PSA: One hour a week = One Odin per year

I did a couple of arena rewards analyses previously. The first one just looked at my normal relatively casual (in terms of effort, not time) arena grinding to see how much rewards I was getting in what amount of time: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/187556/a-case-study-and-analysis-of-arena-grind-rewards

Then I looked at what you could do if you actually paid attention to what you were doing and actually tried to do it more efficiently, rather than the way I normal grind arena which is to do whatever while watching TV. I ended up doing way, way better and going much faster, but at the cost of like actually having to pay attention: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/241505/grinding-arena-milestones-arena-rewards-part-deux

But it occurred to me recently that this is a blizzard of numbers, and it can give people the wrong impression. I'm a hard core arena grinder. I *grind* casually, but I also grind a lot. Someone could look at these numbers and say "but I can't do that" or more likely "but I don't want to do that." Nor should you.

The first analysis measured my grind speed at generating about 700 units in 14 hours per cycle, and the second managed to do that in about 7 hours per cycle. That is a range of between 50 and 100 units per hour. What does that mean for non-hardcore grinders? What does that mean for casual players, or time limited players, or players who don't think it is worth it to spend time in the arena because the rewards are only good if you spend a ton of time in there? I wanted a way to provide a short to-the-point sound bite that expressed just how much rewards are actually in the arena for anyone to snatch up.

Let's think about how many units are in an Odin, the oft-used measure for spending in the game. Most people don't spend a dime on this game. Let's set them aside for now, even though they are way more than 90% of all players. Of those that do spend, how many spend more than a hundred dollars a year? Probably not a lot. Probably even fewer spend more than two hundred dollars a year. Let's compare those units to the units you can earn in the arena. One hour per week is 52 hours per year is something between 2600 and 5200 units in a year. The average between "not paying attention at all" and "paying close attention" is about 3900 units (for me, at least).

Very, very roughly then, we can say that spending one hour per week in the arena equals about one Odin of units per year.

That's how to think about the arena. Not in terms of players like me who grind a ton. Not in terms of players with mega rosters scooping all the milestones for hundreds of units per day. No, the true power of the arena is that it is accessible to everyone, and even very tiny amounts of effort translate into significant rewards over time.

One Odin per year is more than most people spend on the game. One hour a week gives you more units than that. One hour per cycle is just twenty minutes a day, and generates over two Odins of units per year. That's $200 USD per year of units for twenty minutes a day, six days a week. Or one hour a day, two days a week.

Not many people spend two hundred US dollars a year on the game. The arena gives you that much rewards and more for a level of effort most people would consider very casual.

One hour a week = One Odin per year. The arena is not just for grinders.

Comments

TyEdge

To put it another way, you can earn nearly $2 per hour in in-game currency doing arena!

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Etjama

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶

Mauled

Depending on roster -
2 milestones of 2* (2-3 rounds) 10 units
2 milestones of 3* (3-4 rounds) 10 units
3 milestones of 4* basic 30 units
That’s 50 units in 30 mins probably, do that twice in a week @Nocko

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DNA3000

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶

True, but only a very, very tiny percentage of people spend. They aren't all broke. There's a psychological difference between playing a game for an hour and spending an hour's salary on a game. It isn't a purely economic decision.

If you don't want to spend a hundred dollars on a mobile game, I can understand that. If you don't want to spend an hour a week in the arena, I can understand that also. But if all your decisions about playing the game are transactional in that way, I'm not sure why you would do anything in the game. No activity generates results worth the time from a purely economic basis.

JChanceH9

52 hours for $100 in value. Ooof.

TyEdge

Depending on roster -
2 milestones of 2* (2-3 rounds) 10 units
2 milestones of 3* (3-4 rounds) 10 units
3 milestones of 4* basic 30 units
That’s 50 units in 30 mins probably, do that twice in a week @Nocko

You can get the 10 units from 2-3 arena in one round with 3x boosts. Many summoners have hundreds of unopened boosts. Even without 3x boosts, you probably get it in 2 rounds using 3 1.5x boosts on the second fight.

I don’t run suicides but it’s 7 rounds of 4* basic to get 30 units for me. Anyway, that’s 50 units for 10 rounds and some boosts you won’t miss. Plus, battlechips are worth small amounts of units in the aggregate.

