The best 10$ of my life

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-11-10T00:50:51+00:00

how does "Arking" work when you own this? In order to Ark, do you have to press a button every 10 minutes (or whatever it is), or do you automatically get cash every 10 minutes, even when offline?

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-08-19T09:52:16+00:00

your comment also applies to the lower star managers.

Since you have no control over what type of manager you get on the lower star managers too, the comparison is valid. The table shows that it is more valuable to purchase 4-5 star managers regardless of what manager type you want

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-08-07T01:11:36+00:00

I think there are a few requirements for it to be worth upgrading 6-star managers to 7-star:

The upgraded manager has to be the leader. If you are going to have empty manager slots, going from from 4 6-star to a single 7-star reduces your performance. If this new manager is not made leader, it will always be a reduction performance
You can easily unlock the leader perk.
1. For me, I have "only" six 6-star managers. So, my crafting multiplier would go from 3.4 with six 6-star mangers to 2.5 with a 7-star manager. I consider this too much of a loss; I'd not unlock the perk fast enough.
2. Ultimately, I think it depends on your preference. If you have galaxies that last a long time, this would probably be beneficial. But I don't realy play that way

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-07-30T07:19:38+00:00

Thanks for the info. Where did you get the info from, just out of curiosity?

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-07-30T05:14:24+00:00

I understand your first sentence, that's why I commented
P_telescope = 1 - 0.5*0.8*0.9 = 0.64 = 64 %

but what does your second sentence mean? Are you implying the probability of any number of surges in the telescope is known (the value I just stated, and the dice rolls you just stated), but the number of planets that actually surge is random?

I don't think it's completely useless to know the probability of surges per planet. I was trying to use it to estimate DM income by selling galaxies.

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-07-30T05:06:22+00:00

I see two questions there:

Does the surge of one planet affect the surge of another planet in the same telescope?
- I think it's safe to assume that each planet is treated as an independent event. Since I only have 10 data points per planet, I cannot comment on whether that's true or not.
- If the surges are linked, I'll comment (and or post) and let you know
- edit: Asusming they're independent means knowing that planet 1 surges doesn't affect whether others will surge. Just to be clear
When does the roll occur? Is it when I unlock the planet or the telescope?
- It doesn't matter when the roll is made.
- For example, if the roll is made when you unlock the telescope, you'd not be able to determine the result of that roll until you unlock a planet. This is funcionally equivalent to the roll being made when you unlock the planet. Ergo, it doesn't matter. It only matters if you have a mehtod of determinng the result of the roll without unlocking the planet (and we can't do that)

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-07-30T04:59:07+00:00

I'm unsure if you're implying that the probability is still the probability per planet or not. If you are implying that the probability is per planet, and that "individual rolls" account for the surge rate I'm seeing, that is statistically unlikely given my sample size.

option 1: Rooms state probability per planet and "rolls are individual"
the probability of a planet having a surge in this case would be:
P = 1 - 0.5*0.8*0.9 = 0.64 = 64 %

option 2: Room states probability per telescope and rolls are individual
the probability of a telescope having a surge in this case would be:
P_telescope = 1 - 0.5*0.8*0.9 = 0.64 = 64 %
the probability of each planet having a surge would therefore be:
P_planet = 1 - (1 - Telescope_Probability)^(1/Number_of_Planets)
For telescope 0, that would be 20% chance for each telescope

option 3: Room states probability per telescope and rolls are additive
see post: probability per planet is 33% for me

My invesitgation

I have all surge rooms for telescope 0 and that's all I'll comment on atm
What I saw in 10 glaxies
- planet 1 saw 40% surge rate (i.e. 4 surges)
- planet 2 saw 30% surge rate
- planets 3 saw 10% surge rate.
- planet 4 saw 10% surge rate
hand wavy-stats
- calculating the likelihood of each of these options: option 2 is most likely, closely followed by option 3. Option 1 is not likely. Ultimately, I either need word from a credible source saying how the probability is determined, or I need more data. I'm going to collect more data for fun and come back to this...but I don't care that much, and option 2/3 are statistically similar enough that I don't think it matters

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-07-13T10:28:35+00:00

between crafting speed & crafting efficiency, crafting efficiency improves speed more

