Saturday morning.
I had 3,718,054 AP's and the required badges for R10 in Ingress.
I needed just under 300k and had two days to do it (my goal is to level up by Sunday each time I get near the next level). It could be done but I was short of time on Saturday and my buddy Wayne wanted to perform some person revenge attacks instead of focusing on points or actions that would get both of us upgraded badges. That was okay, I still had a few hours Sunday morning.
We drove up to a local shopping center to take out a couple of weak anchor portals (portal used to anchor several links and/or fields) worth 5k each. Once we were done with that, we headed to Murphy to clean up on a nice link anchor field near the high school and a public park. That took a little longer because we also completed a mission while we were there. At this point we were at about 50k points each so we boogied over to do the revenge attack(s) Wayne wanted to carry out against his neighbor, a mid level toad. You know him as Hockey Man. Personally I did not want to hit him but Wayne had his heart set on it so we did.
That was pretty anti-climactic (no surprise) so I ushered him over to a place in Plano that had several links completely undefended (tadpoles set them up, I think) where we dispatched them quickly. At this point it was about time to return Wayne back home (I was driving this week) so we started to head back, stopping only at a few weak and tempting targets on the way back. Once I got him back home I completed 1-2 missions in Allen and then headed home.
Sunday morning.
I had 3,838,895 AP's and the required badges for R10. I had gotten over 120k points without breaking a sweat the day before.
I got up and decided to walk our new-ish dog (15 months old but had never been trained so she is a handful. A coon hound/beagle handful who loves to chase rabbits) at the park across the street, the same park the hockey family defends with a passion. While walking the pooch, I hack all the portals to get a little gear and a small amount of points. It was about halfway into my first lap I noticed one of the portals was a weakly defended anchor portal, so I used the few L4, L5, and L6 XMP's I had to bring it down. I only had a 3- 5 of each so it took them all to bring it down. Once down, I threw a few token L5,L6, and L7 resonators and basic shields on it (I had a ton to spare) and continued my walk. On the next lap I noticed I could link up a few of the friendly portals that had not been reclaimed by the Hockey Family. This should have told me something but I did not really pay it any mind. So I took a few minutes and created a few small fields, just for the points and went back home.
My wife was almost ready to head out to church and I had a small list of chores I need to complete before I did anything else. So once I washed, dried and put away the dishes, cleaned and portioned off the fruit, and had my breakfast, I was free to play a little more.
My plan was to get to R10 before lunch, when I would be meeting my wife so I looked at any high point targets and found several in the city so I went after them. As I took out more and more targets, I inched closer to that magical 4,000,000 AP mark. I was just 15k away when I went back to the shopping center Wayne and I were at the day before and started attacking portals. It was not time at all before I hit the 4 million AP mark,so I headed back home.
On the way home I looked at the Hockey Family maintained park and saw all the portals I haphazardly worked on were now green. I looked at the level and noticed they looked weak. Then I looked at the defenses and they were completely non-existent! Hockey family set up several anchor link portals worth 30-40k points completely undefended! I could not resist the low hanging fruit so I hit just those portals with the last of my lower powered XMP's (L5 and L6...I was out of L7's) and went home. I finished the weekend at 4.040,476 AP's. I think I need to thank Hockey Family for all the points.
Seeing all the poorly defended portals made me think that just maybe the Hockey Family is a little low on gear. It happens when you cannot get out and farm sometimes. Mods may be common, but you have to hack a lot of friendly's to get them. I don't get the impression they farm much, but I could be wrong. I guess we will see. Maybe they will get some donations like I did a few weeks ago.
Anyhoo...later that Sunday,Wayne called me up to discuss if the Hockey Family had been cheating or not (at this point, I do not care...build all you want, I will just tear it all back down...that is all part of the game, right?) and we watched in real time as the son took out a couple of portals that had no real value. It did not appear he was cheating at all.
After that I gave Wayne some intel on how he could make a large field with little effort so he followed my advice and was rewarded with a couple of thousand AP's for his trouble.
It was a productive weekend. I have a big hurdle to clear (I need 1 more gold to get to R11, not to mention the 2 million additional AP's to get to that level) but getting to 10 feels good. I just need to continue to do more of the same: Selective link assassination. Hack everything. Upgrade friendly portals with better resonators and mods. Link and field when appropriate. Reclaim any weak/undefended portals when I can. Recharge resonators of any friendly portal I come across. And continue doing it.
