Last week MZ released the new 50% discount packs. For the mid-range spenders and those on a budget these packs can be a game changer. The $50 packs are MZ's way of helping out the smaller and mid-range players remain competitive in a game where 1 billion power players are zeroed in KVKs on a regular basis.
As a mid-range and budgeted spender myself (360m, 1 pack per month, on a good month 2) I am loving these packs and hope they stay around for a while. Mid-range players are able to stay relatively competitive within the game, and can enjoy attacking again in KVK KE events. It’s not often that you see a 75-150m player porting into other kingdoms due to the fear of large players zeroing them instantly. Mid-range players can now afford to buy packs to help them research to be effective on offence and defense which makes the game more enjoyable for them also.
It’s no fun building up to 150m power, but not being able to use any of it and being forced to watch on the sidelines in a kill event. There will always be separation from the big spenders and the budgeted spenders but these packs will help alleviate some of that difference. Other mid-range players are using these packs to jump from 200-300m power to 1B+ power in order to play with the “big boys”. Depending on your motivation and budget, mid-range players now have more options available to them.
In comparison to a full pack, they do not offer as much in the way of items within the pack. Without doing a full comparison of each pack the Full packs obviously offer more. In terms of what matters, For comparison I was looking at the Anniversary Summer Blowout full pack which was available this week and last week, and the VIP Thank You half pack. The full pack had just over 1600 days of speed ups whereas the half packs offer 1100 days. 12000 chests (pack depending) compared to 4500 chests in the half pack and a lot more Attack/Defense debuffs in the full pack. The Full pack also offer 6.6 billion resources, whereas the half packs offer 5.2 billion. A 1.4 Billion difference may not seem like a lot until you look at how many troops you can train or researches you can do with that much resources.
It has been suspected that MZ has put a limit onto the number of half packs you can purchase per account. The most I have heard about before the half pack option disappears is 5 half pack purchases. These were not made all at once though, but over a period of a few days. If you have managed to purchase more before losing the option for them, put this in the comments below. I reached out to MZ to inquire about this but received the standard reply of Marketing makes the sales packages. They were also unable to elaborate for me on how long these half packs would last. Most of the really big accounts don’t even have the half packs offered to them as they are in the upper brackets for MZ spending and are therefore not eligible for them. The Full packs offer a lot more that the big spenders and accounts require to operate effectively, whereas a half pack has a number of positives to it, it doesn’t offer enough for a big account to remain effective.
What does all of this mean? A few things, first is in KVK KEs. You are going to have a lot more 700m + players in each kingdom due to purchasing half packs and training millions of troops. The gear that these players will be wearing is going to be very impressive as they also now have billions of silver in which to craft with. This also means more 700m+ players being zeroed on a regular basis as while a lot of them have spent the money, they aren’t experienced enough with a large account to know how to fight with them. Expect the points gained per kingdom to go up in each KVK for the next few weeks as these new larger accounts learn their fighting lessons.
For those players who don’t maximize their purchases all at once of these half packs, they will be able to remain competitive, contribute to rallies, fight and be effective without having to feel like they are spectators. MZ has found a way to bring them into the fighting during KVK KEs without them having to sacrifice hundreds of dollars that they may not have in their budget. Expect to see a lot more 200-300m players per kingdom as people purchase 1-2 packs and research and train. As with the 700m+ players expect to see a lot more of them being zeroed as they also adjust to their new power levels. As we all know, as soon as someone gains 1m T/S4 troops the first thing they want to do is test them out in a kill event.
Kingdom jumping just became a lot harder also. A player can purchase 4-5 of the half packs, make the jump to a new kingdom and on the first day have close to 1 billion power at half the cost of previous. New kingdoms will be especially difficult to rule, control and in a lot more chaos as jumpers drop $200-$300 at a time in order to start anew. Expect a lot of chaos in any new kingdoms from now on for the first few months. With the number of players who have been creating jumper alliances and taking over new kingdoms and ruling with an iron fist, this actually is a good thing. The larger players will be forced to fight among themselves to figure out the ruling order and leave the newer players to GOW alone to learn the game.
Game Analysis article contributed by King Thermos
