Meteorite Dust Use Not Clear, And Some Gwent Card Cost Analysis
Before you read know this: The post started as a complaint, but as I wrote it and worked through the math I ended up proving myself wrong, or at least convincing myself that I had no argument.
I'm a somewhat new player and when viewing the collection I see that cards can be transmuted for meteorite dust. I go to check price on dust about $60 for 7200. I calculate how much it'll take to get all animated cards of Nilfgaard. It'll be about 13,000 meteorite. Two purchases of 7200 will be enough. I thought, man Gwent is pretty cool, allowing us to craft exactly the cards we want like this. I only plan on focusing on one faction anyway so why not, I'll do it. Luckily I looked into it a little bit more and found that you can't actually just create the cards with the meteorite dust, you need to have the original card first.
First off, that's stupid. It would be much better to be able to craft the cards using the meteorite dust. It would still cost close to $800 to get all the cards in the game. It would cost about $120 for a faction and over $120 for neutral.
I think they should consider using meteorite dust to be able to craft cards outright. Or they should allow us to buy kegs of a single faction only. Highest rarity cards, golds, are about 1/20 drop rate. Most factions have about 9 or so golds. That is way too much chance to be able to get the cards that you need. What like 60 something golds in the game, 90 or so silvers, and about 120 bronze. So you can at best expect 3 golds per $70 purchase of kegs.You have to make over 20 60keg purchases to get all the golds, $1400. Each $70 purchase of 60 kegs I read can net around 1600 shards. Shard crafting costs are 800 for a gold, 200 for a silver, and between 30-80 for a bronze, I'll use 50 for bronze. So you can expect potentially 5 golds per $70 purchase of kegs after shards. So you have to make 12 60keg purchases to get all the golds after shard adjustment, $840, not far off from what it would cost if meteorite dust could be used to create cards outright. I've focused primarily on gold card attainment since that is the most rare. It's likely if you can get all golds then you have all the other cards as well.
So whether they make it so you can craft the cards outright or have to get kegs, it comes out to about the same cost overall when everything is said and done. However, the in between area, the majority of people that won't be collecting all cards is where it might hurt. If you want to focus on a specific faction you'll need to get about 9 golds, 15 silver, and 20 bronze, the shard cost of that would be 7200, 3000, 1000 respectively for a total of 11,200 shards per faction. To get that much shards with real money would take about 7 $70 card keg bundle purchases ($490) to basically just guarantee faction completion. That can be cut down a bit because you'll get other cards from that faction in those kegs, but it isn't really cut down as much as you might think. 1/20 kegs have a gold, there are 1/6 factions/neutral, and just say you can expect about that ratio of golds distributed. To guarantee a faction gold would take 120 kegs, and in those 120 keg purchases is enough shards to craft 2 more golds. 3 same faction golds per 2 $70 keg purchases ($140), would need 6 $70 keg purchases ($420) to get all of one faction's golds.
Again, I primarily focused on gold card attainment because that is the rarest so it is likely if you get those then you have all/most of the others. The numbers shouldn't be treated as fact, but more of a guideline, a high estimate, of what it would cost to get all cards and all of a single faction's cards using both a keg purchase method and a meteorite purchase method if it could be used to craft cards outright. Both ways would cost about $800 for the entire card collection. If we're given the option of crafting how we want then a faction could be completed for $120, whereas using kegs it would take as high as $420.
I don't know about you guys, but the numbers make me not even want to play the game anymore because I really just wanted to play as a specific faction or two (I choose who to play as by how much I like their look/style, not specific card power or top tier decks) and was willing to spend $120-$240 to be able to do that with meteorite dust. Knowing that I'll have to spend closer to $400 to get close to a faction completion (with the best luck) seems a bit too much. I think CDProjektRed should consider making meteorite dust like I thought it was before I started thinking about all of this so people could pick and choose the cards that they want using real money. OR if they don't want to do that then make faction specific kegs. With faction specific kegs we can expect to finish a faction collection in about 2 $70 keg bundle purchases ($140, 120 kegs) because golds are about 1/20 kegs so 3 per purchase and enough shards to create about 4 more golds. I'd even be okay with faction specific kegs, but then meteorite dust to make them animated. So a complete faction would cost about $140 and their animated version would be an additional $120 for a total cost of $260.
