Spark Run!

[ABT]

@papakarlo I do much better with Nautica than Blaster. I agree that her health is not as resilient as some of the other TFs, but being able to knock out all flying pigs/stun WMTs w/ EMP helps her stay alive. I usually do well with her, but there’s a few times where I can go from 4 hearts to 1 heart in a few seconds if she gets hit by a missile followed by 2+ falling monoliths. That is usually the death for any TF though. I also have a green crown Mirage, so I can try that next time. This week will definitely be Nautica at +840% bonus.

@millforce2k Wow. An hour per spark run, and you do it twice a day? I was doing 16-18 min spark runs twice a day (~32-36 minutes total) and that sucked the life out of me. At least w/ long/monotonous Challenge Runs, you don’t need to pay 100% attention most of the time, but in spark run, if you have an itch at the wrong time then you’re dead and get nothing in return.

@pako I discovered that Gold crates seem to favor any non-overpowered TF and any accessories that have not been unlocked. I made sure to unlock all accessories (even ones that I do not use) to increase the chances of a better Gold crate.

[MillForce2k]

449: 3,344,300 points (+13,000) – 12 stages @ 1260%
450: 3,357,200 points (+12,900) – 11 stages @ 1260%

@pako I didn’t think of that with the crates. In the last event, I did get to upgrades, but they were both overpowers.

@abt Yea, I usually play it while watching the news. The extent of my Challenge Runs are starting and going back to the map to get the daily quest completion, so it’s kind of a trade-off.

[JoeBlack]

Spark Runs are so long now..

How long are they Crafty?

Well they are so long that Superion makes me stop half way through for lunch. Today he wanted to eat at the ‘Gear Shop’ for ‘chain link waffles’ & ‘drill bit sausages’ and of course ‘flat washer s’mores’ at ‘Bent & Jerry Rigs’ afterwards for dessert…sheesh. He did play well the 2nd half though…

[MillForce2k]

451: 3,370,200 points (+13,000) – 10 stages @ 1260%
452: 3,383,100 points (+12,900) – 11 stages @ 1260%

No big jump today!!

[MillForce2k]

453: 3,396,100 points (+13,000) – 10 stages @ 1260%
454: 3,409,200 points (+13,100) – 10 stages @ 1260%

[MillForce2k]

455: 3,422,200 points (+13,000) – 10 stages @ 1260%
456: 3,435,300 points (+13,100) – 10 stages @ 1260%

Now getting 5K sparks per run, after video bonus.

[MillForce2k]

457: 3,448,400 points (+13,100) – 9 stages @ 1260%
458: 3,461,600 points (+13,200) – 9 stages @ 1260%

[MillForce2k]

459: 3,474,700 points (+13,100) – 11 stages @ 1260%
460: 3,487,900 points (+13,200) – 11 stages @ 1260%
461: 3,734,500 points (+246,600) – 11 stages @ 1260%
462: 3,748,600 points (+14,100) – 9 stages @ 1260%

461 had a jump in points required, but also had a jump in target values.

[GrimLockdown]

@millforce2k It almost looks like R/E forgot to add 120,000 points at level 451 🤷🏼‍♂️

Target values change when there is big jump in points. Every 100,000 increase in points increase Missile target value (usually) by one. BTW levels 2xx have Missile target value 16 and levels 3xx 22.

And we are on track for 5 million points for level 500.

[MillForce2k]

@grimlockdown Yea, they skipped a jump in needed points and target points. Maybe they felt sorry for us for the 300K jump at 441. The number of stages, though, haven’t been increasing. At least, so far.

[ABT]

@millforce2k I also noticed the number of stages don’t go up along with the increase in required points either. It is definitely due to an increase in points rewarded per target going up along with the total required points. Ironically, my runs (number of stages and time) always feel shorter every time there’s a big jump in points needed. The bonus TFs squad seems to have the biggest impact on how many stages/how long it takes to complete the whole spark run regardless of points required. One thing that I haven’t been able to tell is whether difficulty is getting harder due to TFs taking more damage at higher levels. How long each TF survives seems to vary so much from run to run regardless of the level.

[MillForce2k]

463: 3,762,800 points (+14,200) – 11 stages @ 1260%
464: 3,777,000 points (+14,200) – 10 stages @ 1260%

@abt I don’t think the stages increase in difficulty. Otherwise, it would get pretty difficult when we’re doing 20+ without a bonus squad bot. I think the survivability depends, for me at least, how much driving I’m doing and being able to change back to shoot down flying pig. The more flying pigs, the faster my bot dies.

[GrimLockdown]

@abt @millforce2k It’s certainly theoretically possible that at higher levels pigs are more lethal or aggressive (shoot more readily) and there are more (or less) targets.

