Core MK Items: Lets Discuss

Feedback & Ideas
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Hello everybody!

Within the last couple of days, I have accomplished the milestone of upgrading every single hero that I own to the Platinum rank…

Since then, I’ve made it my next goal to upgrade a few of the core/essential heroes to the current max rank of Platinum 5.
Upon this attempt, however, I’ve come across an obstacle of immense absurdity…

For those of you that don’t know, each Platinum grade requires an item called a CORE MK with a variable number depending on the grade of your platinum hero.

For each Platinum grade upgraded, the Core MK item required increases in number…
For instance:

  • Platinum 0 —> Platinum 1 needs Core MK I
  • Platinum 1 —> Platinum 2 needs Core MK II
  • Platinum 2 —> Platinum 3 needs Core MK III
  • Platinum 3 —> Platinum 4 needs Core MK IV
  • Platinum 4 —> Platinum 5 needs Core MK V
  • Platinum 5 —> ??? ??? ?. needs Core MK VI (I will not go into this in this thread)

The Core MK items are located in the third slot of each list-of-required-items for all platinum heroes (as shown in the image below)

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Since my Flatline is Platinum 1, she requires a Core MK II item in order to be upgraded to Platinum 2…

To craft a Core MK item requires a number of fragment items, which can be found in campaign missions, with an extremely low drop rate, or in the alliance/heronium stores.

I would like to discuss the requirements of the Core MK items that are essential for upgrading Platinum heroes to higher grades…

Let’s do some mathematics, shall we…?

In the end, let’s assume we want to obtain all the needed item fragments by the sole means of the alliance store, which requires alliance gems…
After all, the alliance store is the best way to obtain these items versus using stamina, for two key reasons:

  1. The Core MK fragments (along with most plat items) have horrid drop rates in the campaign missions, all the while alliance gems have a ‘constant’ conversion rate with the Core MK fragments.
  2. Core MK items are only 1 of 6 items needed to upgrade a hero’s grade, meaning stamina would be better off used for the other 5 items (or for the other 25 items if we’re talking about Plat 0 --> Plat 5).

Here are the requirements:

Core MK I requirements
  • 14 Core MK I Frags
  • 9 Plat Swords
Core MK II requirements
  • 14 Core MK I Frags
  • 40 Core MK II Frags
  • 18 Plat Swords
Core MK III requirements
  • 14 Core MK I Frags
  • 40 Core MK II Frags
  • 73 Core MK III Frags
  • 27 Plat Swords
Core MK IV requirements
  • 14 Core MK I Frags
  • 40 Core MK II Frags
  • 73 Core MK III Frags
  • 112 Core MK IV Frags
  • 36 Plat Swords
Core MK V requirements
  • 14 Core MK I Frags
  • 40 Core MK II Frags
  • 73 Core MK III Frags
  • 112 Core MK IV Frags
  • 157 Core MK V Frags
  • 54 Plat Swords
  • 42 Plat Cybernetic Hand Frags
  • 42 Plat Fuel Cells
Total number of items required for all 5 Core MK items PER HERO
  • 70 Core MK I Frags
  • 160 Core MK II Frags
  • 219 Core MK III Frags
  • 224 Core MK IV Frags
  • 157 Core MK V Frags
  • 144 Plat Swords
  • 42 Plat Cybernetic Hand Frags
  • 42 Plat Fuel Cells
Total number of alliance gems required for fragments listed above PER HERO

70,000 ALLIANCE GEMS PER HERO

  • *EXCLUDING 42 CYBERNETIC HANDS AND 42 PLAT FUEL CELLS*
  • *Assuming Core MK V frags will be placed in alliance store for 750 gems in near future*
Total number of items required for all 5 Core MK items FOR ALL 68 HEROES
  • 4760 Core MK I Frags
  • 10880 Core MK II Frags
  • 14892 Core MK III Frags
  • 15232 Core MK IV Frags
  • 10676 Core MK V Frags
  • 9792 Plat Swords
  • 2856 Plat Cybernetic Hand Frags
  • 2856 Plat Fuel Cells
Total number of alliance gems required for fragments listed above FOR ALL 68 HEROES

4,760,000 ALLIANCE GEMS

  • *EXCLUDING CYBERNETIC HANDS AND PLAT FUEL CELLS*
  • *Assuming Core MK V frags will be placed in alliance store for 750 gems in near future*

Okay… after reading those last arrows, lets be generous and say that an average player is able to earn 12,000 alliance gems per 7 days through alliance events and patrols …

Here is how long it would take to get Core MK I, II, III, IV, & V for a single hero.

41 days

  • *EXCLUDING CYBERNETIC HANDS AND PLAT FUEL CELLS*
  • *Assuming Core MK V frags will be placed in alliance store for 750 gems in near future*
Here is how long it would take to get Core MK I, II, III, IV, & V for all 68 heroes.