I made it to work today 4,053,434 AP's, a gain of almost 13k AP's that I picked up hacking and linking along the route to work.
Six Million Points? I got this.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Me, The Farmer
A big (and somewhat boring) part of Ingress is farming. Farming is when you seek out higher level groups of portals, usually close together (hence the term "farm"), and hack them for gear. The idea is that if you and several other put a little in, you will get a lot out, just like on a farm. 8 people each donate an L8 resonator, half of them donate mods (shields, force amps, turrets, multihacks, etc) and you can each hit it 4 times in 4 hours, essentially getting a lot more than you put in to it. If the farm stays up more than one day, you can hack it going to and coming from work. Nice, easy painless way to collect gear.
If you hack enemy portals, you get less gear (usually) and take some damage but on the plus side you get 100 AP.
If you farm friendly portals, you get more (again, usually) and better gear, but you do not take any damage and you do not get any points for the hack. It is sort of like going to your neighbor and saying, "can I have a cup of sugar"
Most local factions have a farm or two (L7 or L8) they farm on a regular basis to keep them stocked with the higher level gear needed to remain active in the game. Since it takes many L7-L8 players to make a good farm, there is usually a sense of "ownership" to that farm and normally the rival faction will tend to leave the farm alone unless there are a lot of people who maintain it, then it becomes a bit of a challenge to see if the rival faction can take it down before the host faction can keep it up. Part of the game and most of us accept that. It can be fun.
In smaller areas/communities with few maintainers, the farms usually are left alone unless the farm becomes huge and begins to tip the balance of power. Up where I live, there are a couple of hotly contested areas so they never really stay in control of one faction very long so calling them "farms" is not really accurate.
Now sometimes, a group (8+ people) of high level players from the same faction will come in and set up a farm (with heat sinks and multihacks), with the sole intent of farming it for several hours or days to build up gear and then move on. If you can be part of one of those organized gatherings, get in quickly to claim your share.
In my neck of the woods we have a small cemetery with 7 portals in it, 6 of which can be "drive by" hacked (hacked from the comfort of your automobile/cycle). The cemetery has been an occasional L6-L7-L8 farm for the Resistance, lasting a few weeks before someone comes in and knocks it down. A couple of times in the past it has been done by an L15 looking for a nice point haul with a few L8 XMP's...while disappointing to those few who maintain it (3 or 4 L8-L9 agents and every once in a while a few L9-L10 will help) We understand...the agent is trying to level up and this is mostly low hanging fruit (unless we can get enough AXA shields at one time to defend it).
However on a couple of occasions it has been taken down purely as some sort of revenge towards one or two of the maintainers. To me that is just silly. If I took the time to seek out every L7-L8 farm that was maintained by someone who attacked one of my portals, I would not have any time to farm! Besides, I just link hunt. Taking out an entire L7-L8 farm is wasteful no matter which faction you belong to.
Taking out L8 farms, especially smaller ones seems wasteful. I purposely left one alone in Plano (75/Park area) and had hoped to farm it but some group on the Resistance decimated it. Maybe they thought it was getting too big? Not sure. Anyhoo, a few hours later the toads had it back up so I am happy for them. Each side needs at least one local high level farm. Of course it did not last long as some other Resistance member took it out again. The next day it still was not back up so Waynea1, PapawTexas, and I filled it out, sans any L8 reso's (I was out...grrr) and linked it a bit for points, then left. The toads will have it back up and hopefully it will stay a while.
So, am I wrong? Should the small farms be left alone if they are not a real threat to the rival faction?
If you hack enemy portals, you get less gear (usually) and take some damage but on the plus side you get 100 AP.
If you farm friendly portals, you get more (again, usually) and better gear, but you do not take any damage and you do not get any points for the hack. It is sort of like going to your neighbor and saying, "can I have a cup of sugar"
Most local factions have a farm or two (L7 or L8) they farm on a regular basis to keep them stocked with the higher level gear needed to remain active in the game. Since it takes many L7-L8 players to make a good farm, there is usually a sense of "ownership" to that farm and normally the rival faction will tend to leave the farm alone unless there are a lot of people who maintain it, then it becomes a bit of a challenge to see if the rival faction can take it down before the host faction can keep it up. Part of the game and most of us accept that. It can be fun.
