Hi all.. I thought I'd share my F2P strategy at this point in the yearly cycle, because if you're F2P, this strategy could work for you.
I'm hoping to start the next expansion with about 5000-6000g and 25000 dust. For starters, I'm not actually fully F2P. I used some free amazon digital credit (from no-rush prime deliveries) about a year and a half ago to buy some expansion content and the starter pack (about £30 worth in total). But as things stand, I'm pretty much F2P.
My typical strategy is to play arena at the beginning of any expansion - this lets me (a) enjoy play, (b) learn all of the new cards, and (c) wait for the meta to settle. Arena is a pretty good bet for anyone with a bit of experience, because you should average 1 pack for 100g with just an OK performance. So it's not usually worse than buying packs. By not immediately rushing to craft the new "best meta-munching decks", I can be a lot judicious about where I spend my dust. Over the course of the 100 or so packs that you'll open in an expansion, you'll get almost all commons, most rares, a few epics and 3-4 legendaries. By waiting 4-6 weeks before crafting, you'll save thousands of dust on things that initially look like a great idea, but people learn to counter.
To do this, of course, you'll need a bit of a gold stash - if you want to play 50 arena runs at the beginning of the expansion, you'll need 5000g (assuming that you average 50g back per run). If you average more wins, you'll need less gold. If you can earn 80g per day (average 50 per quest, plus 10 wins) then you can easily save this amount if you start now. I usually play arenas until I get a legendary for the 4th or 5th time, then start saving gold for the next expansion.
We're now at the end of the year, which means that the cards that you spend dust on will last the least amount of time. I'm always particular NOT to dust any cards in the hope that they might be nerfed and I'll get the extra. I'm sitting on 9 Bonemares, a few Corridor Creepers and I'll be dusting my Golden Raza as soon as it's nerfed. If you're F2P, I'd recommend the same strategy. Always dust everything if it's nerfed, and in a worst-case scenario, you can recraft it. It then lets you decide IF it's really the best card for you. I dusted Caverns of Time as soon as it was nerfed and have not yet bothered recrafting it (I realised that other things took priority).
I notice that many people complain about how you can't play Hearthstone if you don't spend hundreds per expansion. That's rubbish - if you average an hour per day, you can probably play two or three tier 1 decks at any given time... You just can't play ALL of them, all of the time. With the new rotation coming soon, now is the best time for F2P players to break out. A little foresight could help.
Right now, I'm just gonna spend all of my gold on k&c packs and hope that I get Corridor Creeper
Same. Just did it, in fact, and I seriously opened a Creeper with my very last pack (I'm down to 80 gold). Terrible legendary luck, though. My pity timer is down to 5...
I did something similar going f2p for Kobalds. I had started before Ungoro and bought the pre release deal as well as the TFT one. But the cash just wasnt available for Kobalds. I had 8k gold before Kobalds was released and spent some on packs, and then played arena for a month and a half. Saving the gold from release on so I have 5.5k right now. By the time I was done with arena, the meta had settled and I avoided crafting crap cards. Ill do the same thing again in April.
I just crafted 2 creepers on all my accounts as soon as the nerf was announced so I could rent them until nerf day, and if I opened any in the meantime I would get extra dust back (I'm going to dust them again as soon as the nerf hits).
I haven't opened any yet though (only do 1 arena each day, have a f2p account on each region so open one every other day on my arena only accounts (US/Asia) except when I have saved enough to reward myself with an arena on my EU main (every 5 days or so).
I have a completely different f2p system where I spend all my gold on my main f2p account (EU) when an expansion hits, then get a pack and an arena run when I hit 350 gold, then repeat but increase the gold target by 200 (so do the next arena/pack buying round at 550, 750, 950, etc.). This way I still save up around 4000-5000 gold by the time a new expansion comes out.
