I'm finally going to super-ascend for the first time! Not right now but in about 2 weeks normally.
Here are my items:
Legendary: Supercharge Army Camp, Army Camp Boost, Alloy Values
Epic: Hospital Boost, Army Cache Boost, Territory Money Boost, Draft Boost, Time Warp, Item Values, Ore Values, Triple Strike, Mercenary Discount, Bonus Money Boost, Mine Discount
(also some rares so maybe I can sacrifice one more)

Which ones should I turn legendary? Which one should I turn insane if I can? Then, for super-ascending, if I understand correctly I can pick 2 items to keep and a +25% AP gain? From what I read, Army Cache Boost and Alloy Values are the 2 best, if possible in insane?

Edited 2/14/2024 17:10:08

I think you should aim for:
- Insane Army Cache Boost
- Legendary Alloy Values
- +25% AP

There are other options, in particular you could change the insane for a Time Warp, an Army Camp Boost or a Supercharge Army Camp depending on playstyle, how frequently you play, how much you battle.

I think two artifacts (as opposed to three) is pretty locked in though because you have roughly 6 Legendary worth of artifacts - this is quite convenient

I also think Legendary Alloy Values is pretty locked in because Insane is excessive for many or even most levels while Legendary is just really really strong in general

Sounds like we're in same spot. Check my post from 2 weeks ago.

I'm about 30k AP away from my 1st Super Ascend, going with Insane Army Cache Boost, Leg Alloy Value, +25%

Ah sweet, that was the setup i took into my first SA as well!

Works great, but the just starting out when you have absolutely nothing is a bit harder (since markets dont do a whole lot yet). If you got some powers, you can blast right trough that tho

I'd go with insane alloy values, even with it, at low +25% AP bonus there are a few levels I get into financial problems before I can get to the AP spend on AV and merc discount... additional mercs are so important. Also flooded with cash you can go nuts on hospitals and army camps for those times when additional mercs just isn't there. Once you have enough +25% bonus then an insane AV is probably pointless but that is a long long way off.

Carry over a SAC, even a uncommon or rare one will help

Next run I used to be on team army cache boost, really helps on Hex Earth till you start to get there in phase 4, however army camp boost really helps out at those early levels and even later on till you get enough +25% under your belt.
Either of those 2 would make a good secondary after AV

As for +25 or additional slots, Until you get 4 or even 6 +25 bonus, it's where it's at. You want to have enough addiitonal mecs to take on a level before you get to it, a chance to buy up AV and Merc discount as well as AP bonus and get a level skip to avoid trisk before you hit trisk. Yeah yeah I know, you get skip levels on the map, but 10Xing them to get to Hex Earth making saving them a worthy thing... ditto for inspire merc powers.

Thank you for the advice guys! Leon, when you say: "There are other options, in particular you could change the insane for a Time Warp, an Army Camp Boost or a Supercharge Army Camp depending on playstyle, how frequently you play, how much you battle." which item corresponds to which style? I like to play 2 or 3 times a day, sometimes 5 minutes sometimes 30 or more. Would Time Ward correspond to it more?

I didn't think about it either, but do we keep our powers or do we lose all of them when we super-ascend?

The best research answer to this question is look at the super thread see who has many supers and see how which artifacts they have picked. A little advice on your first super which is obvious but I will say it anyway. Wait to after the end of a clan war season so you have the full set of buffs to start day one with. With a SAC and a ITW and can get 3 SACs a day without coins. It been a long time but SAC + clan request is very powerful when you first start off. I am sure you are aware of players buying 50+ poors and not getting the artifact they want. I don't know how many times I did get one of the seven at all during my 2 month plus super run.

With those 11 epics you can make two more legendaries, which is enough to boost you to one Insane and one Epic. I see two options, realistically:

* SuperAscend in two weeks with one Insane and one Epic. In that case I think the Insane should be Alloy Values, and the epic should be Time Warp (edging out Territory Money Bonus, as making money is what the Alloy Values is for). I *don't* think that Epic Army Cache Boost is worth carrying over.

* Hold our for an Insane and a Legendary. If so, the Insane should be Army Cache Boost and the Legendary should be Alloy Values.

Note that in that second case you need four more epics; how much digging you need to do depends on how much the lower stuff you have is worth. Without boosts, an epic is 1000 hours of digging, so that's a bit less than 4000 hours of digging. With faster digging maxed that would be 2000 hours. If you've also done Hardened China, that is 1800 hours. With Time Warp as much as possible that becomes 1600 hours. You might be able to reduce this further if you have Clan bonuses (or by madly burning powers or coins, but I doubt that's worth it).

