I agree it is not possible to be maxed without spending money. I started playing after 2 weeks so tag behind a bit. I'm close to player lvl 45. Need one more farm upgrade, 4 storage, tents are lvl7 and didn't bother with outpost. I bought 2 bundels with full supplies (bit to soon) and we got one free full supply on new years gift. So i'm still about 15 million short. But i'm glad i'm not maxed out.
Thanks all for replies. Just going off the status of my camp i could just imagine the level of dedication it would take to max your camp without buying. If i put that much effort into playing the game, i would probably get a little upset if i was called liar or cheater. Has been an interesting discussion.
@Mizifuu I think tha @zoson was trying to point out that you only added in the cost of the final upgrade or upgrades for the buildings. To determine the actual cost you'd need to determine the cumulative cost of all upgrades.
There is no reliable way to figure out how many supplies could have been earned since release...but I feel confident that if you had focused on supply runs vs challenges, you could have collected a very large amount.
I know that I had my camp maxed prior to the last two council upgrade, but that was based on several full supply bundles. My camp is maxed again now without addition supplies to assist, but I have used tons of gold to aid in XP collection which results in some share of "purchased supplies" as well.
I don't know if it is possible to be truly maxed yet without spending. I'd not rule it out if and individual were utterly focused on supply runs instead of challenges, gear, and XP. But I'd take the bet that the number of maxed, free players is very low.
Just so there is no confusion over what I mean by maxed, I'm talking there is no building left to upgrade and I can't collect supplies from farms, missions, chests, camp walkers. It's actually an unfortunate position to be in, so why race for it?
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The Undying Suvivalist--Founding Member and Prezident of the Empty Memorial Club
2725 Deadly Missions Completed Prior to the End of The Deadly Era
Nightmare Club Member--All 14 Episodes of Story Complete on Nightmare Mode (lvl 19 survivors)
Impossible to have a maxed camp without spending a dime.I am thinking about buying my first bundle for 2.99 just for the supplies and can honestly say I have at least 8 to 10 hours in since approx a week or 2 after it came out...I bust my ass on this game just trying to beat it the old school way..there is no way even if I didn't sleep eat or anything..gold is a hot commodity without buying it.no way to pay for gas, or boxes but free movies and the theater.very long grueling process and crazy hours farming with no challenges done untill the recent weeks where I can earn boxes to try for legendary weapons..I am sure I have made some mistakes along the way in my building process but even if all was perfectly distributed throughout all the buildings and farms I am still hard pressed to believe it would be possible by any person to max out a camp without dropping money in somewhere along the way. I have made level 42 so far..and worked very, very hard for more hours spent into a game than I even want to think about for something I am not getting paid to do..but I love the damn game as much as it totally frustrates me with how long everything takes..
As another "notably one of the most technical and accomplished players in the community," I say it is possible.
been thinking about it and it might be, if you did no challenges and ONLY farmed tomatoes for 6 months. But i don't think i could do 6 months of grinding.
I am not max-ed on every building, but am lev 46 overall. My max-ed buildings are: Council, Training Grounds, Workshop, Outpost, Radio Tent, Mission Car, Farms ([email protected] lev 10) and Supplies Storage ([email protected] lev 9). Not yet max-ed are a single Supplies Storage (@ lev 8), Hospital (lev 6), Outpost (Lev 4) and Walker Pit (lev 4).
I started playing in early Nov, and also took a 3 week break in Feb, so had I played throughout, max-ing all the buildings would have been easily possible. As it is, I haven't spent a cent of r/l money on the game. I also do not use macros to generate extra xp overnight.
The strategies I used are simple and are as follows:
1) Grind food. 95+% of your gasoline should be used on food exploration missions. The rest on story missions. For the last 4 weeks or so that figure has dropped to only about 35% as my building levels hit their ceilings. But until then, grind food.
2) Save xp for leveling up your survivors. The higher level your survivors, the more food you get from the exploration missions.
3) Generally speaking don't bother leveling up your weapons. The one exception is that its nice to have a warrior weapon with an expanded arc. No need to get a weapon with the gold arc improvement - even the lowest arc improvement will give your warrior a 180 degree damage arc which is sufficient.
