2* Farming

Nick441234

I'm curios about whether any of you guys find yourselves having the same experience as me with it. I'm on probably my 6th or 7th rotation of my 2*s now and since maybe the 3rd or 4th rotation I've made a point of trying to stagger them as much as possible since I only leave myself 3 spots open for dupes so dont want too many of them at 144 at the same time. However, even though I've been staggering them for at least the last 3 or 4 rotations, I'm still currently sat here right now with 7 at 144 and a further 1 at 143. This is despite only ever 3 being rebuilt at the same time. 

The issue I'm finding with this game is that when my characters reach 144, I then either start receiving the same coloured covers for that person (currently sat with 4 Hawkeye purples, 3 Black Widow blacks, 3 Cap America blues on my vine) that I cant add to my dupe, or I stop getting those characters covers entirely and I start getting ALL covers for the guys coming up behind the fully champed 2*s. This has gone beyond being a coincidence now. For me to still be sat here now with 7 fully champed 2*s at the same time despite them being heavily staggered makes me believe that the odds shift on who you will get covers for perhaps in an attempt to make you have to purchase another roster slot to avoid covers expiring (17 2* covers on my vine right now that I cant add to anyone).

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experiences like this because its really starting to bug me. I'm able to predict who I'll get covers for now. 2* Bullseye and 2* Moonstone are approaching behind my fully champs, and of course, I have those covers dropping out the sky right now. 

Quebbster

Random distribution is going to be... random. (shocking, huh?). Sometimes you'll get streaks of certain covers. It is more noticeable when you are waiting for a certain cover though.
But yes, I know the feeling. I just sell the level 144 champ when I have 13 covers for the dupe though, so roster spots is not a problem. If a cover is about to expire before I get 13 I just sell the 144 anyway and use the oldest covers to reroster - that gives me a week or two extra to get more covers and it usually works out.

Nick441234

Theres got to be a point where it stops being random though. Theres no way I should still have 7 at 144 at the same time as each other after as long as I've been rotating them. 

Eddiemon

I just sell my 144 as soon as I have 1 extra cover to restart them. No need for dupes.

In any essential node I have a 2* and 2 championed 4*s, it really doesn't matter how many covers the 2* has, they aren't contributing meaningfully.

Only exception is OBW who I will hand onto a dupe for, in case that offseason 2,3,4 PvP is pulled.

MarkersMake

I think the standard way of dealing with that kind of thing is to start your dupe when your 2* champ is at 130, and then apply covers to the dupe first, until it's fully covered (the champ can absorb covers that you can't apply to the dupe).  That gives you a bit more flexibility, in case of cover streakiness. 

jamesh

When one of my 2*'s hits level 144, I just let extra covers accumulate in the queue.  When 2 weeks pass or I get close to 13 covers or have a pressing need for the iso, I sell the old character and use those covers to re-roster them.  At that point, they'll generally be strong enough to survive any AOE attacks if they're essential.

Alfje17

You always get a lot of same-color covers, so I just stop levelling around 135 and make a dupe once I have the 13 covers, in the meantime I can still level the extra covers. Works quite well with 3 spare slots and no wasted covers so far.

smkspy

I'm sick to dead of farming, it's a necessary evil of the game, but it has become one huge drag. 

I sell off once I get a 145 cover unless they happen to an essential in an upcoming pve. Occasionally have to sell off a few dupe colors, but I have 3 rotating dupe spots if I get too much of oine character that I can't champ immediately.

3 star farming is already a big problem. Keep pulling patch and lazy caps when their dupes are maxed out, but I have so many other priority champs I keep putting them to the wayside.

Nick441234

I've just started on my 3* farm today actually after Cap America became my first maxed 3*. See how much that annoys me now. Haha. 

aesthetocyst

Nick441234 said:

Theres got to be a point where it stops being random though. 

Ummm .... no, no there doesn't.

I've been farming them for 16 months now, some of them are on generation 11, some are on gen 12 now.

