I have noticed alot of new players asking questions about whether they want to upgrade buildings or buy a new land. There is a simple formula that I always use to decide which I personally do. It is just a basic way to figure out the highest stat increase to gold spent. For example, lets say you have all low lands with cursed foundry(CF) lvl 1 and are wanting to know if you should buy the first highland and put a building on it or upgrade to a lvl 2 CF. The first thing you will want to do is figure out the actually stat increase you get from upgrading from a lvl 1 to lvl 2. How you do this is by subtracting the total stats it adds now from the total stats from the upgraded building. so... Lvl 1 CF 1440 attack 960 defense per unit at 900 units. (attack + defense) multiplied by the number of units (1440+960) x 900=2,160,000 Do the same for the upgraded unit lvl 2 CF 2590 attack 1720 defense per unit at 1000 (2590+1720) x 1000=4,310,000 Now subtract the lvl 1 stats from the lvl 2 stats to give the actual stat amount you will gain from the upgrade. 4,310,000-2,160,000=2,150,000 Now divide the total stat increase by gold. I use billions as my gold reference so 1,000,000,000 is 1. The upgrade cost is 4.5 bil. 2150000/4.5=477,777.77 (this number is the amount of stat increase per billion spent) Now you have to do the same for the new highland land. Since there isn't a building on it already take the stat increase from adding a new building divided by the cost of the building AND the land cost. Adding a lvl 1 CF which we know the stats for are a total of 2160000. The total cost of building and land is 3bil+3bil so 6 billion. 2,160,000/6=360,000 In this instance upgrading a CF from lvl1 to lvl2 gives you a increase of 477,777.77 per bil and getting new land plus building is 360,000 per billion. In this case the ugrade of a CF lvl1 to lvl2 is the better option. I understand this dose not take into account the plunder bonus you receive when exploring land, like I said it is a simple formula. This formula can be used to compare upgrades of different types, like HL hatch lvl3 to lvl 4 or HF lvl1 to lvl2 Hocky
My method is more simple. Is it cheaper to upgrade an existing building? Or is it cheaper to expand and place a building. Done.
Interesting but we also must consider allies too especially the more recent lands. Perhaps bfa is in fact better value gives you static boost and also a nice profit. How much more plunder does the ug provide this also needs to be considered.
I always recommend expansion over Upgrades. Considering how costly the new lands are, you'll need that increased plunder. Just my opinion.
Typically i always just stick to new land, lvl1 building, repeat. Upgrading buildings come later down the road.
Too lazy to write the actual mechs but for all you noobs expanding into abyss, buy your first 5 lands (level 1 building on each) once you have 5 lands and buildings ug all of them to level 3 (I know 500 bill is a fair amount but it's worth it) keep going until the land costs more than 300bill then go back to hf and ug all to level 5, then go back to finish abyss
That's what I would recommend too as you have to take into account the additional plunder given by a new building compared to an upgrade.