The purpose of this guide is to provide players a theory that they can use to help decide how they want to go about ichoring. Specific advice is given for particular scenarios which I believe might be common, but it is up to the reader to decide if it applies to them.
In the past sierra powder was rare. In my experience with episode 12, I drop way more sierra powder than primus/vaivora equipment so I don’t have enough things to reroll and ichor to exhaust my sierra powder supply. If you buy equipment you might need to also buy your own powder. If powder is expensive, then you might be inclined to factor in its value into your decision making process. I made a spreadsheet that includes the cost of sierra powder so that you can do this. Make a copy and adjust to fit your circumstances.
Using that spreadsheet, I also found that extraction was expected to be cheaper than other approaches under most circumstances. Again, you can adjust the numbers to suit your circumstances. The spreadsheet, like other ideas presented in this guide, is a tool to help in the decision-making process. I can assert that one method is on average cheaper, but I can’t decide for you how much weight the risk of failure has in your decisions.