4) Keep your survivor team small. This reduces the need to for xp dramatically. Initially I used 2 scouts and a bruiser. Later that morphed to 3 warriors, 2 hunters and a bruiser. Of those the warriors get used 95% of the time. But you need the hunters for certain story missions.
5) Radios - I use the 1 Radio call overwhelmingly. You get lots of xp that way. And you are leveling up so fast that it's pointless to invest a ton of time/xp on a legendary survivor that will only be up to date for another 2 levels. BTW, on the last Radio event, I spent 400 radios using the 1 call method. I got 1 legendary (lev 8 max 18) and 1 epic (lev 10, max 18). And about 1.6 million xp. I also spent 150 radios using the 5 call method. I got 4-5 epic survivors. Meh.
6) Gold - resist the urge to use it. Wait until after you upgrade your Council. Then during that period of time when the Council is upgrading, blitz your way to getting enough food so you can immediately upgrade your Training Grounds as soon as the Council is finished upgrading. Do this by using gold to refill your mission car with gas. Not only is using gold for gas the best bang for your buck, getting your Training Grounds up and running as fast as possible gets you to the next tier of exploration missions as fast as possible - which gets you more food.
7) Be efficient with your r/l time. Grinding can be tedious. Don't make it more so by engaging in activities with low benefit/time ratios. Using hunters on exploration missions so you can kill 5-8 extra walkers is an example of engaging in a really low benefit/time activity. You are better off simply going to the Movie Theatre and watching ads. And I'm pretty sure most of us view that is a poor use of r/l time (I certainly do).
A lot of the above strategies change as you hit the level cap. I now have multiple legendary/epic survivors. And I spend more time now on upgrading weapons, for example. But during that period of time when my survivors were going from level 5 to 16, my core team was 3 warriors each of the two star variety, equipped with whatever swords were available that has an arc improvement available in the first (or at worst second) improvement. Keep it simple - because all of the survivors and weapons are disposable and WILL be disposed of within a few weeks at most.
Finally, I should mention that I never used any over leveled characters. I didn't recognize their value in boosting your grinding rate, and I actually discarded all but one of the ones I got. If overleveled characters were still available, I'd adjust some of the above strategies, but nowadays there is even less reason to invest heavily in elite survivors until you hit the level cap. Just grind food and use 2 star survivors.
If you have maxed for free you need to seek medical help.
Having been an advocate for the ability to play this game for free I don't believe it is now possible to max for free. Before the last update I was close to maxed with a $50 spend. Started the game in November, my strategy has been to play tomato missions and have only played challenge missions since TG was introduced. I maxed my farms straight after council and set timers/ reminders so I clear the farms for maximum production. During to 2 fuel events fuel I generated well over 3million tomatoes.
The flaw with just grinding food is it would gimp your survivors and equipment so badly that you would be stuck being unable to progress the story. That, in turn, gimps your ability to earn more food from the later exploration missions. And, as mentioned by others, it wouldn't be fun.
It's part of good game design to keep the goal tangible but actually out of reach. That's how you keep people coming back and playing. If you think it's possible without spending cash, you've been fooled by good game design.
If you have maxed for free you need to seek medical help.
Ah, the stock Internet "you did something I couldn't therefore you must be sick" response. Internez, technology changes, but you always remain the same. LOL.
Nowadays, every three hours I do three exploration missions, which take a minute each of real time. Sometimes I do a fourth mission if I get a gasoline drop. So all told, I play this game about 20 minutes a day. Add another 10 minutes a day waiting for that damn "reconnecting" message to go away. Once a week or so while watching TWD, I will "clean the attic" and scrap unused weapons/armor. NML is a casual game and I treat it as such. Keeps things in perspective. It's totally possible to max (or near max) your buildings with such a schedule, particularly now that it seems as if Council upgrades will only occur once every other month.
The flaw with just grinding food is it would gimp your survivors and equipment so badly that you would be stuck being unable to progress the story.
