> *Originally posted by **[Diadem](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9709811):*** > _Instructions_: Do a lot of excavations for initial setup. Make sure you have at least 40 mana regen. After setup, put Combo Strike on autocast for as long as needed, then switch to doing full combos with CoA on autocast (make sure you don’t lose elven bloodline bonus). Angel, you mean angel bloodline

> *Originally posted by **[Mustado](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9709974):*** > > *Originally posted by **[Diadem](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9709811):*** > > _Instructions_: Do a lot of excavations for initial setup. Make sure you have at least 40 mana regen. After setup, put Combo Strike on autocast for as long as needed, then switch to doing full combos with CoA on autocast (make sure you don’t lose elven bloodline bonus). > > Angel, you mean angel bloodline Thanks!

Grmann, it’s a mistake, it’s 1-2 hours, not 1-2 day, you can trust the build :) So, Good times or Dabbles in nice? Which is better when? :)

> *Originally posted by **[grmann](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9708958):*** > > OK, I just saw “1-2 hours” and “List of Base Merc Builds” and assumed he was talking about page 1. The wiki does have some better stuff. But the one they list still says 1-2 days and I’m comfortably under a day. I’d say I’m still in the running here. I actually dont know why it says 1-2 days as i think thats kholai’s build. which takes like under 4 hours (i wasnt clicking much if thats a req) but i think msot people get the 100B FC in like 1-2 hours with it.

1st assistant @ 10. 2nd @ 30. 3rd @ 60. 4th @ 100. 5th @ 150. 6th @ 210. 7th @ 280. Holy crusader assistants @ spells cast. Does that make ((x+1)\*10) the formula?

Brilliant, thanks Vatic! Formula looks like Spells Cast = 5 x ( x + 1 ) where x is assistants earned. I guess people ideally want it expressed the other way around… Still, 150 assistants after only 113k spells means it’s potentially epic for long builds.

> *Originally posted by **[Edenlight](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9710095):*** > > Grmann, it’s a mistake, it’s 1-2 hours, not 1-2 day, you can trust the build :) > > So, Good times or Dabbles in nice? Which is better when? :) Dabbles is a reasonably quick build, suitable for shorter, sub-24h games with a decent bit of growth. Delves is for longer games. You’ll start out a lot slower than Dabbles, but your growth rate accelerates greatly over time. Since short runs are mathematically preferable, Dabble as long as dabbling works. > *Originally posted by **[why\_amihere](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9710331):*** > > Brilliant, thanks Vatic! > > Formula looks like Spells Cast = 5 x ( x + 1 ) where x is assistants earned. I guess people ideally want it expressed the other way around… > > Still, 150 assistants after only 113k spells means it’s potentially epic for long builds. Try Floor{[Sqrt(0.8X + 1)-1]/2}.

