As I have mentioned a few times in the past, hoarding has become a user created substitute for gameplay in Star Wars. Up until the release of Series 3, hoarding has been something that I havent really taken too much of an interest in. Now that there is a time to start from scratch, I thought that it was time to jump in.

What is Hoarding?

For those of you who are unfamiliar, hoarding is a broad term and can apply to many different aspect of the game. To put it simply, hoarding is the practice of acquiring as many copies of a certain card or cards, with the idea of having the most complete collection that exists for that specific item.

Some people choose to hoard white base of a certain character or characters, knowing that at some point in the future there will be potential to shred them for monument cards. Others choose to try to get at least one of each of the cards released for a certain character, with the feeling of completion being the only satisfaction needed. There are also users who just want as many TK-001s as they can get, cornering the market.

Why Hoard?

For most, its about passing the time. With SWCT already in the arena of a time killer for most, hoarding helps to add an element of fun and accomplishment without much cost. Its a way to interact with the community in a fun way, and in some cases, your hoard can be infamous among the other users.

In the past, monument cards were created to reward users for building a massive hoard, but that isnt the reason that many do what they do. Getting your username on a card is a big deal, but for some, the effort far outweighs the shredding for a single card.

In the end, like with much of SWCT, hoarding is as much about pride in your collection as anything. If you have a big hoard, and are recognized by hoarders as someone who is worth taking a look at, that’s reward in itself. That feeling of competition and completion is alluring to say the least.

Choosing Your Target

Believe it or not, this is actually one of the most important parts of the process, as it can mean months of easy going fun or a long existence of grinding the fan feed. If you choose a character that few people want, your hoard will be that much easier to build. On the other hand, if you decide that Rey is going to be your target, good luck.

Some people love a challenge, and choose popular characters solely for that reason. Others just want to be the biggest collector of Nexu, because…well.. they want to.

When it comes down to it, I would choose two characters. One that is your primary and maybe a bit easier to obtain, and one that is a secondary and maybe a bit harder. Because there is little cost in choosing multiple targets, why not try? Its not like you are penalized if you give up.

Navigating the Fan Feed 

Everyone on SWCT opens packs, and that means that for the base card hoarders out there, the counts are plentiful on many of the cards. Some of the Series 3 are already above 50k in count, but that is low by many standards when looking at Series 1. At the moment, hoarding Series 3 is a onesie twosie type of situation, as the giant counts of base that exist for the previous series just dont exist yet. They will in the future, but right now, its a grind.

What made hoarding so much easier with the first few series was that there were a number of users who literally had hundreds of copies of each card. If you found a partner, you could unload their hoard in trade for yours. It was an easier way to obtain cards en masse.

With the launch of Series 3, a fraction of the cards exist, which means that the general population only has a very limited number of copies. Many are building hoards as we see on the feed, but they are doing it one card at a time instead of one hundred cards at a time.

Look for the people that list their hoard target in their fan feed post, and get what you can. Similarly, your fan feed post should be what you are hoarding and your ratio of what you are willing to give up. The best traders will do 1:1 trades hoard for hoard of the same color, but if you have a super popular character, that might not work.

If you want to trade whites for blues, blues for reds, etc, I have seen exchange rates as low as 3:1, but 5:1 isnt horrible either.

Will the App Embrace the Hoards?

I have predicted that SWCT’s team would be stupid to leave hoarding as an under appreciated gameplay situation, and its in their best interest to add some structure. Not necessarily OUR best interest, but definitely theirs. Any systemic support for the hoards out there will add value to the cards, and with more value comes more users getting involved. With more users comes more revenue, which is exactly why I believe things have already changed significantly as it is.

Hopefully at some point in the future there will be some sort of reward system for hoarding milestones, maybe similar to a VIP program we have seen in other apps. At the same time, I expect base variants to continue to be offered on a direct purchase basis. That is too lucrative to walk away from. I would also hope that there will be monuments for Series 3, as there were for the first two series, but again there has been little communication on that.

Smuggler’s Den is definitely NOT going away any time soon, and I would love to see them use it more often to reward hoarders for the lively trading environment that is created by this organic scenario.

Lastly, I would love for their to be more display options and filters to help address the THOUSANDS of trades that are likely going to occur for each hoarder. Whether its identifying targets at the top of the trade interface, or even finding ways to make blind trades better, anything would be appreciated. How awesome would it be to pull up a character you have and see who is hoarding them? Instead of choosing a faction, why not let people choose their hoard target if they want?

I would also love to see a hoarding leaderboard at some point, as it will only add fuel to the fire. We want to know who is the best, so lets make it happen!

Regardless if you want to participate or not, hoarding is something that is worth trying. As I have more experience with Series 3, ill fill everyone in, but if you have Maul or BB-8, Im your man!