Saving consumables

pixel_player602466310

How much does everyone save up in consumables? And what do you use them for?

BlameTheParrot

pixel_player602466310
My Diggy has no willpower and only has about 150,000 saved up near the end of Scandinavia. I'm going to hang out awhile & save up more so I can use the food storage for large tiles in China or
the Challenge locations.

I just started a new DA game, hoping to be much more strategic in my equipment building and food storage. I'd like to have a few million saved up by the time I hit China, but we shall see...

I know the other moderators have 4 million + in food & not have to touch it to complete challenges, etc. I'm assuming the strategy is to use it if needed in China+.

gamemaster

pixel_player602466310
As mentioned above i have now over 5 million in food and haven't touched any for months.
Someone mentioned a while back they had over 19 million.
I just play to the energy i get per day and has been enough to easily complete the events and do Christmas 2015 at the same time.
I would use them for if i was running out of time for an event/s to complete anything i needed or to clear the locations for the bonus experience rewards ( only with older events where it's worth it for the 10x reward ).
In the early stages i would use some to take out bigger tiles like rubies.

Alex_Clover

pixel_player602466310 I pretty much have the same strategy as @gamemaster. I am at the very end of Scandinavia and would only have to break about a dozen tiles to open up China. I am hesitating until I accumulate between 10 and 20 million in Food Energy. The Energy Requirement to clear all the Mines in China is close to 40 million, so I would like to have somewhat close to half that in Food before I begin on that Region.

How much a player should have as ready Energy really comes down to how the player wants to play the game. I am not in a hurry and have things to occupy my time other than the game, so storing up Energy as Food without touching it isn't too difficult unless I need it to finish an Event that is running towards ending soon. I have my Day Mode on my PSS set to around +14,000 per hour and that is sufficient to take care of enough tiles for playing the way I want to play, which is more or less as a distraction. Players who want to continuously play non-stop, however, are going to want to use up their Energy as they make it, which is fine but leaves them in the lurch when they need some extra Energy for breaking larger value tiles. It also has them making some Food items on a regular basis that would better serve them if made during a Double Production Week. I try to take as much advantage of the Special Weeks as possible to build up reserves and my Camp, so will hold off on using up Materials whenever I can until then.

AllMenAreIslands

I just started a conscious effort to save food and now have 104,000.

I find I still do use some when I am playing and want to complete a section, or find out what is behind a door I just opened. But by and large my goal is to gradually increase my store of food. I am not even half-way done in Scandinavia so there is plenty of time to continue to increase my holdings while still giving myself permission to use some for extra energy here and there.

Pauljp

I have over 10 million. I don't know what I am saving them for. I am just so used to making food and playing with the energy that accumulates during the day that I never need to use them. The only time I will touch it is when I am close to leveling up or I really want to finish a level for some reason. Anyway, that's my story.

AllMenAreIslands

It's been 15 months since I started making the effort to make food and not eat it all up immediately. I do use it sometimes, too, but I have managed to amass a respectable 4,081,560 in food.

Pauljp

Well, 2 posts later since I posted on Oct '19 and I am now at 25,591,053 in saved energy. I am currently in Greece in the Hades map. I don't move ahead until I have completed all tasks in every room. I don't know if there is anything else past this stage. It doesn't look like it.
I enjoy the special scenes like Christmas or Halloween and such. I have no idea what I am going to use this stored energy on, hopefully something special will come along.

AllMenAreIslands

Pauljp you've done really well! 25 million seems impossible to me, but given a few years, who knows? I might reach that too.

I use the backpack food a lot, so my progress is much slower. However, I today got to a new level of 7,008,727 in stored food energy. I am constantly cooking something. I just usually eat a fair bit too.

psymann

The main reason for saving energy seems to be to help complete events before the time is up. In which case saving energy when you're not in the middle of an event, and using it in the event, works nicely.

But if you don't need it for events, then it doesn't make sense to keep loads stored (other than just because you like to collect it and complete on the forum for who has the most!), because it gradually devalues over time.

For me at my low level, having only started recently, it takes me half an hour to make as much energy as a Berry Cake at 450 energy. But a week ago, it took me about an hour and a half to make that 450 energy. So a Berry Cake now is worth 30 mins production, but last week was worth 90 mins production. So it was three times more valuable last week as it made more of a difference and helps me increase my level and gain materials to access better equipment.

In which case collecting energy items just so they can devalue compared to your daily production doesn't seem helpful. Better to use it up straight away to help gain better camp equipment, unless you want/need to save some for events, I think?

AllMenAreIslands

psymann hmm. I remember when making Berry Cake was so amazing! I ate most of my food in those days.

But the two sources of energy are different: apples and oranges. The amount of energy you can produce /set up to be produced by the game, is a function of how long you will be away from the game. If you are going to work every day, then in the a.m. you would use up your overnight energy, leave the game set for "night mode" while at work, and only switch to "day mode" for evening gameplay.

The food you cook would be similarly chosen. Two rounds of 8 hour recipes, then 30 minute or 1 hour recipes while playing in the evenings.

As better recipes come along, like me, you would make a variety of foods depending on ingredient availability and timing for next check-in. The fact that new equipment comes along doesn't change or devalue the food you can make.

I look at it this way: which food item shall I make given how much time before I will check on my game? Also, what is best item to cook out of the many choices I have? I can make 30 minute Kung pao chicken which gives me 900 energy, or I can make 30 minute Olive Pate which gives me 1500 energy. I could make 6 olive pate, or 4x olive pate plus 2x 30 minute Greek lemonade which give 1300 energy each.These days I don't make 30 minute Bowl of Rice as it only gives 550 energy. But I made a huge number of them a long time ago, worth over 1 million just for them.

