I’ve been playing bare minimum in PVE to get all progression rewards which in the past was just hitting all 4 of the essential nodes and the top 3 difficulty nodes 4 times. So, basically, it was at minimum clearing nodes 31 nodes which includes 1 clears with the 3 easy nodes. I usually would make full progression on the last sub-event around running halfway through the essential nodes.
However, recently I’ve been barely getting across the full progression finish line by hitting all of the nodes 4 times and even having to grind down those nodes past their fourth clears to hit the final reward. So, it has become a minimum of clearing the nodes 40 times which doesn’t even make the mark at the end of the event.
Now I understand that going for full progression should be a time investment and even though I have a competent selection of undercovered 5*'s that it doesn’t mean I should be handed the full progression rewards on a silver platter because of the points in the 5* essentials. Still, I am a little bewildered with the change of having to clear all the nodes more than 4 times to reach full progression. In the past, full progression was tied to all the nodes being cleared 4 times which was before the introduction of 5* essential nodes.
In case it is relevant, I play SCL 9 PVE’s and I could probably alleviate the hassle of getting all the rewards by taking a lower SCL. Still, I wanted to know if others have noticed this and I was also wondering if there has been an explanation for this change.
That was only if you skipped the 5e node. Depending on the non-repeatable or wave nodes, it’s about 4 (2 for wave) clears of every node, including the 5e, to get full progression in SCL8. I guess for SCL9, you could skip the easy ones too
But to answer the OP’s question, this last event’s 5e node was undervalued, worth only as much as the 2e node. Which obviously throws the math off.
You’ll have to do 5 clears eventually – since points start to regen after 4 clears (2 for waves), there’s no regen to speak of until you hit that threshold. What’s true is that you can do fewer in some earlier subs (since points tend to increase as it gets later in the event) and then pick up the slack with more optimal runs in later days of the event.
The way to get max progression in PvE (if you’re skipping the 5* node):
5 clears of every node (time is irrelevant, you’ll get more points waiting for recharge but an initial 5 will get it)
The way to get max progression in PvE (if you’re including the 5* node):
4 clears of every node (time is irrelevant because no recharge till the 3rd)
If the node is a wave vs normal just subtract 2 (so 3 clears for no 5* and 2 clears for with 5*)
Like what @aesthetocyst said.
For my money what I do is SCL8 most events. I go up to SCL9 when I have the 5* essential championed as that nullifies most of the extra time/difficulty (especially on the 5* node)