Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-35242994-20180531143844/@comment-28169398-20180531152227

Mugwumps is correct.

Look at the early comments from SEs the last 6-9 months where users like ME7, Chronic Avidness, and me post. We are often commenting on the effects of upgrades, bot difficulty, goal targets, bot slowing, etc.

There is a clear pattern that the early upgraders have an easier time. Not only are we driving more upgraded cars, but the times and speeds we have to beat are a lot easier... sometimes as much as a few seconds easier than those with fewer upgrades. And this effects bot slowing efforts. The easier the targets, the slower you go, the slower you go, the slower the bots go. There are obviously floors, but those floors can be very low.

Also, as Mugwumps says, there are always goals that are fixed, and they usually undo a lot of the bot slowing or are just plain difficult. They will be less difficult as he observed because you are driving an improved car.

It seems that the Monkeys have settled on an upgrade formula of about 24 upgrades on newly introduced cars that they are satisfied with for the average player, which usually costs between 250-450, give or take a few gold. If your skill level is at the bottom 25%, then expect to pay more during SEs, if you are in the top 25%, less, unless you are not interested in the struggle, so you upgrade to grease the wheel. LTSs are fixed.