Rank­ings & News Septem­ber 2023

Guide writ­ten by AfuroZamurai. Con­tri­bu­tions from the Amaz­ing Com­munity.

Main Rank­ings Page

Septem­ber 2023 #

News #

Not like I was very much in­volved in the com­munity the last month but I still heard of some news. Well, also the secret art of ask­ing was help­ing.

• This month we had an un­ex­pec­ted third com­ple­tion of both SL and EF on a main save by OddEn­tity. Con­grat­u­la­tions!
• To be fair, this might only in­terest people on the Dis­cord server but our helper team has in­creased to 6 play­ers with the ad­di­tion of Axiss and Omega
• I did men­tion min­imum grad runs last time and as an up­date we do have one con­test­ant (Megam­inX) reach­ing ee30k with only 6 gradu­ations so far
• Eyland­ing has in­ves­ted some ser­i­ous ef­fort to make a more sim­pli­fied, less mathy and hope­fully easier to un­der­stand guide! Note that it is as a res­ult not com­par­able in depth to the guide but sim­pli­city has its own charm, right? You can look at it here: ht­tps://​www.eyland­ing.com/​ex­po­nen­tial-idle/​guide
• As it won’t be re­flec­ted in the rank­ings, it will land here: we have our first le­git ee70000 f(t), done by none other than Playspout! Why he has­n’t up­dated? No idea
• Dis­cord EI bot has been down (ac­tu­ally missed that last month) but thanks to Eaux it is all back up! May be miss­ing something here but if I did, sorry to every­body
• We have minigames in Ex­po­nen­tial Idle, we have minigames in cus­tom the­or­ies, now we have minigames out­side the game. Hm, well, not that much of an Ex­po­nen­tial Idle news but Card Pairs by dphdmn is fun, made for the com­munity and maybe it could be­come a cus­tom the­ory one day if any­body feels like it (or I guess the cre­ator gets to cus­tom the­or­ies?). Any­way, here it is: ht­tps://​dphdmn.git­hub.io/​card­pairs/
• This month has been my 3 year an­niversary play­ing EI! It has been a long ride but happy to be here with all these mo­tiv­ated people!
• And just to end on me and have some the­ory news: T2 has passed e750 on my alt save! That should mean maybe less than 5 years left for e800?

In cus­tom the­ory news: Find­ing cus­tom the­or­ies be­sides the of­fi­cial ones is no easy thing. Luck­ily we have a doc­u­ment con­tain­ing links and in­form­a­tion about a large num­ber of cus­tom the­or­ies in dif­fer­ent stages of de­vel­op­ment: ht­tps://​docs.google.com/​spread­sheets/​d/​1_VILoIE8qOx­Gi7UD-HiDKH95uKir­G­zL2Ujn­Hva2c­aBo/ There might be up­dates about what was ad­ded in the fu­ture but keep­ing track of that might not work out so per­fectly. Just look for your­self for now^^

Ob­lig­at­ory plea for feed­back: If any­one has ideas, please let me (and/​or the guide team) know. If you have cri­ti­cism do it as well. If you don’t want to end up in any news/​rank­ings out­side the server, then con­tact me so I could either ex­clude or an­onymise you.

Rank­ings #

So after once again avoid­ing the rank­ings in fa­vor of news for a bit (and be­ing ex­tra late any­way), it is fi­nally time for the up­date!

Septem­ber 2023 Top 20 on the lead­er­board, their $F(t)$ at the time the list was com­piled and their Dis­cord con­nec­tion (Dis­cord names in brack­ets are not their nick­names!):

1. HeadedArt26 (Playspout) - ee69878:

If you ever looked at the record sheet you should know him because he’s literally everywhere there (still holding him off from T2/​T4 for now^^). Also pretty active here, doing everything imaginable! Added fun fact: did ee50000 without T9. I wonder if there is anything he isn’t active in^^

Playspout is the Ling Ling of Exponential IdleActive with 40 hours a day (and more saves than any person should have) and still searching for new theory strats and writing and and and. Having established a firm lead the only question to remain seems: will Playspout lose some motivation and allow someone else to get close? So could you slow down please? There are some challengers but not like really close yet. So no, he isn’t slowing down^^ Extra note for this month: for whatever reason, he hasn’t updated his leaderboard to his ee70000 I saw a screenshot of.

