What Is A Good Upgrading Strategy?

[Calafuria Horde]

I have upgraded my trains to level 21 and it's great to have them every 2 hours but now I'm thinking what is better to upgrade now. The ships or the factories? The islands are far and you can't even choice what to take but for the basic object, so even a little help is welcomed.

The main factories, bakery, diary, sugar and rubber, produce goods needed by the other factories so their improvement produce a general improvement, but I can't leave all the other factories at level 1 or a little more.

Or maybe it is better to upgrade everything together?

Can I have your opinion? What should I update now?

[Amoria]

Hi Calafuria,

Congrats on getting your trains' full time reduction!

It depends on what your playing style and primary focus (leveling up, earning coins, raising town hall stats, etc).

I'm working on my islands (at the expense of my factories) and regretting it (lmao). It's making it take longer to complete train/plane/helicopter orders and regatta tasks. But as I'm already in the trenches, I'm pushing myself to get a 50% time reduction before quitting. The higher island levels (15+) can take like 30 bronze ingots + 10 silver ingots + ?? per upgrade. Majorly frustrating. I keep thinking about how much I could've done with those ingots elsewhere.

Given that experience, I'd focus on factories first. You might feel tempted to upgrade all of them together, but it works in your benefit to focus on one at a time. You don't really feel the impact of factory upgrades until you've pushed one up by 5-10 levels or so. If that method doesn't work for you, I'd pick a group of related factories to upgrade. For example: rubber, plastic, shoes, and furniture. I'd push them up as high as I can and when boredom sets in quickly change to another group.

You can also switch back and forth between factory and island upgrades. But again, you're not going to be sensing much of a difference until each individual factory/island has been raised by quite a few levels. I'm like...way too impatient to do that (lol). It's why knowing your playing style is so important.

Township Wiki has its own more specific recommendations. The whole page is here, but I'll attach an excerpt below:

Recommended Upgrades Order:

1. Upgrade feed mills to level 5 or 11 for the extra shelves and faster production, or straight to level 13.
2. Upgrade trains to level 21 to reduce time by 50% to get more materials/tools faster, and help to complete and upgrade your barn/buildings/town faster and easier.
3. Then upgrade the main factories (bakery, dairy and sugar) to -20 to -25% time (level 12 or 15).
4. After that continue to upgrade factories to level 5 or straight to 11 to get 1-2 shelves for more storage space, and faster production.
5. You can upgrade islands to bring the 2nd good (like coconuts) back with a higher chance, so you won't need to send out all ships with ingots to get more goods or complete Regatta tasks.
6. Continue to reduce factories time to 50% then upgrade coins for decorations, etc. or xp to level up faster.
7. Continue to reduce islands time to 50% then upgrade the 2nd good to 10% and the 3rd good to 10%.
8. Lastly upgrade trains experience to 100% then factories to 50% coins and 50% experience.
9. You will get the Triumph of Modernization achievement for upgrading 3, 7 and 18 factories to level 10/15, so the achievement encourages you to upgrade.

Dec 2015 Update: After the update it's no longer possible to choose between all attributes when upgrading the factories. Each level offers some attributes of which you choose one. If an attribute is grayed out you can tap the '+' under it and floating text will tell you at what level this attribute can be upgraded next.

[Graylady]

Hi Calafuria

I would focus on your factories for a while. What is the use of speeding your trains if they sit waiting for products ? The most satisfying factories to upgrade are the 3 most busy ones : dairy, sugar and bakery. Bring these 3 at 50% time off and you will see nice results.

I agree the ships take a long time so, for the moment, keep them moving all the time. Do not let them sit waiting. You do not know where to send them ? Send 1 boat to each island.

[cdosr]

Township Wiki has its own more specific recommendations. The whole page is here, but I'll attach an excerpt below:

I only have one quibble with the info from the wiki.

5.You can upgrade islands to bring the 2nd good (like coconuts) back with a higher chance, so you won't need to send out all ships with ingots to get more goods or complete Regatta tasks.

The claim that you won't need to send ingots is a bit misleading. While you will always get 3 of the primary items, some of the tasks require the secondary items. I have not seen any tasks require the tertiary items. Without ingots you are not guaranteed of ever getting any secondary items therefore you cannot predict with any certainty how many boat trips you will need to complete the task. Given the time it takes to make a round trip to the islands, that's way too much time for an unpredictable result. If you are doing regatta tasks for Olives, Coconuts, Watermelon, or Shrimp, always send ingots.

Ship Cargo.JPG

At a minimum you'll need gold to ensure 3 items (well, silver for watermelon) and turn their "probability indicator" to a full green circle. Personally, I always send platinum since it is less commonly used for factory upgrades so I have plenty of them laying around.

