Post by lizardpianist on Aug 2, 2023 8:12:29 GMT
Hello, fellow members and visitors of the EW4 board community!
I'm here today to introduce you to a new and innovative method to farm refreshes at an insane speed.
Some early records of discovery and experimentations are here: link
1. Refreshes
What are refreshes? They are basically like gacha tickets of EW4, and I think it is implemented in an 'interesting' way in this game.
Despite the creativity of Easytech, literally everyone HATES it. I am a part of the hater gang, you could probably tell.
Refreshes are arguably one of the most important resources in the game, if not the most. (I prefer to think that they are the most important next to medals)
There are a total of 208 generals in the entire game, but if we exclude the 8 princesses (who are only obtainable once from conquest), there are 200.
There are 93 tier-1 generals, 74 tier-2 generals, and 30 tier-3 generals. Each refresh can show us 6 generals, 4 generals, and 2 generals each for tier 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
This means that there is a chance of 6/93 or 6.45%, 4/74 or 5.40%, 2/30 or 6.67% chance for us to find that one general that we need from 1 refresh each for tier 1/2/3 respectively.
I guess that this is better than most Japanese gacha games, where your SSR chaaracter has 0.1% chance of being summoned or something.
The thing is, this game, EW4, implemented the gacha system in a really unique way. You can only have 3 refreshes maximum. And of course, you can't even buy them in any sort of method. You have to painfully grind it, which EW4 is infamous for. It is a very tedious task.
Let's say you are starting the game, with the 'Arnold strat' in mind. I believe that the first general set is always the same for all tiers when you download the game? Sadly, we don't have any Arnold in that original set, I believe. You initially start with 2 refreshes, so you have a 12/93 or 12.9% chance of getting Arnold. You will need to download the game 8 times to get Arnold with those 2 refreshes, statistically.
Since you can only keep up to 3 refreshes at a start, and you can't buy it in any sort of method... Yeah. You need to farm it.
2. The history of refresh farming
I believe that when the refresh mechanics weren't well-discovered, people used this:
The famous IE campaign, Battle of the three emperors.
It has many generals, so it naturally yielded decent refresh each time it was played.
Later on...
Fire of Revolution was discovered. Davout + Moreau was and still is the easiest and simplest way to farm refreshes.
Up there is a really simple and rushed farm. Usually, players should use some line infantries to even lower their HP so that it is guaranteed for Radetzky to oneshot both the French generals.
Davout yields 2⅔%, and Moreau yields 1⅓%. Total 4%. Considering that each refresh is 100%, One must farm 25 times for 1 single refresh. 75 times for the maximum of 3. That is TEDIOUS.
Here is a more advanced version of the farm:
Serourier was included. He adds an extra 1⅓%. The total is 5⅓% per run. Roughly 19 runs are needed for each refresh. (18.75 to be more accurate)
I have never timed myself using this farm, despite the fact that this was what I used until I discovered the new method.
But from what I hear, approximately 5 minutes of intense farming gets you one full refresh. About 15 minutes, or a quarter hour is needed for 3 refreshes.
People started to look for campaign after campaign to find which ones you can easily leave as many generals as possible at low enough HP to be consistently oneshotted.
And this is one of the candidates:
Battle of Eylau, in the Coalition Campaign.
I have heard that someone has been able to setup a cavalry unit to oneshot 4 generals. I presume it is Ney, Davout, Augereau, and Soult. I heard that it gives "nice XP" and "10⅔%" refresh.
The image above is a rushed screenshot that I made just to help the readers visualize how it might look. I would gladly credit the user and replace this screenshot with a better one, if I am provided with one.
There was also an age of Asian Conquest analysis for Lan, and an innovative method to starve the British for fast conquest! And someone got thinking... What if... one utilizes this method to farm the British generals for refresh?
Above is a rushed screenshot of US 1775 conquest of farming British generals. (I will also gladly replace this screenshot with a better one and credit the user who provided it)
Starve the Brits until they have question mark, until they can't retaliate. This was very innovative at the time, and became the fastest method with a relatively simple setup with little variables.
According to Erich von Manstein , it took about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to farm 3 refreshes using the US1775 setup that could kill 9 generals.
But what if... I told you... you can reduce that time by half??
The farming method that I am about to bring forward to you, my comrades, is a very innovative one. It took me 4 minutes and 30 seconds to farm 3 refreshes. At least 3x faster than the famous Fire of Revolution farm, and twice as fast as the US 1775 method.
3. The refresh mechanics
You earn refresh when you kill a unit.
How much refresh you earn depends on the formation and whether there is a general or not.
