150th SA done. 20x AP (+1900%), 5200 starting AP, 24 slots.

25x starting AP picked since the last update. Apparently I've been playing quite a bit recently, since these last 25 SAs went by in just under a month.

Artis: AV, OV, MD, ACB, A$B, CB, RCB, MCB, TW, DB, HB, BMB, TMB, ACD, SAC. All insane, except leg SAC (and TMB is still upgrading). I have everything I care about for now, and have stopped playing battles and HCCC. The only thing I would use if I had it is speedy smelters, which could improve my time in H Ursa Luna by ~30-60s by getting some copper ore smelted faster.

For the route, I've now started skipping K-PX and Drakemor, and starting from this SA I'll be able to skip Final Earth as well. These are decent improvements, as Drakemor and Final Earth were the maps that took the longest. A full SA is now completable in just about 1.5 hours. The next step is to skip normal Ursa Luna, but that's 24 SAs away.

Here's the breakdown for anyone interested. All times are without powers, active artifacts or clan requests.

Tutorial - <1 min
Huruey - 7 min (6 min with fast arena win)
Floating Rocks - 8 min (6 min with fast arena win)
WotW - 6 min
Ursa Luna - 8 min
H Ursa Luna - 8 min
Pelo - 4 min
H Pelo - 6 min
Japan - 6 min
Far Land - 6 min
H Far Land - 7 min
2nd H Far Land - 7 min*
HOT - 8 min
HRome - 5 min
HScandi - 5 min

Total - 91 min

And here are times for some maps I've started skipping during the past ~50 SAs:

Final Earth - 15 min (was 10 with more AM before skipping Drakemor, also requires fast-ish arena win)
Drakemor - 15 min (requires arena win while waiting for second draft)
K-PX - 6 min
Feldmere - 7 min
Geopolitics - 8 min

* I exchanged HCCC for a second clear of H Far Land, which gets me to phase 4 for HOT. HOT is just barely doable at phase 3 and lvl 1 hospitals with max AM, but it requires clicking half the map manually, making sure to use JS on every territory. This is what I did for at least the past 50 SAs, but I'm happy to be able to use AAQ now.

But by exchanging HCCC for 2nd HFar, you lose a free Epic 😭

HFar = Easy

HCCC = Sucks

I like HCCC, the caches/hospitals/markets make it fairly easy to zip around strategically and finish quickly

46th SA. +ap for 700% AP and 18 addl artis.

300 / 100 / 45 / 44 / 37 / 25 / 38 / 24 / 18 / 19
19 / 18 / 14 / 14 / 17 / 16 / 11 / 10 / 8 / 9
8 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 6 / 7
7 / 5 / 6 / 6 / 4 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 4 / 4
3 / 4 / 5 / 3 / 4 / 3

Hoping the CB when it finishes will feel as good as its absence is feeling bad. Waiting for a RCB dig I guess.

Ins A$B ACB CB (upg) and leg AV SAC IM TW MD BMB and epic HB SC ACD TS

I don't mind either HFL or HCCC themselves, both take 6-7 min to clear and take a similar amount of effort. But since this phase of the game is very much a grind, I try to minimize the effort, or how much of a chore playing feels like, and clearing HOT at phase 3 is high on that metric. For now the extra artis would only clutter my inventory since I wouldn't use them, and eventually I can get 100x dig speed upgrades and they'll be free anyway.

I have the dig speed upgrades and the artis are free ... but that is in itself a serious grind b/c you
(A) have to clear levels to get more artis to dig up
(B) have to upgrade a slew of them in succession
(C) don't often get Epics

Take Hex Earth for example, you get ~260 artis from clearing it, then you have to do approx:
- 15x poor arti upgrades
- 40x common arti upgrades
- 5x uncommon arti upgrades

You won't get enough rares or epics to do any upgrades from the arti dig bounty alone. You typically get 0 epics, 0-2 rares. Each upgrade is a bunch of scrolling and at least 7 clicks, so the above sequence is about 450-500 clicks/taps. And that is in fact, a boring grind

If you clear Hex multiple times in succession, you'll accumulate a slew of artis/upgrading artis and then be able to upgrade some Rares into an epic. In comparison, I find it less grindy to do HCCC, and if your specs are high enough, take a win on Battle to grab an additional epic

SA 45