Hi all,

Been playing a couple of months (level 11 woohoo) and have a few qs that I could not definitively find answers on. Apologies for the daftness!

1. Since I have (perhaps foolishly before reading the forum) used AP on increasing ore values (currently +30%), it seems to be very often the case that smeltering and crafting are rarely worth it when I run the numbers (generally see -20% ROI not even factoring in time). Have I wasted AP on increasing ore values when I could get that value through processing?


2. When running the numbers on hospital upgrades, I have gotten to the point where I roughly calculate the cost per army saved by a hospital upgrade:

(territories left) X (new armies saved per territory)
/ (upgrade cost)

against the rough per army cost of buying equivalent mercs. Am I thinking correctly about this?


3. How important are artifacts? I ignored them initially, and now I always snag one after completing a level, and have even taken good deals on getting an uncommon during a level, but it seems to be hit and miss, more miss to be honest. The only artifact I have that really seems to help so far is uncommon supercharge army camp for 30 mins every 15 hours. The rest seem to really be marginal. I have upgraded a common to uncommon and been disappointed, and I am currently upgrading my uncommon supercharge army camp to rare. What is the best strategy for artifacts in the early stages?

Thanks in advance for any help / guidance!

2. When running the numbers on hospital upgrades, I have gotten to the point where I roughly calculate the cost per army saved by a hospital upgrade:

(territories left) X (new armies saved per territory)
/ (upgrade cost)

Absolutely. Compare this value to the maximum mercenaries cost.
https://pkmx.github.io/wzi-levels/
helps greatly in this.



3. How important are artifacts? I ignored them initially, and now I always snag one after completing a level, and have even taken good deals on getting an uncommon during a level, but it seems to be hit and miss, more miss to be honest. The only artifact I have that really seems to help so far is uncommon supercharge army camp for 30 mins every 15 hours. The rest seem to really be marginal. I have upgraded a common to uncommon and been disappointed, and I am currently upgrading my uncommon supercharge army camp to rare. What is the best strategy for artifacts in the early stages?

INCREDIBLY important. can't finish this post gtg

Edited 5/18/2023 14:15:31

1. yes.

2. yes.

3. artifacts are pretty important.

For an early player I suggest getting these for idling:

* army camp boost
* territory money boost
* bonus money boost

There are a bunch of situational passives you can swap in. Highlights:

* alloy values (when selling bars)
* merc discount (when buying mercs)
* hospital boost (when attacking)
* cache boosts (esp army) (when attacking)
* draft boost (when drafting)

Other discounts and boosters exist but those are my favorites.

There are a bunch of smelting/crafting artifacts. Speedy crafters is the best of them.

There are a bunch of active artifacts. Many are terrible, some are great once you upgrade them.

* supercharge army camp (jumpstart a map)
* triple/quad strike (take down big stacks)
* time warp (skip over long boring stuff)
* inspire mercs (this is a longer term goal)

1. “Wasted” is stronger language than I would use, by consensus Increased Ore Values is probably in the ~top 5-6 of the Level 1 advancements. It’s just that Joint Strike and Increased Mercs are *so* good that it’s hard to justify this investment.

Completely agree that smelting and crafting are rarely worth it and Increased Ore Values is cheap so there is decent value here, just not as much as you can get elsewhere.

2. This makes some sense, but I would encourage you to shift your thinking somewhat. The most limited resource in WZI is time. You get a set allotment of army income in each level that does not cost time, some from caches, some from merc camps, some from hospitals/joint strike. You should always plan to use *all* of this ‘free’ income.

So I would flip this question slightly. Take it as a given that you will use all your mercs and ask yourself if the payback period on a hospital makes sense.

3. The artifacts become incredibly powerful at the Epic level and beyond. They aren’t that good at lower rarities. There are some exceptions:

Supercharge Army Camp (as you point out) is a good one especially when stacked with a FC power. Use this early in a level when you accelerate 100% of your army camps instead of just a fraction of them.

Time Warp is a boost to absolutely everything (army camps, money production, hospital upgrades, artifact digging, artifact cooldown, etc.) so it’s nice at all rarities.

