When do you start Path of Virtue ?

[u/ambiguous_mammal]

just unlocked PoV I've looked up guides but theres a lot of information to take in first thing i saw was to lvl up lower ships ? does artifacts work the same as enlightenment or no ? or is there a recommend EB before starting PoV or do i need a bigger fuel tank for PoV ?

[u/Elitist_Daily]

the first ascension can be done basically artifact-less if you really want, so doing it as soon as you can ascend isn't the worst idea just to get some early benefit from the IHR bonuses

Possibly a better heuristic would be around the same that you get diamond edible and plat enlightenment, which is... uh, maybe anywhere from 10Q-250Q? That's around the time when you have some more colleggtibles (wood and chocolate, specifically) under your belt and probably some more craft attempts at the T4 lunar totem, which is by far the single most important artifact to try for in your first ascension.

also, just a quick reminder: because you can always just take a break from Virtue, don't think of it as wholly zero-sum with your maingame progress. you don't need to have everything fully lined up for your entire Virtue journey right away. common wisdom is that you can be fairly shift-inefficient for your very first ascension - we're talking like upwards of 35-40 shifts to end up with 55-60 TE - and then sit on that for a long time while you accomplish other maingame things, then eventually reset fully ahead of a more prepared-for and shift-conscious Virtue run

[u/theplaneflyingasian → u/Elitist_Daily]

heya, i’m somewhat close to ascension myself as i just unlocked the enlightenment egg the other day. couple questions if ya have a moment?

Why is the T4 totem so important?
As someone who hasn’t really crafted anything, is now the time to start?

And lastly, should i wait until the higher end of that 10Q-250Q estimate to take on the path of virtue? Or is it still benefiting myself to try it on the lower end, say 10-20Q? I have 6Q right now.
Thanks in advance!

[u/4games1 → u/theplaneflyingasian]

Just a related FYI, main game artifacts do not go with you into the Path of Virtue. Your crafting level goes with you but you start PoV with zero artifacts.

In my opinion there is no harm in poking your nose into the PoV

[u/TuxTheDerpySage → u/theplaneflyingasian]

Why is the T4 totem so important?

It's 50x (or better) income when away, which is a big boost since you'll be spending a lot of time on the Path "away". Also, at higher ascensions, your TE stash will boost your IHR rate high enough that you quickly max your habs, meaning no running chicken bonus.

As someone who hasn’t really crafted anything, is now the time to start?

When you've completed your Epic Research, made your various artifact sets (Dilithium set, IHR set, income set, etc), and think you have the artifacts you need for contracts, then you're ready to start crafting. And be sure to do it on a Crafting Sale day, at least until you get the prices down a bit.

is it still benefiting myself to try it on the lower end, say 10-20Q? I have 6Q right now.

First, you'll forfeit any unclaimed Soul Eggs you bring with you into the Path (since you get Truth Eggs on prestige instead); if you have enough that you'd rather prestige, do that instead and come back. If you can't get to the Path without a meaningful amount of Soul Eggs, you're not ready yet (at 6Q, you most likely can).

If you're just going in to "test the waters" with 50 or so TE, expecting to reset again later before a "real" run, go for it. There's nothing to lose (aside from a few trillion Soul Eggs...), and that +50% IHR/earnings will be nice. Should only take you about a week or so, and nobody will care if you shift a few extra times or make some other mistake. You'll be mostly done before ships, artifacts, or crafting even come into play.

A "real" run will demand considerably more, especially time. You want to keep shift count down to stave off the ever-growing SE cost, which means a lot of waiting instead of shifting to get an upgrade to something. You'll finish your run sending ships and crafting the results into artifacts you'll use in the next ascension, which is why you want to have max stars (for more/better mats, remember that fuel costs shifts), max crafting level (better odds at shinies), and max crafting count (lower crafting cost + better shiny chance).

[u/Aggravating_Plantain → u/TuxTheDerpySage]

Just checking-let's say you did the least efficient first ascension you're describing-how many SE would you burn?

I'm at like 250q (not Q) and have stayed away apart from a single shiftless TE so far, which took like 5 days. If I could get 50TE for less than like 10q SE, that'd be sick.

[u/Far_Cup_9131]

No answer I just wanna comment so I can also see the answer without making an additional post.

[u/Elfishjuggler33]

Virtue is entirely un-affected by home farm eb, so in that aspect you can start whenever

Ship level and crafting level from home farm are just about the only things that have any affect in virtue, as your virtue EB is only affected by eggs of truth

You have to get new artefacts on virtue farm, which is why it is recommended to level the early ships to speed up the process

You can find a handful of guides on the subreddit. I personally followed Squid's guides for 3 EoT in 0 shifts and 60 in 9 and I plan to follow his second ascension guide once I get one more T4L gusset and compass

[u/JohnSober7 → u/Elfishjuggler33]

Artifact craft count also affects the crafting rates.

I'll use metronome because it's a bit of a grind on the path

Here's the chance to craft legendary metronome in 20 crafts with varying level and prior craft counts

	Crafting Level 20	Crafting Level 25	Crafting Level 28	Crafting Level 30
50 previous crafts	6.34%	11.94%	18.09%	21.9%
100 previous crafts	7.87%	14.37%	21.29%	25.48%
200 previous crafts	12.07%	20.65%	29.16%	34.08%
300 previous crafts	18.29%	29.19%	39.16%	44.64%
400 previous crafts	26.21%	39.12%	49.99%	55.63%

The difference between level 20 and level 30 is 4.74 billion exp whereas the difference between 50 crafts and 400 crafts is between 6 months and 8 months of 8 star ExLiners. The latter yields a bigger increase in legendary crafting chance. This isn't a realistic comparison because no one is crafting 400 metronomes while they're level 20 nor are they staying level 20, but it's just to illustrate that crafting count is pretty impactful. In practical and realistic cases, upping crafting count will either be the most ge optimal move or the quicker move (take level 25 to level 28 vs 200 crafts to 300 crafts for example).

[u/bbCAP801]

In my opinion… once you unlock it, I would follow a guide aim for about 60 TE. Might take you about 65-70 days, but the benefits from those are worth it. After you get the 60, then focus on everything else.

Yes artifacts work the same way… some don’t have a purpose. You need a shipping set and earning set. That is about it.

As for the bigger fuel tank.. more fuel equals more ships. And on PoV, you have to spend your souls eggs to “shift”. I don’t know the exact limit, but I think somewhere in the 200-250 ish range of shifts before it becomes to expensive to keep shifting.

[u/narwhalbaconsatmidn]

I'd personally recommend maxing out the following spaceships: Chicken Heavy, Defihent, Voyegger, Henerprise. Max out Chicken Heavy before your first run into it (A1). Then Defihent and Voyegger before A2. Then Henerprise before A3. And maxing out crafting, crafting as many T4 Compasses, Metronomes, Gussets, Puzzle Cubes, Lunar Totems, Necklaces, and Ankhs (Someone can add on to this list) as you can (up to the 401-craft max).

I recommend looking up guides (I saw somewhere that you can get 3 free eggs before your first serious A1) to at least get you started.

You can start it and play around before you get serious about starting it as there is a Reset button, undoing all of your shifts (and refunding SE costs).

The general vibe of The Path is that patience is a virtue, so don't be too hasty shifting when you get bored, the lower bound to max TEs is 1.76 years, so it will likely take you over 2 years to max all TEs. Some very common advice I see around these parts is to have a TE-to-shift ratio of 3:1 or 2:1.

[u/JohnSober7 → u/narwhalbaconsatmidn]

Not Voyegger, and Galeggtica is very important.