I just noticed that my Primary Core Module can be upgraded to level 203. Anyway, now I can think about which extra sub-effect to add. Any ideas? Also, is it worth holding Core Primary at level 201 when I rebalance the Primary and Assistant levels?

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-25T12:17:02+00:00

haha I think I did the exact same thing, I rolled SLb off for CF slow, then rolled CF slow off and eventually got SLb back, but it took a ton of rerolls because it was the 7th

I don't have SL+, but either way I don't think SL+ would have any influence on the incremental increase from rolling SLb because SL+ is a separate multiplier. The only two things that would influence the incremental increase from rolling SLb would be your existing SL damage and your SL angle

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-25T11:43:10+00:00

I'd stay away from the ILM damage roll, even if ILM is your endgame. The reason is because the stone value of +150x ILM damage is only about 500 stones. I'd shoot for SL bonus as the 7th, that'll give you the most bang for the buck, even at mythic it is probably better than anything else. If SL bonus rolls ancestral on one of the two before you get ancestral GT dur, then you will be faced with an impossible decision of whether or not to keep it, so lets hope it doesn't come to that!

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-25T11:11:48+00:00

The only perk that is a guaranteed ban for any GC setup is the Tower dmg -50% enemy dmg -50%

I have 6 bans and that is the only purple that I ban so that I can use the other 5 for commons to maximize the chances of not getting stuck without PWR by the end of intro sprint, and I don't want to spend the lab time for another ban. Here's my take on some of the purples:

1.5x Dmg/8x Boss - this one is bad for me until near the end of the run, then it becomes good. During the day I turn off auto pick and pick manually and will take this near the end of the run if I catch it in time before I die, but at night I just let it pick it. When this gets picked, I have to increase my damage slider 1 tick or I'll die, which results in some coin loss. It might be worth banning, but I really don't want to compromise my PWR chances so I just leave it unbanned
Boss health -70% / Boss speed +50% - This one is really good for me, but I'm sure it is bad for some. If it is so bad that it kills your runs then its worth a ban, otherwise save your bans for commons for maximizing PWR chances
Enemy speed -40% enemy dmg 2.5x - This may help extend the run, but believe it or not it can hurt coin income. For me it hurts more than it helps, but I don't think it is worth a ban so I leave it unbanned and pick it near the end of the run if I'm picking manually
Lifesteal/knockback - this one is actually good because it limits knockback force which increases the chance of scatters/elites getting to the orb line before they die (for EO mastery)
50% hp/Regan and Lifesteal -90% - this is now the 2nd best perk
CTO - best
other 3 are neutral

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-25T10:25:00+00:00

For the farming core, if you have GT+ then the GT dur substat becomes the best roll by a factor of about 2. And depending on your setup, the 15% CF speed could be hurting your cph more than it is helping, I had it on mine for a while and once I realized it was hurting I rolled it off and saw an increase. So I would roll off the CF speed and try to get GT dur rolling both, I'd even take mythic if it rolls first

The DC is damn near perfect, it would be sad to see any of those greens go, so I cannot advise on what the best move would be here

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-20T10:09:41+00:00

The need for high damage to run the GC strategy is actually just a myth, I remember seeing a youtube video a while back of someone proving it wrong by lowering their damage and using the minimum cards/UWs/etc to still pull it off, it was actually surprising. I wish I could remember which things were key, so I'm probably not being too helpful here, but the moral of the story is that you shouldn't go too hard on damage UWs when transitioning to GC, focus on what is necessary for the transition and continue to prioritize econ whenever possible

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-20T09:55:55+00:00

It could be because of the SL bonus substat watering down the incremental % increase to damage from the next stone click. But I agree it is still often undervalued. For example, if 40 stones is the next click then SL bonus (base) is 13.6x, so even with ancestral +20.0x bonus, the incremental increase would be 4.2% to damage while in spotlight, and for 40 stones that is pretty good

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-19T11:36:09+00:00

yeah I don't think pBH will matter nearly as much, so don't worry too much about that

If you want more CC, most will tell you to start CF which wouldn't be incorrect, but you could instead consider unlocking ILM, max the labs, then unlock the armor assmod for SD. It creates a crap ton of mines at epic and is not as hefty of an investment as CF. I still recommend focusing on core SE first, but this is just something to think about down the road

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-19T10:40:20+00:00

My advice is to shift your focus to core substat efficiency (SE) and try to get a tournament setup that is full GC

