Is there enough ISO-8 in the game? F2P

Hold on, this isn't your regular old post complaining about the lack of ISO-8 in the game, but I would certainly like to understand where I might be going wrong as far as progression goes. At this point in my account, I'm on act 6.2 and finally getting around to developing a strong enough roster to complete and explore variants, which are providing me with such an influx of rank-up materials, which are simply sitting in my inventory. For example, I have expiring T4CC of classes which I don't even have a champion to rank up, so I feel forced into ranking up someone that I don't like or that might not help my progression later on just to make sure I don't waste materials. As a result, I have to fuel ISO into those champs, and then it almost becomes a repeating cycle. I feel like the consistency with which we get ISO-8 has to improve. Since a lot of ISO is associated with duping champions, that mostly comes from monthly content, which lots of summoners, including myself, finish in the initial weeks of the month. This limits my rank-ups all throughout the course of month, and my inventory stacks up later on within the month. This compromises the rank-ups I want to make, if you understand. All I can think of particularly is maybe offer more opportunities to get 4-stars or spread them out throughout the month, so I always look forward to trying out someone new and there's something enjoyable to look forward, as far as new champs go. If there's anything I said that you all have a different point of view on, please let me know, so I can shift my perspective as well because I think there's enough ISO-8, but maybe it's distributed unevenly. That's my take, let me know. I'm F2P by the way, and yes that matters, so take that into account.

Comments

Vendemiaire

There will only be enough ISOs if you do Arena on a regular basis. From there you'll get your PHCs, 4* and 5* dupes. I used to do Arena regularly until I got sick of it after Cyber Weekend. I stopped for a month and I noticed the sudden scarcity of ISOs.

WarBros23

Ok thanks, yeah I've never really dabbled in arena, but I'm actually trying it out this month to the best of my ability and will let you know if that closes the gap for me.

FineDog

I'm also F2P and at about the same progression level as you (just became cavalier a couple weeks ago). The short answer is yes, there is enough ISO-8.

The long answer is twofold. First, the response that comes up in every "I can't get enough of x resource" post is that you'll hit some bottleneck at any progression level. I am surprised that for you it's ISO-8, because I feel like most people at our progression level are just dying for T1A and T2A. But I can remember when it was T4B and T4CC and before that it was T3CC and at some point before that it was just ISO. There's always something you just need a huge amount of and can never get enough of.

The other part of my answer is I suspect you aren't managing your resources properly. If you have so much T4CC expiring that you're forced to do rank ups and burn through all your ISO, I'm guessing that you actually open all of your T4CC crystals and fragment crystals. I have hundreds of T4CC fragment crystals, a few dozen full T4CC crystals, and a bunch of map crystals, glory crystals, etc. But my actual catalyst inventory isn't full or overflowing, because I never open those crystals unless I actually need to. So it takes, you know, 4 T4CC to bring someone from Rank 3 to 4, and if I don't have that many I just carefully open crystals until I have exactly enough and then I stop so I don't fill up my inventory.

Similarly, I'm sitting on about 10 4* crystals because I don't want the ISO to go to waste so I just open specific dual crystals when I need specific ISO and then stop when I have enough.

Destroyer123

It’s a weird balance building a roster nah you will run out sometimes but I have 4500 is on in stash and 21m gold but can’t rank anyone due to other things mostly t1a at the moment

Squirrelguy

Yes.

Now that I’m done with the sarcastic comment, let me say that also as a free to play player a bit farther on than you (working through exploration of 7.1, explored all variants except for 1) it does get better, but iso is always a concern. If you run into trouble with expiring catalysts and not the right champs to rank up, my suggestion is just to save up as many crystals as you can that give catalysts until you have someone you want to use them on. I know that you just get fully formed catalysts from some things, but this definitely helped me in terms of t4cc for instance. If I’m understanding you that finishing monthly content early in the month is hurting you in terms of expiring iso/other resources, try to space out when you finish the content with a couple of days where you do mainly act content, or Variant, or something that is still beneficial, but doesn’t provide as much resources now as when you eventually explore it.

That was essentially a long-winded way of saying that getting more iso is definitely doable, it is still a choke point for some people, but your answer might be in self-control when it comes to completing monthly content and opening crystals for the greater good of your account, if that is really an issue.