Inspired by some of the other good-aligned builds on the board, I was testing Holy Crusader myself. When I came back after being away for several hours, the formula for Holy Crusader had already been posted so I stopped the test. It matches the formula as I had 44 assistants at 10k, 62 at 20k and 102 at 53k. I had wanted to make the Good equivalent of my neutral and evil Grand Balance/Fairy Chanting builds. When I did my high mana regeration Druid bloodline test run, I liked the synergy between more spells cast giving more assistants which gave more mana regeration which gave more spells cast, etc. All this eventually allowed casting the full 5 spell combo in Reincarnation 14. So, I decided to make a mana regeration build designed to be at least optimized (not quite yet though) and do a test run. [Updated build is here](http://www.kongregate.com/forums/8945/topics/543570?page=2#posts-9719835) Dwarven Song – **Test build -** ~~not recommended for grinding gems~~ **AFK/autocast. Requires long runs at least 10-12 hours in R14+ range. The test run experienced autocast issues after 24 hours. A shorter setup time can delay these problems. (the test had nearly 18 hours of setup). Build will be updated/fixed after more testing.** Don’t build Warrior Barracks or Knights Jousts (odd lack of an apostrophe in that building name.) Alignment: Good Spells: Grand Balance, Fairy Chanting Tier 1: Angel (1,2), Druid (1,1), Goblin (1,1), Dwarf (1,3) Tier 2: Angel (2,2), Titan (2,3), Druid (2,3), Faceless (2,3) Tier 3: Faceless (3,1), ~~Druid (3,3)~~ ~~Drow (3,2)~~ Dwarf(3,2), Dwarf (3,1), Fairy (3,3) Bloodline: Undead I think why\_amihere’s build with Angel bloodline and Combo strike sufficiently covers the best good-aligned build for long runs (_edit: I see Kholai also has one on the previous page with Grand Balance and Combo Strike._). But I’d like to see how this does in the 12-24 hour range. ~~I’ll probably have to leave Holy Light out of the spell combo~~ _edit: the Full combo became castable at 5 hours with the inferior bloodline I’m testing_, and **I’m naturally assuming Lightning Forge will be significantly better.** I’m testing it with the Dwarven bloodline instead of Undead. Starting off the test I autocast tax collections and did the full combo without Spiritual Surge to buy buildings, then switched to autocasting Fairy Chanting followed by tax collections when I reached 146 total assistants. Fairy chanting counts as 1 spell cast and provides 800 extra mana regeration in its 10 second duration at that assistant total, so it then becomes cost effective for increasing spells cast – the driving engine for this build. Test 1 After 17 hours 40 minutes of buildup, I set it to autocast the full combo. That’s Contingency (Silver numbers) Grand Balance and Priority (Gold numbers) 1. Fairy Chanting, 2. Spiritual Surge, 3. Call to Arms, 4.Holy Light, 5. Tax Collection. Starting Gems: 14.31 Uvg Gem gains: 18:10 (30 minutes of full combo): 16.37 Uvg 18:40 (1 hour of full combo): 26.06 Uvg 19:40 (2 hours of full combo): 46.27 Uvg 20:40 (3 hours of full combo): 62.18 Uvg _A grey screen followed by restarting the browser, followed by a flash crash lost about 40 minutes._ 24:20 (6 hours of full combo): 100.1 Uvg _The next result is after the end of the test. The end run stats are for 24:20._ 36:20 (about 13 hours of full combo): 212.1 Uvg End run stats – 24 hours 20 minutes Bloodstream: 589% Excavations: 851 (50 in this run) Royal Exchanges: 144 of each Angelic Determination: 11,513% Strong Currency: 9,279% Battlehammers: 10,183% Spells cast: 71,935 Assistants: 264 (792 with Fairy chanting) Holy Light assistants: 119 Dwarven Bloodline assistants: 59 (13 from 667k clicks, 13 from spells cast) Mana Regen: 52 (92 with Magical Treasure) Mana Regen under Fairy Chanting: 128 (247 with Magical Treasure) 2x income scrying bonus for most of 6 hour income phase. Required