Shops Analysis (09/07/2012)

These are the newest shops. I will officially update all the charts each weekly if there are major additions.

Shop	Level	Time	Coins	XP	Total	Net/Hr	Xp/Hr	Overall	V Coins	V XP	V Net	V Xp
Jellyfish Tower	74	23	5750	7000	12750	250	304	554	6000	5000	261	217
Seahorse Chalet	66	20	4900	5900	10800	245	295	540	3000	8500	150	425
Seashell Lodge	77	23	6000	7500	13500	261	326	587	6000	6000	261	261
Starfish Cottage	67	22	5000	6000	227	273	500	11000	3500	9000	159	409

Update for 9/07/2012:

Since the surfer’s don’t have an ocean, ngmoco:) gave us the next best thing, more items to go in the ocean. The four new items are available at middle levels, but very expensive. This is an old ngmoco:) marketing trick. You can get them at higher levels or install them at lower levels for extreme amounts of mojo. More mojo than has ever been charged for any items before. On the other hand, all of the items will be excellent performers for mid-level players.

If it feels like extortion, it’s not. At the levels where these items become available, you may be better off building your idle income items, residences and wisdom groves. So it’s not extortion if you don’t gave to spend the mojo, and I would advise aganst it. If ngmoco:) discontinues the items, you might consider it then.

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Ultimately your goal in We Rule is to reach a point where you can no longer order from other player’s kingdoms because so many have ordered from you that the game locks you out of their shops. This happens somewhere after 30 orders depending on how soon after orders are in that the server starts to inventory the number of orders per kingdom. I have had as many as 35 orders in my kingdom before the server locked me down.

Until then, you need to shop from other kingdoms to earn additional coins and experience points above those your kingdom produces with crops and groves. Which shops are available depends on who gets to someone’s kingdom before you, but there are always a handful of shops you can keep your eye out for as more likely to deliver more than others.

I went through all of the shops available to compile a list of best buys and shops to avoid. I used a simple formula (yield/hrs) to calculate the hourly value of each shop’s return in coins (c) and experience points (xp). Not surprisingly, some ] shops that look like they have a good return (2000c or xp) begin to tarnish when the amount of time taken to realize the return is considered.

I am including complete charts in the Pages section of the blog, and will update the charts and this analysis as new shops are added to the kingdom. So you should refer back to the charts for the most current estimates.

Remember, this is a shopper’s guide. I will discuss vendor options occasionally, but unless I specifically mention vendors the information is for customers.

c = coins
xp = experience points
cp = combined points

hc = hourly coins
hxp = hourly experience
hcp = hourly combined points

Projected Best deals

At this point, the differences between the top six are apples and oranges. You won’t do wrong with any of them. If you need cash, however, the black dragon and alchemist’s labs are probably your best bet. Hercules temple, the house of worship and the druid’s library do better on experience.

These projections are based on a guess rather than a mathematical model, although I took the numbers into account. I’m basing my projections on the likelihood of availability, hourly return and overall turnaround time. Which means there is no precision involved.

I also decided to separate the event awards from the buildings that are available on a longer term basis because they will be more rare, but also more likely to show up in lower level kingdoms since players can earn them at L2.

I used to spend more time describing the comparative value of these shops, but ngmoco:) turns over the leaders so quickly I have to let the numbers speak for themselves.

Event Awards (rare one per kingdom, limited availability)

1. Fantasy Zoo: 583hcp and 14000cp
2. Frankenstein Castle: 580hcp and 9280cp
3. Elemental forge: 15830cp and 498hcp
4. Mummy’s Tomb: 17935cp and 389hcp
5. Elemental obelisk: 13140cp and 411hcp
6. Deli: 13050cp and 407hcp

Boosted Gifts (less rare—there may be better shops I haven’t received yet. It’s been weeks since I’ve gotten something new from boosted gifts)

1. Bellver Castle: 15800x and 493hcp
2. Festive Castle: You should find one in every kingdom for active players as of March. At 447hcp and 12525cp it’s the first shop I would look for in any kingdom lower than L60.
3. Paladin Castle: 10125cp and 337hcp.
4. The Bastille: 8000cp and 333hcp, with an extremely high 7500xp (312hcp)
5. Golden cave of treasures (227hcp, 6805cp).
6. Beast’s Castle: Delivers 5775cp (196 hourly) with 3375xp.

