When you scroll through the various plants and fixtures that you can buy, Striiv shows you the price and the payoff. The price is a one-time cost, and the payoff is anywhere from several times an hour to two days.
If you are buying the plants that are the prettiest, or that give you a cool animal, then you don't need to worry about payoff. However, if you want to yield the most gold then you should look at it as a business investment.
In the business world, the break-even analysis is a process that determines the volume of goods that must be sold to cover both fixed and variable costs. In the Striiv world, we can use break-even analysis to determine how many days of generating gold does the plant or fixture pay for itself.
Let's run through an example. Suppose you are debating between the Cyclops' Revenge and the Lemur Tree House. The tree house is certainly more visually appealing so maybe you are leaning that way. The payoffs are pretty close: Cyclops pays 4,500 every 9 hours, and Lemur Tree House pays 4,000 every 10 hours. However, the cost differences are staggering. The Cyclops costs 16,000 gold, so it will "break even" in less than 2 days. The Lemur Tree House costs 175,000! This means it will take almost 22 days to generate enough gold to overtake its cost.
What's the worst plant in terms of break-even? The Fairy Forest, which takes 1,754 days, or 4.8 YEARS to cover its 50 million price tag. If you buy a gold mystery box and get half-price, then it will only take 2.4 years.
What is the best plant in terms of pure break-even? Well if you click the Myland scroll and spin for the right challenge, the Celestial Observatory is the best buy in terms of break-even. The "build 3 observatories" challenge pays a 50,000 bonus. However, each Observatory only costs 10,000. When you build 3 with the challenge you break even (better actually) the moment it is built. So why not build all observatories? Well because you also have to look long-term. The payout of the Observatory is only 750 every 2hrs 40 minutes, and it takes up 4 lots.
So what is the best plant in terms of break-even and long-term payoff? For me it's the Bougainvillea. It costs 3,000 gold, but with a challenge you can get 1,500 back. If you have a Plant Sale mystery box you can get the cost down to almost nothing. And it pays 2,000 gold every ten hours, and only takes up 1 lot.
Firstly, let me say how much I enjoy reading your posts on the Striiv. I've only had mine for 3 weeks now, but I am obsessed. It's nice to see someone else who's equally (or even more so!) addicted to Striiv.
ReplyDeleteRegarding this latest post, I may be wrong, but I don't think the Bougainvillea is that great a pay-off. I made a spread sheet of how many coins each plant & fixture pays off in an average 5 minutes, and the Bougainvillea rates at 16.7coins / 5 mins. I think there are far better plants and fixtures out there (for ex: the warrior poet rates a whopping 33 coins / 5 mins), but of course I haven't taken any of their original cost into calculation. Suffice it to say, I don't take aesthetics into the calculation either. :)
Another part of the equation on how long it takes to pay for itself is that there are days when you will get 2x coins, 2x fast, 4x fast, etc. as your sync awards or treasure chest purchases...
ReplyDeleteLove reading your blog.
Alisa
Jacqueline- you also have to take into account that most will probably not be harvesting coins every 5 minutes for 24 hours. But if you wanted to (and could actually stay awake and focused, i'm sure there are better items to buy.) i like the huts, but it takes a lot of time to harvest them every ten minutes. I really love the bougainvilleas though. They pay well and are really pretty. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Alisa... Yes the multipliers do have an impact on when you might break even, but the strategy wouldn't change. The only thing that might change is to buy fewer huts (sorry Monica) and other plants/fixtures that return gold many times in an hour. If you had a gold mystery box and got 4x faster for 24 hours, and you had a hundred island huts, you would be continuously collecting all day long. Can you say Carpel Tunnel? :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jacqueline, that on the surface there are other things that pay better than bougainvillea. For me, however, after being an addict for seven months, I had to force myself to limit how often I grabbed the Striiv to collect gold. The Warrior Poet pays 400 an hour, but at best you might collect it 12 times in a day, making it only slightly better than the 4000 a day you get from bougainvillea, but with much more work :) Just my opinion.......
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ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteIt appears that you did move on to other things. I was really enjoying reading your blogs and tips on how to maximize your striiv experience. You mentioned a spreadsheet you had created. Can you please email me a copy of that? I thought of creating one myself but it seems silly to reinvent the wheel.
