More ways to earn 6 star shards in 2026 please

Hellblazer666

We are up to 3 6 stars now and barely any way to earn shards. Can we at least favorite 6 stars eventually so when we open token packs we get some shards for them.

entrailbucket

@Hellblazer666 said:
We are up to 3 6 stars now and barely any way to earn shards. Can we at least favorite 6 stars eventually so when we open token packs we get some shards for them.

Based on how they introduced every other tier, this will happen, but probably not in 2026.

I hope they give us a way to buy 6* shards or covers in 2026, though.

Hellblazer666

@entrailbucket said:

@Hellblazer666 said:
We are up to 3 6 stars now and barely any way to earn shards. Can we at least favorite 6 stars eventually so when we open token packs we get some shards for them.

Based on how they introduced every other tier, this will happen, but probably not in 2026.

I hope they give us a way to buy 6* shards or covers in 2026, though.

Ok maybe by 2028 😝 I’d like a way to buy them too with hp or cp

Omegased

While all we can go on, is what we've seen in the past with the introduction of 4 tier and 5 tier - you can assume it's going to take a good long time before direct tokens are available.

I would say, however - that the game is in a totally different space than it was when 4s and 5s were released. you couldn't even save covers when 5s were announced.

The game is so different now, with champion rewards, saved covers, cover swaps etc. the expectation of what you can do is different.

And just to throw another spanner in the works, the Devs that created the 6star tier, and (possibly) had a roll out idea for them, have 1 week left of work before they're leaving the game.

So what does this all mean? big shrug I think. if the new Devs have a thought on how to manage the 6stars, and how to get them just a little more attainable (so they're truly chase characters. right now they're just 1200hp wasters) we might see a new token type sooner rather than later. if they can think of a way to avoid hoarding in the game (previous Devs had said they had never planned on the way people hoard tokens), we might at least see a better way to target one of them.

I have this sinking feeling that the new devs have been brought on to sunset the game (which is based on zero specific information, just a doom and gloom worry), which means who knows what happens?

DAZ0273

@Omegased said:
While all we can go on, is what we've seen in the past with the introduction of 4 tier and 5 tier - you can assume it's going to take a good long time before direct tokens are available.

I would say, however - that the game is in a totally different space than it was when 4s and 5s were released. you couldn't even save covers when 5s were announced.

The game is so different now, with champion rewards, saved covers, cover swaps etc. the expectation of what you can do is different.

And just to throw another spanner in the works, the Devs that created the 6star tier, and (possibly) had a roll out idea for them, have 1 week left of work before they're leaving the game.

So what does this all mean? big shrug I think. if the new Devs have a thought on how to manage the 6stars, and how to get them just a little more attainable (so they're truly chase characters. right now they're just 1200hp wasters) we might see a new token type sooner rather than later. if they can think of a way to avoid hoarding in the game (previous Devs had said they had never planned on the way people hoard tokens), we might at least see a better way to target one of them.

I have this sinking feeling that the new devs have been brought on to sunset the game (which is based on zero specific information, just a doom and gloom worry), which means who knows what happens?

I'm not sure 505 would have been so hands off with 6* - they (Ice IX especially) seem fairly hands on with some of this stuff (Ascension for one) and in terms of roll out and availability I suspect they have a big hand in what happens. The problems with the game have been mostly coding side but the offers haven't skipped many beats and I suspect that comes from 505.

MegaBee

@Hellblazer666 said:
We are up to 3 6 stars now and barely any way to earn shards. Can we at least favorite 6 stars eventually so when we open token packs we get some shards for them.

You can favorite Galactus now. It doesn't have any game effect, but the option is there.

DAZ0273

@MegaBee said:

@Hellblazer666 said:
We are up to 3 6 stars now and barely any way to earn shards. Can we at least favorite 6 stars eventually so when we open token packs we get some shards for them.

You can favorite Galactus now. It doesn't have any game effect, but the option is there.

