SRC Broken as grind level?

[Chuck_Bird]

@elemento93 wow…

[RedYoshi45]

@aufar-ramadhan
Right now I’ve got 38 friends playing Epic.

@elemento93
Yeah, SRC was never a good source for mastery. The best CASTLE level to go for mastery is King Pig Castle. But preferably, you should go to the Chronicle Caves. Higher caves (for example, Cave 17) give more mastery but they take longer to clear… which in the end evens out with Cave 1. Plus, the Brutes in Cave 17 give just as many Snouts as the Brutes in Cave 1, which makes Cave 17 not really a place to go.

EDIT: Yeah I know; but if you have the friends you could as well use them. They get an FE and the level takes a little bit less time to clear.

[RedYoshi45]

Ahahaaaaa. My balance has just exceeded 10k Snouts :) I like playing 1-5.

EDIT: My Treasure Hunters just hit M10 too :) Sea Dog hit M6 yesterday. I’m playing with all the classes that need some levelling up :P Another advantage of 1-5. In SRC I always needed certain birds. Here I can just blast through with any bird I want :D

EDIT 2: And Wizard made it to M14 too :D Wheeee!

[Elemento93]

@smwforever45 Damn man, how do you have 38 friends playing Epic? That’s insane.
Right now I have around 11-12 friends and 75% is inactive and low level..

It surprises me how level 15 Brute gives the same snouts as a level 45-47 (don’t remember well..) one as you said.. This game’s logic..

Good work for your Blue’s and Chuck’s classes. Mine right now are 50% 13M and 50% 14M basically. Let’s aim for 15!

[RedYoshi45]

@elemento93
Easy. I mostly add people from ABN first, and those who are in my suggested friends are usually Epic players as well :D
My account is only for gaming, I’d never make a personal FB account :P

If you add me you’ll have one more active friend :P Most of my classes are M10.

The Brutes in Cave 17 (they’re Level 49) only give more mastery and more EXP stars than the Cave 1 Brutes (which are Level 16). But not more Snouts.

[datguygamer]

@elemento93 Basically speaking he has lots of friends and most of them are from here (like I am also in his friend list and thus he benefits from me and from other players also). You can add most active players from here and then you’ll be able to get some more advantages.

[Elemento93]

@smwforever45 I’m actually using my personal account at the moment. I don’t use it almost at all, but maybe it’s better to create a secondary account just for ABE.
Then, I’ll ask you a friend request ;)

@datguygamer Thanks for the explanation. That idea didn’t even reach my mind lol.

[Anonymous]

@elemento93
My FB account is for gaming only too, and I have ten pages worth of friends that I can borrow birds from! Pretty crazy, I know. I added a lot of “suggested friends” when I first opened it, many in other countries/languages, but it doesn’t matter because I don’t use the account for anything besides games. Many of the players aren’t active anymore, and/or have really weak birds, but I can still borrow them and get through a cave or two a touch faster.

@smwforever45
Have you experimented with any caves with stronger pigs that drop more mastery, but still weak enough to autoplay? Level 4-5 has the same string of brutes/brawlers/etc. as level 1-5, but they drop 8 mastery instead of 6. Snout output is obviously the same, and I’m thinking it won’t take materially longer, but donmt have time to test until tomorrow night.

[Elemento93]

@poptimus Hey man, 4-5 has a big issue: the fact that, randomly, a bird is stunned for 1 turn every 3 turns. That’s bad, especially if, like, Chuck is stunned, which could deal a lot of damage to every pig.

[Elemento93]

Last update for Chronicle Caves 1-5.
I did 59 runs in 3 hour and 15-20 minutes. Same Red’s and Chuck’s classes used.
Earned 4661 mastery each + around 5000 snoutlings.
Definitely now a very good place to grind.
Everyone, really consider to play this level.

[datguygamer]

@elemento93 Just watch as it gets “balanced economic reinforcements” after couple updates.

