I've been generally using powers when they come up [except the first few moments of a map].
I suspect there might be a better timing, either nearish the beginning to get a jump up or near the end when you are pumping out lots of stuff. Not referring to level skip and double level as those are a bit different.

Also would it be a good idea to save them up to use on specific levels?

Edited 7/2/2022 01:06:51

As far as I know, it can be at any point during the level, rewards adjust to how far in the level you are
SAC+FC is a good combination though
I've not used that many powers so idk
Most of them are self explanatory anyway

Here’s how I think about the best times to use each. These are opinions and alternative perspectives are welcome!

Time Warp: best used to reach a dig completion that would otherwise land in the middle of the night

SAC: best used at the start of a level, in tandem with Free Cache

SM: best used when a critical recipe requires an ore that isn’t available in the markets (e.g. silver on US Huge), in tandem with Free Cache

Free Cache: best used in tandem with SAC, SM

Market Raid: best used immediately. these become borderline useless fairly early with proper market usage and alloy values advancement/artifact

Inspire Mercs: best used on Europe Huge and Hex Earth on the *very* large merc camps. Alternatively, can use these to beat Hardened China, Hardened Europe before your advancements fully justify taking these levels on.

Skip Level: best used as a 10x superpower

Multi-Level: best used on long levels

SM+MarketRaid can make a significant amount of money, especially if you bump the relevant mine up a level or two and don't mess up recipe-wise. Can be helpful if you don't have a high level AV artifact yet or on some tighter maps lke Hard China.

My 2 cents.

SAC: at start of levels & mid-levels, whenever you need a boost of armies to get things moving. Kick on 1+ SACs (as many as you need) and drop some FCs pr SP FCs. Align with Clan Req availability to get a SAC powered clan req return. Use with SAC artifact to conserve powers. Upgrade your army camps to amplify the returns, and if you activate multiple FCs, ensure to check if you can further upgrade army camps from the money from the FCs. Alternative to SAC+FC is IM. Typically SAC+FC earlier in levels, IM later in levels.

FC: only ever use with at least 1 active SAC, power or artifact & with the mobile army camp bonus engaged, and have all appropriate artifacts equipped, eg: army cache bonus, money cache bonus, army camp boost, resource cache boost, cache boost - whichever ones you have at high levels. The first three here are imho the most important ones, to get the best returns on armies. The money and resources are secondary, unless you're using this in conjunction with SM, in which case be wary with resource cache boost (but unfortunately you can't control which resource you're going to get, so this may not be effective).

MR: I never use them ... but they are apparently useful in 2 aspects. 1) for getting lots of items for techs. 2) for getting lots of items to sell for money. Either way, use in conjunction with SM for best effect.

SM: when you need help completing Techs, notably the really high ones on the new levels (after HEH, Regio through Hex) that require 10k-30k of bars, etc.

SL: use SP SLs after SAsc and trying to skip the low AP low/middle levels to get back to the levels that return high AP.

IM: whenever you need a boost of armies. Use it on the biggest merc camps for the best value. Some like SP IMs to really clear some of the tough levels quickly but this is a waste imho. It gives 10x the armies of that camp, but 5 IMs is a lot for a power that imho are best used in other places. Alternative is SAC+FC. These are super useful on levels like HEH or Hex where 1 IM at the right time can essentially finish the level for you.

ML: depends on your goals but general, use them when completing big maps (HEH, HT, HC, Hex, 7yw, 30yw, etc) to get the most use of them.

FB: depends on how many you have and how well you know the level. If you already know the level, don't use any, it's wasted. If you're trying to reveal a given area, make sure you have captured all the low army territories, else it'll just reveal those. SP FBs at the start of the level are the best for revealing levels particularly when you don't know the level well. I'd recommend clearing as much as you can normally, and when you stall, drop the FBs, this way you can eliminate the cheapest territories from being revealed by the FB. But if you have a ton of them and don't care, just smack SP SL and let it rip. Be careful though that as the # of territories not revealed yet reduces, you may be better off using 1-4 single FBs than dropping 5 with an SP FB. eg: if there's only 100 territories left, just use 1 FB. The game will let you spend 5 on a SP FB to reveal that 100 if you click it, so take care.

