Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-10214922-20130602042349/@comment-71.63.178.61-20130606172416

Think about the game in general.

Stage 1. As a newbie, you start playing. You go thru the missions and get excited to get the basic characters and get them powered up. You spend a fair amount of time 'cheering' people to get enough points to open the bridge, you wait for the free space bridge every day, etc. You go into battle with other players to build up points to open the weapon bridge. At this point, the game is still entertaining. You are reliving your childhood in seeing/acquiring all of these Gen One character cards.

Stage 2. After completing all of the 'missions' (which get old pretty quick) and getting all of the R1 and R2 cards - you then begin your quest for all of the R3's and R4 Elite's  (which may have sporadically popped up for you at this point.  There are really 2 'good' ways to do this:  1. Enter the Episodes/Events and get them thru your Silver/Gold Episode medals or 2. dump cash into the Premium space bridge.  Again, you are probably still entertained at this point.

Stage 3. Episodes kick in and you *can* play for free. You'll probably get a fair amount of the R3's via the Silver/Gold Medals. Eventually you will get them all if you play thru maybe 2 episodes (or start buying the 12, 30, etc. cube packs for 'just a few dollars' and can partake in more battles and get your medals and R3's quicker). Now, the game holds your attention - but the grind on the same couple of mission screens with the best cards is starting to wear on you.

To this point, you really don't have to spend any $$$

Stage 4. Once you have all of your trans-scanned  R1, R2, and R3 cards .. the game now becomes about getting the R4's, Episode raid cards and Special Episode prize characters. Missions are time killers to level up / find a boss, Battles are pointless, and you don't waste your time cheering any more.

NOW YOU NEED TO START SPENDING MONEY.

For the episodes.. you'll spend money for the 'Gauranteed x3/x5 card(s)', Buying Battle cubes, etc. Suck thing  is - if you do not place in a position where you can get both halves of an episode card (whatever your rank)... its going to be worthless and you'll never get a chance at getting the other half. Another good point many have made is:  most of the raid cards / Episode prize cards will phase out of your deck within a couple of episodes. That is unless you placed in the top 50, 100 etc. and got both forms of the top prize. Problem here is that you need to sink A LOT of money and time into the game to reach that point.

For the R4's - you'll have to wait for them to randomly pop up or spend a premium when there is a special deal up to buy one.

I'm at stage 4. I've seen all of the R3's more times than I can count and have gotten a handful of R4's thru draws (only on one have I gotten both halves). The game is now about spending $$$ and obsessively watching the phone the last 3 days to see if there are any Level 6 battles I can jump in on for the points. When all is said and done, I maybe place in the 600 range getting both halves of 3 episode prize characters and their weapons. I have enough spare cards and trans-metal to fully power up both halves and the trans-scanned card for 2 of those characters (and their weapons). Once I do that I then sit there and think: "I spent x amount time and money for these intangible 'cards'.  For what?  To use in the next episode or two before they get phased out?" This is true after every Episode now. With the new episodes starting to pop up weekly and the ever changing way the company is going about selling you the raids and such (and now these 6 'tiers').. I'm probably going to bow out after this episode (if not before).

The artwork on these cards is f-n fantastic but to continue spending time and $$ on this 'game' just to see it is getting nuts. I'd be better off sinking it into actual G1 figures on eBay ;-)