More ways to earn 6 star shards in 2026 please

@entrailbucket said:

@JoeHandle said:

@entrailbucket said:

@JoeHandle said:

@entrailbucket said:

@JoeHandle said:

@entrailbucket said:

@JoeHandle said:

@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.

You can already buy shards. In teensy dollops as the lord gives leave.

Price of a cover .... extrapolating from offers thus far .... would be in the low- to mid-three figure range. Nutters.

As far as these things go it's reasonable. MPQ players have paid significantly more than that in the past, and probably would again if they had to. The problem is that they've only offered about one cover total.

$250 - $500 / cover, "reasonable"
$3250 - $6500 / character, "reasonable"

"Reasonable" is relative, subjective, sure .... and that's relatively far, far from me!

That's in the range of what max 5* cost when they were released, and people paid it.

Good for them, hard to imagine much of that action now.

Could you have imagined it back then? I couldn't/didn't, and it happened anyway.

Then yes, the involved community was larger and raucous, and money was flowing. Constantly came across people pouring cash into this thing.

Much quieter now. I am sure it still happens ... and we never know what random, unconnected people do in isolation ... or players in other language bubbles.

Money wasn't flowing at all back then! Before 5*, the biggest whales had spent, like, hundreds of dollars, and we thought THOSE people were insane! The 5* whales showed up and shocked everyone (probably including the devs).

The biggest whales during the early 5* era often had no connection to the community at all. They tended to be new players who didn't know what they were doing. We'd have to search them out, join their small alliances, and convince them to get Line.

Silly bucket, so habituated to saying "Nurh-unnnh!" ... we're contrasting the "release" of 6★s (now), with the release of 5★s (late 2015-2016? 2017?). But you must be contrary, so you (un?)consciously shifting to pretending I was talking about the (rather short) era before the release of 5★s (2014/first 3 quarters of 2015).

Sure, we had "whales" before 5★s. Guys that wanted to have and show off the new things ASAP as they were released. And yes we thought that was "crazy." Buying piles of 40pks or whatever means existed as things changed and evolved. Seemed big at the time, and it was ... at the time, for the time.

After 5★s were released and the parts of the economy were implemented, esp alliance CP led to buy clubs spending became a communal activity. Networking took off. I coached lots of people in PvP, several whales. In business I knew there are different kinds of clients, that clients responded to different sensitivities. Some clients were not price sensitive, they were time sensitive. They needed what they needed now, and would spend lavishly to get it, because they risked losing more if there was a delay. You could (and should, even had to) charge such clients sizable rate premiums, and they would gladly pay, so long as you delivered, w/o delay or any corrections needed. What I hadn't seen before was people approaching their entertainment that way. They wanted what they wanted, and didn't mind spending to make it happen. They'd asked me what to spend on; not whether they should spend, that was given, but where / on what. One guy was whaling out his account, and doing the same for his son's account! They didn't mind the gambling aspect, they loved it. They wanted fast and good, not a care for cheap; they were not price sensitive.

So, other than the game being old and over it, and Marvel's public perception being on the decline (in 2025/2016 it was hot and getting hotter; it was cool ), the reason such spending won't happen again is that the throttled 6★ trickle has nothing for such price insensitive people who want results on demand. What little progress can be purchased is throttled / capped. Big spenders want results now. Not to be granted permission to spending a certain amount now for a tiny fraction of progress now, and then to repeat that daily or weekly for many months / years. That's not a thrill, it's a drag. They'll find something else that's uncapped and returns immediate delight. And to new players ... who haven't sunk years into the game ... commit to a years-long process? Nope. Why? Back in the day, a whale could pull up to MPQ and after a relativly minimal investment, while they're still in that new player honeymoon, start pumping cash into the machine as fast as the app would cycle! And see immediate "payouts".

The 6★ model is designed to retain remaining players for however long they can be retained. It's built on sunk cost fallacy. Dragging leveraged affinity out as long as possible.

Now, if there are more "accidents" with repeatable vaults, that would be a different story.

Surreptitious back-channel tips reach certain players, letting them know to pay attention to a new offer or vault that will go live on [DATE / TIME] ... but to act fast! We won't be able to leave it up long ...