So I started playing around 6 months ago after I watching Fate UBW and just fell in love with the fate series. Now I get to play Fate Smash Bros on my phone all the time and I have become addicted. I loved rolling for servants and currently don't have a job or anything and was wondering how to spend money properly on the game. What is the best and efficient way to spend money on this game? Should I buy some quartz from time to time or spend money when I run out? Also how much should I expect to spend per banner if I want a servant?
If you can afford spending hundreds of dollars in a single servant, do it. If not, well, isn't worth. Some ppl get a servant with only 1 ticket, while others might spend 1500 sq for a single copy. Gacha can be cruel, and DO NOT expect to get a servant even if you paid for it. That's how gacha works.
I'd say, if you want to support the game, you can buy some sq during GSSR banners, so you can at least get one guaranteed SSR.
Well it depends on what you see as worth, if you really enjoy the game and can afford to buy quartz, go for it, but remember, gacha games can suck the life out of your wallet if your not careful. It also depends on how much you can actually afford, if you can barely afford to feed yourself, its generally not recommended to spend money on these type of games. As for the question on what the best thing to spend. GSSRs are the best value as it always guarantees you a 5* so instead of spending $100+ for a chance of a 5*, you get one for ~$30. There also isn't really an "efficient" way to spend your money in this game. Besides the aforementioned GSSR I guess you can spend your money if there is a unit that is really good in a banner (cough merlin cough). But remember, it doesn't guarantee you the servant no matter how much you spend so be wary of that.
As a f2p, I’d say it’s probably not worth it to be a whale. To have a 50% chance of getting a specific five star servant on rate up, it’ll take 100 rolls (300 quartz). 300 quartz is about $172 which imo is a lot of money to spend for just a 50% chance of getting a specific five star in rate up.
If you’re fine with any five star servant, it’ll take 69 rolls (267 quartz) for a 50% chance which costs a little less than $160.
If you really want to spend on the game, I think guaranteed Gacha is the most worth it since it costs about $29 for 100% chance of a five star.
Also make sure to budget yourself if you decide to spend money. You don’t wanna spend too much on the game and not have money for other stuff like essentials
Your math is correct, however, if anyone is seriously thinking of "whaling" (and I know that the OP's comments indicate the question was more about what and how to spend, and probably not true "whaling"), it's probably more the expected value of results over thousands of pulls rather than the chance you'd pull one in X number of rolls.
When averaged over a very large number of pulls (on the order of thousands), the expected value of 5* servants per 100 rolls is 1, and for 4* is 3, straight from the percentage odds. I get a different cost for 300 SQ, though: $79.99 / 167 * 300 = $143 if bought in bulk at the cheapest price (if you're gonna whale, might as well do it as cheaply as possible...). So that means for every $143 (over a long time), you could expect 1 5* and 3 4*.
To put that in perspective, I count 44 5* servants, so if you assumed you never got more than 5 copies (rather unlikely), it would cost on average $31,612.81 to NP5 them all :)
In terms of buying the biggest sq pack every time then your math for the 300sq is right, but I did the cost of buying exactly 300sq which was 2 of the biggest packs and then 1 $12 pack
Never ever buy SQ unless it's for a guaranteed summon. If you intend to play for a long time, then I recommend buying the biggest SQ package and then saving the paid SQ (you can check how much paid SQ you have in the items list) for guaranteed paid gachas. If you spend on anything other than the guaranteed gacha, you are not making a purchase, you are gambling.
Idk if this'll help you decide on buy quartz or not with your own money, but what I do is ask for Google play gift cards for a gift for my birthday/Christmas/any holiday relatives or family gives gifts/money to celebrate it. I mean I'm still spending money on the game, but it makes me feel less guilty about it when it comes in gift card form.
As long as you're not rolling on every single banner, I think F2P will give you enough SQ if you planned carefully. If you do want to spend and do have some spare money, only go for GSSR. At least you know you are guaranteed a SSR after you spend the money. Whether you want to be a whale or not, there is something on reddit being discussed. Might be more like horror story, but are worthwhile for you to read before spending money on it
https://www.reddit.com/r/grandorder/comments/acyieh/discussion_about_being_a_dolphin_and_whale_here/
FGO F2P level, here's the list ( it's a joke lol, maybe some of it is true ), enjoy reading the list and have fun XD
* F2P, divided by level :
- Casual F2P, daily Log In and doing casual stuff, your average F2P Players. Not really lean into grinding and only take ''wanted'' things.
- Golden Apple hoarder, they're a ''sleeping dragon'' that only wake up when a new singularity or other farm stuff is released. They farm like crazy until the event ends.
