Season 1.1 - Comparison of Free-to-Play, Gold Pass, and Platinum Pass (with downloadable spreadsheet)

Game Discussion
1

Hi all,

Well Seasons is here and one thing is for sure: There is a lot going on with currencies! How do you know what to do based on what you want to achieve in the game? I’ve decided to do an analysis of the Season 1.1 currency, both earnable amounts, total amounts possible, and costs from the perspective of free-to-play, Gold Pass purchase, and Platinum Pass purchase.

Let’s start with a few assumptions:

  • Daily Play - since some of the currency you can earn is from Battles, if you miss a day then you will miss a small amount of currency. The chart below assumes daily play
  • Story Completion: All modes - The chart below assume story completion and also assumes currency earned from Chapter and Part completion will match that of Normal mode (which is subject to change once Hard and Elite are active)
  • Battle Choice - It makes little sense to do skirmishes over dungeons as you get more currency from dungeons as well as chances for gear, spell, and minion drops from chests. The chart assumes all battles are Dungeon. However due to time constraints or resource needs Skirmish is an option with a small penalty to currency earned
  • Battle Difficulty - some players will be just starting out while others will be able to regularly complete Diff VIII+; I’ve selected Difficulty IV as an average
  • Uncertainty around Legendary and Mythic Goals - The chart below assumes Legendary and Mythic goals are uncompleted since we dont know what each person will find in Caches or spends on additional currency

Ok with that out of the way, here is a preliminary estimate of the currency that can be earned in Seasons 1.1:

image
image2038×914 101 KB

So a F2P player will potentially earn about 4,020 Anthrite by completing all Story modes, doing all Battles in dungeon (not skirmish) at Difficulty IV, and completing all Goals except the Legendary and Mythic items. A Gold Pass purchaser will earn an estimated 5,670 Anthrite for the same (bearing in mind that they are doing 6 Battles a day instead of 3) and the Platinum Pass purchaser will earn an estimated 8,790 Anthrite (9 Battles a day instead of 3).

The first thing that jumps out is that if you buy the Gold or Platinum pass, you still have to work for it. Don’t make the investment unless you know that you can do a lot of battles a day, otherwise you are possibly throwing away some of the value of the pass. The second thing to note is that Anthrite can also be earned by spending Gems (all modes) and Crowns (Gold and Platinum Pass). You can earn an estimate additional 2,400 over two months by spending gems at a cost of 120 gems per 50 Anthrite and another 2,400 Anthrite at a cost of 50 Crowns per 50 Anthrite. The chart above assume maximum gem purchases and zero Crown purchases.

Ok now that we know how much Anthrite we can earn, what can we do with it and how much goes where?

image
image2026×1084 163 KB

So the chart assumes that you will max purchase the things that are limited, in this case the two unique spells, the two unique minions, the 5 unique skins, and the relics (Epic, Legendary, and Mythic limited to 12 purchasable each). As you can see that leaves you with the ability to purchase somewhere between 8 to 12 Ultimate Caches (I would argue there is very little reason to buy any other Cache). This again assumes that you are spending over 5,000 additional gems. Now the good news is you do get some gems back (up to 500 gems for F2P, up to 2,000 gems for Gold Pass, and up to 5,000 gems for Platinum Pass) through the token bank. Make sure to max out those tokens!

However most people are not going to spend the maximum on each relic based on their play mode since you may get some of the items you need from caches. Additionally, perhaps you are not as interested in the unique skins. There are all sorts of variables that effect the calculation of Anthrite.

To that end I have provided a link to the spreadsheet so that you can input your own variables and see where you might end up based on your time and investment. Hopefully this will help folks make the best decision for their playstyle. This document is view only so you will need to make a copy in order to input values to match your estimates:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F0L7r6O6OqLa6fEgqW1poWfYVXFmSRdSqAiaZ7LLMNI/copy

Please let me know if you have any questions about the calculator, see any problems in the computation or are unable to access the file.