All the way up to when I had level 16 characters, I never had a problem staying 2 levels above my max survivor level on the story missions (i.e. doing lev 18 story missions). So no, your survivors are NOT gimped. Now admittedly, there was a period there when I had lev 16 survivors, and 16 was the level max. I think the gas event occurred at the same time and so I was able to max several weapons (lev 16 upgraded to 19). That probably did help me with the lev 18 missions. But from level 5 to 15? 98% of my gasoline was spent on food exploration and story missions. Once outposts were introduced I'd do one of those a day. Xp exploration missions? Absolutely not. That's what radios were for. And keep in mind that with today's game lacking overleveled characters, you have even less incentive to develop elite survivors/gear. The bottom line is that if your top survivors right now are level 10, and you want to do level 18 content as soon as possible, the fastest strategy to accomplish that is to grind food.
Right, but you were never maxed out. and survivor level has NOTHING to do with being maxed out on buildings. Also +2 isn't impressive. I managed +3 and +4 through most of the story. So yes, your survivors were gimped.
Zoson, I explicitly stated what level my buildings were at, but nice strawman attempt to claim I said otherwise. As far as "gimped" characters go, I'd much rather focus on getting gimped 2 star survivors two levels above a maxed out legendary toon. In particular consider the example I posed of a player with level 10 survivors that wants to reach higher level story missions as soon as possible. Your strategy would be to use your radios to get 4/5 star survivors, level them up, level up gear and then hit level 14 story missions. My strategy would be to push buildings so I can get level 12 survivors and then do the same content. And initially it might occur at about the same time. But then that same player will want to do level 16 story missions. So now you will have to build the same buildings I've already built. In the time it takes you to do so, I'll be grinding at two levels higher on exploration missions, getting more food from my bigger farms and will be able to push my buildings at about the same rate that you do. Except that once you get your buildings up to accommodate level 12 survivors, you still need to get a whole new set of maxed out gear. Very rapidly the focus on elite survivor/gear strategy falls behind the push buildings strategy. The proof is in the pudding - I didn't play the game for over a month of its existence, I never spent r/l money and I don't macro. And I still have a full roster of 4 star survivors (with a sprinkling of 5 and 2 star ones), am at level 46.7 overall on my camp.
The bottom line is this: different people will want to play the game different ways. The OP asked how far players who don't spend r/l money have progressed in the game. I gave him a method to rapidly progress without spending r/l money and with a modest investment of r/l time. If you want to play a different way, have at it. I certainly don't begrudge or look down on anyone who wants to spend a few bucks to enhance their enjoyment of this game. But if nothing else than for your own mental well being you need to respect others that use strategies different than your own rather than going through a difficult process of denial ("you would be stuck unable to progress the story"), anger ("your survivors were gimped") before getting to acceptance (when you pay $3 to fill your food buffer and use than food to improve your farms, that will be acceptance).
Comments
I started playing after 2 weeks so tag behind a bit.
I'm close to player lvl 45. Need one more farm upgrade, 4 storage, tents are lvl7 and didn't bother with outpost. I bought 2 bundels with full supplies (bit to soon) and we got one free full supply on new years gift. So i'm still about 15 million short. But i'm glad i'm not maxed out.
There is no reliable way to figure out how many supplies could have been earned since release...but I feel confident that if you had focused on supply runs vs challenges, you could have collected a very large amount.
I know that I had my camp maxed prior to the last two council upgrade, but that was based on several full supply bundles. My camp is maxed again now without addition supplies to assist, but I have used tons of gold to aid in XP collection which results in some share of "purchased supplies" as well.
I don't know if it is possible to be truly maxed yet without spending. I'd not rule it out if and individual were utterly focused on supply runs instead of challenges, gear, and XP. But I'd take the bet that the number of maxed, free players is very low.
Just so there is no confusion over what I mean by maxed, I'm talking there is no building left to upgrade and I can't collect supplies from farms, missions, chests, camp walkers. It's actually an unfortunate position to be in, so why race for it?
The Undying Suvivalist--Founding Member and Prezident of the Empty Memorial Club
2725 Deadly Missions Completed Prior to the End of The Deadly Era
Nightmare Club Member--All 14 Episodes of Story Complete on Nightmare Mode (lvl 19 survivors)
I started playing in early Nov, and also took a 3 week break in Feb, so had I played throughout, max-ing all the buildings would have been easily possible. As it is, I haven't spent a cent of r/l money on the game. I also do not use macros to generate extra xp overnight.
