[The Willful Wanderer]

In general, not very long- you may notice, I *already did*.

For him, let's see. At 4c/E gathering, Mana Pool effectively costs 30x4+50c, or 170c. However, you have to keep in mind that not only does it increase his base max coin increase per turn by 2x4xShyGuys, but it also adds an additional 2x6xShyGuys bonus from his ShyGuys' bonus energy for magic-only. Since he has 9 ShyGuys, just getting the Mana Pool, that same turn he also gains an additional 9x2x6=108c purely from bonus energy. If he still has (170-108)/2 (Or 62/2, which is 31) base energy left on his ShyGuys immediately after building the Mana Pool to spend on Coin Shower, that instantly defrays the cost. Of course, that's 8 more ShyGuys which he clearly doesn't have. It's much easier to count it as defrayed completely within 2 turns on just the bonus energy that gets turned into coins.

Basically, the turn AFTER the turn he completes the Mana Pool, he'll have a net gain there of 38 coins, even if in that same turn after he completes the Mana Pool, he has all his ShyGuys Explore and Build. 38 coins of the extra Magic energy (or 6+1/3 Coin Shower boosts) and the extra 2c/energy for all the other gathering he does that next turn is pure gravy, as is ALL the Coin Shower from the extra magic energy each turn after that (at least 108c/turn if he spends all that bonus energy on Coin Shower and makes no new ShyGuys) AND 1/3 of his Coin gains from the 'spend on anything' Energy that he uses to gain Coin for the rest of the game.

Toad and I, on the other hand, have the inverse advantage- rather than tons of extra Magic Energy to spend on Coin Showers to defray (and quickly swamp out) the cost of the Mana Pool, we simply both build it extremely easily- For Toad, it's 1&1/2 turns of energy that he doesn't need for Warp Pipes anymore, or for Caravans ATM, and for me- well, I already built it.

Once you have a Mana Pool, or the ability to build one, the Warp Pipes and Moneybags are simply completely obsolete as Coin gain- even with 120c Toads. I could spend 100c and 20AE for +20c/turn, or 125c for +20c/turn, or I could spend 120c for +16c AND 2AE per turn. And next turn, when I can afford a Flagpole (and pay all the build energy costs out of my AE), that becomes 108c for an effective +16c (after Ration costs) and 2AE (which save me 8c, making it a 24c/day efficiency).

Mushrooms aren't even worth considering as moneygain (at twice the price of a Moneybag), their value is in their flexibility of energy- one for Exploring or Magic or Building every turn.

You need the Warp Pipes and Moneybags early on, but once you have a Mana Pool, most especially with ShyGuys like SephiKirb is using (100c for +28c per turn if turned totally to gathering), it's much more efficient to start building a unit base. (It also provides a good impetus to start adding more units that you'll be able to use later for exploration and combat.)

As with any strategy game that includes resources, the first and most vital thing to do is to ensure not only stability, but a steady increase in cash flow.

For any Non-Toad, Caravans are relatively expensive- 50c plus 10AE- or 50c plus an effective 40c, for anyone who's spending regular energy (non-Toad units). That's 90c- or 18c additional per unit bought. Toads, however, provide 2AE per, in addition to their 4E- which means that one caravan full of Toads only needs to spend their bonus energy for 1 turn and 50c to get a Caravan. So where Prince Toad and I can easily oops on a Caravan with no worries, for SephiKirb, that's 90c he could have used to get 45 more Rations so he could have had his Mana Pool this turn and some spare Rations additional besides what he'll need next turn. Or to get another ShyGuy, which would have gotten him a lot more coin over time even if he would have had to spend 10c more overall to get it.