setup time is probably only 6-8 hours, but I would need to test more thoroughly to determine that. I was sleeping during that range, so the setup part of the test ran longer than I would have hoped. Test 2 Once this run finishes, the next test will be with ~~Titan~~ Drow Bloodline and Drow (3,2) instead of Druid (3,3). There are so many choices to optimize this build for use in the part of the game before Combo Strike builds become better. Holy Light spell gives a 31.25x income increase for 800 mana. Dropping a mana regen upgrade harms the build’s scaling and requires dropping the spell. Titan/Drow/Angel bloodline over Undead might be better because of this, Titan might be worse. Angel bloodline could be hard to preserve on autocast in the income phase, but Drow looks easy and safe. No scrying with Drow means Angel has the same effective modifier as Drow but better because it wouldn’t have to be reset partway through. But those crashes I experienced definitely would have reset Angel bloodline whereas Drow should have survived, barring bugs. Additionally, the autocasting priorities change around with different builds. High mana regeneration builds like the tested build put Fairy Chanting near the front. Low mana regen builds, which I suspect will take too long to realize their potential, put Fairy Chanting at the back. As I suspected, the Drow run was too slow. Should have at least swapped in Mitosis or Goblin Central Bank. Test abandoned at 15 hours. Test 3 Now I’m about 5 hours in on a run of the base build listed above, but with Goblin Central Bank instead of Building Jungle. Goblin Central Bank adds a lot to the buildup phase, increasing mana regeneration and several modifiers significantly. I’ve doubted it’s as good as Professional Assassins would be, so I’ve resisted using it. (I used it in the very first low income Druid test run though.) I’m testing it now, given the autocast combo hitches I’ve experienced in previous tests, because I hoped the extra mana regeneration would simply “power through” (or mana regen through) the combo regardless of spells going out of order. If that works, I can just swap out Faceless (2,3) for Faceless (2,2) and create the Drow bloodline version of the build without Drow going Tax Collection-less with no way to fix it. The run started at 250.4 Uvg gems. I switched this test to the income phase at 9 hours. The income looks to be worse than the Dwarf/Building Jungle build. The gem progression formula says that build would have reach 1 Dvg after about 36 hours.: 27 hours (18 hours full combo time): 301.7 Uvg. This test has been abruptly set aside to troubleshoot build problems. Test 4 Drow, Goblin Central Bank. No Building Jungle/Professional Assassins. Start 437.8 Uvg gems. _Length of run in hours: results_ 18: 18 hours of buildup time: 212 assistants. 20: 2 hour autocast to buy buildings. with scrying: 100.2 Uvg 21: 1 hour since bloodline reset. with fresh scrying: 122.7 Uvg 22: 192.7 Uvg 23: 307.9 Uvg 24: End of scrying – 457.6 Uvg 25: 557.4 Uvg 26: 661.4 Uvg 27: 801.5 Uvg 28: 956.7 Uvg 29: 230 assistants – 1.138 Dvg _The game grey screened. It kept casting the combo. I restarted and the Drowline is unbroken but I can’t see gem totals._ 43: 18.88 Noqag coins 44: 22.05 Noqag 45: 25.62 Noqag 46: 29.74 Noqag 47: 34.37 Noqag 48: 8.419 Dvg gems, 39.08 Noqag coins 48 hour end run stats Angelic Determination: 21282% Strong Currency: 10023% Battlehammers: 11090% Assistants: 265 Holy Crusaders: 175 assistants Mana regen: 92 Fairy Chanting mana regen: 238 Test 5 Titan bloodline, Dwarf (3,2), Mitosis instead of Faceless(2,3) Overgrowth Starting gems 538.4 Uvg. 18:45 of buildup time, 220 assistants. 19 hours (15 minutes of full combo time): 10.22 Uvg 20: 54.24 Uvg 21: 96.54 Uvg 22: 143.1 Uvg 23: 187.1 Uvg I declare test 5: _not good enough_ As test 4 clearly showed by the 23 hour mark. _Will be updated over time_

