Spark Levels

[jasebree]

There may be a discussion of this in on of the other threads I haven’t found yet, but I wanted to share what I’ve gleaned from the sparks so far with some help of others over on FB.

Confirmed Levels so far:

Possible prices for continued Spark Levels:

This is just a guess on the future levels, but if you know stats, that’s a pretty good fit.

Topic

[Xun]

@jasebree I have encountered a gold badge with 2 stripes on my board – Leff.

[Phillips]

So much for the supposed 50% max that was announced when they were originally bought in.

ABTF v1.22 – Wheeljack and spark

[jasebree]

@xunhq unfortunately no one has shared that spark count on the boards I follow, Else I’d update the chart.

[Soundwave]

IMO, the spark concept is a bad deal for players, and here is why…

Rovio was getting pretty good at offering character bundles for cash. This provided two ways to obtain a character:

1. Pay money
2. Compete like crazy to earn the necessary tokens (probably needing a good stack of gems to do so)

Sometimes, I chose option 1 if time was limited. Sometimes I chose option 2 if I had more time to play. But, I had a choice.

Now, with the sparks, it looks like being competitive in the competition will also require cash. Given the chart above, it will be virtually impossible for someone not purchasing the spark bundles to compete.

So now our choices are:

1. Pay money for the character
2. Pay money for sparks and gems to compete for the character

I guess this is a good strategy if there are lots of players left playing that are willing to pay.

I was tempted by the recent spark bundles, but have laid off of cash purchases since the removal of gems from the lab. That really irritated me and I’m deciding if I want to continue playing before laying out any more cash.

[jasebree]

The real twist is if/when they start changing the bonus squad during a comp like they did before sparks. Then the leader boards will be all over the place as different player’s max bonus bot rotate in and out of the squad.

[Phillips]

A change in bonus squad mid challenge won’t make any difference. From the look of my leaderboards it appears as though only a few characters are being promoted Energon Grimlock and Energon Starscream being the big ones. Haven’t seen too many rescue bots appear so people will just continue to promote and use their favourite characters regardless of if they are bonus squad or not.

[jasebree]

@phillips I can’t wait to see the outcry when R/E limit the eligible TFs. Like a Deceptihog only, nullifying all the E. Grimlocks. *sarcastic font not installed*

[Drover’s Dog]

@jasebree over the last year I seem to have fully accessorised one Deceptihog and have been running him with E Grimlock in the competition nodes. He is not ‘sparked’ up as much but with quicker reload time than E Grimlock, acid rounds he is my front runner and I bring out E Grimlock now only for Unicron and Boss Pig… can you guess who it is?

[datguygamer]

The highest level I’ve seen is a Gold Star with one stripe and two wings. I don’t how much spark is required to reach that level but I have seen many players with that rank in the boards.

[Mukesh007]

What is delta spark?

[Drover’s Dog]

@mukesh007 Delta spark is the increase amount between levels. Example the minimum a TF can be raised from no spark level to level 1 is 500 sparks. To get to next level it is 1050 sparks .. a difference of 550 which @jasebree has notated as Delta Spark. Difference between getting to next level (1050 sparks to next level cost of 1400) is 350.
It is a mathematical term methinks if my memory can get back through fog of 40 years of smoking, drinking and generally killing brain cells

[sheepybach]

That is a hell of a lot of Sparks to get for the top bonus. Phew

[Gabee1611]

I have a feeling this whole spark thing is going to backfire on Rovio/Exient. They introduced sparks to incentivize people to spend money to be able to win the daily event tournaments. But the more people spend to upgrade the spark, the less they will probably spend in gems. So in the short run, they will make cash on the sparks but long term people will spend less.

Who will want to spend money on gem recharges for events when you are completing with someone with a gold emblem.

[ArmourBender]

Very interesting chart, @jasebree. Thanks for sharing.

My Energon Grimlock level 10 is with Sparks level 9, the Silver star with one stripe.

Have spent a whooping total of 12,650 Sparks = (500 + 1050 + 1400 + 1650 + 1800 + 1950 + 2100 + 2200 sparks) over the last 2 live events ~ 16 days. To get a base score bonus of 40%.

It is a really tedious process to get a high number of Sparks, if your goal is to get a high score bonus / upgrade Sparks levels.

Especially if one cannot buy the Sparks bundles: you need to be very patient to get Daily Quest’s Sparks, and very diligent at getting Tokens in Live Events.

Why?

We can get 500 Sparks for free a day from the Daily Quests – provided we finish all those tasks.
We can exchange Tokens for Sparks via the Live Event: a total of 2750 Sparks for 2370 Tokens.
In the last 2 live events, that’s a total of 5,500 Sparks for 4,740 Tokens.

