For those not familiar, the Digital Chronometer is a special item you will be able to purchase when the Red Room Rifts launch - see:
https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/193279/you-are-being-contacted-on-behalf-of-the-red-room-academyI'm going to focus on the Epic difficulty tier for this discussion. Without getting into the details, the bottom line is if you do everything you can do to earn the currency you need to enter these Rifts you'll be able to enter the Epic 18 times. BUT if you buy the Chronometer package you'll only be able to enter 13 times. The Chronometer basically will cost you five entries, which means fiver fewer times you can get Rift rewards.
But the catch is the Chronometer can be used ONCE to force the Rift you're in to give you whichever reward you want. So if you want the awakening gem and the class you want is on your current map you don't have to rely on luck: you just use the Chronometer and bam, you'll be on that path, and that awakening gem is yours.
So should you buy it? Is the value of picking the reward worth losing five entries?
First of all, if you really, really want a 5* awakening gem, my recommendation is (assuming you are capable of earning everything you need and can do the Rifts at Epic difficulty in the first place) buy the Chronometer, and then every time you enter look for the class you want: if you see it, burn it. You'll have thirteen tries to get the class you want: there's a 91% chance the class you want will eventually pop up. If you want at least two different classes, the odds are even better: 99.5% chance that one of those two classes will come up.
But what if you don't want the awakening gem? Maybe you have a bunch of them, maybe you don't need anything awakened, maybe you want something else even more, like 6* shards. Is it worth it to trade five entries for picking the reward then?
Probably. First of all, what's the statistical average expected outcome if you enter the Epic Rift five times? Basically, the math says:
5.5 5* sig tones
7200 5* shards
340 6* shards
2475 T5B fragments
0.45 T2A
That's the statistical average total haul for five entries. Of course, different people will get different results randomly. But that's the average value of five entries. Note: to get the 7200 5* shards I decided to value the 5* featured crystal as approximately 10,000 shards. I know they cost 15k, but Sigil players pay less and the *value* to a player might be nothing more than one more 5* pull. So I thought that was a safe estimate for the value of the crystal.
If you want 1000 6* shards instead of the 5* awakening gem, I'd say you should use the Chronometer. But if your thought was to target either the 10000 5* shards or the 5* featured crystal, I think it is a closer proposition. Personally, I think that package of stuff listed above is worth at least as much as 10k 5* shards or a featured 5* crystal. But other people might disagree.
In my opinion, buy the Epic Chronometer if a) you're targeting the 5* awakening gem, b) you're targeting the 1000 6* shards, c) you really, really, really hate having bad luck. But if you were not specifically targeting those resources, and you think your luck is not bad, and you're looking for the best possible value, then I'd consider carefully if the Chronometer is really giving you the best possible value. For example I don't think I would buy the Chronometer and target the T5B shards.
Of course, if you really really want something, then buy the Chronometer and target that thing. That's entirely your choice: do what will make you happy. But if you don't have a super strong preference (among the top rewards) and want to know which option gives more value, then the question is: is there something you can target with the Chronometer that is worth more than that basket of stuff above. If you believe you can, get the Chronometer. If you think none of the rewards you might pick is as good as that basket of stuff, and you don't mind leaving it to chance, skip the Chronometer.
As an aside, I'm 99.9% sure this is NOT how it works (NOT NOT NOT), but what would have made the Chronometer very interesting is if it could be used *after* you went through the path selector in the Rift. In other words, if the Chronometer could have erased one bad random roll. That would have been very interesting.
