[Notes] Failed forum article ( Alchemy Lab as a deliberate food sink )

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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Subject
[Notes] Failed forum article ( Alchemy Lab as a deliberate food sink )

Click for Help me not build Alchemy Lab in my Empires retirement

[Discussion] Help me not build Alchemy Lab in my Empires retirement

Help

Forum users, you are my only hope.

Edit:
Writing this forum article showed me that Alchemy Lab is just … not optimal for my needs.

Background

I have retired from Empires, so my food needs are very low on my main account.

I still enjoy building my base, harpoons are awesome, and there is no good way to hoard iron. So my iron needs are either very low, or huge. Stronghold 21-23 and advanced buildings are weird.

I want the iron production from my Watchtower but not the food.

Hero Rant

Click for RNG paywall rant

I would love to level 4* heroes ( looking at you elusive Guardian Falcon), but I have no 4* heroes to level on my main account since I retired from war and 8* titans. Hopefully Season 3 will help ( or not looking at Beta Beat ).

I would love to level 5* heroes, but 4* ascension items are scarce without 8* titans.

I would love to level good HotM, but HotM are scarce.

I would love to level costumes, but I only have 3x costumes on my main account.

3* / 4* battle items

I would love to build 3* / 4* battle items, but required 3* / 4* ingredients is the problem.

Titan parts

I would love to build 5* battle items, but required iron, or titan parts, is the problem.

Troops

I would love to level troops, but lack of troops to level my troops is a problem.

Options

Lock Hoards

I could collect the iron and let the food sit in my Watchtower, but this locks my food hoard, and recruit hoard, since you need 300 k food space in food storage.

Lose iron

I could leave the iron uncollected until I have need of the food, but that loses a lot of iron since my food needs are so low.

Food sink

Watchtower ( level 20+ Season 1 unlocked ) produces 14,321 food per hour

Alchemy Lab
Level 1 uses 31,000 food per hour and 30x common herb

Level 2 uses 21,000 food per hour ( 42 k / 2 hours) and 7.5x Health 100 HP potions ( 15 / 2 hours )

Level 3 uses 19,000 food per hour ( 57 k / 3 hours ) and 8x Training manuals ( 24 / 3 hours)

Level 4 will not work at 10,500 food per hour ( 67 k / 6 hours ).

Level 2 seems to be the best since Forge can convert 1 common herb to 1 Health 100 HP potion, so effectively Level 2 would uses 7.5 common herb per hour.

Once I run out of common herbs to turn into Health 100 HP potions ( I need some common herbs for harpoons), I could run Level 3 to consume training manuals.

But it is only a temporary measure, as I will eventually run out of common herbs ( 43 days ) and training manuals ( 43 days ).

I would also have to use 7,341 k iron to build Alchemy Lab level 3 or 77.6 harpoons.

Stronghold 24

Alchemy Lab, and Hunter’s Lodge would be slightly easier to build, and use, if all 6x Advanced storages ( 3x iron, 3x food ) were unlocked instead of waiting for Stronghold 24.

Food to iron

I wish Alchemy Lab broke ingredients down into iron, or let me transform food to iron.

Other options

Is there another, overlooked option available to my main account.

Gameplay ?

I think all non rant articles go in Gamplay.

But this might also be considered an iron rant.

FIN

4 Likes
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Troop leveling is the best food sink that I’m aware of, but it is inherently finite because feeder troops are scarce as a free to play.

Beside that, I think the various stages of healing and mana potions are the next best options and do those after the common herbs / training manuals run out.

Are you farming stages on a consistent basis or just letting the world energy flags burn? If you’re consistently farming, then you’ll always have crafting mats to work with, so this isn’t as big of a concern.

If not, you could try storing it in a training camp, so long as your recruit income is adequate. Burning the excess food on TC19 is not an option since you have nobody to level, once the training “completes” there’s no way to add more until you collect them all, leaving that camp dead until you have the roster space.

Beyond that, the only way I know of to burn excess food is to start a raid and reroll until you’re out. This is tedious, however, since you can only burn 2300 per reroll. It’s slightly less tedious than making a bajillion minor healing potions (at 100 a pop) but would still take a while.

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Food sink

That is because 2* / 3* / 4* troops are so rare.

Food for troop leveling is not too bad with 2* / 3* troops.

Very similar to the problem with Extra fast training ( RT19 ) versus Uncommon ( RT02 ), see notes.

Retirement

Retired from Empires. Mostly hanging out in the forums.

Just using world energy when it is fun.

Stopped grinding map, and titans, for more useless junk like 1* training manuals and 2* wooden shields.

Alchemy Lab crushed any hope that Hero Academy would be worth building.

Notes

Click for notes

75% drops are 1* troops

Extra fast versus Uncommon

FIN

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Destroying Food

How to destroy Food, Iron and Recruits

(Guvs Guide! - Destroying Recruits to Retrieve Food! Updated with Destroy Food, Iron and 1* / 2* heroes - #14 by Gryphonknight)