lobsterboy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2017
- Messages
- 278
As I was approaching level 41, I was planning out how I was going to save enough resources to upgrade my finca to level 17 with the least impact on my bank account. Based on the last few upgrades, I knew it wasn't going to be possible without spending some real money, since my gold balance is low. This is my strategy. Hopefully it helps others.
Finca level 17 requires 3 million wood, 2.5 million stone and 1 million iron.
Before you begin, make sure your storages have capacity to hold what you are trying to save up. If they can't, you need to do some storage upgrades first. Getting close to saving up enough resources for a big upgrade and then realizing you don't have capacity can sting a little.
1) Let your map spawn a bunch of player bases, outposts, and revenges throughout an evening and overnight.
2) The following morning, clear as many player bases, revenges, and possibly some outposts, as you can while remaining online. Do not go offline during this period.
3) Buy a one day shield to protect your resources just before you become vulnerable to attacks.
4) Continue to clear outposts, special bases, and pablo bases while the shield is active. If you are able to manage without one or two of your main sicarios, substitute in a Darwin or two to add a sicario bonus your resources (thanks to @CRABNUTZ). Your shield will only expire if you attack a player base or resource center that is already owned by another player. You can also attack resource centers that are currently unowned (thanks to @Vinnie Di Maggio). You will receive a prompt asking if you want to proceed if you hit attack on one of these bases by mistake. During these periods of resource saving, you will also gain a large cash balance, which you can use for opening new outpost areas on your map or cutting down trees on your resource centers. Every little bit helps.
5) When your map has filled again with player bases and revenges, just prior to 24 hours later when the shield is about to expire, start attacking player bases again. You should force the shield expiry before it expires on its own by attacking another player, or you may end up in tears from that one player that keeps hitting attack on your base waiting for you to be vulnerable to rob you of all your hard earned resources. You will need to pay close attention to your vulnerability timer, since expiration of a shield does not necessarily mean you will be vulnerable from attacks. I usually wait until a 1 hour vulnerability period has just ended before forcing the shield to expire. This way, I have the maximum time I need to clear my map of player bases and revenges.
6) repeat steps 2-5 as many times as necessary to gain the resources you need to upgrade. Before you buy a shield, go through the motions of making the upgrade to see how much gold you have to spend for resource shortage. If the amount of gold is less than 80, just go ahead and start the upgrade, since buying a shield will be more expensive.
I cleared my map as much as possible this morning and just bought my first one day shield. I have 1.5 million wood, 1 million stone, and 460,000 iron, which is 40% of the way on my stone balance. These numbers will continue to grow as I keep clearing outposts and missions. I will update this post with the resources I have collected just before my shield expires. Chances are very high that I will be over halfway to my upgrade before I start attacking player bases again.
I enjoy this game and am willing to help others advance, since it is clear many don't understand how to achieve these big upgrades. You just can't progress for free once the big upgrades hit. That's a fact. If you are cheap and you can't stay online for 3 hours, you also can't achieve these big upgrades. That's also a fact.
Any questions? Fire away. I used this strategy for fincas 15 and 16 and it works, with minimal impact on the actual dollars I need to spend.
One more thing to note is that you will continue to get attacked during the 24 hour period your shield is in place, however, you won't lose any resources from the attacks. You can raid those players who attacked you because your base showed on their maps. You can't raid back those who took revenge on you. (thanks to @Vinnie Di Maggio ). Only exact your revenge once the shield has expired.
Other tips added by forumers:
Update 2 (after continuing to clear outposts that spawn and with 3.5 hours left on my shield): 2.8 million wood, 2.0 million stone and 960,000 iron. This puts me at over 80% of the way to finca 17, based on my stone balance. I now have enough spawns on my map to force the shield into expiry by attacking a player base. I'm going for it...stay tuned!
Update 4 (after clearing a few player bases): Finca upgrading to level 17. Cost me 80 gold for one shield. Paid $15 CDN for 1500 gold, which means this upgrade cost me about 80 cents. I can live with that
UPDATE: By using this strategy, I have been able to do the following major notable upgrades: helipad 15/16, a total of 8 squad camps upgrades from 14/14/13/13 to 16/16/15/15, training camp 13/14, firebomb 4/5, RPG soldiers 11/12, Gordos 13/14. I have only used 500 gold at the most to accomplish all this, all for shields. I have upgraded 3 (almost 4) of my diegos to level 50 and have ranked one up to blue stars. I am waiting on crafting gear to rank up the other 3. I felt like I was hitting a wall but, with the advice of some more experienced players on this forum (thanks again @Vinnie Di Maggio), I was able to keep moving along. While I was am still in the middle of doing all my squad camp upgrades, I am able to clear most of my map with only 3 squad camps available. This is further increasing my skill and makes things feel so much easier when I do have all 4 squad camps available to use. The bottom line is you do need to spend money but you don't have to break the bank. I have faced the fact that I may never have perfect talents for my sicarios but I haven't needed them yet. Shortage of cash is my only issue for helipad energy upgrades. Wood, stone and iron just keep coming without much issue but with careful planning. I used my most recent emerald to purchase 2500 gold and that is going to be my final purchase. I can't justify paying any more for this game because the value just isn't there for me, personally. I am level 42 3/4 and have also bumped up my storage capacities enough to allow for upgrades that require 2,000,000 iron (squad camp 17/helipad 17, etc).
