I unlocked Phase 4 over the weekend. Here are the advancements and unlock costs:

Auto-Purchase Techs (2292 AP to Unlock)
Automatically purchases any techs that cost less than 5% of the resources you have on hand. Upgradable to 100% in 5% increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

Better Hospitals (2368 AP to Unlock)
Increases the armies saved by hospitals by 5%. Upgradeable to 50% in 5% increments.

Auto-Draft (2444 AP to Unlock)
Automatically drafts armies once the draft has been available for 8 hours. Can be upgraded in 30 minute increments. At max, it will draft immediately.

Cache Visibility (100 AP to Unlock)
Can see the location of the first 5 caches. Upgradable to 200 in increments of 5.

Auto-Market (2767 AP to Unlock)
Automatically purchases from a market if doing so would allow a tech purchase. Runs once every 120 minutes. Upgradable to 10 minutes in -10 increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

Faster Digging (2810 AP to Unlock)
Decreases time to dig for artifacts by 5%. Upgradeable to 50% in 5% increments.

Auto-Upgrade Hospitals (2853 AP to Unlock)
Automatically upgrades hospitals that cost less than 5% of the money you have on hand. Upgradable to 100% in 5% increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

Increased Cache Armies (2939 AP to Unlock)
Increases the armies received from caches by 5%. Can be upgraded to 100% in 5% increments.

Auto-Purchase Mercenaries (3116 AP to Unlock)
Automatically purchases armies from mercenary camps. Will purchase as many as it can every 120 minutes. Upgradable to 5 minutes in -5 increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

Simultaneous Levels (13301 AP to Unlock)
Can play 2 levels simultaneously. Upgradable to 5.

I'll add additional details to my spreadsheet as I unlock and upgrade these.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5ejYV2bYeaP6yTH683A27iTY8ulDFxGXjwh0zXB82s

Finally! Thx

added it also to my database

Edited 6/15/2021 14:59:24

So what are you going to unlock first? (;

These are the ones that immediately catch my eye (in this order):

Better Hospitals (2368 AP to Unlock)
Increased Cache Armies (2939 AP to Unlock)
Faster Digging (2810 AP to Unlock)

Here's my current plan for Phase 4 (in order):
1. Max out Better Hospitals
2. Unlock Simultaneous Levels
3. Max out Faster Digging
4. Upgrade Increased Cache Armies
5. Upgrade Simultaneous Levels to 3 levels at once
6. Max Increased Caches Armies
7. Max Auto-Draft

I may go back and get some more upgrades from Phases 1-3 after I've unlocked the 3rd level.

Wow, Simul Levels as 2nd priority, that's a whopping 13301 AP! Keep us posted ... (;

I really want those faster digs, but I don't want faster digs with 1 level at a time. That seems hectic.

Now I understand why you proposed higher AP in exchange for slower times for players who ascended multiple times ^^
These advancements will take ages to unlock and max out...

Thank you for posting. Appreciate the information.

Now that we are allowed to comment all advancements officially, I must say, most of the good advancements are in Phase 1 (not saying that all in Phase 1 is good, but most of the good ones are in there). Honestly, I will personally have a hard time unlocking Phase 3 and 4 just because I really struggle to see the value in all those advancements. And if there will ever be a fifth Phase, unlocking that won't be any easier than the 8k or 25k for Phases 3 and 4. Maxing out Increased Army Camp Production is still the best bang for the buck (assuming you already have a maxed out Joint Strike), but it won't bring you any closer to the later Phases. And maxing out IACP costs you a full play-through already.

If, instead of the current unlock-limits of 1k, 8k, and 25k, we had 1k, 9k (8+1), and 34k (25+8+1) but APs spent in Phase 1 (and 2) would count towards unlocking the higher Phases, too, unlocking all Phases would be way easier. In this scenario, I wouldn't mind at all if the limits were even set a bit higher. For example: 1k, 10k, 40-50k.

The problem is that there is something useful in all Phases (so there is some incentive to unlock) but unlocking them for, say, one or two really useful advancement in each Phase is a waste of APs when they would be better spent on something in Phase 1.

Edited 6/15/2021 20:05:02

@phoenix

at some point you will be out of good upgrades for phase 1.... ;)

but frankly speaking, this whole game is about on balancing between armies and money.
right now I invested in mercenaries, and I notice that my money generation hardly supports it..
so what is better, one upgrade of permanent army boost +10% or having the ability to upgrade your camps in the level sooner?

