Deleted comment

Edited 2/26/2022 21:08:17

delete this before the "bug" you found gets 'fixed'

AA, you make a good point. I've deleted the post.

Is it even worth calling that a bug?

If you want to keep digging without getting any AP for your time, than you're just wasting your time in my opinion, especially now that AP is worth something with the super ascension.

What was the problem?

JK, As a player in his first pass, I disagree. Going from uncommon to rare can have a much bigger impact on overall time through the round of maps than adding an attribute worth a few hundred AP. At later rounds, you might be right. I feel it's similar to the question I run into every day - "Is it better to spend money on increasing army production or mining output?". When going for the 30% mining boost, I generally pick the army production. When working on a more advanced level, I tend to go for mining. My idea is to complete the techs as quick as I can so I can use the ore for money to buy mercs.

Vena, no problem. Just an observation. If you want the details, send me an email within the game. AA made a good point to not globally share the details or else the advantage I found may get fixed and go away.

Just a few thoughts from me to this "topic":

So I wasn't able to read the original post before it got "deleted", but from what I can piece together, you think you found a way to exploit the game to some extend. Whether this is a legit trick or not, I can't judge because I don't know what you claimed to have discovered. Nonetheless, I'm uncertain if what you did here is wise or even permitted.

1.) If you found an actual exploit to the game, then all of the following, abusing, promoting, and keeping it undisclosed is against the terms of service afaIr (which you agreed to when signing up). So, if you really found something, I'd advise you to file a bug report or else Fizzer could theoretically terminate your account. You want to risk that? And everyone partaking in this discussion is more or less in the same situation if it's obvious that you knew about it.

2.) If you actually found something, do you really think that using the game's own forum or dm-system is a wise idea to distribute the trick without the administrator's knowledge? Is privacy of correspondence for in-game dms a thing? I don't now. But if this was my forum I would at least have a way to inspect former versions of (public) forum posts (for example to investigate any claims of illegal behavior (discrimination, racism, etc)). So, "deleting" a forum post would do exactly nothing to obscure your original post. And web site hosts bound to US law can face a bunch of charges, so, what data would you store if you were a site host yourself?

So, either this was a serious exploit, then discussing it before you disclosed it to Fizzer was a really bad move (and could have consequences). Or you just wanted to be the cool kid / nerd that everyone copies their homework assignments from. And by deleting your post you only created an extra layer of secrecy to attract the gullible players. But in this case not deleting the post would at least mean that others could freely comment on your findings and probably convince you (like JK) that your trick isn't worth the time to describe it.

Just saying.

PS: I hope your "exploit" is more than just "not finishing a level before you started the last digging". Because that really wouldn't deserve the mystery you created here. That was already discussed in this forum before and definitely wouldn't be an exploit (and therefore wouldn't/couldn't be fixed). Again, I'm just piecing together what I can still read here and in the title.

Edited 2/27/2022 01:45:24

PS: I hope your "exploit" is more than just "not finishing a level before you started the last digging". Because that really wouldn't deserve the mystery you created here

Pretty sure this is it lol

If digging while not continuing to clear levels is a crime, then lock me up. lol (hint: it's not; this is known, in fact many players notably those on their 1st playthrough put off going to the next level to continue digging on the current level, and continue digging every site until they start the last one, then move to the next level; it changes even for these players once you get to 2nd and 3rd Ascension b/c clear time gets so much quicker while dig time still takes a long time, so you really can't do all the digs w/o seriously & unnecessarily delaying level clear times despite being ready to move on)

I've been digging without clearing levels (until I need to in order to get more digs) since ... well was going to say since the Super Ascend update came out, but nope, it was earlier than that, since I no longer needed AP anymore, which is >6 months. Before SAsc, there was no reason to get any further AP, b/c I had all the Adv's I want/need, and have cleared all the levels multiple times, so all that's left to do is dig.

So I'm digging. And now with SAsc, there's even more reason to just dig and not clear levels. Still don't need the AP (b/c it's going to get thrown away) but # of artifacts I can take back to restart the game post SAsc is limited, so best just keep on digging to consolidate all my Rares & Epics rather than tossing them to the wind.

Phoenix, It is not illegal nor breaking any rules in the game and is not what anyone would consider cheating. It is not any form of improper behavior and I have no thought that it is a bug, although it may be. In the spirit of full disclosure, here is the gist of my original post. If it is a bug, and gets fixed, so be it.

I am currently on my first pass through the maps (just finished Africa), all of my artifacts are uncommon or rare, and my attributes are sufficient to complete the early levels in under the time limits to claim the 30% mining boost. So I decided to replay the early levels to gain more ore before completing the first pass through the maps. I am currently working on getting 30% lead.

Now, when working on the harder levels, it's easy to complete the digging but not get the 30% bonus. However, it takes several days to acquire sufficient excess money to start digging in a new level. So, it's easier to dig at the end of a level (more money, techs finished, etc.).

