I've supered once, it seems the thing to do, open new maps even if all but Hex Earth is unplayable.

I look at what Ivan and the others are doing and part of me kinda wants to get there, get to the point of being able to super in under a day. Collect the artifacts etc. It's wicked awesome.

However to get anywhere near that ability takes a massive time investment and I figure doing the same maps over and over will get tiresome, it does now every so often but only worse as time goes on.
I am more thinking, get enough AP to buy all the advancements and say 24 hours of idle time*, do all the maps, get all the all tech achievements and other achievements and consider myself to have finished the game.

Having an end point that can be done in a reasonable amount of time seems motivating, getting more +25% AP, to... get more +25% bonuses is starting to feel kind... I don't have the words, but still.
Maybe after I'll want to go again, but starting without those advancements and without those artifacts really sucks, hell this time around I almost reached super territory before finding a SAC and that was because I was buying poor ones to bump my one and only time warp.

I got the challenges one done,
still need to place first in battle [got second, without SAC/TW, first is in sight]
Need to do all the normal pre super levels 3 times [Hello Trisk my old friend.... erg]
Do all the super levels, do tech runs on everything. All the other ones will like income and the like will come up with the rations as they say I think.
I am really close to qualifying for supering IIRC, another 300K AP and I'll have all the advancements bought
I have enough auto stuff to do well in battle pretty much. Just got my second simo level, Might get a third or even a forth while I work on the 3 times achievement then buy up the tech AP stuff and go tech run, like a baos.

And I suppose if I ever want to super again, nothing stopping me, except I will have burned plenty of skip levels and some IMs from Hex Earth.

* there are some auto advancements that are counter productive, but I'll have the points for them without spending them till I am done.

It all comes to personal preference on what to do.

Basically, unless you come to a situation of needing to sacrifice artifacts, any strategy will not actively hurt your future progress.

Granted, except chewing up skip levels and IMs to finish Hex Earth
I could always top hitting HE, I have enough to super and by the time I do the easy hardened and huge Europe this time should have just about every I need for a easy time in a tech run or just about. Already have challenges done so I don't need any more auto stuff, 9 hours total of idle.

The best path to 42 insane artifacts is going with +.25 AP over and over...It just doesn't really seem like much progress and it doesn't really seem to speedup those early levels compared to the late ones...Personally I find picking additional artifacts to be more fun and I seem to be making progress. So it a matter of getting an additional Legionary each super until you make a insane in which case you pick up +.25 AP until need another spot.

About the missing SAC, I never want to super without TW,AV, SAC, A$B, ACB, HB, CB. I only have 5 slots right now so yes HB and CB are the ones I have find each time. If I was going to push for all the additional levels I think I would want at least 6 more artifacts.

I think I might just super again. I got 8 idle time arties so my A$B and AV are out of service for 10 days, meh, might as well tackle the scub levels again.

I'd much rather have extra slots, it's a lot more fun but running out of mercs really slogs things down so that extra AP can avoid that, it is a good thing, or at least delay it.

Just checking, I pretty much want IACP at plus 100, JS at max, AM at max, MD at max, and IASV at max which cost 20k AP. The running out of merc is getting farther along as I get more +.25 AP but I would guess it will take more than 8 to make it be ok. Regardless, the first 10 maps are way more about what artifacts you have than how many non-tier 4 APs you have.

Edited 1/4/2024 01:36:39

Yeah I've been noticing that also.

Another weird thing, as I bought enough idle time legendaries to insane TW and A$B I went into a hardened level with the purpose of chilling while they are finishing, but it feels weird not to be rushing things like I usually do. I just don't to face those normal levels without my AV and A$B, I still have a fetish about getting the 30% ore bonus first time around even if people think it's unwise.