What if each time we favourite him he is earning Cosmic Bucks which he can then spend on planet eating machines? He might be even earning double points at Christmas! My God...I bet this is in the Epstein files!

bluewolf

1. You can favorite 6s already and the devs mentioned wildcard shards being a thing eventually. Maybe only for purchase. Maybe in rewards. I don't expect any pulls giving some shards for every pull, ever, as long as 13 covers finishes one; I would possibly think that there could be a store where 1:7 pulls gave you 50 favorite shards or something.
2. The developer was partially responsible for certain things but the publisher has the controls over what resources are given for what activities, what things cost, what offers exist etc. As @DAZ0273 said. At least, they absolutely should be the ones who are dictating these things because they are the ones collecting all the money and taking the main risks.

It is to me beyond obvious they have screwed up royally with 6s and the release design, the obvious planned rarity and trickle etc.. It is demoralizing when you think about the pace of acquisition; even if they double the flow from current you will take 1.7 years to finish Cosmic Ghost Rider assuming you can somehow get him from every 3rd pve and he won't be diluted further as more are added.

The arguments about how 5s were first introduced have some validity except it was 10 years ago and this is not the same game and the players are not the same. At best the 6s will allow things to run a bit longer; at worst they will hasten the game's demise, although maybe they'll eventually just have a single dev at IP2 who updates rewards, stop making new characters and keep things running as long as people who like Spidey and Wolverine will toss $10 at the game for a costume and to add a cover or two to their roster. Currently things look even more lethargic but it's also holiday time.

I suppose time will tell what their goal and drive is - to minimally engage with the game and let it putter along with the remaining hardcore players and occasional newbie jumping in because it's a Marvel game or trying hard to restore it to something like its prior state where it felt relatively polished and like it wasn't primarily being developed by interns. But 6s do nothing right now to improve things except maybe convincing a few whales to spend more than they would ever have on lame bundles of characters that don't matter so they can add 50 Cosmic Spidey shards.

DAZ0273

My belief was that 6* were supposed to release with the Fantastic Four movie. We know the Galactus Boss Event was scrapped and I think that was supposed to be the one we got at Anniversary. So 6, if my theory is true, were already 3 months behind schedule and that might explain this bizarre release cadence we got landed with and the fact they seemingly have only "complete shambles" as a roll out plan. If their plan had gone as expected I think players would have been further along with Galactus than they are and a wider 2026 plan for 6* would have been in place.

All conjecture of course.

bluewolf

Looking back at 5s they released Surfer and OML and Phoenix within 3 months. Sept, Oct, Nov.

Whatever the reasons or schedule now, when Phoenix was in game a store existed and you could start pulling from it although the resources were hard to get.

CGR is the 3rd 6 in 3 months and crickets.

There’s no argument that can be made that they are handling 6s well.

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:
Looking back at 5s they released Surfer and OML and Phoenix within 3 months. Sept, Oct, Nov.

Whatever the reasons or schedule now, when Phoenix was in game a store existed and you could start pulling from it although the resources were hard to get.

CGR is the 3rd 6 in 3 months and crickets.

There’s no argument that can be made that they are handling 6s well.

Well, when Phoenix was in game there was a store that was really, really hard to get pulls for, that had a low, RNG driven chance of giving a random 5*. How do you think everyone felt about that? There were so many "disrespectful" etc comments about working so hard to get a legendary token and then pulling some awful 4*.

It's actually pretty funny. I saw SO many complaints back then like "great, another 5*, I'll get him covered in 10 years!" It's basically the same as the 6* complaints now. Everyone hated it then too!

6* actually feel like an overreaction to the 5* rollout. The timescale is set about the same, but this time it's fair! No more RNG! This is what "no RNG" looks like.

entrailbucket

@Omegased said:
While all we can go on, is what we've seen in the past with the introduction of 4 tier and 5 tier - you can assume it's going to take a good long time before direct tokens are available.

I would say, however - that the game is in a totally different space than it was when 4s and 5s were released. you couldn't even save covers when 5s were announced.

The game is so different now, with champion rewards, saved covers, cover swaps etc. the expectation of what you can do is different.

And just to throw another spanner in the works, the Devs that created the 6star tier, and (possibly) had a roll out idea for them, have 1 week left of work before they're leaving the game.

So what does this all mean? big shrug I think. if the new Devs have a thought on how to manage the 6stars, and how to get them just a little more attainable (so they're truly chase characters. right now they're just 1200hp wasters) we might see a new token type sooner rather than later. if they can think of a way to avoid hoarding in the game (previous Devs had said they had never planned on the way people hoard tokens), we might at least see a better way to target one of them.

