# What most players do before a late reset
Community Knowledge Finish the run first. The wiki advises reaching max level and completing feats before each prestige, because the shard total is built from your level, your feats and your legendaries together[1].
Community Knowledge Make legendaries at the end. Legendaries take up lair space, so the wiki suggests holding off and spawning them right before the prestige[1]. In both threads where players went into detail, the legendary they point to is the Soul Stalker: they use telepads to convert blood and moon runes into cosmic runes (slightly fewer cosmic runes than the runes put in), and death runes are described as easy to come by[2][4]. Reported numbers range from more than 6 as probably enough to about 12 made in one run[2]. For a level-200 reset, the same advice comes with a comparison: spending blood and moon runes on telepads is put at 20%, against 5% for making harpies[4].
Community Knowledge Bank a shard base for the next run. The run after a level-90 reset is described as a long one, which is the reason given for building a good stock of shards beforehand[2]. In the other level-90 thread, one player chose a 125k total to buy the 50k skin and keep about 75k for experiments[3]. A second player ended near 130k and called the skin’s craving really useful[3].
Community Knowledge Collect the Time Pieces. Farming all of them out of the rift is part of the same advice, and they are rated as the most valuable thing in the rift[2]. The +5% piece is described as a multiplicative bonus on time shards[2], and the wiki lists +1%, +2% and +5% for the three levels it names[1].
# Where views differ
Community Knowledge How long to keep grinding before the reset. The level-90 poster had heard both views: grind as much as you want, or stop, because at level 100 more grinding is a waste of time[2].
- Keep grinding as far as you are willing. For a level-200 reset, the answer to “how many shards” was framed as how many legendaries you are willing to farm, and the total as depending on the death and alien runes left at the end and how much you want to grind[4]. The reasoning given: completing all the sets is estimated to lift the poster’s bonus from 680% to 930%, and the remaining runes add more[4]. For level 90, the long run that follows is the reason given for a bigger base[2].
- Stop at max level and reset. This view appears only second-hand, in the level-90 poster’s summary of what others said; nobody in these threads argues for it directly, and no reasoning is given beyond calling further grinding a waste of time[2]. The closest replies are about having enough rather than more: a level-90 total, its exact number not remembered, is described as covering the upgrades you could reasonably get before level 100[2], and for a max-200 run a surplus is expected because legendary cravings are not yet as steep as later[4].
Version-sensitive “Double the minimum” is not spelled out. The level-200 advice to aim for about double the minimum does not say which minimum it means; it only says that in that case this means 5M[4]. This page does not match it, or any other player figure, to a row of the wiki’s tables.
# How the wiki says shards are calculated
Community Knowledge The wiki’s Time Machine page gives the shard total as a product: a base from your Devourer level, multiplied by a feats bonus, a legendaries bonus and other bonuses[1]. Because the parts multiply, raising one of them raises the whole total in proportion.
Community Knowledge To raise the Devourer’s max level permanently, the same page says you need to have earned at least the required number of shards before using the Time Machine; otherwise the max level is not raised on the next prestige[1]. The page lists the required numbers in tables, which this page does not copy; it does not match any player figure to a row of them. The tables are at the wiki revision linked under Community sources.
# Limits and version notes
- Version-sensitive The Reddit material comes from 10 comments and posts by 8 authors in three r/NecroMerger threads, dated 2026-08-05 to 2026-09-16 (Arctic Shift archive, collected 2026-10-04). They are individual reports, not a poll.
- Version-sensitive Runs after the Rocket are described as different from before, with less guidance available[4]. Figures from older runs may not carry over.
- Version-sensitive The wiki text is from the Time Machine page at revision 18508 (last edited 2026-08-04, read 2026-10-05). The wiki lists +5% for a level-3 Time Piece, while a player calls the +5% piece level 4[1][2]; this page has not checked which is current.
- Version-sensitive Nothing here was tested in the game, and the game may change after these dates.
Wiki, Time Machine page:
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