Well the main reason I have so much metal is that I have so little of everything else.
No real candy income means that I rarely need to use that last big 12,800 and 25,600 stat increase, in fact I have only done it once and are about to do it again soon. The main reason is that I have levels all my important 4-5* girls that i'm using to affecting level 2 so 30 x 15 = 450 candy for that instead of 3 girls to max lvl 5. The reason is that it was cheaper on metal and candy for the rewards.
My gold goes to the factory and emblems so I don't have enough to repair, upping my emblems has been the only way I could proceed higher right now, the XP grind is quite hard in this game.
Metal is that one resource that I have little use for. The small amount used for factory is nothing really and repairs cost too much gold to bother doing, also PoC not needing repairs means that the best way to farm XP right now is PoC as high as you can go then back to easy missions to complete dailies. Based on that I only need to use metal once a week when PoC resets and I get some decent candy, since I get 1500 each major gather and a fair amount from 15 hr scouting runs, it builds up fast.
Flower Knight Girl: 255445855
Most people don't have much use for metal (the one exception I found so far is a player that just spams repair all the time, which almost no one else does)
Its even worse in the mobile version where candies don't exist (and thus metal for relationship points). Some people have like, 300k+ metal over there.
I personally am using my metal only slightly slower than I'm gaining it myself though. I guess being in the top 0-1.999% every PoC week for candies (and having the tanks to use those candies on) seems to be the equalization point.
I myself am in the 0-1% category pretty much every week and don't have sufficient metal to max my tanks, though I tend to get all 5 scenes on a tank before moving on, so I'm very different from Zandel in that regard (especially since about half my team doesn't have scenes) so with the super-expensive last two, it's understandable
is lvl 35+ maps getting pretty difficult for anyone else? i fail them the majority of times. usually it's because the enemy pulls some kind of long range unit that kills my heavy in 3-4 hits, then my formation gets destroyed.
I've been able to get to the lvl 36 tile on the left edge of the ice peninsula (ignoring higher level tiles along the way) with my 4* tanks around level 27-29, with my 5*s ranging from 20-24. At this point in the game you have to be watching the enemy drops for the Katyushas and take them down with your Lieutenant's artillery shells before they can set up to fire, or else your entire deathball is toast. Plus, you're relying on heavies and these levels are DPS races. I have three heavies in my army, and that's only because I don't have anything better to replace them (I guess I really do, but I keep five 4* Destroyers out for scouting). They are rarely ever deployed, mostly just along for the ride. Mediums always, and Destroyers only once the deathball is well established. I do have a 5* light I keep in there for her double damage active skill, but I had to ensure she had no speed buffs or she'd be easy pickings.
Maybe someone who's already gotten past this point can help you with what they did, but this seems to work for me. I did lose one of my tanks in that last tile, so I'm currently waiting on her to self-repair before continuing on.
for the regular tiles. i have about 6 4* and 1 5*, the classes are split mostly evenly. many of the 4* are below lvl 20 since i only got them recently. maybe i have to grind a little more. i'm around maurin and other lvl 37 maps, i can beat them but it takes multiple tries. just feel like the difficulty suddenly jumped up around there. i also might be using the wrong techniques. thanks for the various tips.
I highly suggest using Defense buff it allows your heavy tanks to hang on long enough for you to put out tanks