My last #terracore update was 16 days ago (here), so I figured it was a good time to give a progress update. Back then, I was thinking I'd be doing bosses by now, but I've learned a few things since then. Additionally, a brand new feature (quests) have been rolled out that probably change my goals.
Big picture: Last post I wasn't in the top 1000 players. Now I'm ranked #137!
If you compare to my last post, I've made quite a lot of progress. My engineering now gives me 4.2 SRAP per hour, which at current prices is somewhere between .2 and .4 HIVE. I realized this is actually faster than my passive HIVE earning from upvoting and HP interest.
I've invested heavily into Defense, but I'm still getting raided more often than I can claim, so I have to claim early (usually around 3-3.5 hours or 12-13 scrap). This isn't too bad actually, since overnight I get a few claims back and you can only have 4 max anyway. It does mean that there isn't much point in raising my engineering further until I've gotten other stats up.
I can keep track of stash sizes using the leaderboard. I sort by stash size, and then find the largest stash with defense less than mine:
That let's me know that if I let my stash grow to 13, it's likely to be raided. I also check the top 4-5 stash sizes below my defense level just to get an idea of the range.
If my attack was the same level as my defense, I wouldn't have to use the leaderboard.
Attack is what I'm currently raising, and if you look carefully, you'll see that I can afford my next level once I claim my current stash. The game gives you an attack list sorted by highest expected value from an attack. As your attack gets higher, you can attack people with larger stash sizes, and if your attack and defense are the same level, you basically get a nice look at your competition without having to use the leaderboard method.
My current attack targets generally have around 9-11 SCRAP in their stash.
Since last time I now understand a bit better what Favor (critical hit) does. When you attack, you roll a random number 0-1 to determine what percent of their stash you steal. My 3.2% critical hit basically adds that to my roll. (Not exactly and it's a little more complicated, but that's the gist of it). The first few percents were pretty cheap, so I grabbed them. Plus, I need 1000 favor to start attacking bosses anyway.
Stash size right now is mainly for dodging attacks. I never have anywhere near 73 SCRAP stored up. The raiders would get it long before that. I'll definitely need to start raising this before attacking bosses, though. This is basically your chance of finding gear/NFTs.
I'm still basically 50/50. I'm breaking even on scrap lost and gained.
My apologies to 
Here's what I'm planning to upgrade:
One or two levels of attack should help me start getting ahead with my gain/loss balance. Defense will help some, too, but the returns are already diminishing. As I've climbed the leaderboard, there are fewer people above me, and a higher percentage of those people have absolutely massive stats like 
I may also toss some SCRAP into favor for more crit. The ROI time period is long, but it helps with every attack and I have to invest in it eventually. Maybe enough to get another 1% crit? It's an extra ~.10 SCRAP for each 10 SCRAP I attack. It doesn't seem like much, but spending 100 SCRAP to raise my attack 10 points doesn't drastically increase my earnings either. Top target stash size might go from 12 to 13, which is an extra .50 SCRAP per attack (ignoring dodge and crit). That's obviously better for now, but as attack gets more expensive, Favor will look more appealing. Attacking larger stash sizes also tips the balance in favor of crit.
Quests are designed to be more accessible, but they've only been out for a few days. I haven't looked into them yet. The costs/rewards are also being balanced a bit. For now, I'm just keeping my head down and pumping stats. More SCRAP!
I'm having fun with the game. More fun than I should be having with a simple browser-based idler! Playing against community members is a big draw for the game, but also there is enough depth to make you carefully consider your strategy. So far, I'm still resisting the urge to wake up in the middle of the night and claim SCRAP, so I'm proud of myself for that 😆. On the flip side, this morning I checked the game and had been attacked ONE MINUTE before and lost 80% of my stash. If I had been just a little earlier!
