# 9.2 Crystal Kingdom: A Deep Dive! **URL:** \ **Category:** Official News\ **Created:** [May 13, 2026, 12:01am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654 "2026-05-13T00:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![overthinker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/overthinker/32/86337_2.png) [@overthinker](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/overthinker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 3:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/43 "2026-05-13T03:53:14Z")
I understand this. But grinding for deeds was the main reason for end-gamers to play explore, pvp, GW. You simply removed that without offering anything in return ---
**Author:** ![Jeto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/jeto/32/101682_2.png) [@Jeto](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Jeto)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/44 "2026-05-13T03:55:06Z")
Except instead of spending Gold Marks on Deeds, they could be used now on Shiny Keys and Dragonite? Rather than trying to split Gold Mark spend on Deeds and Shiny Keys (potentially). And there are now Kingdom tasks relating to Shiny troops. [already covered feedback on this above, in this thread and in the blog] ---
**Author:** ![Namour](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/namour/32/2957_2.png) [@Namour](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Namour)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/45 "2026-05-13T03:58:07Z")
I think the point is: - people played a lot of explore to get deeds and books from merchant and angel offers (which will no longer exist) to upgrade kingdoms. - people played PvP for the gold marks which they could then convert into Books (unless you are missing egg dragons in which case you use them on dragonite). You are now saying that neither Crystal nor Rainbow Crystal offers are in the shop for Gold Marks. As a consequence, end-game players will only play PvP so as to get the Seasonal Mythic and any missing golden pets. Activity will likely diminish thereafter. Similarly, end game players will likely only play explore to meet guild requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Jeto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/jeto/32/101682_2.png) [@Jeto](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Jeto)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/46 "2026-05-13T03:58:59Z")
It’s also, a brand new update - there is always a chance in future, new offers will be added to the PvP store or the Merchant/Angel. It is just for now, in this update, we have not replaced the Deed offers. ---
**Author:** ![overthinker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/overthinker/32/86337_2.png) [@overthinker](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/overthinker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/47 "2026-05-13T04:00:44Z")
Shiny keys - possibly. Dragonite - definitely no. (Remember, talking about end-gamers here) My personal problem with shiny keys is that the number of them in the shop feels like a drop in the ocean, not changing anything. ---
**Author:** ![suman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@suman](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/suman)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:10am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/48 "2026-05-13T04:10:33Z")
Thank you for the very detailed post Jeto! I am still trying to wrap my head around the conversion rate but it seems that for not fully upgraded kingdoms there will likely be a drop in skill points? For example if I have kingdom level at 15 for +3 skill points and power at 10 for +1 skill points and a total of +4, i think after conversion those xp points would be in the range which would only give around +3 skill points since there is only a skill point per 10 levels after 20 vs every 5 for kingdom level? I have all my kingdoms at level 15 but several power levels were blocked very low due to missing weapons or mythics. Also just want to confirm my understanding that the different levels for tasks just decide the amount of rewards, eg level 20 is no longer blocked by upgrading 8 weapons so if I dont have that yet I could earn enough xp by completing tasks for the troops. Is that right? ---
**Author:** ![DarwinX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@DarwinX](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DarwinX)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:13am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/49 "2026-05-13T04:13:13Z")
They could, but I feel the conversion rate is **terrible.** We can’t buy books directly with gems, but if we could it’d be 2500 gems (assuming you get enough merchant deals and can buy deeds at 50 gems/deed). Imperial Deeds are regularly valued at 250 gems through the same merchant. Using the Book rate of 100 Gold Marks = 1 Book = 2500 Gems means 25 Gems/Gold Mark (this is what everyone buys because it is the best value on a scarce and progression limiting resource, and also you can buy them without encountering an ungodly number of wandering merchants to buy enough deeds). Using the Imperial Deed rate of 40 Gold Marks = 1 Imperial Deed, 40 Gold Marks = 250 Gems, or 6.25 Gems/Gold Mark. (I’ve never done this, and was only considering doing it when I no longer could use books of some colors) For Dragonite, 35 Gold Marks = 30 Dragonite = 150 Gems or 4.28 Gems/Gold Mark. That also means 1 Random Evil/Floral Dragon = 600 Dragonite = 700 Gold Marks. The PVP Mythics (2500 Gold Marks) then are valued at 3.57 Random Evil/Floral Dragons (or 1.78 Chrysantherax/Pandemonia) and they are simply never that powerful. Gold Marks are currently an **absolutely coveted** resource, the main reason to play PvP and a strong reason for buying pvp season passes (factoring in the gold marks you get from burning chests). It is essentially also **the** reward for playing Guild Wars. I can understand that maybe 25 gems/gold mark is overvalued, but I’d drop the prices on the Dragonite to 15 Gold Marks (10 gems/gold mark) and drop the pvp season mythic to 500 Gold Marks (500 Gold Marks → (rate of 15 Gold Marks per 30 dragonite) 1,000 Dragonite, which feels like a more accurate representation of the power level of the season pass mythics). ---
