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Project FLAKES or How to Become a Whale For Free

Expletive Deleted

Active Member
Today I reached a long time goal of collecting 1,000 diamond producing buildings. Running 6 diamond farms in A/E/F/K/L/S ( what I call project FLAKES. A happy coincidence in randomly chosen start towns) it's taken me roughly 8 years to get to this point. It likely could have been done sooner had I made some better choices early on in a few of the farms but I made it here nonetheless.

I have had many people over the years message me asking for tips and ideas as how to best get their farms started in order to one day look like mine. This has lead me to wonder how many people have reached this landmark? Who has the largest collection? how long did it take? And how did you do it?

I decided to write this as a basic frame of how I accomplished this and a helpful go-to for what I've done to get here.

My strategy has been to build farms designed to beat events fast. With the specific target of wells and well fragments at every opportunity.

First and foremost, expansions are as critical as ever in a farm town. I highly recommend building from the northwest to southeast. The way little wells stack and the shape of mazes make this the most efficient and helpful way to expand. I do suggest building and upgrading vic towers when you can get them. As pitiful as their payout may be, you will always have a 1x1 gap somewhere and medals will slowly add up. As wells and mazes only offer an estimated 10% chance to get 65 medals. You will always need more.

I pushed tech to progressive Era faster than most would advise and stopped there at the end in all farms for a few reasons. One being refined goods coming in Modern, another is that I think it's the best age to beat events, using gunsmiths to complete any cook quests, being 2x3 they are as small as any supply building that you can get and be defined as * your age or the age before * across all ages ( disregarding blacksmiths) and can be rushed using supply rush kits earned on the side. I recommend keeping 10 supply buildings up until space becomes limited. That will complete any cook quests in a couple cycles and minimizes need for aid.

It's true you can use special event buildings like sunken treasure, sleigh builder, beach bar etc. But these have the disadvantages of not being able to rush every cook, and also can't be sold & rebuilt for build quests without use of store building items.

With the same mindset, the Metro Entrance is only 2x1 and completes any * build a cultural building * quests. Jaeger and Rifleman ranges work as 3x3 *barracks from the previous age* and work to help with the population and other build/sell quests. Again as they are 3x3 they line up with the smallest barracks options across almost all ages.

I did not build a traz in the farms. Their size is a dealbreaker, instead I utilized the governors villa to complete military recruitment quests. Though now most of those are gone, replaced by wells & mazes. Though depending on when you start and your luck in events the knights Pavillion is a new option due to show back up soon. Some might go for the royal bathhouse from the Egypt settlement, I personally think that takes too long, but it is the best investment for space overall only requiring a single aid action to fulfill the quest and avoid plunder does make it incredibly valuable. I'd likely aim for this if I were starting a new farm today.

By being smart and collecting wells in a controlled order when necessary I'm able to get several * collect coin / goods / supply * quests in rapid succession and only have to stall when cook quests or a 2nd recruitment quest cycles through. though in some cases working GE at the right time can cover another recruitment quest and rushes can beat more cooks with some luck.

None of my farms have more than 2 crows nests, as their population has maxed out my happiness capabilities. At this stage it's next to impossible for me to fit anything in each city other than the wells I've collected. My greatest source of happiness is the promenade roads and even using them barely keeps them happy and not enthusiastic. I have been debating as to whether or not I should aim to build a 3rd in any of the towns, considering that happiness does not have an effect on the diamond payout. As of right now I haven't got the upgrades needed so that's a decision for the future.

Aid eventually becomes irrelevant as having nothing plunderable but some 5-10 supply buildings and a GV that can be aided by even the most passive of neighborhoods means that you rarely lose anything of value. All things considered the only 'loss' any farm of mine has suffered from a plundering would be ge time needed to complete a cook quest. On the odd chance that being down that one cook meant another cycle must happen. Rush items help avoid this. But as stated usually is not a problem.

I built and sold several GBs along the way ( mostly the attack trinity. ) Now I'm limited to Zeus or no GBs whatsoever as is the case in my A town. Just enough to use as an FP dump. I've run to the point where medals expansions are increasingly hard to obtain at hundreds of thousands of medals per, and some farms have used all available diamond expansions to make space. An investment I considered worthwhile for the overall cause. I avoided using arc to boost medals collecting for the space. It just never fit in with my plans. But some will insist its worth it. I find it hard to argue it would have helped get some extra space early on but I don't regret skipping it. I did put down ToR in a couple towns for a short time in the hopes of getting a FoY from some random relics. But that had less than desirable results and was replaced as soon as the space was needed.

With such low boosts now, getting past L2 in GE is hard without negotiations. And wise use of GE can beat any * defeat X units or win X battles * quests with ease. If pushing past L1 is too hard, the PVP tower usually can cover the difference in units & battles needed for these quests. Also remember that *defeat X units * quests don't care if you win or lose the battle. So go ahead and throw your army in the blender a few times and it wins in the end. As for troop layout for battles, because I'm using GV the random troop distribution means focusing on one troop in battle will eliminate them quickly. I've defaulted to a use of 2 snipers 2 conscripts 2 cannons 2 tanks. This is a surprisingly effective army for this age and only needs adjusting when facing a particularly strong opposition. This also reserves the problem of limited rogues by keeping them on the sidelines until absolutely necessary.