I do believe that maxing out increase income from bonuses in phase 3 is crucial.

and getting there is not very hard: there are some really important upgrades in phase 2, like increase drafting....

Edited 6/15/2021 21:46:51

Phase 1 has the best options? Phase 3 & 4 don't interest you?

These advancements don't seem useful to you?

Phase 2
**Mercenary Discount
Increased Draft Sizes
**Increased AP
Increased Cache Resources

Phase 3
**Increased Money from Bonuses
Increased Item Sell Values

Phase 4
**Better Hospitals
Faster Digging
**Increased Cache Armies
Simultaneous Levels

** marks the items I think are REALLY GOOD that will directly and immediately help you finish levels faster (or get more AP which gets more advancements which will directly and immediately help you finish levels faster).

And for the record, I still don't agree that maxing out IACP is the best avenue before getting all the rest. The more you upgrade each advancement, the more each costs, so the final 200% or so of IACP is suuuuuper costly, and there are better ROI advancements to be had. I stopped @ 200% for now and am focusing on earning & saving more mercs & money and find it quite effective.

Yes, this goes a bit off-topic here but as I was just checking the different Phases AFTER I posted the reply above, here is my run down for Phase 2 as an example (assuming all numbers from Master Jz are correct):

You can spend 51,280 APs in total on Phase 2, you need to spend 8,000 or 15.6% to unlock Phase 3
From these, 21,626 APs (42.17%) are for boosting individual ore productions. Sure, great in the long run, but really bad ROI
Then there are 1,320 APs (2.57%) for different visibilities. If you don't get any more Fog Busters, sure; right now, NO
Then there are 8,807 APs (17.17%) for Automations. If you want them, then great, if you don't, then that's fine, too
Increased AP is still debatable: 7,718 APs or 15.05%
(Based on my interpretation of Fizzer's explanation) I'd argue, that if you don't always (even at night) collect your drafts immediately when they appear, Increased Draft gets you very little: 3,405 APs or 6.64%
Starting with Old Town, crafter recipes are already way too heavy on ingredients if you don't invest big into some Speedy Smelters, too: 3,282 APs or 6.4%
Caches don't do much for my income (whether it's Armies, Money, or Resources) and I don't want to invest in caches because their payoff is not predictable: 990 APs or 1.93% (and even if you chose to max out on it, the caches in general don't cost that much to help you reach the next goal)
Mercenaries is probably the smallest source of army income for me (I have no Additional Mercs (yet), because of the same reasoning): 1,002 APs or 1.93%
And finally, I sell pretty much no alloys until I've discovered all recipes: 1,756 APs or 3.42%
Leaving me with whopping 1,374 AP or 2.68% for Army Camp Discounts. That is the one advancement from Phase 2 that I maxed out as soon as possible because Money is key and I estimate (there is no stat for this, unfortunately) that I spend roughly one quarter each on army camps, mines, hospitals, and digging sites (I only start buying mercs when I know that I can clear the level, because I believe that spending the money on army camp upgrades is more beneficial until the very late game).
I will probably make it to 8k by maxing out Increased AP, despite the disputed usefulness. But still, I will only get to just above 9k. As I said, everything else (at least to me) pales compared to Increased Army Camp Production and I would have to force myself to spend on other Phase 2 advancements when I don't see the benefit for my play style and level speeds.

Now, you may have a different perspective on the advancements but this is why Phase 2 is really sparse for me.

With less details: In Phase 3 the really appealing advancements for me (Increased Bonus Money + Tech Discount) sum up to 16,558 APs or 66.23% of the unlocking-threshold. I will make it to 25k with a little help from Increased Item Sell Value, but this looks like a really expensive advancement, so low ROI. (In general, if an advancement says either "Auto-", "Cache", "Visibility", or "[some ore] Production", I will rather not unlock it at all (at least for now))

From Phase 4 I can't wait to have Better Hospitals. After that I will then invest in Faster Digging + Simultaneous Levels (effectively ML) + (from Phase 3 but this only pays off when you start advancing the ML-equivalent advancement) Can Skip Levels.

