TOPIC: Best token purchases for the long run?

Hi everyone,

I played True Dungeon on and off the past four years, and after having a blast this year (thanks to the awesome group I ran Deeperdark Combat with on Saturday), I started thinking I'd like to put a decent amount of money into the game. I am not set on playing a particular character class (although I like the Monk a lot, and have a decent set of rares for that class).

Next year, I am hoping to get 5-6 runs in during Gen Con, and possibly more at the other True Dungeon events throughout the year. Given that I'd like to slowly improve my gear over the next few years, with the goal of getting to 'endgame', which of these sounds better:

1. A $1k token pack, with Amulets of Treasure Finding as my pick your purples. I'm also pretty interested in collecting the Teeth of Cavadar items, so that's a nice bonus here.

2. Charm of Avarice - similar idea, but just all in on treasure pulls.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out how many times I'd have to use the charm to make it worthwhile, and if my idea of investing in more treasure pulls even makes sense (not sure I should be using the treasure disappointment thread as a data point). If the CoA isn't significantly better than just wearing an amulet, then the trade goods and random purples sound good too.

I guess there's a few other questions here - for those of you who got serious about token collecting, how did you start? What were your first buys, and how do you maintain your collections? I'm interested in any advice from those who've been in the game for longer.

Thanks!

I started pretty much like you: played for a few years before getting serious.

My first buys were a $250 order each year for 2-3 years. Then I evolved to a $1K order for one year then $2K orders for a couple or so years. This year I did an $8K order. I mainly did the $8K to get the Onyx set and the Dragon Orb.

If you're looking to get serious about TD, but only put together 1-2 character classes I highly recommend just buying the single Tokens (including Relics and Legendaries) you want. The secondary market has proven that it is cheaper to buy the completed Tokens instead of transmuting them yourself. Granted it is fun to go to WYC and GenCon and hand in a collection of transmutes and be handed blue and orange Tokens. It feels good and fulfilling.

The average value of a treasure pull seems to be in the $2-5 dollar range - but as we've seen this year it can be very, very lumpy. There are people who made 4 treasure pulls and got $1000 worth of tokens, and people who made 400 and also got $1000 worth of tokens.

A $100 Amulet of Treasure Finding pays for itself after 5-15 dungeon runs, and a $1000 Charm of Avarice after 20-50 dungeon runs on average.

So - it depends a good deal on how many runs you'll do, how much you are interested in storing, trading, and selling the extra tokens.

Also, pulling extra treasure can be fun in and of itself, so that's worth something.

If history is any guide, the Teeth of Cavadar items will appreciate - indeed the 1st tooth was selling for $75 18 months ago, and never goes for less than $150 nowadays. So, if you think you're interested in getting the 7 teeth I'd acquire a 1st and 2nd tooth quickly.

In terms of my ramping up of tokens it went like:

* Bought a few extra token 10 packs.
* Shopped at Gaming Etc. on the show floor and started buying URs.
* Got some Relics from the treasure box in 2013 - this is what tipped me over.
* Started following eBay auctions, forum stores, forum auctions
* Decided to try my hand at being a dealer, which brings us to the present

It happens I enjoy the sorting, merchandising, etc. of being a dealer. From a purely monetary perspective, it would have been cheaper for me to just decide what tokens I want and buy them.

Define "best."

It depends on your goals.

What level do you want to play? What class(es)? How many times a year?

Do you want to maintain one build? Several? All of them? Do you want to collect entire sets of tokens, like "all chippies?"

How much money do you want to spend? Do you want to buy tokens and sell at a profit? (Forget the last one; it's been impossible since 2014, maybe earlier.)

Your "best" approach depends on the answers to all those questions, so I have no advice for you right now.

As for loot tokens - quick back-of-envelope. Multiply tokens by $3 and divide into the price. (Count CoA as $33 unless you have groups where you can guarantee more than half the players have a CoA or CoGF. Then, $36 or $39). Divide runs by number of times you'll play a year. That's how many years it will take to pay for them selves, on average. Draw a relic or two, or a bad streak of all uncommons, and these numbers are way off:

So, CoA - 30-40 games
RoR - 30-40 games
CoGF - 30 to 60 games (depends on how many in the party wear them)
AoTF - 8 to 10 games, unless you buy one after it goes out of print in December, then who knows?