I guess one thing I hadn't factored in was the milling of other faction cards to create a specific faction's cards per keg. Per 60 kegs there are 300 cards. We can say about 50 faction cards per, probably a lot of dupes. 1/20 is gold, 1/10 is silver (this is just made up, I didn't research this, but should have low impact on the analysis), rest are bronze. 3 gold, 6 silver, 291 bronze. Gold Mill for 200, silver for 50, and bronze for 10-20 (I'll use 15). 600 max for milling gold, 300 for silver, and 4365 for bronze for a total of 5265 shards. Assume about 877 shards, or 1/6 worth are cards from the faction you don't want to mill. You'll still have 4388 shards to use for the faction you want to get. How does that change things? Well, that's 5 golds, plus the previous analysis said we should get about 3 same faction golds per 2 $70 keg purchases. So in 120 kegs we should have 3 same faction golds and about 8700 shards after milling other factions. (If you want to keep neutral cards then only about 7000 shards). That should be more than enough to craft all the faction's cards and multiples of the ones you might want multiples of.
I know the numbers are rough, but I'm pretty confident they're around the ballpark for what to expect. Now that I've worked through it I think you ACTUALLY CAN get an entire faction's card set for about $140 if you mill all other cards from the other factions (excluding neutral). To get all animated versions of that faction would take an additional $120.
The thread started out as a complaint about being difficult to get an isolated faction's card set because meteorite powder wasn't used the way that I thought it was. After working through the math it turns out that I think there was really nothing to complain about. The option to get a single faction is there for about the same cost that it would cost if meteorite powder worked the way I thought it did.
So in summary:
$840 can get the entire card collection.
$420 can get you an entire faction, out of your control on which one, without having to mill a lot of your other faction's cards.
$140 can get you an entire faction's set of cards if you mill all other faction cards (excluding neutral).
$800 can get you enough meteorite powder to animate an entire collection
$120 can get you around enough meteorite powder to animate an entire faction.
$1640 can get you an entire animated collection.
Before you read know this: The post started as a complaint, but as I wrote it and worked through the math I ended up proving myself wrong, or at least convincing myself that I had no argument.
I'm a somewhat new player and when viewing the collection I see that cards can be transmuted for meteorite dust. I go to check price on dust about $60 for 7200. I calculate how much it'll take to get all animated cards of Nilfgaard. It'll be about 13,000 meteorite. Two purchases of 7200 will be enough. I thought, man Gwent is pretty cool, allowing us to craft exactly the cards we want like this. I only plan on focusing on one faction anyway so why not, I'll do it. Luckily I looked into it a little bit more and found that you can't actually just create the cards with the meteorite dust, you need to have the original card first.
First off, that's stupid. It would be much better to be able to craft the cards using the meteorite dust. It would still cost close to $800 to get all the cards in the game. It would cost about $120 for a faction and over $120 for neutral.
I think they should consider using meteorite dust to be able to craft cards outright. Or they should allow us to buy kegs of a single faction only. Highest rarity cards, golds, are about 1/20 drop rate. Most factions have about 9 or so golds. That is way too much chance to be able to get the cards that you need. What like 60 something golds in the game, 90 or so silvers, and about 120 bronze. So you can at best expect 3 golds per $70 purchase of kegs.You have to make over 20 60keg purchases to get all the golds, $1400. Each $70 purchase of 60 kegs I read can net around 1600 shards. Shard crafting costs are 800 for a gold, 200 for a silver, and between 30-80 for a bronze, I'll use 50 for bronze. So you can expect potentially 5 golds per $70 purchase of kegs after shards. So you have to make 12 60keg purchases to get all the golds after shard adjustment, $840, not far off from what it would cost if meteorite dust could be used to create cards outright. I've focused primarily on gold card attainment since that is the most rare. It's likely if you can get all golds then you have all the other cards as well.
