Mist energy is ALWAYS used before Crystal Energy, no matter what the cost is as long as it's energy.

Unbinding items uses Mist before CE.
Crafting items uses Mist before CE.
Starting a Guild uses Mist before CE.
Reviving uses Mist before CE.
Exploring uses Mist before CE.
Pimpin' uses Mist before CE.
Danger Rooms use Mist before CE.
etc.

You can't trade Mist energy though, so don't advertise what you can't sell.

Yes you can.
You want to make a new five star gun for example, which costs 800 energy overall. You have 100 mist energy and 800 crystal energy. Crafting would deplete your Mist Energy and then take whatever is still needed from your Crystal Energy, meaning you'll be left with 100 Crystal Energy.

^ That doesn't even make sense.

You're taking an equal loss whether you use it for crafting or clockworks.

You have 100 ME and need (say) 200 energy for crafting. So you buy 200 CE from the market.

Now, after the crafting, you won'T have 100 ME left, but you will have 100 CE left instead.
What is the difference between using CE and ME on elevators in this case? No difference ;)

Overdingle- What you're saying now and what you said before are two different things. The first time you basically said "I'd rather spend 100 Mist Energy in the Clockworks and 200 on crafting when I play for a day" whereas spending 100 of each on crafting and 100 CE in the Clockworks would be the same thing, its all still 300 energy total.

Now you're saying that you'd rather just go to the Clockworks to make your money with the Mist Energy you get then as that stockpiles your crowns you start to stockpile the CE. This is what every player SHOULD be doing so that you can continue to make money to purchase CE. Also I'm just going to note that Tier 2 can sufficiently give you funds to buy CE with. You only need 70 for a full run without a boss and make about 5k crowns doing so. So theoretically it takes 210 energy to make 15k crowns which you can buy about 300 energy with. This is already profitable before making sure to make 100 of that energy Mist. If this is now the case then you payed 110 CE to make 15k, or 300 CE.

What I said in the second post is the reason for what I said in the first post.

Mist energy has a much lower value than crystal energy, at a price of free. However, it's important to note that while you can earn 100 ce off 70 me, you only get a profit of 30 ce from spending the same amount of ce on a dungeon run. And that's with no deaths, which can't be predicted in advance of the run.

Because there's a limit on how much mist energy you can have at once, it's critical to turn mist into crystal energy; because mist is free, this is pure profit. But because using crystal energy to get crystal energy comes at a cost of crystal energy, it's not pure profit, and is in fact noticeably less than using mist for that purpose.

You also have to note that because playing on pure mist can't do more than one dungeon run a day without having a screwed up play schedule, the value of 70 mist is essentially equal to the value of 100 mist, especially in the near future where haze bombs will become 2* items and lose most of their worth as UV bearing items; there won't be anything meaningful a player can do with the remaining mist each day, as the first few floors of each tier aren't worthwhile, and in fact, without completing tier 2 of a given gate, are essentially at a loss for tier 3, with the 500 cr entry fee and barely 1k over the first few floors (plus high risk of death)

Also factor in a player's willingness to grind through the same gate multiple times in a day, or the time factor - realise that running on ce for the sake of profit is a much less profitable use of time after the mist is gone.

As for crafting on mist, crafting has a fixed value output which can be worth less than using the energy for running a gate, whereas ce is required for crafting anyways (above 2*, naturally). If I have 100 mist and 100 ce, and I want to craft a 3* item, I'll do a gate for 6k or so cr, buy energy and craft with that with a 1k profit for the day, rather than craft the item and have nothing left over.

Let's assume this starting scenario

I have 100 ME, 100 CE, a 3* recipe with enough money to craft it, but not enough money to buy energy.

I can a) Craft the item and have nothing.
or b) Do a dungeon run, buy energy and still have profit for the day.

For free players in the lower tier, this is far more common, and most of them will never craft using mist if they can run a gate on it. Your scenario never occurs for them because they often craft as soon as they can afford it. I personally make sure to hang onto 4k; enough to buy a 3* recipe in tier 2 (they tend to have the highest profit margin)

You're also ignoring the fact that Mist is worth less than Crystal, meaning profit from mist is far greater than that from crystal. Gates are variable profit that tend to be higher than crafting, which is initially a loss, and therefore far more preferable.

Again: Turning mist into CE is pure profit. Using CE to get more CE is 30% of that per run, and far less preferable. As mist is essentially only used to convert it into crystal energy, spending 70 mist to make 100 crystal is essentially adding 100 crystal to your supply. Spending 70 crystal to make 100 crystal is adding 30 to your supply. When you need more energy than the mist capacity to craft something, only crystal energy matters, and maximising crystal gains for effort used is more important.

Mist is not worth less than Crystal. They're of equal value.

If I don't play for an entire cycle of 100 Mist, I have lost that 100 Mist. I could have turned that Mist into something else. It is not free. If you have 100 and don't use it, you lose potential profit.

it is always in your best interest to use ME before CE because ME has a limit. How you use it doesn't matter.

In your scenario with the new player, this isn't a problem with ME being used first, therefore he'll run with ME first. Had you used your 100 CE first for the dungeon, not touching your ME, and then craft with your ME, the end result is the same.

But using your mist for a dungeon is also a loss. That's what you're not seeing.

I can use 100 ME on a craft and save myself 100 CE. 1 ME = 1 CE.

Mist and Crystal are definitely not equal value. If you can't see that, that's your problem. They have the same functions, but there are scenarios where one is preferred over the other.

Suppose you have no plans to craft for the day - you run into the clockworks on mist. You intend to go to the floor before the boss of whichever tier you choose, say tier 2. You know the run will cost 70 energy, so if it's on mist you have 30 energy to play with after that you might not use.

At some point in the run, something goes wrong - you die and have to use energy to revive if you want to continue. If you're running purely on mist you don't intend to use past the run, as long as this cost doesn't total 30 energy by the end of the run, it doesn't bother you.

On crystal energy, it's 50 crowns lost per point of energy you spend on reviving. This is a difference of value, and you need to understand it exists. This is also why playing the game on mist instead of crystal when you have the choice is preferable. Crafting has no risk of randomly costing you an additional 5, 10, 30 energy, so it's inherently better to craft with the energy type you can't risk losing to chance.

Even if the player intends to craft at the end of that run, they can simply wait until they have that amount of mist they lost and then craft; the next day when they log on they may not have 100 mist, but it's likely they'll still have enough to do that one run.

Edit: Adding to that, any mist energy used on crafting post run is a saving, as it likely wouldn't be used for anything else that day. Crafting with the 30 energy left after a perfect run is essentially cutting 30 energy off the cost.