What does being "rich" mean to you?

[BurnTheWitch]

There are numerous studies done by different research firms on what people of different demographics think.  Some of the really popular questions that these studies like to ask go like this.

• how much much to you need to be considered rich
• how much money is enough
• how much money do you have to make to be rich

 

Obviously, this is of great importance to politicians and behavioral economists alike, but they have been forgetting the really important question.  They forget to ask about CoX : Homecoming.  I've spoken with Pew research and they seemed disinterested in solving this conundrum, so here is the question that research firms are too afraid to ask.

 

According to you, how much must on have to be considered rich? Why?

 

This is, of course, an opinion, and a nuanced one. Considerations in your wealth you may not have thought of.

• If you have a supergroup bank full of winter and very rare enhancements, you might consider that part of your wealth, or you might not. 
• Do you consider the value of the enhancements on your toons as part of your wealth?  I don't, but that's because I tend to view slotted enhancements as so illiquid that it's just not worth the effort unless I know I'll never use that toon again (which has never been the case). 
• Do you count unspent merits as wealth?

 

Any reasoning on your personal calculation as to what is "Rich" would be appreciated.  Reasoning as to why a certain amount of inf and assets is a lot more interesting and useful that simply, "lol, X bill inf or less is poor!" 

 

To be clear, I am not asking how much you have, that's none of my business,  I want to know how much -you- consider enough to be rich.

 

 

[dukedukes]

Being rich is having an active and engaged global friend list, a tight knit supergroup that can support you on the darker days, and lots of influence... I'd say 1 bil, that's at least enough for 3 more alts.

[ZeeHero]

It means you're a Dwarf on Hoxxes and your team just found a gold nugget.

 

[MonteCarla]

Every character I make gets:

- both sets of ATOs if I want them 

- Panacea +HP/End in Health 

- Gladiators Armor and Steadfast uniques if they fit

- as many LotG +Rech as they can fit

- any other non-purple/non-winter sets I like (Basilisk's Gaze, Unbreakable Guard etc)

- all three P2W buffs topped up continuously while I level. After 50, I buy them per task force. I don't worry unduly about them running down if I'm roleplaying, at the market or a hanging around chatting.

- all the teleporter temps, Return to Battle, some Resuscitators, and the crafting table if I feel like it.

 

I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. 🙂

 

I have a bunch of 200 million emails sitting in my inbox always and pull one for each character, which usually does them until they're 50. If I need to grab a second one, so be it. 
Crafting from the task forces I run on the way to 50 will often generate 2 of these emails for me, so I don't really worry about my wealth when my income is this good.

[Ukase]

When you can spend 1 billion inf on each character you create and still have inf left over, I think that qualifies as being rich. 
Me, I qualify. But I still live like a poor person. Usually. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

With respect to this game, I can see three types of "rich".

 

1.  I can buy whatever I want, but I have to think about it, and I may have to postpone some purchases until I can figure out some inf inflow.  I think this should be literally everyone at every level, but it isn't.  If I'm a fresh level 2 straight outta Breakout and I want to load up on SOs and update them every level, I'm going to have to figure out how to finance that.  Maybe I have a level 50 sugar parent who likes to run incarnate trials.  Maybe I need to farm.  Maybe I need to figure out how to read the guides on how to extract inf from the marketplace.  Maybe I need to win costume contests.  How many are this rich?  Everyone.

 

2.  I can buy whatever I want whenever I want it and don't have to think about it.  Again, this *could* be everyone, but it takes a lot of prepwork and forethought.  I just dinged 50?  Great, let me go out and buy 20 catalysts to convert my ATOs and WOs rather than wait 20 sessions and have them drop.  I'm respeccing and need three lvl 53 Threat DSOs?  Let me pull them out of storage on one of my accounts and email them.  Wait, there are literally zero Panacea procs on the market?  Let me make one out of a pvp snipe recipe.  How many are this rich?  A couple of hundred?  

 

3.  I have more inf than any one entity can possibly use and I have passive or semi-passive methods to regenerate what gets spent.  I have enough resources to completely destabilize the economic system if it weren't for the fact I don't want to or that others will stop me or that the system and laws in place are sufficient to prevent it.  This is what I consider a real life equivalent of someone deciding, "I am going to buy every single chicken egg in the United States for the remainder of the year 2025 and see what happens".  How many are this rich?  Dunno, more than one, less than ten?

