Galaxy Event Rare Rewards; when to cash them in?

HoB

Context: When combining galaxy event objects, your Specialist Crew gives you a chance of creating an additional "Rare Reward". Collect enough of them and they can be turned into more Victory Points for the given event. Each event is split into two phases. If it's not a hybrid Galaxy event, then the "Rare Rewards" count needed to turn into VP resets when Phase Two starts.

Question: Now that I've gotten everyone on the same page, is it better to cash these Rare Rewards into VP as soon as possible, or wait until after Phase Two starts so any and all accumulated Rare Rewards goes to getting the big VP as quickly as possible?

DavideBooks

Personally, I cash them in about 3 or 4 hours before the event ends Monday so I can see if I need to do more work.

I usually go to 350K or 400K VP and then turn in whatever I earned Monday. I usually end up with about 550K to 600K VP after that and often do another 50K VP, just to be sure.

Sky Cap 18

Assuming the VP structure remains the same throughout The Whole Truth 2 as it did in the original run, it is much more lucrative to turn them in during phase 2. The wiki has a breakdown (you want the charts headed "VP (CP/TWT/OB)"). From there you can see that you earn more VP during the phase 2 ramp-up and once ramped up, you only need 12 SR rewards to get 6250 VP versus 15 needed in phase 1.

Dirk Gunderson

Generally speaking, anyone competing for some kind of rank probably should at least wait for phase 2. VP rewards are higher and your SR items will go much farther. If your crew is limited or you don’t have time to compete all weekend, I can see a case for cashing them in right away to help level/equip the threshold 4* crew more quickly.

When to cash in during phase 2 depends on how cagey you want to be with competing for rank. Do you want to sneak up on people at the end and hope you have more than the next person? Do you want to shoot for a VP target and whatever happens after that is no problem? Personally, I find the wait-to-the-end approach a huge risk for being bitten by game bugs, Internet outages, dropping your phone down a storm drain...freak occurrences that will definitely keep you from getting the rank you desire. I usually turn in those I obtain in phase 1 right after the phase change, then the rest as they are created.

Data1001

Agree with the above folks, with the addendum that once the 2nd phase has started, I will usually turn in just enough to get to the max VP for them, which makes the arithmetic a lot easier for me, as far as figuring out exactly how much extra VP my remaining rare rewards will give me. Otherwise, it's too much thinking, and I start to make a face like this...

DavideBooks

The math does not work perfectly for this, but basically, 300 super rares gives a bit under 100K VP.

Gib - Admiral Mariners

I cash mine in sometime after the phase change, but on the day of the change. I want an idea of what I need to do the res of the event. I normally am at work for the last few hours of the event.