The option to get emblems via Alkashards may cause a lot of problems. Unless Alchemy Lab level 10 takes a long time to run, youâll see 5+20s quickly. If AL10 generates 1200 shards for 250 gems, you can get 10k shards with 8.33 runs at a cost of 2083.33 gems, on average. If those 10k shards get you 400 emblems, you need to do that 37.5 times to max a set of 10 5 star heroes. Total cost around 78,125 gems, or about $780. Considering the number of heavy, heavy spenders there are in this game, Iâm wagering that a fair number of people will do this. This does, of course, require you to run AL10 at least 313 times though, so a lot depends on how long that takes.
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My general impression is SG created extremely entertaining game but now they ran out of ideas for new features and only can implement building that converts existing items to different existing items for ridiculous cost. With ridiculously long waiting time to build such building and unbelievable high cost to research conversion.
Sad and disappointing. Itâs not fun anymore.
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They donât, itâs 200 Emblems.
I suspect the duration of time required will be set specifically to address this.
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Initial Beta impressions are often sad and disappointed.
Iâd caution judging the future of the game based on this Beta release.
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Whales can likely speed up the transmutation process as well. This is extremely pay to win. I hadnât thought of that huge issue. I think that is the worst part of this. The game has always been good about making it so that no amount of money would take away the need to wait for some things to advance. This is a huge step in the wrong direction 
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They canât. Staff have indicated that Transmutation times canât be accelerated with Gems.
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Ah, okay I misread your post as saying you get 2x 200 emblems when itâs actually that you get 200 of 1 of 2 random classes. So, yes, double the costs in my prior post, which makes everything a bit better for non-payers.
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Honestly, that would be worthwhile. Iâd pay 10,000 gems and 1m food to turn horghall #3 into a random hotmâŠ
Edit: But I also hate it at the same time. Iâm not a whale, by any stretch, and I want the game to continue to err on the side of F2P-friendly.
Edit 2: OK, 10,000 gems is too steep altogether. I might do it once or twice, but generally would rather spend those gems on a 30x Atlantis pull.
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But the building times, which will be a possible advantage of about 6 month.
They also bought SH21 on the 1st day and had poons on the 2nd.
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Will AL become like TC?
I mean TC5-9 and TC14-18 are useless, right?
Most AL levels are useless and only the one for 4* mats and to get backpacks are useful?
If so, it is pretty disappointing.
Oh, and i wonât even start with the 250 gemsâŠ
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I donât know. 3x Horghall into another Thoth-Amun? No thanks
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Oh, good. Thatâs something, at least. I still think this needs a lot of improvements, but it is definitely better.
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Yeah, that would be a huge disappointment for that many gems. I doubt theyâd actually use 10k as the number though. 300 would make sense, since itâs the cost of a summon.
Alchemy Lab is actually a feature many players had requested. SGG listened to the request and is going to implement it.
4* ascension items as well as emblems are one of the major bottlenecks of the game. It was clear from the beginning that AL wouldnât give 4* mats away too easily.
I think 250 gems to convert a 4* mat into another is a fair price, especially, as we seem to get those shards as extra reward. Yes, if you go for one specific item it could become quite costly when you are unlucky. On the other hand, if you need several kinds of mats and have a huge surplus of another, the chance to get one of the useful ones is quite high (if, for instance you have 18 scopes and no blue hero worth ascending but desperately need damascus blades, darts, tabards and rings).
Although Iâm not happy with every aspect of it, I like the idea of the lab and think that in general the devs will do a good job to make it useful for most players. And itâs great that they have taken an idea from the forum and worked out a major game update using this idea 
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Letâs see.
I donât think that converting the huge amounts of common herbs into large bones and leather stripsâwithout paying gems for itâis useless. Or small heal to small mana potions.
Also, I think that 250 gems are a fair price. 4* ascension items are supposed to be hard to get, they are currently the biggest bottleneck for P2W players, while F2P and C2P often donât even have enough great heroes to use all their ascension items. Once they have finished AL10, they will have collected quite a lot of those mats through chests, titans and rare quests while they might still have very few 5* heroes apart from those from TC20âŠ
That is my point also, just maybe mistyped it.
I donât want a AL where only 2 or 3 levels will be used. I would like one where every levels are actually useful.
I think it is pretty sad that half of the TC levels are useless and unused by a majority of players, and wouldnât want AL to finish like that.
As for the gem costs, i might need a coffee or 2 to successfully translate my thinking in an understandable posts 
Maybe later 
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Yes, ascension items are the main bottleneck, but how converting one item to another resolves this problem? You still have the same number of items and 20% chance to get the item you need.
But is it worth it? If you need one more item to ascend some hero, itâs cheaper to just wait for relevant rare quest. And it might took less time too if youâre unlucky and keep getting items you donât need. What about conversion tabard â rings â and back to Tabard?
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Same here. I hope the beta testers point out if one level has absolutely no use and demand it be changed or replaced by a more useful one (I still think converting grey hero tokens into golden ones would be an awesome option for the AL)
Also, I would be super happy if the TC were reworked and the useless levels eliminated or replaced. AL 5-9 might have been somewhat useful before fully leveled heroes had an improved chance to get their special ability up to 8,now both 5-9 and 14-18 make absolutely no sense while 10 and 12 get useless once 13 is ready (13 also when 20 is ready but at least itâs useful for several months)
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Letâs start postive:
I like that now im able to convert my training manuals and such to backpacks and get the new shards on the way. I hope this goes with a reasonable duration. At least I hope so. Edit: turns out you canât produce backpacks (see Zephyr1 response)
Iâd probably always pick the emblems over 4 star ascension materials.
Now the cons:
There are still gems involved. But they are now at a reasonable price. Iâm fine with paying 250 gems to convert one of my tome of tactics to another material. I hope itâs not possible to get the same one out. This would be incredible frustrating.
There is also the danger of adding to many emblems if the durations are to short or to easy to reach with gems. This really could break the balance and make high level raiding ridiculous.
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UmmâŠsorry, canât do that.
Backpacks and Training Manuals are both 1*, so they can only be Transmuted into 2* Ascension Materials.
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