Lessons for a Level 1

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I got to help a brand new Level 1 make their first field and get to Level 2.  As you spend more time playing a game you tend to take for granted the things that you learn as you level and forget that these things may not be obvious to a brand new player, so I'm going to go over a few things I helped our newest Level 2 out with yesterday.

Hacking is Agent specific and limited by time - Irregardless of how many other people hack a portal you can hack a portal every 5 minutes up to 4 times in 4 hours.  So if you hacked a single portal it would take you 15 minutes to burn it out.  I recommend burning out a portal as often as possible.

Portal Keys are Consumable - when you create a link to a particular portal you will loose the key for the portal you are linking to.  In the early days you couldn't get a 2nd key for a portal if you already had one in your inventory so you had to do some juggling to get more than one key. Luckily that was changed and now you can hold as many keys as you want for any portal.

You need a Portal Key to Remotely Recharge - If a portal is attacked and you have a key for that portal in your inventory then you can pull up the key and remotely recharge the portal.  This will still drain your XM but you will also get 10 AP per recharge.

Portal key drops are "random" - Meaning you can't predict when you'll get a key.  That being said the more often you hack a portal the more likely you are to get a key, so areas that you spend a lot of time in will most likely generate you a lot of keys for that area.

Stick with Smallest Fields to Start - Whether you create a huge field that covers miles or a tiny field that covers a couple of hundred feet you still only get 1250 AP for the field.  And once you make a large field you are very limited in what you can create underneath that field.  If you are under a field the only links you can make are to the points of the covering field.

In the image below portals under the large field can not be linked to each other they can only be linked to one of the triangle points that cover them.  When you start your best source of AP is linking and creating fields so the example below is a missed opportunity for AP.

That's not to say that as you get higher in levels it won't make sense to build fields that cover areas, in fact it can be quite a useful tool when utilized correctly.  But as a low level maximize your AP opportunity by building as many fields as you can.

Hacking enemy portals drains your energy - but it will also give you 100 AP, hacking friendly portals drains some energy but it also gives you some energy so it ends up being about a wash unless you're hacking really high friendly portals then you have to be careful about running out of XM.  In the beginning those 100 AP can help you level quite quickly.  When you hack enemy portals you may not get much if any gear but the AP really is worth it at that point in the game.

XM is NOT Agent Specific but does regenerate - Almost all portals should have a large XM pool around them (some exceptions for newly added portals).  If there is no XM around a portal you have arrived at then most likely someone from your team or the other team has been through recently and taken all the XM.  XM will repopulate, I'm not 100% sure on the time I think it's 15 minutes,  XM will also start to re-appear soon after a portal is brought back online.

Becoming a Blue Heron

After 8 players made it to L8 in Seattle +Emmanuel Goldstien was trying to figure out what to name an operation for creating a large number of L8 portals when someone suggested the idea of Blue Heron.  Not only are they pretty birds but they also eat small amphibious creatures, which seems very fitting.

Well the name Blue Heron's stuck and when you reach L8 you are now a member of the Blue Herons.

In what is quickly becoming a very fun tradition a new L8 will meet up with as many Blue Heron's as possible at the Top of the Hill at Gas Works park (GW) for a shot of bourbon from +Emmanuel Goldstien, a handshake and your first deployment on one of the GW L8 Portals that are being rebuilt after being stolen by the enemy.

Although I made L8 about a week ago last night was the first time I was able to make it up to the park and it was an amazing experience for me.  There were 11 of us there last night 3 of us were new Heron's and the joking and fun and camaraderie is what makes +Ingress such a life changing experience for me.

After we were done burning out Gas Works park most of us made our way to the University of Washington (UW) another favorite farming spot.  I am actually still over inventory cap because of the gear drop last weekend and so I deployed my 8s and enjoyed watching my team mates joke around and play.  There really is nothing more entertaining than half a dozen or more geeks walking around in what appears to be aimless directions staring at their phone.  All these people wandering around red square, the main quad of the UW, at 11 o'clock at night really is a fun site to see.

While at the UW we got report that the toads were tearing down Gas Works Park and due to a minor slip by a lower level toad in All Comm we found out they were headed towards us.  My husband is still L7 so we wanted to stay and battle so he could get the AP but with no word on the location of the toads we decided we really needed to get home and couldn't wait.

As we pulled out of the parking garage I spotted a large group of people off to one side of the exit.  There really is no mistaking a group of +Ingress players about to make an attack  A large group of people all staring at their phones intently some with cables hanging off their phones, most budled up warm with gloves on, it was obvious the toads had arrived.  I also spotted a member of the toads I recognized which confirmed what I was seeing (+Benjamin Krueger your motorcyle outfit was just to easy to pick out).

Wouldn't you know my phone signal didn't want to come back after leaving the parking garage so I couldn't sound the alarm fast enough.  Once I got my connection back I frantically types "there's a whole bunch of 'em right outside the garage" then I flipped through my keys to find out what I could recharge as my husband drove home.  I spammed my little heart out re-charing and it appears I was able to save 6 of the L8 resonators on 1 portal, not much but helps in the battle.

The last thing I see on Comm's before I log off for the night is "We're still BSing in red square" and I smiled.  That means all is good in the world, battle was done, friends were made and fun was had by all.

Seattle Ingress I am truly grateful to be among your company, you have had more impact on my life than you'll ever know and I love battling with you and against you.

Mistyayn

L8 Blue Heron

Seattle Resistance

"Leader" of "Kira's Army" (rumor run amok)

Thanks to +Scott Manley for the use of the pictures

Code Drop

I don't know if ADA, Edward Faulle or +Hubert Farlowe is responsible for the massive passcode release on Saturday.  At this point I don't really care, I'm just thankful it was done.

Although there is significantly more green in my city than there was before Saturday, we have produced 3x as many L8s in the last 4 days then we did in each of the last 4 weeks.  Having a well equipped opponent means more battles more AP and a whole lot more fun.

I've repeatedly heard people say that they want to wipe their enemy off the map.  However I question the wisdom in this.  There are some who interpret the Niantic story line as a war where you must eliminate the enemy and cover the world in your factions fields.  However as the story has progressed there have been so many twists and turns it's hard to tell who is what anymore and who's fighting for what.

What if ADA actually released the codes in order to re-balance?  That could mean that neither team is ever intended to dominate.  Everything is open for interpretation but if your interpretation of the story involves completely eliminating your enemy, what will you do then?

I guess it all comes down to the type of game you want to play.  Do you want to farm close to home and then take road trips to get AP? If that's the case then I hope everyone in your area is okay with it.  If not, consider letting your opponent have a farm let them build up a little bit and see what kind of fun happens when you actually have to fight for your farm.  If you're really as good as you say you are then you shouldn't have a problem.  For those that dominate your area, I dare you to prove you're really that good.

Only time will tell if my team is as good as we think we are.  And right now is our chance to prove it.

#ingress #fieldreport