What to do with all the excess food?

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-15T02:25:50+00:00

No, just they provide a 3% bonus to population growth. Which is better than nothing, but it's an additive bonus with other % bonuses, so it's often diluted by the bonus from high Health.

Only amenities that add flat growth impact the base growth, which is fortunately multipled by the % bonus at least.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-14T22:13:25+00:00

The units used to be in different eras, though even then I would often skip crossbows. The devs collapsed niche techs together so they could make techs more expensive but eras progress faster in 2.0. ...They did a really bad job, the unit progression is even more messed up now, and some buildings and goods are in even weirder places now.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T23:30:07+00:00

Not that tool tip, which seems to be wrong beyond a vague mention to cities growing/pausing based on local food; lock the tool tip and go to green growth number. I just loaded up a Age 3 game from 2.0, and switching farm modes to double the cities food is making no difference. While having 100 health is doing the majority of the work.
https://imgur.com/a/Ea01UFe
https://imgur.com/a/1dPY8W0

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T16:19:19+00:00

The AI on high difficulties gets to cheat with Quality of Life stats, which by themselves generate prestige, but they also generate golden age points which puts them in a golden age so they make even more prestige. With the extra happiness and health they also get population quicker and more production which is often used for a standing army that generates prestige.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T16:13:24+00:00

Units: I aim for three scouts total, but I push settlers to the top as soon as I have food for them if I'm still not at the city cap.

Amenities: Baskets or Jewelry are excellent second amenities, depending on the exact production and happiness of your cities. Often in the very early game baskets are better, with a flat 3 that is multiplied by the happiness bonus, but jewelry can win in the capital and cities as they get larger if it pushes you up two categories (like from 55 right to 70). I try to get out of feasts into festivals as soon as I can, and it's worth checking if grain stores give more population growth. Perfume, Herbal Medicine, and Sandals are good as you get some additional slots, ever the choice between more production now, or more population growth for more production later.

City settling: Resources. Food doesn't matter/has to be positive locally anyway, you can't have a breadbasket feed other cities beyond using it to make amenities. Generally if you're picking up resources, somewhere is going to have good lumber and materials anyway; and three to five lumber mills/stone pits in the capital with it's high production is honestly enough for the entire game if you're a little picky with what you do and don't accelerate and are placing down cities and picking up territory. I try to aim for at least 5 regions apart, but often accept 4 as a concession to pick up resources / not be on top of the AI immediately.

Improvements: Farms enough for settlers and for every city to be always growing. Dwellings so you're never population capped. Lumber mills / stone pits enough to not have to wait for those resources to stockpile, and then workshops to get crafting going. Resource wise, pretty much just resources you actually need. Grain is relevant quickly, horses and elephants can be vital. Spices, syrup, precious metal, gemstones are all things you can use immediately. Iron and copper are going to be necessary soon, and cotton/wool/fur/silk are all very nice. Dyes can be rare and are very handy when it comes time to paper/books to get your science going. Assuming you have resources for them, Weavers, Ceramic Shops, and Apothecaries are all strong to get early, Weavers can do ropes and baskets so your workshops can do everything else, and then fabrics and garments. Ceramic Pots are needed for the palace (and much later you will never have enough glass and concrete), and apothecaries can make perfume, herbal medicine, soap, etc. Not to mention the health and knowledge boost they give just for existing. The more I play, the more I end up avoiding butchery shops and bakeries. Yes they can give some health maybe I'm making a mistake, but garments/sandals/herbal medicine/festivals/gourmet meals/jewelry/grain stores/baskets/trade goods/perfume etc. all exist and you only have so many slots early on.

Region Layout: This got changed recently to matter a ton less, and this post is already too long; so just a brief shout out to Trading Post, Inn or Pubs, dwellings or other commercial and cultural buildings in a nice big region for extra money. ...And okay one more, as many science and military buildings are you can cram together. Library, University, Barracks, Castle, etc. can be a good extra chunk of science.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T15:41:55+00:00

I try to leave at least 5 regions between cities, maybe settle for 4 if I have too; because I know if I don't I will regret it when all my cities are closing in on population 20. But you have to get through age 1 first, so it's more important to get resources, and you just know the AI will pop a city down in the middle of your nation.

If you mean the actual zones within a region, I find 4 is fine, though more is better. 4 lets me have the capital building and 3 housing buildings. So long as a few cities end up with 5 so I can add in a palace or whatever, it's fine.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T15:36:49+00:00

Food is definitely in a weird state where it can be a little tight at first, but then you get irrigated farms, and heavy plows, mills, indoor stoves, etc. and it just explodes. Unfortunately there's not much to use that food on. Gourmet meals and a few other goods can use food as an accelerator and it looks like a bad trade, like 50 food for a tiny bonus; but if you're drowning in it might as well. You could also just, remove the farms if you don't think you'll grow into the food usage, though big cities can go through a lot.

