How to spend your SGL currencies wisely

Since one of my roles on Discord is to assist the shop alerts team with deciding on what items are good enough to be posted to the shop alerts channel, I thought it was prudent to write an article about items that appear in the shop both for my brethren fighting the good fight of checking the shops every six hours and all of the rest of the SGL community.

First of all, I think it's best to start off with a discussion on currency in this game. There are a LOT of different currency types, and since PvE is definitely the least efficient way to collect good items, every player should focus on having an adequate balance of all game currencies so that they don't miss out on the good gear that appears in the shops.

The different types of currencies are as follows:

In game credits: These are collected from your sponsorship salary as well as from players dropping money bombs and selling items to Willow or Big Red. Every six hours, there is always one epic armor piece for sale at Big Red's shop, and there are a few epic weapons for sale at Willow's for credits. Some examples of great pieces that have come up for sale at Big Red's are 26% crit shoulders and a 42 HP chest. The PZ-120 Ramses II is a fantastic machine gun that shows up at Willow's for credits, and there have been some incredible rolls of this MG in the past few months. For anyone without a Cerberus or a Xingyun, this MG is a fantastic alternative, and it is super cheap because of how easy it is to earn in game credits. If you maintain a balance of 200,000 credits at any point in time, you will have more than enough to purchase a good item if it appears in the shops.

Gold: This is the only currency that costs real money, so this is a very precious resource. Both Big Red and Willow sell items for gold that can certainly be worth the money; however, the requirements for an item to be worthy of spending gold are very high because this is people's hard earned dollars we are talking about.

War Points: These are collected from playing PvP. Not only have many more of the great armor pieces that I have on multiple accounts come from Nitro's shop rather than PvE, but Black Dragon and Faraday Accelerator are two of the best weapons in this game, so it's always crucial to have a healthy war points balance. Also, there are guns that appear on rotation in Nitro's that can also be worth the purchase. I really recommend that keeping a balance of around 8,000 war points is ideal.

Event Coins: These coins are collected from doing event missions that usually pop up every week. You can get some really cool cosmetics, and occasionally some very good weapons also show up that are purchasable with these coins. Having at least 2,000 at your disposal is really quite important so that you can buy multiple rolls of a gun that you want during an event.

Event Tokens: These don't always show up, but there are some events where you need to collect DNA samples or data sticks or something or other to buy things that typically appear in Pedro's shop. Usually most of these items are collectibles, and not everyone has the time to farm these when an event is going on, so the worth of this currency as well as a recommended balance is subject to the quality of the items that are being sold in the event.

Now let's dive in to the items that are regularly available for sale for each of these currencies so that you can know what is really worth spending each currency on.

In game credits:

Like I mentioned above, this is the easiest resource to collect, so an item doesn't even have to be that great to be worth the pickup. Basically, if it's an upgrade to what you have, go ahead and buy it! I will talk more about the perks to look for in armor pieces in the War Points section, but the same rules apply. As for weapons, the PZ-120 Ramses II is really the best item that Willow sells for in game credits. There are other items that occasionally appear, but these are more collectible items than anything else. The Ramses can actually compete with the best MGs in the game. Ideally what you'd be looking for is a roll with damage, fire rate, critical damage, and elite damage on it, but it's really up to you whenever you want to buy one. There was a great roll that came out recently that was damage, fire rate, and elite damage, and it's an absolute melter in the arena. Don't sleep on this MG!

Gold:

So there are some cheap items for gold that Willow sells, but usually these are really collectibles more than anything else, and they have the disadvantage of your having to sell whatever roll you have in your inventory in order to pick up the new one. Of the guns available, the Biohazard is probably the best one, but the Vespertine is also a fabulous one, but now that Twilight Vindicator is available in Gold Arena, Vespertine has really become more of a collectible, and it's only worth picking up if it has very high values on damage, fire rate, crit, and elite all together. The good weapons are in the expensive bundles that typically sell for 1,500 gold. I'll talk through each of them here.

Xingyun: This is the single best weapon that Willow sells. Hands down. It's got super high DPS, and it carries more ammo than Cerberus, so it's a little more forgiving in that regard even if it does have a tiny magazine size (40). When looking at perk sets, it's important to think about what you want to use the weapon for (i.e., PvP or PvE or both). I currently have two Xingyun in my inventory and since this gun carries a 10% accuracy and 9% fire rate static perk, there are really only two rolls that I consider worth the money. The damage + crit damage roll of the Xingyun is head and shoulders above any other roll because it is the most versatile since all of the bonuses apply to PvP and PvE and impact every type of enemy. Since crit shots are what leads to the fastest time to kill, you should definitely be looking to maximize that crit damage. Because it carries a high cost of 1,500 gold, I wouldn't settle for any less than 8 damage and 13 crit. The other acceptable roll is to have damage and elite damage as the two non-static perks, but both of these should be near maximum (9-10%).

