Hello guys,

I am passing the levels for the first time, just finished Rome and starting Australia.
Considering the hardened levels now added and the fact no need to pass all levels to ascend, which levels would you recommend me to play after finishing this one and in which order?

Many thanks,
Arcturus

If you watch the ads for army/ore/smelter/crafter burst I'd say hardened The Siege of Feldmere next
hardened Copper Creek Castle, that Legendary Triple Strike Artifact will help on Europe Huge & US
maybe hardened Far Land &/or hardened Peloponnesian War, I'd hold off on any other hardened levels after this.
Netherlands, China, Afro-Eurasia Gargantuan, and United States, at least 3 of those if not all 4
Skip Triskelion.
Save Europe Huge for last.
Play them in order of AP gained least to greatest.
Save your multi levels for playing 2 of the larger hardened levels on your second or third go around.

I'm still on my first go around, have finished all the regular levels and am on my 4th hardened level. Plan to do hardened Far Land and maybe hardened China before I ascend. That 10% reduction in dig times is so enticing, but I probably should wait until my second play through.

That's my two cents, but I'm sure several players will disagree with me.

The only hardened level that I strongly recommend you to finish is Hardened Copper Creek Castle, where you can get a Legendary Triple Strike, which will help a lot in the later levels. Other hardened levels either do not give very good rewards, or are too difficult for you at this moment.

As for the normal levels, my personal feeling is that the last 4 levels (Afro-Eurasia Gargantuan, Triskelion, United States, Europe Huge) are significantly harder than other levels. If possible, I would like to skip all of them. However, Europe Huge is required to be finished in order to ascend. To address this issue, my solution is to Multi-Level these 4 levels to maximize the AP gain in unit time during the time I am forced to spend on Europe Huge. Furthermore, I plan to reset the AP and get the advancement Increased AP just before I conquer the last territories of the 4 levels to boost the AP gain in unit time even further.

I will note that Hardened Ursa:Luna offered high AP/day relative to other levels when I beat it and I'm not as far into the game as you are (you can also pick up a few extra superpowers as well, which is nice). The reward seems situationally useful as well, so I think it's a wise choice to complete.

128.7AP for 29hours real time, 25 hours session time using only a single FB to compute the optimal route*. My SAC artifact was on cool-down for this level as well, so I would expect even faster clear times to be possible if you have SAC available.

* I can post what I think is an optimal route if you are curious (not doing so to avoid spoilers), but, in general, on this particular level, the route taken seems to have a substantial, easy-to-measure impact on clear times.

I tried Hardened Peloponnesian War to see how it compared (and try to estimate when will be a good time to try Hardened Copper Creek Castle, since that one has the reward I really want) and ended up beating it in about half a day, though at the cost of 5 free caches and 2 SAC superpowers. It was less obvious that this one was worth the investment, though the better draft indicator is an okay quality-of-life improvement.

I did all the hardened until Copper Creek Castle then I ascended without completing my last 6 not hardened levels missing (skipped before). I think it was better to get all the 30% ore bonuses completing again the easiest levels quickly and that I am going to get much more AP completing all those after ascending.