EZ mech is a waste of AM (pre hell stage)

[Alt Q Q]

This might be considered a rant and I am not sure if there are further upgrades to EZ mech, but as a standalone AM purchase, it is practically useless.

So EZ mech farm costs 25k AM and unlocked in SN2 iirc. Basically you can choose to farm a mech part of a earlier area if you have already obtained the mech part for the current zone. This upgrade requires the game to be running.

Though the concept sounds good, the limitations of the usage is what bothered me.

Firstly, why we want to farm mech parts in the earlier zones is to unlock parts that ultimately opens the Mech upgrades in the citizens tab. Mechs pushes past a wall once the 9 parts are obtained. The drawback without the EZ mech is basically farming a zone with lower multiplier for LY run resources.

Secondly, the part only works online. This actually have no difference to the normal way of obtaining the part, be online and hope for the best. The other way is to hit the pity count and obtain the part, which also works offline.

Thirdly, the mech part requires manual activation which makes it no different from picking the zone that we want to farm a part.

Lastly, you can only farm the current and earlier zones. So we can't rely on the EZ mech to farm a stronger zone that we have reached.

In essence, when we compare a run with and without EZ mech, we are basically paying 25k AM for a higher resource multiplier. Yes higher multiplier sounds like a great thing but this resources are basically gone after a supernova, whereby we can with the 25k AM opt for other perma multiplier upgrades or QOL purchases. Even though its a QOL improvement, its really not worthwhile as a priority upgrade, especially when saving 25k AM is not exactly easy in the early game.

Am I missing something here on where is the value of EZ mech?

[freakwave147]

Later planets, galaxies etc have more enemies and you can get higher kills per second, so it is also faster.

It also allows you to gain hell time.

Not a high priority upgrade, but very nice to have I think.

[Para]

It's not really useful for early game. It's just that later SNs, you'll just blaze through the stages, thus not having enough time to farm for mech drops. Also considering each SN, you'll get at least 150k AM makes it trivial to get EZ mech.

So yeah, just get something more useful early game, like the LY multiplier or minigame stuff. Wait till around SN2 before even considering EZ mech.

[Kotli]

EZ mech is really for SN2 when you have perma colonisation and end up in normal and hard with mech parts not collected from the earlier zones. Now Ez Mech farm makes sense as it let you collect these earlier mech parts while farming your late game wall which will give you more kill per second and more resources.

[Ricdic]

I find EZ mech helps big time. See I might have 20 mechs that I can auto assign at the start of a supernova. Rather than assigning them early on i'll get near my cap and then assign an existing mech to a zone i'm running fast. I'll then start farming all the lower end mechs using EZ farm. Means i'm not wasting time and potential resources/xp value on lower levels. I'll then rinse/repeat when I get to the next higher mech. Now that i'm close to end game i'm not bothering with mechs happy to just let it grind:

https://ibb.co/YTPpNfHM

[Styrian]

Do also note that as more enemies appear in later levels, and the wait to restart time is fixed at 2 seconds, therefore overall kills per second is higher at higher levels , for example you can kill 100+ per second in hard whereas if you try to farm mech 1 in galaxy 1 in easy, you will probably only get 30 kps

[Silberfuchs]

In nightmare difficulty areas you can even reach 450 kills/second, hence farming anywhere else becomes a non starter, EZ Mech is a godsend later on.

And don't understimate the impact a higher kills/second has, it's much more than just common resources. Kills towards mech 5 multipliers, time spend in hell+, the global multiplier from the skins tab, and more all benefit a lot from more kills.

[duregard]

It certainly doesn't live up to its name. If it would have any degree of automation to it (automatically switching to a missing part), then it would have been amazing. Even being able to set the goal while you are missing the currently farmed mech would have been nice, so it automatically enabled ez-farming when you got the part in your current zone. Unfortunately it does neither of these things.

[Siles]

You just use it to save time and resources.