> *Originally posted by **[Kholai](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9710973):** > > Dabbles is a reasonably quick build, suitable for shorter, sub-24h games with a decent bit of growth. Delves is for longer games. You’ll start out a lot slower than Dabbles, but your growth rate accelerates greatly over time. Since short runs are mathematically preferable, Dabble as long as dabbling works.* Trying Dabbles R13, 80Vg gems, but find it slower than expected. Ok, I’m only 30 minutes in, will wait some more and see if I should switch back to BS + LS build.

> *Originally posted by **[Audaces](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9709564):*** > > *Originally posted by **[muyoriginalken](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9709550):*** > > > > I have been slowing down quite a bit since R12. What is the best build post R12? > > The general feeling seems to be that something like this: > > Faction: Neutral > Spells: Lightning Strike, Fairy Chanting > Bloodline: Fairy > > T1: Mining Prodigies, Druidic Vocabulary, Strong Currency, Oversized Legends/Starmetal Alloys > T2: Cyclopean Strength, Earthly Bond, Fairy Workers, Overgrowth/Gold Synthesis > T3: Titan Obelisk, Battlehammers, Swarm of Fairies, Professional Assassins/Building Jungle > > In each tier there’s an alternative, pick whatever you like. In T1 OL means more flexibility with the build (production on Ls hitting Farms/Inns/Blacksmiths) vs. more focused production (LS hits only Blacksmith). I prefer OL, but it’s up to you. In T2 pick whatever grants higher bonus, and in T3 PA seems to be better for short runs (until 1 Vg in my case), from then on I’ve been using BJ. I’m on R14 currently. > > I don’t think that there’s a more productive build out there. Naturally, do the standard preparations: a max buildings run, excavations, all new trophies etc. I see a lot of people using the Overgrowth/Gold Synthesis option. But if you’re taking Cyclopean Strength in T2 and Professional Assassins in T3, doesn’t it make more sense to take Mitosis at T2? I mean, the purpose of Cyclopean Strength is to increase production of all buildings by the amount of Hall of Legends TIMES the amount of assistants, so it comes out to a higher percentage when coupled with Mitosis (even more so with builds utilizing Fairy Chanting, as this triples the amount of assistants with its upgrade), right? In my current game, I’ve got 114 assistants with Mitosis and Swarm of Fairies (plus the base amount of R12), and 1,900 Halls of Legends. My Cyclopean Strength percentage increase is at 54,150%, and when Fairie Chanting hits, it goes up to 162,450% increase for all buildings. This increases with the more assistants I get from building more buildings in general and building more Farms, Inns, and Blacksmiths particularly (raised only higher by taking the Starmetal Alloys). To me, it seems that choosing Mitosis doesn’t change the Harlequin increase in percentage, since it’s still taking a Faceless upgrade, but it winds up giving a much higher percentage increase in production than Overgrowth and Gold Synthesis combined. Is there any math wizard out there who can check this and see if I’m right or wrong here?

> *Originally posted by **[Kholai](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9710973):*** > > Try Floor{[Sqrt(0.8X + 1)-1]/2}. I get x = Floor{[Sqrt(20s+25) -5]/10} Where x is unknown assistants and s is spells cast. _edit: Nevermind. It’s the same. I must have pushed the wrong button on the calculator when trying your formula, twice actually. Plus, now I can see by looking at them that they’re the same just with the 5 factored out._

Alrighty, thanks for the answer Kholai :)

A general remark about all mercenary builds – something I haven’t really noticed until now: while it’s true that getting upgrades from different factions increases Harlequin bonus, the Bloodstream bonus actually benefits from as many as possible upgrades from bloodline faction. The choice between Star Metal Alloys and Oversized Legends suddenly becomes clearer, because – assuming they’re equal and neither influences Harlequin – SMA will actually increase Bloodstream, as long as bloodline is Fairy (which is currently much the standard). tl;dr – when using Fairy Bloodline, get as many Fairy upgrades as you can.

I need help with getting 300 assistants. I’m at Reincarnation… 8, I think. What build do you suggest?

> *Originally posted by **[anon9mous](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9711798):*** > > I need help with getting 300 assistants. > > I’m at Reincarnation… 8, I think. > > What build do you suggest? Alignment: Evil Bloodline: Undead Use all the T1 fairie upgrades and Expert masonry (dwarfs). Also get all the assistant upgrades from T2 and T3. Should be easy.

