economy Crashing This Economy With No Survivors - How to Abuse Super Packs for Profit

[Robotech_Master]

As nearly as I've been able to make out, Heroes and Villains is the same as Rogues and Vigilantes, just with different card backs on them.

[Papaschtroumpf]

My understanding is that each ATO has 2 sets and one set is available from one type of packs and the other set from the other pack.

[Vareos]

The last few days just of curiosity spent about 400mil on these packs and made back...290. These packs seemed to more often than not chalked full of respecs, build ,temp buffs and costume tokens. Now while these things aren't generally bad get four or five packs full of them with no IO and your profit just sank rather than grow. It's a slot machine pure and simple, you might hit it big and might even do so for a while but sooner or later your luck will run out. I think like many others have stated it's an ok passive thing once in a while but far more effective methods exists.

[Bloodofcaine]

The last few days just of curiosity spent about 400mil on these packs and made back...290. These packs seemed to more often than not chalked full of respecs, build ,temp buffs and costume tokens. Now while these things aren't generally bad get four or five packs full of them with no IO and your profit just sank rather than grow. It's a slot machine pure and simple, you might hit it big and might even do so for a while but sooner or later your luck will run out. I think like many others have stated it's an ok passive thing once in a while but far more effective methods exists.

 

I believe so too, opened about 100 mil worth of these things just to see what the hubbub was about, didn't even break even from it. Since I'm not flush with billions it was a huge disappointment for me. I know my sample size was a bit on the small side, but come on. It's just a bit too unreliable for me personally. I am still boggled at how some folks are sitting on billions in this game. It certainly can't be from this.

[Cheli]

The last few days just of curiosity spent about 400mil on these packs and made back...290. These packs seemed to more often than not chalked full of respecs, build ,temp buffs and costume tokens. Now while these things aren't generally bad get four or five packs full of them with no IO and your profit just sank rather than grow. It's a slot machine pure and simple, you might hit it big and might even do so for a while but sooner or later your luck will run out. I think like many others have stated it's an ok passive thing once in a while but far more effective methods exists.

 

I believe so too, opened about 100 mil worth of these things just to see what the hubbub was about, didn't even break even from it. Since I'm not flush with billions it was a huge disappointment for me. I know my sample size was a bit on the small side, but come on. It's just a bit too unreliable for me personally. I am still boggled at how some folks are sitting on billions in this game. It certainly can't be from this.

 

A farming run with a parked alt generally earns me ~50 million between the two of them, plus empys, salvage and recipes, all of it worth at least that much, usually several times more.

 

The fastest way to make money is always, always, always, always going to be putting together a good farmer that can clear a +4/x8 cave in under an hour. There aren't really any other secrets or 'tricks' or schemes or anything in CoH... just farm, and use your rewards wisely.

[subbacultchas]

I am still boggled at how some folks are sitting on billions in this game. It certainly can't be from this.

Yeah, it ain't from this. I tried this, and for me it was among the worst ways to make money, and I actually lost on this. I'm not exactly a high-roller in comparison to some folks, but I've got two toons wearing about 750 mil a piece worth of sets, and probably got about 200-300 mil in spending cash right now.

 

Mostly this is from a couple of things: doing TFs,Trials, Raids, solo farming, and using converters. Doing solo farming when nothing else is going on is a good way to make money, and in early levels that includes a bit of AE farming and then using tickets for recipes. Later levels (especially 50) the tickets are not worth it long run. Using converters to turn some of those IOs into better versions to sell is an excellent way to make money too, and works in tandem with farming. But Trials, TFs, Raids are one of the even better ways for me. Summer Blockbuster itself is a way to get 5-7 mil in 30 minutes usually, and Hamidon raids even more lucrative depending on what you pick.

