# Sparkles on Cards

**URL:** <https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841>\
**Category:** Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)\
**Created:** [August 1, 2024, 6:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841 "2024-08-01T06:53:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bizkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@Bizkit](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Bizkit)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 6:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/1 "2024-08-01T06:53:09Z")

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I’m playing Arena and I’ve seen a couple of cards that have sparkles animated on them. What do they mean?

Here’s a screenshot:

 ![Sparkles](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/f/f/ff6a12539aeb7607aaf254609614c84efa52b6c3.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Fourdottwoone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/fourdottwoone/32/66655_2.png) [@Fourdottwoone](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Fourdottwoone)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 7:03am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/2 "2024-08-01T07:03:31Z")

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You can collect shiny tokens for some troops, from shiny keys. They slightly improve the troop and change the visuals. Shiny level (0 - 3) is shown on the lower right above the trait markers, 2 in this case.

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**Author:** ![Bizkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@Bizkit](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Bizkit)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/3 "2024-08-01T08:24:10Z")

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I see. I knew of shiny tokens, but I didn’t know what they were for. Why are they in the Arena, though? Can you draft shiny troops or something?

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**Author:** ![Fourdottwoone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/fourdottwoone/32/66655_2.png) [@Fourdottwoone](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Fourdottwoone)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:42am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/4 "2024-08-01T08:42:38Z")

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> [@Bizkit](#):
>
> Why are they in the Arena, though?

Gems of War quality standards. Troops in the Arena are supposed to be vanilla, entirely decoupled from account progression. However, new things keep bleeding into it, and there isn’t any significant monetization attached, so it doesn’t really get maintained. The community has accepted it as a dead game mode and moved on.

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**Author:** ![Bizkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@Bizkit](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Bizkit)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/5 "2024-08-01T09:31:41Z")

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> [@Fourdottwoone](#):
>
> The community has accepted it as a dead game mode and moved on.

Well, I actually like the Arena. I guess I’m the odd one out. 😛

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**Author:** ![Fourdottwoone](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/fourdottwoone/32/66655_2.png) [@Fourdottwoone](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Fourdottwoone)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 9:47am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/sparkles-on-cards/84841/6 "2024-08-01T09:47:31Z")

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> [@Bizkit](#):
>
> Well, I actually like the Arena. I guess I’m the odd one out.

It’s technically a pretty neat game mode. Unfortunately, for all practical purposes playing it tends to impact your progression in a negative way, because playing just about anything else instead would get you way more of the same resources.