Buildings

1. Surfer’s Hut: 1400 hcp and 14000cp in only 10 hours. This is only 5000cp fewer than the 32 hour turnaround for the dragonslayer’s den. No contest, but they spoil quickly so if the other player forgets to collect your order for a couple of hours, you might lose it all.
2. Pacific residence: Same total return but over 15 hours (933 hcp). You have a few extra hours of safety before they go bad.
3. Solstice Fortress: 813hcp and 14625cp. The hourly return makes it worth the lower (and quicker) total payout.
4. Dragonslayer’s den: 19400cp and 606hcp.
5. Chess King. 15000cp and 625hcp.

If those aren’t available, I look for these in the following order:

• Necromancer’s lair: The leader for one weekend. I hope you didn’t invest in more than two or three. 15930cp and 531hcp.
• Seashell Lodge: 587 hcp amd 13500cp. There was a time when the thunderbird lair, with 13000 cp, seemed awesome. These days 13000 seems ho hum.
• Jellyfish Tower: 554 hcp and 12750cp.
• Seahorse Chalet: 540 hcp and 10800.
• Starfish cottage: 500hcp and 11000 cp.
• Ice dragon lair: 504hcp and 8070cp. You could flip this with the thunderbird lair which has a higher total return but much lower hourly depending on which is more important.
• Thunderbird lair:This was the monster of all shops in terms of value jumps, almost 6000cp over the minotaur, the previous leader (which delivered 7330). The thunderbird lair delivers 13100, with 437hourly (325hxp).
• The undead fortress delivers 458hcp and 11010 total.
• Karakorum City delivers a higher total return (15750cp) than the thunderburd but much lower hourly (358).
• Warriors’ Clan. 444hcp for 5330cp. Considering you can turn this over twice in the time it takes to finish an order with a thunderbird lair, I’d say it’s worth it.
• Grand farm house: Leaps past the thunderbird lair for total return with 14490, but runs slightly less on hourly with 403. I wouldn’t replace my thunderbird lairs with the grand farm house, but I would certainly try to squeeze a a couple in.

The following should be more easy to find because they’ve been around longer and players in the L30-40 range can install most of them.

• Jaguar temple and Minotaur’s Labyrinth: These are essentially a swap for value. The jaguar temple is offers 6590cp and 235hcp. The labyrinth has a better total payout (7330) but an hourly payout of 215. The difference in delivery time is only six hours. However, you should see more labyrinths since the payoff to vendors is almost twice as high (9970 to 4845) and labyrinths take half the space.
• Versailles: 8750 combined points for 199hcp.
• The axesmith returns 8055 and 168hcp. It managed to stay in the top five for four days.
• Golden temple: 7225cp and 212hcp in 34 hours.
• The amber fort delivers 222cp, but a lower total return at 5325cp in 24 hours.
• Kraken: 197 hcp with 3750cp. The total points on both are lower than other shops, but still high and since both delivers in a day or less you could see as high a total return in the same time as slower shops if you can place two or three orders.

Building return breakdown

Cash return

The solstice fortress delivers 417hc (7500c).

The necromancer’s lair delivers in excess of 300hc (10800c). But since they cost $2.99 you may not find more than two or three in a kingdom. The surfer’s lair is hands down the best at 620hc. In 10 hours that’s 6200. The Chess king delivers 281hc and the warrior’s guild delivers 254hc. The grand farm house delivers 244hcp (8775c total over 24 hours). The lilies castle delivers 222hc and 4875c total. The circus tent delivers a higher total, 5625c but only 201hc.

Two event awards, the elemental forge and obelisk deliver 8280c and 7065c respectively (259 and 221 hourly). The festive castle, which was a gift to every player active during March 2012 delivers 7125c total and 255hc. You should find more of these than other hgh value event awards.

