jsc29
Active Member
If you are new to the game, or haven't quite mastered all its parts you may find the following guide to sniping useful. Sniping is contributing to GBs in such a way that you make a guaranteed profit. Usually you do this only to your neighbors because in guilds and among friends the practice is to contribute the full amount which is the amount that a player with a level 80 Arc can contribute and break even.
The benefits to sniping are substantial. You get forge points, medals, blueprints and can convert collected forge points into forge point packages. Medals are important, especially for low age campers, because they are one of the few ways to get expansions without doing research. Just to give an example of a typical day in the snipers life, here is my current list of snipes. (Note that you can view your contributed FPs by going to Town Hall / News / Great Buildings):
Position #1 on a Level 17 LOA for 191 FP giving a profit of 37 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 27 Arc for 553 FP giving a profit of 179 FP and 18,584 medals.
Position #5 on a Level 34 CF for 6 FP giving a profit of 4 FP.
Position #2 on a Level 36 Zeus for 177 FP giving a profit of 70 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 15 TOR for 153 FP giving a profit of 75 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 24 CDM for 394 FP giving a profit of 24 FP.
So, my total current pending profit is 389 FP for an investment of 1444 FP. Here are my tips for sniping:
(1) If you have extra forge points in your bar and no really good GB ready for a contribution consider looking through your neighborhood for snipe opportunities. In general, it is better to make a profit with your FPs than to contribute to one of your own GBs.
(2) One of the advantages of aging up is that your neighbors get richer, so that means more sniping opportunities and better sniping opportunities. However, don't age up too fast. If you have a lame, underpowered city you will have a hard time gathering the FPs you need to snipe higher level GBs.
(4) The people that tend to be the best snipe targets are those that play solo (no guild or small guild) and contribute heavily to their own GBs, or those that use swaps. Swaps are very unpredictable and sniping opportunities can just pop up out of the blue on a swapped GB.
(5) Try to get a 10% return on your FP or better, unless you need blueprints or it is a high age GB with a lot of medals. For example, I will contribute to a top spot on a Space Carrier even if it is a break even for me because the number of medals is large. For example, a level 53 Space Carrier position 1 returns over 56,000 medals. By comparison, a level 53 Zeus position 1 only returns about 450 medals.
(6) Getting into a good guild that can get you an early Arc will enormously increase your sniping potential because the Arc gives you more return on your contributions, so it greatly increases the number of GB spots that are profitable for you. Good times to get the Arc are when you are HMA, LMA or Colonial. I advise against getting an Arc before that because the Arc is a big building and cities below HMA are too small to comfortably support an Arc. Of course, if you are planning to camp Iron Age or something, then you have no choice, but be aware you are gimping your game doing that. Once you have an Arc you should prioritize leveling it to 80 and temporarily forget about your other GBs.
(7) If you go inactive for a while, don't snipe immediately when you come back. If you go inactive, you might be put into a neighborhood with other inactive players and if you then contribute to their GBs, those FP could be lost because, well, they are inactive, so they never complete their GBs.
(8) Don't snipe really low level players (below 25,000 prestige) unless you have proof they are active and playing every day. Low level players have high drop out and inactivity rates.
(9) Don't snipe bad buildings like Colosseum. Sooner or later the player will figure out that contributing to these GBs is a waste of resources and you lose your FP when the music stops.
(10) Be cautious about contributing to TORs. A TOR is only really profitable up to about level 5 and once it gets to level 10 it is a money loser because it costs more to level than the player would ever get back by the extra 0.5% or whatever each level gives. So there is no telling when the player might figure this out. Basically you should never risk putting FP on a TOR over level 10. Low level TORS (1-5) are good snipes because they are very profitable so players level them fast.
(11) Be cautious about taking top spot on sweet spot GB. Sweet Spot GBs require no initial contribution from the owner, and they can be snipable as soon as they open. For example, Arcs between about 30 and 60 are in their sweet spot. However, since the owner does not have to make a contribution, they might open the level, but wait a LONG time before they start leveling. You don't want to have 1,000 FP invested in some Frauenkirche of Dresden that the owner decided he is not going to work on for a few months. Its Ok to snipe #1 on sweet spot Arcs because the player has to level it, unless he is quitting the game.
(12) The best snipes are on popular GBs, especially the military ones, because they get leveled fast. So, for example, Arcs, Zeus, CDM, COA, Traz, AO, and CF are the top targets. In low age cities LOAs are good targets. Oracles are good, but only in Bronze age. After that they are worthless and too risky. Be wary of Observatories. They are often snipable because guilds have programs to level up the observatories of their members. This results in FPs being added to Observatories quickly and chaotically. The problem is that once the player is taken off the Obs contibution list, then the leveling abruptly stops, even if the Obs is halfway leveled. So, your contribution could get trapped. Observatories do not directly benefit the player, so it makes them risky snipes.
(13) Watch out for spread levelers, people who spread their FP among a lot of different GBs. There are some players who spread their FP among every GB they have and try to level them all equally. This is really dumb, but nevertheless there are a lot of players out there who do this. They are bad snipe targets because their GBs can take months to level.