I would build any special event building I got but was always willing and able to store and sell it when the time came, any space not being used by diamond producers should be used to maximize your boosts while you can. Ultimately you will have to cut them when more wells & mazes show up but until then use them to earn the wells. Now that I have the wells everything gets sold to the AD. I haven't personally done the numbers, so if someone has I'd love to know if selling the pieces and upgrades for new buildings individually is more valuable than building , storing and selling a completed version. I sell the upgrades off individually, mostly to help complete * sell X items in AD* quests. I will typically set up a day trade at the start of an event and just wait til the quest comes through to collect it. And sell off anything extra in between events on the day trades to earn as much as possible.

Pretty much everything earned that is not a diamond producing building or supply rush will eventually be sold to the antiques dealer. And the AD will buy you medals, mazes, wells, fragments, and GV upgrades should you go that route. Mazes are easy to come by and rarely result in a bidding war. I usually start with a bid of 8008 and will win by the time my bid has reached 10101 if it's even bid against to begin with. A few times I've gone over cause I will win the auction if I have to. The cost of a maze in aution is irrelevant by the time it pays out diamonds one time. But that is an extremely rare event.

The inclusion of D&Z towns in the total count are there for the full breakdown but obviously don't contribute much. D being my main town, more than 2 Crows nests is unnecessary, and Z is a personal challenge city I've been working on, in which I'm not allowing duplicates of any special buildings, so it only has 1 well, 1 maze, 1 FoY & 1 crows nest and won't have any more. I may start replacing them now thr I've reached the 1k mark, allowing myself to remove one if a farm adds one. Maybe.

I don't regularly monitor my diamond income to check what comes from each city and what the total % payouts might be. There are days where individual cities will still yeild 0 diamond income. But it's been a significant amount of time since ALL cities hit a 0 payout on the same day. On any given day any one city will pay out 100-250 as a base level expectation. I've seen larger hits but nothing larger than 500 from a single city to my immediate knowledge. Overall though my income is always in the 500/day range. Plus or minus some for the random chance variable.

I do know that I haven't had to buy any diamonds in the life of my game play and for a while now I haven't had to worry about any diamond use I might want. Be that expansions in any of my towns or event currency, it's increasingly rare for me to start an event with less than 10k in the bank, and can get anything I want out of the event for both my main and challenge city should I choose to go for anything extra or make a mistake in the mini games. And that only goes up after events that I'm not interested in obtaining duplicates from or investing in ( looking at you st Patricks day) so when I do want multiples I can usually swing at least a 2nd or even 3rd if I'm wise with my spending.

I have noticed, as have most people that have been playing this long, that wells are getting rarer. Or it at least seems that way. But if you are vigilant and smart, there are more ways to get wells than there initially were. Back when, it would be possible for me to add 10-15 wells per town, for each event. Now I'm lucky if they're on the grand prize board at all. Fragments add up and shrink kits open space for more so don't neglect them. But now there's GE and the AD and options, daily challenges and the weekly prize there always has a chance to earn these things in between the events. So I kind of think that the numbers even out once all the factors are considered.

In events like the soccer cup it's wise to always pick the reward that offers a chance at fragments and use the double rewards chance coach to get the best odds at earning the most fragments. If that's not on the board, medals are the next best option. You will always need medals, once expansions reach the 200k+ cost, the time between expansions is usually longer than the wells earned to fill that space or right close to it. Which is where the debate for arc is going to be strongest. At this point for me i believe I'm past the point of no return for that investment to be valuable. But for starters it could definitely be a gamechanger.

Once you stop pushing tech and start running out of GBs. FP can become a burden to a farm. Many will say get a trading buddy or guild to donate to. And that will work no question. I chose to run solo guilds for one main reason. Guilds want something for your membership, and the point of my farms is a single collection daily. Maybe a 2nd check for the mazes if my work is slow and/or the event is important. I didn't want to put any extra time into them during a week that would take from my main & challenge city or real life. I have taken to hunting Zeus spots on my friends list, they are cheap to level, earn me prints for my Zeus and some small amount of medals, but most importantly no one gets upset if you level them and few will try to knock you out of place, as their 1.9 concerns are focused on more popular GBs. This allows me to keep 1st place and pop them at my leisure with little bother.

I don't plan on stopping the hunt for my collection any time soon. But fate will force me into a decision soon enough. As space runs to the point where nothing else exists in my cities, I will have to decide to advance in age and find out how much I can do with this. Or reach a point where I call them *Complete* and retire the active searching only taking what the AD has to offer. I do know that this year's anniversary event will likely be the last one I put real effort into for most of the farms. It's at the point now where only a couple can even reach the first milestone rewards from questing. But there is still that part of me that wonders how far one can take this.

I did on a few occasions decide it was best to replace a hedge maze with 2 wells stuck in inventory without space. Looking back now I think I should have invested in the diamond expansions earlier to make room for them instead. But at the time the trade of 2 for 1 was beneficial. Particularly if I'm unable to collect both drops from the maze in a day.