Hospital Boost is a sneaky good artifact at low rarities.

Finally, Alloy Values is without question the single most important artifact in the game. Get this one and upgrade as far as you can as soon as you can.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the great info / insight! Extremely helpful and has given me a bunch to think about...

2. This makes some sense, but I would encourage you to shift your thinking somewhat. The most limited resource in WZI is time. You get a set allotment of army income in each level that does not cost time, some from caches, some from merc camps, some from hospitals/joint strike. You should always plan to use *all* of this ‘free’ income.

Got it. Especially useful!

With respect to artifacts, you all provided some helpful insight in regards to various specific artifacts to pursue. I will do more thinking and research instead of badgering you with individual merits / demerits for now.

The one follow-up question I have is should I always have an active dig going? My thinking up to now has been to deffo get one upon level completion, and pursue any high value ones, but it seems that maybe I should always be digging... yeah?

Thanks again!

Yes you should always be digging unless it’s going to dramatically affect level completion time

Dig site selection is more art than science, but in general you should try to choose sites that will complete: (a) when you are not asleep and (b) when you are not just starting a brand new level

These two things will interfere with being able to start a new dig immediately

Awesome, thanks again!

New and also on L11.

The three artifacts I have in place are

Supercharge Army Camp
Territory Money Boost
Army Camp Boost

All Epic.

I also use an Epic Army Cache Boost. The Army Cache Boost is swapped with Territory Money Boost when I'm taking an army cache. Then I swap the artifact back right away after taking.

but pro tip: everything else equal, prefer uncommon/common and common digs for digs

Always be digging. And basically always be upgrading artifacts. I go for the Common digs first (fastest) and then the Uncommon/Common digs. Last are the long-shot ones that usually yield poor.

Artifacts are the only true long-term asset in the game--if you ever superascend (note the leaderboard regularly posted in the forum) part of that process is basically wipe the slate clean, except you get to keep a couple artifacts. By that point they should both be Legendary level artifacts at minimum--the top of the leaderboard mostly had an Insane artifact they brought with them on first superascension.

Alloy Values is the most important artifact--it is key to Market strategy. The money you can earn from markets with a good AV--mine is at Legendary--dwarfs any other income source. That cash upgrades hospitals and buys mercs and tech trees and maps finish faster.

There's a bonus if you complete the tech tree on any level. If you miss it the first time you can earn it on replay.

The most important AP is max joint strike. You will want more mercs--I'm at 105%. Max merc discount.

Investing some AP in stats is worth it. It is a bit shocking how little army camps matter, really. Stats made me realize that Army Cache Boost at a good level (mine is Legendary) makes a REAL difference, sneaky very valuable. Stats also show how hospitals, joint strike, extra mercs, etc, contribute.

Don't get too wedded to almost any artifacts--the upgrade process can be painful at times, sacrificing ones I like, to upgrade ones I like even more. If you're constantly digging you will see it again, and probably will experiment some, but rebuild up the good ones--Hospital Boost (to Rare), Merc Discount, Speedy Crafters and Smelters, Army Camp Boost, Bonus Money Boost. The cache boosters are all worth it, Army by far the most. Sacrificing good artifacts is normal: I'm on my third Epic Army Camp Boost now. The other two were sacrificed for Legendary AV, ACacheB, or Triple Strike.

Edited 5/22/2023 18:11:02

Thanks, appreciate the guidance! Getting additional mercs to 105% seems like quite an achievement!

I dig all digs starting with cheapest because they upgrade.

I also noticed when starting a new map the current, active dig from the previous map carries over. So when a dig takes over one day I'll start that dig nearer to the end of a map so that it carries into the next map so the diggers there are already busy and I can spend money elsewhere instead of on digging.

At this point I've been ending levels without any digs to spare, they're all complete.

I am at 150% add mercs, 50% merc discount (phase 2) 100% iasv with AV, SAC, TW, MD,ACB at epic and HB at rare like a real market strat player (late game market strat is so op the limiting factor is digs)