So in other topics people are very against using the solar tree stating that it is too expensive and takes too long to get the solar back. Over a 15 minute game it will give you a profit of 325 solar but it doesnt start giving you a profit until about 4.5 minutes into the game. So the question i was wondering was is it ever worth using because its hard to tell how long a game will be. Sometimes i have used it and the game was 18-20 minutes long in which i was appreciative of the extra solar and 4-5 levels. In other games that last 5-7 minutes i suppose it was worthless. So is it worth the risk for a better late game experience?

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Gamertag: Smidge7
Prestige: 5 Lvl: 45
Main: Froggy G

If you join your frist game (you have no idia if the game aleardy started or not at that point.)

Don't use it, if you join a game aleardy in progress the tree will be more harmfull that helpfull.

Theres aslo the Tree vs piggy bank issue.

Piggy bank give what would the tree gives you after around 9 minutes(?), but you get it right away with the piggy bank.

Most players uses piggy bank because with that extra solar, you get a stronger start and you can do much better early on, and its easyer to farm solar early game and not being overrun with enemy that have a skill advantage over you and force you to back off, slowind down your solar farm.

Of course you can use piggy bank + tree combo, but it only works for few characters. (Clunk and froggy g i hear was having sucess with that setup...)


There are few cases that the tree is better that piggy bank, like having a team that play defense and stall the enemy long eneuf to get a money advantage.


But about 95% of players i play with/vs used piggy bank.
Unless the tree prize goes down in the next patch, piggy bank will be superior in most cases.

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Steam nickname : Ai
My Lonestar Build : viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4896
My Clunk Build : viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4983&p=34467#p34467
More to come...

there same topic http://www.awesomenauts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1915

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GT SilentKO

Tree + Piggy: Takes 4:10 to pay itself.
Tree - Piggy: Takes 9:10 to pay itself.

If not spending money on Tree results in an extra kill it's 50 solar or 1:20.
If you die once you lose 25 solar and earn nothing from Tree until back in game.
The team that makes a kill earns a 125 solar advantage over the other team.

If you can make a strategy work with both than it's OK. Don't ever go Tree instead of Piggy. Unless of course the price of Tree goes down.

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Prestige 5, Level 45, Rank 61 - - Xbox Tag: AwakeningSE - - Lonestar or Yuri (flash-heal)

50 solar is 1:40 worth of time btw, so even larger gain

The stated 325 gain is only true under certain conditions, like comparing someone who uses tree to someone who uses nothing, or comparing someone who uses both to someone who uses just piggy (piggy bank present or absent on both sides of the equation)

Comparing tree directly to piggy bank:

If a player uses solar tree instead of piggy bank, they only have a 175 solar advantage at the 15 minute mark over someone who does.

If they use both, they get 325 adv from tree by the 15 min mark over someone who just uses piggy, but then only has a single 4th row slot to use.

Solar tree is just bad, and using piggy bank as well to cover the cost doesnt make tree any less terrible, it still takes too much time to start gaining profits and doesnt give enough profit to really justify the terrible early game.

If solar tree were free it would be a 300 solar adv over piggy bank by the 15 min mark, still not very impressive considering the potential for tower kills, player kills, bot farming, and general area control provided by piggy

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"They should just nerf his selection button, too. Half the time it should just select Clunk and tell you that other players might get sad if you play as him."

-Auburok on balancing Derpl

How I messed that up, I don't know. But I was tired all day yesterday.


Also wanted to make a note that all calculations concerning the Tree means you cannot die.

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Prestige 5, Level 45, Rank 61 - - Xbox Tag: AwakeningSE - - Lonestar or Yuri (flash-heal)

Yeah, if you die with solar tree you just bury yourself even deeper, all time spent dead or riding the rocket pod you gain no money from standard passive OR solar tree

-25 from dying, equal to 50 seconds of solar tree uptime.

+100 to enemy team, 3m 20s worth of solar tree uptime.

A single death effectively nullifies 4:10 worth of solar tree uptime + the amount of time before you hit the ground.

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"They should just nerf his selection button, too. Half the time it should just select Clunk and tell you that other players might get sad if you play as him."

-Auburok on balancing Derpl

Requoting him from another thread regarding regen...

Gotta say... between this quote and the previous pose that I'm convinced enough to not bother with the Tree anymore. Gotta figure what to put as my 3rd slot now... heh

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Ronma I... | How do you defuse dynamite? | Tricks YOU *should* know | Mirg | Derpstar FTW

Solar Tree's value in game is uncertain because its best reward is based on how well you progress through the game.
Piggy Bank is reliable and sacrifices very little for some early game advantage.

Hmm. Uncertainty vs. reliability. The choice... is too... difficult...
Ugh, I give up, maybe if I take both my woes will be gone.
Oh wait that's not a good solution either.

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Solar tree is good on more support oriented builds that aren't aggressively seeking kills, and allows your offensive teammates to more aggressively farm.

For example, grabbing bank+tree on Voltar allows you to take a range upgrade on your heal, and rapidly gives you solar while you keep your team on the field. This works best with a competent Leon/Lonestar so that they don't have to flee to base after every early game slap fight.

Its also effective on Yuri if you choose not to take his speed upgrade, which makes you vulnerable until you can get the speed boosting time bubble. Careful play with a focus on grabbing all the free solar around the map and keeping teammates out of trouble.

This is just a choice of using your bottom row for solar gain instead of mobility, which with Voltar and Yuri you can get away with. Just watch out for slow blade Leon >.> Good backup shuts him down though. I guess what it really boils down to is who you're teamed with. A Froggy+Leon team will need you to be in position faster so boots>tree, but a Clunk teammate will let you take the tree to get your build faster while still being able to get into position relatively quickly.