 

But also being savvy with how you spend helps. I see people all the time using reward merits to buy enhancements, and that's really never the preferred way and especially for the class specific ones. Most of the ATOs, Winters, and Purples run for less on the AH than you'd get for turning those 100 merits into converters and selling them. And while sometimes it's a different of say 5 mil for a Purple, for ATOs it's a different of 10-20 million.

[Oklahoman]

Just wanted to say thanks for the tip. I wasn’t aware the packs were available there. I’m doing my part now to crash the economy, just like Mr. Robot!

[kelly Rocket]

I tried this... Grabbed a couple of Winter ones (Probably too early), and one of them somehow I didn't get an enhancement from at all, so I lost like 20 million inf :(

[Robotech_Master]

Yeah, I don't think you'll do more than break even at best if you put too much money in these. That being said, if you let the ATO and booster and catalyst sales subsidize your purchases, you'll break even plus get a lot of other nifty stuff for effectively free. Experienced, Windfall, self- and ally rezzes, special Inspirations, etc.

[Hellguard]

A friend and I have been doing this for a couple weeks (well, I have anyway... he started a few days ago). I think he's still mainly doing the "regular" packs and I've mostly moved on to the Winter ones.

 

You definitely do MORE than break even, given enough packs and a little bit of time. When I buy a round of packs I never fail to get several more ATOs or Winter IOs than packs I bought, and the sales from those do more than break even. Boosters, catalysts, unslotters, converters, merits (= more converters), and Brain Storm Ideas (20 of which = rare invention salvage = 500k each) are just icing on the cake.

 

When I factor in the now near-endless stream of respecs, free costume sessions, amplifiers, and dual/team inspirations that all my characters will have access to, I just don't know why you wouldn't be doing this.

 

I don't even make as much as I could, as I lazily list all ATOs for a certain price and all Winter IOs for a certain price and take my chances that I'll get more than I list for (which I almost always do). If I took the time to look at each one's sales history and actually list it appropriately, I'd make more than I do.

 

It's NOT extremely fast and it can be boring at times (especially listing all the converters since you can only do ten at a time -- I've thought about switching to Boosters so it'll go quicker, but it's a huge pay cut to do that given enough merits), but for someone like me who's kind of lazy it's kind of nice to just log in a couple times a day and collect a few hundred million inf at a time.

 

The complaints I've seen seem to be from people only buying a couple of packs and getting unlucky. It definitely IS possible to not get any IOs for a couple packs, so if you're only buying a couple I can see that's disheartening (especially the Winter packs). But I promise you you won't lose anything if you buy a lot.

 

Until the market crashes, if that ever happens. :P

 

[kelly Rocket]

For now I'm sticking with the upcrafting (Craft and convert) method. It's reliably 200-900% return on investment. Never fails to at least double my money, and usually averages about a 4x multiplier on whatever I put into it. Takes longer, and is fiddlier, but much more reliable and a higher profit margin.

[Ulysses Dare]

So I decided to give this a try last week. I bought 10 H&V superpacks and got 13 ATOs out of the deal. Sadly, I have a horrible case of altitus and the ATOs I rolled wound up going to them rather than being sold. So I personally didn't make money this way. :P But it's definitely possible to make money if you open enough packs that the law of averages works in your favor.

 

 

[kelly Rocket]

10 H&V packs is 100 million inf.

 

13 ATOs should average to 104 million.

 

That doesn't sound like a great RoI to me.

 

Especially when if I spent 100 million on craft & convert I'd expect 300-400 million after selling the results.

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 7/22/2019 at 10:39 PM, kelly Rocket said:

10 H&V packs is 100 million inf.

 

13 ATOs should average to 104 million.

 

That doesn't sound like a great RoI to me.

 

Especially when if I spent 100 million on craft & convert I'd expect 300-400 million after selling the results.

I'm not a user of the packs myself.  I'm a fan of other people using them -- it takes inf out of the system and it replaces it with tradeable goods, both of which fit my notions of "what is good for the economy."