I buy packs of the set I have least % rares for (also filling out my OG/MSG collection so buying those over year of the mammoth sets, since I play wild as well as standard). I have 67/72 rares for those sets and 149/160 rares from Classic, so I'm buying MSG and OG packs until I have 68 on both. (67/72 < 149/160, but only just), then I'll switch to Classic again until X/160 > 68/72 i.e. X = 152). I will probably stop buying MSG/OG packs when I get a legendary and I have all the playable rares (may consider crafting the playable rares instead if it is near rotation).
On my arena/dailies only accounts on US and Asia, I spend half my gold when the new expansion comes out on new packs. I do an arena on the account with the highest total. I buy 5 packs when I have some multiple of 250 (current target is 2750) and increase the target by 250 next time (so after hitting 2750 I will spend 500 and increase the target to 3000).
Apart from purchasing the Welcome Bundle, I've been F2P since TGT - as an everyday player, I've found that the F2P model for HS is sufficiently generous that I simply didn't need to spend money on the game. It helps that I've played since the open beta, and focus on Wild - fewer cards from each set make an impact in the older format, so it's much easier to collect a full set of "playable" cards from each expansion. HSReplays posts a list of the most-played cards in each format - 37 K&C cards currently have play-rates above 2% in Standard, while only 23 have a similar play-rate in Wild. The trend will continue over time - fewer and fewer cards will be required to make more and more decks in the older format.
Another consideration is class play-rate - I currently have six golden heroes, and three heroes with 90-180 wins. I only "need" the good cards for classes I enjoy playing - I don't dust the good cards I collect for my low play-rate classes, but I don't craft them either. I imagine that plenty of other players are in a similar boat - there are simply classes that they don't enjoy playing very much, or deck archetypes that they don't enjoy, so they don't really need to craft every expensive "good" card from every expansion.
As an everyday player, I make about 2,200 gold each month from daily quests and laddering. I've also got about three dozen friends I've made at Fireside Gatherings, so I receive a couple "Play a Friend" requests each week - it's about 800 extra gold each month, so I save about 3,000 gold in total. This site has an active thread for people who want to exploit the PaF quest - it's currently on its fourth or fifth iteration, and each previous thread has had as many as 50K contributors, so it's pretty easy for anyone to start mining those PaFs.
3000ish gold each month allows me to purchase about 120 packs for each expansion - about 600 cards. It's a complete set of commons, and all the "playable" rares, in addition to a couple dozen epics and half a dozen legendaries. After dusting duplicates, golds, and junk epics and legendaries, I crafted the epics and legendaries I wanted - at the end of the day, my K&C haul amounted to four "playable" legendaries, and five sets of "playable" epics, as well as a pair of singleton epics for my Reno decks. Altogether, pretty good for a F2P player. It will be more difficult for folks who don't play every day - they'll earn less from quests and laddering - and folks who don't have many HS friends will be missing out on a huge gold "exploit" that's deliberately built into the game.
Spend a lot of dust for this expansion but hopefully the nerfs and disenchant some cycled cards ill never use will give me enough for the new shiz. Im up 3k gold atm more to come.
Apart from purchasing the Welcome Bundle, I've been F2P since TGT - as an everyday player, I've found that the F2P model for HS is sufficiently generous that I simply didn't need to spend money on the game.
...
I imagine that plenty of other players are in a similar boat - there are simply classes that they don't enjoy playing very much, or deck archetypes that they don't enjoy, so they don't really need to craft every expensive "good" card from every expansion.
...
As an everyday player, I make about 2,200 gold each month from daily quests and laddering. I've also got about three dozen friends I've made at Fireside Gatherings, so I receive a couple "Play a Friend" requests each week - it's about 800 extra gold each month, so I save about 3,000 gold in total. This site has an active thread for people who want to exploit the PaF quest - it's currently on its fourth or fifth iteration, and each previous thread has had as many as 50K contributors, so it's pretty easy for anyone to start mining those PaFs.
I completely agree with these points, but some people struggle because they either can't game the system properly, or don't understand it. Buying packs up to the last minute before a new expansion, or even trying to save for the month beforehand, then buying 30 or so and crafting the new "must haves" is a very, very inefficient way to go about things.