[lemming]

I'm at the point where I can easily outfit a char by overspending on the AH, but I tend to have enough material on hand to make what I need.   I will purchase most of the enhancements that I want that are in the 5m and less range since it's a wash in cost there.   And by the time I'm done procrastinating about my build, I've replaced everything in stock meaning my funds don't go down.

[battlewraith]

Psychological components to being coh rich:

 

1. You have far more in the way of resources than you will need at any time.

2. You deliberately play in a way that preserves or increases this sum of excess resources that you will never spend down--when the game ends, vaults full of unused resources will simply blink out of existence. 

3. You posit this state of affairs as somehow normal or not-noteworthy--despite the vast majority of players not being like this.

4. You vitriolically oppose changes in game incentives or "free stuff" because if such ideas took root, you would likely become less rich. 

 

[Maelwys]

I kinda like Yomo's breakdown.

 

Me? I'll typically email or trade each newly created character about half a billion inf to start with and then have fun playing them + not caring one whit about funds. After they hit level 50 I'll finalise their build and Catalyze/+5 boost everything, then get them to T4 Incarnate and Veteran level 100 ASAP (sometimes with one of my AFK AE farmers, sometimes by running regular content and/or the DA arcs depending on how much I still enjoy playing them and how many spare Transcendent Merits I have in that account's inbox) and at least get them their four passive HP/Endurance accolades.

 

I don't tend to Marketeer much, but I do farm occasionally and it's rare that I have any level 50s with less than 1 billion inf. Although IMO by the time each toon reaches Vet level 100 it's almost always paid for itself anyway.

[Demobot]

A while back I stopped buying recipes to craft enhancements for my characters and started buying enhancements outright. That's when I started thinking of myself as rich: when I could buy what I wanted when I wanted it. 

[Andreah]

9 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

How many are this rich?  Dunno, more than one, less than ten?

I think is pretty close except there are a few huge stealth-wealths. People with huge amount of inf banked who've never gone to the forums or discords or etc.

 

I'll add another category of wealthy -- the inf-poor but asset-rich. The ones who save away hamis-O's and purples, uniques, LotG's and whatever else like they'll stop making them tomorrow. They do this to kit out their hundreds or thousands of alts, from whom if they liquidated the pricey enhances from just the alts they haven't played in a year would crash the market.

 

I know of two people like that. Constantly cash poor, but with well into the hundreds of billions value of assets if marked to market.

[Ukase]

19 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Dunno, more than one, less than ten?

I think this number is much higher. I could certainly be wrong, of course. 
 

[Black_Assassin]

I'm not overly rich or overly poor. 

 

I am ok regarding Purples, I have 4 bins worth in my personal SG with a maybe 150-200 IOs in it?

I have another SG base just for my Winter IO bins, I have 8 bins for both regular and superior. 

I have about 35-40B in liquid assets. 

Could probably fund another 10-20B if I stripped my accounts of the largely unplayed toons. 

 

To many I would probably appear rich.

 

I literally spend 95% of my time playing either of my Warshades on either Torch or Excel. Its all largely immaterial as I really cba to make and level and play new toons. 

 

Thing is, I still don't feel rich. I don't actively work the market, so my resources are dwindling every time I "spend" them. So I am really frugal despite what I have. Maybe if I had another 100-200B I would feel like I have the funds to just play and make what I want. *shrug* I guess I don't feel rich enough to do that atm because I could get through that wealth if I slotted everything I could think of playing. 

[Ukase]

16 hours ago, Maelwys said:

then get them to T4 Incarnate and Veteran level 100

I was literally thinking, "I wonder if there's any merit to that". Then an instant later, I almost laughed. 

There was a time when I'd retire the afk farm brutes and recycle the IOs so they could reach vet level 48; The time to get to Vet level 48 was maybe 2 hours longer than it takes to get to vet level 99 if you're not afk. If you are...well, who cares how long it takes? But given that these are probably characters you play outside of the farm, makes good sense. 

