I have a little over 4 months of login days at this very moment and thought to write something about the monetization in Rise of Kingdoms. So without further ado, let’s get into it!
Oh, and it’s probably a good thing to mention that I’ve spent a 3 figure number on this game, and this post is to cover why I’ve spent my money on these specific things.
Rise of Kingdoms’ VIP system
Starting with the VIP System, the main thing is obviously the special privileges package you can purchase only once. It grants you special sculptures of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. These sculptures are only available through this bundle, which means you cannot upgrade the commander’s skills unless you buy these bundles. As you can see, the level 1 package is very cheap compared to my current VIP level 8 package, but I’ve purchased all the packages through 2-7 levels. I’m tempted to buy the level 8 as well, as I feel that as I’ve purchased some of the cheaper packages, I’ve already invested in this commander and logically would want to complete it to gain more power.
VIP system has another good “pro” method of draining your premium currency, the VIP shop. Based on your VIP level, you will get access to better offers. My gems are usually spent on XP items or speed-ups.
“Mysterious Merchant”
It’s quite a small thing in the end, but appears from time to time to your town, mainly when you achieve something like training troops is done, etc. but as you can see, you can buy some items, boosts, and other stuff from there, and again, drain your premium currency or just use your resources. I’m using this one a lot on a daily basis to get the stuff I need or if I need to stack for the future as the discounts are actually good on certain items.
Rise of Kingdom’s Battle Pass plan
So the Battle Pass plan has, of course, the free-tier option and 2 optional packages that you can choose from that offer a bit different things, as you can see. But I’m personally interested in having more rewards, so I usually go with the cheaper option to have access to sort of these “double rewards.” Note that you can purchase levels, but the cost is 750 gems for me, so there’s no way I’m going to do that as the VIP system offers me much better options for standard rewards. However, the case could be slightly different IF the reward is something that will change the appearance of my city or my avatar.
Rise of Kingdom’s subscription plan
There are several Subscription plan options, as you can see, but the thing that I have almost all the time rolling is the gem pack. You probably already know why based on the things mentioned before, as there are many things that drain your premium currency, it’s very beneficial to have this plan running so that you gain 650 gems on a daily basis. Not much to add here. Simple but effective.
Daily special offers
One of the cheapest options in the game is these offers that provide you some very simple stuff like speed-ups, Alliance Wooden Chest, VIP points, keys for Gachas, and most importantly, Gems. In my opinion, these are the most purchased things, and I see my guild member buying them quite often, as you can see from this photo from our alliance page, where I can now claim the Wooden Chest and see what was bought.
Here’s a comparison between these offers vs. buying gems. Treasure of the King has Golden Key in it, which costs 600 gems in my VIP store, so I consider the bundle very valuable, and so do my guildmates too.
Limited Time IAP-offers
There are several different kinds of Limited Time IAP-offers, ranging from standard ones to more creative ones, like, for example, let’s call it “Lillith’s” trademark customizable bundle.
These Limited Time IAP-offers are usually linked to the running events (or commanders) and can help you gain rewards (imagine you have a goal to use x amount of speed-ups and there happens to be a nice offer with speed-ups in the bundle). Of course, these offers also show up when you upgrade your city hall, take heavy losses in a battle, or when you summon a new legendary commander, you will get an offer that is fairly cheap BUT provides valuable items like legendary commander sculptures. These can be used to upgrade skills, and this is something I spend my money on as these sculptures are very hard to get. I might buy the bundle even just because I want to have more sculptures to upgrade my main commander’s skills.
Extra observations
From time to time, there are some event specialties like, for example, Wheel of Fortune or “Card Game/Memory Game.”
Here’s an example of Wheel of Fortune that I usually spin one or two times before the premium currency cost becomes too high.
The same thing with the Card Game, usually spending just a couple of hundred gems there.
During Thanksgiving, you also saw what I like to call “a mini-battle pass plan,” in which I went for the extra rewards and spent 7000 gems to unlock the rewards.
Then there’s also this, which works well with all the things mentioned in the beginning as you are going for the gems, so while you would go for, let’s call it the normal purchases that you are doing and fill the bar anyway, there’s an incentive to go for a little bit more gems to get some extra rewards.
There are, of course, many other things in this game that you want to check out and how they monetize, so feel free to check out the game’s breakdown on the SaaS. Also, if you want to chat more about the game and how you could leverage our data in our production, send us a message, always happy to help. 🙂
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