**Author:** ![overthinker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/overthinker/32/86337_2.png) [@overthinker](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/overthinker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:15am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/50 "2026-05-13T04:15:48Z")
I hoped smart people would come and explain this situation with offers better than me. Thank you! Also, as a teacher, I know that a goal should be measurable and achievable. With the deed/random books offers I used to think upgrading kingdoms was like this. I’ve lost that feeling after reading this patch note, at least, for now. ---
**Author:** ![Darkborne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/darkborne/32/95796_2.png) [@Darkborne](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Darkborne)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:18am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/51 "2026-05-13T04:18:29Z")
> [@overthinker](#): > > The bottleneck we used to have before the release that added books of Deeds into the pvp shop. > > Before that, our kingdoms had been stuck at level 16 due to the lack of books of deeds. I know this update is still fresh in my mind, and you are probably overwhelmed Jeto, but please try to understand this… If Crystals for kingdom progress are not offered in the PvP shop, gold marks have **greatly** diminishing returns because: •Dragonite loses most of its value when you have all the Dragonite dragons. •Cursed runes lose a lot of their value once your soulforge is maxed, and I have only found them useful for guildmate gifts. •Shiny keys (1 for 20 gold marks) is way too low of a quantity and somewhat overpriced to justify spending gold marks. •The Seasonal PvP Mythic is not even a consideration for it’s absurd price tag, and it is only useful for kingdom upgrade progress or if people do not want to worry about it. To put it simply…for end-gamers, there is no need to gather gold marks anymore because we will not be able to upgrade kingdoms with them anymore. The other resources and other things have no value once we “collect” everything. ---
**Author:** ![Cooookie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/cooookie/32/55339_2.png) [@Cooookie](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Cooookie)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:20am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/53 "2026-05-13T04:20:46Z")
Maybe the underworld can get a icon for active delve? But that is nice they did that for the kingdoms above ground. ---
**Author:** ![Nagflar\_dv](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/nagflar_dv/32/100704_2.png) [@Nagflar\_dv](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Nagflar_dv)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:26am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/54 "2026-05-13T04:26:17Z")
> [@overthinker](#): > > The bottleneck we used to have before the release that added books of Deeds into the pvp shop The book-bottleneck will became shiny-bootleneck ---
**Author:** ![Darklord1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea5d25/32.png) [@Darklord1](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Darklord1)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/55 "2026-05-13T04:34:38Z")
And the shiny bottle neck is even worse. With BoD’s you had a 1 in 6 chance of getting what you needed but with shiny it’s massively worse odds. Who in their right mind thought that a good idea! ---
**Author:** ![DarwinX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@DarwinX](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DarwinX)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:35am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/56 "2026-05-13T04:35:22Z")
@Jeto there is a **ton** of cool stuff in this update, so I am in general very excited for it. But I see some big concerns in gold marks and merchants/angels Loosening the restrictions on kingdom upgrades in general will de-emphasize pvp anyways, but taking away the most compelling use of gold marks with nothing comparable of value to take its place could have some big ripple effects. Part of buying the pvp season pass is knowing that the burning chests will give some gold marks which in turn can be used to buy books is a big motivator. It’s probably reasonable to de-emphasize citadel wars a little bit, but this is a **really** big step that might have bigger implications than what appears on the surface. If you do want to intentionally de-emphasize pvp I’d strongly suggest dropping the season pass from 2000 VPs/reward tier to 1000 VPs/reward tier so that players can max out the track without grinding as much pvp (to make the purchase more compelling, especially if players will scale back the amount of pvp they play). Especially as people are likely to play less pvp in general, getting them to consistently complete the track will be helpful. Likewise removing the offers from wandering merchants and angels takes away essentially the biggest rewards from those encounters, and one of the main compelling reasons to do daily delves and grind explore. Neither of those activities have any real associated purchases so I find it unlikely to have any serious ripple effects, but it will turn one of the “cool” moments in the game to “meh”. ---
