Aight, I think most players would agree that the current forge system on Spiral Knights it’s at the very least a bit frustrating. Not only it just slows down the process of leveling up gear way too much, but because of the fact that Fire Crystals are way too overprized on the Supply Depot, it basically does not benefit the company to use this system at all (plus, Prize Boxes do a much better job when it comes to monetize the game if I might be honest). So here are two possible solutions that have come across my mind that should make the player’s experience better:
Solution #1: Return the leveling system back to what it was before
This one should be BY FAR, what most players would consider the best option. As I stated before, Fire Crystals are not only a very ineffective way to monetize the game, but it’s just plain unnecessary, so I recommend to simply make the level up system just work on it’s own like it did before, which made the item rise on power automatically whenever its heat bar got filled.
Solution #2: Forge Anvils at the start of every depth on boss missions.
This is not the best solution, but would definitely help, and it’s that at the start of all depths of the boss levels (Snarbolax, Jelly King, Roarmulus Twins and Vanaduke), a device that I would call forge anvil is available, that will let you forge your gear whenever you access it, but at the contrary of the Arsenal Boxes used in the preparation room and other levels, you won’t be able to change your equipment with it.
With this change I would also like to see an increase for Radiant Fire Crystal’s spawn rate between the depths 24 and 29 , since the number of Radiants required to completely forge a 5 star weapon is quite… Well, big.
Solution #3: Allow radiants to crafted from shinings, ect.
There really isn't make much sense that Crystals can be broken down into its lesser form but not the other way around. I would say 10 shining -> 3 Rads is a reasonable conversion rate. This would allow new 5* players to actually be able to craft their gears through arcade and give the leftover 3* / 4* crystals some use.
Solution #4: Increase crystals quantity per CE purchase in the supply depot
I am no economist but, demanding 700 CE for 50 rads at the supply depot is ridiculous. 700 CE is what you would have to pay at minimum to craft one 5* gear back in mist era. So the fact that 50 rads wouldn't even get you 1/4 of the way from heat lvl 9 to 10 on a 5* gear is an insult to players' intelligence (whales or otherwise). It should be at least 300 rads for 700 CE and even then it is a rip off. But this is GH we are talking about here, the same people who had the GALL to sell gatecrasher helmet at 3.8k CE.
If you want to do P2W, at least do it right GH.