ISO hoarding?

amusingfoo1

I remember a thread from some months ago, about people hoarding ISO (I can't find it, but it isn't terribly important). At the time, I think it was fairly common, especially for those not into the 4* transition yet.

I hoarded a few different times, for what felt like large amounts of ISO, and I think got benefits from it. But I wonder if that happens at all, these days.

For me, I've been in a cycle, for a while, of building up one 4* champion at a time, so I haven't had more than 5-10k more than what I needed to max out my latest 4* character in ages. And the only screenshots I've seen from people with large amounts of ISO (think 500k+) are mega-whales and people bored with leveling their characters.

So I'm curious to hear from a somewhat wider audience. Does anyone still hoard? And if not, I wonder if the devs consider championing an unqualified success...

JamieMadrox

I'm hoarding now, but only because I've got champed 5*. Before that I was ISO poor all the time. Once you get 5* to a competitive level though you're only spending ISO when you need to level one of them. Once they're champed there's no point to level anything really.

I may level Rulk at some point and some other 4*, but the only other character I've maxed in forever is IM40 for his PVP after they made him good.

mpqr7

There was a point where I'd add a few levels here and there to different characters, but now I just save it until I can champion someone. It really hurts my fingers to hold down the level up button... it's so much easier just to hit the max level button!

Jarvind

I kinda try to, but the constant scramble makes it hard. I'll stop spending until I get a cover for a 4* that I want to champ, and then unload it all on them.

The problem is that 4*s require so much ISO to champ that I think the most I've ever managed to stockpile is about 200k, which I'm not sure qualifies as a "hoard."

PeterGibbons316

mpqr7 wrote:

There was a point where I'd add a few levels here and there to different characters, but now I just save it until I can champion someone. It really hurts my fingers to hold down the level up button... it's so much easier just to hit the max level button!

I'm close to maxing all my 5*s and then I'll "hoard" for as long as it takes to gather enough ISO to max a 3* for this very reason.



Players in 2->3* transition still hoard. My wife boasts of her 500k ISO stash which I must admit I AM envious of, but I keep telling her - wait, just wait. Once you get some fully covered 3*s you'll blow through it and be forever wishing that you could have it back.

SnowcaTT

I used to hold at least 60K ISO at all times, but that was to move my many 140 3*'s to 166. Really nice to hit that "max" button instead of slowly leveling. WHERE IS OUR +1 LEVEL BUTTON ALREADY?

I tried hoarding to get my 172 4*s -> 270 but stopped trying that wait. Usually I hold enough ISO to level my characters in ten-level increments at this point.

pheregas

I'm in the same boat. I save up all my iso then dump it all at once on whichever 4* has a cover with that stupid timer on it so that I can apply it before losing it.

I took a little break from that and leveled up OML a bit, but I did it 5 levels at a time. But now I'm sitting on covers that will expire again.

I always used to keep a 20k buffer though, since whichever 4* DDQ would get leveled up to the 110-120 range for use. But now that we've been through a full second cycle, and I won all but one (Flaptain was a loss, but he's better covered now), I don't need that buffer until we get to Quake in the third cycle.

Smudge

I had tried hoarding ISO. Once. Purely in the interest of being ready for when 4* finally arrive. I got my 13th 4Thor cover, maxed her, and I hoard no more.

The influx of 4* covers is so ridiculously painfully slow that I can almost save up enough to be ready to max one out well in advance of the cover. Most of my 4s are around 3-7 covers anyway, so it's not like that will be anytime soon. Now I'm just slowly investing it in the remaining 17 3* characters I haven't champed. I could save it up and max Invisible Woman since I finally got her 13th cover yesterday... but nah.

PeterGibbons316

aesthetocyst wrote:

I am in the champing 4s process.

I should be hoarding, in 1-3 week stretches, whatever it takes to finish the next one.

I am not.

I managed to go 2wks once.

Once.

Need the instant gratifications.

I get enough to throw a level on someone, I do it.

Once, I split the difference, hoarded enough to almost max a character, but then that character was buffed and I wanted to use them right away. So I leveled them ~60 times. Now I really see what all the fuss over the +1 level button is. Even on Steam, that was ridonkulous.

Yeah, it's funny how hard it is to keep that ISO stash on hand. The second you want to play even one battle/event with a character that you thought you might want to level next....boom all reserve ISO spent.

I'm almost to the point where the actual character that I spend ISO on next is largely irrelevant. So I think I should be able to successfully maintain a decent ISO hoard and let the order of the covers I draw be the determining factor in who gets the ISO. That's the goal. I'm sure I'll probably just end up blowing every last bit I have on whatever the current featured 3* is.