2. Vin­tage­Sur­fer­56606 (kinger55) - ee69439:

He has discovered the main reason to be on the server: the tau bot^^ Well, that joke lost its meaning a lot of months ago but it is hard to let go^^ Else he’s not really participating (unless I ask for a tau update and recently not even then…) but he’s a force on the leaderboard for sure. He certainly figured out CTs and firmly planted himself in the Top 3 now. Having distanced everybody else, the question remains: can he do the same for Playspout in the future?

3. (+1) Adam­H99 (nemesis) - ee69402:

Found the server some while ago and no longer an unknown! Looks like he is going fast and steady, this time overtaking me. There we have someone on a mission…

So for quite a while now he is consistent in doing hardcore active pushing and so I just hope he loses motivation he continues to go strong. Good at minigames! I’m pretty sure he had the number 1 spot for a brief while inbetween, so good for him (and time to stop)!

Also whatever EI steroids he’s on, I think I’d need them too^^ I mean at some point he’ll have to pay the price of not overpushing but that spirit is commendable. Also come back please to Discord and share your secrets… Also is he starting to pay the price? Well, I’m certainly still wary. Rightly so because that was a big jump…

4. (-1) Eld­rail (AfuroZamurai) - ee69213:

Always a bit difficult to write about oneself^^ Activity here is more in phases but at least pretty regularly (so hopefully daily), in the game I do like my idle theories (who could’ve guessed?). Favourite phrase: Time for active theories I guess^^ (while not doing that until I set myself a challenge). Also loves chess.

Finally got #1 in the rankings a few month ago but without actually ever being #1…! Too bad Playspout showed up again before the cheater ahead of me was removed. I guess I’ll have to keep hunting! Note: hunting can be defined broadly and this absolutely inefficient phase of idle is certainly just a long-term plot to regain my #1 spot for real. Totally.

Well, yeah, about that… I’m back to being the Idle Lord and have found my fun in that. Still trying though, just not very hard. At least I’m back at cashing in with actives somewhat regularly, so with more tau than Gen (oO) maybe I can challenge for higher places again. Like my one place loss. Watch out everyone ;)

5. (+1) colinc719 (?) - ee69075:

They were maybe the biggest surprise when entering the rankings, shooting up from somewhere I cannot even remember directly into the Top 20 and never looking back. We cannot even know more about them because it looks like they are still not on the server. Maybe the future will give us more (so far not). For now they just entered Top 10 after first disappearing for a bit from the leaderboards completely and made clear Top 10 was just a step on the way. I feel scared… Questioning what is happening intensifies but no answers…

6. (-1) Gen­Er­a­tion­Na­tion (Gen) - ee69047:

With a heavy hard I have to report that the Juggernaut has slowed down and maybe no longer is the Juggernaut. Still pretty strong though^^

Maybe not at the absolute top for CTs (though I think in terms of efficiency he actually is or at least very close) and maybe suffered a bit in originals but still going strong enough with accel (the madman^^) to have more f(t) than one would expect. It is still so weird to see him lower but to be fair: rankings have always changed over time. I wonder where he’ll settle down…

7. Reck­on­Crew (Reck­on­Crew) - ee69018:

They have all their messages on the server from a single day about 29 months ago, which is an achievement in itself I guess^^ Actually cannot find them anymore, maybe because of the Discord name update? Or maybe because Discord sometimes doesn’t want to actually search.

Not much else to say except they are pretty stable, mainly gaining a place now and then (and sometimes losing one). I do like stable players for this ranking^^

I should not have said that (well, to be fair I already said that for a while). The reckoning is near! (I’m somewhat sorry for the totally intended pun)

8. (+1) Up­Artz (?) - ee68837:

Seems to be active on Reddit but not here, though this is unclear.

They were already out of the Top 20 and were often on the edge but because of that I’m even more impressed by their fighting spirit, seeing the gap closing to actually entering the single digits! Applause for reaching the Top 10!

9. (+1) some gib­ber­ish I won’t even try type­writ­ing[name may change any second] (nubest) - ee68820:

She has been a long time member of this server, with quite a lot of messages a name to know. Maybe not the founder but excessive user of a rather unusual kind of text emoji: ouo and variations of it. She also likes to call hax and people bad which seems to correlate with her orthographic skills.

Unfortunately life came in the way and besides a pause on the server her leaderboard placement was suffering for it. Fortunately she is now back! Firmly Top 10, maybe climbing. Maybe its the cat emojis^^ Or the elaborate strategies which are surely not active because nub only idles, sure.

