Hi TGW, I was going through similar topics because this is the time when I actually feel like spending money doesn’t get me anywhere in this game. It’s been a while and quite amount of money since the game gave me something I was excited about. The drive for spending is now somehow quiet - I didn’t have a problem with it while there was a feeling of getting something from it, but now, that feeling is gone. I guess my RNG was too bad. Basically, I am thinking about following your steps. Very happy I found this thread, because I have a picture in my head showing it’s not an easy step… To stop caring about new fancy heros, all the lucky pulls we are reading about here in the forum… But when I remember the price of that race, it’s really ridiculous. Did you write somewhere about you routine - savings of EHT’s and how often you use them, WE flasks for farming, those staff?
Came across this old thread.
Sparked some thoughts…so I Started a new thread …
I don’t have an exact routine when it comes to farming or summoning… many F2Pers swear by the Censure summoning method (explanations can be found on YouTube or elsewhere)… I haven’t tested it enough to see whether or not it works, I just take SG at their word when they say that summons are random, and there’s no difference in odds no matter how many (or how few) summons you do in a row. Either way? The posted odds are fairly low. Everyone is of course free to test their own methods and superstitions, maybe you sacrifice a chicken or spin around 3 times chanting the name of the hero you want before clicking the summon button… whatever seems to work for you.
For me? It always just seems to come down to “dumb luck”. I can go months without anything good, then get 2 or 3 awesome summons in a week. 
I do save EHTs now… previously, I was unaware that they could be used for event heroes. I started saving them when I first heard that, only to find out later that they can only be used for seasonal events, not all events. Okay, so that means I have to save them for several months. Which I’m perfectly content to do. It’s not like I get a whole bunch of them anyway, and using them for a regular summons is likely only going to result in a Dawa anyway. I’m not going to waste them on any portal that only includes heroes I can get from TC20. So yeah… now I save them. Was glad I did, because they rewarded me quite nicely in Morlovia. 
As for farming… most of the time, I just autoplay S1:8-7. Has enough monsters to fill your monster chest in one gaming session, and occasionally drops some valuable crafting mats (assuming you are in need of any). Atlantis Rises is a great time to burn flasks though, if you want to get the most out of them. Otherwise? Since I don’t play as much every day as I used to, I will occasionally burn a flask or two in order to finish a quest that has guaranteed rewards like emblems, ETT, unfarmable mats, etc., because I like guaranteed loot, and maybe I don’t feel like waiting 6 hours to get the rest of the flags I need to do the last stage…
So yeah… I always keep a handful of extra WE flasks around just in case. And no, I don’t buy them! I just hoard them and hardly ever use them.
My daily routine is usually
- hit the titan
- collect loot, hams, irons, feeders, etc.
- level up my heroes
- fill monster chest
- do any other quests that have valuable loot
- stuff recruits into training camps
- craft stuff if needed
Optional:
- try to recover some of my lost cups (I have to be in the right mood to do raids)
And then obviously, wars on war days.
On an average day, I’m in and out in less than an hour. Depending on what events and such are going on.
Hi guys!
Since I started this game (almost two years ago) I used to spend a few quid every month. Atlantis offers, share the love, vip, vip+gems offer, etc… Not very but still cheap-to-play.
I do not go out often at all (6 times a year maybe) and I do not have any expensive hobby so it was very easy to justify my low spending. Over a tome frame of 16-18 month I got some Hotm, some event 5 stars, almost all the Atlantis and event four stars (like 80-90%).
A few month ago (about the time the big turmoil around T and V began…) I realised I hit a wall. I have more heroes than ascension materials. To level up all my five stars would take about 2 years now.
With the scarcity of the 4star AM’s SGG pushed me to close my wallet. But I thing this is a natural balance feature of the game. I mean whales can have 50 five star heroes but not enough ascension material to level them. F2P can have dozens of 4 star material collecting dust because they yet to summon a good hero. C2P is the balanced way! Some good heroes every now and enough material to ascend them…
So I completely stopped spending… Not even VIP or Pov.
I am no f2p by any means. Call me #nospend or NPA (not paying anymore).
There is absolutely nothing wrong with low spending. Honestly, I think VIP is a good investment for a new player who intends to stick around for a while without spending a whole lot of money.
But after a certain amount of time, you don’t really need a second builder anymore.
The other deals? PoV is decent, if you’re able to complete it (depends on how much you’re able to play each day, how much content you do, how strong your roster is, how strong your alliance is, several different factors).
Share the love is great, because it rewards others in your alliance who may not be able to buy gems themselves… even better if multiple people in the alliance buy it, then everyone gets a free summon. 
But when it comes to buying gems themselves to chase certain heroes… or to skip building times, or refill food and iron, or to buy battle items… yeesh. Talk about high prices for low rewards! No thank you. I have to take a hard pass on that.
Thank you, VERY much!
