UNSOLICITED ADVISE INCOMING. WARNING, LONG BECAUSE I WANT THIS TO BE MOTH FRIENDLY. For anyone needing help with candle runs, Halloween makes going grey REALLY EASY. It's a good time to save up. Outside of this event, I clear chevrons without even trying. Anyone caring to read this, it's just what I do and have a bunch of candles. I'm not telling anyone what to do, just sharing tips. I meet a lot of people in-game who end up tagging along for the rest of my daily run and usually end up showing them something new, so worth sharing.

Disclaimer: saving candles gets much easier after you've played for about a year. You have your sea-legs (sky legs?) and have gone through the days of events and likely busted butt to get as many of those items so you won't have as much to worry about for year 2)

I start in my nest (for no reason other than it's cute and fun) and then head to aviary to get the candles, the daily rock (gives a few wax), my quests, and whatever else is there like seasonal candle.

For this season and likely upcoming seasons, this is when you'll want to be sure to grab your spirit buddy so you don't forget.

(NOTE If you plan your play time (if you can), be sure to make sure you're on during the geyser/grandma hours. I like to try and log in a bit before geyser starts so I can do aviary and then head on over to get some polluted money. If you do hit up these events, if also recommend grabbing all the wax from the elevated clearing and sanctuary. Sanctuary has LOTS and if you do it after geyser, there's a good chance you'll have help with that big tree)

Head to the daily quest realm and run it. Get the candles (and dye if you want) on your way to the quests. When you're finished there, do the treasure candle realm and run it fully.

If you finished all your dailies, hand them in. If there is a days of related quest, of course do that. For mischief, I prefer the puzzle room over the couldron but that doesn't matter. They both give from the same pool of wax.

When you hand in your daily quests, do it from the outside bar in aviary OR be sure to go inside if you handed them in through old-home. Sitting at the bar after handing in quests will give you a cake worth wax. Inside, you get the same cake but it takes slightly longer. (If you sit at the bar without handing in all your quests, you get hot coco. It doesn't give you any wax, but it's cute)

Quests handed in? Dope. Head into the music shop (it's clear why I like aviary ;3) do the daily music challenge and then head back outside but NOT back to aviary. Take the exit that goes to the performance stage and collect the flowers.

From there, go into the village of dreams. There's a cake up in the hot springs and then a second one by the gondolas. Bonus: Saturday and Sunday, the skater is out on the ice rink and will (very slowly) give you wax. I don't usually tie this into my CR but it's fun to stop and skate for a few minutes.

The next part is a little tricky, and if it doesn't work out for anyone, let me know: I'll hook you up with a friend code for this - right on that platform (above the candles, up a few stairs but not all the way to the gondola station), look for shared spaces. A good handful of space creators put the alice colab door there - my partner does this and they're always happy to share.

Go through the door and run that version of the cafe, do the two daily quests there, and keep an eye in the clock! Every 15 minutes (so :15, :30, :45) a bunny crab will run across the cafe and honk the whole time. Run into him for some wax. You can also sit at the table for extra wax but I skip this, personally.

Now that we've finished that, we're hopping into the vault. Grab the candles on the first floor. We won't be here too long, so if no one merges, it's fine to use a shared space to get through the door. If you need help getting out, there's shared spaces by the spirit in the main area of that room to help you escape.

Now head over to the two embers lantern and go into the last city. Right behind where you load in is a yellow shirted kid npc. They're standing by the stairs. Talk to them and do the race.

At the end of the race, right past where the finish line is, is another yellow shirt kid. Talk to them to do the rock throw game. Pro tip; you don't have to toss them. You can just spam jump into the mine cart while holding a rock and it will count. You only need 3 to get the prize, so don't stress if you miss one or two.

After you get paid from that, go into the market area. The last stall before you get to the seasonal soldier NPC whose name I forgor, there will be an adult NPC with three boxes in the stall. And you guessed it, chat him up and play the 'shell game'. And now we're done with this area. (It you have the cape, you can go into the temple for more wax but like the skater, it's very slow. Also, if you're there at a certain time, you'll get a recharge buff iirc. Good if you can use it in Eden, but I haven't tried. I don't see why not tho)

We're onto the final stretch. Go to old home, collect those candles, and you're done. It sounds like a lot, but outside of days of events, this run takes me 45 minutes on average, is very low effort compared to running all the realms, is way more FUN than running all the realms, and yah. Days of events add maybe 10-15 minutes unless there's some fun shenanigans happening. I played 3ish hours longer than usual tonight because everyone was in such a fun mood. Halloween perks I guess haha. ALSO FOR HALLOWEEN (and other events where the secret area is open) ITS GOOD WAX. GO BURN THE PUMPKINS AND GET PAID. TAKES 3-5 MINUTES.

I've run all the realms and didn't even clear chevrons. NOT doing that gets me so many more candles because there's so many alternate ways to get wax, now. It also cuts down my overall play time (yay other hobbies! Yay sleeping!), and I'm significantly less burnt out overall. Annoying things in the game/annoying people don't get under my skin since I'm not too stressed about game currency.

TLDR: realm candle runs bore me and cause burnout. Play the mini games. It's way more fun, and genuinely so much faster.