In smaller areas/communities with few maintainers, the farms usually are left alone unless the farm becomes huge and begins to tip the balance of power. Up where I live, there are a couple of hotly contested areas so they never really stay in control of one faction very long so calling them "farms" is not really accurate.
Now sometimes, a group (8+ people) of high level players from the same faction will come in and set up a farm (with heat sinks and multihacks), with the sole intent of farming it for several hours or days to build up gear and then move on. If you can be part of one of those organized gatherings, get in quickly to claim your share.
In my neck of the woods we have a small cemetery with 7 portals in it, 6 of which can be "drive by" hacked (hacked from the comfort of your automobile/cycle). The cemetery has been an occasional L6-L7-L8 farm for the Resistance, lasting a few weeks before someone comes in and knocks it down. A couple of times in the past it has been done by an L15 looking for a nice point haul with a few L8 XMP's...while disappointing to those few who maintain it (3 or 4 L8-L9 agents and every once in a while a few L9-L10 will help) We understand...the agent is trying to level up and this is mostly low hanging fruit (unless we can get enough AXA shields at one time to defend it).
However on a couple of occasions it has been taken down purely as some sort of revenge towards one or two of the maintainers. To me that is just silly. If I took the time to seek out every L7-L8 farm that was maintained by someone who attacked one of my portals, I would not have any time to farm! Besides, I just link hunt. Taking out an entire L7-L8 farm is wasteful no matter which faction you belong to.
Taking out L8 farms, especially smaller ones seems wasteful. I purposely left one alone in Plano (75/Park area) and had hoped to farm it but some group on the Resistance decimated it. Maybe they thought it was getting too big? Not sure. Anyhoo, a few hours later the toads had it back up so I am happy for them. Each side needs at least one local high level farm. Of course it did not last long as some other Resistance member took it out again. The next day it still was not back up so Waynea1, PapawTexas, and I filled it out, sans any L8 reso's (I was out...grrr) and linked it a bit for points, then left. The toads will have it back up and hopefully it will stay a while.
So, am I wrong? Should the small farms be left alone if they are not a real threat to the rival faction?
Monday, August 24, 2015
I Thought I Said Not To Take It Personally
I had a fantastic weekend with PapawTexas and Waynea1, Ingressing in South East Plano near 15th Street. The toads had about 50 L5-L7 portals all linked up pretty as you please. It was a very tempting target that Waynea1 pointed out. The AP potential was pretty huge, even for three players joining forces which we do not do much.
So after breakfast at Mom's Cafe in Allen, the three of us went off to link a few portals before heading down to P-Town. Before we left the cafe, I gave each of my Smurf brothers 75+ L7 resonators (a gift from ViktorLaszlo) to seed on any Smurf portal we ran across. I was also armed with 150 extra L7 and L8 XMP's as well as some Ultra Strikes from MisterAlex (much of which I still have thanx to farming)
We arrived at GZ and scoped out the portals with the highest point value (links/fields) and worked our way backwards. We hacked, liberated, and brought on line ~50 portals in a very short time (we did this walking ... need to upgrade our Trekker badges). We did not waste our time linking them back up because we knew the toads would fight like crazy to reclaim it and I did not want to give them more points than I had to. This was simply a controlled carpet bombing.
The mid-level farm was being maintained by a few toads, one of which is a member of a family who lives in Allen, who just happens to live within spitting distance of Waynea1. This attack would not be taken lightly, as it would most likely be perceived to be personal. And while it COULD be looked at like it was personal, it wasn't...it just happened to be the juiciest low hanging fruit I could find in the immediate area. It made sense from a points gathering perspective. There were bigger farms but they were much more heavily defended than this one...heck many of the portals didn't even have basic shields.
This attack also helped contribute to netting me over 200k AP, over 150k AP for PapawTexas, and over 100k AP for Waynea1 (he did not take out as many portals as we did) during the weekend. It was euphoric once it was all taken down (even though a few toads began rebuilding shortly after we finished).
