[Guides]Factory: Best way to get merits and cogs.

[Wolfie]

Ever gotten bored or tired of having to do factory runs to get merits? It can turn into a chore when you have to get 5500 merits. So obviously, the faster and easier, the better. Here's the best way to do a factory.

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Anyone who has been in the factory enough times can tell you that there are many ways you can do a factory run. The one thing that a lot of people disagree with is the best way to do a run to get the most merits in as little time as possible. Well this guide will walk you through it.

 

First and foremost, this is a short run. No, this isn't a modified short run, but instead is the correct short run. Following the route shown in this guide, you will get 260 or 520 merits, depending on if there is an invasion or not. When done properly, you can be in an out in roughly 10 minutes. Some people insist that a long run is better because you get 388 (or 776) merits. The problem with this is that it can take 20 minutes or more to get those merits. Let's stop and figure this out. Getting 260 merits in 11 minutes (overestimating), you are earning 23.64 merits per minute. Getting 388 merits in 18 minutes (underestimating), you are only earning 21.56 merits per minute. In order to get the same merits per minute (23.64) while doing a long run, you would have to be finished in under 17 minutes.

 

Let's think about this. If you can do a short run in 10 minutes, you are battling 7 sets of cogs (23 cogs total). That's 1.429 minutes per set of cogs. If you were to do a long and battle all of the cogs (11 sets for a total of 35 cogs) and were able to do it at the same amount of time per set (1.429 minutes), then yes, long would be better. However, in order to add in those 4 extra set of cogs, you spend a lot of time running. A good part of that time wasted is in stomper alley and then running from the oil room to the warehouse. Every time you go through a door or have to run any amount of distance, you are losing efficiency of your merits per minute. Let's say it takes five seconds for a door to open enough to go through it. A short run, you lose 55 seconds (50 if you're fast enough). A long run, you are opening doors a total of 23 sets of doors (19 actual sets, but some you have to open and go through a second time). That's over two minutes of time going through doors, versus under a minute spent on doors. In order to do 4 more sets of cogs, you are spending over a minute to do it. So 55 seconds for 7 sets comes to 7.857 seconds per set of cogs. At 115 seconds for 11 sets, you're spending an average of 10.455 seconds per set of cogs.

 

Seriously, those four extra sets aren't worth it.

 

Okay so let's look at the route to take. I learned this route several years ago and so far, have never it successfully disputed or disproven as being the best way to get the most merits in the least amount of time. Being unable to get a group to go on a short run isn't a valid argument.

 

Merits mentioned below this point are without an invasion. For an invasion, simply double the values. Keep in mind that an invasion must be in progress at the moment that the group starts dancing after defeating the foreman. If it ends a moment before or starts a moment after the group starts dancing, then the merits are regular and not doubled.

 

 

Use the side entrance

Yes, the side entrance, not the front. First benefit is that you don't have to put up with that annoying goon. The other is that it's a short run to the cogs. Of course, afterwards, there are fewer doors, but that's already been pointed out.

 

The route you'll be taking is Duct room, Pipe room, Warehouse, West silo, East silo, Center silo. Each room is listed below with additional information.

 

 

Duct room

The first set of cogs you will encounter will be in this room. You will find three cogs, consisting of levels three, four and five. These cogs are worth 28 merits. After defeating these cogs, turn around, step on the button and open the door. When the door is open, go up the steps/ramp and through the next set of doors. Yes, that's right, up the ramp, not through stomper alley to get to the lava room.

 

Pipe room

I sometimes call this the 'diamond room' because Toontown won't let you say 'pipe'. This room has two sets of cogs, each with three cogs that are levels four, four and five. Each set is worth 28 merits. The nice thing here is that you can finish one battle and go right into the next battle within seconds without having to go through any doors. After defeating both sets of cogs, go through the other set of doors (you should be facing the doors you need to go through). Once outside, take the first left, go up the steps and then to the right. You will get to the doors to go into the warehouse.

 

Warehouse

The warehouse can be a dangerous place. You have to go up the steps, turn around and then get past the goons to go through the doorway (with no door) and up the steps to battle the cogs. This set has four cogs and consist of levels four, four, five and six. Here's a little tip. Start the battle with the cog on the far left (level six). When you do this, the cogs will almost always end up in this order: four, five, four, six. If you're not going to start the battle with the level six, then start it with the level five. However, it's just easier to go for the six. There's a reason for this 'madness' too. With the level six on far right, if the cogs are lured, the six will get knock back bonus when hit with throw or squirt. When using a whole cream pie that can do 38+19 damage, that means you can take the cog out with just one hit. When doing a solo run, I recommend using goggles to lure, then using hose (30 points damage) on each of the fours, then whole cream pie on the six and a hose on the level five. This way, you use a few hoses and save your stronger gags for later. If there are others with you, encourage them to go left to right or weakest to strongest. The reason for this is simple, with the level six there, any gag used will get you gag points (except for the level sevens, aka the mega gags). So if someone has storm and wants to use it, they can use storm on the level fours and the level five and still get gag points for it. It's a good idea to try to get everyone to follow the same idea (six on right, kill left to right or weakest to strongest), as it helps everyone out in the long run.

 

So after defeating these four cogs, which happen to be worth 40 merits, step on the red button one time and then the four orange buttons multiple times. Each time you step on an orange button, a stomper comes down and smashes anything underneath it. The idea is to use it to stomp all the goons so you can safely navigate through the room without losing laff. So go across the room to the door between the stompers, up the steps, to the left and through the door. Get onto the elevator and get off at the top. You're now on the West silo.

 

West silo & East silo

Concept here is the same for each silo. Start battle with a level six cog (avoid the level seven). If there are two cogs that are the same and one is the level seven, then try to start the battle with the other cog that is the same. This is so that you know which of the two is the level six and which is the level seven. Cog on right will get knock back bonus, which means that you can lure using a magnet and then use cream pie on the far right to kill the cog in one turn. The cogs (levels six, six and seven) are worth 40 merits. After you finish a set of cogs, go through the doors, step on the button and come back out. From the West silo go to the East silo (battle cogs there and step on button) then to the center silo and go in the doors to battle the foreman.

 

Center silo/Foreman

Battle the foreman can be the end of some people. If there is a strong toon (higher laff with good lure), they should go in first and lure the cogs before others join in. When I take low toons (under 60) through a factory, I try to get them to wait outside while I go in and lure. If lure misses, I get hit while they remain safe. Once lured, they can come in and we can finish off the cogs safely. On multiple runs, I have had goggles miss on me two times in a row and as a result have lost players because they decided to ignore my warning to wait.

 

The cogs here (three level six and a level nine) are worth 56 merits.

 

 

It's important to note that between the warehouse and silos, you get 176 merits. That's an average of 44 merits per battle and every battle outside of these only reduces the number of merits you get per battle. Doing a short run you get 37.143 merits per battle. Doing long, you get 35.273 merits per battle. Also, as mentioned before, the difference is only 12 cogs. Keep that in mind when you want to spend an extra 10+ minutes to do a long to only end up with 12 more cogs.

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