I have this sinking feeling that the new devs have been brought on to sunset the game (which is based on zero specific information, just a doom and gloom worry), which means who knows what happens?

In my experience, these types of games do not "sunset." (I've been through a few of them).

You'll get notified that it's shutting down in a month or two, they'll let you know that purchases during that time won't be refunded, then it just stops working on the designated day. Nothing special happens in the interim, so there's no particular reason to change developers or make any other changes.

BriMan2222

I've only had 2 games I've played shut down before I had already stopped playing. In both cases they announced the game would end in a couple months and all purchases would be shut off.

One of them allowed refunds if you had purchased within the last month and both of them gave away enormous amounts of in game currency so you could buy pretty much anything you had ever wanted before the game went under.

entrailbucket

The other problem with 6* (which was also a problem with 5*, and with 4* once they did them right) is that they obsolete every other character on your roster.

So if they rolled out 6* the way some people seem to want (everybody gets all the max 6* right away!), your entire sub-6* roster immediately becomes irrelevant and basically useless. The metagame reverts to "best two" again, because there's a clear "best two" every single week. They just fixed this with ascension! More characters are viable than ever before!

The obvious answer is "just don't do 6* at all," and, like, yes. But another decent answer is "do 6* but make it take forever to get them so we can figure something out eventually," and I assume that's what they're up to.

dokiy

My guess based on no information is the three 6 Stars out now will be the only 6 stars we see for at least a year. They'll keep the roll-out as slow as possible as they focus on fixing the game on the back end.

Grantosium

I assume the point at which a 6 becomes useful is well before they're fully covered. Has anyone worked out how many covers will be needed to make them worth playing? 6 covers? 10? Only 4?

entrailbucket

@Grantosium said:
I assume the point at which a 6 becomes useful is well before they're fully covered. Has anyone worked out how many covers will be needed to make them worth playing? 6 covers? 10? Only 4?

I think it depends what else you've got.

bluewolf

@dokiy said:
My guess based on no information is the three 6 Stars out now will be the only 6 stars we see for at least a year. They'll keep the roll-out as slow as possible as they focus on fixing the game on the back end.

They have previously said they plan to release a 6 every 3-4 months at least for the next year or so. So we should see 3-4 more in 2026.

Re: changing dev teams to sunset, I agree that’s not why. Making an internal team responsible for it means they can be much more agile with what is happening and what amount of money/labor they want to spend on it. It makes it more likely they’ll run it longer because if you’re not locked into a contract with an external developer you can scale teams up and down more easily with good planning.

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:

@dokiy said:
My guess based on no information is the three 6 Stars out now will be the only 6 stars we see for at least a year. They'll keep the roll-out as slow as possible as they focus on fixing the game on the back end.

They have previously said they plan to release a 6 every 3-4 months at least for the next year or so. So we should see 3-4 more in 2026.

Re: changing dev teams to sunset, I agree that’s not why. Making an internal team responsible for it means they can be much more agile with what is happening and what amount of money/labor they want to spend on it. It makes it more likely they’ll run it longer because if you’re not locked into a contract with an external developer you can scale teams up and down more easily with good planning.

Yep. If they wanted to shut down the game, they'd just shut it down tomorrow.

Grantosium

@entrailbucket said:

@Grantosium said:
I assume the point at which a 6 becomes useful is well before they're fully covered. Has anyone worked out how many covers will be needed to make them worth playing? 6 covers? 10? Only 4?

I think it depends what else you've got.

I will rephrase the question because I wasn't really asking about whether they're worth running for me personally.

Has anyone worked out how many covers required for a 6 star to be preferable to the current meta, assuming all meta teams at 550?

Bonus easier question: how many covers required to 550 a 6 star?

(FWIW I have just over 1200 shards of Galactus but I'm a few months off bothering to roster him.)

Zarqa

I believe the person with 11 Galactus covers mentioned that boosted 672 characters were still doing more match damage than the 6*. But it also depends on their powers and how those scale of course.

And synergies between 6s, for example with Cosmic Tiles, will also play a role eventually.

Too soon to tell maybe?