Here is a list that has all the store items data. You should be able to copy it into your spreadsheet and sort as you please:
ReplyDeleteCategory Item Cost Earnings Minutes Earnings/minute Breakeven (minutes) Breakeven (hours) Breakeven (days)
Plant Fairy Forest $150,000,000 $28,500 960 $29.69 5,052,632 84,210.53 3,508.77
Building Acropolis of Heroes $75,000,000 $35,000 1440 $24.31 3,085,714 51,428.57 2,142.86
Building Fire of Dreams $15,000,000 $5,000 300 $16.67 900,000 15,000.00 625.00
Plant Fairy Tree $18,500,000 $9,000 600 $15.00 1,233,333 20,555.56 856.48
Plant Grandfather Tree $3,000,000 $10,000 720 $13.89 216,000 3,600.00 150.00
Plant Grandmother Tree $3,000,000 $18,000 1440 $12.50 240,000 4,000.00 166.67
Plant Zebra Fern $1,000 $50 5 $10.00 100 1.67 0.07
Building Island Hut $1,000 $100 10 $10.00 100 1.67 0.07
Building Greek Parthenon $1,000,000 $20,000 2160 $9.26 108,000 1,800.00 75.00
Building Cyclops' Revenge $65,000 $4,500 540 $8.33 7,800 130.00 5.42
Plant Fire Maple $60,000 $3,000 450 $6.67 9,000 150.00 6.25
Plant Money Grove $400,000 $600 90 $6.67 60,000 1,000.00 41.67
Building The Warrior Poet $10,000 $400 60 $6.67 1,500 25.00 1.04
Building Lemur Tree House $525,000 $4,000 600 $6.67 78,750 1,312.50 54.69
Plant Greek Vineyard $90,000 $4,000 660 $6.06 14,850 247.50 10.31
Building Fountain of Youth $250,000 $8,640 1600 $5.40 46,296 771.60 32.15
Plant Foxglove $1,500 $80 15 $5.33 281 4.69 0.20
Building Prometheus Torch $500 $80 15 $5.33 94 1.56 0.07
Building Maiden's Tower $100,000 $3,500 660 $5.30 18,857 314.29 13.10
Plant Wise Oak $2,000 $360 70 $5.14 389 6.48 0.27
Plant Ice Maple $900,000 $3,000 600 $5.00 180,000 3,000.00 125.00
Building Fairytale Cottage $525,000 $1,200 240 $5.00 105,000 1,750.00 72.92
Building Celestial Observatory $35,000 $750 160 $4.69 7,467 124.44 5.19
Building Tiger Mansion $7,500 $5,000 1080 $4.63 1,620 27.00 1.13
Building Greek Villa $500,000 $2,600 600 $4.33 115,385 1,923.08 80.13
Plant Mermaid Topiary $1,500,000 $12,000 2880 $4.17 360,000 6,000.00 250.00
Plant Bird of Paradise $2,400 $180 45 $4.00 600 10.00 0.42
Plant Flowering Bush $4,000 $120 30 $4.00 1,000 16.67 0.69
Building Roman Colosseum $300,000 $540 135 $4.00 75,000 1,250.00 52.08
Plant Morning Bluebells $15,000 $340 90 $3.78 3,971 66.18 2.76
Plant Bougainvillea $8,000 $2,000 600 $3.33 2,400 40.00 1.67
Plant Tiger Orchid $12,000 $200 60 $3.33 3,600 60.00 2.50
Building Luxury Bathhouse $20,000 $252 90 $2.80 7,143 119.05 4.96
Plant Venus Fly Trap $30,000 $1,000 360 $2.78 10,800 180.00 7.50
Building Archery Range $4,000 $750 270 $2.78 1,440 24.00 1.00
Building Magician's Fire $50,000 $2,200 800 $2.75 18,182 303.03 12.63
Building Fishing Pond $2,160 $75 30 $2.50 864 14.40 0.60
Plant Tree of Ages $120,000 $750 330 $2.27 52,800 880.00 36.67
Wow, I can't believe it took me so long to look for others who might be discussing the relative value of the various plants and fixtures. Thanks, everyone!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone compiled a list of the energy required to complete each plant/building?
ReplyDeleteI'm very curious about this list as well. Please post if someone has such a list.
DeleteYes, the energy needed is where im always short. So thats why I google searched today, and it led me to this thread. Hope we can figure out how much total Energy is needed to grow each item! thx.
DeleteI finally completed the list! Here is a list of the energy required for each stage of build-up:
DeleteZebra Fern 1,500
Foxglove 1,800
Wise Oak 2,500
Bird of Paradise 8,000
Flowering Bush 5,000
Bougainvillea 3,500
Tiger Orchid 4,500
Morning Bluebells 7,000
Venus Fly Trap 6,000
Fire Maple 15,000
Greek Vineyard 18,000
Tree of Ages 20,000
Money Grove 50,000
Ice Maple 70,000
Mermaid Topiary 40,000
Grandfather Tree 350,000
Grandmother Tree 350,000
Fairy Tree 500,000
Fairy Forest 1,000,000
Prometheus Torch 2,000
Island Hut 1,200
Fishing Pond 4,500
Archery Range 2,000
Tiger Mansion 3,000
The Warrior Poet 8,000
Luxury Bathhouse 6,000
Celestial Observatory 12,500
Magician's Fire 15,000
Cyclop's Revenge 10,500
Maiden's Tower 25,000
Roman Colosseum 20,000
Lemur Tree House 60,000
Fairytale Cottage 90,000
Greek Villa 40,000
Fountain of Youth 35,000
Greek Parthenon 85,000
Fire of Dreams 600,000
Acropolis of Heroes 850,000
This is a great start, but only covers the low levels. Most of the items energy up at the higher levels. I agree it would be nice to know how much lightning will be needed so that one isn't losing coins/gems while waiting to level up. for instance right now I am trying to level up to a level four gem mine (earns the most gems, in case anyone is interested and generally gets you a blue fairy as well which ups the coin collection). I suspect that the amount of lightning needed will be more than that needed for the lower levels but I won't know that until I actually pay the 125 M needed to level up. . . By the way, the version of the game also affects how much you get which means a different list of items depending on whether you have an iPhone, iPad or original iPad.
DeleteMany thanks to Andy Cho and "Anonymous" for gathering all that data! I saved it in a doc file and changed spaces to tabs (after taking spaces out of Item names) to load into Excel, and now I have everything in a lovely sortable spreadsheet! I was about to start creating this on my own, so I'm SO happy to find that someone had done it for me!
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