SRC Broken as grind level?

[Angry Johnny]

This was an intended change. The amount of snoutlings was decreased because the stage was never meant to give that many snoutlings. Now, the amount is in line with the in-game economy and balancing, they way it was designed.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Complete BS. Even Rovio have tweeted about SRC being a good place to get snoutlings. This was changed just so people will buy snoutlings instead of grinding for them. REALLY greedy of them :-|

[Angry Johnny]

Angry Birds Epic just tweeted something about wisdom words from the Might Eagle (not really important). I suggest that everyone that has a Twitter account replies that we are not happy with what Rovio just did to the Snoutlings drops in the levels.

[RedYoshi45]

@angryjohnny
“In-game economy and balancing”? Bullcrap. A main principle of any RPG is being able to GRIND for in-game currencies and ingredients for potions, better armor, better weapons etc.
REALLY bad move by Rovio and Chimera.

Just dropped by at ABEpic’s Twitter account and said something.

EDIT: I found the tweet where they said SRC is a great place to grind snoutlings.
I’ll link you all to it… I suggest we reply to that instead.
https://twitter.com/ABepic/status/595304894254354432

[ShapokoManbeast]

@kennymcc
Thanks for the tip about eastern sea 6. I will try it.

[RedYoshi45]

@jamairoqui
CPC still spawns Wealthy Rogues. I just had one.

[metztli013]

Well this is certainly some unfortunate news. =( And I only discovered SRC a few months ago… I’ve only got about 38k snouts stocked up. *sigh* Silly Rovio.

[Jamairoqui]

It is clear that the Dungeon Hunter 2x reward events are more valuable now. And it is also clear that dungeons should always be played on expert mode to get double snouts. It also makes grinding resources to make potions and so forth a worthwhile thing to do, since snoutlings are now more valuable for dojo buys.

However as far as playing just for snoutlings, I was doing the math and I realize that if you have 300,000 snoutlings banked, which isn’t an unreasonable amount for modest level of pre-update grinding, that translates into nearly 43 separate 50,000 point mastery upgrades through the dojo. Which means if you are patient you do not have to grind snouts to upgrade all of your hats from maybe midway through level 13 to level 15, especially if you get mastery through the events as well. You just spend down what you have saved making the 70 snoutling buys in the dojo.

This seems like a reasonable plan, since I realize I don’t use but a handful of hats in the arena anyway, so there’s no need to grind all of them up to level 15. I only need to grind a core group of maybe 8 or 9 (Wizard, Witch, Tricksters, Rogue, Rainbird, Paladin, Samurai, Captain, maybe Druid (your list would vary depending on what teams you like to use)) and then the others slowly gain mastery through the dojo.

[Suikyo]

I still have almost 700k snoutlings. Not a concern for me now.

[Jamairoqui]

@smwforever45 That is some good news. It would be great if KPC spawned them but I guess you can’t have everything.

@metztli013 Not ideal. Before I discovered SRC, or maybe back when my birds were so weak that grinding SRC wasn’t really an option, I used the three-battle site on top of the mountain. My recollection is that it went quick, gave out on order of 20-25 snouts per cycle and decent payout for mastery, and the resources on the wheel were mostly useful.

[Jamairoqui]

@angryjohnny SRC and the other 100-snout payout castle made snoutlings worthless in the game economy. If you wanted, you could generate on order of 3,000 snoutlings in a hour (and to buy that many using LCs would cost a lot). It was possible to accumulate maybe 10,000 snoutlings per day without even trying that hard. So if the dojo gave you seven 70-snoutling mastery buys, in 10 minutes you would have those snoutlings back.

The other thing they could have done was increase the difficulty of the castles so you couldn’t autoplay them. That would also have increased the value of snoutlings.

I don’t really like the change, but I have to admit it makes the game more interesting because you have to think about managing snoutlings as a resource.

[Napoleongl]

@angryjohnny
Sounds like a great idea; thinking of getting a Twitter account just for the thing of it… Then again I gave you them my view as reply to their support response.

[Angry Johnny]

@jamairoqui Yes it makes Snoutlings very easy to get once you are strong enough to play that level which isn’t until you pretty much have finished the main quest. You know just like any other good RPG does it late game.

[RedYoshi45]

@jamairoqui
I would’ve rather had the increased difficulty for KPC and SRC………. I would’ve played for my snouts and ditched auto-play. But no, Rovio won’t do that…

EDIT: Exactly what @angryjohnny said.

[Joanna Caccavo]

I’m level 53 and mastery 5-6 and can’t even complete the desert castle on auto-play :/ snoutlings are a big issue for me

[metztli013]

Eastern sea 6 is a pretty good idea. Especially since you get the rainbow shells as reward. I guess this is my new grinding area =)

[Jamairoqui]

@angryjohnny I see your point. But RPGs are boring once you get to that stage.

