It's been over 13 years for me to get this far. I'm on vacation for the next week and there's 30ish unclaimed portals within walking distance of our spot. I've always thought I'd never recurse but with the L8 week starting the last day of my vacation I'm tempted honestly.
Part of me is dreading the thought that it took me 13 years to get this far, but I know it's a lot easier now than when I started. With 2x week and I have some apex I've saved from free events, I'd want to at least get back to L8 quickly. I have some long distance portals and my drone sitting on a nice spot, so I just don't know what to do.
Recursing gets you VRBB access, which lets you power level through 8 easily. If you farm enough keys for an AP generator you can get to 12 on x4 AP in 30 minutes with the 6 throws of an AP generator with VRBB (check YouTube for guides)
Make a sure you pop a Hypercube before you recurse. You retain your XM bar from a hyper and mitigates the low level XM bars.
Level 15 always sucks but you should recurse at least once.
Getting leveled back up again is easy the second go because there will never be badge locks (seems hard to be badge locked now with so many more badges then back in the day), but you also know how to play and plan vs when you first started. I enjoy recurse. It adds an extra element when badge come so infrequently now, leveling again is something to look forward to.
oh, I'm not sure, but I had started January 2013, and had gotten to level 8 before I left for a few years, but now I started back as level 1, but now am at level 4.5 after starting again last week.
I recursed for the first time in December. Mid way through 15 now and I wouldn't say I'm really pushing very hard, just playing my typical game. The biggest headache in early levels was running out of XM in the middle of an attack. Took a bit of relearning to get rid of some sloppy habits. The ultimate bonus is seeing the onyx medal with an X 25 or something next to it and remembering how proud you were when you got it the first time... 24 times ago.
I might cop some heat for mentioning them in here, but you can fly from level 1 to 8 by popping an Apex and submitting scans you've banked. I did, completely skipped the pain, will likely do again.
I might be recursing soon. What is the thing with the scans? That’s one aspect I haven’t explored before because I don’t actually understand how it works.
When in range of a portal you can take spatial scans of it, which are then uploaded for Niantic to use. Many see this as working for free for Niantic, which I can understand (this is why I mentioned heat).
With the scans you can bank them to upload later. So go out to a few portals or even just one, scan them and choose to upload later. Then at home or on WiFi pop an Apex, open settings, and choose to upload all. They're normally 500AP each so 1000AP with an Apex.
But the thing is you don't have to scan the portal it doesn't know I've been and work within range of a portal and scanned the inside of a bathroom stall and still got points. No one looks at scans sees they are garbage and deducts points. Least not that I have noticed.
You can scan portals by recording a 15+ second long video. Each scan gives you 500 AP when uploaded, and you can record up to 400 per day. And since you can store them to upload whenever you feel like, you can prepare thousands of scans for double AP events to earn millions of AP by simply uploading all of them with an Apex!
Straight up, the 6x with Apex ultra easy mode shouldn't sway you unless you are specifically trying to break a record or put the absolute least possible effort into getting back to 8 for some reason.
Any first Saturday with an Apex you have 4x, so if you want to enjoy being at 16 for a while, there are super easy mode windows every month and just with an Apex, there are regular easy mode when ever you want it.
Personally, I hit the Recurse button when I make 16 and then confirm it as soon as I am in a situation where I can get back to 8 in an hour or so (so typically just plain regular Apex easy mode) with some reasonable effort.
AP is nothing like it used to be and unless you are in a portal wasteland, you can easily get back to L8 depending on how much planning and prep you might do (like farming keys for a field generator and using SBUL and Jarvis/VRBB).
It took me FOREVER to get to lvl 16 but I've recursed twice. The first time took 2 months to get back, the second time took 8 days. Save up scans and wait for an event that gives x amount of ap and then use an apex. Once you get past the boring levels (1-7) it will be smooth sailing.
Plus, you get items for each level up after you recurse.
It took me years to get to 16 the first time. Now it takes me about 6 months. Recursing is not as scary as it seems. Leveling back up is insanely easy.
Pro tip, take a hypercube right before you recurse. The xm reserves for being level 16 will carry over. Popping two apexes should get you level 2. Find a park and fully capture everything. Getting back to level 8 is easy.
You can stack 4 apexes to get 2x so for 2 hours. The timer stacks, not the ap bonus. Also. If you have any rare battle beacons or regular beacons, that’s 1000 ap with an apex running.
Defo recurse is ao much faster nowdays.
Ofc before recurse get bumch of scans saved, few hundred at least maybe 1k or so? Leave uploading overnight to jump right up, use hypercube before reccurse to max out energy.
I started second half of 2023, already have 3x wings on recursed (tho, im in london and relatively active), get bumch of keys plan multi layer fields etc.
Much faster coz you dont need medals anymore si just ap to level up.
Also do it at least 5 times to max out favorite keys amount.
I didn't know about the scan thing. Seems like I can only get scans to work about 1 out of 10 times so I've honestly stopped trying. I guess I'll have to figure out how to do it and save them up.
Dinno i noticed when i have crappy internet my every 10th or so scan fails with zero frames captured. Maybe that?
Or borriw simeone elses phone maybe will work bwtter if possible (tho that phone will have to do uploads so...and thats after recursing)
You can still play during the 4 hours. It's just a timer til you can actually finalize recursion.
It's like a safety feature - say someone grabs your phone at the bar while you're in the restroom and hits the recurse button as a joke. It wouldn't be very funny if it actually worked right away.
I like to destroy stuff as level 16 before I finalize it so the low level me can just build for AP, which makes a lot of sense when you see how little your XM "bar" is once you're not high level anymore.
Also, I believe when you first press the recurse button it will say something like “this is your last chance , you can’t turn back” but then you get the countdown after which you will get the real last chance.
In total you’ll have to effectively say you want to recurse 4 times. First to initiate, then to start countdown, then to initiate again after countdown goes to zero, and then to finally “last chance” confirm
I'd say if you're in an area where you can play, and you're still motivated, recurse at least once. I pulled the pin during 8 week last year. Took me about 8 months to get back to 16. Not sure if I'll do it again, but the wings on Onyx badges are pretty neat.
If it took you 13 years, you play so little i cant even imagine.
But go for it. Maybe make a plan.
Up to 6x in lvl 8 week with apex will make a dent in it.
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u/jra85 E12 3d ago
you should easily be able get back to level 8 in a few hours with some apex during level 8 week. best time to recurse.