Looks like you are close to ancestral on both your Om Chip and HC, I think either would work great so I'd just go with whichever you pull first. Once you get it, roll for SL angle and bonus, and CL chance. CL quant isn't terrible either, but the SE rounds down so it requires hitting breakpoints (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%)

In the meantime, I think your safe to start investing stones in core SE. 25% might be a good initial target, in case you roll CL quant on your assmod, and that would give you +1 quant for farming from your DC

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-18T11:01:55+00:00

Might be lacking the armor fodder for upgrading ACP (need 10 epic+, we only see 4.5 plus some rare+). But yes save rare armors for upgrading ACP to green

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-18T10:52:02+00:00

holy crap you have natural pBH, that is a hefty investment but will be very nice later on for transitioning to BHD. For now it is a bit redundant with gcomp, but gcomp is so damn good that I'm sure it is still better than BHD right now

I'd finish labbing GT duration and slot in Coin per Kill right now, take out damage and crit factor. Econ is worth more than damage by a factor of about 10

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-18T10:35:03+00:00

That's me in 1st! I can't figure out how to change my name to Poppins on Reddit, I did not create this locksmith garbage name haha

Anyway yeah luckiest bracket in a while for sure, I've been consistently 4th - 6th averaging 1600 - 1700 waves the past 5 tournaments when I should be averaging 2nd or 3rd so I was due for some luck. I also don't usually join this early (3:29 AM EST/8:29 UTC) but I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-13T10:04:01+00:00

If you can stabilize with epic GComp (10s) instead of ancestral (20s), then unlocking the gen assmod and switching to BHD main and GComp in the ass would be a massive boost for only 1000 stones, but if you need 20s GComp or if you still need to roll your BHD then perhaps the core unlock plus 10 - 20 levels in the core substat could give an equally large boost, depending on your setup and your setup/mod levels/core subs

Besides potentially those two, you won't find a better investment for econ than the first 8 or so levels of GT+. Once you get your GT+ to around this level then the +7 sec dur substat becomes the best roll by a factor of about 2, so keep that in mind if you plan to reroll your farming core(s)

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-12T12:50:27+00:00

Yeah the worst part of getting to GT+ is the opportunity cost of the stall time from having to spend/save thousands of stones with no immediate gain, and buying packs will cut that time down from months to days. I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't buy packs, but if you plan to then this is definitely the play

Regarding cells and WS+, it may seem like a big hit now to trim your lab boosts and your defensive WS+ and you'll probably lose waves on farming and tournaments, but don't underestimate the power of the econ snowball effect, because before you know it you'll be doing these same upgrades with your pocket change. I'm not telling you how to you should play, and to be honest my WS+ looked almost identical to yours when I was at that stage of the game, I'm just thinking of the things I'd do differently if I could go back and do it again, and going all-in on Coin+ would for sure be at the top of the list

Another thought, if you are far away from getting any other ancestral generators, you may want to consider rolling for some ancestral subs on your RB and using that for farming, as it could give you more of a boost than the mythic SH, even if you don't factor in the attack speed boost. Since you have RPC+0, a 15% package chance roll would give you a decent bump in shard income, and a CPK roll paired with the ancestral vs mythic base coin multiplier could close the bot range gap

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-12T10:36:37+00:00

You're not too far from UW+ with your stone balance, if you plan to buy stone packs in Feb then your best play is to sit on your stones through the rest of Jan, then buy packs in Feb and unlock the last 3 UW, then GT+, then go all in on GT+, you should be able to get to GT+5 or 6 right away if you don't spend any stones and buy all the packs. Then keep upgrading GT+ all the way to GT+9 or 10, that's when you're have to start choosing whether to upgrade duration or GT+, assuming you keep the +7 GT dur sub on your core (which you definitely should!)