Once we left Plano we headed back to Allen where we all met and took out many of the remaining toad portals along the route. This is where I think it became personal because all (or at least most of) the portals belonged to one family. I affectionately refer to them as "Hockey Family". Hockey family was quiet for a while but they went out at 10 or 10:30 PM that night and the next night to begin taking things back. This is where it gets confusing to me.
I don't quite understand their logic (I am not a strategist or do I feel I am smarter than anyone else) on why they would waste SEVEN Jarvis Virii flipping portals (5 alone in one small park alone), several of which had no real strategic value. And on top of that, they have a history of flipping these portals (not getting any points for doing so) and letting them decay....never maintaining them. I guess they could be waiting to build them back up but why waste the Jarvis and AXA on them? Those are pretty rare. However it is their choice...they certainly can play the game as they wish.
Normally when I experienced players hit the portals I maintain, it is usually because of the lure of the AP's or because it is in the way of a bigger field. Not with the Hockey Family. The three of them (Dad, Mom, son) appear to hit portals randomly, not creating big fields, and dropping AXA shields on them, then let them decay...no teamwork at all. I mean, if I have a key to a friendly portal, I will remote recharge if I am not out playing, keeping portals up and running when I cannot visit them. I do not see anyone coming in behind them to fortify their work...things just decay. With many of the people I Ingress with, we go out of our way to fortify/upgrade portals (as team players and to work on our badges)...upgrading and recharging any chance we get. I just don't see that with this family. That is kind of sad. If they would think about their attacks/defenses better, they might have more success in the game and in the area they play, but it obviously their choice to play as they like.
One of the areas they hit on Sunday night They linked it up pretty well, but they placed the AXA shields on the portals with the fewest links. Why? If I go selective link hunting, like I normally do, I am going to hit the weaker one, take the points, and move on. Knowing their habit of letting things decay, I will just come back in a week to take back the stronger one when it is close to death.
The father of that family has sent me taunts such as "Sucks to be you since you lost all those portals last night..." and "have fun wasting all your gear taking those portals back..." that I find amusing. He obviously does not realize I farm almost every day and thanx to generous, higher level smurfs Dragnlo, MisterAlex, ViktorLaszlo), I have more than enough gear to do what I WANT to do on a daily basis. I don't have to "waste" my gear. I will just plan my attacks around toad weaknesses. Simple as that. Have 3 portals linked without shields and 7 others linked and heavily defended? Take a guess where my spare L6 XMP's are going to be used. Wasting gear? L6 XMP's are my daily drivers with my L7 and L8's in reserve for serious battle. So what if I did not build out what I took down? I liberated it, left a few L8's and/or L7's reso's to keep the tadpoles away and moved on. All in the strategy.
Don't take it personally just because you cannot understand me as an opportunistic link hunter. Study Sun Tzu and then you will understand.
And besides...it is just a game, right ;) ?
So after breakfast at Mom's Cafe in Allen, the three of us went off to link a few portals before heading down to P-Town. Before we left the cafe, I gave each of my Smurf brothers 75+ L7 resonators (a gift from ViktorLaszlo) to seed on any Smurf portal we ran across. I was also armed with 150 extra L7 and L8 XMP's as well as some Ultra Strikes from MisterAlex (much of which I still have thanx to farming)
We arrived at GZ and scoped out the portals with the highest point value (links/fields) and worked our way backwards. We hacked, liberated, and brought on line ~50 portals in a very short time (we did this walking ... need to upgrade our Trekker badges). We did not waste our time linking them back up because we knew the toads would fight like crazy to reclaim it and I did not want to give them more points than I had to. This was simply a controlled carpet bombing.
The mid-level farm was being maintained by a few toads, one of which is a member of a family who lives in Allen, who just happens to live within spitting distance of Waynea1. This attack would not be taken lightly, as it would most likely be perceived to be personal. And while it COULD be looked at like it was personal, it wasn't...it just happened to be the juiciest low hanging fruit I could find in the immediate area. It made sense from a points gathering perspective. There were bigger farms but they were much more heavily defended than this one...heck many of the portals didn't even have basic shields.
This attack also helped contribute to netting me over 200k AP, over 150k AP for PapawTexas, and over 100k AP for Waynea1 (he did not take out as many portals as we did) during the weekend. It was euphoric once it was all taken down (even though a few toads began rebuilding shortly after we finished).
