Iron was really good at least since on the 1st few levels all my income was basically SM + FC generated a ton of iron bars which I sold the surplus and funded all my mines upgrades. There was 1 level (think it was expedition) were SM+MR was enough to buy all those overpriced mercs which was hilariously unexpected.

Haha but yes I just broke down for copper/tin and made it so the bottleneck was smelting time and not ore production time for the 20,000 to 70,000 bars that were usually needed. This way there was not a second lost when smelting during the single SP TW that I used. A simultaneous level with hard trisk with 1 territory left donated all the TW/FC/SM that were not provided by the level itself lol. I also used 7y and 30y war to provide powers at the start since I'm sure I will never ever do those levels again.

I did 7yw and 30yw twice each ... and 7yw in particular was sooooo obnoxious.

The bonuses are so spread out and so many territories, difficult to even understand what's in the bonus. The territory list is so long that it doesn't populate properly, and can't tell what's not captured yet, etc. Don't think I'll play them again either.

AP Hex Earth

https://ibb.co/XzH0VGt

35.9K!

what % AP bonus from SAsc you have now?

+325%? assuming +25% AP Adv, so 12x +25% AP bonus?

Can you re-SAsv now w/o having to Asc between SAsc's?

That is 225% increased AP so most likely 200% and the 25% from advancements.

200% SAsc , 25% Adv

Ascend, play hardened levels or Netherlands-> Plateau Assault -> Hex Earth

@here what artifacts and advancements did u use to clear the level that quickly (with 99% of stuff coming from caches, I assume u used Insane cache boost artifacts for both money and armies)? Any powers required? (100+ of a single type of power on a single level sounds really crazy, but I guess that’s actly necessary since powers are not renewable)

Edited 6/1/2022 09:52:26

@here in future you might be able to do those 1340 +100 start ap super ascensions to beat the game. At your speed it actually seems realistic because a super ascension will only take minutes and at some point seconds to do.

Tbh, if that option were 1000 AP, I still wouldn't choose it

100 AP is a total non-starter

I'm betting no one has, kind of feels like trading in your house, car and all your belongings and household items (but you get to keep 2 items, like maybe a butcher's knife, a blender, a toaster, a rice cooker...) for a whopping $100 (100 AP)

Well I said in the future, at the point where you can do a SAsc like every hour. If you then grind enough (1340h is still insane) you might be able to do it.

I didn't even unlock fase 4 yet (will soon though) and am already suffering not knowing what to do when I super ASC... I finally "finished" collecting all "usefull" (if upgraded) artifacts and I will have to just go without them all in the end and for what? 0 bonus if i pick an extra slot... feels bad : (

I guess its only worth super asc if you're bored or normal game play and want a reset or when you have really awesome artifacts and legend or insane. I wont have to worry about it any time soon, but I started thinking about it and it kinda sucks. (even worst, losing things like the bigger and more frequent circles for drafting.. that should be default!)

Yeah, I also thought about the different perspectives players might have on super-ascension:
If you think super-ascension is a waste of (spent) time and barely more than a marketing stunt, you will never super-ascend and the question, which reward to pick never arises.
If you plan on doing super-ascensions on a regular basis you will eventually have a good spread of all the rewards. Except, of course, the 100 starting AP, that most players won't ever choose because they clearly pale against all the other options.
But if you only plan to super-ascend once to either "try it out" or just to unlock the new levels, you certainly want to make your choice of reward count. 100 AP is out of the picture again and an additional slot will never apply to you in a meaningful way. So, increased AP or faster digs it is. I guess both are valid options and depend on what you want/need more.

Isn't it just kind of the same thing as starting a new level though?

When you finish an old level and start a new level, you lose all your armies, your mines, your army production, your army camp upgrades. You need to start all over again.

Super-ascension is kind of the same. The only difference is that the cycle is longer. It takes hours to complete a level. It takes weeks to complete a cycle of super-ascension.

I'm not complaining you have to start over since thats the point and happens in all idles. Its just there are things i dont like.

As a newer player im still playing for AP. not for artifacts like older players were. So most of mine are still rare i only have 2 epics, the triple strike (still mad i didnt get the legendary) and a alloy value. That would mean, its not worth super asc until i have 2 or 3 very good artifacts at least legendary. Else it just trowing away all others that i use for very little benifit.

But im just speculating, tbh i dont even remember super asc rules as i havent even unlocked 4th tier (5k ap away)

Anyway TLDR its just super asc is only worth after a certain point in my opinion. Before that point you are just throwing away your artifacts. Especially since used power dont come back and its what i used to help on the firts few runs. That said its still awesome adition to the game. And something i look forward to in the future.