Also, 4* DDQ almost completely halted any hoarding I was doing. The first run through I spent most of the ISO I had at any given moment taking the current required 4* from 70 to 100-120 or so. It seemed kind of disappointing at first, but now I think it was mostly worth it - especially for those top tier 4*s that I have since champed, it was just a bit of a head start on them.

pheregas

PeterGibbons316 wrote:

Also, 4* DDQ almost completely halted any hoarding I was doing. The first run through I spent most of the ISO I had at any given moment taking the current required 4* from 70 to 100-120 or so. It seemed kind of disappointing at first, but now I think it was mostly worth it - especially for those top tier 4*s that I have since champed, it was just a bit of a head start on them.

Agreed. I view the DDQ 4* levels as a one-time iso investment in a character that will assure me a win every time that character comes up again in the upcoming cycles.

HaywireII

I have 13 championed 3 stars with most of the remaining ones cover maxxed but no iso to level them. A few of my 4 stars have hit 9 or 10 covers with plenty more below that needing levels to beat Crash of the Titans. I am always broke.

mohio

I am in a perpetual state of iso hoarding for the next 4* I want to champion before losing covers in my queue. I've maxed all the "low hanging fruit" (i.e. the ones I had leveled up to 200+ before) so now every 4* takes ~300k iso to max/champion. It's kinda fun watching it build up and up and up, but knowing there's a target and i'm under a time constraint, it's not like it feels like I have a lot of iso. I'm either ahead of pace or behind pace. There will come a day when I've maxed all the 4* I think are worth maxing and then I will probably be able to amass a small hoard. Manual leveling is so miserable I really would like to avoid it if possible.

udonomefoo

I wish I had a hoard. Have a lvl 190 xfdp with a cover expiring in 12 days.

275k in 12 days? Possible, but way more than I really want to play.

BlackSheep101

Thankfully, I'm not chasing any expiring covers right now. My next target to max is 4thor, but I'm in no rush. If something better comes along in the meantime, like my last HB cover, I'll reallocate it. I'm not looking to take advantage of any boosted characters that aren't already maxed so I don't feel the need to spend the iso as soon as it comes in.

mpqr7

I'm at a point where for the most part, I'll champion a 4* when I want to, such as if it will be boosted next week in PVP or if it's someone I really like. I'm not too concerned about championing it in time to get a cover for it. Those 14th 4* covers will arrive soon enough.

Chief270

Only hoarde til I can one shot a character to max level. Leveling shouldn't be a chore.

san

I hoard ISO until I get the covers I want. I have a bunch of 4*s with 10-12 covers, so whichever (good) one comes first, I simply max. I'm at 200K iso, after instant-champing IceMan following the Gauntlet run, where I got my final purple cover.

DTStump

I'm in the 3* -> 4* transition and I have around 300k iso at the moment. You can see my roster in the signature.

I'm just waiting to get the last covers for top tier 3*s and slowly opening up more slots for 4*s. Right now, I think I have 13 4*s rostered, 1 to 3 covers only.

My iso reserves will disappear pretty quickly once my 4*s stop being useless and I get the 13th covers for around 10 3*s I'm targeting. The 3* needs alone represent around 1 million iso. But for now, I'm hoarding because I don't have a good use for it at the moment.

(I actually learned the lesson during my 2* -> 3* transition. I had a good amount of iso, then I thought it was a good idea to develop new 2*s for champion rewards... bad mistake)

Wooodd

I remember the good ol' days.

I was 'soft-capped' at 120 for quite a long time and accrued quite a substantial hoard of 950,000 , but then championing happened.

This let me insta-champ around 12 3*'s as soon as the feature dropped (was hording tokens too following the rumors about championing). Since then I'm broke all the time.

It probably doesn't help matters that I have to now champ everyone, I cannot help it. Just this past two weeks I have champed 2 more 2*'s (despite having 25 champed 3*'s already). You get your Iso back eventually from champ levels, with interest (CP, HP, Covers).

Crowl

I am in a continuous cycle of hoarding iso, my 4*'s are mostly high enough to complete the ddq so I just level an additional 4* to 270 once I have the 330k or so that is needed to take them up to champion level from there.

mikepro

I had just recently finished off my imhb thanks to the civil war pve and I was down to about 511 iso due to any iso I got was being dumped into him so the extra 2 covers didn't expire in said time. But since then last week I'm about roughly 65k right now and I'm going to hoard the iso until I can either get my final teen jean cover or unless I can get a miracle and get 2 oml covers so I can level him up. Yes I'm one of the few who doesn't have many oml covers and I've hit max progression in pvp for 2.5 season in a row and I'm on that bad of a streak. Not going to complain but it is what it is. I'll probably save enough till I can level up a few remaining top teir 4* like iceman and jean possibly XFW and xfdp maybe even 4hor or flaptin just cause he's max already. But it's a slow process and it's fun just watching it grow by about 5-10k a day