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[Iduno]

I immediately switch to scientific notation. Even if I was for some reason intimately familiar with all of the terms for that many zeroes, there's way too much repetition to know which one you're looking at.

[Micro102]

I only remember getting to vigintillion once on some game I cant remember, and it didn't use the lettering system like "aa, ab, etc.".

And I'm pretty sure I've seen someone use "5e5e5" before when numbers get too long

[lemon10]

In exponential idle your numbers go up really really fast. After a certain point you go from e(whatever)->ee(whatever) once your numbers get too silly big to fit reasonably in e.
Note that e20=10^20 (20 zeroes), while ee20=10^10^20 has 10^20 zeroes.

[anexiledone]

Stumbled on to Magic Research recently

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2311680/Magic_Research/

Been playing it on android but it's available on steam as well. It's been pretty fun. Sort of like a fantasy version of the original Armory and Machine. It can be played idly by unlocking apprentices who can cast spells for you, but it does tend to prefer a somewhat active approach. Usually only necessary when you're trying to advance the story though

Each time you play, you can unlock features that'll help out on your next run after you retire your character, along with with the usual prestige percentage bonuses

I've spent a ton of time with this one recently as a little time waster and I've enjoyed it quite a bit

[Starver]

Idlers I'm currently supporting (playing non-standardly, mostly, which means less idling, more noting stuff in spreadsheets) are Idle Kingdom Clicker and Idle Superpowers (Android, both), where I'm resisting the Prestige reset of the first and throttling my advancement in the second

...thought it worth updating you. Still got IKC running (long-term plans) and IS (ditto). You ought to see my spreadsheets.

I'd recently removed a more recent distraction app, ExoMiner, because I was happily working my way through it[1], with an absolutely stonking set of spreadsheets ("how much more Refined Carbon do I need to create the Cables for the Circuits for the Sensors for the (...)?" "...and how long will it take, given so many refineries creating carbon, and can they keep up with this other number of constructors eating up that supply to make <whatever>?") when it blanked progress. Glitched so that I had nothing in the field of play (not even the "HUD controls"), I could just drag the bare minimum landscape graphics around, no mines, no "base", no little ships doing the visual job of getting the ores to the base, not even the nice background sounds. I did eventually get it to start again (from scratch, clearing all data), but it's less fun with the next point to strive for (when I had everything I needed to start generating the most advanced 'construct' and then buy access to the next available one and starting to integrate that cascade of requirements into my progress) is basically as far in the future as the original start was back in the past.

That said, if you like a resource/explore/update semi-idle[2] kind game, with a tolerable soundtrack if you like the sounds of 'nature' (alien chirrups/tweets from the landscape you're exploring, or perhaps it's the cargo ferries rushing around) it ticks those boxes. And if you mail their support@ address, they like to thematically reply to you as the captain of the mining expedition, which you may find charming. But I didn't bother over the final glitch, and can't actually remember what I bothered them with earlier on.


Looking to fill the conceptual gap, I actually picked up two things from the same studio. Idle Brick Breaker and, I suppose, its antithesis, The Tower. I call them opposites because in the former you have a breakable environment of polygon-'bricks' and you employ a number (and various types) of ball to break them, exactly how you all know this title will work, whilst in the other your "tower" is a hexagonal brick (apparently with resource-purchasable alternatives) being assailed by waves of attacking things (squares, but essentially balls without the bounce) in a near perpetual 'tower defence' scenario (well, it's in the name), without all that paths and where-to-place guns stuff of the other common TD trope, it's your tower (or any floating additions to your armoury, which orbit steadily or move randomly) that do the damage, and other things, as much as they are able to.

And the background system of bonus cards and slots are basically the same (but edged towards the different needs of attack/defence).

Different intensities of involvement, though.
* Brick-breaking is just "leave it, earn continually, bit of management" thing, including the (2 hour-capped) offline earnings, described a few posts up as being in the <ab>-illions at the moment.
* Tower-defending is more hands on, though. Aside from occasional gems (to buy cards, though I'm stockpiling right now, on that front) your destruction of attackers gives you both Cash and Coins. Coins go (mostly!) to the Workshop, outside of the Battle modes, to upgrade the base level of Attack, Defend and Utility abilities/etc for each battle. Cash is spent during the battle to upgrade these things during the round (upgrades, and unused cash, reset as the round ends). Additionally there's Missions, which are sub-aims (destroying a given number of a specific enemy type, killing so many bosses outside of your firing range, etc[3]) that give you a resource-type spendable at the Mission Shop for... well, there's useful things and vanity things. No surprises there. And Missions was just a long-term thing, but they recently added mini "Daily Missions", which also give Gems (I think). Additionally additionally, there's Tournaments, which is a ranked league competition against a suitably upscaled level of threatening waves, where the wave you reach gets you higher rewards (including a further resource type, also convertable from Mission rewards but at increasing costs per 'throw', that goes towards buying Ultimate Weapons to add to your Tower's offensiveness/whatever) and the possibility of promotion up to the next class of league (or, when there, demotion back down a level if you're too low).

