greater runestone vs yggdrasil forge of empires

Give it a short (4 hours?) cooldown, but a maximum number of uses per run, which increases based on the number of completions (similar to how the chance of rolling it increases now) and you could give it the same effective power level, but not rely on dice, especially in those later runs with much shorter gold timers. I would suggest changing the x4 to some kind of mechanic where an off-grid building like the merchant controls it, and you click it to activate it as a 1 use buff, which applies to the next collection or negotiation. The obstacles and the random advancement costs are fine (you can see those the moment you start your settlement, and plan accordingly), but if a building is going to be based entirely on speed running, the RNG shouldn't have that large of a hidden influence on your run.

A single lucky roll of x4 instruments on your first set of trade offers could easily put you 4 expansions ahead, while getting unlucky and not rolling instruments at all until you can craft them normally could put you way behind. and this compounds with that having the same x4 dice.

I find it strange that it goes out of its way to promote a speed run challenge, and then not only is the x4 thing completely random, but the merchant getting favorable (or unneeded) resources can completely change your time.

Greater runestone vs yggdrasil forge of empires