1600 hours is basically 66 days. So the above choices boil down to whether you want to kill time for an extra 50 days in order to take a Legendary instead of an Epic. Overall, unless you're really feeling like not playing the game for some time, I think the first option is better.


Note that the choice of Time Warp in the first plan was based on what you had as Epic, since the Legendaries have to be sacrificed for the Insane. If you can bring up a lower level Army Camp Boost or Supercharge Army Camp to Epic before SuperAscension, then those are fine alternative options. If you can bring up an Alloy Values, then taking Insane Army Cache Boost and Epic Alloy Values is another option to consider, although I'm a bit on the fence about it.

Edited 2/14/2024 23:20:56

On that last option: Insane Army Cache Boot and Epic Alloy Value. I did that after SA no2. After SA1 I took Legendary AV and Legendary SAC. Sacraficed them both for Insane ACB and had a new Epic AV ready for taking with me. At the start, the Epic AV is sufficient to rush through the levels after SA. On my way of upgrading it to Legendary again...but it works well for me!

""There are other options, in particular you could change the insane for a Time Warp, an Army Camp Boost or a Supercharge Army Camp depending on playstyle, how frequently you play, how much you battle." "

If you only played once a day, super army camp would be best, you can run it only every 11 or 16 hours depending on clan war results.

If you play more often you can use an Insane Time warp to carve 8 hours off the above times, and use TW once every 11 or 16 hours. Basically adding an additional use of Supercharge Army Camp [SAC] Assuming if you play multiple times a day starting a new level when those 3, 11, 8 or 16 hour waits expires. If you play twice a day, two hours apart, it counts as once a day.
SAC is only useful at the start of a level. SAC plus clam request or if you have it SAC plus Free Cache build up some more quickly then Clam Request.
SAC is useful at any level, more is better but even a poor one embiggins the Free Cache and Clam Requests.

If you are pounding levels many times a day, you are moving to fast for SAC to cool down, and army camp boost is better. Army camp boost is also very useful if you have few or no +25% bonuses as you will be spenidng a LOT of time just waiting for your army camps to produce what you need to finish a level as you won't be able to buy additional mercs to keep up. At +75% you should be nearly good, at +100% you if you spend AP wisely have enough mercs to finish every level except fo rthe last three hards, Trisk and the post super levels ]minus Hex Earth]

I am not going fast at all (like 3 days/level or something around that) and I don't think I play the most efficient level AP-wise... and I know I haven't spent my AP the most efficient way either, but it's still fun. I have made some upgrades and cleanup and now my items are:

Legendary:
Alloy Values
Army Cache Boost
Time Warp
Supercharge Army Camp
Army Camp Boost

Epic:
Territory Money Boost
Mercenary Discount
Mine Discount
Draft Boost

I should try to get enough before super-ascending (I'm still 40 000 AP away so it will take longer than I thought) and it seems like I should keep Insane Alloy Value & Legendary Supercharge Army Camp or Army Cache Boost. Still not sure =/. Time Warp seems tempting too... can't I keep 4 and get the +25% AP bonus please? :-D

I’m really not a fan of Insane Alloy Values personally. 5 Legendaries is an absolutely incredible amount to invest in a single artifact and you really want a return on that investment.

Army Cache Boost will help you on every single level and in every single battle. Army Camp Boost will help you on every single level and in every single battle.

Alloy Values will not. I don’t want to downplay this artifact - it’s the best artifact in the game. But Legendary Alloy Values is very very good and functionally identical to Insane Alloy Values on most levels. I would always take Insane *other* + Legendary AV rather than the other way around.

+1 to Morg’th on a really thoughtful post

Morg is the best!

Alright, thank you very much once again, guys! It's going to be Insane ACB & Legendary AV then.

Excellent choice!

Did the OP get the epic from HCCC IIRC the triple strike, or land one from battle, if so, that's your insane plus legendary right there.

Yeah, given what you've acquired now, the plan should 100% be Insane Army Cache Boost and Legendary Alloy Values. Digging the last epic should take around 20 days if you have the various faster digging options, which fits reasonably well for 40K AP left and a casual playstyle.

(But you might wish to try, say, hyperaccelerating on Hardened Old Town which I'd expect you to be able to complete with 1 hospital cycle for sure, and possibly 0. It's kind of addictive once you get the hang of it.)

Well if you are taking 3 days per map I would think SAC and AcampB likely don't make much difference as they are really focused on that first hour getting to a market place. TW helps repeat that if you are doing more than one level a day but you aren't. So A$B would be the way to go with insane.