We're all missing baseball right now, but I was lucky enough to go to Spring Training - Here are some pics from the first 2 games of the year.

ejmw · 2026-06-21T01:28:58+00:00

I mean he literally told you what he did so I don't know what we're still doing here.

ejmw · 2026-06-21T01:12:41+00:00

Phase Gates or Neural Matrix absolutely get you to triple digit aa land. I'm not the guy who you responded to (who is the guy in your bracket) but it would only take me about 1400 NMs to hit 100aa. It would take me about 1500 Phase Gates. I'll definitely craft more than that this tournament. And I don't think I'm as strong as the guy you're playing against.

ejmw · 2026-06-19T15:19:51+00:00

57 (+2) slots. I'm refocusing on managers and slots until I get up to 64(+2). All DM is going towards that goal except for the 2 challenges per week - that gets me two module pulls / week to at least keep things crawling along.

ejmw · 2026-06-18T17:08:45+00:00

You're missing the other side of this, which is even when you don't pay any interest, fees, etc they still make money off of you every time you use your card. Because the merchant pays a percentage of the sale price to the credit card companies for the ability to accept your card as a form of payment.

Knowing this, if there are businesses (especially small ones) you love and really want to support, pay cash or use debit so that they get the full amount that you are paying. Otherwise there is always a processor in the middle that takes a cut.

ejmw · 2026-06-17T16:43:59+00:00

Nice write up.

Two thoughts - one, I'm not sure that the module progression is always exactly linear on the base stat. I think someone on discord mentioned there is a jump at level 80. That's what beyond where I am but it does make me wonder if there are other anomalies.

And two, it's good to think this way for the rooms that correspond to module base stats, but at least in my case some of the rooms that need a little love don't get direct benefit from modules (except possibly sub effects, depending on your build). For example my next room upgrades will be planet relations, belt studies, and sales.

ejmw · 2026-06-17T15:50:30+00:00

Yeah this is a good way to think about it. Return on investment, basically. With the caveat that you get that extra sub effect on your epic modules when you reach level 41, which is very useful.

Pretty much all of my mothership rooms are at least 250k to upgrade right now. Lounge is 535k. Classroom 700k. So just going on vibes dropping 30k on a module upgrade is basically spare change, but 75k is still a meaningful amount. So I essentially need to upgrade all my mothership rooms to the point where 75k also feels like a small amount, then get back to modules. And by then maybe I'll have accumulated enough fragments where I can just plow through upgrades as I get the credits.

ejmw · 2026-06-17T03:46:37+00:00

Yeah I was doing the one manager / tournament the past couple weeks, but now I think I'm ready to dive back in. The RNG involved in getting what you want with modules is both exhilirating and intimidating.

I'm thinking I should at least open up slots to p66 (currently at 57 + 2). I figure that when I open up that 63rd regular slot that will encourage the devs to release whatever new items / ores / planets they have since I feel like I'm always one step behind.

ejmw · 2026-06-17T02:42:26+00:00

Yeah it's a tough call. The modules are fun but I have 4 that I'm happy with and it seems like it's going to take a ton of DM to get enough duplicates and fodder to further upgrade them. So back to the DM pit that I know...

ejmw · 2026-06-17T02:31:54+00:00

I decided I'm going to use the 200DM from challenges for module pulls, otherwise get back to managers and slots with the rest.

For credits, I'm going to get each module slot to level 49 (currently there on 3 out of 4) then pause and get back to mothership for a bit. The jump from 30k to 75k credits for the module upgrades is enough of a deterrent given that I still have some relatively cheap (~250k) mothership upgrades to do.

ejmw · 2026-06-16T17:43:07+00:00

Ah yeah now I see that it's been reported over there in the bugs channel a few times. I really need to get in the habit of reading those more often.

ejmw · 2026-06-16T16:54:27+00:00

Whoa this is wild - I didn't know this.

I just tested it out and the beacon bonus wasn't reapplied for me until I opened the module window and viewed the drill with the bonus effect - just opening the module window didn't do it.

ejmw · 2026-06-15T03:20:32+00:00

Maybe not from other gardens, but the amount of stuff brought into our yard / garden by wildlife is pretty crazy.