Hence, I've shared my strategy (at this point in the yearly cycle), and would encourage others to do so as well. I've been playing for almost exactly 2 years, and so prefer Standard (I have very few TGT/GvG cards), and can reliably play at least 3 Tier 1 decks. I'm golden with 3 heroes (Mage, Warlock, Hunter) , close to golden with another 3 (Priest, Rogue & Warrior) and nowhere near with the remaining three. By not dusting any cards unless they're nerfed (I can afford to do that now), I also get a lot more dust. Patience and timing means not having to spend cash on Hearthstone.
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Hi all.. I thought I'd share my F2P strategy at this point in the yearly cycle, because if you're F2P, this strategy could work for you.
I'm hoping to start the next expansion with about 5000-6000g and 25000 dust. For starters, I'm not actually fully F2P. I used some free amazon digital credit (from no-rush prime deliveries) about a year and a half ago to buy some expansion content and the starter pack (about £30 worth in total). But as things stand, I'm pretty much F2P.
My typical strategy is to play arena at the beginning of any expansion - this lets me (a) enjoy play, (b) learn all of the new cards, and (c) wait for the meta to settle. Arena is a pretty good bet for anyone with a bit of experience, because you should average 1 pack for 100g with just an OK performance. So it's not usually worse than buying packs. By not immediately rushing to craft the new "best meta-munching decks", I can be a lot judicious about where I spend my dust. Over the course of the 100 or so packs that you'll open in an expansion, you'll get almost all commons, most rares, a few epics and 3-4 legendaries. By waiting 4-6 weeks before crafting, you'll save thousands of dust on things that initially look like a great idea, but people learn to counter.
To do this, of course, you'll need a bit of a gold stash - if you want to play 50 arena runs at the beginning of the expansion, you'll need 5000g (assuming that you average 50g back per run). If you average more wins, you'll need less gold. If you can earn 80g per day (average 50 per quest, plus 10 wins) then you can easily save this amount if you start now. I usually play arenas until I get a legendary for the 4th or 5th time, then start saving gold for the next expansion.
We're now at the end of the year, which means that the cards that you spend dust on will last the least amount of time. I'm always particular NOT to dust any cards in the hope that they might be nerfed and I'll get the extra. I'm sitting on 9 Bonemares, a few Corridor Creepers and I'll be dusting my Golden Raza as soon as it's nerfed. If you're F2P, I'd recommend the same strategy. Always dust everything if it's nerfed, and in a worst-case scenario, you can recraft it. It then lets you decide IF it's really the best card for you. I dusted Caverns of Time as soon as it was nerfed and have not yet bothered recrafting it (I realised that other things took priority).
I notice that many people complain about how you can't play Hearthstone if you don't spend hundreds per expansion. That's rubbish - if you average an hour per day, you can probably play two or three tier 1 decks at any given time... You just can't play ALL of them, all of the time. With the new rotation coming soon, now is the best time for F2P players to break out. A little foresight could help.
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I'm gonna start saving gold after the nerf
Right now, I'm just gonna spend all of my gold on k&c packs and hope that I get Corridor Creeper
I did something similar going f2p for Kobalds. I had started before Ungoro and bought the pre release deal as well as the TFT one. But the cash just wasnt available for Kobalds.
I had 8k gold before Kobalds was released and spent some on packs, and then played arena for a month and a half. Saving the gold from release on so I have 5.5k right now. By the time I was done with arena, the meta had settled and I avoided crafting crap cards. Ill do the same thing again in April.
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
I have 4500 gold right now, do you guys think it’s worth it to buy k&c packs just to hit creeper?
Great article, main lesson is patience is key and plan your expansions...
Likely a bad idea considering the drop rate of epics and how close we are to the next expansion.
If you are in your first year of playing please read this post.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar. Be careful what you craft, especially before and right after a rotation.
