(Correct me if this thread don't belong to General Discussion)
I just made it into Tier 2 and now searching for 4*-5* gears. As I see, many Tier 3 gear is overprized for F2P player and a bit rare in AH. I should be able to be Tier 3 if I was a P2P player, but what about F2P player? Does F2P players can buy 4*-5* gears?
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/56650
TLDR: Does it take awhile? Yes.
Is it possible? Yes.
Is it worth it? Yes.
I am unable to contribute to the game as a P2p, and I have 5* gear and a few million crs.
I would start out replaying the Jelly king mission until you have 4* gear and then run FSC. I did it in around a month but it depends on how much you play.
I refused to spend money on this game 'til I got a good 5* set I liked.
The reason the business model of this game is dumb is because if new players decide to buy CE, then they rip themselves off of good game progression, and rush themselves to the endgame - which, might I remind everyone, mainly consists of endless FSC runs for crowns. It's much more enjoyable to get all your gear the good 'ol fashioned way.
It'll take awhile, ye know.
I'm sure ye can do it. :)
Buying t3 gear directly from AH is 'doing it wrong'.
Since all 4* and 5* gear must be heated in order to craft it, the person selling the gear must pay an unbind fee to be able to sell the items on to someone else on the AH. You're paying for that fee, on top of the profit that the seller adds to that. In the case of 5* kit, unbinding costs a whopping 4000 CE per item.
Crafting a 5* item from scratch (assuming you start with a 2* item, and ignoring heat/crown/material costs) costs 50+200+400+800 = 1450 energy. Since this can be further offset by a full 100-mist tank, you could cut that cost down to 1100 CE if you're patient enough.
You're paying just under 300% more than what you need to, in the case of a 5* item.
You would be considerably better off purchasing CE from other players using crowns (click the little blue energy sign in the bottom right, just above your mist tank). Current costs are about 8.1k per hundred, so you may wish to wait for an energy promo to come round and drop the price.
The only other way of getting such gear is to pick it up as item drops, which come unbound, but equipment drops are so ridiculously rare that this isn't really a viable way of getting to 5*. When people get 4* or 5* drops, they will normally sell them for the going price on the auction house.
As other people have mentioned, you definitely want to stay away from buying higher-level gear in the Auction House. Crafting is by far the cheapest way to get new weapons, although it can sometimes take a little while longer depending on what recipes you need. As far as buying CE from other players goes, it's unfortunately a lot more expensive to do so now than when a lot of us F2P types started out, but it's still doable...you just have to be more patient, and sometimes play a waiting game until CE prices drop somewhat.
Of course.
I got my Faust, Silversix and Mighty Defender through an awful lot of Built to Destroy and Sovereign Slime Run-Through Missions. TRUST ME -- BE PREPARED.
Good luck getting your 4-5*! =)
i had 5 armor sets, 5 swords, 1 bomb, 4 shields and 3 guns before i payed a thing (elevator pass) all without much trouble ^^ (just good farming)
Equipment of any star can be bough with CE from Energy Depot and its cheaper than unbind of same star equpment.
Assume that the equipments at the Energy Depot is more of the amount than crafting. Only to find that crafting takes some time while Energy Depot gets it all ready.
You got to 3* using crown-bought CE, did you not?
May just want to point out, it's best not to use the Energy Depot's Trade function. Post offers on the Market and they will hopefully be filled within 24 hours if the price is within reason.
Everyone else got there before me: it's cheaper to make it yourself, and also cheaper to buy from the Supply Depot if they have the item than to buy it from another player.
TL;DR:
1. It is possible to get to 5* while P2Ping.
2. Prices of stuff above 3*:
--1. (cheapest) Make it.
--2. Supply Depot.
--3. Buy it from .
Of course you can! You will only have to get the Crowns to buy the CE. How many of them?
You need Helm, Armor, Shield, and two weapons. Five pieces of equipment.
You need to pass them through 2, 3, 4 and 5 star versions. Exception would be Winmillion, as Crystal Bomb lines will get 5* items soon.
Mind you, you also need the recipes. Recipes are 1000, 4000, 10000 and 25000 crowns.
