Arc Past 80 - When and how far?

Level 80 is the first major stopping point for the Arc.  The reason for this is that the rate at which its contribution bonus increases drops to 0.1%/level, while its cost/level is now going up sharply.  You may however have noticed that some people have taken Arc significantly further than 80.  I'm going try to address when this makes sense for you and how far you should go :)

The primary motivation for taking your Arc further can be boiled down to a desire to make FP.  The treasury goods are nice, but you could level one of the other treasury GBs or build Statues of Honor if you wanted to make more of those.  For most buildings the math on how many FP they'll make is rather straightforward and accordingly once they start going up sharply in cost they stop being worthwhile to level for the sake of FP - usually stopping somewhere between level 50 and 70.  With Arc however the amount of FP it makes depends on the amount of FP rewards you get - which can depend on activity in 1.9 threads and sniping.

For the sake of this analysis we're going to make the following assumptions:

• Your Arc benefit is coming solely from 1.9 threads (the daily investments column assumes those investments are at 1.9 - but really it's the amount of rewards you claim not the amount you pay for them that determines the cutoff; so if it's at 1.8 instead say it'd take less "investment")
• You are moving your Arc up in increments of 10 levels - makes the table smaller and from a practical perspective you won't actually see individual levels difference
• You want to payoff any levels you take within 1 year (modifying this to a different standard like 6 months or 2 years is as simple as doubling or halving the investments).
• The table is stopping at level 180 on account of no evidence that Arc's contribution bonus rises any further past that point.

*Level Range*	*Daily Investments*
80 -> 90	7359
90 -> 100	12879
100 -> 110	20928
110 -> 120	32146
120 -> 130	47533
130 -> 140	68220
140 -> 150	95710
150 -> 160	131968
160 -> 170	179425
170 -> 180	241270

The very top levels are simply not going to be worthwhile for all but the most die-hard players.  But levels up to 130-150 or so could be justified for active players who keep the 1.9 threads moving if they adjust their time for a payoff to something somewhat longer.  It all depends on just how much opportunity you have for investment :)

How much would receiving more than 1.9 change the above table?  Not much.  Taking 120->130 as an example, if you were receiving 1.95 instead for all spots you'd be down to 46479 FP/day invested to pay it off in a year - but you're probably also in a position where it's harder to get those investment opportunities in a 1.9 thread since many of your contacts would also be using a 1.95 thread where you're not even making profit yet (if you were taking spots in it anyways, it'd still count in terms of reducing your losses - but simply not taking high spots would reduce your losses further without all the extra investment)