Overnight, I used to make lots of 8-hour Lobster tail for 3600 each. Now I use those ingredients and make 6 x Sea Soup that give me 16000 energy each.

The value of the recipe is based on what is available to you and how soon you can get back to your game to harvest it. 450 energy points will always be worth 450, whether you use it this hour, next day or next year. When you can cook something worth more, choose the best time to do so. 4300 Lemon Cupcake takes 4 hours to bake!

psymann

AllMenAreIslands But you're kind of answering a different question.

You're talking about what energy to make in the kitchen - and all your points are great.

But I'm talking about when to eat that food. The main options being either (a) eat it immediately, or (b) eat it later.

There are many people saving it for ages, which has a few valid reasons - previously mentioned by a few people, to finish an event if you're running out of time, and Chani just suggested to race through the start of a region to reach the repeatable locations, which is a neat idea.

Aside from those - if you already have enough natural energy income to do the events, then aside from Chani's suggestion to race through the start of a region, there are not many other reasons to save.

But there are reasons to use it. Because it devalues. It's like saving $1 from 1920 - back then it was probably enough to buy you a week's worth of food, but now it'll only buy you half a cup of coffee. Yes, it's still worth $1 either way, but the value of that $1 changes due to inflation.

Yes, my Berry Cake will always be worth 450. But early in the game, when it takes me an hour and a half to make that amount on my own, that's pretty valuable. When I posted previously it took me thirty minutes to make that same energy on my own, and now it takes fifteen minutes. What that means is that the value of a Berry Cake has decreased because it's not worth as much, due to the inflation caused by the improvements to your camp equipment. When you've been playing for three days, one Berry Cake is a huge amount that can clear you half a level, increase your experience and get you significantly closer to more camp equipment. When you've been playing for three years, that Berry Cake is a drop in the ocean and you'd hardly notice it. So if you use it straight away, it' valuable. If you save it for three years, it's practically worthless. Even though it is indeed always worth 450.

It's completely independent of how long it takes to make the Berry Cake in the kitchen. The comparison is how many minutes' of energy production it's worth, same as how many minutes' income that $1 is worth. Back when you earned a dollar in a day, $1 is really valuable. When you now $10 in an hour, that $1 is a lot less valuable. Pretty pointless saving on to it when you could have invested it (in camp equipment!) ;-)

psy

Chani

other reasons to save up food:

winter builder or some other energy-heavy event is coming and you want to get lots of stuff from it
to race through the beginning of a region to reach the repeatables
to race through the end of a region, either because you're bored of it or to reach the next one before a certain event starts

My intention was to keep a 5M energy buffer for the first reason + emergencies, and build up a buffer for the other two mid-region, but in practice I can barely manage to spend the food I'm making these days - which is a good thing, I'm well enough to be busy IRL, but I'm thinking maybe I should set aside some evenings to pour food into NW. 🙂

Oh, and I do wish I'd used up some of the egypt food entirely, not because of what it's worth, but because it's in such small increments, and on mobile the only options are to eat a food one piece at a time or all of it at once. I have 6733 apple pies, worth 403980 energy - taking that much in one bite would mean no regen until I'd used half of it (in night mode), but clicking a button a thousand times to get 6k of energy is... not gonna happen.

AllMenAreIslands

psymann thank you for expanding your point. I see what you mean about using it right away when it matters.

The takeaway is: use it up right away if it makes a difference. Saving some for later rather than eating it all immediately because "worth less later" is not a great reason. I still have some low value food items in my 7 million worth of food. Am currently trying to build Sea Soup (16,000 per soup) up to 2 million worth, presently at 1.6 million. That will be the base amount I won't go below. I have over a million in Bowl of Rice. Plus loads of other items.

I regularly consume food when I want to complete something. I will take one from each item except my coffee table items that were big prizes of 20,000 or higher. Taking one from the others uses them up slowly, and gives a good chunk of energy to polish off a mine or do some special event.

I think it makes a difference on whether you need the food to enjoy your session. When you can save something for later, you build a reserve that enables you to tackle large challenge mines, or get a big tile without raising your day camp to over 33,000 (sapphire) or over 50,000 (Diamond) for example.

Pauljp

Well since my last post in Dec 2020 I went from 25 million in consumables to over 43 million.
I don't know why I am saving it, I guess it is just the way I play and when they give you the X2 consumables then it really adds up fast.
I guess I will stick to the status quo and see how far it goes.

pixel_player98910970

I never used to save my food until I couldn't finish a big energy consuming Christmas event with something like 8 of the 15,000 energy blocks a bonus location. That was a hard year! It really upset me that I couldn't finish the event. Now I save up all my food and I spent about a million in food just for the spring postcards last week. I'm have a little over 9,000,000 energy in food stored up and because it's a double week I've made back the million I used last week.

dnar

I believe that you really should think about your food buffer in terms of "time". That is, if it takes you 1 day to make 20000 energy, then 20000 worth of food is worth "1 day".
The reason for thinking about it like this is that it automatically handles the devaluing that occurs due to increasing equipment and moving regions.
For example, someone earlier said they are saving 25M in energy. As that person improves their camp equipment, they'll find that buffer doesn't seem as, um, "buffery" as it was before. But if 25M is 1 week's worth of food generation today, then as they increase their equipment by say 10%, they'll also increase their buffer to 27.5M and it will feel the same.