Meihua: This pistol comes in the same bundle as the Xingyun and is actually quite a fun pistol to use even if it is really more of a collector's item than anything else. It plays very similar to Ostrich in that it is more of the higher accuracy, fast firing pistol that carries lower damage per shot, but it is very enjoyable to use and is the kinder, gentler version of the Ostrich that doesn't run out of the magazine in basically no time at all. Like the Xingyun, the damage + crit and damage + elite damage are the best rolls here with the damage + crit roll being preferable. Only recommended for purchase if both of the non-static perks are high values.

Vampire's Kiss: This is probably the coolest looking sniper in the game in my opinion. It carries high base damage and a decent fire rate, but this sniper directly competes with Lacroix, and Vampire's Kiss suffers from the fact that two perks are already static (mag cap and crit damage). If you like running with 8 points in combat, then VK can be a great alternative to Lacroix because it hits a lot of sniper damage thresholds more easily than Lacroix does without having to have absolute god roll sniper armor, but if you want to snipe with it with a build that doesn't have 11 points in Combat, you need to have a Damage + Elite Damage roll (the elite doesn't have to be super high, but the damage perk should be near maximum to be worth it). If you want to use this sniper instead with an 11 point combat build, then I would probably suggest the damage + fire rate roll because the base fire rate of 50 feels quite slow to me. I also oddly have weird problems with accuracy when I use this sniper. It used to be something I used quite a lot when I was collecting good sniper gear and a better Lacroix, but now that I have those things, this sniper has been left to collect dust in my inventory.

Soul Reaver: This pistol is naaaasty. It is probably one of my favorites for playing a longer range pistol game in PvP because it's so accurate and it's got a nice balance between damage and fire rate. Similar to many of these other guns that carry two static perks, the suggested perk sets will be limited to the fire rate + crit damage and crit damage + elite damage options. Minimum of 8% for elite dmg or fire rate and a minimum of 12-13% crit.

Humbaba: This is a rocket launcher that is really for collector's only. The only roll worth suggesting would have 10% elite damage and 4-5% iron sight on it (it already has damage and reload on it as static perks).

Pazuzu: My favorite SMG before Wintermute came out. This is still quite a fun SMG to use, but it's only worth buying if it follows the same guidelines as Soul Reaver (fire rate + crit or fire rate + elite, all at near max values).

AT Tsiolkovsky: This was my go-to MG for Gold Arena before I dropped Revenant. It's a great alternative to Pile Driver because of the high damage per shot. Because it already has damage and crit on it, the only acceptable roll is really a Fire Rate + Elite Damage roll at near max values.

AT Leonov: If you are trying to earn war points for Faraday, this gun will serve you very nicely even if you don't get a particularly good roll on it. Once you get Faraday and/or Tesla, this gun kind of falls out of use pretty quickly. I'm ok if you just buy one that has crit show up as one of the non-static perks since this gun is mostly used for PvP anyways, but the ideal roll would have either elite damage, iron sight damage, reload speed, or magazine capacity in addition to crit damage depending on what modes you want to use this in. It should definitely have 14-15% crit on it to be worth it since you are going to be competing with Faraday users a lot in PvP.

Splinter: There's really no reason to buy this shotgun. If it shows up with damage + fire rate + crit + elite damage/mag cap, then go ahead and buy it if you want, but just grab a Volta from a daily crate or Doomhammer from Blade Dancer if you want a shotgun in this style.

Inextremis 9000: Dear lord this pistol is terrible. Burst pistols in general are not ideal in PvE and they are god awful in PvP. I have a very good roll on my account that I bought because I am a pistol collector, but I never use this pistol because it is so very bad.

As for the armor bundles that Big Red sells for 1,500 gold, I have very strict rules about what is actually worth the money here, and most of these rules will still apply to armor purchased with war points, although because the armor is relatively cheap with war points, the rules can be relaxed a bit.

Shoulders: Triple Crit shoulders are the ONLY thing worth spending 1,500 gold on. The absolute maximum is 29% crit, and I myself have purchased a pair of 25% crit shoulders just because nothing else has come my way in the past 11 months of playing this new account. Loot shoulders are just not worth paying for, and dare I say they aren't even worth using, but you can easily get loot shoulders in daily crates.

Gloves: Must have a minimum of Damage + Crit Damage together in fairly high values to be worth the gold at all. Depending on what you're looking for, Elite Damage, Reload Speed, or Accuracy would also be valuable third perks to have. My sniper gloves that I bought from Big Red that have 8 sniper damage, 8 elite damage, and 14 crit damage are the single best purchase I have made in this game.

Chest: This one is easy. If it doesn't have at least 42 HP (or 32 HP with 5% projectile resistance), it is not worth buying whatsoever. Great chest pieces are somewhat rare to show up in the shops, but they do come from time to time.

