Whales and Whaling: The True Cost of War Robots

Fellow Pilots,

Happy Monday, the last one before we celebrate the birth of a strange dude who advocated communism and non-violence until he got crucified for his heresy!  There are only a few "shopping days" left before this so-called "Christmas," which means that if you don't already have a present for your wife/girlfriend/partner, you are getting that much closer to your own crucifixion.

And since it's Monday, let's call it Melville Day!  Herman Melville, of course, wrote Moby Dick, the novel about the ultimately fatal obsession of Captain Ahab's with a particular whale.  I, too, am obsessed with killing whales, and I think most War Robots players are as well.  A "whale," if you haven't heard the video game term before, is a big spender.  With the late 2017 introduction of the Korean “Dash” robots, and the Mark 2 upgrades, the “whales” instantly got a LOT bigger and more intimidating.   Even if you had a maxed-out hangar, it would be years until you could bring it all the way to Mark 2 level 12 - and many whales did it overnight.  How much did this cost?  Read on!

In case you haven’t examined a “whale hangar,” meet Addictive.  If you’ve wondered what it costs, in dollars and cents, to acquire and upgrade such a hangar, this article is for you.  While my math won’t be perfect, it’s reasonably accurate and presented here for examination by the wider community.  For readability, all calculations are in the appendix.

To purchase and level Addictive’s hangar would take over $7500. The other option: grind out the 2.1 billion silver and 612 days AFTER spending $1125 on the robots.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: ACQUISITION via COMPONENTS


The Black Market should actually be called the Black Box, because its inner workings are completely opaque to the community of players.  What we can observe, by contrast, are the component prices (in US dollars, the cheapest way to buy stuff in-game) of the current premium items.  

• Ember: $150
• Scourge: $80
• Tempest: $80
• Shocktrain: $100
• Bulgasari, Haechi, or Kumiho: $225
• Inquisitor: $300

 Thousand dollar bot: Level 1 Inquisitor with Ember via components: $450. Instant max to Mark2 costs $340 for the robot, $380 for the Ember.  Assuming you had a pair of maxed Orkans prior to the Mark2 system debut, you could max them out in the new system for $330.  Total price: $1500!

UPGRADE COSTS

Upgrades are tremendously expensive.  That’s why so few people have fully maxed hangars, and this huge investment is what separates the big whales from the little dolphins. It takes almost 13 days and over 48 million silver to upgrade a single Taran to level 12.  To make your Taran Mark2, you need to spend 500 gold AND repeat the time and silver investment.  One weapon to Mark2 … 96M silver, 500 gold, and 26 days.  To achieve Mark 2 level 12 with all the items in Addictive’s hangar would require almost 2.1 billion silver and 612.6 days - and obviously, Addictive did not wait for almost two years for his bread to bake.   Gold, for instant upgrades, can be purchased at the rate of 14,500 Au for $99.99 (145 Au per dollar).  Silver, for starting the upgrade process, can be purchased with gold at the rate of 18500 Au for 50M Ag (391,910 Ag per dollar).

Thus, “instant” level 12 upgrades (don’t forget to double the below figures for Mark2 level 12):

Bulgasari, Haechi, Inquisitor, Lancelot, Kumiho, or Rhino: $169.36

Heavy weapons - Ember, Tempest, Trebuchet, or Trident: $190.23

Orkan: $166.49

OLD SCHOOL to DASH BOT: A CASE STUDY

“FURKAN&FUAT 61” was sporting a high-level hangar back in July 2017, and had four hard-to-obtain Tempests.  Results, however, were mixed, with a 44% win rate and 300K average damage.

So, F&F spent some serious money.  He/she may have been very lucky in the Black Market.  In mid-November of 2017, the below hangar was showing:

 

This hangar would have taken 385 days to level up to its current state, even allowing for the two pre-existing Tarans.  It is telling to note the HUGE statistical changes: average damage has tripled, F&F killed sixteen robots (more than half the enemy side) in a single battle, had a win streak of 21 straight.  The probability of winning 21 evenly matched battles is over a million to one, so F&F is definitely outgunning most of his opponents.

I am aware that active players stockpile silver and gold in advance of the release of the items they plan to acquire.  Every 400,000 silver you can save is worth about a dollar in my calculations.  But even Adrian(nnnnnn) Chong, with 3.5B silver and 16,500 gold, would not have had enough stashed to instantly upgrade F&F’s newly purchased items - this would take another 66,000 gold (over $400).  And Adriannnnnn plays the game 24/7, 365, with meals brought to him by helper elves so he doesn't have to stop destroying you, recording it, and publishing it to the world.

A pod of Orcas looking for another easy kill. 

I talked with a few big spenders while doing research for this article, and they reported that they were able to obtain most of the premium robots and weapons by spending $100-$500 in the black market.  Regardless of the exact cost, this new dynamic has driven some opinion leaders out of the game permanently.  I understand, but I find this response premature if you truly enjoy the game.  Here's to hoping that you still do!


Your humble servant,

Dr. Yat




APPENDIX: MATH(S)

Acquisition via component:

Ember: $150 (7000 components x $99.99 x3 = 21000 components, enough for two)

Scourge: $80 (13000 components x $99.99 x4 = 39000 components, just short of four)

Tempest: $80 (same calculation as Scourge)

Shocktrain: $100 (10000 components for $99.99)

Bulgasari, Haechi, or Kumiho: $225 (4500 components x $99.99 x2 = 9000 components, plus 850 components for $20 and 200 components for $5)

Inquisitor: $300 (3400 components x $99.99 x3)

Exchange rates:

$99.99 = 14,500 Au, or 145 Au/$1

18,500 Au = 50,000,000 silver = $127.59

50,000,000/$127.59 = 391,911 Ag per $1

Selected item upgrade costs:

Name of item	$ cost to obtain	Ag step costs (K)	Au speed upgrade	time to complete (days)	$ for Ag	$ for Au
Dash Bot	225	54870	4257	19.96	140.01	29.35
Orkan	8.28	56220	3340	15.08	143.45	23.03
Taran	6.3	48005	2707	12.88	122.49	18.66
Shocktrain	100	48005	2707	12.88	122.49	18.66
Scourge	80	48005	2707	12.88	122.49	18.66

Faculty Notes

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Until the introduction of the Greek bots, Pixonic provided component items to War Robots University's professors/pilots for review.  The content of War Robots U is created and edited by its authors exclusively.  For an explanation of the relationship between Pixonic and the U, please read this post!