Over that time, I've seen several characters lag the others for months on end, eventually falling behind by more than 100 covers .... leading my primitive brain to think the odds on the character are different ... and then everything flips and the 'slow' character is hot for months on end.

Btw, I haven't had to sell a single 2* along the way, and never resorted to rostering any dupes. But I play too much, I hit all the 100hp daily deals, and have never been silly enough to hoard tacos.

never turn your nose up at a chance of a 2* if you are farming 2s. Any token that's elite or better is precious. If you have time, hit those Sakaar LRs this week!

Dormammu

I've solved this problem by building the dupe right after first champing (level 94). So my farm works like this:

1. Champ the 2-star
2. Start building a dupe
3. Any covers that can't be applied to the dupe can go to the champ
4. Once the dupe hits 13 covers, all remaining covers go to the champ until max-champed
5. Sell the champ
6. Champ the dupe
7. Start a new dupe
8. etc...

I've never had a champed parent hit level 100 before its dupe child had 13 covers. 

Daredevil217

Dormammu said:

I've solved this problem by building the dupe right after first champing (level 94). So my farm works like this:

1. Champ the 2-star
2. Start building a dupe
3. Any covers that can't be applied to the dupe can go to the champ
4. Once the dupe hits 13 covers, all remaining covers go to the champ until max-champed
5. Sell the champ
6. Champ the dupe
7. Start a new dupe
8. etc...

I've never had a champed parent hit level 100 before its dupe child had 13 covers. 

Mine is similar but I actually have trips of each character.

Slot 1 = Level 144
Slot 2 = Level 94+ (all covers go here)
Slot 3 = Level 15 (cover-maxed)

As soon as a character in Slot 2 is max-champed I sell them off, use the iso to champ the character in Slot 3, and start rebuilding a new character with the roster spot. 

When rebuilding a new character I’ve actually started doing their ideal build this run (3/5/5 for Thor and Cap for example).

So currently I’m rebuilding Ares and he’s at 3/4/5, so a green puts him at his ideal 4/4/5 build.  Any Reds or Yellows I get, I’ve been applying to Slot 2 Ares.  

Pants1000

I find it annoying to start a new one before the first is 144.  It's not terrible, but I just like to use all my covers from the rewards screen, rather than scrolling through my roster to find it.  

So I sell mine when I get the first cover after 144.  Most of the time I have 10 champed and 3 being rebuilt.  

I usually don't use extra roster spots for 2's, but I have a couple times when RNG was crazy.  I think the worst I had was a 17/11/2 Ares.

TPF Alexis

Nick441234 said:

Theres got to be a point where it stops being random though. Theres no way I should still have 7 at 144 at the same time as each other after as long as I've been rotating them. 

True randomness is way streakier than most people imagine. It would more likely be a sign of a modified RNG if you weren't getting runs like that.

I haven't tracked how many times I've cycled each 2*, but I know some have gone through more times than others. I've still only sold a single cover, tho, even without using any dupes.

Kahmon

I start my 2* rebuilds when they hit 131 (heroic token). Most of the time the primary only has to absorb a few extras before the secondary hits 13 covers. Then when the primary hits 144 I sell it and champ the dupe. Usually I have 3-5 rebuilds going at a time.

For 3*s I start the rebuild at 257 (Legendary token) unless I need the 4* cover at 265. However, with 3*s I plan to keep the maxed one until the 2nd reaches 257.

Tiggida

For me they've always come in streaks. I'll get a whole bunch of the same 3 characters, then after a week or 2 it'll switch to the next 3 characters, etc. Right now the 3 are darken, widow, and bullseye. I still get other covers, but I get A LOT more of the 3 that are in the streak rotation. Completely random consistency I guess. I notice the same thing with 3* covers as well since I've started farming them too. 

maguirenumber6

Eddiemon said:

I just sell my 144 as soon as I have 1 extra cover to restart them. No need for dupes.