 

As an investment scheme though, I will say that one thing it has going for it is scale.  I agree with your ROI estimates, but investing 100mm in craft is, what, a few hundred IOs?  That's a lot of clicking and dragging and time spent.  And what if you wanted to invest 1bn in crafting?  A few thousand IOs is a lot of work.

 

If, IF, someone felt they had a reasonable chance to make a decent return after fees, it scales up to size.  Investing 1bn in H&V might get you between 100-150 ATOs, which is manageable.  But I'd target 50% after fees and I don't think it's anywhere near that.

[Ulysses Dare]

On 7/22/2019 at 9:39 PM, kelly Rocket said:

10 H&V packs is 100 million inf.

 

13 ATOs should average to 104 million.

 

That doesn't sound like a great RoI to me.

 

Especially when if I spent 100 million on craft & convert I'd expect 300-400 million after selling the results.

I made back about half of what I spent by selling catalysts, unslotters, and rare salvage (from brainstorms). If I'd actually sold the ATOs I figure I'd have made around 160-170 million altogether. So no, the ROI isn't as good as you'd get with craft & convert. To me, it seems more like a high-roller's version of swapping merits for converters. And, as Yomo Kimyata points out above, it does scale really well.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Ulysses Dare

[Hopeling]

This is only vaguely related, but: does anyone know how to open Super Packs with a macro, if such a thing can be done? Opening these in bulk by right-clicking and using the context menu is tedious.

[Mr. Vee]

16 minutes ago, Hopeling said:

This is only vaguely related, but: does anyone know how to open Super Packs with a macro, if such a thing can be done? Opening these in bulk by right-clicking and using the context menu is tedious.

Like all loot boxes you're supposed to lean into the tedium by streaming yourself slowly opening them one flip at a time and rambling between each flip.

[Rylas]

I've been using this method for about a month now. Buying 2 packs at a time, and averaging about 3 ATOs/2 packs. 3 ATOs averaging about 8 million tends to be a slow but steady increase. But the real ROI comes from landing the occasional Windfall power. I did just shy of 3 Comic Con arcs (was 2 mins shy) in the AE with the Windfall power and got 5 Purple recipes, 1 PVP recipe and a handful of decent uncommon recipes. I also got nearly all the salvage needed to craft the purples (I only needed to buy 2 rare salvage pieces). Sold all of that for well over 100 million profit. 

 

I won't argue that it's not still somewhat a slot machine. I was still farming on top of this method. But overall it was profitable and the Windfall does a lot towards making it worth the slow pace. 

 

I don't see it being a market crasher though.

[Sakai]

14 hours ago, Rylas said:

I've been using this method for about a month now. Buying 2 packs at a time, and averaging about 3 ATOs/2 packs. 3 ATOs averaging about 8 million tends to be a slow but steady increase. But the real ROI comes from landing the occasional Windfall power. I did just shy of 3 Comic Con arcs (was 2 mins shy) in the AE with the Windfall power and got 5 Purple recipes, 1 PVP recipe and a handful of decent uncommon recipes. I also got nearly all the salvage needed to craft the purples (I only needed to buy 2 rare salvage pieces). Sold all of that for well over 100 million profit. 

 

I won't argue that it's not still somewhat a slot machine. I was still farming on top of this method. But overall it was profitable and the Windfall does a lot towards making it worth the slow pace. 

 

I don't see it being a market crasher though.

Windfall power?

[Lucky666]

On 7/13/2019 at 3:25 PM, Bloodofcaine said:

 

I believe so too, opened about 100 mil worth of these things just to see what the hubbub was about, didn't even break even from it. Since I'm not flush with billions it was a huge disappointment for me. I know my sample size was a bit on the small side, but come on. It's just a bit too unreliable for me personally. I am still boggled at how some folks are sitting on billions in this game. It certainly can't be from this.

Its not. Its called buy recipes plus salvage to crafts for less then a million. Then using converters at the right lvl to get guaranteed 3-6 million profit. I ain't saying anything else.