To get the 30% bonus on the early levels, speed in completing the maps is critical and several sites remain undug.

Here's what I found. You can complete the level and then not leave the map. The game continues to accumulate money, armies and ore. Digging continues. So, even though the game awarded a victory, the game does not automatically revert to the map list page (I'm sure this is intended so you can spend your newly acquired AP.)

Now, here's the kicker. When digging at a site is finished, since you are still in a map, you can start another dig. And 12-36 hours later, you can start another one. If you shut down the ap or turn off your tablet, when you restart the game, you are still in the map. As long as you don't hit that red arrow in the upper left, you are still on the map.

Yes, you can't start another level, and you can't get anymore AP while doing this (nor do any of this if you are playing multiple levels), but you can complete all your digs and get the 30% bonus. Of course, you could complete all the digs before conquering the last territory but that may cost you the 30% bonus. With this method, you can do both, but you do delay getting more AP on a new level.. A few days vacation is not so bad and is not breaking the rules of the game.

Is this a bug? Maybe. Or maybe it was intended. Will it get "fixed"? That's not for me to address.

Edited 2/27/2022 06:00:37

Tbest. That depends on how you define "finishing". Probably not quite what you thought it was (well certainly not 100%). After all, I might have been the first person to ever stay on a map until AFTER a late dig was finished (and had undug sites remaining).

Not a bug or a cheat. It's also not stable, once you clear that last territory, you're liable to lose access to that finished level at any time. I've done that before and just closing that browser tab, restarting the app, etc, can bring you back to the level selection screen and that level in progress will be missing at that point.

I have L3 Simul Levels, and I always leave 2 levels near completion but unfinished intentionally to keep on digging and fulfill clan reqs.

This is just 1 way to play the game, depending on whether you're putting focus on AP or digging.

Krinid, Not sure what you mean by not stable. Will I lose the victory or 30% bonus? Or just the ability to start any more digs? The big difference between your play and mine (other than the multiple levels) is that I clear the last territory and get awarded the victory. If my game crashes, I think I just lose the undug sites. No big deal because I get more in the next map. All I lose is a few easy digs because at the end of the map I have plenty of money (and income) to start fresh digs right away. And I agree that it's just a question of playing styles. Are you after quicker advancement points or artifacts? That's really the trade-off with both methods.

The new thing here is my "find" about starting a new dig after finishing a map. Everyone knew you could end one. But nobody appeared to know you could start one, too.

Krinid, Here' a thought. After I complete the current level (copper creek), if I have any dig sites not yet started, I'll hit the sync button, which should prevent the loss of any unregistered progress, and then see if I remain on the map. If so, my method of not returning to the map list is safer than yours of not completing the level. I'll report what happens in this thread.

Not completing the level is 100% safe. By not stable for completing and keep digging, I mean if you restart the app or reload the browser page, you don't go back to the finished level, you go back to the level selection page and can't navigate back to a finished level.

For your purposes of finishing the level in time to get the 30% ore bonus, this works and is clever if you're aiming to get more digs in rather than collect AP. After all, what's the point of rushing to collect AP to be able to SAsc if it means you have to throw away Epics and Rares? May as well progress slower, but end up with a Legendary and lose less artifacts.

Edited 2/27/2022 17:18:15

Krinid, okay at the last dig I'll close the application and restart it to see if I return to the map or the selection page (just to verify your concern).

I did not understand your line "SAsc I'd it means you Jane to throw away...". ( I ran this through Google translate in 47 different languages and Siri could not decipher it, either.). I assume SAsc means Super Ascend but the rest is completely unclear. Not very worried about SAsc in my first pass through the maps.

Yep, as krinid this behavior is well know. Myself, I often use it to let the current dig finish, then pick one with 1+ days dig time and start the next level. But have also just waited out a few 8hr digs in a row too.

I find it too inconvenient too bother with the "medium" dig times.

@Mark,
Closing the app has 100% of the time eliminated all finished levels from progress status, and puts me back to the level selection screen and I need to start a new level. If you get a different result, let us know.

As for my unintelligible sentence ... so funny, and you're right, it doesn't make sense (and who the hell is Jane? lmao). I was typing on my mobile, and seems both autocorrect and the ugly app interface wrecked my text. I've edited it above, but this is what I meant to say:

For your purposes of finishing the level in time to get the 30% ore bonus, this works and is clever if you're aiming to get more digs in rather than collect AP. After all, what's the point of rushing to collect AP to be able to SAsc if it means you have to throw away Epics and Rares? May as well progress slower, but end up with a Legendary and lose less artifacts.

I may or may not have all the techs done when I get that last level. If I don't I finish them. I generally wait for a dig site to finish and start one as long as possible. I think I remember a thread complaining about not being able to finish the techs so I think this has been addressed before. Waiting for one to finish and start a new long one seems worth it to me but not so much finishing them all.