I was thinking to invest in VIP and PoV for a while, I’m less than a year in the game and could use a 2nd builder, and few usable goodies from PoV. It would be nothing compared to my current expenses, but could help me grow a different attitude towards the game.
Each day I see it more and more like an inevitable path. Not because I can’t afford it, but because if I’m going to throw money away, I can do it in so many better ways. I mean, it took me about 200€ worth of summons only to get Norns (was trying for something else in the process)… 
And some other small deals, etc.
Am perfectly aware that with my bitter luck I might not get anything useful ever again. I just need to accept that awareness and move on. 
Chasing specific heroes only works if you are either very lucky or very wealthy. I am neither. There are many heroes I would love to have myself, but I’ve come to accept the reality that I probably never will.
On the other hand? I’ve gotten a few neat heroes for free, usually when I least expected to get them. The key to playing this game as a low or non spender is to lower your expectations when it comes to summons, and learn how to make the most of what you’ve got. TC20 has been quite generous to me over the year and a half or so that I’ve been running them (I’ve run as many as 3 at a time in the past). Stock vanilla heroes may not be the best, but slap some emblems on them (and a costume too, if you’re lucky enough to pull one), and you can still do fairly well overall, especially with the right hero combinations and the right boards.
Second builder comes in very handy up until the point where most of your buildings are at level 20… eventually you reach a point to where it takes a week to upgrade a building, but it also takes nearly that long to accumulate enough iron to upgrade the next building… so you end up with a second builder just sitting there twiddling his thumbs. At that point, VIP could still be worth it for the gems, loot tickets and emblems, but that comes down to how much you’re willing to pay for those things.
Did you notice that all 3match games really suck when copmapring them to EP?
Gonna try and see, probably setting a small monthly budget to get familiar with the fact that I don’t summon all the time. That would be a healthy start. Not to summon in each event, but to learn to collect resources and do that every 3-4 months etc. Your insights are very helpful, might start this discussion again sometimes in the future, to check how the things are going. Good thing is, I already have a solid base to be competitive in different aspects of the game. So, it shouldn’t be that frustrating. 
It really doesn’t matter. It’s not about what you do or do not or did or did not spend in the game. It’s about your mindset towards playing the game.
Are you playing to be the best? Then your mindset is P2W whether you spend or not. Most likely any spending you have done is to gain an advantage (speed up progress, chase a desired hero, etc).
Are you playing to have fun or just for the entertainment value? Then you are F2P even if you have spent on the game. Most likely any spending you have done is aimed towards either paying back for the entertainment or with the goal of increasing said entertainment.
And it really makes no difference in the end. It’s as individual as we all are.
I will give you a like for this, because I mostly agree.
I mostly play for entertainment myself, but I am semi-competitive. Not super hardcore level… because as much as I’d like to be top leaderboards this or that, I look at those who have made it to that point… I look at their rosters, then I look at mine for comparison…
and I go curl up into the fetal position and cry myself to sleep 
It’s not that I don’t want to compete, it’s that I can’t. I can’t afford to. And I won’t live long enough to be able to catch up to those who can, even if I played the game 24/7.
I also like collecting new heroes, but… I can’t afford to do that either. They are way too damn expensive.
Someone on here recently told me that they look at this game as a hobby. That’s cool! I like hobbies.
Unfortunately, majority of them are too expensive for me. Model trains, billiards… hell, these days, you practically have to be a millionaire just to collect Legos…
One thing I always liked about video games is that you didn’t have to be rich in real life in order to become “rich” in a game. But E&P is not like other games I’m used to. In order to have a “rich” roster in this game, you pretty much have to be rich in real life. There is no quest or province that you can grind over and over again to pull a 5* hero. Or even ones that you can grind repeatedly for the materials to level that hero.
It’s basically mostly one RNG wall after another. You get a certain number of free attempts to crack the RNG code. If you fail those, you either have to spend for more attempts, or you sit back and wait and grind some more, and hope for better luck next time.
I mean my take is…
I spent like 6 EUR total on this game EVER. One as a newbie for a 200 gem deal (which did get me Sir Lancelot, so yay!) and once on a Rudolph Christmas deal which basically gave me VIP for a month.
I have not spent anything since, and I do not plan to ever spend.
So am I supposed to always preface my posts and opinions with this? Like, huh? I’m not gonna continue spending… and OK yes I got one cool hero from it, but only one. All the other HOTMs and Seasonal heroes I got came from Atlantis coins, saved gems, EHTs. And those were all before becoming VIP. So it was all pure dumb FTP luck.
I mean, by the time anyone finishes my preface and reads my opinion, their eyes would have glazed over…
… and those who spend more time and energy evaluating whether I should be called FTP or not, instead of reading my opinion on game matters, well… 
I dont spend and I play the game as 98.99% of the players.
so, what’s the difference?
cash/credit in my wallet ? 
enjoy the game? 
excitement over pulls? 
signed,
Mighty❤️F2P
.