(14) Yet another thing to watch out for are fast levelers, players that age up as fast as they can. These are the players in your neighborhood who have an unusually low amount of prestige. They have few GBs because they put all their resources into aging up instead of GB development. The GBs they have tend to be the cheapest. So, for example, you might have some guy in Modern Era with 300k prestige and his GBs are the Oracle of Delphi and the Tower of Babel. Obviously you don't want to try to snipe him.
(15) If you see a potentially good snipe, but are worried that the player might be inactive, one way to check is to plunder them. When you go to sabotage them see how many buildings are available for looting. If few or none of them are, then it means the player is collecting, so they are not inactive. On the other hand if all the buildings are available for looting, then they have not collected, so you might have to watch further. Another way to check is to look at the tavern. If the tavern is full, then the player has not collected, but if it is 10/16 or something like that, then they might be active.
(16) One trick is to put a single FP on a snipe candidate to watch it. I used to do this when I started, but after I started sniping a lot I stopped doing this. The problem with doing this is that first of all it warns the player you are tagetting them. Also, most watched targets never pan out, so you end up watching a lot of losers and missing the good ones. It's better to watch PLAYERS, not GBs. Keep a written list of the good player targets (swappers and solos), and then check them manually whenever you do a sweep. When you write down the candidate's name, write down their neighborhood number too so you can find them quickly.
(17) Take the current contributions into account when deciding on a snipe. It is better to snipe GBs that are far along in the leveling process and have big contributions from the owner, than to snipe GBs that have newly leveled. Be especially wary of GBs that have one big contribution, but not from the player. For example, let's say you see a level 10 Traz and it has 600 FP on it by someone who is not the owner. Ok, sure it is definitely snipable, but it is risky because that 600 is probably from a friend or guild leader or something, or maybe a weird swap of some kind. Either way, the owner may have no stake and no interest in getting the Traz to level 11. For example, he might be working on his Arc, which could take weeks or even months. Right now I have 50 FP on my TT put there by a random player in friend's list for reasons unknown (they want BP maybe?) and I have no immediate plans to level my TT, so it could be a couple of months before anything happens on it.
(18) In case of a tie, priority on the contribution reward goes to the player who reached the point of the tie first, not the first contributor. For example, let's say you put 1 FP on a GB and you are the first contributor. Later 4th is the last place available and there is somebody on 4th with 10 and only 9 left total. If you add those 9, you will LOSE, because even though your 1 FP was first, the other player reached 10 first, so they win the tie.
There are some real subtleties to sniping and the math and mind games can get pretty complex, however, the points above should be enough to get you started on your sniping career. Good luck.
The benefits to sniping are substantial. You get forge points, medals, blueprints and can convert collected forge points into forge point packages. Medals are important, especially for low age campers, because they are one of the few ways to get expansions without doing research. Just to give an example of a typical day in the snipers life, here is my current list of snipes. (Note that you can view your contributed FPs by going to Town Hall / News / Great Buildings):
Position #1 on a Level 17 LOA for 191 FP giving a profit of 37 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 27 Arc for 553 FP giving a profit of 179 FP and 18,584 medals.
Position #5 on a Level 34 CF for 6 FP giving a profit of 4 FP.
Position #2 on a Level 36 Zeus for 177 FP giving a profit of 70 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 15 TOR for 153 FP giving a profit of 75 FP.
Position #1 on a Level 24 CDM for 394 FP giving a profit of 24 FP.
So, my total current pending profit is 389 FP for an investment of 1444 FP. Here are my tips for sniping:
(1) If you have extra forge points in your bar and no really good GB ready for a contribution consider looking through your neighborhood for snipe opportunities. In general, it is better to make a profit with your FPs than to contribute to one of your own GBs.
(2) One of the advantages of aging up is that your neighbors get richer, so that means more sniping opportunities and better sniping opportunities. However, don't age up too fast. If you have a lame, underpowered city you will have a hard time gathering the FPs you need to snipe higher level GBs.
(4) The people that tend to be the best snipe targets are those that play solo (no guild or small guild) and contribute heavily to their own GBs, or those that use swaps. Swaps are very unpredictable and sniping opportunities can just pop up out of the blue on a swapped GB.
(5) Try to get a 10% return on your FP or better, unless you need blueprints or it is a high age GB with a lot of medals. For example, I will contribute to a top spot on a Space Carrier even if it is a break even for me because the number of medals is large. For example, a level 53 Space Carrier position 1 returns over 56,000 medals. By comparison, a level 53 Zeus position 1 only returns about 450 medals.
(6) Getting into a good guild that can get you an early Arc will enormously increase your sniping potential because the Arc gives you more return on your contributions, so it greatly increases the number of GB spots that are profitable for you. Good times to get the Arc are when you are HMA, LMA or Colonial. I advise against getting an Arc before that because the Arc is a big building and cities below HMA are too small to comfortably support an Arc. Of course, if you are planning to camp Iron Age or something, then you have no choice, but be aware you are gimping your game doing that. Once you have an Arc you should prioritize leveling it to 80 and temporarily forget about your other GBs.
