Spiral Knights - The probably most asked question once again

The probably most asked question once again

17 replies [Last post]

Mon, 06/10/2013 - 15:29

Schwabbel

So I started playing this game like a week ago. After I got my cobalt stuff together from the standard missions my friends and me got quickly stuck at the 5-2 missions in which we need to gear up to 3* equip and to defeat the jelly boss.

Here's the deal: we like to do the missions together which is not beeing a problem, the dificulty stays pretty much the same as we do more dmg together to monsters with more hp. The item dropps are not beeing a problem either but the crowns are. As we were new we tested some stuff out and wasted pretty much all our money on 2* weapons. I have been looking for help for days and found pretty much everything except a solution.

I understand that buying 3* stuff in the auction house may be cheaper than crafting it myself and that the jelly king is a good place to farm crowns. Sadly we can't farm the crowns for the 3* stuff here as we have no chance with some wolver sets (this may change if we manage to farm the crowns for that nightblade thingy, at this point we can't farm the RJP, even the first and second rooms are baiting the **** out of us...)

So the point is: the energy crystal cost are at 7k (german server) for 100 energy. I had been considering to farm the snarborlax mission, this doesn't pay off though as I pay 30 energy and get 1.7k crowns (3 runs 90 enery 5.1k Crowns; 10 energy left and -2900 Crowns to 100 energy). Sure I could be using the mist for it everyday, the prices for every 3 stair stuff are about 18k crowns each and this would take ages to farm.

I would like to know if there's even a way of making profit before killing the jelly king, without spending money and without having to wait weeks. We have been making only standard missions as we don't understand the purpuse of arcade/lockdown, the guides for it are very complicated.

Another question is how can we manage to make only a certain number of rooms in a mission (ex 2 or 3 rooms) without loosing all the heat and crows we made in the first rooms; as we wiped at jelly king we also lost everything we got on the rooms before.

Thank you for your help and I am sorry if the text is hard to understand, my english isn't that great but I think it's understable. Sadly the german forums don't offer much help, they're kinda death.

Mon, 06/10/2013 - 18:10

Honeyrose

No way

SK is a business. The lure is that one can play it without spending real money, but that would take MONTHS. So players decide to spend real money to advance faster. Ergo, OOO makes it profit. There is NO way to advance quickly; one must play the 100 mist per day for months--many, many, many months and, oh so slowly, get better and better gear. I know 5 star mega-rich players may say they haven't put out a buck or too, but I don't believe it. I have played since June 2011, and the quickest way to get more crs is to make four or even five separate accounts, so that when one account has used up the 100 allocated mist, you can play on the other account. Do you really have that much time? lol. (As using up the 100 mist is about an hour of play.) If you have that much time to play this game for three hours per day (?), then you have too much free time to waste--so read a book or exercise.

I have my one account, and after almost two years of of causally playing four/five times per week on my 100 mist, I now have all 5 star gear. That meant farming Snarbolex endlessly for months, the farming JK for many more, then farming Vana for many more more. The game is just played for fun, don't take it too seriously: don't waste real money to get better gear as that just means you have the best gear for farming Vana quicker forever. Then what?
Enjoy the chat during play regardless of what "mission" you are on. Be the " best" Snarbolex player on your team, and help others; the be the best JK; be the best Vana player--but what is the point if you are unpleasant to play with. Relax and just enjoy casual goofy play. There is no other meaning to Sk than that. Thanks and have fun.

P.S. I know others will object, and tell you to UV items and sell at auction, for example. Yea, that can work: but as we all know, only those with money can ever make more of it. Since there is no such thing as a lottery on SK, only blue-collar type play works. (Well, one can give oneself a "lottery winning ticket"--by spending a few hundred dollars on CE, but that is kind of pathetic, isn't it?

Mon, 06/10/2013 - 18:21

Bopp

response

First, the guild Lancer Knightz is collecting data on the payouts of missions. But they don't seem to have a lot of data on the missions just before Sovereign Slime. So they don't help you much yet.

Second, the most profitable mission before Sovereign Slime may be the Snarbolax mission. It earns you about 7,300 crowns by Lancer Knightz' data, so it is slightly profitable when CE is at 7,000. And you may be able to sell Beast Scales and Monster Bones, to increase your profits. But you are right that earning 18,000 crowns to buy a 3-star item would take a lot of tedious grinding of that mission.

