Spending: rate, subscriptions and the contract

Spending in this game comes down to diamonds: nearly everything sold for money is bought with them, and offers are compared through them. The general rule is simple, since a bundle at the same price almost always returns the same diamonds and something else besides, which makes plain diamonds a poor purchase. What follows covers the rate, the second currency, one-off purchases such as the permanent build queues, the subscriptions and the places where diamonds go furthest.

The rate

Diamonds sell at one rate: 100 per dollar, rounded up to the nearest hundred. There is no bulk discount, every tier converts the same. A separate offer doubles the diamonds on a first purchase.

The second currency

Vouchers are bought separately and buy any paid bundle at its price in cents, so a $4.99 bundle costs 499 vouchers. Buying vouchers does not count towards top-up events and quests.

Bundles almost always return the diamonds in full

A paid bundle holds exactly as many diamonds as the plain tariff of the same price would give, and the goods come on top. Of 1,446 priced bundles, 1,195 work this way. Buying plain diamonds is therefore nearly pointless, because a bundle at the same price gives the same diamonds plus something else. Bundles are best compared by their contents rather than by their diamond count.

There are 251 exceptions, and 71 of them hold no diamonds at all.

Permanent build queues

There are four build queues, and three of them are sold once per account:

Each is a one-time purchase and stays forever, and the diamonds inside follow the usual tariff, so the extra money pays for the queue itself.

Price anchors

A few prices are worth keeping in mind, since any shop offer can be measured against them.

Speed-ups get cheaper per minute the larger the denomination. Shields are cheaper for alliance coins than for diamonds.

Subscriptions

Alongside one-off bundles there are recurring passes, and what makes them interesting is less the daily payout than the standing bonuses, which cannot be had any other way.

Premium monthly pass, $24.99 for 30 days: an extra squad, +15% gathering speed for all squads, +5% build speed, -5% damage from monsters, and daily 100 diamonds, 2 Recruit Tickets, 100 stamina and 62 five-minute speed-ups. The extra squad weighs more than the diamonds. There are four squads, unlocked at Sanctuary 4, 8 and 20, and the fourth works only while the pass is active. It also adds two covert-operation dispatches, since dispatches are counted two per squad.

Age weekly pass, $4.99 for 7 days: Resistance +250, march speed +5%, daily 100 diamonds, 20,000 lord specialization XP, 50 stamina and 80 speed-ups.

Passes are worth judging by their bonuses rather than their contents, because the diamonds roughly match the tariff while the percentages and the extra squad run for the whole term.

Development contract

The Development Contract at $19.99 is a one-per-account purchase that pays nothing up front: diamonds arrive as the Sanctuary grows, in twelve payouts from level 6 to level 30, 50,000 diamonds in total.

A plain tariff at that price gives 2,000 diamonds, so the contract returns twenty-five times the face value, but more than half of it lands at levels 28 and 30.

Where diamonds pay back best

• The daily buyout of skill badges and Gearstones beats one-off purchases.
• Level hero skills wide, not deep: top skill levels cost far more than the first ones, so five mid-level skills beat one maxed skill.
• Buying extra arena battles does not pay back: the price climbs with every purchase, the reward does not.

Shops

There are seventeen exchange shops, each with its own currency: diamonds, glory medals, expedition medals, alliance coins and others. The same item costs differently across them, so the neighboring counter is worth a look before buying.

Two counters are worth remembering. The cheapest line in the alliance shop is the survivor token at 4 coins with a cap of 2,500, and no other free source of tokens exists in the game, see Survivors. The Lion coin shop sells a universal awakening fragment for 120 coins with a cap of 10, the second free source of those fragments after Abyss boss tasks, see Awakening shards.

Whether a second or third queue is worth it for a particular city is visible in the build calculator: an extra queue is added there with one button and the upgrade order is recomputed.

Related pages

• Where to get heroes
• Arenas
• Alliance
• Build calculator

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