[The Trouble]

13 hours ago, Andreah said:

I think is pretty close except there are a few huge stealth-wealths. People with huge amount of inf banked who've never gone to the forums or discords or etc.

 

I'll add another category of wealthy -- the inf-poor but asset-rich. The ones who save away hamis-O's and purples, uniques, LotG's and whatever else like they'll stop making them tomorrow. They do this to kit out their hundreds or thousands of alts, from whom if they liquidated the pricey enhances from just the alts they haven't played in a year would crash the market.

 

I know of two people like that. Constantly cash poor, but with well into the hundreds of billions value of assets if marked to market.

This is close to my experience.  I used to have a ton of stuff stashed away, but I've been tearing down, giving away, and selling lately.

 

After fully kitting out two pages of 50's, a handful of my wife's 50's, buying WAY too many booster packs, and giving away a ton of inf, I don't have a lot of liquid wealth at all.

 

I still consider myself "rich" because there's literally nothing I can't afford.  Sometimes I have to wait 45 minutes to an hour to make the inf for the new shiny thing, but playing the market is still quite fun for me.  So that's my answer: Rich=everything you could want is readily available.

 

In the past, I haven't considered slotted enhancements as part of a person's wealth, but this thread changed my mind.  Reward Merits absolutely count!

[Maelwys]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

given that these are probably characters you play outside of the farm, makes good sense. 

Yeah most of my characters only see the inside of a farm map from level 50 -> Vet 100; I enjoy playing the content too much to "Power level" them!

[Yomo Kimyata]

3 hours ago, Ukase said:

There was a time when I'd retire the afk farm brutes and recycle the IOs so they could reach vet level 48; The time to get to Vet level 48 was maybe 2 hours longer than it takes to get to vet level 99 if you're not afk. If you are...well, who cares how long it takes? But given that these are probably characters you play outside of the farm, makes good sense. 

 

I remember this, and I agreed with you at the time.  It was more efficient reward-wise to afk more farmers to 48 than fewer farmers to 99, and if one was doing this for cash or real assets, one certainly would.   Where it all falls apart, of course, is at a very early point efficiency becomes irrelevant.  I still wrestle with this -- I don't count anything as wealth except cold hard inf, and that's partly because I know firsthand the dangers of mark-to-market inventory management.  And yet, there are plenty of folks who are Tier 2 or 3 "Rich" who are in the exact same position as me of being able to buy anything and everything without a care, and they aren't wrestling with anything at all!!  Makes you think that maybe I'd be more content without all that rassling.

 

Thanks for the therapy session, HC forums!!!

[JKCarrier]

I'm by no means rich, but it doesn't matter, because I don't have expensive tastes. 😉 I don't bother with Purple recipes, because I rarely play my 50s. By the time I reach 50, the character usually has a little nest egg of Inf (typically 200-300 million) that I pass on to my next alt. That seed money, plus whatever they earn along the way, is more than enough to set them up with Common IOs,  the usual Health and Stamina procs, plus whatever other cheap sets I feel like experimenting with. I could make my characters more powerful, but then I'd have to grind or farm or marketeer, and I don't wanna.

[Kai Moon]

I don't mail inf or merits to new alts. So about 1 million on a new alt is the breakpoint for me. Less than that is a barrier to participating in the economy. More than that, I'm probably fine.

 

Before 1 million, my new low-level alts can craft, but can't really convert and sell. Say I've acquired a low level recipe I can craft. 100k - can afford the crafting fee, but can't afford converters, can't afford a listing fee either. 250k - maybe I can convert an uncommon to rare, maybe I can afford the listing fee, but the rare will likely be less valuable. 500k - maybe I can roll the rare to a better rare, but hardly guaranteed.

 

After 1 million, I can afford multiple rolls, usually roll something in the 2-4 million range, pay the listing fee, and start the ball rolling on sustained inf flow.

[UltraAlt]

On 8/2/2025 at 11:05 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

3.  I have more inf than any one entity can possibly use and I have passive or semi-passive methods to regenerate what gets spent.  I have enough resources to completely destabilize the economic system if it weren't for the fact I don't want to or that others will stop me or that the system and laws in place are sufficient to prevent it.  This is what I consider a real life equivalent of someone deciding, "I am going to buy every single chicken egg in the United States for the remainder of the year 2025 and see what happens".  How many are this rich?  Dunno, more than one, less than ten?