Once we left Plano we headed back to Allen where we all met and took out many of the remaining toad portals along the route. This is where I think it became personal because all (or at least most of) the portals belonged to one family. I affectionately refer to them as "Hockey Family". Hockey family was quiet for a while but they went out at 10 or 10:30 PM that night and the next night to begin taking things back. This is where it gets confusing to me.
I don't quite understand their logic (I am not a strategist or do I feel I am smarter than anyone else) on why they would waste SEVEN Jarvis Virii flipping portals (5 alone in one small park alone), several of which had no real strategic value. And on top of that, they have a history of flipping these portals (not getting any points for doing so) and letting them decay....never maintaining them. I guess they could be waiting to build them back up but why waste the Jarvis and AXA on them? Those are pretty rare. However it is their choice...they certainly can play the game as they wish.
Normally when I experienced players hit the portals I maintain, it is usually because of the lure of the AP's or because it is in the way of a bigger field. Not with the Hockey Family. The three of them (Dad, Mom, son) appear to hit portals randomly, not creating big fields, and dropping AXA shields on them, then let them decay...no teamwork at all. I mean, if I have a key to a friendly portal, I will remote recharge if I am not out playing, keeping portals up and running when I cannot visit them. I do not see anyone coming in behind them to fortify their work...things just decay. With many of the people I Ingress with, we go out of our way to fortify/upgrade portals (as team players and to work on our badges)...upgrading and recharging any chance we get. I just don't see that with this family. That is kind of sad. If they would think about their attacks/defenses better, they might have more success in the game and in the area they play, but it obviously their choice to play as they like.
One of the areas they hit on Sunday night They linked it up pretty well, but they placed the AXA shields on the portals with the fewest links. Why? If I go selective link hunting, like I normally do, I am going to hit the weaker one, take the points, and move on. Knowing their habit of letting things decay, I will just come back in a week to take back the stronger one when it is close to death.
The father of that family has sent me taunts such as "Sucks to be you since you lost all those portals last night..." and "have fun wasting all your gear taking those portals back..." that I find amusing. He obviously does not realize I farm almost every day and thanx to generous, higher level smurfs Dragnlo, MisterAlex, ViktorLaszlo), I have more than enough gear to do what I WANT to do on a daily basis. I don't have to "waste" my gear. I will just plan my attacks around toad weaknesses. Simple as that. Have 3 portals linked without shields and 7 others linked and heavily defended? Take a guess where my spare L6 XMP's are going to be used. Wasting gear? L6 XMP's are my daily drivers with my L7 and L8's in reserve for serious battle. So what if I did not build out what I took down? I liberated it, left a few L8's and/or L7's reso's to keep the tadpoles away and moved on. All in the strategy.
Don't take it personally just because you cannot understand me as an opportunistic link hunter. Study Sun Tzu and then you will understand.
And besides...it is just a game, right ;) ?
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Don't Take it Personally
The longer I play Ingress, the more I realize that some players appear to be just a tad too emotionally invested in the game, doing anything to try to control certain portals, usually near home or work. I have to admit, I was like that as well for a little while but once I started watching who was attacking the portals I was maintaining and understanding the reason(s) behind the attacks, I did not take it personally any more.
Oh I still get frustrated when an area I help maintain gets taken out but I don't let it get to me too much. I don't have players that I target (even though I have the feeling I have a few who have me in their sights) just to annoy them, although I have once or twice targeted portals that I knew would get under the skin of the maintainer. Of course I was just letting them know I am not a pushover. I try to limit that sort of behavior because I really am not the vengeful type.
Now one thing that occasionally I am horribly guilty of is the mindless, random destruction of Enlightened portals. This usually happens when a player out in Ingress Land tries (and succeeds) to push my buttons. Once I was on my way home from work I pulled up to a series of portals that had been sort of a "mini farm" for me and a few locals and found it completely destroyed and brought back online by the Toads. I had no idea who did it (I did not follow the comms much at the time) but it angered me greatly (A bad day at work did not help matters much, either). All that time, all those resonators, mods, and links...gone. I drove to the closest toad portals and damn near completely emptied my gear collection on a few insignificant portals that had no strategic value whatsoever. It took several days (and a few gifts from some fellow smurfs...Alex, Dorian, Chris, et al) to get back to where I was before the mindless destruction of the portals.
