Celtic Heroes

No, it's not pay to win.
The main issue we run into here is our definition of pay to win

I define pay to win as a only players who pay for the game get a significant boost over playets who do not pay for the game.

Otherwise you can say every game is pay to win because someone has to pay to make/develop/maintain the game in the first place. No game, no premium items, no progress etc.

In CH someone has to pay yes, but a platinum buyer does not have a significant boost over a non platinum player. You can become the strongest player without spending any money and breaking the ToS.

All content in the game is accessable for plat buyers and non plat buyers, in the end friendships, clans and effort in this game are going to get you further than money is.

Yes and no:
You can reach the top without paying any money (several do), but if you do pay it does make things slightly easier.
Which is the ironic fairness of chest drop rates; if the drop rates were relatively higher, payers could more easily gain an advantage over players. Additionally, the amount of useful stuff that enters the economy (lixs etc) is generally generated by payers in search of that one rare item (mounts/eggs).
So not exactly pay to win, decently balanced ;both sides have reason to complain, but the system works pretty well.

I agree with whoever defined pay to win as those who spend having a significant advantage over those who don’t.

I have played many mobile games over the years and am eternally grateful for CH’s lack of money grabbing and actually.. slow pace. In another game I played an endgame person would have to spend around $17-20k to be endgame again after an update. And the updates were every 3 months.

Another game you even have to have a paid item to talk to other players and paid for consumables expire after a week. And the value of their packs is shocking. Oh and the premium items cannot be sold or traded so the non spenders just have to slum it.

CH as a low level free player is prob fairly frustrating with lack of sigils, restos etc. So you have to grind gold more than a spender. But if it was easy then nobody at all would spend and then there would be no game to play.

Lol never bought plat here yet i have like 20m worth of items and fash(not raid gear). Have 2 lvl 6 pets and one kvl 6 mount and soon getting the 3rd lvl 6 pet all by using bounty tokens. I have one of the top 30-ish best healing in the game as well. This game is 100% not pay to win. Paying is faster ofc but thats how free to play games are.

Awesome to see how far you can get like that, would the same apply if there were 0 plat buyers on your server?

No one here is doubting that plat items are essential in the game. The debate is more about whether a player as an individual has to pay to make any sort of progress in the game....which I think the general consensus is no. You do not have to pay real money to make somewhat decent progress in the game, because other players will pay.


Now, if we were talking about servers in general, then yes. Players (generally speaking) pretty much have to buy plat for the server to progress and continue at endgame. If everyone were to stop buying plat all at once, server progress would start slowing down quickly (it'd probably still take a few months because of the vast overload of items from chests). Once the elixirs/restos/idols started running out though, endgame clans would start struggling more and more, possibly not being able to kill endgame bosses. They'd have to rely on....*gasp* actual game mechanics

Actually, now that I say that, that would actually be pretty neat to see. Maybe it could be the catalyst to update the game mechanics and start moving away from the plat reliance.

You mistook my question for a statement, i was asking out of curiosity.

You must be a merching madman like fury or something? Lux by level 50? Ok so merching madman is an exaggeration but seriously I just leveled my mage from scratch to 120 and there is no way I was gonna have lux by 50. I also found that farming at that level is very inefficient so I don't see how you could do that without wasting your time farming or (magically merching to glory like fury?). At 120 I have around 400k so I suppose I could hit 500 by 140 but that's hardly spending anything, and making a conscious effort to cut a profit as often as possible. Also been farming bosses with a friend or two, or solo when I can (SV a few k a drop depending plus discs or rems/tabs to sell) and have a great clan that's helped me gear rather quickly. But I still don't have FS or the jewelry which is the important/expensive gear for a mage, or an offhand so I doubt I'll be ready to go and lix to EG at 140. Gonna need many more hours of farming to be ready.

Probably u think of "lux gears" as in term of Wyld Sun ammy etc. The Amulet of Energy or Health or Vigor or Finely Master Craft ammies only ranged from 10k to 20k at The trader in Castle. That is more or less amount of gold you can get after keep killing those mobs in shalemont and doing basic quets. Oh i forgot to tell you about doing bounties too as one of gold resources.
Those items with 5 to 10 health or energy per tick are more than enough for a level 50-70 gearless druid or other classes to progress in game at that stage. Those are the real luxes for a poor and gearless toon.

It's 20k for 10 energy/tick in the shop, and only 5/tick for the offhand of the same price. I suppose you might find one for 10k from a player but 5 energy is not enough for a druid. I remember getting 10 energy/tick on my rogue around level 70 and it helped, but I was still spamming meditate an waiting after a few mobs. 10 /tick is maybe an extra lightning strike every 30 seconds depending on the level. Since gold is already an issue for ftp players it's also likely to hurt them down the road if they can't get that money back, and the low level lux that is worth it imo and have good resale value are the hero ammy's for 90-180k in the shop and maybe the offhands from 45-140k both of which the amounts any ftp player are unlikely to have until they are close to level 100. Any class other than mage should also upgrade their weapon around that level, imagine how frustrating it would be to get lets say a 10 tick ammy and then after a few more levels and starting to run out of energy come across someone selling an ancient weapon for 10k and realizing how much more useful it would be but no one wants your ammy so your stuck with a sub par weapon. By the time you do sell it it's also likely you've grinded through a bunch of tough levels and only have it for maybe 15 or so more before the warden dagger. I was actually hoping to get a masters grim for my mage, but I never found one I could afford. A little before level 100 I found someone who said they would sell me their foc of the seer for 250k but I didn't have enough then. I never saw them online again (their still in my friends list). I assume it'll now be easier to just hit 150 and try for that focus.

games not even close to pay to win compared to every other game on the market. i agree 110% with what msdredd said. I do wish it was a little more pay to win though, its bloody annoyin that i can drop some money on this game but then someone comes along not spending any money but their more powerful or further along.

I do wish it was a little more pay to win though, its bloody annoyin that i can drop some money on this game but then someone comes along not spending any money but their more powerful or further along.

Could not disagree with this more. I hate games that allow money spenders to shoot straight to the top and be super powerful over non-spenders. It's much more enjoyable to work your ass off to achieve that status instead of buying your way there.

I do wish it was a little more pay to win though, its bloody annoyin that i can drop some money on this game but then someone comes along not spending any money but their more powerful or further along.

Could not disagree with this more. I hate games that allow money spenders to shoot straight to the top and be super powerful over non-spenders. It's much more enjoyable to work your ass off to achieve that status instead of buying your way there.

+1 there's nothing more frustrating than realizing you are doomed to be inferior unless you pay extra. Definite deal-breaker on a game.

I define p2w as anything requiring items that someone had to spend real life cash on for it to be accessible in the game. So no Plat buyers = no Plat items = some bosses (like gele) never dying. So I'd consider this game conditionally p2w. If your idea of winning is just playing casually and you spend more time in castle socializing - then, no, it's not p2w. If you want to kill gele and Plat items are needed that can only be provided by part buyers, then it is p2w.

A lot of people here don't understand the difference between p2w and p2p.
Rs3, WoW are p2p games.
Ch and any game with in-app purchases are p2w.