Third, there is a lot of grinding in Spiral Knights, if you're trying to play for free. It gets faster once you can beat Sovereign Slime, but it's always there.

Fourth, if you're getting beaten badly by the first level of the Sovereign Slime, then you're going to get beaten badly with 3-star gear too. I may sound mean, but you need to improve your skill. Work on charging your sword at the slimes. Never get surrounded. Be patient.

Fifth, read the wiki page "Party" to learn how heat, crowns, etc. work. You don't lose your crowns or materials when you abandon a mission, even if you abandon it in the middle of a level. You don't lose heat or minerals, if you finish your level and abandon the mission after that. (You do lose heat and minerals from a level if you leave in the middle of a level. But if you're heating 2-star stuff, then you don't really need much heat, do you? I'm surprised that you care about heat.)

So feel free to abandon the Sovereign Slime mission after the first two levels, or even after the first level. Doing the first two levels should earn you about 2,200 crowns, or about 11,000 crowns per 100 energy.

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 05:19

Troupe-Forums

If you need help with a mission try sending Troupemaster a /tell or adding me as a friend with a short message if I'm not online - I'll generally happily take you through any of the missions

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 09:10

Zeddy

You only lose heat upon death. Crowns and mats are yours forever once picked up.

Furhtermore, enemies gain 33% more health per party member, so more party members are almost always an advantage. Go forth boldly and fight with no fear!

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 09:27

Schwabbel

Well I though this game

Well I though this game wouldn't be that payment reliant, obviously I was wrong. The game itself is very funny, though I am not a grinder. Repeating the same stuff every day and then waiting until the next day is not what I am investing my time for. I just want some fun but it is not fun at all if I will be 'stuck' for weeks/months until I am able to proceed missions. I also don't think I am that bad, the point is a cutter doesn't pay off as a nightblade would. The 2 first rooms of the RJP take 1 hour to clean with that lame weapon and every hit is a big risk of loosing about 35% hp instant by one slime hit. Either am I caring about heat, I don't realy know where you got this from. After all I mean, grinding like 3 days to get just a 3* item? For real? And it's not like I would have that much freetime, it's just in due to my work time I prefer playing 2 times for a few hours a week than a hour every day. Though I don't realy know why you even care about my freetime. For real this game base is similar to the crapy facebook games.. sad as it could be much more better thant it currently is. However thanks you answered, probably gonna keep looking for another game. I don't realy know how this game gains new players if they have to read several guides just to know that at the end they are gonna be grinding the same level forever..

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 09:39

Bopp

right

Before you give up, try switching your sword to another 2-star sword. Cutters are fun swords, but they are probably the hardest swords to use. Do you still have Calibur (which you got in a mission)? It will soon have CTR+2 (if it doesn't already), and you can just charge it against the slimes. You should be able to clear all of the first level of Royal Jelly Palace just by charging Calibur. Try to do it without taking any damage. You can, really!

Spiral Knights is designed to be a casual game that's played for an hour or two each day. However, when you get farther into it, you can easily play all day long, with only occasional grinding to get crowns for crystal energy. But if you don't want to wait for that stage of the game, then happy travels.

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 17:10

Awsome-Incarnate

I agree

I agree with Bopp and understand grinding is boring and annoying. Try doing LD and BN for a while is you get bored (tho It only offers a total of 80cr, the tokens can let you get good recipes) or selling stuff at the AH or to vendors (1* items like hot edges don't go far in alchemy but give 300cr when sold to vendors). Don't buy 3* items from the AH if they are over 14k cr since most 5-2 missions don't usually pay well and have slime swarms (that will kill you if not handled with ("care"). If you really need help and wanna pass, just bring a Knight Elite (or higher) friend to back you up. Bring shadow and normal damage weps ( Night Blade and Super Blaster?) that are lvl 10. I wish you good luck in the missions that lie ahead (tho Roarmalous Twins boss fight is easy).

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 19:35

Schwabbel

So I have recently been

So I have recently been testing the arcade a bit, just to spend the energy in something not repeatable. Does the arcade offer something that would make it worth to grind? Just found an arena which was kinda interesting, gave a lot of stuff and pretty easy to do.

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 19:46

Bopp

graveyards, arenas, danger rooms

Here are some ideas for levels and areas that appear in Arcade gates frequently, but not often in missions.

Graveyard payouts can be high. Unfortunately, they are highly variable. I don't have data in front of me, but I recall that running the same graveyard level may give you 50% more crowns one time than another time.

