Given the nature of the game, I am not certain if his should be classified as a spoiler or not. For players who want to avoid spoilers, caveat emptor (read or skip this rest of this, at your own risk)!
.
.
.
. (Some dots to hopefully make the rest of this only appear if you click the "read more" thingy, so it limits "spoiler" visibility)
.
.
.
Here's some discussion and strategy regarding the "Actions" part of the game that gets added in later in the game.
- First off, you can think of this as a mini-/sub- game within the main game. You do not have to play it to advance or win the main game--although some of the boosts can help you in that regard.
- Second, I suspect that the main reason some players dislike Actions is that it really is more like "Casino" than "Actions". That is, your success is more based on random chance and luck than it is on skill or strategy. (For myself, I often felt like I was a hostage to the [P]RNG--[pseudo?] random number generator--than anything.)
There are, however, some strategies to playing this sub-game that I think can help make the most of it.
- Do not unlock additional resources until you are ready to deal with them--and use them. This reduces the number of resources that can be random generated, both via the "Get X" and the "Spend X for Y" cards (I do not know what else to call them, so I'll call them cards here).
- As a consequence of the above, you can arrange so that all the buy-able unlocks use that (or higher, yet unavailable) resource. You can then wait until you "get lucky" and get a card to produce that resource (or a pair in some cases, such as "Get X" and "Spend X for Y") to accumulate all the resources you will need to unlock them all. (I suggest you accumulate even more beyond that so you have some reserve in case you get a "Spend X for Y" card without a supporting "Get X" card).
- Ultimately, the goal is to get (and lock) cards to generate DP, HP, and XP (later in the game) level boosts, thus boosting their effectiveness in the main game. None of the other resources have any effect in the main game, they are only part of and used only in the sub-game.
For example, let us say you have "Beams" unlocked. The next to unlock would be "Rods". However, do not unlock "Rods" until you've already unlocked everything that needs "Beams". By doing this, you reduce the number of random possibilities to those you need (or most likely need), without adding "Rods" in to the random chance.
If you get lucky, and get a "Get 2 Beams" / "8s[econds]" card, you can lock that to generate a stockpile of "Beams". Either while stockpiling, or after you have a large stockpile of "Beams", you can then unlock "Rods" and as soon as you get a card for generating "Rods", you can move your "Lock" slot to generate "Rods", and so on.
Once you have enough available free lock slots (at least three, so you have enough to maneuver with), you can then use them to lock matching chains of cards such that "Get X" and "Spend X for Y" (where Y here is DP/HP/XP) continuously generate DP/HP/XP boosts.
In some cases, you might get unlucky and need a chain of cards: "Get X", coupled to "Spend X for Y", which is coupled to "Spend Y for Z", where Z is the resource you want (or DP/HP/XP boosts). This is why you want at least three available lock slots: Two will be used for the "Get X" and "Spend X for Y" pair, and the third you use to lock the needed [DP/HP/XP] card. Then you watch and hope for a needed "Get Y" card which can then be used to replace the chained lock pair with a single locked slot, freeing up one of the lock slots for other uses.
For myself, I ignore the XP boosts. If you boost your DP and HP, they will generate plenty of XP as a side effect, anyhow.