I will continue to monitor this thread and make updates as necessary.

Cheers!

7 Likes
2

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! This is extremely helpful.

3

Fixed an error on the Difficulty Drop Down Range selector, Difficulty VIII was not showing up.

1 Like
4

Awesome calculator, Sibelios.

A couple of questions/corrections on your numbers for accuracy:

  • Normal story mode anthrite is 120 (10x9 skirmishes, 30 for dungeon), not 300.
  • Gold pass gets 5 dungeon runs per day, not 6 (so 300 attempts, not 360).
    image

I could be very wrong on this, but can you point out where F2P players get 3 free bank tokens at? I can’t find this source currently.

Also, seperate from that question, players get a “free” token at the end of the Season when bank contents are auto-emptied (add 500 gems to each total).

General observations so far, for further Season discussion:

  • Rule of thumb of all season battles (uses tokens/sigils) is to treat all battles as at least two full difficulty tiers over their normal ratings. (Ex: Medium = Difficulty 2, Difficulty 8 = Difficulty 10). For players with very high gear scores (2.5k+), beware that higher difficulty green gear score battles can wipe players very quickly. Artificial difficulty can be partially mitigated with Tier II season set bonus. At first glance, may not be worth the effort?
  • Passes operate on similar functionality to Event tier purchases in that the efficiency of each pass purchase declines with each passing day since the start of the Season. However, unlike Events, missing a few days is not disastrous because Seasons run for ~60 days versus Events running for only 3 days.

Well, in a strange way, there actually is.

If a player completely does not care about the Season’s rewards, the lowest tier cache offers a 10% chance to award a random follower crystal. At 50 anthrite per pull, the expected value for a random follower crystal is 500 anthrite. Doesn’t seem to be a bad proposition? Weirdly, the Ultimate Cache has the worst odds to pull a random follower crystal.

  • Random Season things can drop out of all dungeon chests that require tokens/sigils to run. Unsure as of yet if the “unique” shop items can drop out of dungeon chests. Sample size currently too low to evaluate this theory.

  • Mythic is off-limits outside of Platinum Pass holders. Drop rates on the Ultimate Cache for Mythic relics are too low for Gold Pass holders to gain 4 of them during the Season outside of extraordinary luck. Multiple Legendary things are likely for Gold Pass holders.

    • Players still have to provide their own Glyphs is a very major problem to fund evolution recipes. General Chat today was on the ball with this analysis in that Platinum Pass holders are likely to still be stuck unable to evolve Season equipment to Legendary/Mythic.

    • Eveline currently cannot use Season relics to upgrade or swap relics of any tier. Her interface does not recognize Season relics. Unsure if intentional or an accidental oversight.

  • Expected Anthrite values for the grand prize shield for each cache:

    • Normal: 10000 Anthrite
    • Enhanced: 5000 Anthrite
    • Ultimate: 4000 Anthrite

Can’t wait to eventually pull one, and have it roll the wrong color because the game probably doesn’t lock the elemental color of the draw to the primary color of the character that opened the cache that rewarded the Season Grand Prize (it really, really, should do this, IMO).

3 Likes
5

Thanks, good catches. I will update the model with these changes.

Another good catch. I had planned to buy the Platinum Pass and purchased it right away without looking at the beginning stats first. I think I asked someone to confirm the f2p values but it must have been a miscommunication. So it looks like F2P gets 0 bank tokens but gets the “free” withdrawal at the end. Gold gets 3 Bank tokens and the “free” withdrawal while Platinum gets 9 plus the “free” withdrawal. Thanks for pointing that out.

I see what you are saying here and it makes sense. I think my statement was based on the fact that the Ultimate caches have the best odds of yielding the evolve mats needed to achieve the Legendary and Mythic goals which themselves yield more Anthrite. But I agree if you are after particular things the drop rates offer you some choices that make choosing which Cache to go after more nuanced.

