I’ve run a lot more tests on Cave 1-5 and Cave 4-5, and I’m pleased to report that 4-5 does indeed provide slightly better mastery per minute than 1-5, at least as far as the classes I’ve been working on over the course of these couple of days (although it does indeed come at the expense of Snoutlings per minute).
Before I get to the data, note:
– The time of each run was measured from when I tapped the autoplay icon to start it, until I tapped the reward wheel at the end.
– When I focused on minimizing the time between runs, it took roughly 35 seconds from when I tapped the reward wheel at the end of one run, until I tapped the autoplay icon to start the next run.
In ten runs through Cave 1-5 with my own Avenger (M12 with L52/E8 Dragon set) and Elite Cleric (M12 with L52/E8 Sweet set), and borrowing birds with an average power of 271, I got 798 mastery per bird and 842 Snouts. Average run time was 3:27, so the average mastery/minute (after adding 35 seconds per run for the between-runs process) works out to 19.7 per bird 39.4 total), and the average snouts/minute works out to 20.8.
In ten (Edit: eleven) runs through Cave 4-5 with the same birds, and borrowing birds with an average power of 303, I got 1232 mastery per bird and 766 Snouts. Average run time was 4:25, so mastery/minute = 22.3 per bird (44.6 total) and snouts/minute = 13.9.
In ten runs through Cave 1-5 with my own Guardian (M12 with same Dragon set) and Princess (M12 with same Sweet set), and borrowing birds with an average power of 275, I got 882 mastery per bird and 836 snouts on an average run time of 3:02. That works out to 24.4 mastery/bird/minute (48.8 total) and 23.1 snouts/minute.
In ten runs through Cave 4-5 with the same birds, and borrowing birds with an average power of 270, I got 1088 mastery per bird and 743 snouts on an average run time of 3:43. That works out to 25.3 mastery/bird/minute (50.6 total) and 17.3 snouts/minute.
Now, if you ignore the raw mastery and snout figures and just focus on the times (which I think is appropriate to do, since these two levels offer the same set of enemies, but at different experience levels), you come up with a better predictor of future success, I think:
With the Avenger/Cleric combo, Cave 4-5 took 24% longer per run. Since the pigs in that level drop 33% more mastery than those in Cave 1-5, it stands to reason that average mastery/minute output would be about 7% higher, but that Snout/minute output would be about 19% lower.
With the Guardian/Princess combo, Cave 4-5 took 18% longer per run, which implies 12.5% higher mastery/minute and 16% lower snouts/minute.
For me, it’s a tradeoff that makes sense, since I have a huge stockpile of Snouts and am therefore primarily concerned with mastery. On the other hand, for those of you with smaller Snout piles, it probably makes more sense to stick to Cave 1-5. It’s also worth noting that there’s a lot of variability based on which classes you’re working on leveling up. I intend to do more testing with better classes in the future, and will report back with results accordingly. I also plan to run some tests in Cave 9. Finally, it occurs to me that SRC and/or KPC may still be preferable if mastery is the primary goal, as it is for me. Lots more testing in my future!
Hope you all find this helpful, in the meantime!
