Lancer Knightz (Guild)/Missions

This page is part of the Lancer Knightz data collection project. Its goal is to quantify the crown and rarity payouts of all missions. These particular data were collected by Vanzanz, Dzamie, Epoxee, Skepticraven, Bopp, and Donkeyhaute. Thus far we have run the 51 fighting missions an average of 28 times each.

Procedure

For missions that exist on multiple strata (danger missions, Operation Crimson Hammer, etc.), we always measure on Tier 3 / Stratum 6. The tester carries out the entire mission, from mission lobby to mission report. The tester goes down every side path, killing every monster. Slashing plants and lamps to get extra crowns is optional. The tester does not spend any extra energy opening treasure rooms, danger rooms, etc.

After the mission, the tester examines the mission report, and sends this information to Donkeyhaute:

1. The difficulty: Normal, Advanced, or Elite.
2. The number of knights in the party. If the number changes over time, then an estimate of the average (1.5, 2.3, etc.) is fine.
3. The total crowns earned by the tester (not the other party members). This figure appears at the top of the mission report.
4. The total number of Forge, Grim, and Primal Sparks earned by the tester. These appear at the bottom of the mission report.
5. Any Orbs of Alchemy (of any star level) or Radiant Fire Crystals found.
6. The date.
7. For the King of Ashes, which branch of depth 26 was taken — west or east?

If possible, the tester also records exactly how many green treasure boxes and red treasure boxes he found during the mission. This is not easy to do, especially when playing in a party. If the tester is not certain that his count is exactly right, then he should not submit this information. We would rather have few reliable data than many unreliable data.

Donkeyhaute enters the data into a computer program that outputs the wiki markup for the tables below. Each mission is measured many times, to give a better idea of the crown and spark payout.

Crowns and Spark Tokens

Here is a summary of the crown and spark token data. The columns are:

• Name, Rank, Lvls: Name, rank, and number of fighting levels.
• Data: The number of data for each difficulty level: Normal, Advanced, Elite. More data mean that the estimated average is more reliable. For the sake of tidiness, the table does not include confidence intervals.
• Nrm, Adv, Elt: Average crowns earned on each difficulty level.
• Nrm, Adv, Elt: Average spark tokens earned on each difficulty level.

Rarities and Treasure Boxes

On Elite difficulty only, here is a summary of our data about Orbs of Alchemy, Radiant Fire Crystals, and treasure boxes. The columns are:

• Name, Rank, Lvls: Name, rank, and number of fighting levels.
• Data: The number of data for Orbs, Radiants, and treasure boxes. All Radiant data were collected after release 2014-02-26, when drop rates were increased. More data mean that the estimated average is more reliable. For the sake of tidiness, the table does not include confidence intervals.
• Orb1, Orb2, Orb3, Orb4, Orb5: Average orbs of each star level earned per mission run.
• FC5: Average Radiant Fire Crystals earned per mission run.
• Grn, Red: Average number of green and red treasure boxes found per run.

Earnings per Level

Forge, Grim, and Primal Sparks are worth at least 100 crowns each, because 100 sparks can be traded for a 5-star trinket that can be vendored for 10,000 crowns. Similarly, three boss tokens are worth at least 225, 700, 525, or 3,000 crowns, depending on the boss. By incorporating the value of tokens like this, we get a better idea of the total earnings of a mission. Dividing the total earnings by the number of levels gives us an idea of the overall crown-earning efficiency of the mission. The following table summarizes the average earnings per level computed in this way.

• Name, Rank, Lvls: Name, rank, and number of fighting levels.
• Data: The number of data for each difficulty level: Normal, Advanced, Elite. More data mean that the estimated average is more reliable. For the sake of tidiness, the table does not include confidence intervals.
• Normal, Advanced, Elite: Average earnings per level, on each difficulty level.

By the way, selling boss furniture materials to players may be more lucrative than selling boss reward items to vendors. Also, vendoring Perfect Mask of Seerus increases the earnings of Operation Crimson Hammer by 1667 crowns per level (ignoring the cost of Eternal Orbs and materials).

Difficulty and Party Size

Difficulty affects crown payouts. To see how, examine the plot at right. Each dot represents a mission on Normal (black) or Advanced (gray) difficulty. Low-rank missions are toward the left, while high-rank missions are to the right. The y-coordinate of the dot is the mission's average payout, compared to its Elite version. The black dots cluster about the line y = 0.67, suggesting that Normal payouts are 33% less than Elite payouts. The gray dots cluster about y = 0.83, suggesting that Advanced payouts are 17% less than Elite payouts.

Party size does not appear to affect crown payouts. To see so, examine the plot at left. Each dot is a non-solo mission run. The x-axis is party size. Fractional party sizes arise from knights entering and leaving parties. The y-axis is the run's crown payout, compared to the average solo payout for the same mission on the same difficulty. The fact that the dots are scattered about the line y = 1 suggests that all party sizes produce about the same crown payouts.

Classic Crowns

Prior to release 2013-07-30, there was only one difficulty level, which we now call Classic. Between April and July of 2013, we collected at least 5 crown measurements from almost every fighting mission. Without showing all of these data, here are two key conclusions from the Classic era.

First, Advanced payouts are within 2% of Classic payouts. The difference is not statistically significant.

Second, during the Classic era accessing a fighting level of the Clockworks cost 10 energy. A natural question to ask was: "Do 10 levels of this mission earn enough to buy 100 energy? Is the mission self-funding?" The table below shows some benchmark energy prices, from 5000 to 9500. For each price, the table shows how many Classic missions were self-funding at that price. As you can see, the King of Ashes was not the only profitable mission in the game.

Time?

Many players are interested in crowns or rarities per minute. However, we do not collect time data, because they would vary so much from player to player. Anecdotally, there seem to be two highly profitable strategies:

• Speed-run the King of Ashes to get the Almirian Seals and treasure boxes. When you have enough Seals, sell Dark Ember or vendor Ancient Plate Helm.
• Speed-run Operation Crimson Hammer to get the Perfect Seerus Mask Fragment and the treasure boxes. After three runs, vendor Perfect Mask of Seerus.