There are five tiers of opponent for non-champions, and defeating the fifth tier makes your slave a champion. If you lose a battle and the slave doesn't die, they have to repeat a lower tier.
Yeah I just found that out when I tried to have her fight again so reloaded. I have my answer, and that means no more gladiatrix funds for me for at least 2 decades.
Have you considered taking a loan shortly before you run out of your savings (presumably with your slave-in-training already at least C- or C+) and using the extra budget to get her up to B- or B+?
Well, remember I'm still early game, and while I cheated in extra funds to give myself a cushion so I could actually have a little bit of time to learn the harder mechanics without immediately going broke, if I tried to do that with the sparks you have available on extreme difficulty, I'd wind up needing to take a loan very early on. 200 sparks really isn't a lot to work with. If you accept a guild contract then you spare yourself having to pay for her, and an arena battle or 2 can let you go for a few decades if you're exceptionally frugal. But with the low stats you begin the game with, I don't see myself being able to get a slave to a D rating before needing a loan. In this playthrough my first guild contract girl took me 27 days to get to D-, and the amount of funds I spent to do so meant I would have had to have taken a loan to have done it without the extra funds I gave myself. Add a decade minimum to get the point of devotion for C+ and the fact B- requires 2 devotion, and B+ requires 3... I assume with an extra decade required for each... I'm not entirely certain I'd be capable of doing that in the time I'd need to before going bankrupt. Maybe I could with what I've learned but I'm not actually certain.
Aside from guild rep allowing you to have multiple arena battles per decade, it is also an insurance policy to be able to take a guild contract for prepayment if you are a little bit short on funds. But you have to complete the contract to regain that option. Selling high enough ratings at auctions also raises guild reputation, and you can make more sparks that way.
Those are some fair points and a sneaky way to do it of course.
The other benefit of contracts is that they can give you high-quality slaves without paying market price. You can start a contract, get the prepayment and a slave with great potential, immediately complete the contract by turning in another slave you've already trained (maximizing the speed bonus), and keep the new one. You only need to acquire one slave independently to start a cycle like this.
Another good point, but also one you can't do immediately. You'll have to get your feet under you first so you're at least treading water long enough to do it.
If your strength is above B+, pub food isn't any better than canned food, except that it can be cheaper. Switch to $1 meals or decide it's not worthwhile saving 1$/day by spending half an energy star to go there.
This is good to know. I thought the lower quality the food, the quicker it would degrade your strength the larger the difference in required quality was. If that's not the case then I can swap to the cheaper stuff and save 20 sparks a decade. Very good to know.
Ambrosia is a very high expense in the early game. You can fulfill your promise with a $1 sweet treat or $2 bouquet. The slave might not be happy about it, but you can compensate for that with a smaller amount of sparks.
It is, but unfortunately I didn't have any better opportunities to reward her in between fights those weeks. She won the fight, so I promised a gift, failed to have an opportunity to reward her sufficiently before the next fight, and she expected a level 5 reward, plus the promised gift so I figured 2 birds one stone.
Your secretary can reduce the bill. Your egglayer alone can bring in up to 270$ per decade (up to 180$ without a farmhand). Subtract food cost of up to 7$ per day. If you have a fiend, the egglayer's costs go to zero (if there's enough supply), so the 100$ cost of acquiring a fiend pays for itself from that alone. You can also obtain one cheaper.
Having a fiend also improves the profit margin for cow milk, but even without a fiend it can break even on the feeding cost at average lactation level or turn a modest profit at higher lactation level. So adding a cow is a small up-front cost that eventually pays for itself, even if you don't sell the cow to the public animal farm (although selling the cow would be a good idea if you are trying to maximize your income).
Perhaps that's just something I haven't noticed. I was doing the accounting myself as I was using Isabella's energy for other tasks.
But most of what you're talking about here still requires you getting your feet under you first. Like, maybe I'm not communicating what I mean here very well because I don't deny that there are options further down the line you can use to supplement your income for sure. I'm talking about in the very beginning with the limited funds and stats available on extreme. You won't be gaining access to those options for several decades.
I'm talking primarily about the very early game when you're struggling the most and have the least wriggle room to get yourself started. It's during this period where the arena is the only viable source of supplemental income. Other options open up later once you start earning enough to get some wriggle room, able to acquire your own slaves, and even able to afford an apartment. But before that point, options are very very limited.
I guess you didn't like the "disposable slave" strategy I outlined earlier, which is both more profitable and avoids teaching your current slave how to fight back before she's obedient enough not to do it.
I believe you're referring to the option of cryo store your slave for a day, or potentially a decade, while buying another cheap slave for 20 sparks?
On the surface I thought it was a good idea, but in practice I haven't been able to do it. I have not yet been able to buy a slave for any cheaper than 45 sparks, and that prevents it from being an option that'll return any profit. Maybe I've just been unlucky in that regard every time I've tried. It's possible, but my current experience is why I'm not looking at it as a serious option.
The question for me in setting the pricing is how much additional time does it take to go from one rating to the next. The largest challenge on extreme difficulty is the disobedient phase. Once you get to D-, it becomes much easier. You can start using drugs, too. Are you using drugs?
I haven't looked into the drug stuff yet no, as I've been trying to keep my expenses low and I don't know enough about how to effectively use them yet. I'll have to look into that and start using them. I'm sure that like magic, they'll make the whole training process quicker and easier as long as you can afford to use them in the first place.
Along these lines, I think the gladiatrix route is currently too easy. Why is it that you can make any random girl (almost) into an arena champion?
Oh I 100% agree. I feel it's such an advantage that you'd have to be intentionally handicapping yourself to choose NOT to do it. That's why I feel like I'm forced to do it if I want to get myself off the ground in any reasonable timeframe.
I don't think many businesses would accept unskilled labor. Maybe the brothel, just for the "newness" factor. No skill required, just a pretty face. Some customers even prefer it that way. But, if the slaver wants the brothel to actually teach the slave anything, the slaver should pay the brothel for the lessons, just like a tutor.
Oh I agree that if you want the business to teach anything, then you should have to pay. No argument there. But having it so you can bring your slaves in to prostitute them where the brothel effectively takes a major cut leaving you only with the minor profits feels reasonable to me. The same way allowing your artists to perform for tips, your secretary to essentially get a small number of sparks for completing random paperwork for some business, or a serving girl also working for tips would be. I understand you may feel differently on that point, but I personally don't find it that hard to believe that some businesses would be happy with that kind of arrangement.