We all (me included) need to keep the game in perspective. While it is okay to be passionate about it, it should not be your "raison d'être".
As we get more involved with our Ingress playing, we are bound to piss off somebody, maybe even a group of somebodies. For me it is a local family (Father, Mother, son) who lives very close to one of my Ingress playing friends. While I could be mistaken, I get the feeling that I am their adversary. I jokingly told a few of my local smurfs that I should take it as a compliment since it takes his whole family to undo just what I set up. But the truth of the the matter is...it is a bit creepy.
Do you know someone like that in the opposing faction? When you go hit a portal of a certain someone, do they rush right over (I quite literally mean AT THAT VERY MOMENT) to take it back?
Seriously.
Have you ever received unsolicited taunts on the comms - "It must really suck to be you since you lost so many portals last night"?
Really? How old are you again?
How about having a toad pull up behind you in their vehicle (at night) and just sit there, watching, then sending you a comms message once you leave the area?
Creepy.
Now, after reading this you may think I am taking this too seriously...maybe you are right...I guess I could be. It is just a game. I was warned when I started this that just like anything else, some people take things too far. I really hope I don't end up like this. I mean, I have a life and other interests not to mention a job in IT. I may spend a lot of free time walking, hacking, and farming, but at least I am getting exercise :)
Oh I still get frustrated when an area I help maintain gets taken out but I don't let it get to me too much. I don't have players that I target (even though I have the feeling I have a few who have me in their sights) just to annoy them, although I have once or twice targeted portals that I knew would get under the skin of the maintainer. Of course I was just letting them know I am not a pushover. I try to limit that sort of behavior because I really am not the vengeful type.
Now one thing that occasionally I am horribly guilty of is the mindless, random destruction of Enlightened portals. This usually happens when a player out in Ingress Land tries (and succeeds) to push my buttons. Once I was on my way home from work I pulled up to a series of portals that had been sort of a "mini farm" for me and a few locals and found it completely destroyed and brought back online by the Toads. I had no idea who did it (I did not follow the comms much at the time) but it angered me greatly (A bad day at work did not help matters much, either). All that time, all those resonators, mods, and links...gone. I drove to the closest toad portals and damn near completely emptied my gear collection on a few insignificant portals that had no strategic value whatsoever. It took several days (and a few gifts from some fellow smurfs...Alex, Dorian, Chris, et al) to get back to where I was before the mindless destruction of the portals.
We all (me included) need to keep the game in perspective. While it is okay to be passionate about it, it should not be your "raison d'être".
As we get more involved with our Ingress playing, we are bound to piss off somebody, maybe even a group of somebodies. For me it is a local family (Father, Mother, son) who lives very close to one of my Ingress playing friends. While I could be mistaken, I get the feeling that I am their adversary. I jokingly told a few of my local smurfs that I should take it as a compliment since it takes his whole family to undo just what I set up. But the truth of the the matter is...it is a bit creepy.
Do you know someone like that in the opposing faction? When you go hit a portal of a certain someone, do they rush right over (I quite literally mean AT THAT VERY MOMENT) to take it back?
Seriously.
Have you ever received unsolicited taunts on the comms - "It must really suck to be you since you lost so many portals last night"?
Really? How old are you again?
How about having a toad pull up behind you in their vehicle (at night) and just sit there, watching, then sending you a comms message once you leave the area?
Creepy.
Now, after reading this you may think I am taking this too seriously...maybe you are right...I guess I could be. It is just a game. I was warned when I started this that just like anything else, some people take things too far. I really hope I don't end up like this. I mean, I have a life and other interests not to mention a job in IT. I may spend a lot of free time walking, hacking, and farming, but at least I am getting exercise :)
Monday, August 10, 2015
Ingress - Level 9
After about 2 months or so of play, I am at R9 in Ingress. I reached that milestone during my morning commute this morning when I noticed 2 link anchor portals that were calling my name. It came at a cost...I am pretty weapons poor at the moment. However it netted me the points I needed to put me over the top. I managed to get 33k points on the morning commute. I normally get 10-20k.
