@
Amrie
Here's a bit of a breakdown as to what's going on with Eliminates and the high prices.
1. Eliminate has always been a rare Coli Only drop. That fact alone doesn't help supplies. (except for a small window of time in which you could rarely get it from pinkerton, but it was long enough ago, and is no longer available through this means, that it no longer affects eliminate prices)
2. Eliminate is THE best offensive battlestone. No other battlestone can compete with it, and there are no alternative builds/setups you can use that come close to what Eliminate dragons can do.
(
Unless you go with a build/team setup that doesn't use Eliminate in the first place. But still, if you want to grind fast and efficiently, or have a fodder trainer, Eliminate is essential for that kind of gameplay.)
3. A full year of monthly Welcome Weeks, culminating in Open Registration in March 2018. More players means more demand, and Eliminates were always limited in supply due to their rarity.
In early 2016, Eliminates were sitting at 120-150kT, occasionally getting up to 200kT. Then the monthly Welcome Weeks began in Oct 2016. A year later—and I do literally mean a year later, in Oct 2017, which is when there was a lot of talk in FRD about the prices of these stones—Eliminate had reached 350-400kT.
And when full-time registration was opened, Eliminate jumped up again in price to around 500-550kT. And the price continued to climb.
4.
The most popular venue to level fodder in (the Mire) doesn't, and has never, dropped Eliminate. And unfortunately, the two most popular how-to guides for leveling dragons advertise the Mire Flyer, a build designed to grind the Mire.
Also, for a long time the most popular venue to grind for festival currency was the Arena, which drops a lot of battlestones including Eliminate. However after the addition of new venues and new enemies to older venues (which in turn gave each venue a more specific element leaning), where people grind to get the most festival currency changes on a monthly basis.
So again less people in places where Eliminate can drop, less supply in general.
Venues that Drop Eliminate were updated on 11/18/2019, Eliminate now drops in the Mire, but were removed from the first 4 venues. Full drop list in
Game Database or
Maki's Battle Stones Guide.
5. The Coli is super lucrative, and everyone knows it.
Between leveling/exalting fodder, hoardselling junk, and selling food, Familiars and other mats, you basically print your own money with the Coli. How much money just depends on how much time you want to invest.
And if you want to make money fast and efficiently, well you're probably going to get yourself a dragon with Eliminate. Getting even just one dragon with Eliminate will pay for itself.
600kT 200-250kt might seem ridiculous (and it certainly is for new or casual players), but
600kT 200kt is spare change to players who actively use the Coli and participate in things like Dom.
6. When Glimmer and Gloom was introduced and the trick to beating it quickly figured out, fairgrounds became ridiculously easy for players to make a good income. 525kt each week at 10-20 minutes a day, to be precise. Which means "Cheaper" Eliminates were snapped up shortly after the guides were made available in early July 2018, driving the prices even higher in the following weeks to over 700kt.
After Galore's Eliminate gift, G&G made it extremely easy to obtain an eliminate in less than a week of play.
7. Micro-holidays, and EXP boosts.
Everytime there's been a Micro-holiday or an EXP boost, it brings more attention to the Coliseum and how easy it is to make money with a dragon equipped with Eliminate. which temporarily increases demand and raises prices during and slightly after the events until intrest drops once again and supply has the chance to replenish and stabilize the prizes to what they were before the event, if not just a little higher.
8. Galore’s Glorious Gifts debuted on May 20, 2019 with 2 free eliminates to be claimed by any active account anytime during that week.
Within the month after, prices steadily dropped from 650-680kt down to 170-200kt. due to the excessive supply available and low demand.
**Dustcarve Dig gave out the
Dustcarve Battle Cache around the Site's 8th anniversary, giving active players another easy eliminate, and the prices in the AH dropped to below 200kt for the first time in 4 years.**
9. With the addition of the
Game Database on 12/04/2019, the Coli Drop system was updated as well, helping to balance out the eliminate drops and keep prices closer to 200-250kt.