I'd rather farm mechs in locations with 40k enemies than 2k ones.

Sure, you must be online to manage it.
It is always more effective to leave an idle game open than to turn it off.

[Soehnle]

EZ Mech will work offline for the next patch.

[Alt Q Q]

Originally posted by Siles:

You just use it to save time and resources.

I'd rather farm mechs in locations with 40k enemies than 2k ones. :csgoanarchist:

Sure, you must be online to manage it.
It is always more effective to leave an idle game open than to turn it off.

Originally posted by Silberfuchs:

In nightmare difficulty areas you can even reach 450 kills/second, hence farming anywhere else becomes a non starter, EZ Mech is a godsend later on.

And don't understimate the impact a higher kills/second has, it's much more than just common resources. Kills towards mech 5 multipliers, time spend in hell+, the global multiplier from the skins tab, and more all benefit a lot from more kills.

The KPS is a moot point actually, because you have to be online to benefit from the drop chance.

The KPS helps if you are waiting for it to accumulate pity kills during offline play but then that is no different from you choosing the zone before logging off really. And its not like after hitting the pity count, it adds a buffer to the next part.

You still have to turn the game on to have the finalize results and that is just a few buttons worth of actions. You can just go offline and the EZ mech have no whatsoever impact like i mentioned.

I am not saying its useless, I am just saying it is a somewhat bad QOL upgrade for the AM upgrade cost. Compared to other 1 time QOL upgrades, it just isn't good enough for the AM pricepoint.

Originally posted by Styrian:

Do also note that as more enemies appear in later levels, and the wait to restart time is fixed at 2 seconds, therefore overall kills per second is higher at higher levels , for example you can kill 100+ per second in hard whereas if you try to farm mech 1 in galaxy 1 in easy, you will probably only get 30 kps

The lower levels have a higher drop rate compared to higher levels so the higher kps might not be as significant. So ignoring other factors, a 1/1+e6 drop rate with a 100kps is mathematically no different to 1/1+e7 drop rate with a 1000kps.

Originally posted by Soehnle:

EZ Mech will work offline for the next patch.

This upgrade sounds great. If its weak because it is a 'unlock' upgrade after SN or something, it sounds reasonable but since AM is a very limited currency and for the cost for the unlock, it just feels very lackluster.

[Alt Q Q]

Originally posted by freakwave147:

Later planets, galaxies etc have more enemies and you can get higher kills per second, so it is also faster.

It also allows you to gain hell time.

Not a high priority upgrade, but very nice to have I think.

Originally posted by Ricdic:

I find EZ mech helps big time. See I might have 20 mechs that I can auto assign at the start of a supernova. Rather than assigning them early on i'll get near my cap and then assign an existing mech to a zone i'm running fast. I'll then start farming all the lower end mechs using EZ farm. Means i'm not wasting time and potential resources/xp value on lower levels. I'll then rinse/repeat when I get to the next higher mech. Now that i'm close to end game i'm not bothering with mechs happy to just let it grind:

https://ibb.co/YTPpNfHM

Oh, I am still climbing the hard galaxy, hopefully the usefulness is more apparent once i hit the hell stages but Soehnle mentioned the EZ mech will be working offline in the next patch so thats a plus.

[Siles]

However, you could farm a 1/1+e6 one with 1000kps if you stayed on 1/1+e7.
Isn't that 10 times more effective?

I think your first goal should be to reach your top planet.
Initially, you will be wasting a great deal of time farming the lower areas, which will prevent you from reaching your full potential.

Furthermore, it won't actually make a difference even if EZ Mech starts functioning online.
You can't expect it to pick your unobtained mechs for you.

[Silberfuchs]

Originally posted by Alt Q Q:

The KPS is a moot point actually, because you have to be online to benefit from the drop chance.

That's an dishonest argument.
Because you are deliberately mixing up two different points.