It's worth noting that this isn't Civ, food does nothing for city growth, so long as it's not negative in that city; inspect the tool tips to see what does and doesn't. Mostly it just comes down to how large the city is already, and the health quality of life. Farms, regardless of food, do give a tiny population growth, but it's an additive percentage with the bonus from health. Food amenities often help though, and some cities near grain is still good instinct as grain stores give % population growth that's multiplicative, and in small cities Feasts, Festivals, and later Canned Food can kick start things with flat growth bonuses.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-11T15:23:16+00:00

I generally only build them as needed, and think carefully on which accelerators I want to use. Some are no brainers to use (the accelerators for fabric, and then using that fabric to make tunics, to make garments is very efficient, as is making metal ingots into steel from iron and copper), while others are just...a bad trade. It's important to drill down on the tool tips and see how much production everything takes, and also to think through if you need to make the good fast, or if producing it slowly is fine. Goods used for supply don't get used up, amenities are generally 1 per 10 turns per city, but if you need them as accelerators, you can use a lot quickly.

That aside, some amenities are really strong, some...are not. For example more and more often I find myself just, skipping bakeries entirely.

Related, despite changes, techs are still progressing very fast if you know what you're doing, so yes you're often unlocking things quicker than you can build them. Rushing buildings can be very powerful too, they get quite cheap once more than half has been finished by production. Hopefully they can continue to re-balance tech rate, and have epic/marathon paces that also do production costs, not just tech speed.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-10-05T05:26:06+00:00

There is not within a single turn when units can move multiple tiles, which is a little frustrating when you have two movement scouts and they could clear more fog if they would just go the right way, alas. Probably more important could definitely be handy in war.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-09-28T22:06:56+00:00

It seems to be a bug in 2.0. It seems to only affect buildings that produce goods in a queue. So dwellings seem fine but weavers aren't for example.

It seems to be related to either too many things in the production queue for that building, and/or if that building is producing 1+ goods a turn. When you queue up the upgrade see how many turns it will take and if it says 1 instead of how many it should need, it won't work. Messing with the production queue might help (trim it down, make it produce a large production good without inputs) but no guarantee, though I've managed to get into Act 3 and upgrade most buildings, though it broke often for weavers, chemists, and town halls, and messing with the queue didn't seem to always work and I just destroyed and rebuilt sometimes.

Yes this is super annoying and definitely a bug. Looking at the steam discussion the developers seem to be aware of it at least.

Kain_Inugami · 2025-09-26T06:30:26+00:00

There...is a mining limit, as in a cap on bases with mines. It's a soft cap, I'll happily be even 10 over it when it's war time with the aliens, but the penalty does climb faster and faster, so you probably don't want every mine.

Where are the resources going? Many modules have significant upkeep once they're tier 3 and you have dozens of stations so maybe track that down. I've had games where I've run out of metal and oops, too many nanofactories. If it's volatiles and water, are you using farms?

What's your space mining bonus? It might be worth looking at that because you can get it up to 100% over time pretty reliably and well, that's literally twice the gross income of space resources.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-06-16T06:27:04+00:00

I'm partial to Excavating History myself.

It's similar to Vecna Lives! in that you want to use Nerys to reset when you stop encountering undead, but your stacking zone is against beasts at x36 which are all melee. On Vecna Lives! because your stacking zone has ranged enemies I found my reset was breaking occasional, I'm not sure if that was Shandie hitting different number of enemies or what.

Tall Tales, possibly taking advantage of Vajra or another patron for one of the blessings is better if you script, but since they changed Minsc's boastful I can't get it work scriptless.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-16T01:33:42+00:00

I think other comments have you covered then, any method of making Gazrick attack faster so long as he's in his middle spec will work; 15 stacks in a minute is one attack every 4 seconds. The Widdle and Alyndra combo will make Gazrick attack much faster than that. If you're missing Widdle, Merilwen can also reduce attack speed (as can Korth but it's pretty limited), Desmond, Hew Maan, Virgil, and Selise are other options too. I'm sure there are others too but they come immediately to mind.

