How to get rich in PowerPlay. A Rank discussion on Decay.

The week has rolled over again, and now we know for sure how decay works!

The good news is that you can plan your powerplay career accordingly.

The bad news is that many people didn't get off to a strong start due to not knowing how it worked, and perhaps not wanting to sink credits into something that possibly wouldn't give a return on their investment.

Fear not though, friends! I have compiled a number of tips and tools to help everyone make the most of powerplay and the investment opportunities it presents.

Tip 1: Free rank over time

• If you gain a consistent number of merits each week, your total merits will increase at a declining rate up to a point and then slowly the rise will cease.

• Due to how the ranks are distributed, this is not as useful as you might think. Basically, even if you get 1000 merits a week, you will never hit rank 5.

• Therefore, if you are not willing to, or don't have the capitol to invest in rank 5, you can simply earn a reasonable amount of merits each week until you hit rank 4, and then just maintain that rank.

• To reach rank 4: Get 511 merits a week, you will hit rank 4 on week 5.

• 600 a week gets you it on week 4.

• 750 gets you rank 4 on week 3. These are just examples.

• You can use the merits/week spreadsheet to calculate your own free rise to rank 4.

• You get 5 mil a week, for free, once you hit rank 4.

Tip 2: Rush to rank 4 or 5

• If you have enough capital to go straight to rank 5, you should do it.

• It costs around 150 mil to rush to and maintain rank 5, if you get the bare minimum of free merits.

• Realistically it is much cheaper, especially considering your half hourly allocation goes up to 50.

• If you rush to 5, you will break even by week 5, and be earning around 38 million credits every week after that.

• You only need to earn 1250 credits a week to maintain rank 5 after week 3, which is easily doable for free. This changes your earnings to 50 mil a week.

If you can't afford rank 5

• It is still worth it to rush to rank 4 assuming you make a reasonable number of free credits each week.

• Rushing to 5 pays off on week 4 even if you get very few for free, rank 4 only pays off that soon if you get around 250 the first week, and 500 the next couple weeks, and pay for the rest.

• If you do this however, you are still making around 5 mil a week for basically free, and the merit upkeep goes down to only 188 merits per week starting week 4.

• Use the rank/week spreadsheet to figure out what is doable for you.

Tip 3: Rank 2 and 3 are NOT worth paying for

• Fast tracking is so expensive, that you will not make your money back if you pay to maintain the lower ranks.

• 2 is cheap enough that this isn't an issue, but rank 3 is in a strange place on the rank ladder.

• If you are going to stay at rank 2 or 3, just build up merits each week and earn it for free.

• You can still earn 500k each week for free at rank 3.

Tip 4: Decide what you want to do, plan it out and execute it

• Whatever your goal is, you can end up losing a LOT of money if you don't know what you are doing.

• Understand the merit and rank system, and have a basic understanding of how decay works.

• If you end up slightly under what you need for rank, you could lose tens of millions of credits.

• Similarly, if you are earning more than you need to maintain rank, you could be wasting money and time.

• Check out the Weekly Merit Decay spreadsheets to plan your powerplay career effectively.

• The Custom merits/week sheet is particularly powerful for planning a strategy around your specific situation.

Notes:

• If you find any errors in my sheets, or think anything could be improved, feel free to contact me.

• If you have any questions or other concerns, I would be happy to discuss them.

• If you can think of any other spreadsheets in the same spirit that would be useful, let me know and I will see what I can do!

• You can contact me by sending a message on reddit, or replying to this post.