so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did local stuff and some casual HF but i finally got serious about DXCC this past winter and im sitting at like 112 confirmed on Logbook of the World right now. feels like a lot of the easy ones are done and now im staring at a list of entities that only show up when theres a big DXpedition.

my question is kind of about strategy i guess. like do most people focus on just getting to 100 confirmed first and applying for the basic certificate, or do you keep grinding and try to knock out WAS and maybe WAZ at the same time? i feel like chasing all three simultaneously is making me scatter my efforts all over the place and i end up missing good openings because im trying to work some weird state on 40m instead of staying on the DX frequency.

also how does the whole credit submission thing work when you have a mix of LoTW confirmations and paper QSL cards — do i have to send everything in at once or can i submit additional credits later after i apply for the initial award? ive read the ARRL page on it but honestly it was kind of confusing.

112 confirmed is solid for 3 years in, you're doing fine. Honestly the strategy question kind of answers itself once you think about band modes — a lot of the DX you need for DXCC you'll work incidentally while also filling in WAS and WAZ squares, especially on 20 and 17 meters. I wouldn't stress too much about chasing them separately.

On the credits question — yes you can absolutely submit additional credits later. The way it works with LoTW is they keep a running tally and you just pay the incremental fee when you want to claim the next award level. So you might apply for the basic DXCC now and then later when you hit 150 or 200 confirmed you apply for the endorsement. Paper cards you'd send to an ARRL card checker, they log the credits and you're done, those get added to your account. You dont have to hold them and submit everything in a big batch, just do it whenever it makes sense. Some guys wait years before sending in a pile of cards though, which i get because the postage adds up.

im in kind of the same boat as you actually, just hit 98 confirmed last week and i keep going back and forth on whether to just focus on getting those last two for the certificate or try to knock out some of the WAZ zones i'm missing. zone 26 has been killing me, feels like nothing ever comes out of there when im actually at the radio lol

one thing i did figure out though — DX Summit and the cluster are your friend for timing. i set up alerts for the entities i actually need and just wait for the pile to die down a little before jumping in. used to just chase whatever was spotted and wasted a ton of time on stuff i already had confirmed.