Which is best? Again, it depends.

I'd always recommend getting tokens that give you extra treasure draws, if that's something you like. Spending $1K to get a Charm of Avarice will give you an extra 13 draws. I haven't checked the stores to see if anyone is selling one for $1K, but I have seen threads recently with people looking to sell them.

If you want to spread it out a bit, and get 4 extra draws, you could get the Amulet of Treasure Finding plus three extra URs to help your character, plus Tooth #2 and a bunch of token packs (with at least one random UR). That is, if you can still buy token packs, I'm not sure if they are sold out or not. If they aren't, and this is what you'd like to do, I'd recommend buying them as soon as the token store opens. If you don't squeeze in a post-GENCON purchase, the Amulet of Treasure Finding will be out of print as soon as the 2016 tokens are sold out or the window to buy them closes. If you do make a purchase, you could also just buy four Amulets of Treasure Finding, and trade the ones next year that you don't want, they should be worth more than a PYP once they are out of print.

Clarification: CoA only grants 13 draws if the other nine in your party have either a CoA or a CoGF. Otherwise, it's only 11 or 12.

Many vets will have them, including extras to lend. (My wife and I each have a CoA, plus 8 extra CoGF we let everyone else use, if need be.) But if you're going to play with folks like that, then maybe just borrow theirs and give them a chip or two in gratitude.

But if you're only going to play twice a year in pickup groups, your payback period for the CoA is something like 15 years. If you're going to carry $1k on your credit card to buy one, it's a horrible idea. (Paying $180 a year in interest for $70 worth of tokens? Crazy.)

But if you have the cash and plan on playing ten games a year, then maybe it's only three years. That makes more sense.

This is why I don't like to give advice. People never give you enough data, or else just enough to get you to tell them to do what they wanted to do in the first place.

So here's my advice: decide why you're playing, and how. That makes the decisions about what to buy much more obvious.

Another universally good buff token would be one of the tokens that add +1 Level

Charm of Heroism or Ring of Heroism

MetaphoricDragon wrote: Another universally good buff token would be one of the tokens that add +1 Level

Charm of Heroism or Ring of Heroism

Metaphoric makes an excellent point. Treasure enhancing tokens are great, don't get me wrong, I have got 10 CoA as soon as I was able to and I have 10 AoTF for when we have 10 groups in the dungeon at the same time. However if I could only get 1 token to enhance playing the most it would be a level boosting token. Extra HP, more damage, better saves, more abilities. The level bump is very powerful imo.

My ramping into higher end tokens went like this
1a. Treasure Enhancers
1b. Character level boost
2. Items for multi-year transmutes (Boots, Teeth)
3. Grab UR I wanted before they rotated OOP
4. Newest years' UR
5. Relics

So I played for a few years but this year was the first year I really went big. I started by realizing that with all the spare tokens I had laying around I was half way to transmuting a ring of heroism. So first thing I did was finish that up. Second was a charm of avarice, I love pulling treasure almost as much as opening packs, (disclaimer: I sold my mtg collection that I had laying around for the money for the charm so it was an easy decision,). I also knew what class I was gonna play so I bought a bunch of ultra rares for it. Large drop up front but was able to get some good prices since I spent about $2500 with the same person.

To me it's the Charm of Avarice. A person gets so many tokens after every run with that. Not only does it give you more opportunities to pull purps, gold bars, bits, trade items, but it also helps to get a person where they want to be with transmuting.
This token will be in high demand for years before a decent replacement is ever dug up or mysteriously found in a treasure vault.

I've done $250 packs since I started, although I did a $1K one year. I've bought and traded for a bunch of URs from other players over the years, and I transmuted some of the big tokens (Charm of Avarice, Boots of the Four Winds). It helps that I have only built up to play a wizard - Many tokens I've gotten (like volunteer tokens) haven't been really helpful for wizards, so they have been great trade bait for what I need.