But there are levels or stages where number of targets already vary wildly. I don’t think that pigs’ aggression or lethality increase. The Challenge Run is an example where lethality does increase. Also in gold and epic (purple) map runs pigs are aggressive and quite lethal.

So, I think that there is no increase in pigs’ lethality or aggression. This means it’s possible to normalize results between runs where bots have different promotion and levels different difficulty and thus rank different bots.

[MillForce2k]

465: 3,791,200 points (+14,200) – 11 stages @ 1260%
466: 3,805,400 points (+14,200) – 12 stages @ 1260%

[MillForce2k]

467: 3,819,600 points (+14,200) – 12 stages @ 1260%
468: 3,833,900 points (+14,300) – 9 stages @ 1260%

[MillForce2k]

469: 3,848,200 points (+14,300) – 11 stages @ 1260%
470: 3,862,500 points (+14,300) – 11 stages @ 1260%
471: 4,119,200 points (+256,700) – 9 stages @ 1260%
472: 4,134,500 points (+15,300) – 11 stages @ 1260%

If the level is on the 1s, it’s time for a point jump.

[MillForce2k]

473: 4,149,800 points (+15,300) – 9 stages @ 1260%
474: 4,165,100 points (+15,300) – 11 stages @ 1260%
475: 4,180,500 points (+15,400) – 11 stages @ 1260%
476: 4,195,900 points (+15,400) – 11 stages @ 1260%

[Lostyyy]

Update locked out

[MillForce2k]

477: 4,211,300 points (+15,400) – 11 stages @ 1260%
478: 4,226,800 points (+15,500) – 12 stages @ 1260%
479: 4,242,200 points (+15,400) – 10 stages @ 1260%
480: 4,257,800 points (+15,600) – 9 stages @ 1260%
481: 4,524,700 points (+266,900)
482: 4,541,100 points (+16,400)
483: 4,557,700 points (+16,600) – 11 stages @ 1260%
484: 4,574,200 points (+16,500) – 11 stages @ 1260%

Getting closer to @grimlockdown’s 5M prediction

Pre-bonus target points:

[MillForce2k]

The final point jump, and it’s a biggie! Looks like just under 5.4M needed at L500.

485: 4,590,800 points (+16,600) – 11 stages @ 1260%
486: 4,607,400 points (+16,600) – 10 stages @ 1260%
487: 4,624,000 points (+16,600) – 12 stages @ 1260%
488: 4,640,600 points (+16,600) – 12 stages @ 1260%
489: 4,657,300 points (+16,700) – 11 stages @ 1260%
490: 4,674,100 points (+16,800) – 11 stages @ 1260%
491: 5,212,000 points (+537,900) – 13 stages @ 1260%
492: 5,230,700 points (+18,700) – 13 stages @ 1260%

491 and 492 only had one forest stage, so that may be why the number of stages jumped as well.

Pre-bonus target points:

[MillForce2k]

Today’s the big day. Level 500!!

Points Needed: 5,381,000
Coin Cost: 362,300
Pig Cost: 3,620 (estimated)
Reward: 5,000 Sparks (5,500 with video bonus)

[ABT]

@millforce2k Congrats! You’re one day ahead of me. I’m at lvl 499. I should hit 500 tomorrow.

I’m a bit surprised that even at 5.3M points, I can finish a Spark Run with my 1st TF (Nautica) in about 10 minutes (@ +1610% promotion). Since the number of points required increases non-linearly with the reward (sparks), it should be much more difficult at higher levels. However, because the points rewarded per target also scales up with the required points, it is actually not nearly as bad to reach 5M+ points. However, if I was stuck at +630% promotion without any promoted bonus squad TFs, I’ll probably pick a lower level Spark run instead. For example, lvl 300 rewards 60% of lvl 500’s sparks (3,300 vs 5,500 after bonus), but requires only 932,700 points (less than 18% of lvl 500’s 5,381,000 points) to complete.

Here’s a chart of points required from lvl 300-500 (+ points jump also shown):

 

[GrimLockdown]

Thank you for your reporting @millforce2k and congrats!

When someone has finished Spark run levels 1 through 500 that someone has

• Gathered 1,252,500 sparks
• Used up to 90,736,000 coins or up to 906,590 pigs or most likely some combination (half and half) of these two figures
• Hitted some 603 million points

[GrimLockdown]

If points rewarded per target would not change the point target per level graph looks something like this

I chose to normalize the point targets so that there are no differences in levels 301–400. The point target seems to increase almost linearly (the grey dash line) up to level 400 but this is probably due to Y axis scaling. There is huge jump at level 401 but after level 410 it is a downward trend.

[MillForce2k]

@abt Thanks, and congrats to you as well. Also, nice charts! At 1260%, it’s taking me about 20 min, though I do have a pretty slow device. If I can squirt a different OS on my old Moto G6 so it doesn’t have random reboots, the game will run much faster.

@grimlockdown Thanks, and interesting stats.