking Phase 3, provided you know the map well and have the following:

Artifacts:
Epic Alloy Values (Legendary preferred)
Rare Hospital Boost

Advancements:
150% Army Camp Production (less if army camps are boosted by an artifact)
85% Additional Mercenaries (more is better)
Maxed Joint Strike
Maxed Cache Money
Maxed Cache Resources
Maxed Mercenary Discount
Maxed Alloy Sell Values

The rest of the hardened levels should generally be left alone until you are well into Phase 4.

You have all been helpful. Thanks.

The given milestone-requirements for the hardened levels are both a bit random (only because you are midway through Phase x, doesn't really tell you much, which advancements you invested in) but also a nice rule of thumb (because it means you have earned and invested some amount of APs already and have an equivalent set of benefits from them). That said, whether or not you want to start a hardened level before you fulfill the requirement should also include the discussion of the reward you get. Some of those rewards are REALLY useful and therefore worth spending a bit more time on a level rather than reaching the requirement first and then having slightly shorter level times. Which rewards that are, will probably depend on your style of playing. For example, Superpowers can be really great, but if you don't buy powers for coins and have no "external" means of earning powers, the usage is a bit more limited. Others like Seeing Circles are pure convenience. Some rewards are totally useless for a portion of players who don't have/play some aspect (Supercamp, arenas, battles, ads). So, use the forum or this guide:
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1EHCM-n_4vq_Hv7V1wo9QSTcRP2ba4qRqBh8fOh5PiKk/mobilebasic
to see what is hidden behind these rewards and then check for yourself if they are worth it for you.

^^Great point. 4th artifact slot is a great buff ... but it's also Hard Scand, so no walk in the park if you aren't at the level where you can finish it in decent time.

I really only care about the buffs SP, mobile +10%, 4th slot, so when I do a SAsc, the way I typically play is clear normally/skip to Hard Ursa, get SP, skip/play to Hard Far to get the +10% mobile bonus buff ("+50%" on 20%=+10% for total 30%), then skip/play to Hard Scand, get 4th Boy, skip/play to EH (need it to Ascend later), skip/play whatever I'm in the mood for all the way to Hex, clear hex 5-6 times, Ascend, don't need to unlock any Hard bonuses so just skip/play to EH (should be quicker b/c I will now have P3 Skip Levels @ 10), then skip/play to Hex again, repeat until next SAsc.

How much easier is it the second go around after you’ve ascended and in phase 3? Cuz I was thinking the same initial question as the OP

Clear times should be <1/2 of what they were your first playthrough, likely even less if you take good notes or use available resources.

get the 4th slot definately - the circles thing for drafts if your blind like me - the rest ehh can be gotten when hardened isn't quite so bad

^^What Lefty said

100% get 4th slot AND USE IT

I've heard some people say "I don't use Actives so 4th slot is useless to me"

For anyone who says this:
(a) you are wasting available potential
and/or
(b) don't have the right Actives - SAC, TW, IM, TS, QS are what I'm talking about here (and all the others are useless)
and/or
(c) haven't upgraded your Actives to be useful enough, SAC is useful even at Poor, the others need to be Legendary to really get material value from them, Insane makes them truly a force

Obviously also recommend the rewards from Hard Ursa (SP = increase power of SAC+FC if you can spare the FCs) & Hard Feld (increases the value of SAC+FC).

Edited 7/7/2022 19:02:18

I would add to that that using actives with only three slots is clearly a commitment that some players might not be willing to take. Especially if your actives (or all your artifacts) aren't upgraded much. But whatever your level of commintment to active artifacts is, the fouth slot means you can use one IN ADDITION. So, no matter if you use actives in the three-slot-scenario, the fourth slot doesn't have to change your overall artifact strategy (it surely can, if you want).

So, even if your actives aren't worth MORE than your passives, being able to make use of one on top is always better than just using three. As I hinted at, if you want you can use the fourth slot and at that moment start to use say two passives and two actives, or even three actives. But you also can stick with your tried and true three passives and try out any actives you have (kept).

I have always found Hardened Copper Creek bizarrely difficult compared to the others at/below H.Scandinavia.
I wouldn't do it until you actually need the Epic Triple Strike, which I don't think is until Afro-Eurasia at the earliest.

You could even say you don't need to do HCCC until you are able to upgrade it asap to Leg, which is where its value really shines. So when you have 4 Epics for use as fodder.

Sorry for replying to this thread instead of starting a new one (my old one is too old to reply to) but it does fit the topic. Phoenix and I had a difference of opinion about tackling HCCC. Well, he was right. Not completing phase 2 first was fine. I completed it in about 6 days (compared to 18 for a similar AP reward in normal play). I also would have completed hardened Phoenician War in 6 days but spent an extra week completing all but the last dig sites (Picked up an epic ACD so it was totally worth it.) I am currently playing hardened Feldmere and plan on tackling hardened Scandinavia next before completing huge Europe

Let us know how you do on Hard Scand. That one always feels like a bit of a slog after getting back to it fairly weak post SAsc.