I've only recently arrived in Scandinavia, but here's my take on it. I'm on mobile... the terms used on the PC version maybe different. Their terms kind of drive me crazy anyway, so here are my terms...
Green camp equipment -> Energy generation
Blue camp equipment - > Energy storage
Energy heartbeat -> The energy number is increasing
No heartbeat -> The energy number is capped out
Which one is the best to have the most of?
Over time you want to keep adding better and better camp equipment of BOTH types. Think more about what the next powerful items (of both colors) that make sense to add to your equipment, and know what resources you need to concentrate on to get them. For me it has become more about ANY strong piece of equipment becoming available... because there are definite spells when the equipment in the shop is only marginally better than what you already have.
I change my camp equipment balance based on roughly four scenarios:
(1) Overnight. My rough guess is that my overnight camp is roughly 80% blue, 20% green. But it depends on when I close the app for the night. If I close down at 9 pm I can use more blue/less green, and energy storage will cap out at a higher number. But if I close down at midnight, I've got to include more green than a 9 pm configuration, and energy storage will cap out at a lower number. Let's say I know I'll use the system again in about 9 hours. I always check the Energy Status drop-down "Full Energy Status In [hh.mm.ss]" to make sure my equipment balance roughly matches that duration. If it says 11 hours, I have to switch in more green. If it says 7 hours, I can switch in more blue.
(2) Actively playing with a high energy number (from a long duration away, or a level up, or energy reward).
I suppose this is ridiculous, but after I've used about half of it up I switch to roughly 20% blue (some energy storage number that is greater that the current available energy number so it's generating energy a smidgen faster).
(3) Actively playing with a fairly low energy number, but likely to use food.
For this scenario, my equipment balance is almost ALL green, but I leave in a couple of powerful blues. This is so I can eat some fish or apple pies and not exceed the current storage capacity. Because if I exceed it, it will stop generating new energy. I always want the energy heartbeat to be running. Otherwise it feels like a lost opportunity.
(4) Running on fumes. All food is gone.
Like you, energy-wise I cannot both complete a quest and clear its location with the max capacity I have available. I'm retired though, and sometimes when I'm close to clearing a location I'll actually sit and watch until the game has enough energy to break the next tile. In this scenario, my camp equipment is ALL GREEN. Storage caps out at 200. But there have been cases where the phone rings, or I go do laundry and forget that I'm at maxed at 200. One time I left for about 8 hours, and came back thinking this is great... I'll have 10,000 energy... I can do a quest. But I hadn't changed my camp over to blue, and I came home to find I only had 200 energy. The energy heartbeat had been dead for 8 hours. I wanted to kick myself.
I don't have the professor switch system. I don't have the gems for it. On the rare occasion when I actually have enough gems I use them to buy equipment. I don't think it takes all that long to manually switch over camp equipment.
Here are some tips:
EVERY THURSDAY... check the camp store "Special" tab for new equipment. They are mostly gem purchases--I never have enough gems for them--but there are usually one or two coin purchases. These are often great items.
DO THE PARTS OF THE SPECIAL EVENT LOCATIONS that are realistic for you. They are better at generating large amounts of coins, and the special items (Pirate Hook, Starfish, Magic Wand) let you use Coins to buy better camp equipment than you can usually get from the main game. I can usually clear most of the Special Event questline locations, but I can't usually clear any Challenge locations. But I do strip the Challenge locations of any special event items, treasure boxes, and resources that are reachable within my energy limits. I typically watch the Youtube play-throughs of the Challenge locations to figure out where to find the items I might want to grab for the least energy.
On those play-throughs I've seen people with unbelievable amounts of gems, food, etc. That doesn't match my reality at all. Perhaps they are developers and have ways to tweak those numbers. I have seen a site that advertises a utility that generates copious amounts of gems (100,000), but I didn't click that link. Perhaps you have seen people's systems that have used that. I'd just rather play the game as intended.
PLAN. I'm at level 109. There aren't any great blues until Level 115. But it's the Norse Iron Ore Cart and takes 15,000 Coins and 4,800 Iron Ore. Because I know about about that item now, I'm collecting all the Iron Ore I can find. Still 1,000 short.
So here are some files to help you plan. I added a post about this today elsewhere on the forum but I have no idea where it got posted.
Camp Equipment by Level - Word format
Camp Equipment by Level - PDF format (same file/different file format)
CONSIDER BUYING A PACKAGE OFFER ONCE IN A WHILE
I have spent about $20 on this game to get a few more powerful pieces of camp equipment. Considering that I've been playing since May or so, that's cheaper than a movie with popcorn. And I'm all for rewarding them for developing a great game. I never have bought gems though. There was an offer for a good Welcome to Scandinavia package that I wish now that I had purchased. But the day I was ready to buy, the package offer was gone.
Happy digging!
