I did it at 125. Not too hard, just takes a long time.
I’ve been trying for a week now. Failed once, restarted yesterday. The recommendation is to run Toxic2 until right before you start the Spire. It lets you accumulate metal much faster - but I’m not quite sure how much “faster” it is when you’re getting creamed by the Toxic effects.
I also used Perky to maximize, and it spat out perks higher than 100M, and had to start over a day later. 
Okay, I beat Nerfed. It wasn’t that bad once I chose my perks correctly (I focused attack over health at levels appropriate for the very late game on my first attempt). A single overnight grind got me the prestiges I needed.
And I just noticed Perky now has a preset for the Nerfed feat. Would have been helpful. 
Care to share what you ran with? I’m scared to come out of prestige grinding.
I had gotten all of the prestiges from z405, and one Daggadder and Bootboost from the 415 BW. My perks were what Perky recommended given a 7:1 attack:health ratio. I used the list of Spire enemy strengths on the wiki to give me confidence that I could beat it. I believe I had about 30 Dv health, and over 1 Uv damage without crits.
Huh. I’ve been grinding for a week, and I’m not close to that damage. What is your Challenge2 bonus?
Challenge2 is 2120%, achievements are 3963%, these are my heirlooms.
I think I had 41 unused cordinations with all gigastations bought.
I did Bionic Sniper at 125. It took much longer than I’d calculated, almost 12 days! But then once I got through I went out Christmas shopping, and the #%&$ trimps ran the spire without me. They actually earned “Invincible” as well; all the way through with no deaths, and I missed it!!!
Hmmm - seems I overcompensated a bit. I just let it go through the Spire after I asked, because if my perks were wrong, it wasn’t going to work anyway. Turns out I overkilled Droup.
And there goes Spire IV. If I hadn’t had to be out and about at an inopportune time, I would have gotten the 72 hour time too.
Damn! Well done - I haven’t sniffed z490 yet. Do you run AutoTrimps, or do you do it manually? What’s your Perky default? I have a lot of questions.
I’m now working on getting my Challenge2 up to snuff. I got Trimps up to z180, and am now running Coordinated. My previous high was z168, and I’d like to get it up as reasonably high as I can go - since there aren’t any Fast monsters to deal with. What’d you get those two and Obliterated up to?
It’s all manual for me. I had just above 1 Qi helium for this run. I use the Perky default for z450+ (500:50:1) when grinding helium, and set the helium weight to 0 (so 0:50:1) when going for a deep run or similar.
I haven’t touched Challenge2 stuff other than Obliterated for a while, so I could probably get them higher, but they are:
Trimp: z170
Coordinate: z171
Obliterated: z40
Trapper: z310
Others: z450
Total of 2120%
It seems pretty clear that “Resourceful” doesn’t lower the cost of housing from the Dimensional Generator. Does anybody know whether Carpentry increases the number of Trimps DG will give per tick? My sense is that it follows a different set of rules than other housing, and only Coordinated and Magmite increases will make it more efficient. Is that correct?
Carpentry increases the population of all housing including the DG.
Well, I’ve finally reached the Spire for the first time. Just reached it, that is. I have no illusions that I’m ready to beat it yet, but at least that’s another landmark.
I have 160% on my Challenge^2, about 125M helium all-time, and on my current run, about 4 days in, I’ve got about 52 vigintillion health with my breed time at 30 seconds and 105 octodecillion attack after running maps for the level.
What do I do next?
Congrats on reaching 200! That’s a big one. You don’t currently stand a chance IN the Spire, but getting there is great. How far are you able to go past 200? Here’s how I’d prioritize things:
- Helium, by doing Dailies. Run one a day (yes, I know you’re doing multi-day runs), and see if that starts increasing your He/run.
- Challenge2 runs. Gotta get that percentage up - that’s really low. It’s going to be a big part of pushing through the Spire.
- Maybe look at pushing for the next RoboTrimp. Every 15% helps.
I think you’re going to find that you’ll start being able to run through the first 150 levels or so really easily, and that portaling sooner than before is a big benefit.
I concur with everything Munch said. Lotsa portalling to get He. Don’t spend too much time on a run; it’s usually more efficient to perk up and portal when things start to slow.
When you’re able to clear the 1st row (without wasting a ridiculous amount of time), go for it. The Toughness II perk will help a lot. Ditto for Power II after clearing the 3rd row. Maybe best not to go for the entire Spire until you can get Coordination 178(+20), which as you might imagine takes a lot of Carpentry and Coordinated perk.
The spire is a lot more beatable now that you can grab a level 201 map at zone 200 [edit: I see now this ability is unlocked at zone 210], and farm maps with Large Metal Chests. Used to be you’d need >400M He, >30Spd Metal, and prestiges earned from Bionic Wonderland level 215. Still probably best not to waste too much time on the spire just yet.
I recommend leap-frogging up by the Bionic Wonderland maps. When you can get through the 215, you’ll pound the spire.