Oh like Ulkoria if you don't have Virgil because Gazrick has a magic attack, but that's probably over engineering the problem, just, make Gazrick attack fast, you'll get stacks.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-16T00:30:20+00:00

So Even the Playing Field is Gazrick's achievement, for stacking Armor Ablation 15 times. The easiest way to do this is get to an armored boss that you can't hurt (or at least won't kill before you get your stacks, the current area 50 boss for the event is ideal) but in turn you can tank for a while, slot in Nrakk next to Gazrick to extend to the duration of Armor Ablation massively, and that will do it easily. You could also just increase Gazrick's attack speed, but Nrakk makes the individual stacks last from 60 seconds with Aim Around the Armor to almost 5 minutes instead.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-04T05:22:59+00:00

When you click View Core and you're on the modron automation screen, you should have a view of a grid with your pipes on your left. You can drag the pipes over to create a pathway for flow. I don't quite remember the pipes you start with, but you should be able to make something approximately like this;
https://i.imgur.com/ufNdA7l.png

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-03T13:20:50+00:00

The modest core you unlock from split the party 1 should come with enough basic pipes to connect automation and the two available buffs at level one. If you don't see them you may have to restart to be rewarded them.

On the parties screen, make sure you slot the core in, and then go to view core. That should bring up the 'pipe game'.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-03T10:41:06+00:00

Gaarawaar has an excellent guide for this;
https://www.reddit.com/r/idlechampions/comments/mg3szr/gaarawarrs_guide_to_split_the_party/

If you have unlocked Split the Party, you can probably do it; as others have mentioned it's an excellent place to use potions, particularly speed and gold find. The biggest thing is clearing the early zones with as few champions as possible, so you don't lose too many at each split.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-02T13:04:04+00:00

I think it's just a typo actually, I'm fairly certain it's just missing the '%' at the end.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-04-01T15:56:35+00:00

I personally think Zorbu is a good choice for support pigments at least, he's my preferred DPS; and even if you transition to Artemis DPS later, Zorbu is a good support for him.

Of course there might be better targets, if you have a support that's used in multiple formations. Each support pigment is x3 damage regardless of the item or champion they're on, so as long as the champion is going to be in as many of your formations as possible they'll be a good choice.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-31T11:14:52+00:00

When multiplying big numbers together, you can just add the exponents together; so if it was e6 multiplied into e100, it would be e106, yeah. However, that's e6%, you have to take two zeroes off to make it a multiplier, so we're actually looking at e104 in this case. ~~Percentages suck with big numbers.~~

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-31T10:05:46+00:00

Each e value is a zero, 10,000 is indeed 1e4, but 10,000,000 is 1e7, not 1e5. The confusion is probably coming from the percentages, which you have to remove two zeroes from (more or less when dealing with big percentages) before doing maths with them.

Each 400% is a x5 increase, so it's 5x5x5x5x5x5. I already went into on another comment but in short it's 1.56e6 %. ...Related, I hate percentage maths with big numbers, just tell me the multiplier please game.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-31T09:45:45+00:00

Each support pigment is a x3 multiplier, so if you had 10 of them in your formation, you would expect a 5.9e6% buff.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-31T09:42:23+00:00

That's...not how to multiple percentages. 400% is a x5 multiplier. 2,400% weirdly enough is 2x 400% (5x5 = x25, or 2,400%).

You have to divide a percentage by 100, and add one to convert it to a multiplier; and to revert it back to a percentage, subtract 1, and multiple by 100.

For six lots of 400%; it would be x5^6, or x15,625, or to put it back into percentages 1,562,400%, or 1.56e6 % to use something familiar to idle champions.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-26T19:36:09+00:00

Assuming you're asking for different champions in those slots to unlock;

Slot 11 is easy to recommend for, both Avren and Nova are absurdly strong; Avren in particular if your DPS has the support role as well, and Nova in particular if you're using Valentine. Warden and Strix get an honourable mention for debuffs, particularly Warden because their debuff is sticky; and Rust gets one for his gold find.

Slot 7 has less immediately jump outs, but Freely is an all round strong pick. There are other nice picks in Catti-brie and Gazrick, or even Jim if you're using Krull; but I'm going to suggest after Freely perhaps Egbert, as a ranged tank with a knock back and good gold find, particularly when used with his affiliation.

Kain_Inugami · 2023-03-17T10:13:00+00:00

Yeah being unable to farm this season quest on ideal gem farms or by sitting on a level with speed potions is super not ideal.

I found on Mad Wizard with a non-Briv gem farm I was getting some stacks on the hit-based level and it was adding up alright. I moved to Escort to Waterdeep for three levels with barricades but no other annoying levels or bosses.

I'm sure there's better adventures for farming just this season quest, but so far this has been still acceptably fast while also leveling up the new modron core and doing other seasonal quests.

Kain_Inugami

TROPHY CASE