A quickly assembled build or earning the Assistant Legion trophy (I’m sure the production portion of it can be optimized): **Ménage à Trois Cents** Alignment: Evil Spells: Doesn’t matter too much if you’re just planning on buying stuff. If you want production-boosting spells, you can’t go wrong with the standard high-value spells Bloodline: Undead **Tier 1** Pixie Dust Fertilizer (Fairy 1,1) Fairy Cuisine (Fairy 1,2) Starmetal Alloys (Fairy 1,3) Expert Masonry (Dwarf 1,2) **Tier 2** Corpse Supply (Undead 2,2) Mitosis (Faceless 2,2) free free **Tier 3** Swarm of Fairies (Fairy 3,1) Burning Legion (Demon 3,2) free free For the free upgrades, there aren’t any more upgrades that provide assistants, so feel free to choose ones to boost your production. If anybody has any recommendations, they are welcome and I’ll update this post.

That pretty much covers it, I think. If anyone should need extra production to get extra assistants out of the buildings, I’d pick Cyclopean Strength and Demonic Presence on T2, and Very Bad Guys and Building Jungle, and for spells Hellfire Blast and Fairy Chanting.

> *Originally posted by **[Kholai](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=22#posts-9709748):*** > > Dabbles in Nice. > > Diamond Pickaxe > Grand Balance > > Faceless Bloodline (Zero Excavation, shortish term viability. You could also use Titan with Excavations) > > Strong Currency > Oversized Legends > Mining Prodigies > Druidic Vocabulary > > Angelic Wisdom > Cyclopean Strength > Bardic Knowledge > Overgrowth > > Rainbow Link > Battlehammers > Building Jungle > Professional Killers > > Harlequin 512. > > Skip Warrior Barracks. Works better in later reincarnations, since you’ll need the extra mana cap to cast all your spells. > > Delves in Pleasantries. > > Combo Strike > Grand Balance > > Angelic Bloodline > > Strong Currency > Oversized Legends > Mining Prodigies > Druidic Vocabulary > > Angelic Wisdom > Cyclopean Strength > Shapeshifting > Overgrowth > > Rainbow Link > Battlehammers > Building Jungle > Blade Dance > > Harlequin 512. > > Skip Warrior Barracks. Set Call to Arms (1) and Combo Strike (2), then ignore it. Unless your client crashes or closes, you should never lose Angeline, and your casting will naturally accelerate, which leads to faster casts and faster growth as time goes on. You should state exactly what “later reincarnations” means because I tried these both at R13 and they failed miserably.

**Commander** : Playable immediately Range : R7+, but at least Spd gems. Characteristics : Fast 300 assistant trophy Alignment Evil Spells Hellfire Blast Night Time Tier 1 Upgrades fairy (1,1) fairy (1,2) druid (1,2) (gives roughly the same amount as Fairy (1,3) but also grows with time) dwarven (1,2) Tier 2 Upgrades undead (2,2) titan (2,3) (Largest production boost to buy more buildings) faceless (2,2) drow (2,2) (2nd largest production boost) Tier 3 Upgrades fairy (3,3) undead (3,1) (2nd largest production boost) demon (3,2) demon (3,3) (Largest production boost) Harlequin Bonus : moderate Bloodline : Undead or Dwarven Instructions: Build up to your max potential, use spells 4+5 and cast CtA when able. Focus on buying assistant buildings after and you should have the trophy. If not, then you can put on autocast and wait a day or so and you’ll have it. The benefit of this build is a relatively low reincarnation, low build-up 300 assistant trophy, since some people seem to think its unreachable without long build-up or high reincarnation.