(7) If you go inactive for a while, don't snipe immediately when you come back. If you go inactive, you might be put into a neighborhood with other inactive players and if you then contribute to their GBs, those FP could be lost because, well, they are inactive, so they never complete their GBs.
(8) Don't snipe really low level players (below 25,000 prestige) unless you have proof they are active and playing every day. Low level players have high drop out and inactivity rates.
(9) Don't snipe bad buildings like Colosseum. Sooner or later the player will figure out that contributing to these GBs is a waste of resources and you lose your FP when the music stops.
(10) Be cautious about contributing to TORs. A TOR is only really profitable up to about level 5 and once it gets to level 10 it is a money loser because it costs more to level than the player would ever get back by the extra 0.5% or whatever each level gives. So there is no telling when the player might figure this out. Basically you should never risk putting FP on a TOR over level 10. Low level TORS (1-5) are good snipes because they are very profitable so players level them fast.
(11) Be cautious about taking top spot on sweet spot GB. Sweet Spot GBs require no initial contribution from the owner, and they can be snipable as soon as they open. For example, Arcs between about 30 and 60 are in their sweet spot. However, since the owner does not have to make a contribution, they might open the level, but wait a LONG time before they start leveling. You don't want to have 1,000 FP invested in some Frauenkirche of Dresden that the owner decided he is not going to work on for a few months. Its Ok to snipe #1 on sweet spot Arcs because the player has to level it, unless he is quitting the game.
(12) The best snipes are on popular GBs, especially the military ones, because they get leveled fast. So, for example, Arcs, Zeus, CDM, COA, Traz, AO, and CF are the top targets. In low age cities LOAs are good targets. Oracles are good, but only in Bronze age. After that they are worthless and too risky. Be wary of Observatories. They are often snipable because guilds have programs to level up the observatories of their members. This results in FPs being added to Observatories quickly and chaotically. The problem is that once the player is taken off the Obs contibution list, then the leveling abruptly stops, even if the Obs is halfway leveled. So, your contribution could get trapped. Observatories do not directly benefit the player, so it makes them risky snipes.
(13) Watch out for spread levelers, people who spread their FP among a lot of different GBs. There are some players who spread their FP among every GB they have and try to level them all equally. This is really dumb, but nevertheless there are a lot of players out there who do this. They are bad snipe targets because their GBs can take months to level.
(14) Yet another thing to watch out for are fast levelers, players that age up as fast as they can. These are the players in your neighborhood who have an unusually low amount of prestige. They have few GBs because they put all their resources into aging up instead of GB development. The GBs they have tend to be the cheapest. So, for example, you might have some guy in Modern Era with 300k prestige and his GBs are the Oracle of Delphi and the Tower of Babel. Obviously you don't want to try to snipe him.
(15) If you see a potentially good snipe, but are worried that the player might be inactive, one way to check is to plunder them. When you go to sabotage them see how many buildings are available for looting. If few or none of them are, then it means the player is collecting, so they are not inactive. On the other hand if all the buildings are available for looting, then they have not collected, so you might have to watch further. Another way to check is to look at the tavern. If the tavern is full, then the player has not collected, but if it is 10/16 or something like that, then they might be active.
(16) One trick is to put a single FP on a snipe candidate to watch it. I used to do this when I started, but after I started sniping a lot I stopped doing this. The problem with doing this is that first of all it warns the player you are tagetting them. Also, most watched targets never pan out, so you end up watching a lot of losers and missing the good ones. It's better to watch PLAYERS, not GBs. Keep a written list of the good player targets (swappers and solos), and then check them manually whenever you do a sweep. When you write down the candidate's name, write down their neighborhood number too so you can find them quickly.
(17) Take the current contributions into account when deciding on a snipe. It is better to snipe GBs that are far along in the leveling process and have big contributions from the owner, than to snipe GBs that have newly leveled. Be especially wary of GBs that have one big contribution, but not from the player. For example, let's say you see a level 10 Traz and it has 600 FP on it by someone who is not the owner. Ok, sure it is definitely snipable, but it is risky because that 600 is probably from a friend or guild leader or something, or maybe a weird swap of some kind. Either way, the owner may have no stake and no interest in getting the Traz to level 11. For example, he might be working on his Arc, which could take weeks or even months. Right now I have 50 FP on my TT put there by a random player in friend's list for reasons unknown (they want BP maybe?) and I have no immediate plans to level my TT, so it could be a couple of months before anything happens on it.
(18) In case of a tie, priority on the contribution reward goes to the player who reached the point of the tie first, not the first contributor. For example, let's say you put 1 FP on a GB and you are the first contributor. Later 4th is the last place available and there is somebody on 4th with 10 and only 9 left total. If you add those 9, you will LOSE, because even though your 1 FP was first, the other player reached 10 first, so they win the tie.
There are some real subtleties to sniping and the math and mind games can get pretty complex, however, the points above should be enough to get you started on your sniping career. Good luck.
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