Thick as Thieves: Strategizing the climb to 65k

Cymmina

There are only 4 subevents and they all end at the same time as the ending time of your slice. So given that, to stay on track to reach the 65k progression by the time the event ends, you would need to hit the following milestones:

wed april 1 -     0 - Family Reunion begins (36h)
thu april 2 - 14976 - Anderson, Inc. begins (48h)
fri april 3 - 19968
sat april 4 - 24960 - Scotland Yard begins (48h)
sun april 5 - 34944
mon april 6 - 44928 - The Meeting begins (24h)
tue april 7 - 54912
wed april 8 - 65000 - end of event

As I write this, it's Saturday, 1d 4h away from the ending time for the 2nd subevent (Anderson, Inc.). The leader in my bracket (masterdebater) has 20361 points. I'm seeing the following values for the top nodes:

533 - Anderson V - Level 110 (Normal)
453 - Anderson VI (Kamala required) - Level 58 (Easy)
533 - Anderson VII (Kamala required) - Level 67 (Easy)

After clearing all of the nodes only once per refresh (8 hours) since I joined (early on Thursday), I'm sitting at 11489 points. That's a hell of a long way away from the 65k necessary to get my hands on Kamala's green. I'd need to get ~13.5k points each day from now until the event ends to do it and I'm a little concerned that's not going to happen this time around.

1. I busted my **** during ISO Brotherhood to get a top 20 finish, so I am worried that the PvE scaling is going to come back to haunt me. Almost all of my top characters were boosted (Luke Cage, Thor**, OBW, Blade, Patch) so I barely flinched when I was seeing nodes at Lv150+. I just kept grinding away.

2. For Thick as Thieves, the only characters in my roster that are boosted are Cyclops (2/0/2, Lv63 boosted to 93) and Kamala (1/1/0, Lv43 boosted to 133); everyone else is 94 or lower. The fact that I am seeing level 110s this early on does not bode well for the rest of the event.

3. The 2nd subevent ends on Easter. I didn't have any obligations for Easter when I joined the event, but now I do. That means I will be missing a good chunk of time grinding away nodes before that subevent ends.

I know that the nodes become more valuable as the event goes on, but I don't see how I'll be able to continue clearing them when the levels keep rising as well. Do I need to change my strategy (1 clear per refresh, grind away the most valuable nodes I can in the 1-2 hours before the subevent ends)? Keep in mind that I don't care about overall placement, just the progression reward + a Thick as Thieves token from each subevent.

edit: fixed title

Unknown

From my calculation, assuming the nodes increase by 20% per event (difference between sub 1 & 2) there are roughly 85000 points available in this event and this pretty much assumes you've some kind of instant win hack (calculation assumes you can do 6 full clears and then instantly clear everything 5 times again in the last second of the event). Therefore, assuming your overall leader happens to be the guy who gets every possible point, you'd still need to be within 65/85 = 76% of his score to hit 65K on time. This is a minimum threshold since nobody is going to be clear everything 5 times in the last second of the sub, though it is unclear at this point if the later nodes will be worth more. Currently the point increase node is historically low (they're usually between 33% to 50%), but barring a very large increase in node points at the end, right now the prospect of hitting 65K is not very good for most people.

KrazyKeylime

Skip event enjoy weekend. Didn't play earlier PVE either. hang out with people, build some memories, have some drinks ( if you are old enough). king pen won't be useful until 1/2 a year if you aren't planning to buy covers, if you are well then good luck on the crusade and thanks for keeping the game a float big spender.

Talahamut

I think I remember TaT having the later subs worth way more points than earlier ones?

Nooneelsesname

If the node values stay the same from the last time this event ran, there will be >100k possible points. Later subs were worth more points.

It seems there will be slightly fewer points this time as there aren't new nodes appearing on the main map to open subs. The amount is not significant.

I'm not going to run the exact numbers, but I think just hitting refreshes and tapping one more time before end of sub should get you the Kamala green. Double tap if you're worried. Can't help you with the sub event tokens as that depends on bracket composition. Most people who play the event should be fine.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

barring a very large increase in node points at the end

The very large increase in node points at the end is exactly why it goes over 100k. Based on our records, point multipliers on nodes go from 100% to 133% to 166% to 200%, and the number of nodes in the third and 4th subs are 9 instead of 7. The extra nodes are difficult, high-value nodes.

However, that is not to say 65k is easy. If you end up skipping the hardest nodes because they are impossible, you still need to play a substantial amount on all the other nodes to make up for it. The best players will probably reach the final progression reward by the end of Scotland Yard, but less optimal players won't get there until the middle or end of The Meeting.

My advice is to get as many wins on the hard node as early as you can. They will only scale up more as time goes on. Expect enemies that are double the level of your powered up characters. Triple if all goons.

Also, don't miss out on the end grind. Do it a day earlier if you have to. Some points is better than no points.

Brought to you by WE ARE GR00T. We spend a lot of time on this PvE thing.

P.S. By the way, it's Thick as Thieves, not Iso-8 Brotherhood.