So whether they make it so you can craft the cards outright or have to get kegs, it comes out to about the same cost overall when everything is said and done. However, the in between area, the majority of people that won't be collecting all cards is where it might hurt. If you want to focus on a specific faction you'll need to get about 9 golds, 15 silver, and 20 bronze, the shard cost of that would be 7200, 3000, 1000 respectively for a total of 11,200 shards per faction. To get that much shards with real money would take about 7 $70 card keg bundle purchases ($490) to basically just guarantee faction completion. That can be cut down a bit because you'll get other cards from that faction in those kegs, but it isn't really cut down as much as you might think. 1/20 kegs have a gold, there are 1/6 factions/neutral, and just say you can expect about that ratio of golds distributed. To guarantee a faction gold would take 120 kegs, and in those 120 keg purchases is enough shards to craft 2 more golds. 3 same faction golds per 2 $70 keg purchases ($140), would need 6 $70 keg purchases ($420) to get all of one faction's golds.
Again, I primarily focused on gold card attainment because that is the rarest so it is likely if you get those then you have all/most of the others. The numbers shouldn't be treated as fact, but more of a guideline, a high estimate, of what it would cost to get all cards and all of a single faction's cards using both a keg purchase method and a meteorite purchase method if it could be used to craft cards outright. Both ways would cost about $800 for the entire card collection. If we're given the option of crafting how we want then a faction could be completed for $120, whereas using kegs it would take as high as $420.
I don't know about you guys, but the numbers make me not even want to play the game anymore because I really just wanted to play as a specific faction or two (I choose who to play as by how much I like their look/style, not specific card power or top tier decks) and was willing to spend $120-$240 to be able to do that with meteorite dust. Knowing that I'll have to spend closer to $400 to get close to a faction completion (with the best luck) seems a bit too much. I think CDProjektRed should consider making meteorite dust like I thought it was before I started thinking about all of this so people could pick and choose the cards that they want using real money. OR if they don't want to do that then make faction specific kegs. With faction specific kegs we can expect to finish a faction collection in about 2 $70 keg bundle purchases ($140, 120 kegs) because golds are about 1/20 kegs so 3 per purchase and enough shards to create about 4 more golds. I'd even be okay with faction specific kegs, but then meteorite dust to make them animated. So a complete faction would cost about $140 and their animated version would be an additional $120 for a total cost of $260.
I guess one thing I hadn't factored in was the milling of other faction cards to create a specific faction's cards per keg. Per 60 kegs there are 300 cards. We can say about 50 faction cards per, probably a lot of dupes. 1/20 is gold, 1/10 is silver (this is just made up, I didn't research this, but should have low impact on the analysis), rest are bronze. 3 gold, 6 silver, 291 bronze. Gold Mill for 200, silver for 50, and bronze for 10-20 (I'll use 15). 600 max for milling gold, 300 for silver, and 4365 for bronze for a total of 5265 shards. Assume about 877 shards, or 1/6 worth are cards from the faction you don't want to mill. You'll still have 4388 shards to use for the faction you want to get. How does that change things? Well, that's 5 golds, plus the previous analysis said we should get about 3 same faction golds per 2 $70 keg purchases. So in 120 kegs we should have 3 same faction golds and about 8700 shards after milling other factions. (If you want to keep neutral cards then only about 7000 shards). That should be more than enough to craft all the faction's cards and multiples of the ones you might want multiples of.
I know the numbers are rough, but I'm pretty confident they're around the ballpark for what to expect. Now that I've worked through it I think you ACTUALLY CAN get an entire faction's card set for about $140 if you mill all other cards from the other factions (excluding neutral). To get all animated versions of that faction would take an additional $120.
The thread started out as a complaint about being difficult to get an isolated faction's card set because meteorite powder wasn't used the way that I thought it was. After working through the math it turns out that I think there was really nothing to complain about. The option to get a single faction is there for about the same cost that it would cost if meteorite powder worked the way I thought it did.
So in summary:
$840 can get the entire card collection.
$420 can get you an entire faction, out of your control on which one, without having to mill a lot of your other faction's cards.
$140 can get you an entire faction's set of cards if you mill all other faction cards (excluding neutral).
$800 can get you enough meteorite powder to animate an entire collection
$120 can get you around enough meteorite powder to animate an entire faction.
$1640 can get you an entire animated collection.
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