More ways to earn 6 star shards in 2026 please

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Comments

  • axmoss
    axmoss Posts: 264 Mover and Shaker

    So you want more ways to spend money to gain a tiny bit of shards? I think the devs can indulge you

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,810 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2025

    The game introduced ascension as the big new idea 2 years ago and one thing it definitely did was create infinite goals as you can't ever 550 everyone, unless you're going to spend all day spending money and pulling things (I'm sure they would love it if someone decided their life's work is transferring thousands of dollars of their money into Digital Bros coffers, but no one will). (Don't at me and tell me you don't need to or want to, I know.)

    So the game set up a cool thing you can do and chase forever.

    Anyway the fact that 6s which are defined as the Ultimate Chase Item will take years to cover - well, does that, when you look at ascension, seem like it's not their full intent? The goal of the devs is simple: get players to become habituated to playing the game daily and some of them spending money at least sometimes. Give them reasons to keep playing, so they can't be "done" - EVER. The game population has fallen dramatically over the past couple years and the key to keeping this going is keeping the remaining players around.

    I think we should all take a breath and realize yeah, they WANT us to take years to cover 6s.

    Maybe at the end of 2026 they'll make some of the older ones a bit easier to cover by actually allowing us to pull something that gives fave shards but likely you won't be able to fave any of the most recent ones so you are eternally behind.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,990 Chairperson of the Boards

    @JoeHandle said:

    @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 shift 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 leading to buy clubs and spending becoming a communal activity. Networking took off. I coached lots of people in PvP, several whales. In business there are different kinds of clients, clients respond 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 mobile games 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 they would spend was a given. One guy was whaling out his own account, and buying everything 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 cost; they were not price sensitive.

    So, other than the game being old and players being 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 will new players ... who haven't sunk years into the game ... commit to a years-long process? Nope. Why would they? Back in the day, a whale could pull up to MPQ and after a relatively minimal time 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"! Throttling spending is telling a willing spender they can't spend (when they want to (which is NOW!)), so they won't. Doubly not for a much-delayed, drawn out return.

    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.

    Seems the game is gambling on small spends from the masses ... as was discovered in politics when means to tap the masses came on line, lots of small spends can outweigh a few big spends, and is more sustainable over time.

    Now, if there are more "accidents" with things like repeatable vaults, that would write a different story. :D

    Surreptitious back-channel "tips" would 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 ... :D

    I was talking about players whaling 5*. Surfer, OML, Phx, BSS, Thanos etc. I don't know who you are or whether you ran in those circles at that time. Your name is not familiar so I doubt it. You don't seem to have any particular understanding of how things worked then.

    I was there when the first buyclubs were set up. I was there when the guy who invented buyclubs invented them. Who were you "coaching" in PvP? I set up many of the chats that are still being used today.

    My argument was that they need to open up spending for 6*. Of course nobody is going to bother buying the 50 shards or whatever -- I didn't say that. They need to allow unlimited spend, and see what happens.

    You said that wouldn't do anything because nobody in "the community" will ever spend again. I pointed out that earlier, the spenders came from outside the community. Why wouldn't that happen again?

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,990 Chairperson of the Boards

    ...and here I am, giving them advice, saying what they "need" to do.

    I've been here forever. There have been probably 50 massive changes during that time that've upset the community so much that they were definitely going to be the end. Players here have been giving them advice about what they need to do since the first day this forum was created, and oftentimes they've done the exact opposite. Everybody rails about every big thing -- "everyone I know is quitting," "I'll never spend money again," so many "player unfriendly" "slaps in the face!"

    And nothing ever happens. They're still here. They do the wrong thing every time and nothing comes of it. They ignore our sensible advice, based in (obviously!) a better understanding of their business than they have, and yet the game stubbornly refuses to die! It's so infuriating! Lots of players don't even remember all the stuff that was going to kill the game, or worse (!) retroactively agree that those were the right things to do!

    I think I'm done arguing with them, especially because they're not even here to debate. They've done exactly the wrong thing so many times, and come out ahead so many times, that either they're somehow charmed or they just know better than all of us ever have.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 12,153 Chairperson of the Boards

    This is so exciting. Who is @JoeHandle? Is he @Entrailbucket's father?!?! I must admit that I don't know but I will sign up to a season 2!

