How to OSF

The OSF or Open State/Spy Farm is the one of the most powerful tools for enabling a clan to build up their roster.

With the recent changes to spies, I would like to provide my insight and experience on how to perform this "job" properly and how to limit it's impact on YOU the OSF.

1) Be a main.

An OSF manages their gold and character at all times. This is impossible for an alt. Why?
a) When you are open you need to manage your gold and troop levels as efficiently as possible
b) If you are not a main, how often can you make gold?
c) A good OSF is open as much as humanly possible, only a main can achieve this.

2) Respect the job but don't let it consume you.

Ensure there are others can be perform the same task so that you have time to meet your own KAW goals. Otherwise you will burn out, not enjoy playing and eventually quit.

This is a job, but your not paid for it. If you have ANY expectations of help, reward or anything like that, you will be very dissappointed. Eventually you will no longer OSF and also quit. The vast majority of the people hitting you do not care and will leave for greener pastures at a moments notice. This is a JOB, you need to understand that you will not get ANY rewards, so take the time to ensure you pay yourself.

 

3) The 3 main types of OSF builds

a) pure spy

The advantage of this build is you pay the most. The disadvantage is that you make almost no money and rely on spy to make gold.

b) hansel

The advantage of this build is that certain people at various levels of strength can hit you for 0 gold. You also limit the loss of any gold if allies are bought. The disadvantage is that if you want to be open for EVERYONE you need to STILL have gold but their is a maximum number of hits.

c) Hybrid

All spy except for 1 land that is left empty

This is the build I recommend. From my experience it is the MOST flexible and powerful build for an OSF "Main".

The advantage is that you can open fully, maintain allies, close by building a forge/cath and use the troops to quickly rebuild gold levels. The disadvantage is that you do not pay out as much a full pure spy without an incredible ally bonus.

4) The Hybrid build and allies

You need allies in order to maximize your plunder, raise your size so that each hit pays more and to improve your spy stats.

My recommendation for allies are as many pure spy allies as possible and to volley up smaller multiple allies to 100-200 mill.

The pure spy allies will raise your size without increasing def stat and it will also improve your ability to spy in various situations (like war etc).

The smaller allies that you volley up from nothing are an easy way for you to generate gold and provide emergency gold if you need to drop or have them bought out to open.

With a Cath and over 30 Bill in allies, this build will generate 7-8 mill plunder on a 128K spy.

 

5) Why build a Cath instead of a forge?

I've found that the cath provides me more gold then forge as I'm always hitting from a near pinned position. I've never failed with a cath in my configuration. The cath also provides you with better defense against random hits. The Pots + some ally def + cath can stop a 200-300k normal player.

6) How to make gold as an OSF

The fastest way is to army hit another osf, that is 8-10 mill a hit. You can also steal but that gives you 5-6 mill at max spy str. A full unload of spies gives you 40-50 mill.

7) What to do when open OSF

a) If you have GOLD OUT, you must maintain your troop levels as low as possible without being pinned. Based on my recommended hybrid build, that magical number is 41,900 ish troops.

b) If you have GOLD OUT, always start up at 150-200 mill and refill to that level after your empty. Why? The amount of gold you lose is relative to the SIZE of the attk and how much you have out. Always refill near empty to maximize the gold you can pay.

c) You can refill GOLD ON HAND by selling potions that you banked gold in or by having a trusted friend buy 1 ally at your command to retop up gold. During the process if you have different types of allies, you can expect that they will automatically be bought. That is good and bad.

d) If your empty on gold you will need to switch to the selling of 1 potion at a time to pay out gold. Since it does not matter how much gold you have, you can sell 1 potion at a time for them to hit. I recommend selling the cheapest potion because the purpose of this tactic is to buy you time to spy regen and to give you time to build up 40-50 mill on hand (through spy unload). As you near full spy str, if your selling more expensive potions to enable multiple hits, the amount of gold lost per hit will increase and you will hemorage gold.

e) Why not sell 1 potion at a time all the time? This is the most efficient way to OSF but it also is the most time consuming. You can not possibly feed an entire clan long term like this. It is phyiscally tiring and very boring. As a main, you have better things to do.

 

8) How to protect yourself from abuse

a) Have a very difficult name for people to type out, so that outsiders do not consistantly come back.

b) Do not mention open/closed or anything like that because it Confirms your an OSF.

c) When your not performing your job, buy all def pots and build a cath.

d) Do not allow people outside your clan to hit you at ANY TIME. It sets a precident and they will continue to try hit even if you are "closed".

e) Do not post on anyone's wall.

f) See how much gold it takes to feed your clan for a few hours and set up a regular schedule. This will ensure they do not ask you to open and you will have time for yourself. A strong player can take 500k-1 mill per hit even at bare min's of gold. Plan accordingly

 

9) Just good advice

It takes about 200 mill to feed a clan for 30 mins - 1 hour. Sell 1 potion at a time you can feed a clan for days with that same amount.

Try not to make your roster dependant solely on the OSF process, it does not teach them anything and promotes useless builds. Once again, I can not stress this enough: it's a job but not your reason to play, so ensure you take the time to meet your own goals. If your clan does not understand that, find a better clan.

 

Do not LC as a pure spy or hansel unless you have easy access to an easy gold source. Last 2 lands is 2.1 bill and 3 bill. Imagine the amount in allies you need to save up. Imagine how much if you will need to drop instead of getting them bought.

You are much Better off LC as full cath build, this bulding enables you to keep gold out for the last 2 lands with minimal hassle and risk.

LCing as an army build is alway always faster and easier for the avg player. Hansel is an advanced build that attacts too many hits for someone looking to LC

 

Towers were fixed so that the amount of gold loss with at least one tower in place is dramatically increased. Do not use tower build.

 

The 2 exta hits on beast are only applicable at "full". You should be attacking from near pinned at all times. So that is 2 hits.

Cath gives minor plunder bonus vs beast

The small allies doesn't work if your not managing your troop levels. 20 mill Is gone in less then 10 hits at full spy str

This is why it's important to be a main and actively being a osf. Your not going to be able to be able to open long as an alt.

 

Nyn an osf for you may feed far fewer ppl then for other clans.

As you may swap between def tower and other buildings some people do not have that much.

Also the def tower means that an 80k atk person starts to fail around 50% troop levels

My recommendation is build your strategy based on your situation. Managing your resources actively will ensure you know who is hitting you and that your not wasting your money.

Be a main, otherwise the alt osf will eventually just be a private farm for you and a few friends.