Talking about the resource tasks, and we’ll start with vault keys. The shining jewel reward at the end of the Elite+ Pass. You get one if you shelled out 25 bucks.
The campaign tasks costs you two. Or 100 gems per to skip.
Next, the 2nd most difficult keys to get: Event keys. Free pass got 2. Elite Pass got you 8. Plus pass got you 10.
The campaign tasks cost you 20! Or 50 gems per to skip.
And if you decided not to pay, you got punished for it.
Free campaign got you 4 gem keys. Tasks cost you 10.
Free campaign got you 18 glory keys. Tasks cost you 25. And that’s deliberate so that most players would not be bothered to click a single key 25 times, and just use 50 keys, which makes it even more onerous.
Free campaign got you 32 gold keys. Tasks cost you 50.
Yes, it’s very probable that you spend keys sometime during the campaign, and also possible that you would line up a task with some keys you wanted to use.
But I’m funny about keys. I like to use them when I decide to, not because I’m forced to in order to advance in a campaign.
And let’s not forget the summoning stones: 10 purple, 3 green & 1 each of brown, yellow, blue & red, for 17 total. Each one is 50 jewels & 100 souls. And three of the tasks were silver, so to skip them all is 1000 gems.
Now, the Elite Pass, and Pass Plus gave better rewards than the free pass. I have zero problem with that. Whether someone thinks it’s worth it or not is up to the individual.
But you should NOT be punished for not paying, and it’s very clear that you were.
Drop the resource tasks, or make the free rewards (at least) enough to regain what you lost by doing the campaign.
Agree it’s terrible design that you are forced to use carefully accrued resources, whether it’s keys or summoning stones.
As for the other tasks:
Arena - hated it
Delve - hated it
Kill x of anything - fine
Explore x colour gems - fine
Dungeon- hated it
Adventure board - fine
Explore - fine
PvP - ever since gold nerf I can’t stand PvP
Edit: treasure hunt: meh that was ok. At least you get some tiny rewards for it
These are just my impressions. Overall I didn’t enjoy most tasks, and the rigid order in which they had to be completed was also not enjoyable.
Treasure Hunt?
I wasn’t much bothered about using event keys or gem keys.
What is an example of a resource bleed to value is the summoning stone → troop task.
A daily offer today offers me 10 of each, plus, 2,000 shards for → 200 gems.
Yet the task took 150 stones each week (did it do it every week, it felt like it) , so going by all colours, it cost 6 lots of 150 stones, 900 stones, which would cost in the daily deals, 1400 gems for 840 combined stones. So, you can work out a better figure there of the bleed being way out of step with the cost they apply to the stones.
I actually enjoy 1 treasure hunt at the end of my evening gaming, and normally hit 80-100 with my eyes closed, and 140 upwards on a good night. When campaign introduced a treasure hunt task requiring a score of 60, I hit exactly 59 on 3 consecutive attempts. I can’t remember the last time I ever scored that low on a treasure hunt, let alone the same score 3 times consecutively. Hmmmm, coincidence maybe, but a HUGE coincidence if so.
The worst thing, and still don get why all task are locked. All should be active at once.
I’m not that bothered by the resources required, I just wish the whole thing didn’t feel like a giant waste of time that I nonetheless feel compelled to complete to not be at a statistical disadvantage.
I agree. I wished they were checklist and not tasks doable just one at a time.
Unless you value the stats from the Artifact, the Campaigns are not worth doing as a free player unless the “rewards” are buffed to actually BE REWARDING for the resources you are required to spend.
And no, IP2/505, “but using Keys still gives you all the normal loot you expect from using Keys” doesn’t work here. Like the OP, a lot of us like to choose when we use our keys to maximize results. For example, I’ll throw Event Keys at a new release Legendary troop. Others will use Event Keys to chase a missing Mythic when the relevant Kingdom is featured. Lots of people will use Gem Keys or Glory Keys to try pulling a Mythic during its exclusive week.
These resource-bleed tasks are quite literally a gameplay tax and should either not exist at all, or should be repaid to the player as part of the rewards the player receives. Period.