Without Generals:
Single formation: ⅔%
Double formation: 1⅓%
Triple formation: 2%
Generals' existence doubles that.
With Generals:
Single formation: 1⅓%
Double formation: 2⅔%
Triple formation: 4%
Let's do some simple calulations as example to familiarize you with this mechanic.
A single line infantry (75 gold, 5 industry)
⅔% because single formation.
A Battleship (300 gold, 100 industry)
⅔% because this is also single formation. I do realize that there is no formation in ships, sadly. Therefore, with forts, they are all calculated as single formation.
Therefore, Nelson on the battleship is only 1⅓%. Same goes for our dear Villeneuve, Cosmao, Gravina, and Cisneros. Sounding familiar? Reference to the battle of Trafalgar.
A double formation militia (110 gold) should also yield 1⅓%. They are much, much easier to kill compared to Villeneuve in his battleship, with his shiny 4 stars on navy. Thus, Trafalgar is extremely inefficient to farm for refreshes, contrary to popular belief.
Let's do a few more.
Murat on double guards cavalry (395 gold, 90 industry)
2⅔%, as it's double formation and has general.
Moreau on triple guards (300 gold, 90 industry) (1798 Europe Conquest France reference)
4%. triple formation and has general.
Double light artillery (165 gold, 75 induustry)
Double formation, no general. Thus, 1⅓%.
I am sure that you are familiarized with the concept at this point.
Nextly, we have the new innovative method that the RR farm utilizes.
When a rocket artillery kills two units in the same move, the refresh earnt is double of what the primary target yields.
Example: Let's have a triple guards Davout as our main target, with a line infantry secondary. Davout is 4%, and it doubles to 8%! It doesn't matter if we have a tripled guard soult, double armored car Paget, or even an ally unit as our secondary kill.
The game thinks that you just killed two Davouts! Probably an unintentional mistake of Easytech.
But I heard that great players utilize bugs as well. Thus, we should make the best out of this bug.
"The double refresh bug from rocket artillery double kill" is what I shall name this bug.
Anyways, this only applies to rocket artillery (sadly).
To maximize this bug, one should kill a triple formation unit with general. Thus, infantry is our only option, as only infantry can stack until 3.
4. What are some good candidates to create the RR farm?
Here are some conditions to maximize the time-efficiency.
- There should be as many triple formation generals in the map as possible (on the enemy side, of course.)
- Those target units should be as close to each other as possible.
- If rocket artillery pre-exists in the game, it will be useful later when setting up the farm.
- Being able to build forts are extremely recommended. You want to lure those generals into a particular spot. Also, if they are super low (like 3HP or something), you can lure them into attacking the yet to-be-built fort to prevent them from suiciding.
- To minimize variables, it is best if your allies are civilized enough to mind their own business. (also good if they just rush and die out at start)
So here are some maps where one could potentially setup a RR farm for.
- ★☆ Battle of Waterloo (Coalition): There is Davout and Soult right next to each other, both on triple formation guards! Additionally, you are given two rocket units from the start. Also, the Prussians tend to rush, die out, and mind their own business. Austria doesn't even care to move. This is IMO the PERFECT place for RR farm. I will be showing you how to setup this one in the next post in this thread.
- US1775: You can just starve those Brits, and pound them till they're low enough for your rocket to oneshot them. Meanwhile, save up a few units on like 1HP and then sent them next to the starving generals. Then, you can rocket them for refreshes! Theoretically the fastest RR farm from those that could be setup easily. In reality, it is likely to be slower than S&Ling a good save with multiple triple-formation generals close to each other, but that is yet to be timed & tested.
- North America I (IE): There is a Wellesley and a Rowland in the North (British territory), with Hull, Jackson, Dearborn in the South (American territory), everyone in triple guard formation! If setup properly, this is probably the fastest possible RR farm, earning you a whopping 40% each load. You will need to unlock rockets though, as it's originally locked (like every other campaign).
It will cost you 10 stars, or 40 medals. (Worth this with 5-star trading general)
- North America II (IE): There are three American generals on triple guard. Hull, Greene, and Zebulon. Greene and Zebulon are rather weak (only 2 stars infantry with no effective skill) so it will be pretty easy to setup. You also start with Mortier on a rocket artillery. You will still want to unlock rockets to farm 3 generals in the same turn, but this is probably the easiest and least annoying way to setup RR farm if you decide to farming only one general in the save. Still gives you 8% each try, so it's still pretty efficient.
I don't reccomend any other conquest maps if not US1775, and I got a bit lazy to check all campaigns. I checked IE and Coalition only. I don't think there are better campaigns though.
Anyways, stay tuned for my guide on setting up the Waterloo RR farm! Meanwhile, you might want to try setting up RR farms yourself.
