Balance Proposal Part 2: Energy Costs
Saiki here! We need to talk about a few things. Thanks in advance for reading and sharing your opinions.
First, thank you for the 27 September Ladder update. Gambit pity, no dodge after a successful Gambit, the 1.6× rung cap, lower skill steal and fewer minions made the Ladder much fairer, and it shows the feedback process works.
This post is about the energy changes. We understand why energy needs limits: TLRPG has real value, the refill loop was being exploited, and bots need to be stopped. But several new costs fall hardest on normal players, especially F2P, and some of them break promises or make features pointless. Below are the specific problems, with numbers, and suggested fixes.
1. Business and land collection
Problem: Collecting all 6 businesses now costs 1.5 energy (was 0.25). On top of that, collecting from lands now also costs energy per land. Lands are bought with real money. Players already paid for that production, and now they have to pay again, in energy, every time they collect it.
The collection price is the same for everyone, but storage isn't. Here's what collecting all business production costs per day:
- F2P, 15-minute storage (default): 96 collections a day → 144 energy, an F2P player's entire daily energy
- F2P, 30-minute storage: 48 collections a day → 72 energy, half of their daily energy
- F2P, 1-hour storage: 24 collections a day → 36 energy, a quarter of their daily energy
- Diamond, 12h15m storage: 2 collections a day → 3 energy
Upgrading storage costs bronze, so F2P players have to spend bronze just to make collecting affordable. Even at 1-hour storage they pay 12× more energy than Diamond for the same businesses, and that's before collecting any lands.
Proposals:
- Remove the energy cost for collecting lands. Players paid real money for them.
- Scale the business collection cost to the storage window, so a full storage costs the same energy for everyone, or make collection free for F2P at their storage cap.
- Alternatively, raise base F2P storage to a few hours, so a reasonable number of collections a day captures most of the production.
2. Battle chests and armory chests
Thank you for the new option to open chests for free without TLRPG. It means nobody has to spend energy just for bronze and resources.
Problem: The main issue remains, though. For months, players kept their battle chests unopened specifically because TLRPG was promised to return to them. Now TLRPG has returned only as locked Web3 TLRPG, and it is the one part of the chest that costs energy: 1 per chest, and bulk-open costs the same (100 chests = 100 energy). Opening 1,000 chests for TLRPG costs about 5 days of a Diamond player's full energy and about a week of an F2P player's. The players who trusted the promise are the ones who pay most to get what they waited for.
The armor drop was also removed from battle chests, which leaves armory chests as the main source of armor. At the same time, opening an armory chest went from 0.05 energy to 1 energy, a 20× increase, on top of the bronze price: one free per day, then 1h, 3h, 5h... of your bronze income for each additional chest. Armor is now harder to get from every direction at once.
Proposals:
- Let chests earned before the change open with TLRPG at no energy cost.
- Give bulk-open with TLRPG a real discount, for example a capped energy cost per bulk open.
- Bring back armor drops in battle chests, or return armory chests to their old energy cost (0.05). They already cost bronze, so a second price in energy isn't needed.
3. Sealed Ladder cards
Problem: We used to see 3 cards and pick one. Now there are 5 sealed cards: the first reveal is free, then 1, 2, 3 and 5 energy. Seeing 3 cards now costs 3 energy, and seeing all 5 costs 11 energy per rung (55 for a 5-rung run). Players who don't pay are picking blind, which turns a strategic choice into luck.
Proposals:
- Make the first 3 reveals free (the old baseline), with only the 4th and 5th costing energy.
- Or show each card's category (stats, rewards, minions) on the sealed side, so a free pick is at least an informed one.
4. The Gym
Problem: Spending 100 energy in the Gym gives about 0.7% of a level in XP. A 7-rung solo Ladder run gives about 3% of a level for only 7 energy. Per energy, the Ladder gives about 60× more XP than the Gym. Even allowing for the Ladder's risk, the gap is so large that the Gym has no real use.
Proposal:
- Set Gym XP close to the XP per energy of battles, a little lower if you want, since the Gym has no risk.
5. Total energy demand
Each new cost might look small on its own. Together, they demand far more than players generate. Diamond players regenerate about 205 energy a day (1 per 7 minutes), and F2P players about 144 (1 per 10 minutes). The caps of 151 (Diamond) and 91 (F2P) include a guild bonus. A guild adds up to 51 to the cap for every player, whatever their VIP tier, so the base caps are only 100 and 40. Without a strong guild, an F2P player's energy is full in under 7 hours, and anything regenerated after that is lost.
Current energy costs:
- Battles: 1 energy for the first 100 kills of the day, then 2, then 3
- Guild raid: 0.25 per action (was 0.10)
- Business collection: 1.5 for all businesses (was 0.25)
- Land collection: 0.15–1.25 per land, for lands bought with real money
- Ladder card reveals: up to 11 per rung
- Battle chests: 1 each to get TLRPG (free without it), with no bulk discount
- Armory chests: 1 each (was 0.05), plus bronze after the first free one each day
- Mining refuels: 1 each
- Gym
- No more energy refill on level-up
Players now have to choose which parts of the game to skip each day. Diamond VIP costs €50 a month, and energy is a big part of its value. Every new energy cost reduces what paying players get for their subscription.
Proposals:
- Review the total daily demand against what players actually generate, and remove or lower the costs that hurt normal play most (collection, lands and card reveals first).
- Consider a small energy bonus on level-up (for example +20) instead of a full refill. It rewards progress without bringing back the exploit.