Store Price Efficiency, Measured — Where Each Item Is Actually Worth Buying

← Spending · Package Value. This page is a per-unit price sheet: how many times better than list price ($4.99 direct-sale) each store is, item by item. Every store uses its own currency, which makes it confusing, but the principle is one thing — if the same item costs less than list price, it’s a win. (General info — spend on your own budget and judgment.)

Why did I bother building a table like this? Because early on I got baited by a “Limited!” tag into a bad-value package, and after that I picked up the habit of converting everything to dollars before buying. One day I actually opened a spreadsheet and worked out the per-unit price across every store, and the result was honestly a bit shocking. Same $4.99, but depending on where you spend it the difference was more than fivefold. This page is that spreadsheet, written up.

0. The baseline — list-price per unit

Convert the direct-sale package’s list price into a per-unit cost and use it as the baseline. Anything cheaper than this in any store is a win; anything pricier is a loss.

Cheapest currency rate: each store currency is converted at its cheapest top-up pack. Here’s a trap — the big packs are actually worse per unit. Black Market cash bottoms out at $4.99 = 800 cash ($0.00624/cash); $9.99 = 1,000 and $19.99 = 2,000 are about 60% more expensive per unit ($0.00999). The supermarket instinct that “buying more is cheaper” does not hold here. I didn’t know that myself until I ran the numbers. The Golden Store and Shooting Range $4.99 daily-limited packs are likewise the cheapest rate. Always burn the $4.99 limited packs first.

1. Efficiency multiplier by item (list = 1.00×)

Bigger is better. 1.00× means it’s the same as list price (no reason to buy); under 1.00 is a loss.

*The Golden Store is only 1.33× when you use the $4.99 / 80-coupon daily limited pack. Buy in bulk after that (roughly $0.0999/coupon) and it drops to 0.83×, i.e. pricier than list.

2. Verdict — efficiency ranking

1. Weekly Battle Pass ($4.99) — the runaway winner. For the same $4.99 it gives 84 armament cores instead of the list 15 (5.6×), or 105 drone parts instead of 20 (5.25×). The Season 2 drone-parts pass hands you seven Lv5 parts, roughly 9×-plus. This exact number is why a light spender like me runs almost entirely on the battle pass. If there’s something you need, dump your money here first.

2. Bounty Hunt — the only right answer for Valor Medals (2.4×). It gives 100 medals for 50 coupons ($4.16). Drone parts are 1.36× too. And you earn coupons from two free shots a day, so the real efficiency is higher than the table shows. Clear Valor Medals first; if you have coupons left, picking up intimacy badges (1.33×) or Overlord vouchers isn’t bad either. The voucher’s raw per-unit is close to list, but you’re spending coupons earned from free shots, so the real cost is low — and both items are consumables you’ll burn through anyway, so stocking up early never hurts.

3. Black Market — drone parts 2×, armament core 1.78×, intimacy badge 1.6×. Your main top-up in a week with no matching battle pass. But only the $4.99 = 800 cash pack, always.

4. Golden Store — only the $4.99 / 80-coupon daily limited is efficient (1.33×). Armament core and EW shards are a win only then; buy with bulk coupons and you lose money. Bank the 60 free daily coupons and spend them on the expensive core items (gear blueprints, skill chips).

5. Total Armament — the base rate equals list price (0 efficiency). $99.99 = 200 coupons is just $0.50/coupon, so on its own there’s no gain. You only buy this store for the cumulative rewards. Reach 1,000 coupons and the 450-coupon bonus + up to 5 MR blueprints drop the effective rate from $0.50 to $0.345. With no cumulative target, there’s no reason to buy. Watching the big spenders in our alliance, they always buy in enough bulk to hit a milestone — buying halfway is the worst choice.

6. Shooting Range — worst per-bullet rate ($4.99 = 10 bullets), but its purpose is the cumulative bullet rewards, so it isn’t a per-unit comparison. Just keep buying the $4.99 daily limited to ride the cumulative track.

3. Item cheat sheet (where to buy)

• Drone parts → S1 drone battle pass → (else) Black Market $4.99 pack → Bounty
• Armament core → S4 armament-core battle pass (5.6×) → Black Market → Golden $4.99 limited
• Valor medals → Bounty, always (2.4×). Do not buy them anywhere else
• Intimacy badge → Black Market (1.6×) → Bounty (1.33×)
• EW shards → Black Market or Golden $4.99 limited (both 1.33×)
• Lv5 drone parts → S2 battle pass dominates. Boxes only in a pinch
• Overlord voucher → clear Valor Medals first, then worth it with leftover free coupons (a constant consumable)
• Skill chip box (UR) → Black Market 1,500 cash ($9.36) beats Golden 250 coupons ($15.6)

4. Common traps

Traps I either got burned by or confirmed on the spreadsheet.

• Buying large currency packs → Black Market $19.99 cash packs and Golden bulk coupons are actually worse per unit. Always the $4.99 limited first.
• Buying cores / EW shards with Golden bulk coupons → 0.83×, pricier than list. Don’t, unless it’s the daily limited pack.
• Buying Total Armament with no cumulative reward → 0 efficiency (same as list). Wasteful without a target milestone.
• Buying Valor Medals from direct sale or other stores → less than half the efficiency of Bounty (2.4×).
• Buying other things before Valor Medals → priority order is Valor Medals (2.4×) → drone parts → (leftover coupons) intimacy badges / Overlord vouchers.

5. F2P / light-spender playbook

This is my actual routine. Every week I claim the free currency first (Bounty free shots, Golden’s free 60 coupons, Shooting Range free shots), and I only pay for the $4.99 battle pass in a week where it matches my systems (drone, gear). For one-off deals I only touch the Black Market $4.99 cash pack → Bounty Valor Medals, in that order, and you’ll steadily pull 2×-plus list-price efficiency. For a habit I picked up by getting burned once, it’s turned out pretty useful.

Why the ratios above are a floor, not a verdict

Every multiplier on this page compares items against each other at list rates. That comparison is real, but it quietly assumes the item converts into progress the moment you buy it — and for a large share of purchases, it does not.

Three things routinely break the ratio in practice:

Timing. The same purchase can pay twice if it lands on the Arms Race day that scores it, or on the SvS capital-battle day. Nothing on the price tag reflects that, and the weekly schedule runs on server age, so the right day is server-specific — the server calendar derives it from your server number.

Prerequisites. An item that feeds something gated behind headquarters 35, or behind awakening shards that only appear in weeks 2, 4 and 6, sits idle until the gate opens. Its efficiency during that period is zero regardless of how it ranks here.

Formation. Only five heroes fight. Anything invested outside that five is deferred value at best. This is why concentrating on a core five — and pushing one exclusive weapon past Lv20, where the bonus extends to the whole branch — beats spreading the same currency evenly across a roster.

The honest summary is that these ratios rank items well and rank decisions poorly. Use them to choose between two things you were going to buy anyway, not to decide what to buy.

Unofficial fan-site content · no partnership or sponsorship with the developer · prices, contents, and coupon conversions vary by region/timing/patch, and the multipliers are approximations against the list and cheapest-currency rates above. Spend on your own budget and judgment.

By: lastwarhub.com