I just crafted 2 creepers on all my accounts as soon as the nerf was announced so I could rent them until nerf day, and if I opened any in the meantime I would get extra dust back (I'm going to dust them again as soon as the nerf hits).
I haven't opened any yet though (only do 1 arena each day, have a f2p account on each region so open one every other day on my arena only accounts (US/Asia) except when I have saved enough to reward myself with an arena on my EU main (every 5 days or so).
I have a completely different f2p system where I spend all my gold on my main f2p account (EU) when an expansion hits, then get a pack and an arena run when I hit 350 gold, then repeat but increase the gold target by 200 (so do the next arena/pack buying round at 550, 750, 950, etc.). This way I still save up around 4000-5000 gold by the time a new expansion comes out.
I buy packs of the set I have least % rares for (also filling out my OG/MSG collection so buying those over year of the mammoth sets, since I play wild as well as standard). I have 67/72 rares for those sets and 149/160 rares from Classic, so I'm buying MSG and OG packs until I have 68 on both. (67/72 < 149/160, but only just), then I'll switch to Classic again until X/160 > 68/72 i.e. X = 152). I will probably stop buying MSG/OG packs when I get a legendary and I have all the playable rares (may consider crafting the playable rares instead if it is near rotation).
On my arena/dailies only accounts on US and Asia, I spend half my gold when the new expansion comes out on new packs. I do an arena on the account with the highest total. I buy 5 packs when I have some multiple of 250 (current target is 2750) and increase the target by 250 next time (so after hitting 2750 I will spend 500 and increase the target to 3000).
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Ok, i will start saving money on my bank account for the next expansion. Thanks for the reminder!
Apart from purchasing the Welcome Bundle, I've been F2P since TGT - as an everyday player, I've found that the F2P model for HS is sufficiently generous that I simply didn't need to spend money on the game. It helps that I've played since the open beta, and focus on Wild - fewer cards from each set make an impact in the older format, so it's much easier to collect a full set of "playable" cards from each expansion. HSReplays posts a list of the most-played cards in each format - 37 K&C cards currently have play-rates above 2% in Standard, while only 23 have a similar play-rate in Wild. The trend will continue over time - fewer and fewer cards will be required to make more and more decks in the older format.
Another consideration is class play-rate - I currently have six golden heroes, and three heroes with 90-180 wins. I only "need" the good cards for classes I enjoy playing - I don't dust the good cards I collect for my low play-rate classes, but I don't craft them either. I imagine that plenty of other players are in a similar boat - there are simply classes that they don't enjoy playing very much, or deck archetypes that they don't enjoy, so they don't really need to craft every expensive "good" card from every expansion.
As an everyday player, I make about 2,200 gold each month from daily quests and laddering. I've also got about three dozen friends I've made at Fireside Gatherings, so I receive a couple "Play a Friend" requests each week - it's about 800 extra gold each month, so I save about 3,000 gold in total. This site has an active thread for people who want to exploit the PaF quest - it's currently on its fourth or fifth iteration, and each previous thread has had as many as 50K contributors, so it's pretty easy for anyone to start mining those PaFs.
3000ish gold each month allows me to purchase about 120 packs for each expansion - about 600 cards. It's a complete set of commons, and all the "playable" rares, in addition to a couple dozen epics and half a dozen legendaries. After dusting duplicates, golds, and junk epics and legendaries, I crafted the epics and legendaries I wanted - at the end of the day, my K&C haul amounted to four "playable" legendaries, and five sets of "playable" epics, as well as a pair of singleton epics for my Reno decks. Altogether, pretty good for a F2P player. It will be more difficult for folks who don't play every day - they'll earn less from quests and laddering - and folks who don't have many HS friends will be missing out on a huge gold "exploit" that's deliberately built into the game.
Spend a lot of dust for this expansion but hopefully the nerfs and disenchant some cycled cards ill never use will give me enough for the new shiz. Im up 3k gold atm more to come.
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