In any essential node I have a 2* and 2 championed 4*s, it really doesn't matter how many covers the 2* has, they aren't contributing meaningfully.

This is exactly how I do it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

shardwick

Dormammu said:

I've solved this problem by building the dupe right after first champing (level 94). So my farm works like this:

1. Champ the 2-star
2. Start building a dupe
3. Any covers that can't be applied to the dupe can go to the champ
4. Once the dupe hits 13 covers, all remaining covers go to the champ until max-champed
5. Sell the champ
6. Champ the dupe
7. Start a new dupe
8. etc...

I've never had a champed parent hit level 100 before its dupe child had 13 covers. 

I've been doing the same. I used to take my main 2* to around 138 before I would start on the dupe but there were so many times when I would go on a big streak of one color that I had to apply to the main and it would max it or I would accidentally add champ levels to the main instead of applying them to the dupe so I was like "Ehh just apply those to the dupe from the start and then it's ready once I max the main one. Then I'll sell the main to pay for most of the price to champ the dupe." Only at about four dupes right now though because I keep buying friggin' 10 packs. "Would you like to buy tokens for our super awesome Halloween vault?!!!!" DUH YEAH. Buys two 10 packs. Oh, right, I'm supposed to be hoarding my hp to build up my dupe 2s. Dammit. Wish I could spend some hp on leveling up my self control but I spent most of it on trying to get that Nightcrawler cover.

farlus

The  most prohibitive thing about these solutions is that building a dupe for each 2* before the main is done requires another 1k HP, which isn't realistic for most people who are 3* to 4* transitioners or even for the 4* to 5* transitioners.

Waiting the 2 weeks after hitting 144 to get 13 covers is more viable, but as of late even that hasn't worked. In fact, with 2* Bullseye, in 2 weeks after hitting 144 I was only able to get ONE purple cover. I sold him and rostered at 1/5/5 and hoped that before the remaining green and black covers expired I would get the additional two purples I needed. I ended up having to roster a second 0/5/5 dupe so that the covers wouldn't expire. Absolutely atrocious. I should've just done the former method at that rate.

If you've got the HP, yeah, roster a dupe before maxing. (This is what I do for 3* because they are much less farmable.) The latter method is less cost prohibitive, but you're always taking a risk of covers expiring.

shardwick

Well it depends on what you're spending your hp on. I'm constantly feeding my farm and get a ton of hp there as well as champ rewards on my 3s and 4s, about hp neutral on pvp because I usually will do an eight hour shield at the close of an event and I get plenty of hp from pve. So spending 1k now and then to build my 2* farm is really only an investment because it will easily pay for itself down the road. Sometimes you gotta spend hp to make hp.

sinnerjfl

farlus said:

The  most prohibitive thing about these solutions is that building a dupe for each 2* before the main is done requires another 1k HP, which isn't realistic for most people who are 3* to 4* transitioners or even for the 4* to 5* transitioners.

Waiting the 2 weeks after hitting 144 to get 13 covers is more viable, but as of late even that hasn't worked. In fact, with 2* Bullseye, in 2 weeks after hitting 144 I was only able to get ONE purple cover. I sold him and rostered at 1/5/5 and hoped that before the remaining green and black covers expired I would get the additional two purples I needed. I ended up having to roster a second 0/5/5 dupe so that the covers wouldn't expire. Absolutely atrocious. I should've just done the former method at that rate.

If you've got the HP, yeah, roster a dupe before maxing. (This is what I do for 3* because they are much less farmable.) The latter method is less cost prohibitive, but you're always taking a risk of covers expiring.

From the champ rewards and selling off the champ 2*'s, you stand to make around 4500 HP. Its really worth it and yes it will take some roster space but in the end, you are better off doing it.

I also much prefer getting a 2* to 144, building the dupe, sell the 144 and re-champ immediatly. Much less tempting to spend the iso on something else that way.