**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Comments
Stable rift:
T2A: 10%
T5B: 0.5%
5* shards: 1500
6* shards: 150
5* sig levels: 1
Unstable rift:
T2A: 10%
T5B: 0.5%
5* shards: 1150
6* shards: 137.5
5* sig levels: 1
5* awakening gem: 5%
This is the statistical value of each crystal on average (in other words, in the long run each crystal will generate *all* of that cumulative value, although of course every individual crystal will only have one reward). This means that if you don't count the awakening gem, the unstable rifts actually have lower value than the stable rifts on average: 350 fewer 5* shards and 12.5 fewer 6* shards. Another way to look at it is that if you think 7000 5* shards and 250 6* shards combined are worth more than an awakening gem, the stable rifts are worth more. If you think the awakening gem is worth more, then the unstable rift is worth more.
This is of course only the statistical average value - and anyone who says odds don't work that way, I'll just preemptively state for the record you're confused or don't understand math now so I don't have to do it later. I say this because I think the devs might also be a little confused. That's technically true, but there's a problem. For example, let's look at 6* shards. Both crystals have a 20% chance to drop 6* shards, so we can compare apples to apples here. If you pull 6* shards, the stable crystal is going to drop 1000 half the time and 500 half the time. The unstable crystal is going to drop 250 three-quarters of the time and 2000 one-quarter of the time. In other words, for all the cases where 6* shards drop, the stable crystal is going to beat the unstable crystal 75% of the time, and 25% of the time the unstable crystal is going beat the stable crystal (because 250 is worse than anything the stable crystal can drop and 2000 is better than anything the stable crystal can drop in this specific circumstance). Technically, it is a true statement that for 6* shards the stable crystal has a better "base reward" (its always at least 500) and the unstable crystal has a chance for a higher reward.
But when we look at the average reward, we see that the stable crystal awards an average of 150 shards and the unstable crystal awards an average of 137.5 shards. In other words the game isn't rewarding the risk, it is penalizing the risk. This seems backwards. Whenever you take more risk, you generally should be getting more rewards on average. If the safest option is also the most rewarding in the long run, that makes taking risks nonsensical.
And then there's rewards like T2A where you really can't make that statement at all. The unstable crystal actually has the higher "base" reward, but it drops less often than the stable crystal. Meanwhile, the odds are reversed for 5* signatures stones. You could maybe combine the two rewards and say that the odds of pulling T2A or sig stones is 30%, and then the unstable crystal has a higher chance of dropping the lower value reward (sig stones) assuming you agree sig stones are worth less (which they are for most players), but now you're having to do a lot of mental gymnastics. They should have made the odds of dropping each *kind* of reward the same, and then had a greater chance for a lower value but also a small chance for a higher value in the unstable crystal.
Overall, I think the unstable crystal is *a little bit* more valuable than the stable crystal, but really if you have to do this much math to figure that out, I think you aren't really allowing players to make an informed choice. It should have been real simple: open the stable crystal and most of the time you would beat the unstable crystal. But open the unstable crystal and the higher rewards mean that on average you would get more stuff. But you have to take the chance that you don't get unlucky. That's an easy choice to present to players. The crystals obfuscate that choice to a ridiculous degree in my opinion.
Edit: Stable rifts look better across the board actually, you have chance to get more 5/6* shards in unstable and you get more sig stones 🤷🏼♂️ I get enough t2a / t5b weekly enough to tide me over anyways, so Would i risk it to get 500 5* shards more often than not to potentially 0.0000001% of a chance at a 5* Gem. Nah.
I would really appreciate it,thank you.
How hard will tier 4 be? Will stable and unstable have the same difficulty?
It’s early, but I wanna say props to the game team for this. I was critical of the last stand crystals, especially after the awesome month of bounties. This is a good setup.