If there had been Efficient Smelter/Crafter or Smelt/Craft Double advancements, I'd have been all in, but the Speedy ones just don't make it for me. They just move the bottleneck from one part to another (from crafters to smelters or from smelters to mines). You will always have a higher need then you have supply.

You have to buy from the market and/or really pump up mines to keep crafters going. It's worth it, though. I brought Item Values to 75% and it's been very beneficial. It mega-expensive to max, unfortunately.

And ...

Phase 1 has the best options? Phase 3 & 4 don't interest you?

no, that is not what I said. What I said (or meant) was, that if you take the advancements the I find most valuable and group them by Phase, that then Phase 1 is the biggest bucket. From the first three Phases, Phase 1 makes up 50% (5 out of 10) by pure count (not by AP-value because clearly later advancements are most of the time more expensive).

But also, yes, Phase 1 HAS the best options: Joint Strike is HANDS DOWN the single best advancement, with Increased Army Camp Production being a solid second place (sure, when you are on your way to Phase 3 you can't improve your army camps by much anymore when you have already reached 200% or so, but this advancement in general is still a really good one). So, at least the two best advancements (before Phase 4) are in Phase 1.
Regarding the remainder of good advancements in Phase 1: I still regret a bit that I maxed out the Statistics soo early instead of first unlocking and upgrading at least some levels of IACP, but the Statistics are still a valuable advancement to me. I haven't yet spent APs into Idle Time, but I will get myself at least another hour soon. And then there is Mine Upgrade Discount from Phase 1.
Phase 1: 5
Phase 2: 2
Phase 3: 3
Phase 4: 1-3
As I said, everyone will have different favorites and I wouldn't advise anyone to follow my strategy without knowing how I play, but that's just how it works for me.

PS: And if we included Phase 4 in "The Best Advancements Of All Times" then Simultaneous Levels might be able to take over second place. But given the high buy-in costs, I don't really think so.

Edited 6/16/2021 01:23:27

@Phoenix

(Based on my interpretation of Fizzer's explanation) I'd argue, that if you don't always (even at night) collect your drafts immediately when they appear, Increased Draft gets you very little: 3,405 APs or 6.64%

I think you've misinterpreted on this. Drafting often will straight up get your more armies from drafts (ignore artifacts & AP adv). Adding artifacts & AP adv to boost drafts will straight up get you a multiplier increase on total armies collected from drafting, so the only way to not benefit from using Draft Boost artifact or AP Adv is to not draft. Formulaically it is y=x*m, where y=total drafted armies, x=total naturally drafted, m = draft boost multiplier. x is formulated as discussed in other threads, based on your armies/sec, merc purchases, cache acquisitions, etc. m is formulated by your artifacts & AP adv. y is the total result.

Regarding what to buy in each phase... 100% agree that there are a lot of AP Adv like ore increase and visibility, etc, which do have some value but pale in comparison to the key AP Adv you've highlighted. Certainly JS is the hands down best AP Adv. There is nothing in any phase which gives the ROI that JS does, the raw savings that 25% for a mere 459 AP is simply incomparable.

Beyond that, also agree you have to choose 1 of many happy paths. Very valid point that no one should mimic anyone's choices without also knowing how they play, else there is risk of just simply not producing the same results and thinking the choices were bad. Selections must match actual in game choices, else its pointless.

Idle Time, Stats, Visibility, these are all luxuries tbh. I took 7h Idle Time & L4 Stats simply b/c it makes it easier to (a) be Idle, and (b) plan the level better, both of which same my own time playing the level, which I put high value on. Stats really saves me pulling my hair out after using up a resource I didn't know I needed for later Techs (not as relevant now that I've completed all the Tech achievements and don't need to complete all the Techs on each map; some of them just aren't worth it, by the time you can unlock it, the remaining time left on the level isn't enough to get value from the Tech to justify the buy in to get the Tech). Visibility is a someday Nice-to-have. Some of them aren't as expensive as I thought so not as steep to buy in ... but still something tells me other AP Adv are more pressing. Particularly with recipe visibility, it loses its value in later levels b/c it's capped at 30 and the later levels are unnecessarily padded (overloaded) with unprofitable and/or unreasonable recipes - Europe has 23 alloy & 38 item recipes (total 61 recipes), so even when maxed out over half the recipes are still not visible. I'd really prefer to just eradicate some of the useless recipes entirely. They serve no purpose other than to clutter & befuddle. And limit the value of this AP Adv.

