I don't wanna jump to conclusions but I feel that the non boss strata's are rather useless at the moment. You earn less crowns and the rewards aren't as good as the boss strata's
This is especially the case with tier 3. I always find no party in non vanaduke strata's which makes sense.
If it is the case of them being useless. How could 3 rings make them more apealing?
Well if you dont want to spend tokens to get mats then you would do them
Non-boss S6 levels can drop great mats, especially beast themed ones. They are, of course, good fun too.
Every once in a while you'll get a gate with an S6 full of arenas, and people will often grind that just as a change from constant FSC runs.
I never do boss stratum since I have what I want from them, they get boring and repetitive, and honestly I haven't noticed a huge difference in loot between a normal floor and a boss floor, not enough of one to put me at a disadvantage for avoiding them anyway.
^basically what Nicoya-Kitty wrote.
The mats or just looking for something different to do. It doesn't even have to be arenas for me all the time. Awhile back I was trying to hunt kats in an undead stratum d5 and see how long I could last in the d6 fiend/devilite areas. Was pretty fun.
But you guys do agree that there should be, more incentive?
When you finally do encounter a party on a non boss tier 3 starturn, Alot of people leave after the terminal(at least ALOT more compared to boss straturns) after checking recipes. It's like nobody finds other straturns at tier 3 interesting.
I like to do solo runs and do clockwork tunnels-like levels in hope for danger rooms, i didn't get yet tired of the random element.
Change of pace, change of what you get, if you find arenas they can pay out more then boss areas, mat hunting, challenge (especially shock fiend areas). All are good reasons. Lets face it, if you just run the boss areas you will not find a wide variety of mats... FSC: zombie line mats, flame souls, shadow steel, sun silver... and that's about it.
~Gwen
It's fun? That's why I do any runs, because Gog knows I don't need anything else the game can offer.
I run non boss stratums whenever I feel like playing Tier 3.
Because after killing Vanaduek for the 50th time FSC gets kind of boring.
^What they said
Personally though i dont mind the boss level's repetitiveness so much. Guess im used to games like that.
Anyway the boss mats may be a bit worthless as it seems, but if you werr to sell all those Flame souls, Soul dust and Gel cores/drops, youd make about 12kcr in mats selling to the Vendors. No joke, I have much less than other pro players and I still got 7kcr in one selling. Good thing too cus' i needed the cash.
Also if you kill Jelly King enough (or even Vana really), the extra tokens you can buy the Jelly armor with and sell to a vendor for 3.5kcr each. For Ancient Plate equips, get one from extra Vana tokens and sell each for 35kcr(<-needs wiki to confirm) to a vendor.
Now granted selling FoV and CoA is much more profitable, that takes time to gather the unbind CE and a buyer so...
Also 5* trinkets go for 10k nicely, and the tokens come from any level. You probably have at least 100 Primal/Grim/Forge sparks by now. And since they drop more commonly in places of Red Treasure boxes... (im looking at you FSC.)
Hurry and you can use that to buy a Shadow Key before Boost takes them away. :P (no joke its a good idea imho)
Not to mention the average common accessory price is 10k buyout if not less, 10k from token trinkets alone is pretty sweet compared to Lockboxes (if you aren't involved in that market).
I got off topic, but it does show the overall better of Boss stratas than the normal levels.
If anything, besides FSC, i do S5 Beast runs (for mats), S4 arenas occassionally, or even good ol' Jelleh King.
This reminds me, I still have to solo FSC xD.
Meh, either way, Shadow Lairs is where its at. Challenging and good profit (assuming you dont get party wiped 4 times)
And i loled when i saw "Gog"
Thats all i have to say
~Xylka
Aren't we playing for fun?!!! I'm trying to play different startums to achieve maximum diversity and minimum boredom.
I may forced myself to play Royal Jelly Palace once a week maybe, but that's it.
Fun is the most significant factor that motivate me to play SK. I don't care about mats or crowns or heat. Personally I find all those maths/economic calculations amusing in case of mere game. You'll get what you need eventually, no matter which stratums you go.
I run boss-stratums mainly for income, but that's because I'm always in need of money (as I am a big spender). I have no issues with running regular levels should I feel like it, but as of lately I haven't been doing much in terms of non-boss/arena stratums. Gwenyvier listed pretty much all of the incentives you need to run non-boss stratums. It's all a matter of whether or not you feel like it.
Nothing but your own mindset stops you from doing non-boss stratums.
I love doing non-boss stratas in T3....its good heat and it makes it so I don't do the same boring FSC map on and on.
You would be right in saying that. There isn't much incentive. It feels like it is partially by design.