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,810 Chairperson of the Boards

    @entrailbucket said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    This is so exciting. Who is @JoeHandle? Is he @Entrailbucket's father?!?! I must admit that I don't know but I will sign up to a season 2!

    My father is in his 80s. We got him a tablet a few years ago and somehow he became a very serious Clash of Clans player. After a year or more of being on the tablet pretty much constantly, engaging with their community, posting on forums etc, I figured it'd be nice to get him a Google Play card for his birthday so he could buy something to get ahead in the game.

    Big mistake. Instead of thanks I got an angry rant about how the developers were terrible and greedy, and he refused to give them any money at all (even gift card money!) unless they made a list of changes, which he then pulled up! This man had an entire list of demands before he'd use a gift card!

    No matter their age, gamers are all alike.

  • MegaBee
    MegaBee Posts: 1,350 Chairperson of the Boards

    @bluewolf said:

    @entrailbucket said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    This is so exciting. Who is @JoeHandle? Is he @Entrailbucket's father?!?! I must admit that I don't know but I will sign up to a season 2!

    My father is in his 80s. We got him a tablet a few years ago and somehow he became a very serious Clash of Clans player. After a year or more of being on the tablet pretty much constantly, engaging with their community, posting on forums etc, I figured it'd be nice to get him a Google Play card for his birthday so he could buy something to get ahead in the game.

    Big mistake. Instead of thanks I got an angry rant about how the developers were terrible and greedy, and he refused to give them any money at all (even gift card money!) unless they made a list of changes, which he then pulled up! This man had an entire list of demands before he'd use a gift card!

    No matter their age, gamers are all alike.

    I'd be offended if you weren't right...

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 12,153 Chairperson of the Boards

    @entrailbucket said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    This is so exciting. Who is @JoeHandle? Is he @Entrailbucket's father?!?! I must admit that I don't know but I will sign up to a season 2!

    My father is in his 80s. We got him a tablet a few years ago and somehow he became a very serious Clash of Clans player. After a year or more of being on the tablet pretty much constantly, engaging with their community, posting on forums etc, I figured it'd be nice to get him a Google Play card for his birthday so he could buy something to get ahead in the game.

    Big mistake. Instead of thanks I got an angry rant about how the developers were terrible and greedy, and he refused to give them any money at all (even gift card money!) unless they made a list of changes, which he then pulled up! This man had an entire list of demands before he'd use a gift card!

    My Dad is also in his 80s but he mostly sticks to doing jigsaws on his tablet. He is probably too busy building his Flying Scotsman 3D model we got him Christmas though for angry rants.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 12,153 Chairperson of the Boards

    @MegaBee said:

    @bluewolf said:

    @entrailbucket said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    This is so exciting. Who is @JoeHandle? Is he @Entrailbucket's father?!?! I must admit that I don't know but I will sign up to a season 2!

    My father is in his 80s. We got him a tablet a few years ago and somehow he became a very serious Clash of Clans player. After a year or more of being on the tablet pretty much constantly, engaging with their community, posting on forums etc, I figured it'd be nice to get him a Google Play card for his birthday so he could buy something to get ahead in the game.

    Big mistake. Instead of thanks I got an angry rant about how the developers were terrible and greedy, and he refused to give them any money at all (even gift card money!) unless they made a list of changes, which he then pulled up! This man had an entire list of demands before he'd use a gift card!

    No matter their age, gamers are all alike.

    I'd be offended if you weren't right...

    My eldest was back home only for Christmas and Boxing Day so I thought he might like to play Hollow Knight: Silksong as he had liked the first one so I got it on PS5. Hoo boy, was that a mistake! I have never heard Devs called so many names in one sentence!

    Back to the topic in hand - it really seems to me that the way to get players excited for 6* is to let them have a go with one. Why can't we have a Welcome to SHIELD type event for the 6s? They could give away a few shards and have a loaner to try. Although I also confess that Galactus, Agent of SHIELD is a comic book I would read!

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