Legs: Legs should have a minimum of magazine capacity and critical damage to be worth the purchase. I personally do not care for utilizing magazine capacity perks with secondary weapons because it doesn't even impact rocket launchers, your primary weapon is way more important in PvP, and Midnite's legs (Hive Mind) are way better for PvE because of the boost to the amount of ammo that you can carry. Look for at least 17-18% AR/SMG ammo capacity and 14-15% critical damage to justify the purchase.

Boots: In my book, there are really only two rolls that are worth it here. 5% cooldown, 14-15% critical damage, and 8-10% explosion resist would be absolutely worth the money. Double cooldown + high crit is also well worth the money, but almost no other roll is. Even if it shows up with the right perks, these really need to be at max values to be worth it. It's just kind of easy to get good boots in this game from my experience, so it's better to put your gold to better use.

War Points:

I'll briefly talk about the armor sets available at Nitro's since I already went over the desired perks in the Gold section above. The one key difference between the armor available at Big Red's and the armor available at Nitro's is that you can only have one piece of any particular set at a time from Nitro's shop, whereas you can buy as many armor bundles from Big Red as you want. Because armor is quite cheap at Nitro (200 points a piece), you can really buy anything you want that represents an upgrade to what you already have (or has perks that you don't even have in your inventory already). Items appear at Nitro's all the time that have great applications in both PvE and PvP, so look for the ones that carry the same perk values that I laid out above, but since these items are cheaper, you don't have to worry about buying something that you may end up getting rid of when you drop something better.

Now for the weapons that show up at Nitro's.

Black Dragon: I had to talk about my favorite weapon in the game first because you know how much I love it. I am obsessed with pistols, and there are some craaaaazy things that you can do with this pistol that most people wouldn't even know because they never even really touch pistols. I just recently swapped my Black Dragon out for a god roll PvE one with 14% crit, 10% elite, 10% damage, and 3% iron sight. Now you might be saying to yourself, but Maze, you go on and on and on about how Black Dragon should always have Damage and Fire Rate on it. Yes, you're right, I have always said that, and I've only relaxed that rule because this pistol ticks so very many boxes from a damage perspective and I have grown bored of playing PvP. There are some very specific rules that I have for good Black Dragon rolls, so I'll try to make this as simple to follow as possible. For PvE, if you grab a black dragon with at least 12% combined damage between the damage and iron sight perks AND you aim down sight with a 12 point combat build AND you use the damage buff, you can one shot trash mobs like dreads, thorns, and spiders to the body. That's a lot of ANDs, and I don't play 12 point combat builds very often, but if you are the type of player that likes that type of thing, then here is your ticket to some real fun with this pistol in PvE. For PvP, Damage and Fire Rate is the baseline most desirable combination so that you can correct the very slow base fire rate of this pistol, but obviously Damage + Fire Rate + Critical Damage is the ideal perk set for PvP. To my knowledge, only one roll has ever come out like this, and it is certainly a beastly pistol for PvP (9 dmg, 14 crit, 5 fire rate). So in short, there are a few rolls that are actually worth the hefty 2,000 war point price of this pistol: Dmg + Fire Rate, Dmg + Fire Rate + Crit, Dmg + Fire Rate + Iron Sight (provided Dmg + Iron Sight >= 12%), Damage + Crit + Elite + Iron Sight, and Dmg + Fire Rate + Elite + Crit. Please be patient for a roll with high values as it will probably take you a while to unlock all these perks and it does require you to use a lot of war points to get it.

Liberator: This SMG suffers from a few problems: low base damage and relatively low accuracy. It can be a good SMG, but really only in PvE where it competes with the likes of Wintermute, which is far easier to use and carries much higher DPS. This is only recommended to purchase if you already have a decent war points balance to where you can buy a good Black Dragon or Faraday or Armor when they appear, so if buying a Liberator will set your balance below 4,000-5,000, just pass on it. This gun needs to have all four key damage perks to be even worth any of your time (Damage + Fire Rate + Crit + Elite, with all at max or near max values).

Other epic weapons: There are plenty of other epic weapons that show up in Nitro's on rotation, some of which are worth the pickup (like Gridlock and Furious Fungus), and others that are just collectibles. The rules on what perks are desirable on these guns follow basically the same ones as the Liberator. It should have all or most of the four damage perks (Dmg + Fire Rate + Crit + Elite), but you should definitely only pick it up if you have a healthy war points balance and it has at least Damage and Fire Rate on there.

Event Coins/Event Tokens:

There's not much left to really mention here. I've already talked about what perks are desirable in the other sections in this article, and since most event items are epic rarity anyway, you can determine what is worth the purchase from what I've already written. Many items available for sale for event coins are more collectible in nature anyway, but it still is always a smart decision to maintain a healthy balance of these currencies just in case a good roll comes along during the event.

Conclusion:

Well, like everything I write or say about this game, I have gone on for way longer than is necessary, but I do hope that this helps you spend your hard earned in game currencies more efficiently and effectively so that you can increase the power and versatility of your character. If you should have any questions on anything I've written here, do not hesitate to reach out to me on Discord.

--InsulinMaze