@smwforever45 I would have liked that better too, I think. Make the castles harder even than the dungeons, but give out more mastery and snoutlings. Also maybe make the array of pigs change from cycle to cycle, so you can’t get into a pattern. (I think what I just said is to make the castles like the arena, only with pigs, not other players.)

@joanna-caccavo Snoutlings are a big issue for everyone until you get far enough along that you don’t need them for anything other than mastery and enchanting. My hunch is the magic number is 100,000. Once you get over 100,000 snoutlings you don’t have to worry about them anymore. Hard to say if that is realistic with the change in SRC.

[RedYoshi45]

I think the first Chronicle Cave is the best place for Snoutlings right now… not Eastern Sea-6. The first cave is also great for mastery.
If you have FB and you don’t know what else to do with your friends’ birds – use them to get some snouts and some mastery in Caves 1-5, 1-8 or 1-9.

More details later once I get back to my research… (I’m constantly interrupted by my parents! D:)

[BigMac69]

@smwforever45 Cave 1-5 seems to be the best the place to go for mastery and snouts at the moment. I must admit I played this level quite often in the past to bring my birds to the next mastery level. You gained more mastery (in average 80+) than playing SRC…

This level can easily be played with only two birds. I am at level 60 with mostly M12, only very few birds reached M13 yet. Ok, Elite Paladin did, Spies and Wizard as well and I have the most important sets at level 52. I do not spend any real money, only once to get rid of the ads.

Normally no pig has the chance to attack my birds, they are defeated before they are fully charged. The 100 damage points every two rounds can be ignored. The Wealthy Rogue appears quite often, too, at least in my case. Once I was really lucky and encountered him in three waves during the ten wave battle! My average amount of snouts playing this level is somewhere around 65 snouts and if you are lucky you can win another 10 snouts by spinning the wheel. I do not use FE,s for a respin because it is not worth it. So one run playing this level will give you enough snouts for one offer at the dojo.

[RedYoshi45]

I got a response from Rovio. Exact same wording as @napoleongl already posted.

Also, here’s the results of my research:

Thanks to my friends for those numerous Paladins I had to borrow to do this XD

So, the overall winner after the changes is Chronicle Cave 1 if you go ONLY for snouts or for snouts AND mastery, due to all the brutes and shamans that appear there; the huge EXP level difference doesn’t affect the amount of Snouts and mastery they drop, it seems. Plus, there’s a chance for 10 snouts at the end of the level, and for Wealthy Rogues to appear.

If you go for ONLY mastery, however, I’m totally baffled that Eastern Sea-6 is clearly ahead of the others. It’s also very nice if you go for mastery and snouts, with a higher focus on mastery. Additionally, this is the go-to place for Rainbow Shells, which are valuable for enchanting; and Wealthy Rogues have a chance to spawn.

Mouth Pool is decent for snouts but really bad for mastery. Auto-play didn’t always catch the Necromancer before he ran away from the wave which made me miss 10 snouts. (Maybe stronger birds would do the difference – but not everyone is a powerhouse.) Plus it takes very long – I wouldn’t visit it regularly. Despite the 5 snouts and potion ingredients you can get at the end.

*phew* This Yoshi got another job done.

[KennyMcC]

@smwforever45
Nice summary :) I am happy to see my Eastern Sea-6 as a really good option for grinding :)

[loynis]

Don’t forget the pumpkin plateau 2. It’s a single wave with 3 square woods reward, the best place to grind ingredients for enchanting. It also spawns wealthy rogue quite often.

You don’t need autoplay, just a chilly with a bomb (once you’re high enough).

[Anonymous]

@smwforever45
Those mastery/minute figures are for one bird, right? So it’s important to note that the caves are 2/3 as productive for mastery as the other levels, since you’re only using two of your own birds. Or did you account for that already, and I missed it?

[RedYoshi45]

@poptimus
I accounted for that already, as you can see in the “Ø Mastery” row. I first divided the mastery for 1 bird by 3 because I did 3 battles, and then multiplied it with 2 for friend battles, and 3 for non-friend battles.

@loynis
I don’t think the snoutling and mastery output will be too high (apart from, obviously, the occasional Wealthy Rogue), but I’ll test it anyway.

[Anonymous]

@smwforever45
Ah, my bad

[Pointless]

I do find Eastern Sea-6 interesting, as I used to auto that a lot, but simply for the Shells. I didn’t pay attention to Snouts or Mastery (as they didn’t matter much or at all to me then), but I guess it was a good choice! Thanks for the work, Yosh