There’s been some controversy on various social media and MMO fan communities over Trion Worlds’ implementation of ArcheAge’s F2P cash shop and Patron subscription model. In an effort to clear up some misunderstandings, let’s review all the items available for purchase with real money in the shop. Keep in mind that currently 150 credits seem to be equivalent to one real world US dollar, according to the Founders Pack shop page (7500 credits, $50 value). This list will not cover the loyalty items, which are bought with loyalty tokens earned by logging in daily.
“Worker’s Compensation” labor point restoring potions, 300 credits. This item restores 1000 labor points and has a cooldown of 12 hours. Kudos to whoever came up with the name. 1000 labor points is a lot in the early game, but by level 50 it’s only one fifth of your maximum. As a patron it would take 8 hours and 20 minutes to regenerate 1000 labor points while logged in, double that time if logged out. The auction house is already full of these potions and it’ll probably be one of the most-traded gold conversion items by players who have real money to spend.
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“Vocation Tonic” crafting experience point doubling potion, 300 credits. Increases the amount of experience gained by expending labor points by 100% for one hour. Very useful early on when leveling your initial three classes to 50, potentially still useful when leveling the rest of the classes later on. It seems like somewhat of a niche tool, probably used by folks who can spend an hour crafting nonstop.
“Pyramid Relic: Weapons” tempering reset item, 448 credits. Already tempered (re-rolled) your item once and want to do it again? Well here you go, have fun.
“Pyramid Relic: Armor” tempering reset item, 225 credits. Same as the above, except for armor pieces. Cheaper for some reason, maybe because you’ve got a lot more armor slots than weapon slots?
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“Lucky Quicksilver Tonic” loot drop rate potion, 80 credits. Increases drop rate by 10% for one hour. Worth spending some money on, in my opinion, if only so you can pick up a few more armor pieces to break down into Archeum crystals later.
“Honor Boost Tonic” does exactly what the name says, 80 credits. Increases honor points from kills by 1 in disputed areas and during sieges, by 4 during wars and by 10 in the arenas for one hour. After Patch 1.2 there are easier, safer ways to get honor points. I’d save my credits for other items.
“Immortal XP Tonic” prevents XP and item durability loss upon death for 60 minutes, 80 credits. This is the potion you grab right before doing something stupid with your friends. Durability and experience point loss aren’t the biggest deals in ArcheAge, but they can be a pain when they start stacking up.
“Vocation Expertise Tonic” crafting production boost potion, 80 credits. Decreases crafting time by 10% and increases the amount of vocation badges you get by 10% as well. Another potion useful for folks who love to spend their labor points, maybe even more useful than the plain “Vocation Tonic” after level 50. You’ll need those badges one day, trust me.
“Flaming Pinion” talisman stack of 10, 20 credits. Increases glider speed by 30% for 30 seconds. Gotta go fast!
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“Scroll: Resurrection” talisman, 100 credits. Revives an ally to 5% of max health and mana, restores XP equivalent to what you would get at a Nui Shrine (rez statue). Not sure why this is being sold in the cash shop at all, since it’s only 40 silver from a general merchant. It’s only a single scroll, if it was a stack of 5 or so it would make more sense. Each scroll has a shop price of 20 silver.
“3-Day Any-Post Owl” contraption, 200 credits. Summons a mail owl for 10 minutes, can be used an unlimited amount of times for 3 days after unwrapping. Pretty cost effective since normal “Any-Post Owl” items only work once and cost 3 gold.
“Any-Post Owl” contraption, 20 credits. Summons a mail owl once for 10 minutes. The same as the shop item, just a lot cheaper. Not that exciting, unless you’re really into owls. I won’t judge.
“Expansion Scroll” increases the amount of slots in bags or warehouses by 10, 300 credits. This is the item I have the biggest issue with. You used to be able to expand your inventory space by expending increasing amounts of gold. Now this item is the only method available. Not cool.
“Salon Certificate” contraption, 750 credits. Does your character have a face only a mother could love? Fix that, buy this. It’s one of the staples of cash shops everywhere, there’s no chance it wouldn’t have been here too.
“Gender Swap Certificate” contraption, 1345 credits. Does exactly what it sounds like it does, except it also resets your character’s appearance after the change. Whoever stockpiles these and uses them whenever they get soaked with hot or cold water will be my hero.
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“Mirage Elk” rare mount, 1345 credits. This elk moves a faster than the starter one. Not that exciting.
“Mirage Leomorph” rare mount, 1345 credits. Same as above, it’s a little faster than the normal one.
“Breeze Pet Helm” level 20 mount helmet, 225 credits. Has decent stats and effects for a cheap piece of mount armor, which isn’t very important equipment in the grand scheme of things. You can get similar pet equipment from the level 30 dungeon.
“Breeze Mount Saddle” level 20 mount saddle, 225 credits. Has okay stats but pretty good effects, especially the 2.0% move speed increase. Worth getting if you don’t already have something better.
“Breeze Pet Legguards” level 20 mount legguards, 225 credits. Decent stats but the 10% move speed increase effect is actually pretty great. If you were going to buy one piece of pet armor from the cash shop early on, I’d get this one. Your donkey will appreciate it.
