From Legend Update (22.02.15) till New World Update (30.06.15)
Finally, because ppl don’t get it. The current kLoH shop, VIP and Mythical Hero System is not a p2w system. I will go into details here, because you have to know the whole current situation of kloh to understand why that’s true. Also keep in mind that paying is actual not only for getting benefits, it’s also necessary to keep it a f2p game for a lot of people.
At first we have to define some terms. That are my own definitions, for others try wikipedia or google it.
free to play – You can play this game without paying money for access. Still the game needs money for running, so there is a shop system for making money.
pay to win – There is no possibility to play this game without paying money ingame. That means you will reach a point ingame where you are forced to pay money, otherwise you can’t play anymore or can’t make any ingame progress. A lot of people also count benefits for paying to it, but that’s wrong. Paying give you always benefits, otherwise people wouldn’t pay.
You can’t say high benefits are p2w too, cause here’s a comparision: if someone spends 10$ he gets 700 Orichalcum. Someone has a lot of money and buys this offer 20x and gets 14000 Orichalcum. He has a higher benefit from it than the 10$ payer, but this shop offer is no p2w offer. (The 20x payer is a p2w-player cause he “buys” himself up to the top, but that’s another issue). Also Orichalcum is essential for the game, you need it, but it is not payment-exclusive.
Mythical Heroes
Maybe I should start with the Mythical Hero. They are no must-have. They are nothing more than Legendary Heroes, the only difference is that you can just get them with Mythical Essence. Mythical Essence is a bonus item you get for buying certain offers in shop with cash. You collect it and if you have enough you can get a Mythical Hero. Here some kind of proof that they are no must-have:
Of course there are no ranks, stats or items shown, but rly – I think Musin has the best items this player has and Anak is still matching with him (both are sword users). So Mythical Heroes are no must-have, they are just a way to say “thank you” to payers, because without them the game wouldn’t run.
Shop System
Next step – the shop system itself. You don’t get Mythical Essence for everything, actual only for Hero Offers (Girls Tickets and Hires, both are random (not sure about the Girls 5 Ticket Package, but why should it be bad if they would give you one of every Girl?)). Are those Heroes and the Hero Hires essential for playing? NO, THEY AREN’T! + they all are not tradeble via auction house, not the girls, not the heroes you get from those hires. So payers can only use them or fuse them, they can’t make profit with it.
So here the Girls Tickets:
Every Season (since s3) Girls Heroes were released. There is always a single ticket and a package of 5 tickets. Since 20.03.15 you get for the 1 ticket offer (~13$) 100 mythical essence, for the 5 ticket package (~53$) 650 mythical essence.
Premium passes:
This is some kind of a subscription. You can go to this shop page every day and receive a hero (30 days). You have the option to get heroes you would get by heart hire (~4$) or premium hire (~18$). You get 30 mythical essence for the heart subscription and 50 mythical essence for the premium subscription (only once for the subscription itself).
Finally Premium Hire: 
Premium hire allows you to hire random heroes (origin rank 5) as rank 5, 6 or (low probability) legendary. For 1 hire (~2,50$) you get 8 mythical essence, for the 11x hire (~26$) you get 300 mythical essence.
VIP System
Finally the VIP system. It’s just like a loyality bonus in real life, you don’t need to get max level fast, this system will stay (likely) forever. It’s not essential for playing, it just gives you some benefits. You easily get VIP level 1, you just need to buy one offer which also gives mythical essence. Buy the 2,50$ premium hire and you are done. If this game isn’t even worth that small amount of money for you stop whining about others getting benefits you don’t have access to.
NOTE: I don’t adress ppl living in eg India where it seems to be impossible cause of their money/bank system, but actual that’s a problem of your country or of Google. The game publisher can’t do anything if eg google playstore cards aren’t available for you, I’m just sorry.