- gameplay F2P, asking for advice first and looking for some new stuff from others, they learn from the ''past failure'' and the ''proven success'' things from veterans and seasoned players alike. Often ask others to help them decide ''which one is the better servants'' and something like that.
- Grind Master F2P, a super saiyan grinder type F2P no matter the situations, if there are events or not they grind all the time ( sometimes they used their SQs to get the material, SQ = Material LOL ). The type of player that level is far beyond Golden Apple hoarder, sigh if you can imagine that @_@.
- F2P 1-3 star servants only user, they Grail 1-3 star servants and clear everything using it. Some barely touch SQ Gacha, but when they do they just roll on their favorite servant banner. Typical veteran and seasoned FGO player that love the challenges.
Some may call it ''new game plus''.
- i suggest this type for you, because it's the best value-for-money things this game has.
It's called semi-FTP, they're technically F2P and only roll for GSSR banner.
Welcome to another level :
- Dolphin/Ex Luck F2P.
- Orca.
- Whale.
- Moby Dick, whale among whales and the living legends.
- Captain Ahab, Ex luck veteran and Seasoned Whale/F2P player that play the game for a pretty long time.
Sorry for the longpost, have fun and farm hard - Ordinary.
I absolutely love FGO and i've always bought SQs in every paid gacha for 2 accounts but if you're asking if it's worth spending hundreds of dollars for the normal gacha then no, it's basically gambling and i hate that.
If you really want a servant you can always save up for months, that's how i got all the limited servants i wanted most and then try your luck for other SSRs with lucky bags and new years banners.
Well, in the end it's up to you.
Everything depends on your income and how much enjoyment you get out of FGO personally.
For me, any money I spend on FGO is part of my "personal spending" allotment. $20 spent here is money that will not go to other video games, MtG, eating out, etc. Set an absolute hard limit as to how much you'll spend in one sitting, for one servant, or one banner. It's okay to spend a little money to get something nice but it's also easy to get addicted to rolling until you get the servant you want.
If you really wanna whale, Buy only the biggest pack to save money, also if you can buy itunes/google play store cards for cheap on websites it will save you money(they have region restrictions though,careful)
There's whaling and then there's being a dolphin (what most "whales" actually are). I am a dolphin. The big difference is you spend whatever it takes to get np1, maybe np2 of a servant on a particular banner and then you stop. A whale would go all the way to np4/5, and have the mats ready to 10/10/10 lvl100 them instantly. Most people in this game that buy quartz are not whales.
That being said, expect this game to suck the ever-living hell out of your wallet. This means you'll need to budget how much you're spending in other novelty areas; ie if you buy other games often, have monthly subscriptions to things, etc. This obviously doesn't include life expenses such as bills and the need for food.
tldr; Be very careful dipping your toes into buying quartz, it can very very easily devolve into mindless gambling with how easy it is to purchase quartz once your card is linked to your account and you can just use your fingerprint to buy (speaking from experience). Set limits for yourself and be responsible. :)
Don't.
I understand if you love the series, but you also already mentioned being addicted to a game, loving rolling and not having a source of income. That's not whaling, that's setting up for a fall into rolling hell (addiction). If you just want to roll for the gambling thrill use the simulator on this site or get a japanese account, since they seem to get more rewards. Otherwise, play f2p, set up an allowance for specific events in advance (and don't allow more) if you'd really like a specific servant.. and accept that either way, you may not get them. That's just luck. It comes and goes. For instance, I rolled for a specific SR servant on 2 rate up banners, didn't get them (or any other SR/SSR), and then the other day randomly spent 20 quartz and got them. No specific banner, just random luck. So, love the characters, love the story, but do not play for the gatcha.
OK, I'm going to vent a little.
As much as I love the game, their payment model is atrocious. Maybe it's not that much different from other mobile games, but to me that just makes them all atrocious.
I've been playing MMOs for a long time (2000 or so), and personally, I see nothing wrong with paying for a game. In fact, I think that people who play commercial games should actually be expected to pay something. But this has to be "reasonable".
In the day, I considered $40-60 for a game, and $13-15/month reasonable for an MMO. I still do, but a lot of players in the PC world think that even that is too expensive. But here, if I spend $80 for 167 SQ, which is about the price for a 6 month sub in an MMO, I get to pull about 55 times, and that gets me a whopping 42.5% chance at a single 5*. That is just way, way too low, especially considering that in most cases, you don't just one, but 5x5* to NP5 them. Plus, there's even a 10% chance I won't get even a 4* out of it.
I won't even get into the gambling addiction part of the equation, but that too is something I think is atrocious given the low odds of success.
Yeah the price are really ridiculous, i'm aware that they'll never change them since most people buy them but at least improve the rates when you're using paid quartz or something like that?
