I get a lot of questions about the Mystery Shop…such as “is this a good trade (value)?” and “should I trade resources for speedups?”
Here are your answers to those questions and more!
Quick Recap of Resource Trades
When trading resources for other resources, here are the ratios:
| Trade | For Wood/Food | For Steel | For Gas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood/Food | 1:1 | 5:1 | 20:1 |
| Steel | 1:5 | * | 4:1 |
| Gas | 1:20 | 1:4 | * |
All of these proportions are followed throughout the game. For example, when using a lesser resource box, it can be exchanged for:
- 150k Food
- 150k Wood (1:1)
- 30k Steel (1:5)
- 7,500 Gas (1:20)
Converting to Diamonds
You can determine the value in diamonds for resources based on the cost in the diamond shop (bag). 40 diamonds will buy you any of the following:
- 50,000 Wood / Food (1,250 / diamond)
- 10,000 Steel (250 / diamond)
- 2500 Gas (62.5 / diamond)
These follow the standard proportions of 1:1, 1:5, and 1:20. Larger Wood / Food / Steel resource items are taxed, but we can use the 40-diamond ones that are NOT taxed for a fair comparison.
Next, you can likewise obtain the cost of speedups based on the diamond shop:
| Speedup | Diamonds | Food/Wood | Steel | Gas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omni – 30 min | 75 | 93,750 | 18,750 | 4,687.5 |
| Omni – 1hr | 150 | 187,500 | 37,500 | 9,375 |
| Omni – 3hr | 450 | 562,500 | 112,500 | 28,125 |
| Omni – 8hr* | 1,200 | 1,500,000 | 300,000 | 75,000 |
*Note: 30 min and 8-hour costs are extrapolated.
Other types of speedups such as Build, Train, Tech (Research), and Heal all have the same diamond value as Omni Speedups of the same amount. So a 1-hour Tech Speedup would be worth the same 150 diamonds as a 1-hour Omni.
Also, because of the linear cost, we can extrapolate the cost of any speedup by converting to seconds:
- 1 hour is 3600 seconds
- A 1 hour speedup is 150 diamonds
- 1 diamond buys you 24 seconds.
This gives us a very GOOD basis to determine trade values.
Explanation of Protected, Unprotected, and Safe Resources
You can receive resources in any of the following ways:
- Gathering from resource tiles on the map
- Collecting from resource buildings within your sanctuary
- Using resource items from your bag (converts resource item to resources)
- Someone transports resources to you
- You attack another sanctuary and plunder resources
Resources you are holding are sometimes referred to as “free” resources, meaning, they are readily available for use.
Resources you receive from these sources stay in your bag as Resource Items that COULD be converted to resources:
- Resource Boxes can be converted to Resource Items. For example, a Lesser Resource Box, when used, converts to 1 Resource Item, and the Resource Item stays in your bag.
- Resource Boxes and Resource Items can be purchased in various shops, such as the Rare Earth Shop, or may be rewards for certain events.
- Resource Items are rewards when opening a lair chest.
- Resource trades from the Mystery Shop go in to your bag as Resource Items.
You can transport free resources to another player. To transport resources from your bag, you have to use (convert) the Resource Items in your bag, which turn in to free resources, that can subsequently be transported. Likewise with Resource Boxes, that must first be converted to Resource Items, and then to free resources before they can be transported.
Warehouse Limit
As you upgrade your Warehouse, this, along with certain other boosts, improves your warehouse limit.
- Free resources that you are holding which exceed the warehouse limit are unprotected, and can be plundered if attacked by another player.
- Resources that you are holding which fall below the warehouse limit are protected, and can’t be plundered.
- Uncollected resources from your resource buildings are always unprotected, and can always be plundered.
- Resources that you transport to the Alliance Warehouse don’t count against your warehouse protection limit, but also can’t be plundered.
- Resources that you retrieve from the Alliance Warehouse become free resources that may or may not exceed your warehouse protection limit. Any resources exceeding the limit can be plundered.
- Resource Boxes and Resource Items are in your bag, and can not be plundered.
Safe Resources
Safe resources are just like normal resources, except that they can’t be transported nor plundered, even if they exceed the warehouse protection limit.