I'm here today to introduce you to a new and innovative method to farm refreshes at an insane speed.
Some early records of discovery and experimentations are here: link
1. Refreshes
What are refreshes? They are basically like gacha tickets of EW4, and I think it is implemented in an 'interesting' way in this game.
Despite the creativity of Easytech, literally everyone HATES it. I am a part of the hater gang, you could probably tell.
Refreshes are arguably one of the most important resources in the game, if not the most. (I prefer to think that they are the most important next to medals)
There are a total of 208 generals in the entire game, but if we exclude the 8 princesses (who are only obtainable once from conquest), there are 200.
There are 93 tier-1 generals, 74 tier-2 generals, and 30 tier-3 generals. Each refresh can show us 6 generals, 4 generals, and 2 generals each for tier 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
This means that there is a chance of 6/93 or 6.45%, 4/74 or 5.40%, 2/30 or 6.67% chance for us to find that one general that we need from 1 refresh each for tier 1/2/3 respectively.
I guess that this is better than most Japanese gacha games, where your SSR chaaracter has 0.1% chance of being summoned or something.
The thing is, this game, EW4, implemented the gacha system in a really unique way. You can only have 3 refreshes maximum. And of course, you can't even buy them in any sort of method. You have to painfully grind it, which EW4 is infamous for. It is a very tedious task.
Let's say you are starting the game, with the 'Arnold strat' in mind. I believe that the first general set is always the same for all tiers when you download the game? Sadly, we don't have any Arnold in that original set, I believe. You initially start with 2 refreshes, so you have a 12/93 or 12.9% chance of getting Arnold. You will need to download the game 8 times to get Arnold with those 2 refreshes, statistically.
Since you can only keep up to 3 refreshes at a start, and you can't buy it in any sort of method... Yeah. You need to farm it.
2. The history of refresh farming
I believe that when the refresh mechanics weren't well-discovered, people used this:
The famous IE campaign, Battle of the three emperors.
It has many generals, so it naturally yielded decent refresh each time it was played.
Later on...
Fire of Revolution was discovered. Davout + Moreau was and still is the easiest and simplest way to farm refreshes.
Up there is a really simple and rushed farm. Usually, players should use some line infantries to even lower their HP so that it is guaranteed for Radetzky to oneshot both the French generals.
Davout yields 2⅔%, and Moreau yields 1⅓%. Total 4%. Considering that each refresh is 100%, One must farm 25 times for 1 single refresh. 75 times for the maximum of 3. That is TEDIOUS.
Here is a more advanced version of the farm:
Serourier was included. He adds an extra 1⅓%. The total is 5⅓% per run. Roughly 19 runs are needed for each refresh. (18.75 to be more accurate)
I have never timed myself using this farm, despite the fact that this was what I used until I discovered the new method.
But from what I hear, approximately 5 minutes of intense farming gets you one full refresh. About 15 minutes, or a quarter hour is needed for 3 refreshes.
People started to look for campaign after campaign to find which ones you can easily leave as many generals as possible at low enough HP to be consistently oneshotted.
And this is one of the candidates:
Battle of Eylau, in the Coalition Campaign.
I have heard that someone has been able to setup a cavalry unit to oneshot 4 generals. I presume it is Ney, Davout, Augereau, and Soult. I heard that it gives "nice XP" and "10⅔%" refresh.
The image above is a rushed screenshot that I made just to help the readers visualize how it might look. I would gladly credit the user and replace this screenshot with a better one, if I am provided with one.
There was also an age of Asian Conquest analysis for Lan, and an innovative method to starve the British for fast conquest! And someone got thinking... What if... one utilizes this method to farm the British generals for refresh?
Above is a rushed screenshot of US 1775 conquest of farming British generals. (I will also gladly replace this screenshot with a better one and credit the user who provided it)
Starve the Brits until they have question mark, until they can't retaliate. This was very innovative at the time, and became the fastest method with a relatively simple setup with little variables.
According to Erich von Manstein , it took about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to farm 3 refreshes using the US1775 setup that could kill 9 generals.
But what if... I told you... you can reduce that time by half??
The farming method that I am about to bring forward to you, my comrades, is a very innovative one. It took me 4 minutes and 30 seconds to farm 3 refreshes. At least 3x faster than the famous Fire of Revolution farm, and twice as fast as the US 1775 method.
3. The refresh mechanics
You earn refresh when you kill a unit.
How much refresh you earn depends on the formation and whether there is a general or not.
Without Generals:
Single formation: ⅔%
Double formation: 1⅓%
Triple formation: 2%
Generals' existence doubles that.
