As a new player (just opened Tide Pool Lagoon this morning) I have been spending way too much money on buying more cards. I can rip through 75K coins in nothing. I want the tiki. I want the bonus card. I want the round. I try to stick to doing it only if there are 2 -3 cards left (but not always succcessful at that!). Trying a “no more cards” experiment and I notice:
sometimes it can be finished in one round
sometimes I spend as much on replay as if I’d just bought more cards, even 2 or 3 times (which gets expensive but it finishes the level)
What have more experienced players found for individual strategies?
Avoid buying cards! It’s so much cheaper to just replay the level over and over, it can get frustrating not being able to pass 1 level, I’ve been the alot. It is impossible to regain coins you lose using the buy more option.
Thank you Tracy. Buying more cards definitely eats coins. You’re right. I totally have found that out the hard way. It’s so easy to poke that button (i play on a phone). So you never, ever buy more coins?
TriPeaksDaisy - thank you. I think I saw your recommendation on this on another post, along with a screen shot of yours. Since I’ve found the overwhelming recommendation to be don’t buy more cards, I’ve stopped doing that and wow, it really has made a difference in the coin amounts. On the other hand, my red stars aren’t accumulating quite as fast! I’ve been using free plays for some of the levels (I’ll pay for tributes) and the few times I’ve succumbed to more cards, even with one or two non-sequential cards left, I’ve noticed I often go into the 2nd buy and still need a 3rd, at which point I decline, further reinforcing my new policy in accordance with wise advice like yours. Thank you.
I’m not an experienced player, as I’ve been playing only 2.5 months, but I also read about the no buy more coins strategy and after testing it for a while… Didn’t like it. Just too slow for red stars and more importantly meeting club points and quests requirements efficiently time wise.
The repeated playing besides actually sucking up time is also a money pit on those crappy levels. 3K coins to win 500 is a net loss of 2.5k. Meanwhile paying 6000 to potentially get anywhere from 2500 to 3300 coins (completion plus time bonus) results in a net loss of 2700 to 3500 plus your red stars and win games quests and tributes bonuses. The net opportunity cost is really 200 to 1k to gain red stars and 96 club points and any prorated awards from quests, From that perspective it’s a no brainer for me to buy more. Of course the key word is “potentially”.
So given the above thought process, I now restrict a single use buy more to loosely be for clearing out the final card or a final pair of connectors (56, JQ, etc) AND when the various perks that reduce the buy more cost are met. Outside of that qualifier, then for a full cost buy more, it’ll have to used to win a level that is for both tributes and gains ar least 2 red stars (4 with a red star booster). If I’m playing a free play, I am willing to extend it to 2 uses of buy more, but I have to be “feeling it” and 3 red stars (6 with booster) should be in play.
Lastly I’ll single use it randomly when I’m in a what the heck mood and I really go to town when my daily bonus streak is 30 minutes of momo.
FF2017 makes a lot of sense. I didn’t buy any new cards, for any reason, for about a week.
But like Ff2017, I found I was sometimes wasting money and time on the replays, not to mention the stars and points, etc. I’ve modified that “never” to “under certain conditions,” such as one card left or two sequential cards. Maybe two cards left if I need the stars, the points, or I got the streak star (on one of those tough ones) or some other reason. But so far, I have never bought cards more than once / level play. It’s that increase in the cost that nails you, and admittedly, as a beginner, I was making the huge beginner mistake: poke poke poke at that “buy more cards” and my coin level dropped accordingly.
So as a side to my original question - how many people pretty much always use a booster of some sort on every level - especially if you’re a "don’t-buy-more-cards person? Just into my second month of playing, I’m finding into Turtle Cove that it’s impossible to do nothing, use nothing, and finish a level. It’s volcano, or wilds or shark hook or buy more cards - sometimes more than one booster. I’ve begun to always play a new level bare once or twice just to see what’s needed to nail it. I suspect some levels won’t ever clear with anything short of a volcano.
You will eventually get to where you don’t need to use anything extra on most of these. I never thought I would get past certain levels. One level I spent over 3 months on! Now, I use my boosters sparingly unless I’m on a mission to complete that last Perk lol
Laurel_T is correct. I had the same issue as you Jujubee6. However once my first team ( that I joined in the wood league that capped out as a top 25 gold team) collapsed and I joined a platinum/diamond team, the phrase “the rich get richer” really comes to mind.
Getting all six perks by Monday (and Perk 6 by Sunday) vs 4 perks by Wednesday (and never the 5th perk) has turned out to be huge difference maker such that instead of blowing by the boosters, you only save them for… Well I’m saving them for a run to diamond red stars league, but mostly use buy more instead of the boosters. I only use boosters on those levels where using 1 or 2 boosters turns a level from hard to easy and also pick up a streak star and tributes. Levels that go from hard to less hard or stay hard (cards that stack like 4 or 5 deep at the end). I move on. And by boosters, I mean the standard 3. Wave breakers are a whole nother thing.
Some levels only serve one purpose, a road block to other levels, once you complete it, You never go back unless for tributes.
Volcanos I should now only use when clearing a tough new level, which doesn’t occur because i temporarily stopped at level 217, so I use it more on a whim basis now just to enjoy it. but once again it’s another resource I’m saving as my criteria for more than 1 use of the volcano a week is never.
I have found that coins have become less of an issue when you’re on a good team. Now the problem is that play is less leisurely due to issues of quota, but quotas are also a lot easier because you get the benefits of perks much earlier. So net net same amount of time spent playing, better results. Better results being more club points and either higher red star league or easier to maintain red star league status.
Usually best to not buy more cards unless only 1 card left. And even then, may not get it. 3 years ago, this was a much better game. They’ve made so many changes, stacking the cards against you, it’s just lost it’s appeal for me. I was on a top 10 team going for 80k plus for almost 2 years until a couple of weeks ago. But the time you now have to spend in here to win points has become ridiculous. I’m on a minimum goal team now. Gotta tell ya, less stressful and don’t have to worry about letting a top rank team down. We do have lives. They’ve gotten very greedy and are destroying the game.
Laurel: I’m curious what you mean. Are you saying you don’t use any boosters? That seems inconceivable (to me, at this point anyway…). And three months on one level? As in a number? Or a location? If it’s a number, that takes patience to a whole new level…(she said admiringly LOL) So you just persistently kept at it with…free plays, 30 min free play, provided boosters, etc? Do we have a FB group or is just club chat? Really loving the club. Thanks again for inviting me. (Judi)
I was ready to give up more than once! I hadn’t thought about a fb page yet. That’s a great idea!
I use the boosters sparingly. There are days when I really want to win them all though and use them like I have unlimited lol