"Aside from reviving at the very end of Vana runs, event bosses, and reviving the sparkless before the last arena prizeroom I never use sparks for casual play."

The spark hoarders like me barely even use sparks in these.
Don't get me wrong - I do use sparks, usually on allies. I just use them at a slower rate than I get them from boxes (most recent data shows about 0.5% chance per box or about 1 every 20 depths).

I also do not grind FSC which seems to be a spark sink for most newer players. There are safer and faster farming alternatives. Just keep to an even stratum mission.

Just play safe, only take swings/shot/bomb charges when the moment is right.

I typically run solo but simply don't die. I don't play this game on the offensive as many players do, so I can take the hits that get past my shield.
I honestly can't remember the last time I used a spark on myself. I know I've revived Poomph more recently in a fiend arena, but I don't think I have had to spark in any of the arenas we've been having lately.

The only place I really did lose a fair amount of sparks was Grinchlin Assault, but not hundreds of sparks. Up until that final battle, I wouldn't need to use a spark(At least after a whole lot of practice).

My criteria for using sparks usually is: If it manages to kill me twice, then I can use a spark.
For other players, it usually depends on how well I know them or if they are willing to pay for a revive. Typically I'll ask for less than the standard (2,000 crowns per revive) amount, and I will ask downed people if they want a revive if there are a large amount of prize boxes when we are at a depth containing radiants.

And Bopp, I'm pretty sure missions give players around 60-80 sparks of life in total from mission rewards. If they gave us 200-250, then I would be well over 1000 sparks of life by now.

To clarify my comment about "200": When a new rank mission reward is introduced to the game, knights who have already completed that mission receive the reward in their mail. When Sparks of Life were added to the game, they were added to the rewards for many rank missions. So knights who had already completed all of the rank missions received a big quantity of Sparks of Life in their mail.

Fangel, you could be right that the mission rewards are only about 80 Sparks of Life. Somehow I got up to 250 really quickly, and then grew more slowly from there. Perhaps the drop rate was simply that high in the early days. Cheers.

I am not a hoarder. I use sparks on myself and others without thinking twice. Only when I give a person a spark, they get up and die a few seconds later, then ask for another, do I not revive them.

This system hasn't been working too well though. I very rarely need to use a spark for myself, but it is even more rare for me to find another spark. Even on elite mode where they should be plentiful.

I am down to about 30 sparks which is good for a few Shadow Lairs or Danger Missions. If another event comes around I may want to buy a few sparks from the depot. I am getting more money than sparks at this rate, so I may as well just get 10 when ever I can.

Sparks of Life had a rather insane drop rate early on. I would find at least one to three sparks on every arcade gate I ran. That's probably the reason why you gathered so many early on, Bopp.

never because im good

I don't, because I ran out of them. :U