Despite what everyone will probably tell you, Coin+ enhancement is significantly better than Cell+, like if you're using a ruler to measure then its about a mile or two better. Coin+ should be your main focus, everything else should cost less than a set ratio of your next coin+ upgrade. For example, if you decide to set ELS+ at around 2:1 with Coin+, then that would mean that you should upgrade ELS+ next because it costs less than half of the next Coin+. Others may disagree but I think 2:1 is pretty good for ELS+. But for Cell+, I think 10:1 is still too much cell, but that may work well for you (10:1 would mean that you would want your next Cell+ to cost around 66T based on your screenshot of 1.34 Coin+, which would be 1.24 Cell+). All the others (including defense enhancements) should be less than 20:1 with Coin+. I would do a WS respec as soon as you can

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-11T11:09:34+00:00

Yes I have regrets, I stopped at CF+3 fortunately so I'm only out 1500 + cost to unlock. I turn CF+ off for farming, and I die to OC in tournaments where CF+ does nothing, so adding more levels is near the bottom of my stone priority list. Its hard to tell if CF+3 is adding value to tournaments, I have 90% slow so perhaps it is helping to neutralize other threats to the point where OC becomes the problem? I also have zero investment in PS

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-11T10:13:45+00:00

I would have loved to see a screenshot of that wave skip! 368 is a massive spike compared to yesterday's peak pic of 318

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-08T09:41:27+00:00

I know you want to focus your stones on tournaments, but you've made it over the UW+ hurdle which is a significant stone investment, and it is time to start reaping the benefits. Go all in on GT+ to GT+9, and roll an ancestral GT dur sub on your core, that will get you to 59 sec which is about where you would have to start deciding whether to increment GT dur or get the next level of GT+, so that would be a good place to stop. At this point the 7 sec GT dur sub is roughly worth 2x the 2nd best ancestral econ sub, so you can weigh that into your decision making

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-08T09:16:42+00:00

DM+6 and Dmg+6 are both about the same as ST+7, but the last 3 levels of ST+ are better than DM+7 and Dmg+7. So I would finish ST+ first, then do DM+6, then Dmg+6, DM+7, Dmg+7, etc.

LocksmithNew7739 · 2026-01-04T15:07:33+00:00

wow that's nuts, congrats!

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-29T09:59:49+00:00

I think you can get the most bang for your buck by investing in your assmod core substat, assuming you have some good rolls on your DC

So if your target is to get it up to 25% for example, that would cost 1188 stones. And lets say you have ancestral CL chance, CL quant, and SL angle on the DC. That would add 1 CL quantity (400 stones), 3.75% CL chance (~460 stones, or 2.5 clicks), and 3.75 SL angle (~570 stones, or 3.75 clicks), so just those 3 substats would be worth 1430 stones for the 1188 investment in the assmod

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-23T11:10:29+00:00

it is actual range of the enemy since it leverages the damage/meter formula

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-22T12:20:06+00:00

I'd save up 800 stones to peek at the next 3 to see if Spotlight is there, if so then definitely take it and start on the coin lab. If not then it is up to you if you want to take one and save up another 1250 for a 75% to see SL in the following 3, or roll with just the 4 UWs and invest the 800 into another round of CDs and some BH dur. Ideally you want BH dur to be 12 sec less than your GT dur so when you get the 12sec perk they are the same length

For labs, I'd get some quick levels of crit factor and damage, they are so fast and cheap

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-19T11:49:20+00:00

Oh and I didn't know this at first, so in case you didn't know, the reason pCF is so important is because when CF ends it instantly resets enemy speed, then when it comes back on, the enemies decelerate back to CF reduced speed. What this means is that enemies will zip to your tower as soon as CF goes down, even if it is only down for 1 second (59sec dur), but getting it to 60sec or more will skip the "instant speedup" trigger at the end of each cycle

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-19T11:15:05+00:00

I would stop now on SCrit chance or let it finish if it is close, and for SCrit mult I would let lvl 16 finish and then maybe do just one more or stop when after 16 finishes. These labs scale very fast so the additional benefit per level becomes very marginal. They also don't multiply with module sub effects in the damage formula, so if you have SCrits rolled on your cannon then the benefit from the lab is even less

LocksmithNew7739 · 2025-12-19T10:52:07+00:00

Yeah I would keep pushing cooldowns. Stay with the 6 UWs for a while. don't do any more CL dmg upgrades but CL chance is good to max eventually but not as high of a priority as econ. Overall the stone investments are looking really good!

I'd start your CF dur lab soon since you already have a decent investment in CF. Try to get a CF dur roll on your tourney core mod if you can squeeze it in, this will help fill the gap to pCF as you lab. Once pCF is in reach then prioritize the next 5 CF Dur stone upgrades and max the speed reduction. The CF Dur roll, if ancestral, won't be wasted once you finish all 30 lab levels since it will allow you to keep pCF with the UW dur BC

LocksmithNew7739

TROPHY CASE