All Aboard! Getting on the LL Train - A 4-to-5 Star Strategy

PhoenixMagik

What’s required for progression in PVE SCL 10? I’m trying for the first time tomorrow with Unstable ISO-8 and want to figure out at what point I know I need to champ my Kitty Pryde (would be the first 5 champ for me) or if my existing leveled roster (Polaris, Grocket, etc…) can carry me through progression. Sorry to ask a question that is surely answered somewhere within this forum.

Sekilicious

@PhoenixMagik said:
What’s required for progression in PVE SCL 10? I’m trying for the first time tomorrow with Unstable ISO-8 and want to figure out at what point I know I need to champ my Kitty Pryde (would be the first 5 champ for me) or if my existing leveled roster (Polaris, Grocket, etc…) can carry me through progression. Sorry to ask a question that is surely answered somewhere within this forum.

I put my thoughts on the subject here. https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/85252/scl10#latest. My first champ was Shang-Chi, but before that was handling progression in SCL10 with teams centred on Polaris, BRB, Kitty and Grocket. Get 1* Juggernaut and 4* Thanos to winfinite the harder nodes with Polaris and BRB. Kitty with 5 purple with Polaris and Grocket takes care of goons easily. I still use them sometimes. Progression is pretty easy to get at SCL10, even if you have trouble with the challenge and 5* nodes.

PiMacleod

Interesting that someone decided to give this style a name or label. I've been doing BASICALLY this since the days of Kitty/Loki/Cable.

My exception is that I use my CP on each and every new character CP-based store. It gives me pulls for the new person, and helps round out oldies that I may not have finished yet. If I have them finished, it's more 5* champ rewards, which are always nice.... not to mention levels for certain older good characters.

Of course, I understand the merit of just using CP on LLs as well. I've been doing pretty fine as is, though, and growing the old characters I was missing along the way.

Zarqa

I’d love some advice on how latest release stores play into the LL Train strategy.

I have 17 Hit Monkey, 12 Wong, 1 Kang, and 0 Magik covers. On the normal train I would wait until next rotation, pull for 1 Wong and then wait for the next rotation again to do a big pull to get Kang to 13. Magik and new 5 will likely be fairly covered through that big pull as well. All good according to the train strategy.

But I also like the Magik release store and wouldn’t mind some Colossus covers.

Is pulling from that store just icing on the cake? Will it get Magik way over-covered? When do I stop pulling from the release store, if I’m also on the train?

I guess that for any release store you have to decide how far you will pull for the new 5 star that is still not in rotation, while the train is hitting that 5 star not until two more stations (based on the ‘pull for next one out strategy’).

Is there a specific strategy for this?

Edit: If it matters, I gain about 100 total LL pulls each rotation and have 158 pulls saved now.

AdeptusRevolt

Nothing specific.

1) You can pull until you get the new 5, if you don't get a cover from a feeder for example
2) You can pull to a certain goal on a classic you want to get

But I would try to figure how many pulls you need to stay on the train and keep those in reserve, plus your expected income before the next rotation.

I pulled a little bit (~200 cp) in Magick's store, even though I had a cover for her from her feeder. Colossus and Kitty are Champed. I only need one cover for Wong, and have 4000 cp and 40 LL tokens so I'm pretty well stocked. So I figured why not?

I would pull deeper if some of my next classic targets to champ were featured - Knull, Crystal, Sersi, Hawkey, Halfthor, etc.

BoyWonder1914

I've never covered my 5s this way, I think the ones I have managed to champ have been from pure luck of cover distribution when I did decide to bust a hoard.

But the thing is - it seems you all are trivializing 250-300 pulls.....thats 6250-7500 CP. How are y'all hoarding that much CP? I'm lucky to make it to 1000 CP before I lose patience.

Also, what do you mean you get 2 covers from CL10 Progression, I'm counting 250 shards in the progression rewards? Are there certain nodes that give more shards/covers? I'm returning from a long break, so pardon my ignorance. I've been doing CL9 to just to get my feet wet again.

EDIT: Realized after typing this that I've been saving up CP but not Latest tokens, that'd probably help lol

Scofie

@BoyWonder1914 said:
I've never covered my 5s this way, I think the ones I have managed to champ have been from pure luck of cover distribution when I did decide to bust a hoard.

But the thing is - it seems you all are trivializing 250-300 pulls.....thats 6250-7500 CP. How are y'all hoarding that much CP? I'm lucky to make it to 1000 CP before I lose patience.

Also, what do you mean you get 2 covers from CL10 Progression, I'm counting 250 shards in the progression rewards? Are there certain nodes that give more shards/covers? I'm returning from a long break, so pardon my ignorance. I've been doing CL9 to just to get my feet wet again.

EDIT: Realized after typing this that I've been saving up CP but not Latest tokens, that'd probably help lol

I lose patience at 2500 CP now. It used to be 1000!

In CL10 progression, there are 850 4* shards ( 2 x 50 and 3 x 250) plus a cover. There are 250 5* shards in normal PvE but for every new release recently, 2 covers have been given out for max personal and alliance progression in Boss events (one each).

KGB

@BoyWonder1914 said:
I've never covered my 5s this way, I think the ones I have managed to champ have been from pure luck of cover distribution when I did decide to bust a hoard.

But the thing is - it seems you all are trivializing 250-300 pulls.....thats 6250-7500 CP. How are y'all hoarding that much CP? I'm lucky to make it to 1000 CP before I lose patience.

Also, what do you mean you get 2 covers from CL10 Progression, I'm counting 250 shards in the progression rewards? Are there certain nodes that give more shards/covers? I'm returning from a long break, so pardon my ignorance. I've been doing CL9 to just to get my feet wet again.

EDIT: Realized after typing this that I've been saving up CP but not Latest tokens, that'd probably help lol

In addition to what Scofie posted above (earning 2 covers from the boss event) you earn roughly 2 more covers from PvE by the time they rotate out (250 shards x 4 PvE events). That gives you 4 covers total.

Most 5* now come with a feeder so you can generally get at least 1 more cover there (L280) or more if it's a retro and your 4* is L300+.

That means you need about 8 covers from pulls. That's ~160 pulls (160x.15=24 covers. 24/3=8 per character) and that's been my experience for the last year or so.

KGB

gamecat235

The one item that has really helped with me for riding the train is resisting the urge to cash in my shards for covers. I’ve now been sitting on shards for Magik and Jeff for a bit, and I’ve just gotten used to seeing multiple 5’s in the Upgrade Ready filter.

But when you get to the end, having 1500+ shards waiting for you to help even out RNGesus evil hand it really helps with those last covers.

LongWarrior

@BoyWonder1914 said:
I've never covered my 5s this way, I think the ones I have managed to champ have been from pure luck of cover distribution when I did decide to bust a hoard.

But the thing is - it seems you all are trivializing 250-300 pulls.....thats 6250-7500 CP. How are y'all hoarding that much CP? I'm lucky to make it to 1000 CP before I lose patience.

Also, what do you mean you get 2 covers from CL10 Progression, I'm counting 250 shards in the progression rewards? Are there certain nodes that give more shards/covers? I'm returning from a long break, so pardon my ignorance. I've been doing CL9 to just to get my feet wet again.

EDIT: Realized after typing this that I've been saving up CP but not Latest tokens, that'd probably help lol

Just as you say in the Edit, the LL tokens cover a lot of ground. The formula for how many pulls you can manage is: (CP / 25) + LLs.

I recently decided to keep track and found I was earning about 10 LLs a week, And I only have roughly half the 4*s champed. I'm sure a more advanced roster could probably manage more.