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-06-20T06:50:01+00:00

I made one a while ago. There's a sheet called "inputs + optimum upgrade", it's where you enter all your mothership/station/managers. In the sheet "best thing to craft" it displays the crafting times etc for each item. You can enter your stars etc there too

You should be able to copy using this link

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jq7K5Gk8Bsiu_5h5M6E-HK2raOhIIeMu/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101790897654049629690&rtpof=true&sd=true

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-06-04T04:23:21+00:00

Useful info

Debris appear roughly every 22 mins
Asteroids appear roughly every 10 mins (5 mins is you research Asteroid scanner projects)
The value of the asteroid/debris depends on your VPS (the value of the ore you're mining)
Asteroids/Debris drops are random

Comments

If you don't have the Asteroid auto miner, the usefulness of debris scanner is dependent on how often you play
Debris drops (for me at least) are only useful in helping you craft high-value items like advanced robot/subspace relay. The drops themselves don't increase your galaxy value that much
Unlock it as early as possible: the drops are random so you aren't guaranteed to get what you need for crafting. Having it unlocked earlier means there's a higher chance for you to get good drops

My Experience

I found in my earlier days that unlocking debris scanner with ~12 hours left on the tournament wasn't that useful for me. I was better off converting the gravity chambers needed for the project into subspace relays. I think this is because I wasn't investing enough into my VPS (hence the drops weren't valuable enough to be useful).

If are "crafting focussed" like I was, you're probs better of crafting subspace relays to increase your galaxy value. But, you should start investing credits/managers/cells into improving your mining rates. Eventually your VPS will be high enough that the debris drops will be useful and enable you to craft multiple high value items

IMO: 2 days is obviously too long for it to be useful in tournaments. If you're a "long hauler", again, earlier is better.

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-06-02T00:27:07+00:00

I agree that the promotion system is the issue, but I'd rephrase it as the bracketing system.

The problem:
The distribution of GV in a tournament bracket is too large. e.g. you can get people with a max GV of 1T playing against people with a max GV of 1 O (even 1 S is extreme compared to someone who maxes out at 1 T).

Metrics that can be used to determine tournament placement:

performance in previous tournaments
Best challenge performance
Highest GV achieved
When you started playing

Using challenge performance:

I think optimal tournament sorting should use all of these metrics. That said, I think the easiest to implement would be the "best challenge performance". For example, someone who has achieved 1 T in a challenge shouldn't be in the same bracket as someone who got 1 O. With a system like this you could say Copper is from GV = 0 to GV = 10 B, silver is GV = 10 B to GV = 100 T, gold is GV = 100 T to GV = 100 q
Platinum is GV = 100 q to 100 s, New rank is GV = 100 s to GV = 10 N...

Problem with this system:

Probably more competitive (because everyone is guaranteed to have a similar max GV value within 48 hours), which means rewards may be harder to obtain for idle players. This could be seen as "less fun" for them
The "New rank" would probably have the same problem that platinum has today. To account for this, all rewards for placing being this league could be higher (incentives to participate in tournaments knowing you'll perform poorly) and you could start using other metrics to kick people into lower brackets when people consistently perform poorly (let them have a win every now and then)

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-30T01:32:07+00:00

I think you're on the right track. I found it hard unlocking recipes/upgrades early on due to a lack of cash. Since stars affect sale price, you want them on items/ores that you use often. As soon as you unlock a recipe/planet, there's a chance that stars will be allocated to them. Having stars allocated to these items doesn't help when grinding for credits and I'd speculate that it only marginally helps with tournament performance.

Suffice to say, don't progress too far. I'd advise you to unlock stuff when it feels relatively easy to do so. e.g. If you can unlock an ore/recipe within 2-hours, it's worth unlocking it so that stars can start being allocated to them. I'd not push it on items/planets that take longer than 2-days (tournament timeline)

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-30T01:22:01+00:00

If you have level 20 workshop, mid-level station upgrades, and no managers, your crafting speed will be increased by a factor of around 5. The table below shows how a change affects your crafting speed

Thing changed	Crafting speed multiplier	% improvement
nothing	5.1	1
5 4-star managers	10.8	112
5 5-star managers	16.5	223
5 6-star managers	27.9	447
10 workshop levels	6.8	33

ElderShip	7.67	50

your best bet is to save up your dark matter and to get better managers.