The ore increase AP Adv items seem fairly ridiculous. Increase Copper Production for example, the easiest to increase in game, costs 3,736 to max out - no way it's worth that. Maybe there's some value in some of the semi-valuable items like Aluminum, Silicon, Silver, Gold? Maybe combined with maxed out Ore Sell Values? Not sure ... perhaps profitable on a 2nd playthrough where you're not getting all the techs and thus don't need to keep as much ore and can more readily profit from selling ore. But still think there are better options for the cost they incur.

Yep, Simul Levels is just too high a buy-in to be practical for most players. By the time you can afford that, you'll be zipping through the levels anyhow, so probably no longer even need it. I suspect by the time someone can afford to buy into that, we'll be "done" with WZI, meaning sure we can continue playing, but we've got everything we likely reasonably want, go through the levels fairly effortlessly and have little value left in continuing. But alas, that's probably 3-4 more Ascensions away! lol... and maybe more levels will be added by then?

For best AP Adv of All regardless of level, I still think JS wins over Simul Levels though, even if the SL unlock point was cheaper, simply b/c slowly slogging through multiple levels still loses imho to skimming 25% off the requirements to get through each level.

Great discussion as always!

The problem with Drafts is that they are constructed from two parts. Although Fizzer said that both types of players (the ones who immediately draft and the ones being more idle) benefit from increased drafts one way or another, I still think that at the end of a level, both types don't get as much as they hope for. If you have any numbers to prove me wrong, go ahead.

To specify the problem further: If you are an immediate drafter, the varying potion doesn't bother you. You will be able to draft a very high amount if you have lots of draft boosts (advancements, techs, artifacts). The lazier players will also have (somehow) higher drafts in order to reach the desired draft-to-total-army-income-ratio quicker but the fixed portion won't be too significant for them. But as long as idle players don't stick with drafting for some minutes after coming back from idling, they will never reach the desired ratio.
So, what happens to immediate drafters if they are idling (over night for example)? Well, their ratio has decreased to a point where they again get some armies through the varying portion. That means that you effectively reset your ratio each time you idle and then have to draft for a while to at least get back to this desired ratio. Only then, you can start to build up any benefits again. If you play some level for say four weeks, the only day that will really influence (the most) how high your draft-to-total-army-income-ratio at the end of the level will be, is the final day you finish a level. What you get if you plotted your ratio over time is practically that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sawtooth-td_and_fd.png (the top graph)
Each night, your ratio gets pulled down. Each day you immediately draft, you are able to build up a higher ratio. Unless you have maxed out the Auto-Drafting and you are sure to NEVER waste a draft even while idling, at the end of the day/level, you won't see x% more drafts. At least, that is my interpretation of Fizzer's explanation.

To clarify: if you are really lazy and only draft once an hour or so, you will see higher draft numbers because of the boosted varying portion. If you draft every five minutes (and aren't idle at all), you will see higher numbers because of the boosted fixed portion. If you switch between those two states several times (a day or) while playing a level (as most of us will do), you will always be about the desired ratio, sometimes below that and get some varying portion, sometimes above and only get fixed portion. But each time you idle you will fall back to or below the ratio. The more, the longer your max idle time is.

Edited 6/16/2021 11:13:50

The problem with Drafts is that they are constructed from two parts. Although Fizzer said that both types of players (the ones who immediately draft and the ones being more idle) benefit from increased drafts one way or another, I still think that at the end of a level, both types don't get as much as they hope for. If you have any numbers to prove me wrong, go ahead.

So, I read this, and I got to thinking. Is Draft Boost worth it?

I made a thread back in the day that asked the same question, but I never bothered actually crunching the numbers.
https://www.warzone.com/Forum/549257-increased-draft-size

So, from what I gathered from the thread in Master Jz's post, the Sliding Draft Cap is 15% of your total income (unaffected by Draft Boost), and the Fixed Draft is a maximum 15% of your income from Camps if done every 6 minutes (affected by Draft Boost).

