DONT OPEN. DEAD INSIDE! As we progress through the opening stages of the app, this page will serve as a place to get tips, commentary and help on your own collection. I know that not everyone is going to be familiar with how it works, so if you have little experience with Topps Digital, this is the place to go. I will do my best to piece together all the different tidbits of information I pick up, and will post them here. This page should serve as a comprehensive look at the nuance of the app.
News Feed
This is the main space where all app info will be posted. You should read every article that is posted on the feed, as it will detail new packs, cards and award chases. If you avoid this part of the game, you will miss out. Plain and simple.
When something new hits the game, something will be posted at or near the top of the feed. Read it before you go diving in. Not only will it detail difficulty to achieve, but card count limits and other valuable information. THIS IS ESSENTIAL to be successful, as the level of detail with each set can be extreme.
Most of the articles have a space for comments, so definitely check it out. Users will talk about experiences with packs, trading and other general commentary, and you can post your own feedback there as well.
If you click the top of the feed, you can access a series of tips as well.
Coins
For this game, coins are your main way to participate in the game. Because they provide the only way to get more cards and expand your collection, its best to make the most of them. As of week 1, the daily bonus is 25,000 credits, although that could easily change. This means, for lack of a better way of putting it, you can open 5 of the 5k packs per day. That isnt a lot, because they have replaced the gameplay element of the sports apps with much more of a focus on collectability. Without spending your coins wisely, you could easily find yourself out in the cold when a cool card is released.
Buying coins from the store can happen any number of ways. The larger the buy the more bang for your buck. Regardless of how you purchase, its best to be smart and determine the best way to spend. I will say this, buying with real money is almost essential to making the most of your collection, but you can survive without it. Deciding against purchase will force your effort in trading to be much higher, but you wont have to worry about the increasing costs for many of the top sets in the game. Just be prepared to understand that you cannot collect everything without spending money.
Master Access
By purchasing any coin bundle from the credit store, you will unlock Master Access until 5am EST the next day. This includes a bunch of new set packs that have more inserts in them, as well as new base packs. You will not get longer access for buying larger coin bundles.
Also, certain sets will have parallels that are specific to master packs, make sure to read the transmissions closely so that you dont have to worry about opening packs that dont have the right card.
Card Exchange
This is a feature of the game where you can build your collection through trading in lower rarities of base cards for higher ones, and also get exclusive inserts and other content. There are certain inserts that are only going to be attainable through the exchange, and most of the time are only available for a limited time.
When items are “shredded” through the exchange’s features, anything traded in will no longer be a part of your collection. Not only that, but the shredded items are completely removed from the game and may never be available again. Be aware that shredding items comes with a lucrative reward in some cases, but it can also be costly.
To see what is needed to build an item, all you have to do is go to the card exchange part of the sheet and click on the item you want that has the little gold logo by it. It will bring up the shredding screen where you can view the necessary pieces needed to complete the offer.
The exchange will continue to be a huge part of the game going forward, and I can see many different things being used to make it attractive to all the users. Only time will tell what the potential for this feature truly looks like.
Card Structure
There are two types of card in the app, base and inserts. Most base is available in the main packs in the store, while some are only available in master packs. As for inserts, many if not all will have their own special pack. Read the articles associated with each release to make sure you open the right pack.
Here is the main base structure:
- White – the easiest card to pull, most targeted type of base for hoarding
- Blue – a step up, can fall about one per pack
- Red – rarer card, usually one every other pack
- Green – rarest base card, and tough to pull
- Black – Special base, only available in the card exchange
- Purple – Special base, only available in the card exchange
NOTE: Black requires 5 Green base to be shredded, Purple requires 5 black to be shredded in the card exchange
Base parallels were numerous as explained above, and its STILL a good idea to familiarize yourself with as many of the parallels as possible. Each card remains valuable in some way and has a different exchange rate attached to them, mainly associated with the card counts and characters.
As for inserts, there will be many different types of cards, offered on a limited basis, with any range of odds to pull them from packs. Unlike base, these cards can carry huge value based on character, card count, and other elements of their design.