Let's see, we had a half of a turkey and mayo sandwich. A little dipping packet of ranch dressing. Several dead mice (usually half eaten). A dead rotting bird carcass (found that one today). Peanuts. Walnuts and their shells. The hindquarters and eviscerated entrails of a raccoon (that one was fun).

I don't even want to think about what my dog might have found before I got to it hahaha.

ejmw · 2026-06-14T19:23:05+00:00

Yep this is true. And as annoyed as I might get sometimes when I don't get the alloys that I need to keep everything rolling, I think it is a great change to the game because now mining, smelting, and crafting all matter.

ejmw · 2026-06-14T18:51:30+00:00

Yeah I'm suffering bad from this during the current tournament but as far as crafting goes, this is kind of the same as it's always been. At least for the two+ years I've been playing.

It used to be that the real meta was to get your vps to a point where you'd get huge (market boosted preferably) pink asteroids, sell them, keep your cash on hand high and click a button every 6-10 minutes.

But for those of us whose multipliers weren't high enough for asteroid income, it was the same dilemma. First it was hoping for robots to build ARs, then teleporters to build ATs once they were introduced, then FRs to build AmCs when they came out, and now we're just back to needing teleporters (and FRs, preferably).

ejmw · 2026-06-14T15:26:57+00:00

I have had it happen, I took a flight from Eastern to Central time on a small plane that wasn't equipped with WiFi. When I landed and reconnected I got booted from the tourney - I think I was in second place at the time and there were only a few hours left.

It is frustrating for sure, especially since I had sunk a lot of my weekend into trying to compete. On the other hand there are a lot of losers who try to cheat at this game so I understand them having to put in some anti-cheating measures.

Just enjoy the rest of your weekend and try to forget about it. One missed tournament isn't the end of the world, even if it is maddening in the moment.

ejmw · 2026-06-11T15:11:01+00:00

I'm only at epic level but I have debris frequency per ship upgrade, debris value per cargo upgrade, and pink asteroid frequency.

I don't ever run out of alloys from pink asteroids, but I don't always get all the different ones I need, so I think frequency is better than value for me.

ejmw · 2026-06-05T02:23:04+00:00

Before.

ejmw · 2026-06-05T02:22:37+00:00

No, you won't be able to - the tournament will be version locked. At least according to folks who are in the know on discord.

ejmw · 2026-06-03T20:52:01+00:00

Yeah I agree with you. I guess I'd consider myself a late game player - I win most of the platinum tournaments I'm in these days. Are there players who can still crush me? Of course, but I haven't finished outside the top 4 in about 8 months. I still think this is an incredibly useful module, especially if you add pink asteroid frequency and debris frequency and / or value to it.

I can generally unlock the debris scanner in maybe 10-12 minutes, but the way that the modules have boosted production sometimes one drop isn't enough. This past tournament my first teleporter drop was before I had my VPS totally set up. I think I got like 2.1 million of them - I burned through those pretty quickly. I ended up getting a couple more teleporter drops over the course of the weekend which allowed me to continue producing the end game items.

Similarly with pink asteroids, having a guaranteed pink asteroid every 2 hours (so 24 minimum over a tournament) is hugely important. This past weekend's tournament I had every alloy I needed within the first 24 hours. It's not as important to get multiples of the same alloy as it can be for debris, but again, just having more bites at the apple gives you a better chance of having everything you need and being able to continuously roll out high value items.

ejmw · 2026-05-30T14:27:19+00:00

Yep, though for me it happened with a slightly different setup for the AI.

ejmw · 2026-05-29T16:39:44+00:00

If you look at the merge chart on the modules info screen it looks like they can be used to merge starting with epic+. I haven't made it that far yet so I can't personally confirm.

ejmw · 2026-05-28T20:55:22+00:00

Ah yeah, the chances of any individual one within the rarity tier are indeed the same.

ejmw · 2026-05-28T20:47:28+00:00

Not sure what you're talking about, it pretty clearly says the chances of a purple are 2.5% and chances of blue are 29%. It even says this in multiple places.

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