Atlas Earth Strategy Guide

At this stage your base rent is tiny, so the badge percentage bonus barely moves the needle. Raw parcel count matters most here since you're in the 30x tier with room to grow.

A single badge costs minimal AB and gives an instant 5% boost to everything you earn going forward. This is the highest-ROI badge investment in the game.

Fill out the 30x tier completely. This is the highest multiplier you'll ever have, so maxing out parcels here generates the best income per parcel. Don't cross into 151 until you're ready to commit to filling the 20x tier.

At 150 parcels, the cost to reach 31 badges (~6k AB) is comparable to buying your first parcels in the 20x tier (~7k AB for the tier jump). But the badge bonus is permanent and compounds with every future tier. This is the sweet spot before pushing into lower-multiplier tiers.

Work through the mid tiers one at a time. At each tier, parcels outperform badges in raw monthly income gained per AB spent. Don't rush, sit at each tier until you can afford to fill the next one. Crossing a boundary without enough parcels to compensate actually lowers your income.

Around the 625-875 parcel range, the badge investment from 31→61 starts competing with parcel purchases on a per-AB basis. The +5% bump at this point is applied to a much larger base income, making it increasingly valuable. If you're traveling and can pick up badges, this is a smart time to do it.

Parcels still win on raw income per AB in these tiers, but the margin shrinks. The 876→1100 and 1101→1500 tiers require significant AB investment (22-40k+) but the parcel volume makes up for the lower multiplier.

Before crossing into the 2x tier, max out your badges. The jump from 1500 to ~1721 parcels at 2x yields almost nothing in extra monthly income (~$0.02) while costing ~22k AB. Meanwhile, the 61→101 badge jump costs ~8k AB and adds meaningful permanent income to your entire portfolio. This is the single biggest moment where badges dominate parcels.

Once you have max badges, start accumulating parcels in the final tier. The first ~220 parcels past 1500 are the worst deal in the game (sunk cost of crossing the tier boundary), but after that, each parcel adds linear income at 2x with your full +25% badge bonus on top. From here it's pure volume.

In the 2x endgame, there are no more tier drops. Every parcel is pure additive income. SRB events become your biggest earner, at 50x with max badges (62.5x effective), high parcel counts produce the most during those 64 hours/month.