While the 300-pull hoarding strategy gets talked about a lot (now closer to 250, as JustSing has pointed out here) there is another 5 star transition strategy that doesn’t seem to get talked about as much - The Lastest Legends Train.
Why the LL Train
The LL Train doesn’t require as much hoarding to get started (unless you want to be certain to champ all 3 latest) and removes the question of “Do I break hoard for these 3, or the next 3, or the next 3?” You just get on and keep up with the infinity train of latest legends releases, champing each one from that point forward.
In brief, instead of hoarding to 250/300, you pull from the Latest Legends store each rotation with the goal of fully covering (13 covers) the character about to rotate out. Any 5 star covers that are not for the soon-to-leave character are still building momentum for staying on top of the latest releases.
##Choo-choo Choosing the Train: Pros and Cons
The benefits to the LL Train are ease of transition to 5 champing (or just collecting 13 covers) of 5 stars, with less hoarding pressure and fewer decisions. Once on the train, whenever the next meta 5 star comes out, you already have the plan to champ them!
The downside to the LL Train is that you are primarily focused on the latest releases, and classics are a secondary goal - but you will still be ramping up your classics at the same time. There is also, as always, a risk that bad cover distribution will make a character harder to collect than others.
Also, if you want to hoard to get to 550’s - you will probably need to step off the train to hoard again.
This method relies on regular, consistent play to keep your momentum up. If you’re just playing DDQ daily and not making progression each PvE event, this probably won’t work.
##Your Ticket to Ride - Preparing to Get on the LL Train
What do you need to get on the train? Here’s my suggestions:
- A Good Alliance to Get Boss Covers. Getting those 2 boss covers in progression are key to making this easy
- Progression in PvE in SCL10. This nets you about 2 - 2.5 covers in shards for each new release
- Income of 100+ pulls a month in LLS and CP. I play PvP to the first CP award (SCL10) and get progression in PvE and that seems to be more than enough.
- All 4 stars rostered. You’re gonna get a lot of 4 stars. Make sure you can at least save them.
- (Good-to Have) At least half of your 4 stars champed. The 4 star champ rewards are going to help with your income. This is based on the idea that if 50% of your 4 star pulls from the LL store are champed, you can get an extra 20% of pull-equivalents from LLs and CP in champ rewards. Having more or fewer will only affect how much extra you have, and how much of a cushion you have for staying on the train.
Side Note: The original advice for 300 pulls for an LL hoard bust (as I recall) assumed 50% 4 star champs so that your 300 pulls were actually closer to 360. However, the simulations that found 250 is a rather safe number do not assume any 4 star champ rewards!
You will need some CP/LLs to start, but not necessarily 250 or 300 pulls. I would guess at least 100 would be ideal. If you were hoarding, or do a hoard bust, you can roll right into staying on the train. The lower your starting resources, the more likely the first to rotate out might be undercovered.
Also, if you are planning to make the jump on the train soon, do not spend the 5 star shards for the latest characters. The shards are an insurance policy.
##I Think I Can, I Think I Can - Making the Jump on the Train
You will want to plan when to jump on the train. If you want to do this without a full 250-hoard bust, plan when the character you really, really want is not about to rotate out.
For example, I got on the train when Gargantos/KK/mThor were on the train. KK and mThor were my goal, Gargantos was a nice-to-have. I was willing to sacrifice Gargantos and started my run knowing that I might not cover him. I did not have even 200 pulls, but had a few covers on each.
Your first goal is to get the next-rotating latest to 13 covers (counting feeders, any remaining PvE runs that you may not have claimed yet). Pull until you reach this goal OR until the “middle” (next to next to rotate out) hits 13 covers (again, counting unclaimed feeder covers/shards).
In my case, Gargantos did end up getting to 13 covers. In fact, he’s got 5 saved covers over his 13 (I am still short on ISO to champ him) but I’ve gotten everyone to 13 covers since his release. But if he had rotated out with only 10 covers or so, I’d have been fine. I was willing to sacrifice champing him (in the nearish term) to make sure I got 13 covers on KK and mThor.
##I’m Gonna Ride Forever - Staying on the Train
Staying on the train is relatively simple - each time the LL store rotates, pull until the next-to-rotate-out character gets to 13.
Don’t spend 5 star shards until you have 13 combined covers and shards! This is important for leveling out badly distributed pulls. It also gives you some control on what your not-yet-champed characters powers will be.
You don’t have to champ them! If you want to soft-cap, or are still in an ISO desert, don’t champ every single character, but at least you have them ready if they are found to be useful or meta.
A fellow member of AEGIS who tracks his progress found that he never needed more than 129 pulls to stay on the train - and they’ve been riding for quite a while. Often it is considerably less.** Tracking your progress the first month or two can really help you get a sense of your income and how many pulls you need to conserve for future rotations.
**
You can favorite a classic 5, and you still should have CP in excess (most of the time) necessary to keep riding. This can be used for special stores to target classics that you are also working on… you should not need to favorite any of the LLs unless you slip off the train or have really terrible luck in your pulls.
Release stores are of particular interest, since one of the 5 stars will be coming to your LL train in the future. So any time you pull the new release, you have already gotten one of the covers you need for staying on the train in the future.
##When it Gets Slippery
Things won’t always go as planned. Another AEGIS member recently had Arcade up to 10/1/1 before they finally started getting the other powers.
Here’s some thoughts on mitigating bad distribution:
- You may need to adjust your goal, character by character. If the next one to rotate out is not getting covers, maybe getting to 10+ is good enough. You can set them as a favorite, they will get a feeder eventually, and there will be other opportunities to get more covers for them. But if it is a promising meta-type, maybe its worth it to push for more pulls.
- Save your shards. Again… these help a lot with balancing the powers
- Use your favorites at the 3 & 4 star tier - change your favorites to get the next LL or CP reward to help boost your income. Consider going further in PvP if you are having a string of bad pulls.
Like any push-your-luck game, you will have to make tough decisions at times. When Immortal She-Hulk and Phoenix Emma were about to rotate out, She-Hulk had 18 covers and Phoenix Emma was 150 shards short of 13. I decided to let them rotate and make up the shards/cover for Emma later, rather than risk even more resources. As it turns out, I got the last Emma cover from the first Year Vault the day they rotated out.
Share any other advice, recommendations or experiences with the train! There are a lot of finer details I’m probably glossing over.
This topic was also discussed in this thread: Grand Experiment 2: Treading Water in the SCL 10 Post-Shardpocalypse - MPQ General Discussion - 505 Go! Official Forums
