Could've been 60 million, but still, my modified SED then was somewhere between 35 and 40 million, and I definitely couldn't beat them without pudding or halving or a higher SED friend the latter of which I didn't have at that time.
But given the choice between using pudding (which is hard to get and could as well be used for another SEG) and an Elixer (which is easy to get for a few thousand Pero, which I have in abundance anyway), I picked, and will always pick the Elixer.
If you don't have slayer cards, the encounter rate on SEGs can be rather low. I might find 10 EGs before I run into a SEG. To make this process easier, I burned through a couple hundred elixirs. Eventually, I would run into a SEG, poke it, share it, and then do it again. I ended up with a little over 400 SEGs last event, so it sure seems to work.
After the first phase, unless I'm going to bed or something and just need to burn focus, I don't bother wasting a single focus on EGs. I will hunt EGs relentlessly during phase 1, but after that, meh.