Hope that helped.

unknown

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WarBros23

Thanks for both of your posts, I think they touched on the same topic relatively, which is self-control, and yes I must agree to a certain extent. I actually, similar to you, have hundreds of T4CC fragment crystals, as well as lots of T4CC, but I do agree with your point that maybe saving up 4 stars or maybe not rushing level-ups on champs might help better my account for the future. What I mean by that is once I get a new champ, I usually burn through resources just to level that champ up, which I definitely need to stop. Potentially, I could set myself a threshold on ISO-8, so I always have some level of ISO-8 or even rank-up materials for future rank-ups. Thank you both for your opinions, it was very insightful to hear.

WarBros23

As a ftp who has fully explored act 7 I think that there should be more 4* shards in monthly content. Preferably UC, since some people dont have time to do Cav, UC, and master, and also grind arena. Im mostly at a pace where I get around 1-2 r3-r5 a month which is pretty annoying when you have 9 t5b in the overflow.

Yeah, I definitely agree with this though. While something's obviously can be controlled from my side, I feel like maybe a bit more access to 4 star shards would help the player base.

Dragfire1760

I am an F2P too, and I'm stuck on 6.2 right now. I'd say I have more a catalyst problem than ISO honestly. Although that is because I make horrible decisions (I only buy 4* crystals from incursions store), I will agree I wouldn't mind them making ISO a little more available.
I'd also say this brings up the problem that duping 5* and 6* still gives 24 tier-5 ISO, and that should be buffed
I also never use my ISO unless I want to rank up someone, and never open T4, T3, even YT CC crystals or fragment crystals.
Pretty much the game has come to a point where if you're stuck at a point you can get more ISO, but once you start speed-progressing everything gets depleted

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Clyneva

It sounds like something you might want to be more mindful of is better timings for opening your crystals and treating un-opened crystals as another resource. It is often not optimal to open your crystals as soon as you get them.

A big sign of this is you mentioning that you have T4cc in overflow and being forced to constantly use them to rank up champions you don't want to. This should actually rarely happen, because the main sources of T4CC is through crystals, which you have full control of for when to open. The only time T4CC should go into overflow is if you're hard targeting a specific class you're missing for a champion you really want to rank up. At that point you're making a cost/benefit analysis (E.g. is ranking up this awesome champion worth potentially wasting T4CC in other classes).

Likewise, now that we can target 4* dual classes, it is really beneficial to save up 4* shards and start thinking of them as reserve sources of class iso that don't expire. Personally I always keep 15-25k 4* crystals in reserve that I don't open unless I have a 5*/6* I absolutely need to level right now and I am entirely out of class ISO of that class. This allows you to always get the 1.5x iso bonus for matching classes, which both stretches out your iso reserve, and save you quite a bit of gold.

WarBros23

It sounds like something you might want to be more mindful of is better timings for opening your crystals and treating un-opened crystals as another resource. It is often not optimal to open your crystals as soon as you get them.

A big sign of this is you mentioning that you have T4cc in overflow and being forced to constantly use them to rank up champions you don't want to. This should actually rarely happen, because the main sources of T4CC is through crystals, which you have full control of for when to open. The only time T4CC should go into overflow is if you're hard targeting a specific class you're missing for a champion you really want to rank up. At that point you're making a cost/benefit analysis (E.g. is ranking up this awesome champion worth potentially wasting T4CC in other classes).

Likewise, now that we can target 4* dual classes, it is really beneficial to save up 4* shards and start thinking of them as reserve sources of class iso that don't expire. Personally I always keep 15-25k 4* crystals in reserve that I don't open unless I have a 5*/6* I absolutely need to level right now and I am entirely out of class ISO of that class. This allows you to always get the 1.5x iso bonus for matching classes, which both stretches out your iso reserve, and save you quite a bit of gold.

Thank you for this comment. I completely understand what you're saying and I'm going to be more cautious moving forward of only ranking up champs when a necessity arises and also keeping those 4 stars shards in check, so I never go depleted at any point in time. Thank you!