Types of Inserts:
- Marathon – A set that is released once per week in multiple waves, leading up to a final award at the end
- Chase Set – A smaller set that can run a few days to a few weeks
- One Off – An insert that is not part of a set, or a part of a set that is released infrequently at random times
Hoarding
This is a user created element to the game that has become a huge focus for SWCT, and probably will transfer over to TWDCT. To put it simply, some users have chosen a character and have looked to acquire as many of that character’s card as possible. Some hoards can number in the tens of thousands over time.
Hoarding can be as simple as trying to acquire the commons, to as high as trying to acquire as many of that character’s card period.
Some users are identified by their hoard, as they have become infamous for collecting such a large amount.
Pack Structure
As we have seen in the past with the other apps, the pack structure is one of the more contentious parts of the app setup. Because packs can be such a big part of a user’s daily experience, there are a lot of people who will always have issue with the way they are launched in the store. Keep in mind that with a daily bonus of 25k credits, the packs you open become a measure of your success in the game.
Here are how packs are set up, but realize that just because you are opening an “Deluxe Base Pack” doesnt mean all the cards are of the top parallel. Read carefully about the odds per pack before opening.
- White Pack (2500, 3 cards) – This pack only has white and blue cards in it, and only offers 3 cards.
- Blue Pack (5000, 5 cards) – This pack features a small shot at red in addition to the blue and whites. If the SWCT model holds up, this is where some weekly inserts will be available.
- Red Pack (7500, 7 cards) – This isnt actually a bad deal, considering you get the green parallel at 1% of cards in the pack, and you get an extra 2 cards. You are paying an extra 500 coins per card to get that access, but if you want the higher parallels, this is it.
- Green Pack (10k, 10 cards, MASTER) – If you have master access, this is the place to spend your coins if you are looking for greens. Instead of paying the extra 500 coins per pack to get access, we are back to the 1000 per card.
- Deluxe Base Pack (25k, 15 cards, MASTER) – This features the best access to Green base, along with the absence of white base entirely. This is quite expensive right now without the Black base included, but that might change in the future as more content is released..
With all packs, my suggestion is to wait to open packs until one of these two situations happens. It is best to open packs right after inserts are released. More people will be ripping, and your likelihood of hitting the cards you want will be better. Outside of that, try to open at times you know there are a lot of people on the app. Dinner time gets a lot of traffic, as will times when the show is on TV.
NOTE: Opening base packs at 3am is a bad idea. Try to open packs when more people are online.
Direct Purchase Releases
Being that apps are expensive and coins can easily be farmed by owning multiple accounts, cards offered through direct purchase through the credit store have become more common. Basically, instead of buying or spending coins to open a pack with small odds of getting the insert you want, direct purchase offers the inserts for a specific price. Sometimes, variants of marathons or base variants are ONLY available through direct purchase, and many can be very expensive.
As the premium content for the app is released, it is likely that direct purchase will be used in some cases. Through the direct purchase process, Topps has to bank on the cards selling up to their value on the secondary market. In some cases, that type of result doesnt happen quickly, and discount sales can be offered.
Insert Structure
As mentioned above, inserts will come in a few different varieties. As more are released, this section will be updated to include the release schedule. Stay tuned to the news feed to get information on the different structures in place.
From what the original releases are showing, sets like Chop and Vintage are going to be available in the base red pack, where others like Locations and Walker Series have their own pack. Survival Syndicate also looks to be set for a different format, with an insert box available through direct purchase every week.
The best strategy is to read the articles as soon as the newest release hits the store, and find out the ways to get the best shot at the card. Sometimes, master access grants early pack access through the deluxe packs, but at different odds. Other times, a special box containing all the weekly inserts might be released at a higher cost.
Here are the list of weekly inserts so far:
- CHOP
- Vintage
- Locations
- Smitten
- Walker Series
- Topps Choice
- Survival Syndicate (Insert Box)
Marathons
We do not have information at this time regarding the marathons that are being used, but they will be among the top cards in the app. There will likely be a marathon for each day of the week, including awards for collecting each wave and all the cards. As information becomes available, this section will be updated.
Because of the long chases, these sets tend to generate a rabid following. Many users will base their entire app spending on the marathons they collect, and it will add value based the how many people are looking to build their set.
Odds for the marathons can vary, some will be very difficult to pull, others will be easier. Its best to see how many coins you are looking to spend and use your resources appropriately. For most people one or two marathons is very manageable.