Edit: i understand your point but its not the same as starting a new level. New levels have 0 RNG. artifacts are random and their level is also random. After 2 normal ascensions i finally got the last artifact i wanted that i didnt have. Took a while and theres a chance you simply wont get it for a long time.
You also lose quality of life things (still think "more frequent and bigger" draft circles should be standard and not a reward... Feels like creating a problem and selling a fix). So its a little different but yeah its a restart.

Edited 6/7/2022 12:00:09

The problem I can see with super-ascension is that the "end goal" of idle gets even more vague. From the get-go idle never had a clear end goal. Rather than perhaps "max out all advancements" and "have all artifacts". And while I understand that enough players got close to "having done everything worth it", such that Fizzer was on the right track to come up with a new challenge for these players, I believe that super-ascension more or less got rid of anything to strive for.

"Max out all advancements" is not a stable state anymore as super-ascension can reset all.
"Having all artifacts" sort of still could be a desired state for some. But while I still have one artifact of each type (in whatever rarity seemed worth keeping) for the odd situation that some game update will (again) open up the way for other strategies beside market-and-merc-rush (still a pity that the game heavily leans towards a single viable play style) I can imagine that the majority of players will be happy to have and be able to keep a handful of artifacts on legendary or insane. Seriously, who needs Fog Buster? Or how much buff would it need to actually be usable.
And all the other super-ascension rewards are perfectly (and infinitely) stackable. So, yes, you can super-ascend until your longest digs are done in a minute, but even then, you could bring it down to seconds. So, when is idle defeated? (similar reasoning for the other rewards)

As I said, idle was never clear cut, but super-ascension seems pointless in the way that there is no rank to achieve, no (more) goal to unlock, no (new) medal/achievement to earn (other than having beaten the new levels at all, but that only requires a single super-ascension).

PS: This all boils down to the question, when should Fizzer add a new level of difficulty to idle? If you can't find any indication for when players are "done with idle" and need new features to not lose the interest, then at the same time, the players have nothing to strive for. And a single forum thread where everyone can show off their super-ascension count surely is fun but no replacement for new features that eventually HAVE TO COME in order to keep idle the money cow it is. Without new features at some point it becomes outdated in today's fast-paced world. Whether or not it has a loyal fan base.

Edited 6/7/2022 12:39:43

The new goal for idle is super-ascending for 69 times.

The goal for Idle has always been passing time for as long as it's fun.

Treat it like a game of solitaire. You're going to win in the end**, just a matter of how long it takes and whether it's still fun or not.

** = you can actually lose in Solitaire, you just tend not to once you get good at it

4th!

The goal for Idle has always been passing time for as long as it's fun.

News flash: WZC's only point is passing time as well. In fact - as long as you aren't a professional e-sports player - every game's sole purpose is make time pass (while ideally transferring enough money to the game's makers to create the next sink for your leisure time). And that's not inherently a bad thing.

Still, does super-ascending keep up with the "as long as it's fun"? Did the addition of the super-ascend feature extend the phase where playing is fun? And for how long? As I said in my previous statement, for idle existed a (rather) clear indication when players might not get anything more for their time, aka. at some point the only reason to collect more APs was to boost your mine productions. If someone got this far, it was clear that the game effectively was played to its maximum. Now, there is no such indication anymore (hence no real objective for players) and therefore I can totally understand if players don't see a reason to super-ascend (or super-ascend another dozen times). (Even some veteran players were unhappy to see the formerly permanent rewards being now temporary like so many things already were before. Therefore, you could argue that for some players the introduction of super-ascension alone reduced their fun-level.)

But I guess that's enough off-topic discussion from me in this thread.

Well fun will always be subjective.
And its always a hard thing to balance, especially since when given the chance players will ALWAYS OPTIMIZE THE FUN OUT OF GAMES. If the best and optimal way was terrible and unfun, people would do it and complain. Even though there would be other more fun ways of playing.

So its not easy. Personally, i think super asc ads to the game. The end game was artifacts, super asc gives a way of getting those faster. Theres a trade of though. No idle/game lasts forever. And pausing them for a while is always good. But seams to me (as a newer player, remember that please) that super asc was a success in that regard as it extended the life of the game.

Though in a way, it also sort of gave it a life span, after enough super asc and enough +ap% you will fly through the game in a way you couldn't before. And thats permament even if he ads to the game. he "cant" make a "mega asc" that deletes super asc rewards... thats awful. So what then? Harder levels for people with max on all 4 tiers? sounds like a better plan to me. But wtf do i know?

Maybe a separate mode like gemcraft series "ironman like". You play it but you dont either have artifacts or advancements. or both maybe. That should be fun (as long as it doesn't interfere with the normal idle).

Anyway this is off topic and im talking about things i have no experience with so, forget it.