[angryde]

@elemento93 for the additional data re-affirming @smwforever45 original data. It has certainly saved me a lot of time. Much appreciated! XD

[RedYoshi45]

Why do you guys want to look for a different level? 1-5 works just fine. XD

(17-5 is auto-playable but takes too long, and 4-5 has this stupid cave effect… Mana helps against it but not always)

[RedYoshi45]

@datguygamer
If that happens I will switch to 4-5, if that is changed too I will go to 17-5. Rovio can’t catch meeeeeeeee!

[EpicGrindr]

@smwforever45
What do you mean, “Why find another level?”
Because we want more snouts, lol!
SRC was only ever marginal for grinding Mastery, so in looking for a replacement lvl for SRC, should really only be talking highest snoutling payout.
More specifically, looking for best snoutlings-per-minute payout (SPM).
Additionally, I don’t have lots of free time to earn Mastery via grinding levels, so I want to buy it from dojo offers as often as possible, and I also want to minimize the time Epic is using battery or mobile data.

So, for those with similar criteria, I ran a brief SPM study on cave 1-5 vs 8-10.
20 minutes is about all I want to spend on an Epic session, so I did 20 minutes on each cave, count the snoutlings earned and divide by 20.

For 1-5, used M11 Cannoneer (w/Pickpocket) and M13 Wizard, on Autoplay.
For 8-10, used M12 Capt’n and M13 EPaladin, manual play.

Results
Cave 1-5: 20 min autogrind yielded 22.85 SPM the first time. 2nd 20 min grind was a little luckier with 27.7 SPM.
Cave 8-10: 20 min manual play yielded 38.7 SPM the first time. 2nd 20 min grind was a little luckier with 45.7 SPM. (Note: did not use any FE to re-spin the reward wheel during tests.)

For my 40 minute tests
Cave 1-5 = 25.3 SPM
Cave 8-10 = 42.2 SPM

So if you just want a quick 10 minute grind session, better SPM on 8-10 (if you can 3-star in 1-2 turns), and the difference should be enough to write off the paltry Mastery earnings of autogrinding 1-5. Maybe. I’ll keep tracking to see if the averages hold up and report back. Anyone know a level with better than 42 SPM over 10-20 minutes?

[Anonymous]

@epicgrindr @smwforever45
Haha, actually my answer is just the opposite! I’m looking for better mastery per minute autoplay grinding. Cave 1-5 is the best I’m aware of at the moment, but why NOT try to find a better one? :)

[Suikyo]

Did anyone try Moorlands – 2?

[RedYoshi45]

I’m sorry but I’m not dealing with 8-10, because I’m usually unlucky with those reward wheels (1-5’s Snouts are not luck-based, they’re guaranteed) and I like it when auto-play can clear a level for me and I just check every few minutes and restart the level. :P

Plus, I grind for Snouts differently. I have FB friends and I play until my friends are all burned up. Which is ~40 plays. 8-10 may give more SPM but 1-5 takes much longer to clear which makes 1-5 more rewarding in the long run, not just because of longer clear time but also because of Wealthy Rogues and the additional occasional 10 Snout reward from the wheel :)

Oh and I disagree about “paltry” Mastery earnings. They were negligible back in pre-nerf SRC. But I gain thousands of mastery points just from the daily runs through 1-5.

[RedYoshi45]

@suikyo
Currently trying Moorlands-2.
Takes me 38 seconds to clear on manual play, every time. Seems to be consistent.
Enemies that appear are Brutes and Shamans – good base.
I did not come across a single Wealthy Rogue in the 5 runs I did for testing, though… or maybe I was just unlucky?

Anyway, in those 5 runs, I gained 106 Snouts and 92 Mastery for each bird. That’s 21.2 Snouts/run and 18.4 Mastery/run/bird. With one battle taking 38 seconds, that’s 33.47 Snouts/min and 29.05 Mastery/min/bird, excluding the time it takes to spin the wheel and restart the level.

Moorlands-2 wields more Snouts/min (33.47 versus 27.18), but slightly less Mastery/min/bird (29.05 versus 30.94) – but the slight Mastery disadvantage is made up for by the fact you can use 3 of your birds instead of 2.

