Well, I did enjoy it until I found the last miniboss stuck behind a keystone that would require me to pay 600 gems to the merchant to play it. THAT annoys me.
Probably a lot of players will do that. But, then the question: why waste SOOO MUCH dev time on brining up a mode that is not going to improve player experience and make the game more enjoyable? And why instead not fix some bugs or, for once, listen to the community and add things that we, the players, want.
600 gems for that keystone - pure evil.
I think iām just fed up at this point. And iām in denial, where i believe this game will change for the better sometimes, but clearly that does not seem to be the case. Sucks to say bye after so many years, butā¦ it is what it is.
So a couple people have suggested that might be the 7th boss room. Iām gonna try again tomorrow and weāll see.
I know what you mean. The game has changed a lot. They are definitely understaffed and should do a better job of incorporating user feedback. They need a product manager that talks to players. I know from working in software that there are some bugs you canāt fix easily without breaking other stuff. So Iām sympathetic to that. But the refresh of the troop cards had to be tremendously labor intensive and did not improve gameplay. That is the kind of stuff that makes us all crazy 
2 Likes
The game mode itself actually feels quite neat, it just gets ruined by monetization. If it were based on unlimited fights, each day of the week the next boss section unlocks, pay to make your fights easier/faster/avoidable it would probably be a lot more popular. I guess the design team had good intentions, then they got crippled by the sales team.
16 Likes
Thanks to the Devs for not putting any books of deeds as rewards so I can safely F2P the underspire without missing out on anything that I need. My commiserations to those that designed it as a fun mode before the commercial people got their hands on monetising it.
17 Likes
Iām happy to report that the last miniboss was indeed beyond the final battle room on the map and I was able to finish the event without buying the last keystone. PHEW!
2 Likes
1 Like
All told, 1050 gems and $12 for 118 torches/lanterns. So on the weeks where I have a strong team, I might buy tier 2 with gems each day, so 70 torches plus 49 free for the week - 119 torches total. Iāve gotta see if I think the orbs of glory and imperial deeds are worth it.
1 Like
Just a follow up, since Iām actually trying to be fair:
-
The RNG on path generation is still scuffed. Some will make out like bandits and others are going to have quite a few harsh dead ends. Despite the technical positive of a mega dead end, I donāt appreciate that mega dead ends that can show up. āThe road to nowhere.ā
-
Iāve changed my opinion on the Underspire from āI donāt know whoā to the ātarget audience is a little narrow.ā People can make it far enough when informed. I find the target audience narrow due to the rewards. If youāre not into Glory Orbs, thereās not much here outside of free rewards.
-
The effort to do it isā¦ debatable? Some kingdoms are going to be a lot better than others. Next weekās Blackhawk wonāt be as fluid as Wild Plains.
-
- The prices of Torches still should not be going up 50, 100, 150. Thereās too many dead ends and useless paths that paying those gems to progress 5 spaces to empty nothing just feels bad as a game mechanic. Despite my opinion of the process having improved, my opinion of the prices has not changed.
-
1b. The devs missed a perfect opportunity to just make this game mode free and sell Underspire multi-room stat power for new players to improve chances to succeed. This has not changed. It could have easily been a cornerstone feature of Gems of War and is instead just another pay option.
-
2 / 2b. The Lantern is better than expected, but still equally as useless at moments. The worst moments are using a Lantern down a straight path. It needs a light buff. heh.
-
3 / 4. Orb of Wisdom as a 3rd boss prize is still a joke as the 1st 2 prizes should not have a higher perceived value than the 3rd prize. Moving the Orb of Wisdom earlier wonāt help either. I still think the Minion Orb of Minions would make for a preferable substitution. Likewise, 100 Dragonite and 1 Minor Orb of Minions is underwhelming for a final prize. If you wanted to pressure everyone to do the Underspire, make the last reward 1 of every color Deed Book. Not that everyone would actually want to do the Underspire, so I suppose this current prize pool has its upsides for some.
- I wrote the previous post immediately after going down the mega dead-end. The difficulty scaling isnāt as rough when not on that mega dead-end. Iām neutral on the difficulty now, but I reserve judgment until after experiencing some of the weaker kingdoms.
Would I recommend the Underspire now? ā¦ eh, maybe. Its not for everyone for largely the same reasons as before. Gem Prices, Difficulty scaling (not new player friendly), Lantern functionality. Just at a difference point of thought process.
Its not as cheap as some people think its going to be on a paper napkin, but its also not a buy all torches and lanterns too mode. With the expected squeeze on guilds to do the new higher reward tiers of Weekly events and expected Gem payments for Shiny Pets for the long future, I still donāt know if Iād recommend the Underspire fully as none of the rewards are a true necessity. Even the Imperial Deeds could be obtained from the Merchant at a āreasonable costā, so not getting it from the Underspire is not the end of the world (even if free).
Coincidentally, the best part of the Underspire is Dragon Boss Prize 1 and 2. The free ones. Its debatable which one is actually better for players, and thatās actually nice.
Unfortunately for the devs, that also means the actual paid portion comes across as unneeded and that Orb of Wisdom is a natural area to stop progression/refuse payment. Mission accomplished?