Looks like the competition isn’t making life easy but never count her off!

10. (-2) Fi­nalul­tima (Fi­nalul­tima) - ee68820:

While they showed up a day before the rankings they got into the Top 20 in “real” Discord conversations (after some month of talking with the tau bot!) activity is still almost negligible but happy to have them and looking forward to seeing more!

Amazing fast progress and now the gap to close is pretty big. Still an impressive achievement getting here and after seeing their distribution I have no doubt it is fully deserved! Though others aren’t here to settle down either…

Looks like maybe this was the height for now.

11. (+1) birrel69 (birrel) - ee68785:

The rival of d4Nf6Bg5 (or rather the involuntary rival). While at first falling behind, he has long made his move and passed him for a rising spot in the rankings. He popped up on the server to announce his entry into the Top 20, only to be overtaken again before the rankings was made. For now he’s safely in utilizing the same strat of having 2 saves. Sometimes he shows up and exchanges some words with his rival, staying committed to the strategy of not sharing information, instead preferring to use what we find to better climb. Well, its not like anything is forced and in the end it depends on how you play your save, so on you go! First time he actually feels the breath of his hunter but also first time being really close to Top 10. How will that play out?

12. (+3) d4N­f6Bg5 (d4N­f6Bg5) - ee68723:

He’s been on the server and the rankings hunt for a while. A long while actually. According to him surely every day he wasn’t in the Top 20 too long.

If you know chess notation you can deduce from his name he’s a chess player (you can go as far as allow him his self-proclaimed expert status given his 2500+ lichess rating^^). As I’m something of a chess player myself I already like that^^

Being driven by his desire to finally reach the rankings but hindered by competition, long times for small gains and not much desire to actually cash in on the actives, he decided to do a first here at the top (at least as far as we know): he split his saves. One of them is going for the long haul and the other - this one - got the theory automator running 24/​7 for the short-term gain. Took him long enough but that is actually a somewhat high placement now. Is the attack on birrel happening now? I have to assume so and look forward to seeing next months results of that!

13. (+1) In­tel­lec­tu­al­Power­112 (NG­Z001) - ee68677:

Over a year ago he already had an honourable mention. I wrote: Let’s hope at some point in the future he can enter the rankings to join his friends on the leaderboard (XLII already showed the way^^)!

He was far behind but with his activity and passion I wasn’t surprised to finally see him enter the Top 20! Back then he started to appear a bit more in the server and especially for custom theories. He certainly continued this trend. Very impressive minigamer, second to probably none, having passed 1 billion minigame stars by a fair margin. Equally impressive in custom theories, second only to Playspout and not by much. Here is one player I can see rise more and more!

14. (-1) hot­ab1 (hotab) - ee68600:

I have a vague feeling he shouldn’t have been in when I first included him but well, now he’s in for sure. Right now he’s the player with the third highest T4 and a pretty decent theory distribution - but his T5 looks like it could help him get even higher. I’ll be interested to see if he can keep up the pace or if pushing T6 will cost him at some point. Note: always push T6 (unless you’re XLII). Overriding note: looks like T6 isn’t the solution to all problems.

15. (-4) Black­Seal94 (Black­Seal) - ee68542:

Seldom seen here but always great to see him update his insane T6 stat (discounting Playspout who shouldn’t count anyways)^^ Custom theories had kind of awoken him to be more active on the server, which was nice. Nowadays activity is going down all around…

He was so high on the ladder and now it’s going down. Can he turn it up a gear or was that it?

16. (+1) Ara­mak­iSH (?) - ee68459:

Another rather new entry! And another mystery person. I knew they were already somewhat close before stopping to update f(t) for over 2 months. I guess this is also a way to reappear! Outside of this I have no idea about them at all. Maybe they’ll show up somewhere (or somebody else knows more). For now it’s just admiring the rise and see if it will be a future problem to write about^^ The future is here but not like I have anything to add…

17. (-1) ad­equateryan (ad­equate ryan) - ee68275:

Entered a few month ago. But who do we welcome into our ranks? I have no idea as they are seemingly on the server but with a whooping 0 messages so far. While I always feel a bit of sadness seeing veteran players fall, I do like new players coming in, showing all is fluid and you can catch up.

