Fastest Way To Earn Ingots

[Obtuse]

Hi all,

Long time Gardenscapes player, freshly hooked Township player. I started playing about a month ago; seemed eerily similar to another game I had played in the past but somehow as I progressed, the differences started to become apparent and now I can't seem to tear myself away from this glorious builder.

I feel like I have a good handle on most things, I've joined a functioning Co-op, donate goods to members and other players like it's my only goal and finish all my regatta tasks each week. I've learned how to take advantage of my boosters, thus how to earn good coin quickly and have built everything I can build up to this point (that said, a number of buildings are still waiting for mats for completion).

This brings me to the main wall that I feel I've hit. I am level 37, I fill trains as fast as possible, most times they're out of the station within seconds of their arrival, some times I even spend t-cash to bring them home early. I do gather mining tools relatively quickly and I feel like I have a very solid handle on how to efficiently mine, yet with two foundries, I can turn that ore into ingots in under 24 hours. I upgrade a factory (or if I'm lucky, two) and then I have to wait to gather more mining tools. I usually save up enough tools to successfully clear a regatta task (mine 54 ore, etc) in one go.

My question, after my long winded post, is: Can I expect to earn more ore/ingots at a quicker rate as I continue to progress? Does the zoo offer ingots for completing anything? Do the boxes with tools that arrive on the train contain more tools as I continue to level? Is there a faster way to earn ingots that I could be maximizing on right now. Because I need to upgrade my rubber factory asap and I can't earn enough silver ore to save my life.

Thank you for your consideration.

[cdosr]

Hi and welcome to getting hooked on Township

Many folks will tell you that, if you can afford the T-Cash, hiring the Market Dealer (Raja) is a good deal. Hire him once for the minimum of 1 day, when that day is over, he will offer his services for a discount, usually 72T for 10 days (normally 90T). You can buy stuff from him once an hour including ore.

So if you are looking to make silver ingots, you can buy between 6 and 9 units of ore per hour and since it takes 2 hours to smelt it into a silver ingot, you can keep 2 foundries going most of the time.

My own priorities for the Market Dealer is to buy whatever I need to fill trains / planes if I cannot produce it in a reasonable time, then items that are "hot" for the zoo, and then load up on ore depending on what I'm short of. Of course, there are times when other needs will override these priorities (like regatta tasks) but in general, if I've nothing better to do, I buy ore.

I've not seen an appreciable difference in the mining tools brought by train, it's usually a mix of 4 - 7 things. Since I buy whatever ore I need from Raja, I do not use the mine unless there is a specific regatta task for mining. Given that, I've saved up a fair stash of mining tools.

Sending a full plane often results in an ingot reward. Unless I have a specific goal in mind for a factory, island, or train, I keep the ingots around and then I have a choice of several upgrades to make. I try to hang on to the platinum ingots to send to the islanders for certain regatta tasks. Upgrades seem to have a lower requirement for platinum but need a lot of bronze (copper) ingots.

I hope this helps

[Obtuse]

Of course! I do remember seeing ore through the market dealer, must've slipped my brain. I'll start hiring Raja (within my t-cash budget or course and see if I can get a jump on silver ore. I guess I can also request ore through my co-op request as well. I imagine most people won't want to part with the ore they have but there's no harm in trying. Thanks for the tip Cdosr!

[Starshine]

The ore for upgrading is a constant problem. I'm around level 114 and still never have enough ore/ingots. I built all 3 of my foundries but they are rarely running. However, my preference (and this is just a preference) is to not use my t-cash on the dealer. Some people claim it is cost-efficient to hire him but for me, not so much. I have too much going on outside Township so I don't make efficient use of him (buying *something* every hour). I just put up with not being able to upgrade as fast as I would like.

You might want to discuss requesting ore in your coop before you ask for it. While it is possible to request ore or jewelry, it seemed like an unreasonable request to members of my coop, so we don't. We limit requests to items that can be easily bought at the market or replaced in our fields or factories. Your coop may see it differently but it would be courteous to ask first.

[Bessville]

Yeah, I agree about requesting ore.. I wouldn’t do it myself. Nor would I request mining tools.

My advice would be that paying Tcash to rush trains just to get tools is far less economical than buying ore, or even tools, direct from Raja. I have him going permanently as I flit in and out of the game frequently, so I get the benefit, but even if you didn’t, it’d still be cheaper to have him around now and again than rushing trains is. I get ingots from planes too, and occasionally even get ore in the HoL, though not often.

[Veganville]

(that said, a number of buildings are still waiting for mats for completion).

So this isn't your question, but rule number one is: one community building at a time. Check the tips threads for how to dig yourself out of this hole, otherwise you're arresting your progress.

Next, build the third foundry, and that will expand your ingot capacity.

Next, and I'm sorry if I was confused, but I find this a forest/trees question. Is the problem ingots or ore? If you have enough ore, you can make ingots. You find ore in the mine, and can overpay for it at the dealer. Ore-buyers are usually getting it to make jewelry to sell for t-cash, thereby converting coins to cash. You might find it more profitable to buy pickaxes from Raja with coins, and work the mine. As you know the mine also returns coins, tools, gems, artifacts, and occasional other prizes from those mystery rooms and bottles (skip the chests unless you have loads of cash).

Ultimately though, factory upgrades are at best a secondary goal of the game, in my humble O. Building your buildings, increasing population, adding crop capacity, buying new factories - those are the core processes and those should be the priority at your level. If you're not having trouble filling your trains and planes, and you're able to help your team, then upgrading factories doesn't seem like a very big need. It's a nice-to-have but not a must-have, compared to finishing those buildings.

[Blondie37]

I think I agree with Veganville interesting to read the different ways folk play this game which makes it a great game

[Katville]

I keep the dealer all the time and I do buy a lot of ore. When I don't need something specific I will buy some ore. I keep my foundries working as much as possible. My goal was to get all my trains upgraded as fast as possible. That way I get more tools for the barn, buildings, and expansion. I found that has helped me a lot.
If you don't have a lot of coins buying from the dealer all the time can be a problem.
So to deal with that I periodically use the helicopter booster and get a bunch of coins.

[debville]

I used my dealer to get mining tools and ore, then upgraded my trains first before anything else and that cut their time in half. Now I get more tools from trains faster, making it easier to mine for more ore, to turn into ingots and upgrade other things. Everyone has different priorities, but this is what I did. Then I focused on building up my zoo. Each week I make a ton of all zoo items then buy the zoo booster. This gives me more than enough to buy the next animal and add another zoo basket, etc as well as buy a few different boosters that week. So, whatever priorities you set, if you go with ones that will feed themselves, you will upgrade faster! Best of luck.

[Vuurvl]

I have my three forges running all the time. Raja's search is also permanently active, I renew it each 10 days for 72 tcash, and I use it 80%/90% of the time to buy ore. I stop by Raja multiple times a day just to buy more ore and refill the forges.

Between Raja and running trains at 50% return speed (for mining tools), I have enough ore to keep the 3 forges burning, burning, burning.