...anyway, with the Brick-Breaker it's as Idle a game as you want. With the Tower it's full on management and even(/especially?) having unlocked a larger speedup option (oh yeah, there's a whole host of Research options available, eating up coins and time and also gems if you add research 'lab' slots) and skip-wave/accelerate-wave Cards, once you're talking 1000+ waves of progress per battle then you're not playing an Idle game, as you strive to add to your "Absolute Defense" level with every newly sufficient quantity of in-round cash (or whatever your strategy is). No automation of this, although tapping away on the right spot of the screen does suffice to allow whatever else you're doing (walking to the shops, writing an email, polishing your shoes) to continue once you've got a bit of initial upgrading (e.g. earning more cash per wave, having also added to the "Free Defence Upgrade" utility item (or the "Free Utility Upgrade" to itself increase Free Attack/Defence/Utility Upgrade chances, going forward, in-between Cash/Coin amounts per wave or kill, Cash Interest and the rest), and added enough Defense %, Absolute Defense, Thorn (damage-in-contact thing), Rebound to survive the current wave offensiveness; and/or added to the Attack options (multishot/rapidshot in chance/quantity/duration, etc), depending on if you've unlocked the options yet). So really not an Idle Game by my own definition, but fits into the "research and advance" type of distraction.

And the ads? Well, I've never run the Brick one online (intentionally!). There's possible ad-rewards awaiting clicking, but I've not bothered. With the Tower... now there lies a tale. Ads for gems (periodically, and daily) seemed worth it. And there are even Missions requiring both types of ad to be seen (possibly multiple times) to accomplish and check off to gain the mission-rewards. Which I was happy to do. Then something changed. Having been involved with this Tower thing since maybe February, all was fine until about a week into this month (Coronation weekend!), at which point the ad system became crashy (more crashy than other ad-systems have been) and may have even crashed the game whilst preloading ads. Could be just my tablet getting 'old', or an ad-side update going 'too new', but essentially I've stopped being able to ad-support The Tower (whether or not it has stopped anyone else) and so I no longer do. I still think I can push the game a bit, but no ad-gems, no x1.5 coins option after one or other wave ends my run, no missions completed that count my ad-gem accomplishments, and no casually continuing a long battle/tournament (whilst online) because if the ad-loader crashes the game out and I didn't get more than 10 rounds further than my prior pause in play it penalises me by ending the attempt (and if I do go >10 rounds, but it quit-crashes after that, it also counts my rejoins and I'm only allowed ten of them before being killed off, likewise). So quite an intense problem, and no response from the dev-support address when I've passed on my (brief... ish) thoughts on this. My issue, probably, but it has to colour my general recommendation that something broke. Whatever the reason. Even if it's a bit of a tribute that I'm still (less intensely) interested in seeing how far I can get.

I mean, right now I've got an active round 'going' (around wave 600, took a break, I can easily reach double that in the next continuation of that session with how I have organised things). Four hours ago I know I had a Research item finish (an upgrade to the coin discount for research items... to 10.2%, I think), but I won't check that out (online) until I've completed the round offline. I think the next set of Tournaments is starting in an hour but (apart from that being 1AM) that also needs to wait until I can go online, or risk my round crashing (also is only an option when not already in a personal round of battle). There'll be a handful of new Daily Missions, though the next Full Missions period doesn't start until 1AM Wednesday, IIRC (after the Tournament day is over) so not yet a concern.

But I shall dabble in this. Hardly as intensely as some players might (I just like feeding my spreadsheets...), and the whole PvP thing (or 'leagues', comparing PvE 'magnitudes of success') isn't that attractive to me anyway. But if you want any tips, I can probably tell you what I think is a useful strategy.

Anyway, need to check my Bricks, before bed. Another "8ab"-or-so towards my "80ac" aim... Might even be 9ab, this time!


[1] All resource mines wirking, all ores uncovered, plenty of every refined product and well along its list of items (Gravity Engine or later) that all need the refined ores and/or prior constructuons to make.

[2] A bit of management, to keep things running. A basic two-hour "offline earning" window. Some ad and non-ad pot-luck reward mechanics to ad that frisson of additional excitement.

[3] I've got a nice long list of these (spreadsheet!), amongst many other features. Because of course I do.

[Folly]

Since the thread has already been bumped, I'll also note that IdleOn has continued to get frequent updates. World 5 came out not long ago, and even more recently the 4th class advancement for every class was completed. Also, 'The Rift' provides a new form of meta-progression!

And there's a Spring event going on right now, giving opportunity to earn some free gems and several rare holiday boost-foods!

[Aoi]

And by similar virtue, I'd like to toss Leaf Blower Revolution[/i] into the ring.