7.63 YEARS

  • *EXCLUDING CYBERNETIC HANDS AND PLAT FUEL CELLS*
  • *Assuming Core MK V frags will be placed in alliance store for 750 gems in near future*

Don’t even get me started on Core MK VI items (used to take a hero past Plat 5) which require an even more insane >200 Core MK VI fragments per item, plus more Cybernetic hands, Core MK V, IV, III, II, and I requirements… wow…

With all this being said, yes there are other variables such as gold that people use to spend on stamina refills to obtain these items and (very ineffectively) speed up the process.

Also, apparently there are some people that are able to craft these Core MK items for a greatly reduced amount of required fragments, according to this thread and screenshot, which I think is an extremely unfair issue (click me)

Developers, this expectation of obtaining 10,000+ of each Core MK fragment to max all our heroes when we are only able to obtain about 30 of each per week with the amount of obtainable alliance gems is PREPOSTEROUS

Please discuss this issue.

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For anyone who is curious about MK VI,
The core MK VI needs these following:
Screenshot_2019-02-15-04-35-31
(credit to Terracrank for the screenshot in discord).

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Holy cow. 206 MK V for MK VI? I’ma keep my heroes at plat 1

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Thank you Poobgloob for this detailed listing. I love statistics but honestly I never thought about it. I have some comments / questions that you should probably include in your “math”. Question 1. Why do you go exclusively from the Allianz store? Even if it lasts, at some point you will have all heroes at 10 * and accordingly accumulate more than enough heronium (as you do before that is another story) to buy items in the Heronium Shop MK as well. 2. Current state 68 heroes, right, how many heroes will come in the future 7.63 years? (90!) So it would be easy 15 (!) Years, read that melt on the tongue, in words - fifteen years - take until you have all ready. … 3. It’s strange that someone only needs half of the items like everyone else. I also watch a player that seems to be the case, I will not call him by name, only so much, Vip 2, 222 days old, 531 stars total, 3 heroes Plat 5, 24 (!) Heroes Plat 4, This Player makes 2k-3k strength points daily, how is this possible? But ok, it’s about MK items, maybe there will be a way in the future, easier to get at them, anyway.

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THIS is a problem.
I have reached a point where all my heroes are 7* to 10* Platinum and I felt for a moment that I was “done”, then I thought to myself “nah let’s add Platinum bars!”. Adding the +1 and +2 bar is OK I guess, but +3 and beyond is terribly frustrating. So I stopped. And I’m back to feeling “done” with my progress.

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First off, thank you @Checkpoint for your reply, the point you bring up is a great one and I’d love to discuss it… Like I said, there are other variables at play, and the heronium store is one of them!

PNG
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The heronium store includes one slot to where we can purchase a total of x50 fragments of a single, random Core MK species per day (whether it be Core MK I, II, III, IV,)…
Today, I had Core MK III fragments in my heronium store and I purchased x6 of x5 frags for a total of x30 Core MK III fragments…

Currently, Core MK V fragments are not added to the stores, but for this example lets assume they are, as they most likely will be in the near future…

Okay…
Lets say the player in this example has a big enough income of heronium to purchase all x50 Core MK fragments per day, for every single day forward… (Which, lets be real, not a lot of people do, and the people that actually do would most likely rather purchase fragments for other heroes to 10* since… how does the motto go again…?
Stars are greater than bars ??)

The total amount of Core MK fragments it takes to take a single hero from Plat 0 → Plat 5 is 830 fragments (70 MKI, 160 MKII, 219 MKIII, 224 MKIV, 157 MKV)
That’s 56,440 fragments for all 68 heroes… NOT INCLUDING THE PLENTITUDE OF OTHER HARD TO OBTAIN PLATINUM ITEMS

Since we’re able to get 350 Core MK fragments per WEEK in the heronium store (assuming the heronium store gives us the exact necessary distribution of Core MK I, II, III, IV, & V frags in the very end, which will be highly unlikely), and since it would take 4,760,000 alliance gems to purchase all those 56,440 frags…

While generously assuming we get 12,000 alliance gems per 7 days we already confirmed it would takes 7.63 years to purchase all necessary fragments solely with alliance gems…

Since there is a variable price between Core MK I and Core MK V fragments averaging 650 alliance gems per x10 fragments… With 12,000 alliance gems, we can purchase 185 total fragments PER WEEK.

Here's the math on how I got 185 frags per week

(550 gems for x10 MK1) + (600 gems for x10 MK2) + (650 gems for x10 MK3) + (700 gems for x10 MK4) + (750 gems for x10 MK 5) all divided by 5 to get the avg. price per x10 fragments = 650 gems per 10x frags…

12,000 gems per week divided by 650 gems x10 frags = 185 fragments per week

SO, in combination with the 350 Core MK frags and the 185 MK frags from both alliance and heronium stores, we are able to get 535 MK frags per week…

While currently needing 56,440 total Core MK frags, this would still take more than 2 whole years…

I’d like to add that this is only 5 of 30 items necessary to upgrade from plat 0 → plat 5 per hero, or 340 of 2,040 necessary items for 68 heroes.

