Spiral Knights - BUFF Crown Drops as a natural solution to low energy cost

BUFF Crown Drops as a natural solution to low energy cost

7 replies [Last post]

Tue, 06/23/2026 - 07:37

Urbanbobber

Hi Clotho or Cronus or whichever GM looks at this, u guys have worked long on this game ever since i was like 9 years old starting out around 2011-12 playing this game for fun (especially not caring about economy at that time) and being grown up, despite some of the backlash u guys receive regarding balance on the game i still appreciate u guys and ur team for keeping spiral knights afloat for the gem that it is.

I wanted to address the elephant in the room today being the nerf that had happened to crown drops being lowered to 'balance economy' ever since you guys removed energy cost for going down an elevator around 2013 i think.

Most of the player base that had fallen out has found that traditional farming takes almost 3x longer to make results now leading to withdrawal mentally playing the game with

FSC from release-2013 giving 24-25kcr per a run (with tokens)

To FSC post 2013-now giving 10-11kcr per a run (with tokens)

It takes ALOT of effort and time now (with making 100kcr being pretty close to a whole work shift for the average player) to even make enough crowns for players to want to invest in energy which = into lower energy cost
( i.e 3kcr for 100e)

I believe that buffing crown drops all around (not just fsc) is a great solution to incentivize better in-game energy economy AND a great way to keep attention for your game for both older players and newcomers truly getting into your game as they start to care about currency to some varying degree whether casual or dedicated.

TLDR Buffed Crown Solution FSC giving 16-17kcr per a run (with tokens) = energy going up to 4-5kcr per 100e as a result = Everyone happy + more players putting more time overall into spiral knights.

It would be comforting to know if the 'rebalance patch' will touch on buffing crown drops in any way, thank you guys for reading my post :)

P.S. This is my first ever (and most likely last) post that ill ever make, I feel strongly about this which is why I wanted to voice my solution on this decade long problem that has (in my eyes) been deteriorating the player base 'greatly' from its prime.

Tue, 06/23/2026 - 08:56

Bopp

data

You seem to be referring to the 2013-07-30 mega-update, which removed elevator energy costs. You seem to be saying that crown payoffs were radically decreased at or around that update.

This claim is contradicted by one of the Lancer Knightz data sets:

https://wiki.spiralknights.com/Lancer_Knightz_(Guild)/Mission_Crowns

Scroll down to the Classic Crowns section. They report that pre-update crown payoffs are about the same as post-update crown payoffs on Advanced difficulty. (Post-update crown payoffs on Elite difficulty are higher, of course.)

Any idea for how to resolve this disagreement?

Tue, 06/23/2026 - 10:49

Promethiean

Not the problem

Aside from what Bopp mentioned...

Crown gain in these levels are not the problem. Buffing FSC would make this game even worse. It needs to have more sources of crowns and a variety of fun content - not more crown drops.

Let's also say they DO buff the crowns received. Expect everything in the player economy to go up. 50% more earned in FSC normally? Well, 50% more Crowns needed for an item a player is selling because crowns would have a lesser value.

Tue, 06/23/2026 - 15:15

Jcyrano

There is nothing to solve Bopp

Any idea for how to resolve this disagreement?
There is nothing to solve Bopp, the Initial argument has no base.

Promethiean is right, "that is not the problem", part the problem is some player mentality, not all players, some.
Increasing the crown amount fix nothing. The hoarding behaviour is the problem, and the chase big number is another.
Energy reached 11k crowns with current crown drops ~8k FSC runs, because I don't recall a change on the amount after 2013-07-30 mega-update. And that was on Player behaviour fault, not on Grey Havens team.

The value of Crowns/Energy is good around 3k a Jelly King run for 100 energy, so a new-ish player can get 5* equipment relatively easy. 8 runs on jelly for a Pack of 5* Orbs is not a bad "grind" on a chill environment, and other players to mix and match different gears, try new things and have fun.

Wed, 06/24/2026 - 09:14

Jcyrano

Double posting...

...

Tue, 06/23/2026 - 18:15

Urbanbobber

Voicing clear concise solutions is important too for developers

My solution isn't just set for a 50% buff, in fact id be be happy if it was a 15% or 20% buff overall affecting FSC a bit.

It was just an example for my post but thinking about it with having unlimited elevator rides by default now it would be catastrophic, which i didn't consider numbers wise making my post, so thank you for bringing that to my attention Promethiean and I agree with you too on having more variety, to earn a good amount of crowns if not better as well.

Gameplay loop is important too, no one wants to sit down playing FSC over and over again for minimal results and a sap mentally over a repetitive task.

There was a point made by Ariave's channel with having more variety as well, specifically arcade runs being catered to giving crown bonuses based on punishment bonuses you would select for yourself to earn more crowns while utilizing the variety in arcade better, for a healthier and fun gameplay loop.

Arcade runs should be worth our time again, more so than FSC runs overall considering how long it takes to finish an entire arcade run, and it would make spiral knights lean towards a more roguelike experience (which it definitely can be), while giving us crowns per a finished arcade run surpassing the time it would take to make that exact amount on FSC = better fun gameplay loop while not taking away what crowns most players want to make.

Vague example:
Any full arcade run giving 70-100kcr an hour or two (based on punishment pact bonuses)

FSC giving around 30-50kcr an hour or two

If there is anything else to add to this feel free :)

Wed, 06/24/2026 - 09:46

Jcyrano

You are right about it

But the Idea presented by Ariave's channel is nothing but a Half-assed Deep Archemedia.
- Why half-assed?
Well, because Deep Archemedia doesn't start with "random punishment", starts with Random Gear
- How?
You can play whatever You want, but if You are playing what 'listed gear' is on the Archemedia Board You get extra rewards...
- Why would they have omited that part?
Maybe because they wont get their "high end meta gear" off their but to try a mission... Much less suggest reward not playing "high end meta gear".
- But what about the punishments?
those are selected 'after' you have geared following the 'listed gear' partially/totally or not.

Lets Reward random gear usage... maybe some players will have to learn hot to play bombs, I for sure will have to learn 'how to sword'. or get less reward.

Vague example:
Full Arcade run giving a total of ~25kcr (based on how much of the 'listed gear' are you wearing)
Full Arcade run giving a total of ~35kcr (based on how much of the 'listed gear' are you wearing and punishment have you selected)
FSC giving ~8k

Yes punishments give less than random gear, yes is intentional, Yes You can cry.

Wed, 06/24/2026 - 09:43

Jcyrano

again double post?

what's going on with the forums?

Search

BUFF Crown Drops as a natural solution to low energy cost