13 Likes
I have two thoughts here to respond to:
Regarding the rewards? I suspect there are a healthy number of people who would be glad for a semi-reliable source for Imperial Deeds, even if itās a case where the player saves the āfreeā Lantern for the 2nd boss and doubles up there and thatās the extent of his/her gains for a week. I know Iām one of them. Because Iām at the point where my hurdle for kingdom progress and the like is not having the resources to level my kingdoms from 16 to 18 ā or the willingness to spend gobs of real money on that process ā and Imperial Deeds donāt come around very often or very reliably for me. Not that colored deeds do, either, but theyāre a fair amount more common whether from Adventure Board tasks or because I get lucky and run into the Merchant. (Even if the latter process is totally unreliable in terms of getting a specific color.)
As for the 50 / 100 / 150 cost for Torches? Iāll bet that they simply did a copy-and-paste on the code from buying additional fights in the Holiday events. That aside? Iām not especially offended by that, and I figure a couple of weeks of data from the group here on the forums will help everybody settle on the necessary levels of investment to reach certain reward benchmarks with a healthy level of (statistical) confidence.
Not that Iām planning on spending huge amounts of Gems in this game mode. Partially because I try and reserve my Gem spending for Deed offers from the Merchant (after my required buy-ins for Guild Events including Guild Wars), and partially because I see three brand new Wednesday cosmetic Pest events coming up; as a dedicated F2P player, I prioritize those to balance against future kingdom progress requirements given the relative lack of Orbs of Minions combined with my not buying Campaign Passes and getting additional pests that way.
All in all? This mode is probably meant to be something of a Gem/money sink for the endgame players who might have already done most everything else this game has to offer. Maybe in an attempt to hold onto them and their wallets for a while longer.
5 Likes
In that regardā¦
The Underspireās minor orb of minion is a lot more reasonable than buying from Legendary to Mythic from a (cosmetic) pet event, especially if you double it with a Lantern. I think if you can budget it, you could safely do Underspire events to save you a lot of gems.
1 Like
Or a āfreeā Mythic troop as the Bonus reward after spending $10 on Lanterns. (Since the $10 Mythic sells so many elite (lol) pa$$es.)
Once the community works out the math for us, so that I have an idea of what the necessary spending levels would be to have a fairly decent chance at a guaranteed Orb of Minions? Iād absolutely consider using my Lantern there instead of doubling up on an Imperial Deed.
Right this second? I have one (1) kingdom blocked in part by lack of pests. (Adana, because Iām not buying Starry pests to Mythic. Also because Adanaās Legends Reborn is coming soon and that will address that particular shortcoming.)
Right this second? I have seventeen (17) separate kingdoms that have an open ākingdom levelā task that requires Books and Imperials in sizable quantities.
I can certainly see the attraction insofar as getting an additional Orb of Minions and the potential to save 1000-1500 Gems (estimated) leveling the thing up on release Wednesday. Especially as I can then turn those Gems into a pile of Deeds from the Merchant.
But Iāll wait for the wonderful folks in these spaces to work out the specifics on this, much like how theyāve worked out specifics on things like āoptimalā spending for Holiday events and the like.
2 Likes
Too many gems spent but rewards are really bad. We need better rewards if you want to take more gems, cash from us.
Give you a reason whyā¦
I canāt. I canāt give you even one reason to spend 150 gems on underspire, let alone 1500 or more.
It doesnāt seem to be worth even 50 right now, so why anyone would spend more on it is a mystery to me.
Considering the eye strain that must be endured getting through each days events, with the changes made during update 7.0, before considering the addition of underspire, the underwhelming rewards and high cost of torches and lanterns, it seems that no one should want to waste ANY gems on it.
2 Likes
The Underspire is underwhelming and just another gem sink mode for little return. I am already at the point where I just do the free daily torches and have no desire to even waste any of my gems to buy more. I am definitely never going to spend $1.99 on lanterns.
This is another mode where Iāll play it once and then probably never bother with again.
4 Likes
I like the Underspire. I like the fact that itās different and I enjoy that I can get some nice rewards for free. Iām almost certainly not going to spend gems on it, going forward, and thatās okay. I can still get some nice stuff for free and I appreciate that.
5 Likes
What are the rewards for fully completing Underspire?
1st Boss (Garnetaerlin): 100 Writs + 1 Lesser Orb of Glory
2nd Boss (Emeraldrin): 1 Imperial Deed + 1 Epic VKey
3rd Boss (Sapphirax): 3 Gemkeys + 1 Lesser Orb of Wisdom (worst reward so far)
4th Boss (Amethialas): 1 Epic VKey + 1 Medium Orb of Glory
5th Boss (Topasarth): 10 Cursed Runes + 1 Minor Orb of Ascension
6th Boss (Rubirath): 1 Minor Orb of Chaos + 1 Major Orb of Glory
7th Boss (Diamantina): 50 Dragonite + 1 Minor Orb of Minions (appears immediately after the 6th Boss)
You can double up rewards by using lanterns on bosses.
2 Likes
Itās closer to 1000 gems than 1500 gems. I for one am enjoying this new mode. I donāt get why other people have to yuck otherās peopleās yum. I also appreciate the game putting out new content as opposed to stagnating and dying slowly. I will probably buy 1 lantern pack each week for a little while just to support the game and new content, especially as Iām not supporting the campaign anymore.
Other people will have better uses for 1000 gems, and thatās fine. Iād rather have too much content than not enough, and find it funny that our OCD drives many of us to complete everything.
2 Likes