Now I wonder if they’ll stay or even rise or maybe even more surprisingly start to talk on the server! So far only rise and no talk… Or no rise and no talk… Or no talk and fall… This is covering every change, so my work here is done.

18. (+1) Melv0r (Melv0r) - ee68199:

I have a vague feeling he should’ve been already in a month before I included him, considering my notes on f(t) but hey, he’s here now! It has been a while since he was seen on the server, with messages dating back to 2021 making him an old veteran but still below a hundred messages. But what matters for this ranking is not activity in the server (though still nice) but activity in the game. And there he fought his way up and up until he got into this prestigious list. Now it’s time to see if he can hold his place! Close shave but for now he stays.

19. (-1) An­thari­on1988 (An­tharion) - ee68135:

The original legend, longtime #1, creator of the original tau simulator and sadly not that active anymore (both in the game and on the server), though we can still see him (and he’s certainly not given up^^) from time to time.

It was a surprise but a welcome one to see him back in the Top 10 at some point and even staying for a bit! Now the competition sadly got him but no reason to give him up. Gogogo!!!

I jinxed him when hoping for a comeback, can I jinx it the other way by prophesizing his fall? No, I cannot… If the trend continues, it will be another former #1 dropping out. But not all hope is lost still!

20. (new) jgaumer (jgaumer) - ee67997:

And we do have another new entry! It is even someone on the server - with a whooping 3(!) messages dating back to 2021. It has been a long time since asking for variable autobuy amounts (looks like switching from x25 to x1 or max has helped) but besides showing up here, I know nothing. Since the start of the year at rank 26 or higher, so no sudden stellar uprise (though +3 to get here is nothing to scoff at). Will that be enough to stay?

Some enter the list and so some have to leave the list as well. Here is our fallen fel­low from this month:

25. (-5) har­u­maki200 (har­u­maki) - ee67853:

Lost the rankings spot and lost the spot for lowest messages (disregarding players with no messages). But okay, when there is no longer any f(t) update, this has to happen sooner or later.

Activity on the server is no where equivalent to activity ingame and this held true here very well for quite some time. It is not the first time that no f(t) updates came within a month but this time it was too much. I wonder if this will be another sad case of a player stopping or there will be another comeback.

An hon­our­able men­tion goes to #

1. (on iOS) neasi_cz (neasi) - ee68598:

A not that new face anymore on the top of the iOS leaderboard! Having overtaken Phask and finally getting to rank 1 after a long hunt, he’s fast increased his lead. He is not that active on the server but not unknown either. Maybe we’ll see him more in the future? It might be possible we have in him somebody who is ready to challenge the established overall Top 10 hold by Android players, though it is still to early to say that. After reaching his all-time high of #12 on the combined leaderboard, he has dropped back a place, keeping to that for now. I have to say: I’m rooting for him! I mean I should’ve known better, considering he dropped another place after I rooted for him…

2. (on iOS) Phask (Phask) - ee67734:

He was the longtime leader on the iOS leaderboard and actually in the Top 20 overall if combined. For quite some time it looked like he actually might be pretty close to the Top 10 on Android before he lost his top spot on iOS and losing touch to the combined Top 20. Overall he’s still falling behind further but as iOS is underrepresented anyway and I have some nostalgic feelings, he’ll stay for now regardless. He’s also on the server, though his active times are some months ago. Also known as the creator of the first Tau data collection sheet.

And in the end it is of course time for the “real” hon­our­able men­tion (please nom­in­ate someone with a reason for fu­ture in­clu­sion of play­ers if you have some­body in mind) as neasi_cz and Phask are tech­nic­ally in the Top 20 rank­ings (or rep­res­ent iOS and their top of the lead­er­board):

The hon­our­able men­tion was the friends we made along the way Sorry, it is ac­tu­ally hard after some point be­cause the most not­able play­ers are covered after a while and hon­our­able men­tions do not grow on trees. I’ll be think­ing about it (=ask­ing other older play­ers for their memor­ies), so I will be ready to start a chain of men­tions about play­ers who are maybe in­act­ive or at least not that known any­more but had an in­flu­ence on the com­munity or the game.

As it turned out to be quite the un­der­tak­ing to write this month edi­tion (be­cause of other com­mit­ments and be­cause it takes some time), I still did­n’t care to see if any­thing changed, so it will be the val­ues of the time today when I looked at them, not when I pub­lished it. Es­pe­cially be­cause cough it might not have been from the end of Septem­ber.