I think if you’re trying to maximize your return, the answer is to spread yourself out across as many as possible.

1) Use champs where they matter the most. Once you have your multiplier, use only 6-seats in the featured arena. Use your max 5’s in the 4-5 arena, where milestones are much lower. Use maxed 4-stars in the 4-star basic and check for them to refresh.

2) Make sure to hit the lower milestones, because they get progressively farther apart. You can start hitting milestones in 4-star basic every 150,000 points, then 200,000, then 250,000. Thr ones up to about 600k are easier to obtain once you’ve got your multiplier. Same thing in the 4-5 arena, where jumps might be 350k instead of more.

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DNA3000

Just entering arena grinds your soul. Worst game mode ever but has the best rewards (through unit deals).

Alliance War is so much worse of a game mode that you cannot even judge them on the same scale. Arena is an individual game mode that places no restrictions on alliances. Arena doesn't require players to play on a schedule. Arena allows you to take off whenever you want. You can't lose in the arena. There's no logical reason to spend resources (beyond the trivial entrance costs) in the arena unless you're shooting for the one set of top tier competitive prizes, and even then it isn't 100% necessary. The arena mostly helps F2P players relative to spenders while alliance war does the opposite. And few alliances have broken up because of the arena. Few players are kicked because they don't grind enough arena. Few alliances require everyone to grind a comparable amount of arena. Alliance war breaks up more alliances than it holds together, and alliances are supposed to help retain players.

You can't argue the game would be better without the arena, because it is a boon to F2P players. But I wouldn't bet a single dollar on the proposition that Alliance War has had an overall positive impact on the game. Some people like it. Some are even only here because of it. But I would bet cash that more people have left because of it than it has retained. I think AW is the only game mode you can reasonably make that assertion about, and that's saying something powerful.

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Etjama

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶
This is why I should read the entire thread before commenting. Exactly this. But also, where are you working that only nets $100 for 13 hours of work?

Minimum wage where I'm at is $7.25 which nets just shy of $100 in 13 hours. So by "really average" I mean more along the lines of bare minimum tbh. And my whole comment was kind of a half-joke. Obviously spending some spare downtime to play arena gives you benefits overall and is most likely much more worth it than spending your hard-earned money on the game in most scenarios.

Vendemiaire

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶
This is why I should read the entire thread before commenting. Exactly this. But also, where are you working that only nets $100 for 13 hours of work?

Third world countries.

DNA3000

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶
This is why I should read the entire thread before commenting. Exactly this. But also, where are you working that only nets $100 for 13 hours of work?
Minimum wage where I'm at is $7.25 which nets just shy of $100 in 13 hours. So by "really average" I mean more along the lines of bare minimum tbh. And my whole comment was kind of a half-joke. Obviously spending some spare downtime to play arena gives you benefits overall and is most likely much more worth it than spending your hard-earned money on the game in most scenarios.

It depends on the person, but how much they make is almost irrelevant. What matters more is how much discretionary income they have to spend on things like games. You could be making minimum wage but be living at home with no expenses and a lot of money to burn on entertainment. Or you could be making a six figure salary with kids in school and a spouse that would rather see you saving for college than spending on a mobile game. The correct thing to compare the hundred bucks to is not the number on your paycheck, it is the money in your wallet after you pay for all your bills.

Also, as many people have pointed out, arena grinding is not, or at least does not have to be dedicated time. A lot of people grind arena while doing other things, like watching their favorite Youtubers or watching TV or kicking back and listening to podcasts or music. The time they spend grinding isn't time they could simply shift to working for more money. It often isn't even time out of their day. It is time that if they were not arena grinding they would still be in the same place doing the same things.

Something between 75% and 90% of all the time i spend arena grinding is time I cannot get back if I stopped grinding. It is time I'm also doing other things that wouldn't change if I wasn't grinding. It is, for lack of a better way of describing it, a past time. It is what I do to relax because I'm too young to buy a rocking chair and a cat and too old to turn elmer's glue into slime.

