I feel really stingy for asking this, but I've got to know before I get into it too much - are there any upgrades/equipment on this game that will force me to buy energy, or is it the case that you can get everything if you play long enough?
Can this game be played free?
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 07:41
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 08:26
#2
You can probably get away
You can probably get away with crafting ★ to ★★ equips with just your ME, but ★★★ and above will require CE, which you can purchase with crowns. The "veterans" have pointed out time and time again that it is possible to hit endgame without spending real money. IMO, it's not so much the amount of time you spend playing the game, but what you do during that time that counts.
The total for elevator costs on a full Tier 1 run is 60 energy, since Depth 4 is a Terminal, and Depth 8 is the sub-town for Tier 2. That's only elevator costs, though. Dying will cost energy, if you don't have someone to revive you. You might also run into the entirely optional treasure and/or danger rooms, and dormant mecha knights/energy turrets, which cost energy to open/activate.
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 08:36
#3
You certainly can. I rather
You certainly can. I rather not brag about the gears I have with about 2-3 weeks casual game play that's because I got lucky at crafting rather than trying to turn that into a profitable business. A lot of things require friends and guildies to help out, like joining them at profitable depth, weapon recipe farming. You can also do reselling, be it CE, craft materials, equipment, but I find that tedious to track unless you're hardcore into this game. The game becomes more self-sustainable once you hit T2 and do Royal Jelly Farm. Sealed Sword to Divine Avenger is good to have. I find T3 more fun though, T2 whacks my concentration after a while.
You need 60 energy , not counting using them for resurrection, to complete T1.
Many people consider CR : CE rate based on the number of crown you can get on average for a Royal Jelly run, I rather not. My time is damn precious, an hour spent getting a few thousand crowns profit is about at least a hundred time less than what I'm paid in real life for my work. But hey, my principle on not paying is something I hold dearly.
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 12:51
#4
Thanks!
One question though. A glossary doesn't seem to be present on this forum - what do CE and ME mean?
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 13:24
#5
CE is Crystal Energy and ME
CE is Crystal Energy and ME is Mist Energy
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 19:04
#6
Everything in this game,
Everything in this game, except for 1* stuff from the starter pack, can be obtained without paying a penny. (to the best of my knowledge)
Playing for free is a lot of fun. I don't see the need to hurry through the tiers, and the idea of paying over $2 real money just to upgrade one piece of gear from 4* to 5* (in raw energy costs) is too much for my college student wallet.
Sat, 07/09/2011 - 22:21
#7
like most good free-to-play
like most good free-to-play games, everything necessary can be done without spending real money, it just takes longer
Sun, 07/10/2011 - 07:31
#8
http://wiki.spiralknights.com
Sun, 07/10/2011 - 15:59
#9
Graci Equinox.
Should have thought of checking the wiki, was only looking on the forums. Thanks for the answers folks! :)
Sun, 07/10/2011 - 18:33
#10
lol, all 1* weapons suck.
lol, all 1* weapons suck. even the starter pack bomb/shield (exception: Hazebomb, which is used to create bombs of insane power etcetc).
what you -should- be doing first, is finding an armor and weapon line that is GOOD, and goes all the way to 5*. that way you can minimise energy expenditure once you start upgrading, as you arent wasting it on little side projects.
many popular sword weapon lines are: Sealed Sword, Cutter, Calibur and the Brandish
bomb lines: Blast Bomb, Haze Bomb
Gun lines: Blaster, - Alchemer (shock one is generally most used i seem to have seen)
many popular armor lines are: Magic, Wolver as the two main "beginner" style armor lines, which upgrade very nicely
shields: defender, owlite
to get CE as a beginner, by purchasing it through the marketplace, most people will say do jelly runs. true, very profitable if you do it right, and die a minimal amount of times, you can net ~5k per run, not including materials. win at the boss a few times and youve got yourself a sealed sword. upgrade that to Faust, and jellly runs should be much much easier. once youve got alll the jelly tokens you want, i would reccomend skipping the boss, 10energy+self revives can end up being very costly in the long term, so skipping the boss can sometimes save you 2000cr worth of energy (other people are going to scoff at that, but assisting 3newbies who dont listen on a jelly king run, leaves me as the sole fighter, who has to raise himself. expensive and painful). if youre lucky when joining dungeon runs, youll join other teams at basil, depth 13, putting you right in the crown hotspot once you finish floor 14. go down to the first jellly castle floor, clear everything, go down, clear everything, return to haven. if you manage to do that perfectly, you can make around 12k cr or so with 90 energy, enough to buy 200CE before you even go to sell materials (shards being the secondary main source youd be getting money from in jelly king runs on top of the 12k cr)
Mon, 07/11/2011 - 08:54
#11
you can play this game for
you can play this game for free, though it will take a lot more time. what i've found works best is simply using the 100 energy u get every day and soloing tier 1 up till moorcraft, then leaving for haven and repeating once u hit 60 energy. if you want anything from snarbolax run. if not, u can go to a gate without snarbolax for more crowns (you really dont get many crowns/heat in the boss room. its mainly for the token).