I have spent USD $4.99 for the Small Sparks Bundle (offered in the 1st Live Event: Soundwave Superior) last week 04 Dec 2016, and today 14 Dec 2016 @ USD $9.99 for the Medium Sparks Bundle (2nd Live Event: Ratch’ll Fixit).

Also experienced the gradual slight nerfing: is it worthwhile upgrading your Transformers / Decepticon’s Sparks levels?

While my Energon Grimlock is kept at level 10, sharing from personal experience,
the more I upgrade my Sparks levels, the live event plays seem to get gradually harder i.e. sometimes I get shorter runs, sometimes the runs have less juicy scoring targets available.
Overall you *do come up on top*, because the Sparks score bonuses help in the long juicy runs, and in runs against Unicron and Big Flying Boss Pig.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? Please share your thoughts too.
Thanks in advance.

[The Dark Knight]

@armourbender Though i haven’t upgrade more than one promotio (500 sparks) to some of the TFs and i don’t care so much to upgrade them because i have started loosing interest at the game, i can say only that it might have given more stronger opponents and not nerfing your own Transformer. If you feel that is been nerfed trying this transformer on a Jenga Mode or in a node from a map and you will see if it has been nerfed with the sparks or not ;)

[Mukesh007]

@droversdog thanks..! Now I got it.. I thought it’s some kind of special thing *delta*.. Never thought it in relation of maths ?.. . Which shows change..

[ArmourBender]

New Bundle appeared for Christmas Day: 25 Dec 2016 @ 00:00 am UTC / GMT + 0.

INTRODUCTORY SPARK OFFER:

For the next 48 hours,
for the same price as the previous Drift Character Bundle,

400 Gems + 80,000 Coins + 24,000 Sparks

FYI Previous DRIFT bundle:
Today’s bundle @ 23 Dec 2016, 00:00am UTC/GMT +0

DRIFT BUNDLE

750 Gems + Great Sword (+10% Explosive Force) + Drift

For USD $32.99

Suddenly the gems bundle banner stopped coming out, on this Intro Sparks Offer banner remains. Which offer 60% off gem purchases and that Gem Pass: 50 gems daily for 7 days.

[ArmourBender]

FYI with 24,000 Sparks you can:
1. Upgrade ONE character to the +60% Score Bonus @ 12th Sparks Bonus level: Silver Star with 2 stripes.
With surplus of 1650 Sparks which you can pour onto 1 more character upgrade to +20% Score Bonus @ 2nd Sparks Bonus level: Bronze badge with 2 stripes.

or

2. Upgrade FIVE characters to the +20% Score Bonus @ 4th Sparks Bonus level: Bronze Star with 1 stripe. With the surplus of 100 Sparks.

I hope the next event has a good 2x, 3x or more Score Bonus multiplier.

Please share, what do you think, is this bundle a good buy for Sparks?

[datguygamer]

@armourbender Well if you’re gonna upgrade a single character to +60% score bonus, it has to be one that is fully upgraded and has accessories that has +10% damage, +10% defense and also has a strong weapon so as to not get left out in any way.

Otherwise, the bundle is worth getting if you don’t mind shelling out 30 bucks. And if I know Rovio/Exient any better, they will offer this very same bundle later with a reduced price.

[The Dark Knight]

Personally i wouldn’t get 30 euros to buy this…

[ArmourBender]

@datguygamer
Thanks for your suggestion. Yeah that makes sense. More Sparks to the best fully equipped character you have.

@elpapam
Thanks for your input. I’m guessing you’ll not spend on Drift; and will be collecting the bonus 500 sparks from the Daily Quests.

[ArmourBender]

UPDATE:
The gems bundle banner came back.

Actually it’s a range of discounts from 20% to 100% for GEMS.
– 20% off for 150 180 gems = USD 4.99
– 40% off for 400 560 gems = USD 9.99
– 60% off for 900 1440 gems = USD 19.99
– 80% off for 2500 4500 gems = USD 49.99
– 100% off for 5200 10400 gems = USD 99.99

Had I known about these special bundles a few months back, I would have gone for the most expensive bundle from the very beginning, as I’ve spent that much by now buying up gems.
And bought many non-discounted bundles before I was aware of the discounted gems bundle.
Oh well.

[datguygamer]

@armourbender Now the question remains is: Which character(s) is/are best suited for such a promotion?

[HHal2000]

I have chosen to concentrate on Energon Grimlock and Moustache Pig as Dead End

[jasebree]

According to an Exient rep post in the facebook group, the next big update (Chinese new year) is suppose to have cheat detection on sparks.