 

More than one. 

That is for sure.

 

[UltraAlt]

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

According to you, how much must on have to be considered rich?

 

Having more influence than you need to keep up with whatever you want your characters to have on hand and when you need it when/if you make a new "alt".

 

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

Why?

 

Rich - having a great deal of money or assets; wealthy.

 

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

If you have a supergroup bank full of winter and very rare enhancements, you might consider that part of your wealth, or you might not. 

 

I do consider that part of my account's wealth.

Not full of either. It seems to be kind of a waste for that much stuff to sit around.

But I will admit, that I have a sg base that only has Winter set enhancements stored in it. (procured the last time there was a sale on Winter card packs via drops from those packs)

 

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

Do you consider the value of the enhancements on your toons as part of your wealth?  I don't, but that's because I tend to view slotted enhancements as so illiquid that it's just not worth the effort unless I know I'll never use that toon again (which has never been the case). 

 

By "on your toon", do you mean slotted or in their enhancement tray?

I guess you mean "slotted".

 

I'm never going to pull enhances off of character that are slotted so that I can sell them.

My characters trays are sometime full with enhancements to load in to my full AH slots once slots are available for slotting. Those enhancements are definitely part of my account's weath.

 

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

Do you count unspent merits as wealth?

 

I don't.

And that includes the merits from card packs that haven't been move to a character.

 

On 8/1/2025 at 1:57 PM, BurnTheWitch said:

Any reasoning on your personal calculation as to what is "Rich" would be appreciated.

 

When a player doesn't have to worry about influence, I would consider that to be "rich".

 

 

 

[brasilgringo]

Trying to see how many Provocations i can buy at 225M since it feels quite low.

[Snarky]

When i can get Bluesiders to give me inf, then I am rich indeed!

 

[Etched]

I'm rich.  🤑

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 8/2/2025 at 8:42 PM, Andreah said:

I think is pretty close except there are a few huge stealth-wealths. People with huge amount of inf banked who've never gone to the forums or discords or etc.

 

I'll add another category of wealthy -- the inf-poor but asset-rich. The ones who save away hamis-O's and purples, uniques, LotG's and whatever else like they'll stop making them tomorrow. They do this to kit out their hundreds or thousands of alts, from whom if they liquidated the pricey enhances from just the alts they haven't played in a year would crash the market.

 

I certainly believe this, but I don't see what I would consider a lot of forensic evidence, and that is almost certainly affected by my biases.

 

The best explanation I have is that people are storing their wealth in asset form, specifically enhancements.  Every character can have their own SG, every supergroup base can hold 1800 items.  I absolutely get that, and take advantage of it, but since I tend to categorize my wealth in terms of straight inf homie, I don't keep it in the same part of my brain.  If I've got a thousand lvl 53 Cytoskeletons, I might be able to exchange that for inf or other items eventually, but I personally don't include that in my "rich-ness" although it certainly makes refitting new lvl 50 characters more convenient and it saves my having to buy 4-5 new cytos from the market.

 

You can store inf in characters and you can store inf in emails, but that's limited to 2bn per character and 100 emails at 999,999,999 inf per email, per account.  Don't get me wrong, that's a lot of inf, but once you get over a few hundred bn, you have to store it SOMEWHERE.  Since I don't want to have thousands of characters or a dozen accounts, I store it in the /AH through bids that (currently) cannot be hit.  That was my solution, and I haven't observed a lot of that going on in the /AH.  I may not be seeing it, and the conclusion I've drawn is probably not the same as other oligarchs.

 

I will say that there have been consistent "factories" in the PvP and purple spaces as long as HC has been public.  I dip in there and skim off the cream every now and again, but if that is the work of one or even a small number of players, and if they have been able to monetize that in terms of inf rather than full SG storage bases, they might easily have several orders of magnitude more wealth than me.  I figure it is so much work and there is so little to spend inf on that it wouldn't be worth my while, but they're kept it up for years!