Use JUST ONE Diamond Ingredient Type
What if your strategy was to use just one type of bonus with no diamonds? You wouldn't get to do the bonus very often but the problem is if you want to use the most cost effective bonus each week you will have to boost many types of bonuses in the second phase. Is it better to just boost one bonus as often as you can or boost multiple bonuses so that you have more choices albeit with lesser rewards.
My recommendation is to only allow ONE Diamond Ingredient to be used, and push it hard.
At the end of time, once you've studied everything and don't really care which boosts you get, the lowest Witch Points Only cost will always be 4 + 7*3 = 25 Ingredients. If you're using the Solver, you can get there by selecting a few desirable Effects, and just use the Lower Cost, Modest Success option. That will yield a 100% Success Rate that honors your preferences, at the lowest possible cost, without using Diamonds.
The problem with chasing a single buffed Effect, without using Diamonds, is that it's going to cost you 16,000 or so Witch Points, OR ELSE your Total % Success Rate will be so low that you'll get nothing at all most of the time.
For a low to mid-level player, simply Brewing ONE Ingredient of each TYPE, 8 non-Diamond singles is a good strategy. It will cost you 572 Witch Points and will get you up to almost a 60% Success Rate Sqrt(9/25) = 3/5 = 60%, then take whatever you get. You're using just one of each Ingredient Type anyway so the order doesn't matter, and you can back out any ingredient that isn't interesting. Carry the remaining Witch Points into the Studying phase.
If you're willing to spend a few diamonds, or if you want to use buffs that you can't cover with just Witch Points, then the strategy flips. You'd want to select a
single Effect that was covered by Diamonds,
JUST ONE of the four THREES that will cost you diamonds, and allow the Solver to find an EXPENSIVE, HIGH SUCCESS recipe. Your Diamonds will then cover the Ingredient Type with the HIGHEST amount, your actual Witch Point expenditures will be greatly reduced, and you'll have some Witch Points to carry into the Study phase.
Either approach serves it's purpose, but for general use my personal preference is to
- Jump on the most attractive of the Diamond related ingredients, select that effect, and check JUST THAT one Use Diamonds box
- DO NOT check the other three Use Diamonds boxes (Allow 9 Ingredient Types to be used.)
- Based on the results of a trial run that allowed all 12 Ingredient Types, select 3 or 4 "wouldn't mind them either effects" that are NOT covered by Diamonds
- Use the Expensive High Success Rate approach, which will favor your selected Effects
- The yield will be the highest Total Success Rate that you can afford, and the fill in ingredients won't be bad either.
Ctrl PLUS will zoom the image, or you can always download a copy of the current spreadsheet from Katwick Cauldrons > Production.
A trial run suggests that 05_T2 Trader's Refined is a good choice for our 9th (Diamond) Ingredient Type this week (in the Beta World), and we'll select a few other useful Ingredient Types that fared well in our trial, to enhance their Success Rates. |
The Optimum Ingredient mix for the Week (The Diamonds are from the Beta World) knocks off 12 Ingredients (16382 Witch Points) for 300 Diamonds, and leaves a comfortable 2359 balance of Witch Points.
Note also that 12 Beetlenut contributed to the Recipe, even though its natural partner, 06_T3 didn't make the cut. |
The most to least breakout for the Witch Points makes it pretty clear what's going on. We're allowing a SINGLE Diamond Ingredient to be used, and we're pushing it hard.
The top two Success Rates, in the image to the right, are BOTH over 33%, so we'll probably get a desirable Boost when we drink the Potion. |
But there's a conceptual trap that you need to avoid. The Highest Amount is only the THIRD best % Success Rate, in this recipe which is pretty typical. That behavior is VERY hard to visualize unless you're familiar with how the Brew Pot and Solver actually behave. |
I'm well past thinking that there are going to be any One Size Fits Most recipes. The best recipes, each week, are WAY better than the also rans.
| Target | Actual | Rate | WPs | $$ | Dpl | ## | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ____Date____ | Title_with_an_optional_screenshot_Link,_or_perhaps_a_HoneyDew_List. |
| Multiple | 19_A1 | 38.63% | 2359 | 300 | 20 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2023-05-21 | Preferred 9 Types 11_13_21_22 With D 25 |