The dark knight’s haven produces 190hc and 4550c. Versailles offers 5300c but a very low 120hc. Scrooge’s mansion delivers 180hc for a total of 5400 over 30 hours. The Duomo delivers 175c hourly over four hours. Segovia castle delivers 4955c and the Axesmith 4680. The axesmith becomes available at L44 so you should find them in more kingdoms.

The jaguar temple follows with 4260c and 153hcp and the much more rare golden cave of treasures providing 137 over 30 hours. Mount Vesuvius delivers 151c hourly over 9 hours, so the total points are lower. Still, both are great deals in the short term.

If you really need a cash return, I wouldn’t look to a shop that offers fewer than 100c hourly, unless of course you want to help out younger players, which you should.¹ There are plenty around.

Experience Points

As you advance through the levels you begin to realize that the amount of cash you earn doesn’t really get you ahead in the game. It helps you buy the things that get you ahead. The real way to move toward level 40 and the Citrus Citadel is to earn experience points. This becomes especially true once you hit level 20 and the number of experience points you need to earn increases dramatically.

As I recall I needed to earn 95,000 experience points to jump from level 29 to 30.

I was never able to keep track after that because I had reached the levels before the developers decided to create them. Carol said it’s close to a million and a half to get from 39 to 40 (she’s about a third of a way there after several days), but we didn’t think to set the benchmark to be more accurate. The jump from Levels 30 to 40 is a jump of less than a million xp to more than 4.5 million, which means you really need to earn a lot of points to get the Citrus Citadel. (Carol calls it the Longhorn Citadel because she’s convinced it’s burnt orange, but U Texas has no purple in its uniform so I’m sticking with Citrus).

When you’re desperate to reach another level (especially those even levels that unlock an additional farm), you need to forget cash and start ordering shops with a high return in experience points.

The dragonslayer’s den delivers 445hxp and 14250xp. The surfer’s lounge delivers three times that hourly (720) but in ten hours for 7200 in a third the time. The solstice fortress delivers 395hxp (7125 total). The Chess King delivers 8450xp (383hxp). The thunderbird lair delivers 9750xp in 30 hours for 325hxp. The ice dragon lair has 336hxp, but much fewer toal experience points with only 5370.

The gift Bastille returns 7500xp in 24 hours for 312hcp. It will be harder to find because it is a boosted gift, but probably easier to find than the one-per-kingdom limited edition elemental forge and obelisk follow with 7650 and 6075 (239 and 190 hourly).

The indian temple, labyrinth and amber fort have super high hourly returns at 250, 150 and 137 xp.

The labyrinth and Chinese monastery follow in total xp with 5100, but the labyrinth has twice the hourly return to lead at 150. The viking forge and Valhalla follow with 4230 and 3730xp. All three have very low hourly returns (71, 77 and 750). The place of worship follows with a total of 3375 but 112 xp hourly. The kraken’s lair delivers the highest hourly with 122xp with the zen garden following at 112xp. The druid’s library falls into fourth with 3190xp with a 74xp hourly return. The inventor’s studio follows with 2700 and75 hourly.

Combined value

A handful of shops stand out because they deliver a nice balance of coins and experience. The collective value is high enough to make them exceptionally good investments.

I tried to come up with a simple formula to calculate overall value [(c + xp)/hrs), but too often the results were skewed by an extremely high coins or experience count. If I were really a mathematician, I could probably come up with a formula to correct for this, but I’m not. So I calculated combined value and then looked for the shops with high combined returns that actually reflected a balance of coins and experience.

The items in the main lists at the top of the analysis are based on combined points. I would go with those first.

Vendor best values

As you climb the levels, here are the shops to aim for:

• L0: The evil wizard’s tower, which comes with the Reflecting evil goal. 1650cp and 92 cp hourly.
• L9: The romantic bistro, as long as it’s available. Returns 1750cp over 20 hours for 50 hourly for 45000c.
• L16: The quartermaster with 2385cp and 44cp hourly for 75000c.
• L20: The viking ship with 2585cp and 86cp hourly for 99¢.
• L21: The alchemist’s lab with 6150cp (178 hourly), but a whopping 750000c (or 50m) the most expensive purchase of any of the shops on this list until the Kraken. My gut instinct, however, would be to buy three viking ship and get the geisha house when you have more coins (around L26 or 30). That being said, this will return better than any other shop until L44. There are others that do almost as well, but at this point this is the best.
• L32: Jumbo’a Show delivers 171hcp, which is pretty good. There are better shops for total points, but the high hourly return makes this the better bargain.
• L37. The dwarves’ mine. With 5865 total points and 183cp hourly, I think you could do just fine with these for a while, but 810000c is also a little steep.
• L39: The Amber Fort (L39) actually returns even better than the dwarves’ mine, but it looks like it will be available for coins only at L57. Forty m isn’t a bad mojo price but it’s still mojo.
• L46: Acorn Loop. 8000cp at 267 hourly.
• L51: Circus Tent at L51, which returns 1100cp at 393hcp.
• L62: The warriors’ clan: 7100 and 591hcp.
• L70: The solstice fortress: 19500cp and 1083hcp.

This is where we get to the mojo verses coins issue. ngmoco:) knows damn well that using mojo is far more expensive for the big ticket items since the lowly dragon costs 50m and pays next to nothing. I wouldn’t say you should never spend 100 mojo to install a couple of these shops, but its very easy to suddenly spend 300 or 400 and suddenly you’re into serious real money.

Most surprising deal for beginning players.

The little old pond actually performs well and the cash return is just under 19c in only 8 hours. Sadly this meant a lot more when I began writing this blog in August. With the super high performers being released lately, the pond is of almost no value to higher lever players and they eat a lot of space. Even if you stack, they’re a pain in the ass to work with.

As a customer it’s still among the last items I would buy from, but when you’re investing in shops at the beginning game it’s a cheap investment and can be installed at L5.

That being said, beginning players should invest in the pond instead of the mine.

It will fool you because it’s listed under trees, but unlike the other natural decorations it accepts orders.

Raw deals

These were raw deals when I first started this blog a couple of months ago and with the introduction of more and more high value items, their value has diminished even more. To beginning players these may actually look like good bargains, but they never were. Ever. This could be why they’re starting to pop up in quests.

Popular but surprising duds

The dragon, falconry, fortune teller and griffin’s nest give you a surprisingly small return on your investment They used to be consistently popular orders in my kingdom and Carol’s. Now players are catching on and hardly anyone orders. The dragon returns slightly more than 12c and less than 5xp in the same return time as the red dragon. The cash return is slightly less than two-thirds, but the experience is miniscule in comparison (24 to 5). The falconry performs slightly better at a little over 7c per hour.

The Worst of the Worst

The absolutely worst cash performers are:

• The archery with 4c an hour over 12 hours.
• The bistro and fortune teller at just under 7c hourly over two days (“I can see a poor return on your investment in the future”).
• The shipyard at 7c hourly in 36 hours.
• The beehive at 7,5c over 20 hours.
• The falconry at 7.6c over 72 hours.
• The bookstore with slightly less than 8c over 16 hours. It must be a university bookstore, taking your money for a poor cash return (but the true value is in what you learn and it does pay off in experience points).

The worst experience earners are:

• The beehive and griffin at at less than 4, followed by
• The mine, prison, jewelry store and stables at 4.2.

This also makes them the worst overall performers as well.

However, I’m going to go out on a limb and nominate the falconry as the worst bet of all. Other shops perform more poorly but they don’t tie up your investment for three days, the longest return time of any shop in the kingdom. You could earn a lot more with two shorter investments. Even worse, when you reach the number of orders where you become locked out of other player’s kingdoms, the falconry becomes an even bigger drain.

It makes a gorgeous decorative item though.

I have a couple in my mystical creatures realm and they will probably stay there longer than some of the better paying items that no longer get ordered either.

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¹ Be aware that you will probably lose some of that value if the shopkeeper doesn’t check in regularly. So your value will decrease more with items that mature more quickly than with items that mature over several days. On the other hand, eager shopkeepers will turn your order around almost immediately (until they look at their Apple Store/credit card bills and discover how much their grow addition is costing them). Since shopkeeper return haste is unpredictable, I generally don’t take that into account.back

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Visit my kingdom at totalthinker, and Carol’s at JennyManytoes. Write me at wrgrimoire@gmail.com.