With Generals:
Single formation: 1⅓%
Double formation: 2⅔%
Triple formation: 4%
Let's do some simple calulations as example to familiarize you with this mechanic.
A single line infantry (75 gold, 5 industry)
⅔% because single formation.
A Battleship (300 gold, 100 industry)
⅔% because this is also single formation. I do realize that there is no formation in ships, sadly. Therefore, with forts, they are all calculated as single formation.
Therefore, Nelson on the battleship is only 1⅓%. Same goes for our dear Villeneuve, Cosmao, Gravina, and Cisneros. Sounding familiar? Reference to the battle of Trafalgar.
A double formation militia (110 gold) should also yield 1⅓%. They are much, much easier to kill compared to Villeneuve in his battleship, with his shiny 4 stars on navy. Thus, Trafalgar is extremely inefficient to farm for refreshes, contrary to popular belief.
Let's do a few more.
Murat on double guards cavalry (395 gold, 90 industry)
2⅔%, as it's double formation and has general.
Moreau on triple guards (300 gold, 90 industry) (1798 Europe Conquest France reference)
4%. triple formation and has general.
Double light artillery (165 gold, 75 induustry)
Double formation, no general. Thus, 1⅓%.
I am sure that you are familiarized with the concept at this point.
Nextly, we have the new innovative method that the RR farm utilizes.
When a rocket artillery kills two units in the same move, the refresh earnt is double of what the primary target yields.
Example: Let's have a triple guards Davout as our main target, with a line infantry secondary. Davout is 4%, and it doubles to 8%! It doesn't matter if we have a tripled guard soult, double armored car Paget, or even an ally unit as our secondary kill.
The game thinks that you just killed two Davouts! Probably an unintentional mistake of Easytech.
But I heard that great players utilize bugs as well. Thus, we should make the best out of this bug.
"The double refresh bug from rocket artillery double kill" is what I shall name this bug.
Anyways, this only applies to rocket artillery (sadly).
To maximize this bug, one should kill a triple formation unit with general. Thus, infantry is our only option, as only infantry can stack until 3.
4. What are some good candidates to create the RR farm?
Here are some conditions to maximize the time-efficiency.
- There should be as many triple formation generals in the map as possible (on the enemy side, of course.)
- Those target units should be as close to each other as possible.
- If rocket artillery pre-exists in the game, it will be useful later when setting up the farm.
- Being able to build forts are extremely recommended. You want to lure those generals into a particular spot. Also, if they are super low (like 3HP or something), you can lure them into attacking the yet to-be-built fort to prevent them from suiciding.
- To minimize variables, it is best if your allies are civilized enough to mind their own business. (also good if they just rush and die out at start)
So here are some maps where one could potentially setup a RR farm for.
- ★☆ Battle of Waterloo (Coalition): There is Davout and Soult right next to each other, both on triple formation guards! Additionally, you are given two rocket units from the start. Also, the Prussians tend to rush, die out, and mind their own business. Austria doesn't even care to move. This is IMO the PERFECT place for RR farm. I will be showing you how to setup this one in the next post in this thread.
- US1775: You can just starve those Brits, and pound them till they're low enough for your rocket to oneshot them. Meanwhile, save up a few units on like 1HP and then sent them next to the starving generals. Then, you can rocket them for refreshes! Theoretically the fastest RR farm from those that could be setup easily. In reality, it is likely to be slower than S&Ling a good save with multiple triple-formation generals close to each other, but that is yet to be timed & tested.
- North America I (IE): There is a Wellesley and a Rowland in the North (British territory), with Hull, Jackson, Dearborn in the South (American territory), everyone in triple guard formation! If setup properly, this is probably the fastest possible RR farm, earning you a whopping 40% each load. You will need to unlock rockets though, as it's originally locked (like every other campaign).
It will cost you 10 stars, or 40 medals. (Worth this with 5-star trading general)
- North America II (IE): There are three American generals on triple guard. Hull, Greene, and Zebulon. Greene and Zebulon are rather weak (only 2 stars infantry with no effective skill) so it will be pretty easy to setup. You also start with Mortier on a rocket artillery. You will still want to unlock rockets to farm 3 generals in the same turn, but this is probably the easiest and least annoying way to setup RR farm if you decide to farming only one general in the save. Still gives you 8% each try, so it's still pretty efficient.
I don't reccomend any other conquest maps if not US1775, and I got a bit lazy to check all campaigns. I checked IE and Coalition only. I don't think there are better campaigns though.
Anyways, stay tuned for my guide on setting up the Waterloo RR farm! Meanwhile, you might want to try setting up RR farms yourself.