[Rylas]

2 hours ago, Sakai said:

Windfall power?

It's one of the temp powers you can get from Super Packs. It increases the rate of drops. Recipes, salvage, insps. It last for 1 hour of real time, so if you get it, don't use it unless you've got a solid hour of play available.

[Harlequin565]

On 8/20/2019 at 1:48 PM, Rylas said:

It's one of the temp powers you can get from Super Packs. It increases the rate of drops. Recipes, salvage, insps. It last for 1 hour of real time, so if you get it, don't use it unless you've got a solid hour of play available.

Strange. I ran a comparison of Windfall + Normal rewards vs Tickets + Recipe Rolls and Tickets came out way way ahead in terms of recompense. I found Windfall very underwhelming. 2 x 20 minute runs of a +1/x8 farm and no purples but 1 PvP recipe. I was disgusted. I did get a lot of rare (not useful) recipes, enhancements and insps though. All of which are relatively valueless.

[Papaschtroumpf]

That was my experience with Windfall as well. Didn't get any purple in an hour if comic con and the main increase was in rare useless recipes. I think it may have also boosted inf but I can't remember for sure. 

It's still all an RNG.

 

Out of 20 packs I have gotten 13 ATOs, one windfall and tons of pretty worthless crap like respecs, team inspirations, etc... I don't think I made my money back and if I did it was way too much work to get there. I am done with those. I'll leave them to others with better luck.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Papaschtroumpf

[Rylas]

36 minutes ago, Harlequin565 said:

Strange. I ran a comparison of Windfall + Normal rewards vs Tickets + Recipe Rolls and Tickets came out way way ahead in terms of recompense. I found Windfall very underwhelming. 2 x 20 minute runs of a +1/x8 farm and no purples but 1 PvP recipe. I was disgusted. I did get a lot of rare (not useful) recipes, enhancements and insps though. All of which are relatively valueless.

First, Papaschtroumpf summed it up neatly.

10 minutes ago, Papaschtroumpf said:

 It's still all an RNG.

 

Second, it may depend on the speed with which you went through mobs. Keep in mind, I have no idea what would be considered "fast," but I felt I was keeping a pretty good pace with doing Comic Con arcs almost 3x in one hour at +4/x8. I also chose normal rewards because ticket rolls have never been kind to me. 

 

Third, it's f*cking RNG. Next time I pick up a Windfall, I'll see what my drops look like and report back. I very well could have been incredibly lucky, I certainly consider myself to have been. 

[Hopeling]

Even ignoring the increase in drops, Windfall is still +25% inf for an hour.

 

I know the OP in this thread primarily emphasized ATOs, but those aren't the only thing you get from Super Packs. The ATOs by themselves don't earn back the price tag, but the rest of the contents make up the difference. I've been opening 60 super packs (30 H&V, 30 R&V, no winter packs) at a time for a while now, and while it is random, 60 packs is enough that my outcome always looks roughly like:

• ~75 ATOs (600m)
• ~50 converters (mostly used to convert the low-demand ATOs)
• ~50 unslotters (7m)
• ~10 boosters (14m)
• ~5 catalysts (15m)
• ~600 reward merits, with which I buy 120 boosters (168m)
• ~800 Brain Storms, which turns into 40 rare salvage (20m)

Altogether that sells for ~824m inf, which is a profit of ~140m inf after market fees. It takes about 20 minutes to go through all the packs, claim all the items, convert them, and list them; it takes a couple days for everything to sell, at which point I do another batch. If anything, my estimates above are lowballing it, because I seem to make more than that per batch. Plus I get a nice stash of amplifiers, inspirations, rezzes, Windfalls, and Experienced to use as I please on any character.

 

I don't think Super Packs are nearly reliable enough to be a smart way to grow your first fifty million inf. But if you have a few hundred million, they're a great way to turn that into a few billion.