Arenas used to pay a lot of crowns, but their crown payouts were decreased sometime last year (maybe around the introduction of missions?). Whether or not they give good crowns, they can sometimes be challenging and fun. The challenge depends on the number of greavers and rocket puppies, and how you handle them. (Once, in 2011, there was a notorious arena that spawned eight red rovers that just burned everyone to death. It was so bad that Three Rings released an update to prevent it, as I recall.)

Danger rooms cost you three extra energy, but they are a fun challenge, and I think that the payout is okay. They are never found in missions. But if you're not comfortable with Royal Jelly Palace then you might be really uncomfortable with these.

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 21:02

#10

Paulnicolass

5* no pay

well i made it to 5* on my other account without even paying a single cent to this game the only thing that you need to learn is patience ive been in your situation and i got stuck there for days but when i farm snarby i recommend soloing so you can do it faster farming snarby for ce is pretty slow but i suggest going up when the elevator is going down to the boss level if its still too slow go to jk and when you reach that elevator that goes down to the boss again go up therefore you only use 20energy so 20energy=1run (100mist=5runs) if you still having trouble try asking some of your strong friends to carry you in the RT-roarmulous twins well i hope this helps

Tue, 06/11/2013 - 21:02

#11

Paulnicolass

5* no pay

Sun, 06/16/2013 - 16:25

#12

Sroell

If you can't do JK, Snarby

If you can't do JK, Snarby runs are a good option. When I was trying to get my 3* gear, I did Snarby and arcade (choosing gates without JK) until I used up my mist, then came back the next day. Monster Bones and Beast Scales are pretty easy to sell, so long as you make certain to have reasonable prices- the demand is high, since they're needed for Wolver armor, which is (one of) the most popular set(s) in the game. And when you get enough Frumious Fang tokens to exchange them for gear, you can sell it to a vendor. You don't get a whole lot of cr from that, but you weren't doing anything else with the tokens. The gear you get from Brinks also has a chance of getting a UV, and if that happens, don't sell it to a vendor; try selling to or trading with other players.

Also, before you buy any mats from the marketplace, check to see if Brinks has it in exchange for Grim/Primal/Forge Spark Tokens. You can also sell the trinkets you get from Spark Tokens to vendors, but that can be tricky.

When depositing minerals in the arcade, don't just autosell; find a gate and stratum that pays out 3 or 4 cr per mineral.

I've got 4* gear without paying any "real" money, so it's possible, it just takes patience. :)

Tue, 06/25/2013 - 01:38

#13

Nonamekm

when the game first came out

when the game first came out you could easily play without spending any real money. Initially maybe it was slow like the first couple of days, but I didnt become obsessed with the game right away which game my mist en time to regen...by the time I actually got into the game the en prices were still cheap. I stopped playing a long time ago (re-downloading SR right now), at that time en prices were increasing fairly fast but I could still easily solo and make more than enough money to buy back the en spent. I had top tier gear for the time and never spent any real money so I know its possible.

Hoping I can get back into the game now and have decent enough gear to still make enough to buy en but I'm sure the prices have sky rocketed over the time I've been away.

Tue, 06/25/2013 - 01:50

#14

Bopp

CE prices do not steadily rise

Since I've been playing (April 2011), CE prices have gone up and down, roughly between 5,000 and 9,500. Currently they are at 7,200. It's not as if they just keep going up, or any simple trend like that. Interventions by Three Rings (mainly promotions, but also crown sinks and other economic effects) have a strong influence on the market. If you play Spiral Knights regularly and pay attention, then you can buy CE when it's low and save your crowns when CE is high.

There are 23 missions (4 danger, 6 prestige, and 13 others) that pay more than 7,200 crowns per 100 energy spent. So, at current energy prices, there are many ways to play Spiral Knights for as much time as you want, slowly accumulating crowns and CE. You definitely do not need to spend real money (except perhaps for Operation Crimson Hammer).

Tue, 06/25/2013 - 09:05

#15

Our-Little-Ajo

These poor people

...

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 23:45

#16

Nanowielder

CE prices do rise but only by

CE prices do rise but only by a crown every 30 minutes or so .but to be honest you can actually earn crowns quite fast

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 00:00

#17

Bopp

they also go down

CE prices do rise but only by a crown every 30 minutes or so

The price of 100 CE can rise by much more than 1 crown in 30 minutes. It can also fall. It goes up and down, just like a real market often does.

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The probably most asked question once again