**Author:** ![Jeto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/jeto/32/101682_2.png) [@Jeto](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Jeto)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:35am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/57 "2026-05-13T04:35:38Z")
Just a further note with the Shiny troop task, you don’t have to complete it to continue completing other Kingdom tasks to earn Kingdom XP. > [@Gems-of-War](#): > > Kingdom Tasks are remaining mostly unchanged, other than some new/replaced tasks, but now you can complete a task and it is instantly replaced with a new one! > > Removing the requirement to complete all 3 tasks, before you can get new tasks. resharing because it will be missed in the discussion and others joining in are less likely to go back through the blog before commenting ---
**Author:** ![boss1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@boss1](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/boss1)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:46am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/58 "2026-05-13T04:46:52Z")
very very bad update! big mistake! why change the old system? how much time and effort in the basket((( add prestige levels, but don’t change the old system ---
**Author:** ![DarwinX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@DarwinX](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DarwinX)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:52am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/59 "2026-05-13T04:52:49Z")
I don’t know that I’d go that far. Uncapping progression is pretty cool, and reducing the cost of continuing to advance both seem worthwhile in my opinion. For the amount of resource to max out one Kingdom currently you can do a lot more. I’m pretty excited about my pile of saved up writs being used for some big advancement. ---
**Author:** ![Nagflar\_dv](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/nagflar_dv/32/100704_2.png) [@Nagflar\_dv](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Nagflar_dv)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:56am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/60 "2026-05-13T04:56:20Z")
> [@Gems-of-War](#): > > ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/d/5/d5f4410668209c337a6169d04a2b88617a039d92.jpeg) > > 1024×576 228 KB So we’ll have 3 Tracks avalliable at the same time? > [@Gems-of-War](#): > > **Track 1 – Troops** **Track 2 – Pets & Weapons** **Track 3 – Heroes & More** and it’s 2 on a picture posted. Am i miss something? So anyway - not only my kingdom lvl+pwr will convert to a prestige, but the tracks will be **automaticaly completed to a levels it is now?** So if i have a 38 troops at level 20 it would be finisted and i might be able to level up another troop to 20 and get an XP in tasks, right? ---
**Author:** ![Jeto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/jeto/32/101682_2.png) [@Jeto](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Jeto)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:59am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/61 "2026-05-13T04:59:25Z")
> [@Nagflar\_dv](#): > > So we’ll have 3 Tracks avalliable at the same time? Yes, so it would look like this in-game once live ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/1/3/13a1ed560739cee23f236f0aec0678302f597bd5.jpeg) The picture you are looking at is a graphic to explain the update in the most simple way - it is not an indication of how anything looks completely in-game. > [@Nagflar\_dv](#): > > but the tracks will be **automaticaly completed to a levels it is now?** So if i have a 38 troops at level 20 it would be finisted and i might be able to level up another troop to 20 and get an XP in tasks You will still have 3 tasks that will appear, and you need to complete the task and collect the reward from it to progress and unlock new tasks. If you do not have a task active, then you cannot complete it. It is if you do this (complete Kingdom tasks), and earn enough Kingdom XP from these tasks that your Kingdom can automatically update to whatever level it meets the requirement for. ---
**Author:** ![GODZILLA](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/godzilla/32/102937_2.png) [@GODZILLA](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/GODZILLA)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 5:00am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/62 "2026-05-13T05:00:00Z")
I’m so done…just fix your decade lasting old bugs thats all people asked for since ages. All that overhaul things will only lead to more broken things like always. Thx for wasting my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![SteamWhistle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@SteamWhistle](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/SteamWhistle)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 5:08am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654/65 "2026-05-13T05:08:11Z")
> ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/2/4/24f8d0d0499cb686904d3b0225e68c1d25681263.jpeg) Is there a typo in this chart? Kingdom levels 16–20 only convert to 10k XP, but it took 30 Deed Books and 30 Imperial Deeds, which is 52.5k XP in total. That doesn’t add up at all. Even taking kingdom power levels into account, we still lose tens of thousands of XP per maxed kingdom. [Previous page](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654.md?page=2) [Next page](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/9-2-crystal-kingdom-a-deep-dive/89654.md?page=4)