TrashPanda12

For me its t4cc and iso. I seem to have all the t2a and t5b I need, but lacking the stuff that should be easier to get

Blizzard28

I hoard on to 3-4* crystals until i need iso to rank someone up.. Then open the 4* dual crystals of required class... This ensures that iso does not expire

FineDog

Just to add on to what everyone else is saying, you also don't *have* to spend resources just because they're expiring. I'll usually try and find a reason to use T4CC and T4B that are expiring, but if I've got to level up and rank, like, Iron Fist or something, it's just as much of a waste as if I just sold the catalysts instead. At least when you sell them, you get gold and some miniscule amount of higher catalyst fragments. The same is true of ISO. I only level up champs if I can remotely see myself ever using them, so I usually have an obscene amount of Cosmic and Science ISO expiring because I have no good champs from those classes. As much as it feels bad to sell large chunks of ISO, it can be a great source of gold if you don't have any good champs from that class.

gammapooll

@Kabam Miike Miike could you guys please take a look into this, as the only way free to play players are able to gain iso are from premium hero crystals in arena near endgame. The amount of iOS given is absurd from 4*s, and 6*s and 5* dupes giving the same amount. If not a new area to gather iso, then this should really be updated. @Kabam Zibiit @Kabam Vydious

Pulyaman

I stopped opening 4s and phc long back due to expiring iso. It is better to provide more 4s shards in uc and cav eq rather than increasing the amount of iso provided for duping 5 or 6 stars. I don't find the scarcity too worrying myself. But I am a fairly hard arena grinder from the start.

Mr_Platypus

The only times I’ve ever had serious iso droughts are when I have busy months and actively cut down how much content I do.
I haven’t really touched arena since about October, and while I do have no iso in some classes, that’s mainly because it’s taken many months of spamming the mutant/skill 5* crystals looking for Aegon.
I do make an active effort to do things like UC-EQ completion runs to get the 4* shards available there, as well as trying to collect them from the side quests when possible.
Personally I find T1a, T2a and T4b are far more limiting factors when it comes to rank ups.

Giuliameij

Personally I never have had any problems with ISO-8 and gold after I became uncollected. A huge part is also Arena. I used to do 4* basic arena with some 4* featured on the side. Right now I get all milestones on both and do some 5* arena aswell.
A lot of the problems from your post could be solved by itself. You decide to do all content in the first week(s) and are not forced to. Another difference between your situation and that of a lot of others is the completion of variants as you have mentioned. For other people those pieces of content came out one at a time, and thus they did not get all the rank up items all at ones. So it was spread out more evenly.

The biggest thing is still arena. You do not have to do every single arena for all milestones. You could also start by choosing 1 arena. Make that choice based on your roster. If you have a lot of ranked up 4* champs, but not a lot of 5* champs I would opt for the 4* basic. Which is also the easiest to complete all milestones on. If you can do this, and you still have time. You could always do the 4* featered up to 2m points. Which will give you 900 4* shards and 400 5* shards per round and a bunch of PHC.

There always will be a resource that is most needed for players. But ISO-8 only has to become a problem if you do not play all modes in the game (arena in this case) or if you level up a lot of 6* champs. They cost a ton of Iso.

Story mode: Title progression and a mix of other rewards
Montly mode: Mix of all resources
Arena: Gold, units and ISO
AQ: Upgrade materials.

Incursions and War are totally optional and do not provide a resource not gotten from the other modes.

Good luck!

SpideyFunko

paragraphs please

Mauled

There is a shortage is ISO, but that's mainly at the UC sort of level when players aren't getting many 4* dupes and pretty much no 5* dupes. The other pinch point is around the point at which the player has moved beyond - or pretty much beyond - 5* champions. It sounds like you're struggling a little bit with resource management more than anything, or that you've rushed content so your overall roster isn't that wide yet - evidently you've got a bit of stopping power, but it's more of a rapier than a mace, so you've got a lot of unranked champions.

One of the biggest issues at the moment is that so many of the side quests don't allow you to do more than one difficulty level which severely impacts the amount of 4* accessibility. With 4* having been phased out of high level content there's a real shortage of ISO. This is compounded by the sheer amount of ISO required to level up 6* and the increased access to high tier rank up materials like T5B and T2A - you'll find that most Thronebreakers have more T5B than they can actually use.