Just a link to those that aren't on Boardgamegeek, a user there asked whether the Warp Rift space payment (8 influence or 8 points of trophies) are once each or unlimited, seems the official answer is unlimited. So now you can flat-out skip the entire Inner Tier
. Not happy with the ruling myself TBH.
That ruling is good game design. It creates a tension of risk vs. reward instead of making it obvious when to enter the inner tier (i.e. the moment you can survive it and win otherwise). Also, it allows players a chance to catch up to players that entered the inner tier ahead of them. It also adds relevance to the resources at all stages in the game, even once you have enough to pay the cost once - you can still get more of that resource to pay the cost multiple times. Additionally, if one player has that many resources the game has likely gone on longer already OR that player has gotten so far ahead that it's better to end the game quickly.
I understand that it feels important to progress through the inner tier, but the gameplay of this ruling is superior in both accelerated pace in games that need it the most and expanded tactics in other situations.
Luckily, it turned out to be a false duck, thread in question has been updated with an official FFG ruling, 4 spaces is the max you can advance, so Palace of Slaanesh and onwards you have to encounter the spaces.
I understand why it's ruled that way, and for most playthroughs it won't matter much, but I'd prefer the ability to skip more spaces - provided that the ending scenario is an actual challenge (unlike the instant win of Mystery From Beyond).
The issue with skipping more than 4 spaces that way is that a character could theoretically build up a bazillion influence, which some characters are very good at, and just skip right to the end and win. They do need to close those loopholes for the sake of future and current scenarios where such would be exploitable - but for ones that aren't exploitable (the way Mystery From Beyond is), I'd say the false ruling is a good one.