[dreadnought]

At a minimum you'll need gold to ensure 3 items (well, silver for watermelon) and turn their "probability indicator" to a full green circle. Personally, I always send platinum since it is less commonly used for factory upgrades so I have plenty of them laying around.

I do the same thing, and by sending platinum you also have a chance of getting a chest back. So if i'm to send and ingot, I want to maximize the returns.

[Honor]

You didn't say if your Feed Mills are upgraded. If not, you should do that either right away or after Dairy and Sugar. It's fairly easy to get them to 50% time - only need level 13 - and is absolutely worth it.

You definitely can leave the other factories at level 1 while you upgrade Sugar and Dairy at least. It makes such a dramatic improvement in your production to make six sugar cubes an hour rather than 3, for example. It doesn't matter how fast your other factories are if you can't make enough of the basics to keep up with them. Sure, your cupcakes may still take an hour, but you can now queue up more of them, and make bagels and popsicles at the same time.

After my trains, I upgraded Sugar all the way to 50%, then Dairy to 50%. I cannot recommend this enough. It makes everything easier.

Next, I did the Feed Mills. I mostly wanted to get them out of the way, but after I had them I was very pleased. You can make enough to feed all animals, easy peasy. The Regatta task is now painless.

I stopped the Bakery at 25% (I think) because at that point it's really fast anyway and I thought I'd see more return from gains elsewhere.

After that, I upgraded factories one at a time to level 11 (-20% time, 2 shelves), beginning with the ones that make items for other factories (Rubber, Paper, Textile). It wasn't as immediately satisfying as having one at 50%, but it definitely helped with barn space and production capacity. Also helpful when pumping out Zoo products overnight.

Just sharing my experience. Others may have better ways

And now.. I'm not sure what to do. I'm upgrading the Bakery because my OCD can't stand having it halfway between the others. I'm following this thread closely to see what I can learn.

Thank you all for the discussion so far!

EDIT: One more thing to consider: The Paper, Furniture, Tailor, Mexican, Shoe, and Plastic (maybe more?) all have regatta tasks that require 8 of an item. Meaning that if you upgrade shelves you can produce 8 and have them sitting on shelves to instantly finish a 135 point task. Even for tasks that need more than 8, having 8 rather than 6 pre-made cuts down on the total time. Though we will have to see if this changes for the new seasons.

[cdosr]

My early priorities were to get the common factories upgraded to a reasonable level (25%-30% reductions). Feed, Sugar, Dairy, Bakery, Snack. Then I started slowly upgrading as ingots became available.

When the regattas came into play, I focused on getting as many factories that produced common regatta items up to level 11. That would give a reasonable %reduction plus 8 shelves. That way I could stage many products that show up as regatta tasks, Jelly Beans, Sneakers, Toys, Tables, etc. It's a guess as to which tasks show up but at least I'd have a leg up on a few of them. Sometimes worked, sometimes not.

Focus then turned to the Trains to level 21 (50% reduction), and then to the islands 21 (50% reduction) as both of these are used for regatta tasks. Train turnaround of between 2 and 2.5 hours makes for a reasonable task. Island turnaround is good for overnight runs.

Finally, I started focusing on upgrading a lot of factories to levels that map to the "Triumph of Modernization" achievement. Right now I'm working on getting 18 factories to level 15. Starting to need a lot of copper ore Folks who need the T-Cash might focus on getting these achievements earlier than I did.

Still have a lot of factories at level 1, mostly the last ones available, Doll, Kitchenware, and of course the Jewelry Factory is mostly useless anyway.

[Kipp]

My advice would be to do whichever upgrade makes you happy. We all play so differently that it's impossible for another person to say which upgrade is best for you. Dairy, sugar, bakery, and feed are all good candidates, as others have said, but only you can answer which one is right for you. I know this didn't really answer your question but my point is everyone has different playing style and priorities so there is no "right" answer. Best of luck with whichever path you choose.

[Honor]

I asked a similar question on a facebook group a few days ago, and I thought this response was really insightful (and made me reconsider how I viewed the Islands and Bakery lol):

I'd get the bakery up to 50%. It really does make a difference. Like if you're doing the zoo, cookies are a product often. If you're at 50% then a cookie only takes 7.5 minutes and you can do 8 in an hour.
The islands make a huge difference too. I've done the 3 long ones and just starting Fruitopia now. It's so much easier and I think to send them off more often. At 9 hours a trip, I'd generally only send them once a day. Now I've got plenty and it comes in handy for events like this and the restaurant which are asking for a lot of fruit. And the zoo loves peaches and watermelon

[Laurianna]

As i re-read my response, i realize another pro island tip i forgot. All islands get down to under 5 hours(4.5 longest) so you can send them out for a plane before it lands.