Problem 1: Treasure Hunts haven’t changed with the game. Gems of War has introduced several different Vault troops and Treasure troops and none of it is reflected in Treasure Hunts.
Problem 2: Treasure Maps as a resource are accumulated faster than they can be realistically used by the majority of players, resulting in collections of thousands and thousands of Treasure Maps.
Problem 3: The only incentive to use Treasure Maps was removed with the change from Daily Tasks to Adventure Tasks and the removal of Weekly Rewards (which occasionally had a Treasure Map component)
A Little Analysis
The board is the standard 64 gem board, which means your rewards are tallied from the combination of Bronze/Silver/Gold Coins, Pouches, Brown/Green/Red Chests, and Vaults. There has to be a combination of these, so for instance, you couldn’t possibly end with all Green chests, because they combine to become Red chests.
Each chest has a set of rewards that it randomly gives you when you end the game. Green chests for instance can give you 1 Diamond, while a Red chest can give you 2 Diamonds. To get a Red chest for 2 diamonds, you give up anywhere from 3 to 5 green chests (which means you are giving up potentially 3 to 5 Gems, but also possibly 0). Because it’s easier to get green chests then red chests, a common strategy for getting the most gems per hour is to focus exclusively on creating green chests and ending the match as soon as possible making as many green chests as you can. Why? Because you have a much better chance to get at least 1 gem from 3 green chests than you do from getting at least 2 gems from a red chest. Green chests drop Gold/Souls/Glory/Gems and red chests drop Souls/Glory/Gems/Glory Keys.
Similarly, if you are playing Treasure Hunt because you want Gems (which is the only reason to play Treasure Hunt), you should never focus on Vaults. A Vault can drop Glory, Gems, Glory Keys, and Gem Keys. But it only drops 5 Gems. To get a Vault, you need a minimum of 3 Red Chests. That’s 9 Green Chests. On average, you will get more gems from 9 green chests than you will from 1 Vault. Even if the odds were slightly better for the Vault, the time requirement to get 1 Vault vs 9 green chests is always going to be in favor of the green chests. In that regard, there is very little incentive to ever try to get Vault rewards.
Solutions for the Horde of Treasure Maps people have
One of the common complaints about Treasure Hunts isn’t about the Hunt itself, but rather the maps. One solution could be to introduce a “Super Treasure Hunt” of sorts that requires more maps to start. You’d maybe start out with Silver Coins instead of Bronze. However, I don’t think this is a wise solution. Another idea could be the ability to transform maps into other resources. Again, I don’t think this is a good idea. Both of these ideas give new players a bad feeling where they don’t know if they should use 1 at a time or save up for whatever the cost is of the “new idea.” Additionally, even if I have 5000 maps, eventually I would run out of maps and I would become just like the new player where I would be in the position where I’m always trying to accumulate enough to do the “new thing.” Well, if that’s the case, then just get rid of the original treasure hunt and start with the new one.
Proposal: I think a very straight forward solution would be instead to allow treasure maps to be used exponentially. During a Treasure Hunt, let me use one of my Treasure Maps for an extra turn. Then the next extra turn costs 2 maps, then 6 maps, then 24 maps for a 4th extra turn, 120 maps for a 5th, 720 for a 6th turn, and a crazy 5040 maps for a 7th (the formula being that each extra turn costs that many extra turns more than the last one, so the third extra turn costs 3 times more than the second, and the fourth extra turn costs 4 times more than the 3rd, etc.)
Why does this work? Well, it allows players to use their extra maps in a way that doesn’t force them to collect them. In other words, if I have 4000 treasure maps, I’m not going to run out and think “Great, now I can’t play Treasure Hunt because I don’t have 4000 maps anymore.” Instead, I would just have a couple extra turns for a little bit.
Solutions for Updating Treasure Hunt to reflect the game now
- Add Hero XP and tie it to the same 15 turns as Traitstones with a chance to gain Bonus Hero XP at different intervals (for instance, 25 XP per 15 turns, and a bonus 25 at 50 turns, 50 bonus XP at 100 turns, 100 bonus XP at 150 turns, etc.)
- Add Player Gold/Souls/XP Bonuses to Treasure Hunt final Rewards calculations. Currently whatever Gold and Souls you get from the coins/chests is exactly what you get, your bonuses (which are active in every other game mode) don’t work here.
- Widen the Rewards to include things that will incentive players to do Treasure Hunts, just like people are eager to do Vault Keys. Here are the current possible rewards:
Bronze coin: 1 Gold
Silver coin: 3 gold
Gold coin: 10 gold
Pouch: 30 Gold, 3 Souls
Brown chest: 80 Gold, 8 Souls, 2 Glory
Green chest: 200 Gold, 20 Souls, 6 Glory, 1 Gem
Red chest: 50 Souls, 15 Glory, 2 Gems, 2 Glory Keys
Vault: 40 Glory, 5 Gems, 6 Glory Keys, 2 Gem Keys
New Rewards:
Green chest: 200 Gold, 20 Souls, 6 Glory, 1 Gem, 1 Diamond
Red chest: 50 Souls, 15 Glory, 2 Gems, 2 Glory Keys, 2 Diamonds, 1 Event Key
Vault: 40 Glory, 5 Gems, 6 Glory Keys, 2 Gem Keys, 2 Event Keys, 5 Diamonds
2nd Vault: 60 Glory, 8 Gems, 9 Glory Keys, 3 Gem Keys, 3 Event Keys, 8 Diamonds, 1 Sacred Treasure
3rd Vault: 80 Glory, 10 Gems, 12 Glory Keys, 4 Gem Keys, 4 Event Keys, 10 Diamonds, 2 Sacred Treasure, 1 VIP Key, 1 Minor Orb
4th Vault: 120 Glory, 15 Gems, 18 Glory Keys, 6 Gem Keys, 6 Event Keys, 15 Diamonds, 3 Sacred Treasure, 2 VIP Key, 1 Major Orb
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(and not just the most common, “let us use 10 maps for 10x rewards pls”).
)… am one (of the very few) that (still) plays TH exclusively.
/purple 
and blue 
/green 
was nearly impossible for me. Discovered TH, and forgot the rest of the game… 
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