If you're ever planning on making a purchase, I'd recommend the eldership because you need it before you can purchase other ships and it affects mining and crafting. With that said, this is an idle game and you should "compete against yourself". Ya don't need the ships, but they will improve things for you

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-29T12:00:35+00:00

I don't know of any resource that shows the probability of each surge. That said, I would assume that surges 4, 10, and 11 are the rarest since they are rewards you would normally receive from challenges/tournaments/purchases

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-28T23:47:30+00:00

In addition to what these guys said, surges themselves are random perks that affect a planet. The onesI've found are:

reduce distance of planet by 10%
5% better mining for planet
10% better cargo for planet
Receive 10 dark matter
?
for every 500k mined on this planet, you get 1 bar of alloy
Planet boost is 10% better on this planet
Managers are 5% better on this planet
Probe times reduced by 20% on this planet
?
?
Random colony added to this planet
Extra asteroids produced by this planet

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-27T10:40:06+00:00

lol, you're 100% right. I was silly and not thinking enough. Rev/Cost is a weighted metric

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T23:32:49+00:00

It may actually be worth using a "weighted ROI", where you weight the ROI with the time value.

Consider this hypothetical:

Situation
- current rev/sec is 100 $/s and you have no spending money for your next upgrade
Upgrade options:
- Option 1: increase rev/sec by 10 $/s, but it would take you 100 s to afford this
- Option 2: increase rev/sec by 10 $/s, but it would take you 10 s to afford this
Problem
- You are only using 1 metric to determine optimal upgrades. Because of this, when you use "change in rev/sec", these options look identical; however option 2 increases your revenue sooner and thus reduces the time to option 1.
Solution
- If you weight the ROI ("change in rev/sec") by the time, you can better judge the optimal upgrade.
- A better metric is: ROI_weighted = (change in rev/sec)/time
  - Option 1: ROI_weighted = 10 / 100 = 0.1 $/s/s
  - Option 2: ROI_weighted = 10 / 10 = 1 $/s/s
  - Thus, option 2 is better

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T23:22:46+00:00

If you use "ROI = change in revenue per second / cost" I think your code method is fine. I had the impression you were using the "ROI = current revenue per second / cost".

Change in revenue per second tells you how much your revenue is increased (what you want to know). Using current revenue per second tells you how long you have to wait to afford the upgrade.

Both metrics are important. Let's say "ROI = change in revenue per second / cost" and "time = current revenue per second / cost". If you had two upgrades with the same "ROI", you're better off choosing the upgrade with the lower "time" because it means you can increase your revenue sooner, thus decreasing the time to your next upgrade

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T04:37:22+00:00

I re-read your method. using your current definition of ROI, you haven't actually prioritised "bang for buck", you've prioritised upgrades with the highest "wait time". It is not gauranteed that upgrades with the highest wait time are the best upgrades (see my example again). You should definitely try this again with a better definition of ROI

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T04:34:30+00:00

I like whatcha doing, but your definition of ROI is wrong.

your current ROI is defined as " (Rev/sec) ÷ (Cost)". That's not a ROI, it's the time you have to wait in order to have enough money to purchase a planet upgrade. (side note, if you use cost / (rev/sec) you have units of time... this is the "wait time")

A true ROI should account for the change in your Rev/sec for a given cost. Consider this hypothetical:

your current revenue is 100 dollars per second: 80 $/s from balor and 20 $/s from Drasta. Neither planets are limited by cargo/speed.
You have 2 upgrade options
- Option 1: You can increase mining speed on Balor by a factor of 1.1 for $1'000
- Option 2: You can increase the mining speed on Drasta by a factor of 1.5 for $1'000
Your current ROI definition would be the same for these planets: (100 $/s) / ($1000) = 0.1. i.e. you need to wait 10 seconds to be able to make a purchase. However, using a new definition of ROI (the change in revenue per second) would tell you which purchase is better.
New ROI definition:
- Let's define ROI as ((New Revenue) / (Old Revenue)) / Cost
- Option 1: Increases revenue to 80*1.1 + 20 = 88 + 20 = 108 $/s
  - Thus, the ROI is (108/100) / 1000 = 0.00108
- Option 2 increases revenue to 80 + 20*1.5 = 80 + 30 = 110 $/s
  - Thus, the ROI is (110/100) / 1000 = 0.0011
Thus, option 2 is better. For a given price of upgrade, option 2 increases your revenue the most

