We keep buying it, they keep selling it! Isn't it great? The free market rules. You can even make a fair profit by watching the rise and fall of the prices carefully! But I digress, people will always argue on this topic, even though I'm not sure where the "manipulating the market" thing comes from. So I'll just agree to disagree on that point, no real point to arguing in my opinion unless OOO decides they are losing too much of a player base to compensate, at which case, they will step in, and not before.
That said... those of you who do not wish to flame me at this point could learn a few things on maximizing your gaming and minimizing your complaining by reading forward a few more sentences.
1) ASAP, get the gear to start doing Royal Jelly runs (I will concede to say getting the first set of 2* can go slow since you can't afford CE easily in T1). But once you are able to do the run, even nerfed as it may be, aside from "end-game" T3 runs with a good party or guild, it's the most consistent and easy way to earn heat and crowns. If you get lucky and join a party that's near depth 12, even better, more profit per energy cost.
2) Wait for arenas (and graveyards). Look at the gate maps, and choose a path that has the most arenas, and if you're willing to wait for them, they will pay off. That said, by this point (along with JK runs) you need to be good enough to do any T2 run without dying, at least without dying to anything except those rare "whoops got cornered" moments.
3) Plan out your day. If you need to use 200 energy to craft your next item, and you've used up your mist energy for the day, wait until the next day when you've a full bar of mist energy to cut 100 free energy off the price of your item. Likewise, if you're like me, and have a job, plan your crafting before you go to work. That way, when you get home, you'll have gained more mist energy to play on.
4) Watch the trends in CE prices. If prices are going up, rather than saving your crowns, invest in CE. That way, when they top out for a few days, you can sell them for a profit, rather than waiting and needing CE then, and having to pay current market prices.
5) Get better. I can't over emphasize how important it is to make a good impression with good players. You get invited into boss levels more frequently, and often group up with better players that quicken the time it takes to complete levels. While this doesn't directly affect your CE usage, it can, in that once you network with the right people, you can get invited into groups at better places, finish hard arena levels easier, and maximize your heat gain per energy.
6) Don't forget, OOO is adding crown driven gameplay as well. Right now it's only the measly Blast Network, but in time, I predict we will have 3-5 different games to engage in that will give you something to work torwards when you run out of crowns.
This is my 2 cents. -grabs popcorn and awaits flames and lessons on economy-
*starts a slow clap*
Now, if only we could drill this into every player's mind.