Full breakdown of my collection:

A. 69ww 86Lw 12hm 2foy 2cn
171 total


E 20ww 116Lw 23hm 3foy 2cn
164 total

F 52ww 109Lw 11hm 1foy 2cn
175 total

K 39ww 108Lw 9hm 2foy 2cn
160 total

L 33ww 103Lw 16hm 1foy 2cn
155 total

S 67ww 92Lw 7hm 2foy 2cn
170 total

D+Z 1Lw 1Foy 1hm 3cn
6 total

For a sum total of 1001


I hope some of these tips can help some start farm towns that will boom for them and if I missed any relevant information or if you have a farm that was built differently, I'd like to know some of those details. But most of all, I'd like to know. Has anyone else reached 1k?
 

Pericles the Lion

Well-Known Member
An interesting synopsis but, regrettably, the scarcity of Wishing Wells makes replication very difficult. Probably the only way to come close is to follow a Guild Expedition diamond farm model and chase Fountains of Youth while picking up an occasional Wishing Well from DCs, Event frags, and PvP. As a reference point, I started 4 GE diamond farms in September 2021. With daily play and thru completing GE63 each week I have managed to collect a total of 127 WWs or FoYs. It takes a lot more effort that when we could get a bunch of WWs in every event but persistence pays off. Like you, I haven't needed to purchase diamonds since beginning this project.
 

UBERhelp1

Well-Known Member
Yeah. Unfortunately it's a lot harder now. Essentially, events are out as a source of wishing wells. I think the focus is purely on GE now for the most part. I also hesitate with removing your ability to complete all four levels of GE, as you can get a lot of diamonds. I think the space spent on more wells would have been better kept to stay constant in completing GE.

Additionally, with stopping in PE now I think the strategy would be to get higher age units if possible. It would make GE possible without any boosts whatsoever.
 

Expletive Deleted

Active Member
I somewhat intentionally avoided using GE as a source of getting more FoY. I know one can earn more diamonds that way and you can get more, it's definitely something worth investing in. But ultimately I didn't have the time to consider GE a viable option most of the time. I wanted to be in and out of my farms as quickly as possible. So I accepted tthe trade off of earning slightly fewer than I could in exchange for the time saved. Events are unpredictable with the odds of wells being a grand prize but even with just going for fragments, I'd end up earning 1-3 wells per event if that town was able to complete the questline.



With GE5 Coming soon it's likely that will become an even better source of FoY for those that push through
 

stymie of Suwannee

Active Member
I started my first and only diamond farm about 4 months ago with my original Mars city. Having most of my solid combat stats in place has helped greatly. Besides the diamonds from GE, having a high level ToR makes more Jades and more chances of FoY. Dying for the summer event to get “too many” Crows Nests and ply them with my high level BG. Modern diamond farms tougher and more time consumptive, but still possible with patience.
 
Well, that prediction didn't age well, did it?
Inno giveth, and Inno taketh away, recently this has been slanted heavily towards the taking away.

I'm starting my 4th week of completing GE level 5 and have at this time 270 out of 800 needed fragments for ONE fountain of youth effectively nerfing possible FOY's to max of 4 per year, resulting in the OP's original plan to now take some 250 years to replicate. :rolleyes:
 

Expletive Deleted

Active Member
Well, that prediction didn't age well, did it
No, no it did not.

Inno giveth, and Inno taketh away, recently this has been slanted heavily towards the taking away.

I'm starting my 4th week of completing GE level 5 and have at this time 270 out of 800 needed fragments for ONE fountain of youth effectively nerfing possible FOY's to max of 4 per year, resulting in the OP's original plan to now take some 250 years to replicate. :rolleyes:
Im glad I got started when I did, I do know it would be a monumental task to try and replicate from the start now. if not entirely impossible. the trick is to have an obsessive, nearly autistic focus on collecting them at every opportunity.
 

Emberguard

Well-Known Member
Im glad I got started when I did, I do know it would be a monumental task to try and replicate from the start now. if not entirely impossible. the trick is to have an obsessive, nearly autistic focus on collecting them at every opportunity.
The alternative is play normally, and never ever sell wells. Then when you get tired of side worlds look at what’s in inventory
 

Ebeondi Asi

Well-Known Member
I used to sell Wishing Wells. Now I have a hundred saved up in each World. plus shrink kits, never plan to use them LoL
 

Expletive Deleted

Active Member
Because on a world you’re not actively seeking to put as a wishing well farm, wells are considered not worth having.

But if you just never sell them then you have them for if you want to convert into a farm
thats actually something i never thought of, all my farms are meant to feed my main & challenge city, i have no idea how many wells either have given up to the AD since they wont be used in those cities.



I have now started to push through tech in the farms, in hopes of opening up enough space for them to fit more in as I earn, my new goal is to have them reach the Future era, to camp forever as Arctic and harvesting Promethium would be far more than I want to invest in. thus far with some good trades, a couple have entered or completed CE, so the progress is being made relatively quickly. I'm sure if I went and looked for a trading guild in them it would go faster, I may do this soon just to close tech out. getting through the map will be an entirely other story.
 
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