Also, the assumptions are in favor of the mathematics, meaning there are other variables at play that make this math a pretty rough estimate, such as the heronium store actually giving the exact necessary distribution of MK Core fragments in a 2 year’s period needed to upgrade all heroes to plat 5 (totally unlikely, and would most likely extend the amount of time it would take)…

PLUS, more heroes are added each and every month, which just extends the length of time necessary, and the number of items needed…

There needs to be a fair and major adjustment to the number of fragments needed asap, because what is being asked of us is insane…

Fun fact:

Did you know it used to take >10,000 hero fragments in order to take a single hero to 10*?? Now, it only takes ~2,600…!

If I could relate that, to this, there needs to be a huge reduction in the amount of fragments needed in order to craft these platinum items… which apparently, some privileged players already bear the opportunity of having…

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Poobie, thanks for this thread.

Since you’ve covered the math and calculation part, I’ll just try to cover the qualitative game experience angle, from my point of view of course. Perhaps people have the same feelings, perhaps not. But let me share anyway.

So let me start with the fact that I have only 7 plat 3 heroes and am totally broke with alliance gems. Today I have 900 I think, I used to have 4-5k and I remember I used to have 10k plus in the past, sometimes more. My alliance, safe to say, gets Plat 1 crate every week and we are a top tier team for bounties. We get our fair share of alliance gems from events too. But all this alliance gem income is still not enough.

I do feel that:

  • the plat gear requirements are too high (too many of each plat item is required to fill 1 slot)
  • the droprates of plat items are too low (waaay too low) and
  • the alliance gem income too insufficient
    to enjoy the plat bar upgrading process.

In fact, it is very far from an enjoyable grind because most stamina that you use towards farming plat gear items goes to absolute waste.

Does anyone like spending 120 stamina to get 1 (or sometimes none) plat medium helmet fragment? 1/14 for 120 stamina is a frustrating experience. And you can frequently get this kind of result whether you farm in Hard Mode or normal. Hard mode is slightly better but actually the difference is not great (for example, today I farmed all 11-5 and 11-9 Hard for plat swords and collected Zero).

That’s not all. It is also doubly bad when you manage to acquire all the gear you need to upgrade a particular hero to plat-plus, and then:
(a) that hero is nerfed [eg, Panzer and Dogface] or
(b) matchmaking is adjusted to screw you over for having uneven plat bars.

The trouble is, it is terribly difficult to have even plat bars and stars for your core pvp heroes. Only very few guys in town have heroes that are evenly barred, but matchmaking demands that as a basis for an even matchup. But the rule can only benefit so few and on the other hand we probably have thousands of players who have uneven plat bars.

Some grinding is fine with me, absolutely. But in my view, something needs to be done about the current situation. I would like HHG to consider ways to make the plat bar upgrading experience a challenging one, without being frustrating.

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It would be interesting (but impossible…) to see how many players out of the 100% total who even bother adding platinum bars.

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It would be interesting (but impossible…) to see how many players out of the 100% total who even bother adding platinum bars

While we couldn’t do this, I’m sure the devs can run a simple query.

As far as the OP, I totally agree with @Poobgloob. I understand making it more difficult. I understand you don’t want everyone having all heroes at 5 plat within a year. But 7 years minimum is a bit crazy.

With that said, it seemed they listened a while back and adjusted frag amounts when they introduced plat. I’m making a huge assumption here but I wouldn’t be surprised if they intro diamond level at level 100 and adjust plat amounts required. Also, I don’t think they’d want everyone to have 68 heroes all at 10* 6 diamond right away. Then everyone is on a level playing field and doesn’t encourage continuous play and achieving the next level.

But yes, I’m looking forward to an adjustment in core frag levels. Or at least a better drop rate or something.

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At the first read I have seen that they did not mention Heronium and therefore pointed out. on second reading I would like to go into a few other points.

Do we have 68 important heroes on whom their math is based? I think no, maybe I have 20. Until they get these 20 on Platinum 5 at all, more things could be introduced to make collecting MK Items easier. (who knows, maybe even in the Alliance War)

I think I’m an over average player (over 1 mil in strength since World Release) but I find a lot of 12k Allianz Gems. I am in a top 10 alliance of all events and will watch it.

I already mentioned the topic of Heronium here, but I think there is another aspect. I now have 21 heroes who “wait” for MK items. (5 out of the 6 item slots are ready) What if you are more comfortable with the other slots and just wait for the Alliance Gems for MK Items. So you would fall back on mission and get more MK items.

I have my personal goals, they may be different from most of them but I will eventually reach my goal. (have only 3 heroes on Plat 4 and the rest less) It will come the time where I concentrate fully on these MK items, but then I use all the possibilities (variables: Heronium, Alliance Gems, Gold for stamina or what whatever) who knows what’s going on, new rewards, less items needed …

P.S. a small task for them, they are Vip 11 so would get 150 stamina for 40 gold, just imagine they use it everyday and get 3 more platinum items. How long would it take?

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