Trading
You will not be able to be a top player without trading. Its one of the most important elements of the game, no doubt about it. Without trading, you will be left to buy your way through the game, when it is absolutely not necessary to spend that much. It takes time to trade, but its worth it.
- Start at the bottom and work your way up. You will get to open a lot of packs during the course of the game, so you will not need to shoot for the stars from the beginning.
- Go on the Fan Feed and search out players that have a high trader score and a high collection score by their name. They will likely have a ton of duplicate cards and will trade you commons and boosts for next to nothing.
- Be conscious of who you are trading with! Some people will collect based on rarity alone, others will go for sets, while some just like their favorite character. If you can look at their collection, sometimes its easy to tell. This will help you make a better offer.
- Most of the apps function on collection in some way, and one of the main rules is to avoid making offers on single cards unless you are going to give them something they need of more worth. Dupes are plentiful, and if a card has a little number in the top right corner, it says how many copies of the card someone has. Just because someone has a dupe, DOES NOT mean its going for cheap. They just may be more likely to give it up in a trade that they get something of equal value.
- I would suggest against lowballing any player when it comes to high value cards. When it comes to lower value cards, lowball away. You never know, but be prepared to be ignored if you offer junk for nice stuff.
- Never offer more than one trade at a time to anyone. Give them time to respond to an offer before offering again.
- If a player declines your trade without a counter, I would not suggest offering again on that card for at least a few hours. No one likes being harassed.
- New inserts are always worth more than older inserts. If a new insert is released, it automatically becomes more valuable than older inserts of that same rarity. Dont expect to trade 1-1 for a new card with an old card. Some collectors are rabid, so they will overpay, and some collectors will hold out for a good offer.
- Dont offer a ton of trades with the same card involved. If one of the traders accepts, the rest of the trades are voided. Diversify your offers!
- Wave 1 Week one cards have a tremendous value increase for a number of reasons. Dont expect to get them very easily. Each new leg of the marathon will have new week 1 cards that will likely carry more value.
- Hoarding will make some base cards tough to acquire. If you are looking to start a hoard, its best to find a partner(s) who are willing to unload some of their own cards for an equal amount of your own collection. You can usually trade 1:1 on each level of base when it comes to hoarders.
Trading can happen one of many ways, but the two most common are from the fan feed, or from the main card sheet.
When trading from the fan feed, you will see a list of comments made by users offering trades. Click on the picture by their name and select “offer trade.” It will bring up their card sheet and you can select which cards you would like to make an offer on. For reference, the person making the offer usually has less leverage, so overpaying in value is almost expected.
You should sort by “Cards They Need” from the top right corner menu, as it will show you what you have that they do not. This is a big thing for helping make a good offer. I will warn you that non-base cards will trade for more value, and I would offer multiple good cards.
You can also trade from the “All Cards” main sheet, that details every card currently in the game. You can bring it up by clicking on the card logo on the far right bottom of the main Death Star home screen. It will bring up “My Cards” automatically, but you can switch to all cards by tapping the top bar. Clicking a card and then the trade logo at the bottom of the screen will bring up the blind offer menu. Select the cards you will give up and select up to 5 users to trade with. This is a very volatile process, so be prepared to get low ratings if you trade in this manner.
Ways of Staying On Top of the News
Here are a list of all the Twitter accounts you should follow, they will be well worth making a twitter account if you dont already have one.
- @ToppsDigital – main hub for news
- @ToppsTWD – main handle for the app
- @ToppsKat – App producer for TWDCT
- @ToppsCW – App producer for TWDCT
- @IanHundiak – App producer for Topps Digital
- @Chris Vaccaro – Topps Digital Editor in Chief
- @ToppsBunt – Main account for the Baseball game
- @ToppsHuddle – Main account for the Football game
- @ToppsSenate – Main account for SWCT
- @ToppsKick – Main account for the Soccer game
Even if you dont play along with the other apps, the accounts do tweet out valuable information.
If you have any questions – reach out to me in game under my main account SCUncensored. Say you are from the site, and I will do my best to respond. You can also tweet at me @SCUncensored, which is easily the best way to get a hold of me.
Digital Card Central 