Now, I have been meaning to do a "What can we expect from our Cultivation" post for a while, but I keep being distracted by yelling at clouds. Knowing myself, I will probably go back to that and being unproductive after this post. I
think this is what is planned by
@yrsillar, though it plausible he didn't notice how the numbers aligned perfectly with the narration.
So, we actually do have a fairly specific "minimal goal to reach" by the time we leave the sect, and that goal does tell us a lot:
Here is some information that helps form context:
- CRX has been ordered to be at least 525 in the sect ranking, and Shenhua taunted CRX as it being the limit of her capabilities.
- Bao Qingling, in her own first three years in the sect (We will also have three years in by the time we leave) reached a minimum of Green 5 (We noticed she was green 4 when we met her, and we know from her interlude she was showing a lower level than her true level). Bao Qingling expect to breach the 500s soon.
- Sun Liling is certainly going to have full ressources ahead during her stay in the sect. While it is possible she will leave before CRX does, it is doubtful.
What this means in practical term is that there is absolutely no way for Shenhua to have ordered CRX to do
worse than either Bao Qingling and Sun Liling, as she is not going to consider plausible gains from High Nobles 'impossible'. Bao Qingling's progress also tracks somewhat with Yanmei's, too. This mean that CRX
will have full ressources for her own cultivation. This does NOT mean she will have enough to give Ling Qi full ressources, but it does mean that it
should be possible for Ling Qi to not only keep up but catch up to a full ressource CRX/Sun Liling.
After all, getting no less than 5 rank below CRX is effectively reaching her tier.
To me, this means that, at least until Green 5, there are going to be ways, though very difficult ones, to get full ressources use. Those ways should include ranking up in the sect, finding new sites, getting tutors and loot, and probably gaining virtual GSS thanks to EPC6. GSS with the new system and scaled up dice for them are very, very good... but still not so good that they break anything. Here is what a full-on GSS would mean for our cultivation:
- If we assume no bottleneck at all, and assuming +1200 successes per levels, this would mean getting to Foundation (3) spiritual month 7 or so, Threshold (4) month 12 or so, Framing (5) Month 17 or so, Formation (6) month 25 or so. In practical terms, we will have probably at least 2 bottlenecks, and we will likely have down months. This tracks With Bao Qingling's own progress, and she had a year with lesser ressources (2 years in outer, 1 in inner, vs 1 in outer, 2 in inner). This also tracks with what we can expect of Meizhen/CRX/Sun Liling in 2 years. It is also highly likely that successes double, not be merely +1200. In that case, we'll need special things.
- GSS are going to be our most efficient use of cultivation resources when we don't have rare pills. At appraisal if we count the first GSS, GSS are 0.5dice/RSS, but if we get virtual GSS the second+ GSS in the week will be 0.8dice/RSS (YSS are 5dice/RSS after the first for example). This also track, I think, with GSS being good and the most 'efficient' way to get dice from our raw cultivation level.
- Rare pills are likely to be less common than we had last year I expect, and likely to be how we can keep on track even with our bottlenecks and needing to find new arts and so on.
- Multipliers are king, and we need to find sites with those. We currently have .2 multiplier for base cultivation, meaning the pure dice from GSS has less 'worth' there than for arts that have much higher multipliers (EPC is low with .4, FVM is decent with .7, AC is king with 1.2). If we can find sites with good multiplier, everything will go easier, especially if successes for base cultivation double.
Now, what does this mean in
practical term for Ling Qi?
- Once we get to appraisal spiritual, we need to stop using expensive pills and save for GSS.
- We will likely have a long period stuck in bottlenecks where we will be grinding arts/doing missions to go through those bottlenecks. Please, @yrsillar, I really want the bottlenecks to reflect the whole insight paradigm rather than 'need closed door'. This means we'll need arts/etc to grind.
- We will need to be hyper agressive about challenges as soon as we learn what ranking gives what privilege. As soon as possible we need to get a Argent Vent that has virtual GSS.
- Things will go fast, yo. We can''t just assume that we can push back decisions for months, as turns will have a lot happening within.
EDIT: An important point is that this will
also makes meridians quite easy to grind. Thankfully we don't know the mechanics of how things increase in cost after the first 54+ meridians, so it's easy for
@yrsillar to work out numbers matching the narrative there.