UPDATE: I am starting to see 3 rocket launchers once in awhile. I still don't see too many unmanageable Reaper rocket launcher health boosts yet. The ones that are impossible, I just switch out. I know my time will come but so far, so good. I am now level 43. I have my missile damage up to 12,671 and Gordos up to level 15 now. Finca is currently going to level 18 and my final squad camp is going to level 16. I am able to easily rip through most bases with minimal casualties still. I think I will focus my efforts to a couple more levels of helipad next. My starting battle energy is currently 49. I need more!
UPDATE: I have recently turned level 44 but have MANY MORE offensive upgrades under my belt now. Two of my squad camps are level 16 (8 Gordos) and two are level 17 (13 RPG soldiers). My missile damage is up to 14,401 and my fire bomb damage is 11,104. My helipad is now maxed for my finca level at level 18. I just keep my focus on upgrades that will make me stronger and I can beat most bases with minimal casualties. I also now have spare diegos to plug and play when one has fallen, which makes map clearing times lower. Three of my main Diegos are now blue star. My Gordos are now level 16 and my RPG soldiers level 13. My goal is to upgrade my training camp a couple more levels so I can beef up my troops. I only use gold for shields at just the right time to get those big upgrades. I just continue to switch out the high roller bases I don’t feel I am capable of beating and life is good. They don’t interfere with my goals yet. I feel like I am rolling along nicely and still have not been forced to spend outside my comfort zone. I have spent $75.31 CDN to date and have a reserve of 1,324 gold today. I won’t be spending any more money until I feel it’s deserved by the powers that be. I even had to resist using my RARE emerald.
Finca level 17 requires 3 million wood, 2.5 million stone and 1 million iron.
Before you begin, make sure your storages have capacity to hold what you are trying to save up. If they can't, you need to do some storage upgrades first. Getting close to saving up enough resources for a big upgrade and then realizing you don't have capacity can sting a little.
1) Let your map spawn a bunch of player bases, outposts, and revenges throughout an evening and overnight.
2) The following morning, clear as many player bases, revenges, and possibly some outposts, as you can while remaining online. Do not go offline during this period.
3) Buy a one day shield to protect your resources just before you become vulnerable to attacks.
4) Continue to clear outposts, special bases, and pablo bases while the shield is active. If you are able to manage without one or two of your main sicarios, substitute in a Darwin or two to add a sicario bonus your resources (thanks to @CRABNUTZ). Your shield will only expire if you attack a player base or resource center that is already owned by another player. You can also attack resource centers that are currently unowned (thanks to @Vinnie Di Maggio). You will receive a prompt asking if you want to proceed if you hit attack on one of these bases by mistake. During these periods of resource saving, you will also gain a large cash balance, which you can use for opening new outpost areas on your map or cutting down trees on your resource centers. Every little bit helps.
5) When your map has filled again with player bases and revenges, just prior to 24 hours later when the shield is about to expire, start attacking player bases again. You should force the shield expiry before it expires on its own by attacking another player, or you may end up in tears from that one player that keeps hitting attack on your base waiting for you to be vulnerable to rob you of all your hard earned resources. You will need to pay close attention to your vulnerability timer, since expiration of a shield does not necessarily mean you will be vulnerable from attacks. I usually wait until a 1 hour vulnerability period has just ended before forcing the shield to expire. This way, I have the maximum time I need to clear my map of player bases and revenges.
6) repeat steps 2-5 as many times as necessary to gain the resources you need to upgrade. Before you buy a shield, go through the motions of making the upgrade to see how much gold you have to spend for resource shortage. If the amount of gold is less than 80, just go ahead and start the upgrade, since buying a shield will be more expensive.
I cleared my map as much as possible this morning and just bought my first one day shield. I have 1.5 million wood, 1 million stone, and 460,000 iron, which is 40% of the way on my stone balance. These numbers will continue to grow as I keep clearing outposts and missions. I will update this post with the resources I have collected just before my shield expires. Chances are very high that I will be over halfway to my upgrade before I start attacking player bases again.