My experience so far is that the purchasable uniques don’t drop in the dungeon chests but as you say, too small a sample size.

Agreed, the glyph problem is very real which is why my assumption was non completion of all Legendary and Mythic goals, which is a bit sad. This also makes me reconsider the Ultimate Cache as the best option as well :crying_cat_face:

3 Likes
6

@Lyrian actually, for the story mode part, it would be 360 instead of 300 right? It’s 120 per Chapter?

2 Likes
7

Times 3 chapters? Yeah, that would be right. Didn’t think of that. Good catch.

1 Like
8

Document link (and original post copy) updated with changes.

1 Like
9

It’s best for chasing the shield (if one is interested in that) and for Legendary Season relics (1 in 5.5 chance). Might be useful for the upgrading the cunning pet (Steam Bomb) and speedy pet (Mech Spider, now that speed can be sufficient enough to matter) to Legendary. Otherwise, I kind of agree with you on that observation.

1 Like
10

I just want to call attention to this again. If you are on the fence about the Gold Pass vs the Platinum Pass I would look at the potential gem value that you get. It’s quite substantial.

2 Likes
11

Thanks for the info. I’ll carry these to chinese version database. Will check with all my chinese friends and reply if anything wrong.

Still hope they can remove shard as a “come next time” option… this always make players angry.
And, if they can add crystals in cache, why not add glyph too…

2 Likes
12

Let me make an addition to the special Khazduli relics:
Yesterday I started an exchange with Eveline to get a t3-relic from 3 t2-relics. Today I got a Khazduli red gear.

3 Likes
13

That is interesting that it’s part of Eveline’s table.

1 Like
14

That’s really interesting behavior. Eveline can’t consume Khaduli relics in her combines, but she can create them?

Sounds like a unintended result? Can a member of the CX team verify whether this is intended behavior for Eveline?

1 Like
15

I can confirm that she can create them. This morning I used Eveline to create a random Tier 1 Relic and she created a Firecap.

1 Like
16

Season shop recycles weekly on in-game Sundays. So, 8 max shop recycles (likely) per Season.

image
image1440×796 119 KB

1 Like
17

So, up to 9 purchase for current season? 54 days left means up to 8 purchase, plus 1 from the start.

1 Like
18

Depends how that last week runs, as it’s only a half week. It might be a “last chance” period to spend Season currency after the Season ends. The event shop might not recycle in that half week.

So, either 8 or 9 refreshes depending on how that last partial week is handled.

1 Like
19

Yep, noted.

I’m still greatly bothered by this:

The available goals are:

Screenshot_20220507-193440_Puzzle Quest 3
Screenshot_20220507-193440_Puzzle Quest 31176×972 176 KB

Screenshot_20220507-193537_Puzzle Quest 3
Screenshot_20220507-193537_Puzzle Quest 31161×996 170 KB

Screenshot_20220507-193512_Puzzle Quest 3
Screenshot_20220507-193512_Puzzle Quest 31152×993 172 KB

Ignoring the relic issue, a player would have to acquire 22 Armor/Accessory/Weapon Glyphs, 14 Minion Glyphs, and 14 Spell Glyphs to achieve all goals. That’s 50 glyphs in all. Add in the relic issue and you would need 33 T3 relics and 28 T4 Relics as well. If these goals are only completeable within the Season timeline, then they shouldnt even exist as they are a joke.

5 Likes
20

My only logic behind these goals goes along with the fact that there aren’t any milestone rewards for Season compeltion percentage.

Maybe these goals are impossible to obtain overall because the Devs want them to be, and they are giving players a chance to obtain a small amount of extra Anthrite by chasing a few of them.

Regardless, as a completionist, this really erks me. The very least they could have done was make Eveline capable of exchanging for the seasonal relics, giving their most financially supportive players a chance at seeing Season completion at 100%

2 Likes