Yes, EZ mech currently only works online. But while online it's a massive help. The advantage it brings gets much stronger the further you are already into the game.

I would have paid straight up 100k AM for it in SN4+, a) because it's just that good; and b) at that point you really aren't stressed for AM.

My current SN started out on BH20, hence i could rush straight into hell difficulty areas.

Being forced down into easy, normal and hard areas for over a week would have meant a massive slowdown. On top of that literal time spend in hell+ areas builds up global multipliers to practically everything, losing out on a week or more would have permanently slowed down my progress.

Imho it's a top tier quality of life upgrade. It's true value isn't apparent in SN2, but that doesn't take away anything from it's overall impact.

You wouldn't believe how many angry debates there were about this very issue before EZ mech was introduced. Players were sick and tired of farming lower level mech parts, everyone wanted to farm in their highest available areas instead.

[Alt Q Q]

Originally posted by Siles:

However, you could farm a 1/1+e6 one with 1000kps if you stayed on 1/1+e7.
Isn't that 10 times more effective?

I think your first goal should be to reach your top planet.
Initially, you will be wasting a great deal of time farming the lower areas, which will prevent you from reaching your full potential.

Furthermore, it won't actually make a difference even if EZ Mech starts functioning online.
You can't expect it to pick your unobtained mechs for you.

Erm yeah, I must have been confused, I don't know how it would benefit if the EZ mech works offline lol. But since the developer is changing something about the EZ mech either ways, I will look forward to the changes.

Originally posted by Silberfuchs:

Originally posted by Alt Q Q:

The KPS is a moot point actually, because you have to be online to benefit from the drop chance.

That's an dishonest argument.
Because you are deliberately mixing up two different points.

Yes, EZ mech currently only works online. But while online it's a massive help. The advantage it brings gets much stronger the further you are already into the game.

I would have paid straight up 100k AM for it in SN4+, a) because it's just that good; and b) at that point you really aren't stressed for AM.

My current SN started out on BH20, hence i could rush straight into hell difficulty areas.

Being forced down into easy, normal and hard areas for over a week would have meant a massive slowdown. On top of that literal time spend in hell+ areas builds up global multipliers to practically everything, losing out on a week or more would have permanently slowed down my progress.

Imho it's a top tier quality of life upgrade. It's true value isn't apparent in SN2, but that doesn't take away anything from it's overall impact.

You wouldn't believe how many angry debates there were about this very issue before EZ mech was introduced. Players were sick and tired of farming lower level mech parts, everyone wanted to farm in their highest available areas instead.

I didn't mix up the points.

As mentioned in my earlier post, earlier zones have higher drop rates. Mathematically speaking, a 1/1e6 with 100KPS zone would have the same drop rate as 1/1e7 with 1000KPS, so the KPS does not help in terms of online farming (farming via drop rate). Where is the massive help while being online, did I missed something?

For the offline farming(farm via pity count), there isn't a overkill buffer of sorts so there is still a need to login the game again before choosing the next zone, meaning the KPS value again becomes a moot point.

Up to the hard stages, the stage multipliers alone doesn't make the EZ mech a worthwile purchase for me when I can buy other a few other QOL or multiplier upgrades with a smaller AM and not hoard it for a less than ideal purchase.

I have not reached the hell stages so its really my take on EZ mech up to hard stages and I do agree that farming a higher zone is preferable. But given the OPness with a 9 slot unlock, I will not hesitate to farm a lower zone even if its bothersome.

[Silberfuchs]

It's an qol upgrade that gets better the further you progress.
And a higher k/s area is for sure going to net you more resources.

That's because many things scale with the amount of kills you have accumulated.
The global multiplier from kills on the skins tab, mech 5 multipliers, and in general even the common resources like junk, plasma and prisoners.

Later on every minute not spend in hell+ difficulty costs you precious "time in hell+" as well, and that's one of the few really time gated multipliers you don't want to miss out on.