I enjoy this game and am willing to help others advance, since it is clear many don't understand how to achieve these big upgrades. You just can't progress for free once the big upgrades hit. That's a fact. If you are cheap and you can't stay online for 3 hours, you also can't achieve these big upgrades. That's also a fact.
Any questions? Fire away. I used this strategy for fincas 15 and 16 and it works, with minimal impact on the actual dollars I need to spend.
One more thing to note is that you will continue to get attacked during the 24 hour period your shield is in place, however, you won't lose any resources from the attacks. You can raid those players who attacked you because your base showed on their maps. You can't raid back those who took revenge on you. (thanks to @Vinnie Di Maggio ). Only exact your revenge once the shield has expired.
Other tips added by forumers:
- Have your buddies in your cartel put their finca out front for you when they're on your map. Hit those with darwins (@CRABNUTZ )
- You might not want to start your shield until your map is full, you have about a days worth of trucks to harvest, and you have a little more in resources then your bunker capacity. (@Julio )
- You can replace product shipments that don't have the resources you are looking for. (@Julio )
- Be aware that unlike the player base from your map, you only get one chance to revenge. Sometimes when you make a bad start, you will retreat and start over because it is cheaper than reinforcing. This isn't possible when you take a revenge, so be prepared.
- Make your finca vulnerable while you are on a shield so that you get more revenges (@Vinnie Di Maggio )
Update 2 (after continuing to clear outposts that spawn and with 3.5 hours left on my shield): 2.8 million wood, 2.0 million stone and 960,000 iron. This puts me at over 80% of the way to finca 17, based on my stone balance. I now have enough spawns on my map to force the shield into expiry by attacking a player base. I'm going for it...stay tuned!
Update 4 (after clearing a few player bases): Finca upgrading to level 17. Cost me 80 gold for one shield. Paid $15 CDN for 1500 gold, which means this upgrade cost me about 80 cents. I can live with that
UPDATE: By using this strategy, I have been able to do the following major notable upgrades: helipad 15/16, a total of 8 squad camps upgrades from 14/14/13/13 to 16/16/15/15, training camp 13/14, firebomb 4/5, RPG soldiers 11/12, Gordos 13/14. I have only used 500 gold at the most to accomplish all this, all for shields. I have upgraded 3 (almost 4) of my diegos to level 50 and have ranked one up to blue stars. I am waiting on crafting gear to rank up the other 3. I felt like I was hitting a wall but, with the advice of some more experienced players on this forum (thanks again @Vinnie Di Maggio), I was able to keep moving along. While I was am still in the middle of doing all my squad camp upgrades, I am able to clear most of my map with only 3 squad camps available. This is further increasing my skill and makes things feel so much easier when I do have all 4 squad camps available to use. The bottom line is you do need to spend money but you don't have to break the bank. I have faced the fact that I may never have perfect talents for my sicarios but I haven't needed them yet. Shortage of cash is my only issue for helipad energy upgrades. Wood, stone and iron just keep coming without much issue but with careful planning. I used my most recent emerald to purchase 2500 gold and that is going to be my final purchase. I can't justify paying any more for this game because the value just isn't there for me, personally. I am level 42 3/4 and have also bumped up my storage capacities enough to allow for upgrades that require 2,000,000 iron (squad camp 17/helipad 17, etc).
UPDATE: I am starting to see 3 rocket launchers once in awhile. I still don't see too many unmanageable Reaper rocket launcher health boosts yet. The ones that are impossible, I just switch out. I know my time will come but so far, so good. I am now level 43. I have my missile damage up to 12,671 and Gordos up to level 15 now. Finca is currently going to level 18 and my final squad camp is going to level 16. I am able to easily rip through most bases with minimal casualties still. I think I will focus my efforts to a couple more levels of helipad next. My starting battle energy is currently 49. I need more!
UPDATE: I have recently turned level 44 but have MANY MORE offensive upgrades under my belt now. Two of my squad camps are level 16 (8 Gordos) and two are level 17 (13 RPG soldiers). My missile damage is up to 14,401 and my fire bomb damage is 11,104. My helipad is now maxed for my finca level at level 18. I just keep my focus on upgrades that will make me stronger and I can beat most bases with minimal casualties. I also now have spare diegos to plug and play when one has fallen, which makes map clearing times lower. Three of my main Diegos are now blue star. My Gordos are now level 16 and my RPG soldiers level 13. My goal is to upgrade my training camp a couple more levels so I can beef up my troops. I only use gold for shields at just the right time to get those big upgrades. I just continue to switch out the high roller bases I don’t feel I am capable of beating and life is good. They don’t interfere with my goals yet. I feel like I am rolling along nicely and still have not been forced to spend outside my comfort zone. I have spent $75.31 CDN to date and have a reserve of 1,324 gold today. I won’t be spending any more money until I feel it’s deserved by the powers that be. I even had to resist using my RARE emerald.
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