Grind grind grindgrindgrindgrindgrind grind. Thats all this game is now compared to the previous games in the series. Why? Because of the **** shadow orbs!
If you get stuck at a certain point in the game? Thats fine because we have these battle traits that let you get more xp in a tougher run. OH WAIT! First you have to go grind for this rare resource just so you can be allowed to grind for levels! F* your average of 5 shadow orbs per level because you need hundreds of them! Oh an if you want better talisman pieces? Be prepared to grind for DAYS getting enough orbs to make a difference.
Seems like a clear money grubbing tactic from a developer that was once my favorite of any developer out there. Good job losing a fan for a money scheme.
Yes and I am find with the pouch (which I bought), but it just feels like he made it so you either have to spends countless tedious hours grinding, or hey spend money. The previous games, while grinding a little bit helped, did not NEED much grinding, this needs mega freaking butt-tonnes of it. It takes away from the game when you have to sit and farm the same stupid map for hours on end. Sure its *beatable* but grinding takes out any fun.
And farming f1 gets you 2 runs a minute, and at 5 cores each run thats still only 600 orbs. Which will last you about 3 maps of maxed battle traits. Then its back to grinding again.
Set max speed and and start all waves, then begin endurance mode and last as long as you can.
you're not getting 5 cores from this unless you're really low level, and if you're that low of level simply completing looming difficulty maps should be more than enough to bump you up.
Endurance mode never gives shadow orbs, period. At least not in my experience. And I cant just complete more maps. Thats WHY I am grinding shadow orbs is so I can level up so I can beat more maps.
If its on one of the last levels, then what does it have to do with grinding? If you have almost completed the game you shouldn't need much more grinding XD. Also, why would you want MORE shadows?!?! I have a **** hard time beating just one.
In your case I suggest leveling with what cores you have. Around level 70, probably before, you can set up a decent mana farm that will allow you to begin gaining 100s of levels at a time. If you feel like it's too much grinding to make this happen, then it's time to move on.
Bottom line is that there are a ton of people who haven't spent a dime on cores. Personally I didn't actively grind cores until I started needing to upgrade my 90+ lvl talismans, and by that time I was getting 1k cores from every F1 run.
Those who don't care to put the time in to the game to grind a little bit have simply moved on. After all it's just a friggin flash game.
You say you get an average of 5 SC a level, so I say you can't be a high wizard lvl and you didnt play for a long time. I now get between 500 and 2000 SC per battle, and I have played the game without having to grind for them ever. You havent even really started playing yet cause otherwise you would get more than 5 schadow cores per battles.
Seriously farming SC is a bit grindy, but not extremely grindy. I get 1k-2k per run of F1 on Looming with Chasing Shadows trait on 7(28 is pretty cheap for 7 shadows). Set up basic mana farm, send all waves, kill everything till you can't, profit.
Level up more. You get more shadow cores on average the higher your wizard level gets. Just play stuff on looming with no traits. Complete maps and unlock more skills and stuff and don't worry about your cores. Just forget they even exist. One day you'll load the game up and go "hey, where'd all these shadow cores come from" and that's when you load up F1 with maxed traits and jump 50+ levels from one good endurance run.
I currently float around 2000 cores stocked up on average. More if I've been doing lots of no-trait Glaring runs (to unlock the secret maps), less if I got a good talisman drop recently and wanted to level it. I've been restricted on cores maybe once (when I did the compass quest and wanted to level the talismans I got), and a few runs of the wizard tower map in the F hex with only Chasing Shadows maxed solved that problem pretty quickly (then again, this was before the nerf).
I cant just level up. If I could level up I wouldnt be worrying about the shadow cores. Im stuck, I need to level up to beat more maps, but that involves grinding shadow cores so I CAN do the battle traits to level up.