TW: when you have a bunch of time dependent things queued up. Like when you're digging, upgrading hospitals, have artifacts cooling down that you want to use again or free up a spot to change out, charging a mortar (lol, yep, a joke, no one does this), smelting/crafting/etc. Be careful with the SP option. Sometimes like when you just need hospitals to finish upgrading, you just need 2 TWs, not a full SP TW. 10 hrs is nice but 5 TWs is a big cost. If you're smelting/crafting, this can be super useful for speeding production up, but be careful you (A) use it with the proper mobile buff for ore/smelter speed/crafter speed (whichever you need), and (B) have the right production setup, or you could find out that you just fast forwarded several hours of smelters and crafters waiting 80% of the time for something to be produced. Also make you sure the right artifacts equipped to get the best use of the time.

MR: Never use if you don't have the recipes of the respective market alloy/item yet. You'll only get 1 of it then. MR can be useful for completing tech trees faster. Sometimes for getting money (reselling alloys/items). The other powers are better.

Another point to note is that while abiding by all of the above, the best time to use powers is ...

NOW

While you are weak, while you need help. Later once you are stronger, you won't need them, and you'll regret not having used them.

So after SAsc, you'll be weak again, great time to use them. Before your first few Ascensions, you'll be weak, great time to use them.

Don't just save them up. A big rainy day isn't on the way later. Actually it's raining right now and you just didn't notice. USE YOUR POWERS!

Except SL, save those for post SAsc.

Edited 7/2/2022 07:01:28

I do plan on using them, except the skip level as they become available, I was just wondering if on a map I should use them earlier, mid map or towards the end.
I have a lot of good information to digest above. You fellers are a grand bunch ye are.

I have this strategy.
DISCLAIMER: I chopped a multi-level and cleared hardened ursa-luna. I don't pay a cent on games, this membership is from coins.

basically I would stockpile SACs, FCs and time warps and once I got 6 SACs and 5 FCs I pop all of the SACs in different army producers, superpower free cache, pop the draft, let auto conquer do the work for you, ask for a clan request, and time warp 10 hours.

For multi-level, clear hardened levels. ALWAYS.

"For multi-level, clear hardened levels. ALWAYS. "

I don't understand.

"For multi-level, clear hardened levels. ALWAYS. "

I don't understand.

He means use MLs on Hardened levels, not the regular ones. So don't do EHT, C, S, etc, but rather HEH, HT, HC, HS, etc. And Hex is also good - there's no hardened version of it, but it's big enough to be in the same class, and more importantly, worth a lot of AP.

basically I would stockpile SACs, FCs and time warps and once I got 6 SACs and 5 FCs I pop all of the SACs in different army producers, superpower free cache, pop the draft, let auto conquer do the work for you, ask for a clan request, and time warp 10 hours.

Good point about Drafts - I forgot to mention that earlier, but in addition to the other things, try and get a few Drafts while your SAC is on. If it's with an artifact, you will have a longer window, but if it's through a power, it's only 5 mins, and Drafts are every 6 mins, so may need to time it to get one while it's active. Just one more bonus from a SAC.

I would use super skip at Scandinavia to get to hardened Europe huge asap (requires hardened ursa luna first). Then a super IM to beat it, twice, gotta know which army camp to do it on. Throw AP into additional mercenaries (100%) and alloy value (100%), then go back and beat most of the other hardened levels to get the prizes and come back to hard Europe a couple more times beating them using just one IM before ascending. Then use another super skip at Scandinavia a second and maybe a third time. Phase three unlocks the skip level advancement making the cards useless for a while but you'll want a few laying around for after you super ascend.

Some may think this would optimize the fun out of the game but it is objectively the best way to a fast start.

Time warp could be a good one to be a little frugal with until later. I'll have 5x Simultaneous Levels, insane time warp artifact, %50 dig time, auto dig and clan wars artifact cool down all going at the same time when I burn through the rest of my time card supplies, just as soon as fizzer fixes the auto dig to work during time warps. But I do spend a little money on the game so I don't think much about paying $0.06 in coins to clear up an artifact cool down if I know I wont be back on for a while, I could understand someone burning up time cards instead of coins.

Edited 7/2/2022 21:56:39