See my post new-talents update below please

Hey guys,
So I’ve been holding onto this data for awhile, trying to figure out what I’m doing “wrong” as it seems to go against the conventional wisdom shared in the chatrooms. I was talking with a few people this morning who seemed receptive to my ideas, so I thought I’d share some of my data here for feedback.

A few caveats to start:
1. I am not saying that any of my conclusions from my data are “right;” these are just my theories and maybe some of you guys can help figure out what I’m doing “wrong.”
2. The majority of this is extremely nit-picky and, to a casual player, may be irrelevant. For me, the fun of this game is optimization and I’m taking it to a bit of an extreme.
3. I’ve done my best to standardize things as much as possible and create controls for the possible sources of error I could think of.

My method:
1. I start the timer once the bush wacker appears on the screen on the first stage.
2. In each case, the main DPSer is being autoclicked (1/sec)
3. Upon finishing boss level, when the black screen wipes across, I stop the autoclicker
4. Once all the crusaders are on the screen on the boss+1 level, I hit the clock
5. I then “upgrade all” before any gold is picked up from the boss+1 level
6. I record data and restart the autoclicker.
7. My first run through, I try to collect every 25 levels, but sometimes I miss, so I just grab the next boss level.
8. Once I identify the peaks, I go back and collect data for every boss level for 25 stages before and after the peak to ID the optimal place to stop.
9. Finally, I time myself several times to make sure the stopping point I identified above is working out for me.

My data:
Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AevhA-AmsvQRglQ36UGrwO0z-P-yu-qj1d0x4x3VrvI/pubhtml
I only included my Mugwart’s data and Slow Descent (which was better for me than Mugwart’s around 18k) data as that’s what we were talking about. If you have any questions about other areas, let me know.

My conclusions:
1. There are breakpoints in this game. In other words, there are certain levels where you’re better off stopping than others. I don’t think going until you stop insta-killing is the most efficient (taking that to an extreme, mind you) way to play.
2. It seems like more idols pushes that optimal point forward closer to the beginning of the game.
a. Can’t really explain this one. I only have 2 real sets of data for Mugwart’s. I added a reference character to see if my main was just slowly pulling further ahead of the rest of my crusaders, but it doesn’t seem to be. I wish I had collected some between to see if I could identify and sort of progression.
3. If you truly want to find your own optimal point, I think you would have to check it yourself simply based upon how much movement I’ve seen in mine.
a. I would be interested to hear the findings of others around the same number of idols for each set of data. If I’m not crazy, maybe we can identify which map and level to stop on a various idol counts (assuming idol count is the only thing affecting it).


Let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

About 30 mins after posting this yesterday, they uploaded all the new talents. Initially, I thought it shot my theories to hell. But I've recalculated my data with my talent set-up, and it's not completely shot. I updated the google sheet with my T2 and T3 idol talents (Efficient Crusading and Deep Idol Scavenger, respectively).

Here's the link the to the actual google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AevhA-AmsvQRglQ36UGrwO0z-P-yu-qj1d0x4x3VrvI/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion changes:
1. There are still breakpoints in this game (highlighted in green).
a. If you haven't accessed the T3 idol talent, then the original data is still valid I think.
b. If you have, then further is definitely better generally. But there are still preferred areas to stop on. While it's relatively small changes in idols/hr, over the course of a 3 or 4 hour run, it could be the difference of 1 or 2 idols.

2. The T3 talent kills my original conclusion here. If you haven't accessed that yet, I think there's still validity in that one.

I know everyone is wrapped up in the new talents, but if anyone takes a look and has any thoughts, let me know. Thanks.

Not sure what equipment you have or, honestly, even what equipment I had at that time. One difference might be that I had Robo-santa and his golden epic. Beyond that, I'm not sure I can be much more help. Sorry.

But it's just proof of how varied people's set-ups can be and, if you're looking for peaks in idols/hr, you should check for yourself.