Golden Opportunities - October, 2023
Following Second Dinner’s recent realignment of Snap’s internal economy, gold–and free gold especially–is scarcer than ever. Spending it wisely can make all the difference between fast-tracked progression and cash-strapped depression. Join us now as we look for the true gems among the gold bundles to find the best opportunities to spend Snap’s premium currency. Because this is based on datamined information, details are subject to change.
Time Variants Authority
If you missed Mobius M. Mobius during his release spotlight, here is a second opportunity to snag a series 4 card that has proved to be important if not earth-shattering in the meta–and this time he’s on a jet ski. Otherwise, the items on offer here are pretty pedestrian: 10,000 credits, yet another Enchantress variant, and a few sides. On its own merits, it is mediocre–and at 7,500 gold, it should be better than mediocre. If, however, you especially want to get your hands on Mobius, there is good value in this offer.
Form and Function
Credits per gold: 1.33
Token Offering
As the recurring bundle that sets the value for tokens relative to gold, Token Tuesday is definitionally middle of the road. It pales in comparison to its former glory, and with the better-value gold bundles coming in October and November, it is simply not a good purchase. Save your gold for Forged in Night, High Stakes, or another future bundle with a better rate of return.
Token Tuesday
Tokens per gold: 0.71
In Need of a Boost
Booster Packs have been a regular thing for a long while now, but it is probably best for the game if nobody ever purchases one. 300 gold to get 250 credits is an abysmal exchange, and boosters are so readily available that they are not worth spending any kind of currency on outside of conquest medals. Unless Second Dinner gives booster packs a massive boost in value, do not buy them.
Booster Pack
Credits per gold: 0.83
The Mystery Continues
Once strictly within the domain of cash purchases, mystery bundles have made a triumphant leap this month into the realms of gold, and . . . they are still kind of bad. October 2023 Mystery 4 is the better of the pair, supplying credits at exactly the shop rate so that the variant is effectively free. The problem is that the shop rate of converting gold to credits is still pretty bad. Consider that April’s Team Cat and Team Dog bundles offered the same number of credits, albeit without a variant, for only 700 gold, and it becomes apparent how ungenerous Mystery 4 is for anyone primarily concerned with progression.
Somehow October 2023 Mystery 5 is even worse, since its tokens and credits together would cost only 1,800 gold at shop and Token Tuesday rates. 200 gold is not a bad price for a premium mystery variant but only if you would spend gold on one in the first place. Even so, this is the weakest gold bundle in the entire month of October.
October 2023 Mystery 4
Credits per gold: 1.25
October 2023 Mystery 5
Tokens per gold: 0.5
Credits per gold: 0.25
Darkest Before Dawn
After a month of perilously stingy gold bundles in September and a lackluster showing thus far in October, Forged in Night is the first sign of the change in direction that will bring us multiple high-cost, high-value bundles over the next two months. Providing 4,000 tokens, 500 credits, two series 1 variants, and incidentals at a cost of 5,000 gold, it is both the best source of tokens and the best all-around bundle this month–and yet, it does not achieve the same value as the major bundles to come.
High Stakes will carry 5,000 tokens, 2,000 credits, and a series 3 card for 6,000 gold; Artist Showcase: Kai Lun Qu will offer 1,000 tokens and 9,000 credits along with a series 1 and a series 3 at 6,500 gold; and Sugar, Spice, and Everything Ice at the end of the year looks right now like the best gold bundle the game has ever seen, boasting 6,000 tokens, 7,000 credits, and two series 3 cards for good measure, all for the reasonable sum of 7,500 bricks of the yellow stuff.
Next to these, Forged in Night, though still a very good value, does not look like the best investment. If you are sitting on a small mountain of gold and not worried about running out any time soon, on the other hand, it should be at the top of your list of October purchases.
Forged in Night
Tokens per gold: 0.8
Credits per gold: 0.1
No Obligation to Buy
As the name suggests, this bundle feels very much like Second Dinner were going through the motions when they put it together. 4,000 credits for 3,200 gold is exactly the shop rate, and two variants of early-series cards and the usual complement of cosmetics round out the uninspired package. The draw is the variant squirrel tokens that this Squirrel Girl throws, and there is some synergy between her and Blue Marvel, but the partial cosmetic theming of a deck might not be the best incentive to spend your gold.
The Obligatory Zombie Bundle
Credits per gold: 1.25
The Golden Mean
While there are no must-buy gold bundles in October, continuing the trend from September, this month has given us our first signs of a rise out of the doldrums. Forged in Night specifically represents both the highest-cost and highest-value opportunity since Stegronosaurus Wrecks in the second week of August, and datamines have revealed three even bigger and better bundles on the horizon, as well as a number of small ones with good returns on investment. With all of that coming, carefully planning your purchases is as important as ever.
Best tokens per gold
- Forged in Night (0.8)
- Token Tuesday (0.71)
- October 2023 Mystery 5 (0.5)
Best credits per gold
- Form and Function (1.33)
- Permanent shop rate, October 2023 Mystery 4, and The Obligatory Zombie Bundle (1.25)
- Booster Pack (0.83)
- October 2023 Mystery 5 (0.25)
- Forged in Night (0.1)
Best overall currencies per gold*
- Forged in Night (1.51)
- Form and Function (1.34)
- October 2023 Mystery 4 (1.28)
- The Obligatory Zombie Bundle (1.27)
- Permanent shop rate and Token Tuesday (1.25)
*Expressed as credits per gold, valuing tokens at 1.75 credits based on the Token Tuesday rate of 1 token for 1.4 gold and the shop rate of 1 gold for 1.25 credits, and adding 25 credits for each new card and variant
We hope that illuminates the gold market for you and hope you will join us again in about a month for a review of November’s gold bundles!