Unless you're running at the bleeding edge of things, progress never feel too far away, and there are so many different ways to advance that there's a healthy mix of active vs idle. (Pure idle, however, is basically out of the question.) There are pay-only perks, but they're fairly minor and, by midgame, are pretty much worthless. The real money currency is obtainable in-game, idled for in midgame, and next to worthless at endgame.

Major updates tend to drop every 2-3 months and usually include some kind of mechanic to speed up earlier play so people can catch up (which, by extension, means the new content isn't exclusively for people at lategame).

Also available on Android.

[martinuzz]

Discovered another fun idler: Incremancer.

Who doesn't like blood and brains?

https://incremancer.gti.nz/

[Iduno]

Discovered another fun idler: Incremancer.

Who doesn't like blood and brains?

https://incremancer.gti.nz/

Oh yeah, that's good stuff. Too bad it's browser-based (I'd like a travel game for low/no signal), but it's good.

Spending all of my brains on getting more blood storage so I can get more brains.

[Akura]

Made it to level 50. And got absolutely destroyed by the tanks. Auto-spawning zombies is a bad idea here, as the tank shells will obliterate them the second they spawn.

The fact that spell cooldowns don't reset between levels doesn't help.

EDIT: Beat level 50. Starting from level 51 there was an unexpected new thing.

[Great Order]

Reminds me of infectonator or whatever that old game was called. Quite enjoying it.

[martinuzz]

Made it to level 50. And got absolutely destroyed by the tanks. Auto-spawning zombies is a bad idea here, as the tank shells will obliterate them the second they spawn.

The fact that spell cooldowns don't reset between levels doesn't help.

EDIT: Beat level 50. Starting from level 51 there was an unexpected new thing.

I think I prestige'd once before getting to level 50, and by that time it was easy enough. But yeah with no prestige those tanks will hurt. Don't worry, soon you will have tank destroyer harpies.

The fact that spell cooldowns don't reset between levels doesn't help.

They will keep ticking down though, so if you wait with starting the next level unitl they are charged, you start with full spells.
Also note that if you cast a spell before starting the new level, it will still be active when you start the new level. For example, cast gigazombies, start new level. (free max energy zombie spawn + release caged zombies, they will all be gigazombies).

The Detonate spell can also give you extra bones. If you cast detonate in such a way that it kills the last humans before it runs out, all your zombies explode, yielding extra bones (but no caged zombies next round)

[martinuzz]

Oh yeah, that's good stuff. Too bad it's browser-based (I'd like a travel game for low/no signal), but it's good.

I think anti-idle the game has a downloadable version that is fit for taking on a low/no signal trip.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/anti-idle-the-game (browser version)

https://www.kongregate.com/forums/60-anti-idle-the-game/topics/869549-anti-idle-is-now-downloadable-1-1

EDIT: tried it, yes, the downloadable version works fine, it does need Flash player though.

[None]

Incremancer unfortunately runs out of content after golems or so. I'm at level 415 or something and it's just going to keep scaling the way it does, I think. Pity.

It's fun for a couple of days, though.

Tip for before you're at level 100 or so:

Get bone collectors. Get bone collectors. Get bone collectors. Bones disappear after a short time. Yes, any non-disappeared bones are collected at stage end so long as you have at least one collector, but you're going to miss out on a bunch of them if you're expecting your one un-upgraded collector to keep you moving forward.

Tips for when you're past level 100:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pump that item rarity rate on the skeleton so you can get red items, which occasionally cast spells for free and without setting it to cooldown. Most crucial are probably:
Time Warp (do everything at double rate, effectively doubling spell duration and clearing levels faster? Yes please)
Pandemic (Infected humans spit globs of damage at each other) (and everyone's infected because you have like 20 harpies, right?)
You can also max out Dark Orb so that your skeleton is 'attacking' someone every two seconds regardless of how close it is to enemies.

Gigazombies and Incinerate are okayish, the former particularly if you've put a few points towards spell duration, but you might be better suited putting those points elsewhere. Energy Charge is fun if you've got the graveyard tab open and you feel like turning on 116 harpies for a half-minute.

I don't see a point in putting any work towards having Air or Earth golems. Prioritize Fire and take like two Water golems to help keep everything nearby alive.

If you've given the skeleton all of your trophies, go back and plop some zombies onto the VIP on each level that has one before you prestige so that it's a rote matter of finding the VIP letters and ctrl + clicking on them while you're still all powerful. You don't need to finish the level to keep the VIP trophy.

When you prestige, you don't need to clear every level again- you just need to clear the last one (the boss level) to proceed to the next stack of 50 levels, all the way up to the ones you actually haven't completed yet. If you're in the 100s, don't bother redoing the 10s, yeah?

Once you have a couple of trophies that generate bones and a bunch of prestige points into bone income, drop all but one bone collector. You're gonna run out of stuff to spend bones on anyways and the passive income will do it better than any quantity of collectors could. Keep one so that it hoovers up all the bones at stage end, though.

[Micro102]

Bones disappear after a short time.

Holy shit thank you for mentioning this.