> *Originally posted by **[Audaces](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9711601):*** > > A general remark about all mercenary builds – something I haven’t really noticed until now: while it’s true that getting upgrades from different factions increases Harlequin bonus, the Bloodstream bonus actually benefits from as many as possible upgrades from bloodline faction. The choice between Star Metal Alloys and Oversized Legends suddenly becomes clearer, because – assuming they’re equal and neither influences Harlequin – SMA will actually increase Bloodstream, as long as bloodline is Fairy (which is currently much the standard). > > tl;dr – when using Fairy Bloodline, get as many Fairy upgrades as you can. Snufkin82 calculated that Oversized Legends was better for autocasting Lightning Forge, even without the bloodline boost, because it increases Farm and Inn hits. But Starmetal alloys is better for active play. _edit: Upshot: Audaces, you were doing it exactly right with Oversized Legends and Professional Assassins at over 140 excavations._ > *Originally posted by **[Snufkin82](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=21#posts-9706644):*** > > As for the second question – it made me calculate the full cycle man for both cases, so I’ll explain. If we take 11 LS casts for a full cycle, expected value will be one hit per each building. Let’s estimate max mana 6020, regen 28 so we can do 15 TC on a full combo (simplifying a bit, dont pick on me here). > In Alloy version you have 10 wasted LS and one full combo: FC, GG, CtA and TCx15 = 11\*900+2400+3000=15300 mana. For Oversized version you’ll have to skip only the Farm, and do full combo on Inn so it will be 11\*900+2400\*2+3000\*2=20700 which is about x0.74 of the Alloy full cycle (so x34\*0.74 ends up as x25 for Oversized Legends, lower!) > > Besides, I’ve forgotten the Building Jungle synergy is another x1.143 on Alloy, so it ends up about x31 > > Bottom line: > Active play – Starmetal Alloy x31 vs Oversized Legends x25 > Idle play – Starmetal Alloy x31 vs Oversized Legends x34

Say, how do you set your autocast spells for mana narama build ? Fairy Chanting \> CTA \> Night Time \> Blood Frenzy \> Tax with contingency autocasting at minimum ?

Is Angelic Bloodline strictly worse than Drow Bloodline, assuming you never break either? It grows half as fast right? Also, at R13, 10Vg gems. Fairy strike is slowing down a bit. Any tips for good wall breakers?

> *Originally posted by **[Gensuki](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9717521):*** > > Is Angelic Bloodline strictly worse than Drow Bloodline, assuming you never break either? It grows half as fast right? > > Also, at R13, 10Vg gems. Fairy strike is slowing down a bit. Any tips for good wall breakers? Well, Angel bloodline allows you to do other things. You can change your spell selection, and you can build buildings. So with angel bloodline you could, for example, cast lightning strikes for a day to build up faction coins, and then switch to some other combo. Or build up combo strike and then at the end do a full-spell combo. You can’t do those things with drow bloodline.

Okay so I know that this information is likely somewhere on this giant 23 page thread, but I figured someone would be kind enough to answer me so heres my question. I have completed 12 reincarnations and I need to know what a solid build is to get to R13 and beyond because my current build peters out about 250x gems before the finish line. PS. Yes I have read the 1st page with lots of builds on it but most of them say that their range ends at R12 so hence my predicament.

> *Originally posted by **[slammer303](/forums/8945/topics/535779?page=23#posts-9718254):*** > > Okay so I know that this information is likely somewhere on this giant 23 page thread, but I figured someone would be kind enough to answer me so heres my question. I have completed 12 reincarnations and I need to know what a solid build is to get to R13 and beyond because my current build peters out about 250x gems before the finish line. > PS. Yes I have read the 1st page with lots of builds on it but most of them say that their range ends at R12 so hence my predicament. Ok, for an nth time, here’s the most current Fairy Strike: **Faction:** Neutral **Spells:** Lightning Strike, Fairy Chanting **T1:** Strong Currency, Mining Prodigies, Druidic Vocabulary, Star Metal Alloys **T2:** Earthly Bond, Cyclopean Strength, Gold Synthesis/Overgrowth/Fairy Workers **T3:** Building Jungle, Swarm of Fairies, Battlehammers, Titan Obelisk. **Bloodline:** Fairy There’s some variance depending on small things, but I think where you are it doesn’t matter (except maybe if you’re low on excavations go for Oversized Legends instead of Mining Prodigies). This build should easily take you to R14 (that’s where I am now, and it looks like this build is still the strongest one).