So, I decided to crunch the numbers on my two most recent levels. For these calcs, I am assuming I have 200% Draft Boost (I had 200% for one and 190% for the other, but for the sake of this test, it doesn't make a huge difference. I generally don't bother getting the Tech Boost either.) I also assume that I

So I don't have to type it all out, but you can check the math if you want:
Sliding Draft=(Total Armies)*15%
Fixed Draft=(Total Draft-Sliding Draft)
Difference added by Draft Boost=(Fixed Draft)*(1-1/300%)
Fixed Draft Efficiency=(Fixed Draft)/((Total from Camps)*15%)
Time Saved by Draft Boost=(Difference added by Draft Boost)/((Armies per second)*(1+0.15*(Draft Efficiency)[Assuming I would Draft at same efficiency])+(Difference added by Draft Boost)[Sliding Draft would also increase])

First Map: Rise and Fall
https://imgur.com/5VIhNwt

Total Armies = 451.8 B
Camps = 69.3 B
Total Drafts = 83.1 B

Sliding Draft = 68.8 B
Fixed Draft = 15.3 B
Drafting Efficiency = 49%

Difference added by Draft Boost = 10.2 B
Time Saved by Draft Boost = 7.3 hrs

Second Map: Netherlands
https://imgur.com/a/olodMpd

Total Armies = 761.5 B
Camps = 110.2 B
Total Drafts = 147.4 B

Sliding Draft = 114.2 B
Fixed Draft = 33.2 B
Drafting Efficiency = 67%

Difference added by Draft Boost = 22.1 B
Time Saved by Draft Boost = 11.0 hrs

Basically, for roughly 2,000 AP, I have increased my level completion speed by 7-10% (many other variables would be involved). Draft Boost does synergize well with Supercharge Army Camp as well. (Yes, there are probably other small variables and what not, but for rough approximations this is pretty accurate.)

By comparison, that same AP could have been spent to raise my Mercs from 45% to 70%. For R&F, that would be an extra 33.6B in Mercs vs the 10.2B from Draft Boost, and for Nether, that would be an extra 59.8B in Mercs vs 22.1B from Drafts. And this doesn't factor in the fact that 15% of those Mercs would add to the Sliding Draft. Only downside is that would still require Money to get those Armies. Looking at it now, that may actually be a better investment in my AP.

Basically, from the numbers I have, I can draw the following conclusions:
If you are actively playing, Draft Boost will provide a small boost to your total armies. But that same AP can likely be spent more effectively elsewhere for larger bonuses. Especially for players that are lax about their Drafts.

Edited 6/16/2021 14:29:47

You are making the analysis of benefit of Draft Boost too difficult.

It's as simple as this.

I have AP Adv DB @ 250% & Artifact DB Epic 32% = total bonus 282% = 3.82x multiplier. So if someone with 0 DB AP Adv and no DB artifact drafts 100M, someone with +100% DB AP Adv would draft 200M, someone with +200% drafts 300M, +250% drafts 350M, then add the DB +32% artifact will draft 382M.

So yes, you will gain more from this AP Adv & Artifact if you draft more b/c of the fixed portion, but the massive bulk of the benefit from Drafts are from simply depleting the sliding portion b/c of the huge benefit from collecting army caches & high Merc drafts.

For reference, when I completed Europe Huge, I calculate the benefit of the Draft Boost AP Adv +250% to be 262.97B, and for comparison the benefit of IACP AP Adv +130% to be 221.01B - which given that the Draft Boost costs more AP means the ROI benefit is higher for getting IACP to 130%, IACP is a better use of AP. As each are upgraded, they both get more expensive, and Draft Boost caps out at 300% for 3405 AP, and IACP at 500% for 12,280 AP, so there is likely a point of equivalent somewhere around 250-300% IACP where it stops being as beneficial as Drafts (b/c the last upgrades are too expensive).

Edited 6/16/2021 16:20:25

Only 1.02% of armies needed came from camps on my last level. Because fixed drafts are tied to army income only, it's not worth it to me to draft regularly for the fixed portion. It's only worth it for the sliding portion. Hospitals were 40.89%, mercs were 31.17%, joint strike 13.91%, drafts 2.78%, and caches 10.23%.

Also Draft Boost increases your draft cap. That means after getting a huge Army Cache or buying a ton of Mercs it will takes less drafts to get your draft dawn to a normal level. So instead of it taking 8 drafts, it might only take 3 if your Draft Boost is high enough. Seems like that would benefit people that don't draft often as they get their armies much faster.