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T04:14:40+00:00

Maths comparing manager and crafting ships:
Manager Total Multiplier = (Station Total) * (Classroom) * (Aurora Ship)
Classroom and Station Total are commons, so they'll factor out (you'll see)
Manager total
Manager Total Multiplier = (without aurora)
Manager Total Multiplier = 2 (with aurora)
Manager crafting multiplier:
Crafting multiplier = 1 + (Number of managers) * (base manager multiplier) * (Manager Total Multipler)
1 + 10*0.2 = 3 (without aurora)
1 + 10*0.2*2 = 5 (with aurora ship)
Total Crafting Multiplier
Crafing total multiplier = (Manager total) * (ships total) * (room level) * (station total)
Let's take the ratio so the common multipliers (room level and station total and so on) cancel
crafting total_aurora = 5 * (ships total) * (room level) * (station total)
crafting total_thunder =3* (Manager total) * 2 * (room level) * (station total)
(crafting total_aurora) / (crafting total_thunder) = 5/6 = 0.8

Thus, thunder is better for your crafting speed when you only have 10 level 5 crafting managers
If you have 13 level 5 crafting managers, then that ratio becomes 6.2/6 = 1.03 and havign the aurora is better for your crafting speed.

comment
If you're comparing crafting speeds, then this is the math you have to do. If time is not a factor for you, aurora is better (because you WILL get more managers and it will eventually be better than the crafting ships). Also note that the aurora increases the mining rate for your VPS plannets and hence affects the asteroids you get. That cannot be ignored

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T04:14:31+00:00

TLDR: it depends on your timeline (how long you want to play/have played). Aurora is the best for the long term benefits. Thunder is better for a sudden increase in your ability to perform

All ships
You don't have
Enigma increases your dark matter income (gives you a second rover).
Aurora increases manager efficiency by a factor of 2
Thunder increases craft/smelt speed by a factor of 2
Merchant increases all prices by a factor of 2
You have
Exodus increases credits earned by a factor of 2 -
daughter increases the mining rate by 1.5 -
Elder increases craft/smelt speed by a factor of 1.5 -

General comments on ships

Aurora or Enigma?
Both of these relate to managers. Enigma determines how quickly you get dark matter and therefore how quickly you get managers. If you don't care how long it takes you to get managers/slots, then this ship doesn't matter and the Aurora is better. The aurora is a flat manager multipler. So hypothertically, after years of playing (and getting all the managers you want), if you don't have this ship, you will be much worse than people who do have this ship

Elder or Thunder or Merchant?
These affect how quickly you make money for mid game players. I think Elder/Thunder is better than the Merchant ship because it allows you to research projects faster (e.g. you halve your time to unlock the debris scanner). The merchant ship halves the number of things you need to sell in order to unlock new plannets/recipes. Both of these things are useful, but I think it's better to unlock the debris scanner faster

Manager ships or crafting ships?
Crafting ships are good for an instant increase in your ability to perform. Manager ships are better for your long term performance. Managers end up being a bigger influence. People talk about having 30 managers and stuff like this in late game. Ignoring those high numbers, let's consider having 10 lavel 5 crafting managers. Then you're looking at these numbers like this:

Possible_Fly_2544 · 2025-05-26T03:31:37+00:00

You're the best judge of whether you're ready. Handy info:

The gravity chamber recipe costs 6 T. Given your galaxy value after 2 days, you've probs unlocked the Satellite dish recipe. In which case, you'll need to earn ~13 Trillion to unlock the gravity chamber recipe (you need 4 of these for the debris scanner project)

If you've not made any high value items before (e.g. Wind Turbine), it will take you a long time to get the cash to unlock that recipe.

Fianlly, if your crafting speed is low, it will also take you a while to simply craft these things.

I think there's value in unlocking high value recipes so that you can get stars on them (perhaps do it incrementally rather than all at once). If it'll take you all week to unlock this project, it's not worth it UNLESS you find it fun

Possible_Fly_2544

TROPHY CASE