The strategies I used are simple and are as follows:
1) Grind food. 95+% of your gasoline should be used on food exploration missions. The rest on story missions. For the last 4 weeks or so that figure has dropped to only about 35% as my building levels hit their ceilings. But until then, grind food.
2) Save xp for leveling up your survivors. The higher level your survivors, the more food you get from the exploration missions.
3) Generally speaking don't bother leveling up your weapons. The one exception is that its nice to have a warrior weapon with an expanded arc. No need to get a weapon with the gold arc improvement - even the lowest arc improvement will give your warrior a 180 degree damage arc which is sufficient.
4) Keep your survivor team small. This reduces the need to for xp dramatically. Initially I used 2 scouts and a bruiser. Later that morphed to 3 warriors, 2 hunters and a bruiser. Of those the warriors get used 95% of the time. But you need the hunters for certain story missions.
5) Radios - I use the 1 Radio call overwhelmingly. You get lots of xp that way. And you are leveling up so fast that it's pointless to invest a ton of time/xp on a legendary survivor that will only be up to date for another 2 levels. BTW, on the last Radio event, I spent 400 radios using the 1 call method. I got 1 legendary (lev 8 max 18) and 1 epic (lev 10, max 18). And about 1.6 million xp. I also spent 150 radios using the 5 call method. I got 4-5 epic survivors. Meh.
6) Gold - resist the urge to use it. Wait until after you upgrade your Council. Then during that period of time when the Council is upgrading, blitz your way to getting enough food so you can immediately upgrade your Training Grounds as soon as the Council is finished upgrading. Do this by using gold to refill your mission car with gas. Not only is using gold for gas the best bang for your buck, getting your Training Grounds up and running as fast as possible gets you to the next tier of exploration missions as fast as possible - which gets you more food.
7) Be efficient with your r/l time. Grinding can be tedious. Don't make it more so by engaging in activities with low benefit/time ratios. Using hunters on exploration missions so you can kill 5-8 extra walkers is an example of engaging in a really low benefit/time activity. You are better off simply going to the Movie Theatre and watching ads. And I'm pretty sure most of us view that is a poor use of r/l time (I certainly do).
A lot of the above strategies change as you hit the level cap. I now have multiple legendary/epic survivors. And I spend more time now on upgrading weapons, for example. But during that period of time when my survivors were going from level 5 to 16, my core team was 3 warriors each of the two star variety, equipped with whatever swords were available that has an arc improvement available in the first (or at worst second) improvement. Keep it simple - because all of the survivors and weapons are disposable and WILL be disposed of within a few weeks at most.
Finally, I should mention that I never used any over leveled characters. I didn't recognize their value in boosting your grinding rate, and I actually discarded all but one of the ones I got. If overleveled characters were still available, I'd adjust some of the above strategies, but nowadays there is even less reason to invest heavily in elite survivors until you hit the level cap. Just grind food and use 2 star survivors.
Having been an advocate for the ability to play this game for free I don't believe it is now possible to max for free.
Before the last update I was close to maxed with a $50 spend.
Started the game in November, my strategy has been to play tomato missions and have only played challenge missions since TG was introduced. I maxed my farms straight after council and set timers/ reminders so I clear the farms for maximum production. During to 2 fuel events fuel I generated well over 3million tomatoes.
It's part of good game design to keep the goal tangible but actually out of reach. That's how you keep people coming back and playing. If you think it's possible without spending cash, you've been fooled by good game design.
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The bottom line is this: different people will want to play the game different ways. The OP asked how far players who don't spend r/l money have progressed in the game. I gave him a method to rapidly progress without spending r/l money and with a modest investment of r/l time. If you want to play a different way, have at it. I certainly don't begrudge or look down on anyone who wants to spend a few bucks to enhance their enjoyment of this game. But if nothing else than for your own mental well being you need to respect others that use strategies different than your own rather than going through a difficult process of denial ("you would be stuck unable to progress the story"), anger ("your survivors were gimped") before getting to acceptance (when you pay $3 to fill your food buffer and use than food to improve your farms, that will be acceptance).