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DNA3000

I think the idea of it being 52 hours is not the way to think about it. At least it isnt for me
To be clear, as per above, i hate Arenas, never run them at all, i do one round just to contribute to get alliance rewards... that's it
but in reading this what occurred to me is i definitely spend at least an hour in this game a week where im just taking random champs into some quest i've already finished to have some fun and use energy to farm for revives and energy refills

That's another good point: people farm for energy and potions. It is possible that many of those activities take longer to perform overall than it would take to earn the units to buy them in the arena. I don't do that often enough to have a solid estimate to compare time to, but say a 40 unit revive is likely to take about 25-50 minutes to earn in the arena, and you're also getting gold from that activity. It might sometimes be better to grind for the units in the arena than grind directly for the resource in another part of the game, either because it is faster or because it generates more collateral rewards while you're grinding for the units.

TitoBandito187

52 hours to get 3k units. Not sure how I feel about that tbh. Some people enjoy it which is cool, but for those who don't, I think this estimate actually justifies their utter hate of the game mode.

Now I know why the offers are so bad, they still seem good at times. Arena is such a big part of the game economy, but it is the absolute worst, most boring, and repetitive part of the game, hands down (yes, worse than AQ/AW)

Arena=

DNA3000

Alliance War

Rookiie

Honestly I see why people just spend instead of going for arena. That's 52 hours a year for the equivalent of a deal that's $100 USD. Someone with a really average job could just work for a quarter of that time and straight up buy an Odin. 😶

This right here.

winterthur

Alliance War

This is the game mode that helped me to learn how to fight Thing.

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DNA3000

Hi @DNA3000 as you are good with Maths.

If I want to start grinding Arena now and would like 15k units for 4th July. How many milestones ideally per arena per week should I do per week? I want the ones that take least amount of time.

Thanks a lot for your help

Ideally, all of them.

There's only 13 weeks to go. The maximum possible milestones per cycle is 535. 535 x 13 x 2 = 13910.

Technically you can't get 15k units from only milestones between now and July 4. However it is still possible to earn 15k units between now and July 4 because grinding arena earns you battlechips which ultimately generate units via arena crystals. If you did enough to get all of the milestones consistently, you'd probably end up with 3-4k of units on top of the milestones and end up with around 17k-18k by July 4. But if you do less, not only will you get less milestones you would also get less battlechips and thus less units from arena crystals. The margin is small.

Pulyaman

Hi @DNA3000 as you are good with Maths.

If I want to start grinding Arena now and would like 15k units for 4th July. How many milestones ideally per arena per week should I do per week? I want the ones that take least amount of time.

Thanks a lot for your help
Ideally, all of them.

There's only 13 weeks to go. The maximum possible milestones per cycle is 535. 535 x 13 x 2 = 13910.

Technically you can't get 15k units from only milestones between now and July 4. However it is still possible to earn 15k units between now and July 4 because grinding arena earns you battlechips which ultimately generate units via arena crystals. If you did enough to get all of the milestones consistently, you'd probably end up with 3-4k of units on top of the milestones and end up with around 17k-18k by July 4. But if you do less, not only will you get less milestones you would also get less battlechips and thus less units from arena crystals. The margin is small.

You forgot the catalyst arena which gives 30 units for arena. If he is going to do that much arena, he will most certainly hit all milestones in Hero Use and Arena wins and he can hit level up easily. That's 75 units every 4 days.

DNA3000

Hi @DNA3000 as you are good with Maths.

If I want to start grinding Arena now and would like 15k units for 4th July. How many milestones ideally per arena per week should I do per week? I want the ones that take least amount of time.

Thanks a lot for your help
Ideally, all of them.

There's only 13 weeks to go. The maximum possible milestones per cycle is 535. 535 x 13 x 2 = 13910.

Technically you can't get 15k units from only milestones between now and July 4. However it is still possible to earn 15k units between now and July 4 because grinding arena earns you battlechips which ultimately generate units via arena crystals. If you did enough to get all of the milestones consistently, you'd probably end up with 3-4k of units on top of the milestones and end up with around 17k-18k by July 4. But if you do less, not only will you get less milestones you would also get less battlechips and thus less units from arena crystals. The margin is small.
You forgot the catalyst arena which gives 30 units for arena. If he is going to do that much arena, he will most certainly hit all milestones in Hero Use and Arena wins and he can hit level up easily. That's 75 units every 4 days.

There are other places to get units monthly, but I was limiting myself to just the units from the main weekly arenas as the what-if scenarios explode exponentially once we start trying to account for them all.

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