Safe resources can otherwise be used as normal resources:
- Building / Upgrading
- Research (Tech)
- Training / Healing
- Mystery Shop trades
However, soldiers will not eat safe food, even if the quantity held exceeds the warehouse limit. Soldiers only eat “unsafe” (normal) food which exceeds the warehouse limit.
You can only obtain safe resources from Safe Resource Items.
Safe Resource Items can be obtained from the following:
- Mystery Shop resource trades
- Rewards for certain events
- Safe Resource Boxes, which are rewards for certain events, can be converted to Safe Resource Items.
Safe Resource Boxes and Safe Resource Items have the same icon as normal items, but they are marked with a green badge.
Safe resources can not be converted to unsafe (normal) resources, nor the reverse.
Mystery Shop
The Mystery Shop unlocks at HQ 12, and is located directly south of your Vehicle Depot within your sanctuary (between and south of Bank and Gear Factory).
In the Mystery Shop, you have 4 offers which refresh every 3 hours.
Each offer is to trade the specified resources (on the right) for the item(s) on the left:
- Safe Resource Items
- Omni Speedups
- Tech (Research) Speedups
Generally, the Mystery Shop is generous, meaning that you are trading up in value. I have never seen offers to the contrary but I could be mistaken.
To analyze a trade, we can convert everything to Diamonds:
| Item | 1 Diamond’s Worth |
|---|---|
| Food / Wood | 1,250 |
| Steel | 250 |
| Gas | 62.5 |
| Speedup (Seconds) | 24 |
Analyzing the trades above:
| Trade | (dia) | For | (dia) | Discount% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 628,000 Steel | 2,512 | 3x 8-Hour Tech Speedup | 3,600 | 30% |
| 408,000 Wood | 327 | 3x 1-Hour Omni Speedup | 450 | 27% |
| 204,000 Food | 164 | 3x 30-Minute Omni Speedup | 225 | 27% |
| 20,000 Gas | 320 | 500,000 Food | 400 | 20% |
So clearly, all of these are a “good deal” from a diamond perspective.
However, there are some practical considerations:
- Gas and Steel are harder to get, and therefore you would prefer not to trade them away
- Trading for Omni Speedups is more beneficial than Tech Speedups
Based on these factors, here is a decision matrix:
| Trade | For Food / Wood | For Steel | For Gas | For Tech | For Omni |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food / Wood | YES | YES | YES | MAYBE | YES |
| Steel | NO | YES | MAYBE | NO | NO |
| Gas | NO | MAYBE | YES | NO | NO |
In summary:
- Always trade Food or Wood for other resources
- Trading food or wood for Omni Speedups is always a good trade, unless you don’t need them
- Consider trading food or wood for Tech Speedups, but Omni Speedups are much better
- Always trade gas for gas and steel for steel.
- Consider trading gas for steel or steel for gas.
The best uses of the Mystery Shop:
- Convert free resources (especially unprotected resources) to Safe Resource Items (bag).
- Convert excess food or wood to gas or steel.
Special Trades
Occasionally, when you complete a “normal” trade, you are offered a “special” trade for either cash or diamonds.
Example of a cash trade:
Again, we can evaluate based on diamonds. In this case, you might obtain one of the items above, and everyone in the alliance gets a level 2 gift.
| Item | Total | Diamonds |
| 35x 100k Steel | 3,500,000 Steel | 14,000 |
| 35x 50k Steel | 1,750,000 Steel | 7,000 |
| 35x 10k Steel | 350,000 Steel | 1,400 |
| 10x 75k Gas | 750,000 Gas | 12,000 |
| 10x 25k Gas | 250,000 Gas | 4,000 |
| 10x 6k Gas | 60,000 Gas | 960 |
Because $4.99 can purchase 1,100 diamonds, we can compare that to all of the above.
- In the best case, you get 3.5 mil steel or 750k gas
- In the worst case, you “lose” 140 diamonds by only getting 60k gas
- In all other cases, you do better than break even
Examples of Diamond trades:
- Direct relocates
- Nova points
- Nova Exp
- Commander Exp
These items are usually fairly significantly discounted.
For example, a direct relo usually costs 2000 diamonds, but is typically 999 or less via a diamond “special” trade. I’ve seen it as low as 680 diamonds.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this useful! Comments and Questions are welcome!