you can get around 4000 per run, and another thousand or so in mats. i prefer to sell all my mats in the beginning. i also prefer to do tier 1 runs instead of selling the energy because it, one, gets you to practice your skills for the harder things, and its more crowns per energy. with 60 energy, you make around 5000-6000 CR. with selling your energy, you make 5700 or so per 100 energy. thats 40 energy wasted.
with using only 60 energy for a run, i usually wait for my energy to hit 100, do a tier 1 run (bringing my energy down to 40), take a break for lunch/read the news or something and do another run when i hit 60 energy again, i run it again then repeat the next day.
keep this up, buy some better gear on the auction house (preferably a better weapon and shield first) and eventually you can do jelly king runs for even more profit.
to craft the upper level gear, you'll need a lot of energy and this is why I sell all my mats in the beginning. to get the energy, you simply take all the money you have and buy more energy.
Mon, 07/11/2011 - 12:35
#12
Save up lots of CR. Ride the
Save up lots of CR. Ride the next market crash (new ad campaign/energy promotion/event/etc.) and buy a ton of CE with your CR when the price is low. Also, hope the market actually does crash. That's one of the best ways to make a pile of CE off of zero real dollars.
Mon, 07/11/2011 - 22:39
#13
1k in mats? What?
Even with over 200 minerals in my inventory, I have NEVER gotten anywhere CLOSE to 1k in profit from them. What the heck, dude. >_<
Tue, 07/12/2011 - 12:52
#14
@Schwa mats =/=
@Schwa mats =/= minerals...
pfffff...
Wed, 07/13/2011 - 04:22
#15
Free play
Well, I've been playing this game since steam launch, whenever that was.
I've never payed a single cent.
During this time, I've amassed the following gear.
All of the listed gear is 5 stars.
Dread Skelly Mask UV elemental Medium
Divine Veil UV Normal High
Barbarous Thorn Shield
Chaos Cloak
Vog Cub Coat Normal Medium
Gran Faust UV Charge Time Reduction : Low
Barbarous Thorn Blade UV Damage bonus VS Fiends : Medium
Storm Driver
Biohazard
Shivermist Burster UV Charge Time Reduction : Very High
Doesn't really count, but I also have two Royal Jelly Bands (trinkets, 5 stars)
To top it off, I currently have ~3200 CE, and a small chunk of crowns.
So at this point of the game, my only real goal is to farm vanaduke for enough tokens to get a Fang of Vog and Crest of Alimire
(I'm at 15 tokens currently, so I've got a ways to go)
Well, that and I've been crafting blast bombs now and then to try for a CTR VH, and make that into a Graviton Vortex.
My advice? Start by farming The Snarbolax (Or Snarby, as I prefer to call him)
Every day spend your 100ME heading down to kill him. If you can, join a group on his gate, to hopefully skip the early levels and get tokens faster.
Get the shield first, then the sword. grab a Wolver Coat and Wolver Cap, and you're ready for Tier 2. (but not really)
Talk to the guy for tier 2 clearance, get your mist tank, and go back into snarby's lair. But don't bother killing him, just do up to his floor, then head up instead.
Snarby's levels give a surprisingly large amount of heat/crowns, though that may (or may not) have been rebalanced in a recent update.
The point of this, is to level your Wolver Coat, Wolver Cap, and Bristling Buckler to heat level 10. As well as building your Crown reserves, to purchase (or craft) a cutter as soon as you can.
Once you have enough to equip a cutter as well, you're free to explore tier 2. I'd recommend jelly runs, but those were nerfed recently, so wherever works really.
From there, you'll want to save up crowns and get a vile striker as soon as possible. This is a great weapon for all-around gameplay, and especially for the jelly king.
You'll want to kill JK enough times to get yourself an Antigua, and upgrade your shield, armor, and helm to 4 stars.
From there, you can head into tier 3, though I'll advise to stay in the slime/beast heavy areas. Upgrade to a silversix as soon as possible, and proceed to save up money yada yada yada... I could go on for ages :P
EDIT : I'm sure you'll notice I no longer have a silversix, or a vile striker in my arsenal at this time. I made the decision to sell those a few weeks ago, to boost my crowns high enough to purchase a vog cub coat, and resell it for ~30k profit, which at the time gave me ~800CE, recouping the energy cost in crafting them.
Why did I do this? I no longer used my vile striker, nor my silversix in favor of a volt driver, which I traded the two of them to be able to upgrade to a Storm Driver. I don't regret my decision, though after a few FSC runs I can see why argent peacemakers are brought... Though, they shouldn't work like they do. (They're brought to shoot through things you're not supposed to be able to)
Wed, 07/13/2011 - 15:15
#16
It's going to take a long
It's going to take a long longer now that CE prices rose from 3k to 6k over the past month. But no matter how high they rise, it will be absolutely free as long as you're willing to take your time. I've played for several weeks and I don't have a single 4* item yet.
Then again what's the rush? Take your time, enjoy the game, have fun. If you don't like playing for free, I don't think this is the right game for you to begin with.
I'm sat here waiting on an energy refill, how much do you need to get to the end of tier 1?