Is there actually a reason to upgrade Arena tokens?

[Nik]

The rewards for two bronze tokens seem better than a single silver and so on. Is there a higher chance of getting better gear or something with gold and platinum arena runs?

[Horthas]

I think there's no chance of rolling artifacts on bronze tokens. Platinum tokens have the best chance of getting Proof of Merit if you're going for those. So there's some value at the high end.

[Nik]

I like to test these systems out and I did save/load a number of times in a Bronze arena and managed to get a Legendary level item and a Proof of Merit. The gold seems to be lower than the higher tier arenas, but pretty much proportional, whilst you actually get more Codecs and overall items on a lower tier Arena. I guess, what I'm curious about is do we know how much more of a chance is there to get these premium items on Platinum/Gold/Silver Arenas and if more than a single legendary item can be gotten at once at those higher levels because if not, there really is no need to upgrade your tokens.

[Throbbin Krok Nob]

There is absolutely no reason to choose anything other then bronze tokens. In addition to the rewards you get more +LDR for seizing multiple bases and faction points for making the enemies surrender. If you find the skull artifact early you can get as much as 30-35 faction points per bronze arena and complete your tech tree as early as chapter 18 or so. As it's the only way to essentially grind in this game, more enemies is more levels is more, you also get more codecs. In the long run getting better artifacts is negligible.

[Horthas]

Sorry, when I said artifacts I meant unique artifacts. The orange ones. If you did get one of those on a bronze that's some crazy luck. Also the last orange artifact is harder to get than the first I believe. It took me a lot of save scumming on a run to get it to roll the last one I had not collected. My assumption is it rolls on a table and if you get an orange artifact you already have it rolls a purple instead, so you have to get a little bit more lucky for the last one.

[KatArus]

It's up in the air really and can't be said definitively without looking at the tables. It feels™ that doing only bronze one is better because 1 platinum token = 8 bronze ones which means more easier to get surrenders = more stars + MUCH more leadership and leadership is the most important stat in the game period and in terms of loot and gold 8 bronze arenas are similar to 1 platinum one.

My opinion? I agree with Sid Meier: don't optimise the fun out of your game.

[8-bit Cavalry]

You're forgetting the most obvious reason: your own time and sanity.

Do you really want to play 80+ bronze arenas per playthrough? you'll spend more time on that one map killing those same guys than all the other missions put together. And the reward for doing it is making the game easier? You may want to just turn the difficulty down at that point, and save yourself from the tedium.

[Thorak]

If you want to maximize your troops it's 100% bronze I would say, but as mentioned above it's rather boring to grind the bronze arenas. If you don't think it's tedious to do broze again and again I can't really see why you would want to run anything else. Especially once you can equip Stefan with a full squad of rogues and gain a multitude of gold in the process as well.

I personally think the game should be changed to only make it possible to exchange arena tokens UPWARDS not downwards, or make it less profitable to downgrade downwards.

[Lakel]

Sanity arguments aside, time modulator dropped from my 3rd a bronze arena token just now, so thats something.

[Nik]

Yes, I also got the Modulator on Bronze which is why I was asking. I'm certain the odds of getting rare items go up as you advance through the tiers, but am curious by how much.

[butters007]

I found the bronze is good for making enemy squads surrender, therefore getting proofs is possible which is sweet, not to mention you can pick up loyalty ranks and some levels. I feel the Plat tokens, theres a good chance at getting a squad wiped out or if you make an un foreseen error maybe two or three,but a guaranteed prof (or more likely than not) for complete victory with the addition of more levels and i think even stat boosting items is kind of worth the risk, but i think both are real good,slow and steady vs high risk/reward (ish). Mad fun either way.

[CelesQuinn]

Silver Token Arena is more profitable.
it gives 5 CP Scrolls (sells for 1000) and it wont increase more than that in Gold and Platinum.
this made my early game much more easier

[Thorak]

Originally posted by CelesVeloz:

Silver Token Arena is more profitable.
it gives 5 CP Scrolls (sells for 1000) and it wont increase more than that in Gold and Platinum.
this made my early game much more easier

Bronze gives three of each -> 2 bronze gives more than 1 silver. But yeah, arena makes the game significantly easier.

[Frog Lick]

Originally posted by KatArus:

My opinion? I agree with Sid Meier: don't optimise the fun out of your game.

My opinion is, that it's a terribly awfully poor game design, when a game punishes playing smarter or going more challenging ways (for example going for higher tier arena tokens) and instead rewards easy, but time-wasting grinding (going bronze 100 times).
In the early versions, arena token could be bought for money and they patched / removed that in order to discourage grinding.
I believe, that this (bronze better than silver etc) should be patched for the same reason.
I feel stupid going into anything else than bronze, while going to bronze feels boring. So the game makes me choose between feeling stupid or feeling bored.
Sid Meyer probably said that about some obscure ways of optimizing which utilizes some complex interactions between multiple things in the game... Things which are easy to overlook during game design. But this is not the case... This is just a lazy poor game design.

[DigitalLuvin]

I think its the token trading - I'm not sure that adds anything to the game. It seems like it would be better to just have the RNG involved in which tokens you get and remove the trading aspect all together for tokens if they want less grinding.

[Frog Lick]

Originally posted by DigitalLuvin:

I think its the token trading - I'm not sure that adds anything to the game. It seems like it would be better to just have the RNG involved in which tokens you get and remove the trading aspect all together for tokens if they want less grinding.

That would also solve the problem. Although I think that the trading actually adds something to the game. In the earlier stages of the game, when your army isn't very strong and it's quite hard to beat the harder arenas, the trading allows you to choose if you want to take it easy and play it safe or take the harder challenge (and feel like an idiot for getting less reward for going the harder way unless they patch it).