Crafting CE costs are 50, 200, 400, 800. Crafting also has a separate fee of 400, 1000, 2500 and 5000 crowns. Right now, CE is at 8500~ Crowns max to trade 100 CE.
And so, for all your equipment, if from scratch and you don't have any recipe and you don't want standard line equipment:
Recipe costs: (1000+4000+10000+25000)*5 = 200000 Crowns
Crafting crown costs: (400+1000+2500+5000)*5 = 44500 Crowns
CE crafting costs (if the 50 CE fee of the 2* equips includes 100CE): (1+2+4+8)*5*8500 = 637500 Crowns maximum
_
Rough maximum costs for full 5* equipment at 2 slots base and not taking trinkets into consideration:
200000 + 44500 + 637500 = 882000 Crowns, that is what you need to get to be a f2p player with a set of 5* equipment.
Which, if you start grinding FSC right now and getting dragged along until you are able to fight back...:
At a rough 8000 payout per FSC, you will need > 882000 / 8000 = 110.25 runs, not taking into account being able to sell Ancient gear from 30 tokens against Vanaduke, which you get 2-4 per run. If you get more or less 3 each time, that means that each 10 runs you will get 30000 crowns if you sell the Ancient 5* gear to an NPC, which would reduce more likely to 80 runs through FSC to get your 1st 5* gear set.
Fast edit: Ah, yes. This is just icing the cake, but if you want to be "effective" in every way, you will also need other 5* sets. Ideally you may want a Piercing set, an Elemental set, and a Shadow set. So, just 882000*3 = 2646000 Crowns to not die fast against 2 other families and kill them fast. Though Normal weapons aren't that ineffective. PvP Trinket calculations though, that is something I don't know of, as I don't do PvP, but think that you may want two monthly slots with 2 5* PvP trinkets for "maximum efficiency". And another thing is the 2 monthly slots for other 2 weapons, if you wish...
Slower through other funnier means though. As you can see, enjoy the journey.
"As I see, many Tier 3 gear is overprized for F2P player and a bit rare in AH. I should be able to be Tier 3 if I was a P2P player, but what about F2P player? Does F2P players can buy 4*-5* gears?"
I think the problem here is that you're trying to directly buy the gear from other players rather than crafting it yourself, wich is waaaaay cheaper. Thats a shortcut for wealthy players, but you dont need it.
The above calculation assumes that you're making a full set of 5* gear. And eventually, you'll need that to get some of the most advanced missions... but for the most part, 4* gear- especially weapons- is quite good. By not upgrading everything to 5*, you can save quite a lot of money... using the numbers above, you could expect to pay 392,000 for a full 4* set. (as opposed to 882,000 crowns for a 5* set: that last upgrade step adds a LOT to the cost!!)
That said, the numbers above overstate your crown requirements, because:
a) On days when you don't plan to play, you can use mist energy to craft. For a full 4* set, that would save you 100 energy on the 3 and 4* steps, reducing your crown requirements to 307,000 crowns.
b) Who in their right mind pays 8,500 crowns for 100 CE? Hoard your crowns and wait for one of the periodic promotional offers. Those can drive the price down to 7300-7800 crowns/100 CE, depending on how desirable the promotional item is. (and thus how much excess CE people are buying with credit cards) Waiting for the lower point in the price cycle can save you a lot of money- for the 5* example, you'd save 28k crowns by purchasing at 7800 rather than 8500. (Don't take sell offers- let people fill your buy offers instead. Patience!)
Even so, definitely look at the wiki and talk to experienced players; they can help you to avoid expensive mistakes (such as crafting cobalt armor or thinking that winmillions are good). Everything but boss item recipes can be purchased from the Hall of Heroes once you finish enough missions, so recipe availability isn't a big concern.
If you play on steam and also play TF2 you can use the metal that you craft in that game to trade for CE/Crowns and make the armors/weapons you want quicker.
Getting your first complete 5* set (weapon(s), helm, armor, shield) is slow as a F2p, but once you get it, everything else is much much easier.
I'm F2P, my brother Dlaken and Danyx as well. All of us have full 5*, and my LD set worth 120k CE+. Without counting the other sets. Nothing is imposible.
