Finally beat hex, at least it's better than most of the extra levels. Time to grind now for 2nd super.

Yes, I used an IM on the second mercenary camp (Air's Rock). A SAC and CRA is plenty for getting there (there's a bit of a cache surf as well). From there, the rest of the level is fairly straightforward, you can pick up the big army caches and then the big hospital, market, upgrade the hospitals and then clear.

I don't see any practical way to clear it without an IM, although one may exist.

I used IM too on that same camp

Third Super Ascend

New bonus: +1 slot
Bonuses: +25% AP, +2 slots
Artifacts: Insane AV, Legendary A$B, SAC, IM

Fortieth Super Ascend!

New bonus: +25% AP
Kept: Insane A$B, ACampB, Legendary AV, TW, SAC, RCB, MD, CB, BMB, TMB, MCB, HB, IM, ACD, Rare SC, OV, MB, MCB
Bonuses: +16 slots, +525% AP, 0.8^3 dig time

As planned, I shaved off a hospital upgrade from Breaking Green this time and that was successful. I'm very close to being able to skip the 2nd HFL pass without having to add another intermediary level, probably on SA41.

With my newly forged Legendary IM and some inspiration from Zinthos, I found a 0.5 (or technically, 0.48) IM path through Hex Earth, which saves me an IM per SA. It's pretty tight and it wouldn't work for my first pass at the moment, as my AM is too low, but with 150% AM and 100% ICA, there's a fair bit of leeway. At the moment the 2nd Hex Earth pass leaves me with over 15k excess AP to burn, so I don't feel too bad about burning it on AM to save an IM, but I'll figure out exactly what I need soon, as I'm looking to trim out the second Hex Earth pass soon enough.

It sounds silly, but I think my next Legendary will actually be OV. It would be helpful in several of the early levels and that's just where the bottleneck is now.

My AP pivot point is now completely gone. I used to go full AM until hitting Breaking Green, then flip to IASV so I could do HFL, then switch back to AM until I hit 100%, then fill out the rest of IASV and MD. Now I hit 100% AM in time for Breaking Green (and will probably have 102.5% AM there this time). Amusingly enough, the AM requirements crater after Breaking Green so I'll probably continue pumping AM until then and then still switch, but now there's no hike back to 100% AM after.

I finally remembered to run the numbers on Insane HB vs Insane CB (in terms of delta vs Legendary), and CB wins pretty handily in every level I checked. So, that rules out HB as my next Insane at least.

Next up: +25% AP, Legendary OV (next SA)

OV?

Never mind.

Seems like leg SAC works fine for me on early levels. Not sue what difference it would make when money is not a massive issue except 1st trip through.

Seems like leg SAC works fine for me on early levels. Not sue what difference it would make when money is not a massive issue except 1st trip through.

SAC is waaaaaaay too slow to use on every level. In the base 16h cooldown for one SAC, I would typically have cleared Tutorial through to K-PX on a fresh SA. Also, it locks a slot, which is annoying.

Also, there is only one trip through for me, I haven't regular Ascended for many SAs now.

Bottlenecks shift significantly once you get deep into SAs.

Fair, I've only done once so still need to ascend as well

I have super-ascended a twenty-ninth time.

Boon chosen: +1 artifact carryover

Total boons: +300% AP, +17 artifact

Artifacts carried over:

* Insane Army Cache Boost
* Insane Army Camp Boost
* Legendary Alloy Values
* Legendary Supercharge Army Camp
* Legendary Time Warp
* Legendary Mercenary Discount
* Legendary Resource Cache Boost
* Legendary Cache Boost
* Legendary Bonus Money Boost
* Legendary Territory Money Boost
* Epic Inspire Mercenaries
* Epic Idle Time (kept fodder)
* Epic Triple Strike (HCCC)
* Epic Army Camp Boost (wzib)
* Rare Hospital Boost
* Rare Money Cache Boost (upgrade)
* Rare Item Values (upgrade)
* Rare Bonus Money Boost (wzib)
* Rare Mine Discount (wzib)

Next time: upgrade IM; maybe +25% AP

Forty-first Super Ascend!

New bonus: +25% AP
Kept: Insane A$B, ACampB, Legendary AV, TW, SAC, RCB, MD, CB, BMB, TMB, MCB, HB, IM, ACD, Epic OV, CB, TS, Rare SC
Bonuses: +16 slots, +550% AP, 0.8^3 dig time

I successfully avoided a second HFL run this time around, as predicted in SA40. I also realized that I can trim out a hospital upgrade from CCC, which will save another (a little less than) 2h in SA42. L3 hospitals on SoF will continue to haunt me for awhile yet though.

I got skunked on an 89% Uncommon dig, which meant I ended up with a ~12h dig bottleneck this time. I don't think it's time yet, but I might take more dig speed soon.

I'm almost out of slack Rares (and spare slots) again. I suppose that means the next Insane is probably coming soon. The cook time on new Legendaries is surprisingly constraining with that 5d period consistently straddling 3 SAs now. It actually means that more often than not, I'm waiting on a new Legendary upgrade!

Next up: +25% AP, Legendary OV (this SA)

5th for me, a really fast one. First time I could skip everything after Scandinavia except Rise & Fall and EH. Also skipped HCCC.
Market Raid consumption went down to 9 and next run it will go down to the 5 milestone.
For those interested, I'm doing a no-insane Idle play. I'll probably get my first one around the 20th SASC or so. For now, it works well.

I didn't make my first Insane until SA15 and I didn't throw away any Epics either. Those coming up with an Insane in SA1 must have done an absurd amount of digging or just went really really slow.