I'm working towards my 1st super ascension. Is this option as bad as it sounds? Or is there some hidden benefit to it which I have not figured? Is there any imaginable circumstance where this could be a superior choice to +25% AP?

A second question: I steer towards having exactly 2 leg artifacts at the time of super ascending (AV and then either AcacheB or AcampB). Playing at the same intensity, can I go for +25% AP and bet on finishing my 2nd Sasc at half the time of my 1st Sasc? (Thereby earning only one legendary in the 2nd run). Or else I will have to pick 1 extra artifact at both 1st and 2nd Sasc, if I will have 4 leg at the end of my second Sasc).

There is a point where +100 is better than +25%. After all if you have 40 +25%, that's 1000, and extra 25 is only 2.5 percent.

Also after a while going from 10X to 11X won't speed stuff up all that much. OTOH if you build up enough 100 it can make a huge difference, being able to start with a bunch of skip levels seems pretty sweet but you need a LOT to get there

Either way, that's not for us mortals to worry about, so +25% >> +100
Like in first edition AD&D, sure non humans have caps on their levels, but campaigns rarely ever got that far so everyone took bloody Elves.

For me, SA2 went much faster than double the speed. I went from 272 days for SA1 to 70 days for SA2. That was a combination of artifacts, knowing where stuff is and being in a clan starting from the beginning of SA2 (CRAs make a big difference). YMMV, but expecting a speedup of only 2x is likely lowballing it.

As Morg said, +100 starting AP is terrible for probably the first couple dozen SAs, after that it starts to look more appealing.

thanks alot guys, your replies clarified much for me. I will aim at 25% extra when completing 1st sasc

Note that artifact digging is arguably the slowest part of the game (~75 days for a late-stage legendary assuming no missed time, Hardened China, max extra digging speed, and optimal use of a legendary Time Warp), so if you find yourself close to three legendaries when you are ready to Super Ascend then it would arguably be worth taking the third artifact slot instead. (And depending on the artifact, the boost in play speed might be close to what +25% AP would give.)

On a similar front, if you find yourself close to five legendaries, then you might wish to hold out for an Insane.

How a Super goes for me.

Stage 1 I have no AP and have to work up additional mercenaries.
Stage 2 I have to get to T4 and get better hospitals.
Stage 3 I have to get 100k APs in T4.
Stage 4 I have to get to an artifact stop point.

Early on the best picks are increased Artifact slots and/or +.25% AP.

Some point around 40 +.25% AP and I guess 10 Artifact slots they won't increase my speed much.

I would guess once your super is under 1 week 2 epic a run will be about all the additional artifacts you care over each time. So if you are ever going to do + Dig time it would be very early and I wouldn't recommend it.

So after about 50 Supers or so I will need 1 artifact slot per 12.5 Supers. I would imagine my time holdup will be stage 1 as passive artifacts can only do so much if you don't have the merc to clear a level. So at that point you start working on the 1340 +100 AP for the instant Super.

Weird footnote, the 70th +.25% AP is only worth 99 APs when you have a target of 134k APs. If you change that target to 40k to only really be concerned with getting to my stage 3 it is 37.

Edited 4/3/2024 11:40:10