Last month, when I was considering upgrading Quad Strike to legendary, Otto challenged me with the question of planning to complete levels in hours or days. He said upgrading Alloy values was far better and I eventually agreed (and I'm glad I did!).

But the question of planning for hours or days to complete levels got me thinking. After ascending and restarting the maps, I realize the answer is neither.

First off, the first few maps have always been hours. You can finish them without using SAC in a very short time (far less than the cooldown 16 hours). I was doing 2 per day at first.

When I started needing SAC, finishing in less than 16 hours doesn't buy you any time savings because you still need to wait for SAC to cool down before starting the next map.

Today I tackled Far Land and needed two active artifacts (SAC at the start and TS later to deal with that 2.4B stack, so 32 hours before moving on.

The real answer is neither. The question really is, how.many 16 hour blocks do you need for each map?

BTW, getting 4 starting techs in phase 3 is very valuable in the planning so you can always start with drafting enabled, which makes SAC more valuable.

Edited 12/20/2023 23:34:27

Can i mention that
1. Clan Wars reward: 4 territories: Reduced artifact cooldown time by 30% for two weeks

2. s1v1 ladder reward for 31st-50th: Reduced artifact cooldown time by 10% for one week (the higher you are the better the reward)

I don't have an answer to your problem sorry for the intrusion, but also I rarely have a 16h artifact cooldown

Chris, good points. I haven't super ascended yet nor been in Clan Wars (starting next year!) so I still have the 16 hour cooldown.

My point was not to call out Otto. He had been very helpful and I appreciate his comments. My point is simply that trying to finish a map in, say, 2 hours vs 3 is a fool's errand if you have to wait 16 hours (or 12 or 14) before starting the next one. Also, dig times certainly enter in, too.

Edited 12/21/2023 00:12:03

The title of the thread is really ambitiously misleading.

This period, when you are strictly limited by the cooldown of active artifacts, is 1) significantly long, but also rather small in a WZI player's strategy evolution; 2) applies only to certain levels; 3) usually there are ways to override it, to gain benefits from faster level clearance.

And even if you are really limited by the cooldown of active artifacts, then it is still more convenient to be able (or have the strategy) to clear the levels fast.

1) VIW has 5 CW participants. Go and play clan wars NOW. Only 1 win and you are eligable for the 11h cooldown with no drawbacks for your clanmates. CW season ends in ~4 days, so that should be possible.

2) Consider time warps. They help alot. Leg TW artifact reduces the cooldown of the 11h SAC down to 7h. Much better.

3) Consider using a SAC power. Of course you cannot do that 5x per map or you will run out of them soon. But there are maps where you dont actually need the armies from the SAC but just the short kick to significantly boost the clan request. Sometimes even a 4h TW from the leg TW arti (without any SAC) is enough to reach the first market. So play around with TW/SAC/SAC power and if you are able to only need SAC arti every second map, you already doubled your speed.

Edited 12/21/2023 09:16:31