Recursion is Ingress’s prestige mechanic. On an agent’s first trip to level 16, they must unlock badges and earn AP (action points / access points / agent points). After recursing to level 1, an agent retains their badges and only needs to re-earn enough AP to progress back through the levels to level 16. This post-recursion return to level 16 typically takes a few months to a year, but theoretically, it can be done in a day.
The AP requirement to reach level 16 is 40 million. https://ingress.fandom.com/wiki/Access_Level
Making fields is the quickest way to gain AP
https://ingress.fandom.com/wiki/Access_Points
In the early days of Ingress, before you could throw links under small fields, the best way to get a lot of fields quickly was to get a row of portals and an anchor and throw the fields largest first. The first link you threw was to the anchor, no fields created with that link. The second link created one field and all subsequent links created two fields. Even with linking under fields, this is likely the most fields you can get without multiple agents.
| SBUL | Agents | Links | Fields | ||
| 0 | 1 | 8 | 13 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 16 | 29 | ||
| 2 | 1 | 24 | 45 | ||
| 3 | 2 | 32 | 61 | ||
| 4 | 2 | 40 | 77 |
I wasn’t able to find 23 portals in a row with a 24th for an anchor without covering a giant area, so for a while I didn’t use SoftBank Ultra Links and just threw 13 fields at a time, virused that portal and moved on to the next portal. Pretty slow way to gain AP. For a while, I did a variation with 3 8-portal fields and two SoftBanks. That was a little faster but since I had 3 different anchors, I was getting 39 fields instead of the 45 I’d get with one big field. And it took up enough real estate that agents from the other team came to break up the party within an hour or so.
By throwing from the inside, the same amount of AP can be obtained as a giant 24 portal field (one anchor, 23 portal spine) in a much smaller space. Here’s what it looks like in theory:
From the center of the field (big circle in the middle), you link to A, B and C in any order. The first link won’t create any fields. The second link creates one field. The third link creates two fields. After links have thrown to the outer ABC layer, links are thrown to DEF in any order. Each of these links creates 2 fields by splitting the AB triangle, the BC triangle and the AC triangle. After those links are thrown, throw links to GHIJKL in any order. Each of those creates two fields by splitting the triangles created in the previous step. Finally, throw all the remaining links in any order to split all of the triangles created in the previous step.
The first link is 0 fields, the second link is 1 field and all remaining links (as long as they’re done outside in) create 2 fields. 45 fields from 24 links in a much more compact space (more compact than 23 in a row plus an anchor they all link to).
In reality, it’s a little less pretty. I found an area with enough portals, but there’s higher portal density on one end than the other. So instead of 4 tiers (ABC, DEF, G to L, M to X), there are 5 tiers on one side and 3 tiers on the other.
Using Very Rare Battle Beacons and viruses to throw the field as many times as possible, how much time and how much gear is required to get 40 million AP? Can it be done in a day?
Here’s the breakdown on the AP for using a battle beacon to throw the field 5 times.
| Deploy resonators | 125 x 40 | 5000 |
| Capture portal | 675 x 5 | 3375 |
| Deploy final resonator | 250 x 5 | 1250 |
| Apply mod | 125 x 10 | 1250 |
| Destroy mod | 80 x 10 | 800 |
| Links | 313 x 24 x 5 | 37560 |
| Fields | 1250 x 45 x 5 | 281250 |
| Destroy resonators | 75 x 40 | 3000 |
| Deploy beacon | 500 | |
| Use Apex | 1000 / 2 | 500 |
| TOTAL | 334,485 |
Well, really, since we’re claiming the “Use Apex” bonus, it would be twice that, 668,970.
So 60 battle beacons would be required, 15 hours, to get to 40 million. It could be done in a very long day. But if done on the Ingress First Saturday with double AP, it could be done with 30 battle beacons in 7.5 hours. 7.5 hours of continuous battle beacon, no time to farm keys or resonators.
Gear required in advance
- 30 battle beacons
- 15 APEX
- 300 SBUL
- 1200 level 1 resonators
- 3600 keys (150 of each)
Another requirement is to not run out of portals to throw from. After the battle beacon expires, there’s a victory emblem and faction beacon displayed over the portal for 4 hours. During that time, a battle beacon cannot be deployed.
So during the 12 hours of double AP on a First Saturday (11.5 hours to be done by 7:30 to start the 4 hour recursion timer and recurse again before midnight), each portal can be used twice. So 15 portals are required with a clear line of sight to the 24 portals.
Fortunately, my field has 21 portals to throw from.
Even more AP?
Since a link can only create two fields, the absolute maximum number of fields from 24 links isn’t 45. It’s 48. Consider if we added two more portals to the field, a couple more inner tier-5 portals. Then each time we threw the field, we would start by throwing in from A and B (or any two of the outer portals) and then go to the center to throw out 24, creating 48 fields from the center for 49 altogether. The issue is that each round of the battle beacon is only 3 minutes, so I’d need two helpers willing to stand around for 8 hours to do it this way. There’s no way I could travel out to two of the outer portals and get back in to the center and throw 24 links within 3 minutes.
A couple frienemy agents did a doodle in my play box that suggests another alternative.
By making the outer tier a circle instead of a triangle, the field is A LOT smaller. That wouldn’t get you 45 fields in 24 throws from the inside, but MAYBE you could run or bike to the outside and throw enough links in to get back in time to throw 24 links out within 3 minutes. I still doubt that it’s doable with just one agent linking.
3 times in one day?
Niantic has announced that Apex will produce 8x AP between 8 am and 8 pm on January 3rd. This should make it possible to recurse 3 times that day.
| 6 – 8 am | Prepare the outer field and recurse |
| 8:00 – 11:45 | 15 battle beacons |
| 11:45 – 3:45 | Recursion timer then recurse |
| 3:45 – 7:30 | 15 battle beacons |
| 7:30 – 11:30 | Recursion timer then recurse |
Gordon Ludlow . com 