I’d still say, do your friends a favour and clear 1-5 with their birds before you settle over to Moorlands-2 to get moor. :P

[EpicGrindr]

@poptimus
Autogrinding for Mastery drops is utter madness! Have you no compassion for your device battery? For the value of your time? Let’s say I get 2000M from 40 runs through cave 1-5, as RedYoshi45 has indicated. It takes me 3 minutes to clear the level, so I have to run the app for minimum of 2 hours to make that (potential) 2k Mastery? No thank you, I’ll give that an Epic PASS, lol. Especially when the same amount can be bought at dojo for 7 minutes worth of collecting snoutlings.
One of the biggest traps I fell into at first was focusing too much on leveling up my favorite classes and ignoring the ones I felt weren’t as useful. Sure it is a fine way to reach arena goals and clear all the levels, but it gets super-irritating when new goals are introduced and you haven’t got a capable crew for the new goal and you can’t keep up with the big spenders anymore. Now I just pop in regularly for a few minutes to buy the dojo offers and keep myself in snoutlings, and I’ve made Diamond League of Arena since Season 1, so why burn up the device chasing a level limit that seems to ALWAYS get increased just as I start closing in on it?

Are we going to keep soldiering on through cave 1-5 for a measly 17 mastery per minute for just 2 bird classes? If you insist on grinding Mastery, man up (or maybe “Bird Up”) and run Cobalt Pig Castle (Stage 1 only) with Bomb and 2 other birds and you’ll get around 34 MPM (double a cave 1-5 autogrind) for THREE of your birds. The old ways sometimes are still best, and autogrinding is a one-way ticket to the “Need me a new Battery” store and wondering “What did I get done last year?”, ha.

[RedYoshi45]

@epicgrindr
1. The device battery should be your least problem when you can just leave it charging while you play.

2. It isn’t only about Mastery; the main focus is always the Snouts, not the Mastery. But: If you collect Snouts, you ALWAYS collect Mastery on the go. Why should anyone deny it?!?

3. Cave 1-5 doesn’t give 17 Mastery/min/bird, it gives 30.94 – I said that above. That is almost the same as CPC’s Wave 1 – but the pigs there don’t give too many Snouts, so 1-5 is to prefer.

4. I have no problem with my Wizard being four Mastery classes ahead of most others and my Sea Dog being four Mastery classes behind. If I use weaker classes I also face weaker enemies in the Arena. Just McCool the annoying strong ones away.

[EpicGrindr]

@smwforever45
The more stats we collect, the better! Already starting to wonder if there really is a “best option”, lol. Probably just boils down to how much time a player has to spend running the app, and finding the option that works best for them. So let’s keep updating so everyone who visits can benefit from each other’s experiences!

Edit: Just read your latest posts and have to agree with you on most all of that. It’s just my preference to get the work done and out of the app as quickly as possible. Probably because I spend a lot of time in actual real caves (aka basements) with no connectivity during the week, and weekends doing family stuff.
Grind On!

[RedYoshi45]

@epicgrindr
Very true; there is probably an individual “best option” for everyone. Depending on the time they can spend on the level, and the location where they play, and their own will.

You sound like a statistical nerd; just like me. :P

[Anonymous]

@epicgrindr @smwforever45
Yeah, everyone’s gonna have different goals for their grinding, and different tolerance levels for the different types/lengths of time commitments.
The battery issue is of zero concern for me; I pretty much always have access to a charger when grinding.
I also look at using autoplay on long levels as less of a time commitment, because I’m only occasionally tapping the screen a couple of times to start a new run, while focusing the majority of my attention on something else.
I have around 500,000 snoutlings at the moment, so that’s not a huge priority for me.
And I agree that the dojo is a way better source of mastery than grinding, you can’t pick and choose which classes get leveled up faster with dojo buys. I’ve focused my grinding on ten or twelve particular classes that I use the most, and they’re all two or three levels higher than the others.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and as far as numbers and tracking, the dojo has provided roughly twice as much mastery as grinding for me over the course of the six months or so that I’ve been charting. Events and grinding are probably about 1:1 (which makes sense, because are really just another type of grinding. Good balancing Rovio! Lol)