Yeah. It is. My real life friend got from being a fresh 0* newbie to an awesome 5* LD player in under a month. Without paying a cent. ._. I still don't understand how he became so good at LD after only 1 week in T3. I've seen him kill some many of the elite players...
spam jk grab jelly brute pieces sell to npc vendor in bazaar like Vatel (recipe vendor), basil,... get 3500 cr after every 5 missions with the amount you get from mission which should be around the price of 100 ce, also use tokens like primal, or grim to grab trinkets like skelly or jelly band for a 250 cr for every 5 or save to 20 for 3500 cr from vatel. its basically its learn to grind (do missions, arcade runs). arcade do ones with multiple arenas for more cr and heat. also saving energy by only using energy revs when team is dead. rise or fall good for around 1800-2k of cr.
but i am getting off topic its mainly it takes time and focus. do one at a time but keep most your items at same level so heating is easier then start upgrading 1 at a time. but since the price of ce has gone up since last year it makes it harder to do. it takes almost 50k cr or so to upgrade an item. also remember you can use mist as upgrade energy so really only need 700ce and 100 mist to do it. but i would suggest spam jk, vana if able but would not suggest unless u got fire resistant armor, or arcade till you have that much and then upgrade or get recipe before you start doing runs for ce.
You can profit from the royal jelly palace 100CE PER DAY and never spend a penny or a drop of your CE.
You can profit from FSC bcause it literally pays for itself.
In a matter of 1 month you can go straight to full 4*. 2 more weeks and you got half of your set 5*.
It is possible. It isn't that hard.
And as long as the Mist Energy exists in the atmosphere of Cradle, you can become full 5* and never spend any money.
Why was this thread created?
i think this thread help everyone end game players and newbies to find the secrets to becoming a 5 star. love the math work, ty a lot guys for doing all the calculation. this thread will continuously be usefull as long as energy prices dont skyrocket and stay at a steady pace, which i realy hope so.
Aside from the mission requirements (which, if you usually play with friends or guildies, doesn't mean much), you don't actually need *everything* to be 5*. For armours that specialise in the final step, yes, but there's not much difference between a a 4* and a 5* weapon or shield.
ok i just played on my second knight (yes i'm semi-P2P) after a few months of slumber
my main knight has most of the armor i need for T3 left (alltough i sold 2 snarby sets, 1 because of a the uv's it had and the second because i was thinking diablo 3 would keep me from playing SK wich obviously isn't the case) so making money on that one is a no-brainer (ok making money in general in this game is a no-brainer) as i am just spamming KoA mision when i don't feel like doing some random gate (it's probably 60/40 KoA/random gate but now i'm saving for the halo and tail i allways wanted hehe)
oh keep in mind that i only bought CE once (think it was 1200CE or something) and a few elevator passes (i recomend going for the pass as it's more fun playing your way up instead of buying your way through the game) so having 1 payed account allows me to have a second knight (or a mule as some people call it) so here's the no-brainer aproach and you'll be rocking some nice sets in a few months.
so main: FsC on 100 mist will probably net me in some 16K crown a day. downside is, the mats collected there are worth jack Sh.. :D
and mule: 5 Gloaming Wildwoods runs (in the beginning you'll maybe want to do the bossfight for the shield and weapon wich will make it a bit faster in the long rund) i just have a wolver set, Snarble Barb, Bristling Buckler and a Voltech Alchemer on this account as i only use it for making money (and not having to use my own mist energy when i need to buy trinket/weapon slots) so today starting from 0 crown and 0 mats (transferd to my main like allways) i made around 8200 crown (ok not that much but what do you want in T1) and top that of with the mats i collected when sold a bit wise i think i can get an aditional 4/5K out of those. so that brings profit to let's say 12K each day
so 16k+12K = 28K a day just on mist energy. but seeing you'll still be doing some misions to reach KoA this will be a BIT lower. so people who say KoA is overpayed are clearly doing something wrong here.
ok now i allready said to much, i'll let you figure out the rest ;)
P.S. enjoy the game (oh and try to support OOO for making an awsome game) bukkit out!
Of course. It'll just take a while.
I don't know why you would try buying these from AH though. The general idea is to craft your equipment. The cost of buying 4 and 5 star equipment from other players or the Energy Depot is significantly higher than crafting them yourself.