WC, seems to me my standard clear time from landing was about 35-40 minute. Not very fast so typically I do not like it.
As I feel the only true loot reward drop is when grout drops. Which is a healthy amount, but not reliably enough for the clear time to satisfy me
When equal time spent elsewhere can produce better loot.
Actually that's not a mistake in the initial post, it is just inaccurate information.
What it is, is the speed run will drop the time to 25-30 minutes. But because I run them back to back and have that little bit of forced downtime between sending generals..
I'll have the next map started before I can do anything so it is kind of dead time.
I make use of this time, by setting up my sector nuke clear and drop shoes before heading back home.
so I was thinking of total run time when streaming these.
Making it viable to get 5'th activation within SP.
My main method would be to start clearing and attacking into sector 2 from landing.
This kills. The return run time is harsh.
I actually found it much better to nuke the leader in sector 2 immediately.
Have your speed boosted travel Boris reposition to backdoor the first leader.
He does get snagged and requires 2 separate sent attacks to clear.
This is still better. 2 camps not 3, and you are attacking from closer using only a single general while the rest run to bombard the back end.
Splitting attacks toward northeast leaders, and through all the camps leading through the mountain pass.
As your boris returns, move him up.
As the attacks toward the east clear, move them into the pass.
Once the leaders drop, move 4 to 5 generals into the last sector to do their rotating clear.
This split attention reduces run time and allows for a cleaner push.
Generals have 3 travel speeds.
Fastest when relocating.
"normal" when moving toward a camp.
Slightly faster than normal when travelling back from a camp, but less than relocation.
These can be affected equally by horse shoes.
The less distance dedicated to travel between camps. Is less inefficiency.
So nuke that sector 2 and jump up.
Bam.
For TOW yes, nuking the back end allows to split units to the back and start to clear that end.
What helps is knowing what army to send at the back to extend yourself.
There is a camp in the back end which calls for an OGG or Boris attack in either guide.
But this camp has only high hp normal strike units.
So I extend myself.
YGG are not used anywhere else in this map, STD is used on final boss, so happens to be effectively used in this split.
So I send out 3 1r YGG taps to this camp, allow time for tap. Send STD with full AS. cleared no loss.
This is cleaner than what guide calls for, and makes up for army count as I split their focus.
The main time waster on this map is actually sector 1.
Needing your generals to be below a certain line to attack properly limits how many attacks you can actually send.
Multiple camps rely on Vargus who has no substitute.
And then you can to run and clear camps 5-6-7, just to have them run back. Just to have them position forward.. just to have to time and spread out your attacks to avoid intercept.
So you can send the proper block and take out 2 leaders.. and then.. what? those generals that are clearing the front end should now be mirrored with the generals clearing the back end.
By the time these generals would reach the new frontline finals are sent.
So what do we do about this waste?
You guessed it. Pull out the nukes.
First sector has 3 leaders to kill.
the first and nearest camp 1 and 2 can clear normal and fast low loss.
Nuke camp 7 is easy as there are only 2 unit slots total. 1 bal for boss.
then assassin or wpp for other.
Middle boss camp 9 same method, takes 2 wpp.
So for nukes in total.
2 arrows for backend, 2 bal 3 wpp for front end.
This is not actually necessary though, as there is time requirement to run the long back end.
So I don't nuke the middle camp.
I just strong man him down with a fast army push and nuke camp 7.
In doing this I am able to reposition to take down sector 2 long before my troops land in the backend.
Continue to stream and push as fast as possible. Over time learning how to mix guides and sub in generals to just keep moving.
by the time sector 2 bosses are cleared, you will nearly be sending final attacks and reloading your quartermasters.
I have went from an approx 1.5 hour run on average.
To tweaking and growing and changing and adapting..
Bam 25 minute TOW clear.
This is good, because the only time I ever do this map is when it happens to be my weekly and happens to be boosted by an event.
If the stars align in such a way.
I can blast out 3 TOW within SP, and start a 4'th map within the buff.
Where my previous standard before speed running would be to have to sit here and run the map until I can start a second TOW in the same buff.
Going from that to having 4 maps in 1 buff is a huge improvement.
I have been pretty liberal about experimenting with buff drops.
My third thief go real fast as I half speed run them.
attack sector 1 and 2 from landing zone, nuke the palace with flame arrow.
Nuke a boss in middle of map. cleared in 20 mins or less.
300k xp, roll at grout, chance at TOw map valued currently at 75kc each.
To speedrun 6 3'rd within 2 hours of SP
there is a high likelihood actually of getting at least 1 TOW map.
2 million XP. and couple thousand grout alongside all the refills.
The coin value of TOw to sale is high, the value of hoarding the map for future TOW runs is high.
When it comes to having the choice between nuke speedrun of WC or third thief.
I go third thief all day long.
Better map drop, better loot. equal or less unit loss and less time spent.
Much higher time/loot economy.
Third thief is an accessible map.
Is it always boosted? no.
Is it free? no.
Are the buffs to run it fast cheap?
not exactly.
But it depends what is cheap to you.
A $100 cheeseburger is not cheap to everyone, but some people can pay it without noticing.
At least with these speed runs you can access the additional cost, and determine if the time saved can be rolled into another high value target.
this added cost boosts your economy and time effectiveness. So I see high value in overspending on a map to complete it.
BP is a good example. Quick loot clears about half the map. then a single arrow nukes the last boss.
We do this because we do not want to spend the time and unit value for straight XP reward. When spending more will not increase the loot.
That single arrow impressively increases the unit cost to reward value.
simultaneously freeing up a solid 40 minutes of time that could be dedicated to another map for another loot table.
This is my thinking with TOW.
Spend a few more buffs to drastically cut down on time.
If less generals are needed up front that is more that can be sent to the back.
Your time cost drastically drops.
Now you have added ability to start additional maps.
More loot overall.
Of course. the faster you run maps.
the faster you spend troops.
so the faster you need to replace your troops.
I feel like I've been covering this in a recent guide I sent out.. it's out there.