Cost of premium items

I think you just gotta be patient. Save up over a few days or weeks and the daily task money will really start to add up.

Problem is it's not just being patient like waiting for WSP. I can earn WSP even if I don't have time to play for a few days or weeks - just have to log in for a minute a day and collect. But not gold - if I want to make any gold purchases, I have to play and play and play to earn that gold. Either that or spend what to me is an obscene amount of money relative to what you get.

True, but at least you get an easy 60-70 gold per day from tasks. I know it can be overwhelming at first but if you just play a bit every day and don't rush yourself you'll be surprised how quick you can save up.

a)be patient
b)spend money
c)combine both

You can make 100 gold per day without effort just by the daily tasks and the games they take. Given it takes one year (read that somewhere...) to level a full 5 slot hangar to 12/12 thats ~36500 Gold if you play daily.

I did spent some cash by now, it just gives you a certain bot faster. Up to each wether its worth it for him.


And while I do think that Pix is rather bad in selling things, I dont think golds overpriced, actually you did the math yourself @ OP...

Edit: 20 bucks for the equivalent of 25 hours? Thats actually pretty cheap...

Also, if they'd divided the cost by 10 theres a fair chance that the game wont be here anymore. Even if its a small company, maintaining server architecture aint free.

I'd love to be able to play every day. Not always possible.

I understand the carrot concept of freemium games. I just think that if you set the carrot too far away, people just don't even bother. I think psychologically people are more likely to spend $1 here, $2 there, which quickly can add up to real money for the game maker. I'm not saying set it so low that you get everything for $20 like you suggest. I just think it's currently too steep and I can't see them enticing many people to shell out $ for the premium stuff. But I don't know what Pix's income looks like so I could be way off.

Anyway, it was just a rant. I'll keep on churning out the gold when I have time...

I still say they should have a revolving sale of 2 Au items every weekend for direct puchases. If they Mix it up they can easily run 2 months before repeating the same offer. A 25% discount for direct buyers guarantees people that do spend money get more bang for their buck than grinding gold, and realistically, promotes more purchases under $20.($10 worth of Au is a 1:1.2). Currently spending less than that gets you 2 light weapons,or 1 medium weapon, or 1 light bot.

The sales should be around 20-50% less than what Au:Dollar costs are. Bonus gold to the 1:1 Au:Dollar scale goes up by 5% per deal starting at 20% for a $10 purchase, the sale prices for the items need to factor in the minimal amount of Au that has to be purchased to buy the items. (I:E Rog/Gal for $15, Fury/lance for $25(Fury/lance come out to about $40 a pop factoring leftover gold))

Some stuff is way out there, like 5000 for a Lancelot, or a 5th slot. Thing is, always complete your daily task. Need help, theres always 500 or 1200 gold for $5 or $10.

My 2 cents:

Personally think pixo is making a killing with the current purchasing setup. Pixo recently sold to mail.ru for $30m (100% stake). At 500k Daily Active Users, that's a valuation of $60 per DAU, which is huge if you compare to, for example, candy crush (one of the most lucrative mobile games in history) which was valued at only $47 per DAU (activision paid $6bn for 128m DAU).

Having said that, from my perspective, this game is very much free-to-play compared to some other freemium games that employ much more 'commercial' tactics like annoying ads popping up all the time, setting quota so you have to pay for more rounds etc. As someone noted above, 20 hours gameplay for $20 value is not bad at all, and i've seen folks who have played the game for several years without spending a dime (look out for those veterans with 3k+ victories).

For the longest time I played the game using only Ag and wsp bots and weaps (taran cossak, death ostrich, TT boa among my fav) in bronze/silver tier and was perfectly happy with it. I've had my fair share of getting clubbed (still do), but if I don't like it, I could always bail and start a new battle - doesn't cost anything. For me, the tactics and strategy that goes into the battle is intriguing and learn something new every battle. I appreciate the world of detail that goes into it.

So, if you want to rush it and get to the top as fast as you can, then be prepared to dish out a lot of cash - that's what the game is designed to do. But know that there's plenty of ways to appreciate the game (as proven on plethora of activity on this forum) that doesn't always require you to pay.

You have to keep in mind that Pixsonic is a company with workers that they have to pay and they have to make profit. Yes I know, prices are quite steep but I don't think it's too bad. But, the Fury and Lancelot is like almost $50 a pop which is quite a lot. However, that doesn't deter people from spending money to get them because not many people are patient enough, like myself, would like to wait months of saving Au to purchasing one. If you look at it, the game isn't entirely pay2win because you can earn gold through daily tasks and awards for 1-3rd places,  but paying with money is just a faster option.

See that's where I guess I just don't understand. I would never consider paying that much, probably not even total over time, for what is at its core a pretty simple mobile robot game (not putting the game down - I really enjoy it). If there are that many people out there willing to do so, and I guess there must be since Pix doesn't seem to have any interest in lowering the prices or having very good sales, then maybe I'm in the wrong business...

I'll point out an obvious flaw with your "math"- where are you getting your numbers from? For all we know you could have very likely pulled them out of your rear end. A lot of mobile gamers are particularly impulsive with their purchases and buy gold as long as the price is bearable, and this game's playerbase has enough of those people that it could make millions even when the majority of its players do not spend a cent.  There is also a pretty big chunk of the playerbase who have no payment method set up and/or are not going to make IAPs no matter what. It's completely possible that lower gold prices will actually result in less revenue.

You also have to consider the implications of lower gold prices on the game. The main effect of cheaper gold will do is move the game from a truly free to play experience towards P2W territory- Au items are almost universally superior to their Ag and WSP counterparts, and currently few players below gold tier can field Au items in large quantities, but if you haven't gotten a dragon's hoard of gold by the time you reach the top tiers you're doing something wrong since you can get a lot of gold in time from a lot of other sources. Right now, the main purpose of buying gold is to progress your hangar faster, and the current model is working. When you could buy a whole hangar's worth of Au equipment for use in lower tiers for just a few bucks, then you could easily drown out players who don't spend any money.

While a more P2W model might "encourage" more IAPs in the short term, in the long run it will be detrimental to the game. Non paying players would be simply unable to compete with paying ones, and new players will be driven away from the game by the overpowered Au items *cough* gepards *cough*. A P2W game gets a far worse reputation than one that does not require IAPs, and the game's growth in playerbase will be severely stunted. Non paying players are still important to the health of any freemium game since a lot of freemium games rely on word of mouth to continue growing, and cheaper gold and more P2Wness will only serve to turn new players away from the game.

The current IAP model works very well, and there is no good reason to change it. If you have a personal problem with the gold price, consider this; it takes just one month of doing nothing but daily tasks, which take 5-30 minutes to complete, to earn enough money for a Galahad, arguably the best bot in the game, and the time is much shorter if you farm gold or regularly earn Au bonuses from missions. Alternatively, you can buy it for twenty bucks, and there are enough players who choose that option to keep the game going. If you really want premium items, then all you need in this game is patience. In most other freemiums it would take months of grinding to get an items of similar power.