So here an overview how much money it costs to get the different VIP levels:
| VIP level | you have to spend ….. money to get this VIP level (convert it in $ by yourself) |
| 1 | 2 900 ₩ |
| 2 | 9 900 ₩ (actual that amount was a special offer, dunno how much it is without it) |
| 3 | 99 000 ₩ |
| 4 | 400 000 ₩ |
| 5 | 500 000 ₩ |
The money stated to reach a VIP level doesn’t include the money you already have to spend for your current level. For example: if you are VIP level 4 you need to spend 500 000 ₩ to get to level 5. If you are level 0 and want to reach immediately level 5 you have to count all together (2900+9900+99000+400000+500000). The VIP level stays, your VIP exp stays, it’s a loyality bonus system where you don’t lose anything even if you will never buy again anything.
Here the benefits you get for the different VIP levels (bonus heart fragments mean eg. by sending a lvl 50+ hero you get your 10 fragments for sure + some additional fragments):
| VIP level | benefits |
| no VIP | max moral: 5 moral time recharge: 30 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 0 rapid battles added per day: 0 max repeat battles: 5 |
| 1 | max moral: 10 moral time recharge: 27 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 2 rapid battles added per day: 20 max repeat battles: 8 |
| 2 | max moral: 15 moral time recharge: 24 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 4 rapid battles added per day: 50 max repeat battles: 11 |
| 3 | max moral: 20 moral time recharge: 21 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 6 rapid battles added per day: 80 max repeat battles: 14 |
| 4 | max moral: 25 moral time recharge: 18 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 8 rapid battles added per day: 100 max repeat battles: 17 |
| 5 | max moral: 30 moral time recharge: 15 min bonus heart fragments by friend assist: 10 rapid battles added per day: 200 max repeat battles: 20 |
So is the VIP system a help ingame? Yes. Is it necessary or essential to play the game? No. It doesn’t give you Orichalcum or Runestones, no gear, nothing. Nice to have, but a no-need for playing.
Conclusion
I hope you get that nothing of this is necessary or even essential to play the game. Even the items who are shop-exclusive (rune essence…. aw I need it I want it >w< ) are not necessary. It must be hard to understand for someone who doesn’t play kloh, but believe me – the current system is awesome.
Yes, it helps you ingame if you pay, but actual that’s the intention of the shop (besides getting money for the company). You have an advantage, definitly, but it’s not that big that a f2p player can’t catch up easily (he just needs a little bit more time).
Actual you have to work for the things or spend a lot of money.
What do I mean?
Gear – 110 gear is not available in shop (just as 100 gear wasn’t when it was max gear). You have to do Chaos Tower or buy it with hearts in Auction House. Yes, payers can get hearts with money, but do you want to spend money for gear? T__T
Orichalcum – there are enough ways to get it ingame. Yes, 110 gear requires 800 Orichalcum, but this is a korean MMO…. farming is the core of korean mmos….. and there are enough ways, just to say it again.
Runestones – ok, still annoying to get… but hey, Chaos HM offers 110 Runestones as card draw. Buying them with money…. really, inscription is SO FUCKING random even RNGesus is crying. Don’t buy them!
Heroes – the best thing ever. Now payers can only get the heroes they want by
a) paying money and pray to RNGesus,
b) buying it in auction house with hearts (maybe also paying money for hearts before… :D) or
c) using Alchemy.
So yeah, they have to pay and being lucky as hell or they actual have to work for it (and f2p players already know how to work for their things).
The hardest work are the legendary heroes, payers must be goddamn luckers to get them or have to spend…. oh, I don’t even want to think about the amount (and it doesn’t matter if they try premium hire or buy the 6* heroes needed for getting essence for legend hire or for creating, it’s expensive, very expensive).
Beside the benefits payers get the f2p players have still a really nice life in kloh and don’t have a hugh disadvantage, because the events and prime time are awesome (besides ori, runes, tickets, catalysts, gear, whatever they gave out eg 21.03.15 a girls day ticket B and 22.03.15 a girls day ticket A, aw I got Minah >w< ), they have auction house, alchemy…. Oh, I think I’m a fangirl of kloh now.
So yeah, f2p players have no hugh disadvantage, it only takes them more time, but you should remember – the way is the goal. If someone needs to buy himself to the top let him do it, I don’t see any sense in this. If you have everything you don’t need to play a game and yes, I am also a payer. I used premium hire when it was for sale ~10$ and I tried the premium pass once and I am still not near end game :) …. just think of the legendary heroes, level them, gear them, get the new heroes…. oh it will not get boring.
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