I had a stellar week, gaining over 300k AP's (points) during a 7 day period. I stayed in the top 50 regional players all week as well, which is saying a lot since we have some STELLAR players (DragNLo - congrats on your number one slot)
I don't thing I have done too poorly overall but I have to admit my commute time and gasoline consumption has doubled.
To reach R9, you need to not only get points (2.4 million) but you also need to get badges/medals:
I had a stellar week, gaining over 300k AP's (points) during a 7 day period. I stayed in the top 50 regional players all week as well, which is saying a lot since we have some STELLAR players (DragNLo - congrats on your number one slot)
I don't thing I have done too poorly overall but I have to admit my commute time and gasoline consumption has doubled.
To reach R9, you need to not only get points (2.4 million) but you also need to get badges/medals:
- L09 Agent = 2,400,000 AP + 1 gold 4 silver - Level Reached
- L10 Agent = 4,000,000 AP + 2 gold 5 silver
- L11 Agent = 6,000,000 AP + 4 gold 6 silver
- L12 Agent = 8,400,000 AP + 6 gold 7 silver
Getting the badges/medals for R9 was not very hard. I currently have enough of those for R10 (and bloody close for R11), but I still need the points. The gap between Silver and Gold is pretty big, so I am really going to have to hack, upgrade. link, and destroy nearly every single time I get the chance if I want to get to R11. I am also going to have to see out portals I have not hacked before, just to increase my changes of getting those badges/medals. Fortunately I have a couple of places I can farm for supplies if needed, proving they stick around. I have been actively maintaining them when I can.
R13 is where the ULTIMATE Challenge begins as you need to get Platinum badges/medals to level up:
- L13 Agent = 12,000,000 AP + 1 Platinum 7 Gold
- L14 Agent = 17,000,000 AP + 2 Platinum 7 Gold
- L15 Agent = 24,000,000 AP + 3 Platinum 7 Gold
And if you want to get to R16, you need "black" badges/medals:
- L16 Agent = 40,000,000 AP + 2 Black 4 Platinum 7 Gold
The game takes a lot of time if you want to level up effectively. I am learning the best ways of getting ponts but it still takes a lot of XMP's and Ultra Strikes to do it.
I am sure I can male R12 by Christmas, maybe even Thanksgiving this year.
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Do You Love Ingress?
Man, this game is addicting. I am constantly looking for new ways home to hack/attack unique portals, upgrade resonators and/or mods, trying to link and create fields to help The Resistance keep XM from destroying us all. I selectively seek out "Link Anchors" which will yield me a good deal of points with little effort (okay so I waste 20-30 L6,L7, and L8 XMP's but who's counting?) and really get the toadies knickers in a bunch.
But with all the fun I get out of playing Ingress, it frustrates me as well. Not the game, but the notifications that, "Your link/portal/resonator, XYZ has been neutralized"...it is so demoralizing to me. Probably not for you, but it really bothers me. I would rather wake up and see my portals down and owned by toads than get inundated with 6000 e-mails telling me so. It was crushing me.
So I made the decision to turn off all notifications and I have to say I am a happier man. of course I would be happier if "SlapYoMom" had not taken out the L6/L7/L8 farm across from my office. I am sure glad I was able to stock up a little at lunch today before he/she went on their rampage. Well, played, SlapYoMom,well played.
In other news I am just under 600k points from reaching R9. I have my badges/medals for that level and I am actively working to get badges/medals for the next, before I need them.
But with all the fun I get out of playing Ingress, it frustrates me as well. Not the game, but the notifications that, "Your link/portal/resonator, XYZ has been neutralized"...it is so demoralizing to me. Probably not for you, but it really bothers me. I would rather wake up and see my portals down and owned by toads than get inundated with 6000 e-mails telling me so. It was crushing me.
So I made the decision to turn off all notifications and I have to say I am a happier man. of course I would be happier if "SlapYoMom" had not taken out the L6/L7/L8 farm across from my office. I am sure glad I was able to stock up a little at lunch today before he/she went on their rampage. Well, played, SlapYoMom,well played.
In other news I am just under 600k points from reaching R9. I have my badges/medals for that level and I am actively working to get badges/medals for the next, before I need them.
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