Half a month into the preseason, Bigtime gold farmers have something to say

Author: 0xSekiro, Odaily Planet Daily

Since the preseason version opened on October 10, the new gold farming activities in Bigtime have been ongoing for nearly half a month. During this time, the game officials have adjusted the economic model rules multiple times, causing the gold farming efficiency to drop significantly. As a result, some studios have chosen to exit.

"Adjusting the economic model is a normal behavior for game products," said a gold farming user, but even now, there is still profit to be made from gold farming. Some studios continue to persevere.

Odaily Planet Daily conducted interviews with several studios that have participated in gold farming in Bigtime, or are currently still engaged in it, and reached an interesting conclusion: Many newly entered studios chose to leave after the rule changes; while studios that entered Bigtime early still choose to stay.

Interestingly, during the gold farming boom in Bigtime, there are differences in gold farming logic between new and old studios, as well as between big R players and casual players, along with new businesses emerging from the gold farming context of Bigtime. These phenomena are worth noting in this wave.

In addition, Odaily Planet Daily has previously provided a more detailed analysis of Bigtime's gameplay and mechanics. For more details, please see “Jumping Repeatedly in Front of Bigtime, Did You Miss the Timing to Enter?”

Old Studios Continue, New Studios Choose to Withdraw

Coinman_labsCryptoJimi is currently an active old OG in the Bigtime game. He has been deeply involved in the Bigtime ecosystem with friends since 2022 and purchased 7 pieces of Exalted Large Space (the highest quality and largest land in Bigtime) at a high price of $14,680 last year.

Despite experiencing a sharp drop in the price of Exalted Large Space afterward, which still hovers around $4,000, CryptoJimi has incurred a total loss of about $70,000. However, he has not lost faith in Bigtime.

On the very day the preseason began on October 10, CryptoJimi rushed in without hesitation.

"One account can generate about 10,000 to 15,000 Tokens a day. After the officials lowered the drop rate of dungeons and increased their difficulty, the gold farming efficiency decreased. But even now, one account can still produce 2,500 Tokens a day."

The image shows the gold farming process of CryptoJimi's game account.

According to CryptoJimi's data, based on the highest price of Bigtime tokens at $0.30 on October 13, early on, CryptoJimi could earn $3,000 to $5,000 a day with one account, and with four accounts, he could cover the losses from buying Exalted Large Space in about three days. Even now, with a daily output of only 2,500 Tokens per account, at the current price of around $0.15, the daily earnings are still close to $400.

The image shows the gold farming loot.

"If this model can be maintained, it would be equivalent to a monthly income of $100,000, comparable to an Alibaba P8." Another gold farmer, Xiao Xin, said. However, he also noted that such results are not guaranteed every day.

Unlike studios that operate in groups, as a casual player, Xiao Xin sometimes finds it difficult to form a stable team. This is also one of the current unfriendly aspects of Bigtime for newcomers.

At present, there are three unfriendly points for newcomers entering Bigtime:

1. New players have difficulty forming teams. There is no friend system in the game, so players often need to establish contacts outside the game to find fixed teammates.

2. The matching level of equipment is poor. In a game focused on gold farming, efficiency is the top priority, and if one person in a six-member team has lower quality equipment, it will affect the entire team's gold farming profits.

Each dungeon participation has equipment rarity requirements.

"It's quite mystical; we are still exploring. Sometimes, a team of six with all green equipment performs better than a team of five with blue equipment and one with white equipment," CryptoJimi said, "but it's not just about the numbers; after all, five blue equipment pieces have the same luck value of 690 as six green ones."

3. Frequent game bugs. Since the preseason began, bugs have frequently appeared in the game, and these bugs are often difficult to resolve immediately. For example, there is a bug related to repeatedly opening blind boxes in the game. Blind boxes are a type of NFT resource in Bigtime that can yield items like Time Guardians. Some players exploited this bug for arbitrage, and after the officials discovered it, they banned the related accounts, but they will be unbanned later.

There is also the issue of equipment disappearing. Some players have reported that after using crystals to charge their equipment, it sometimes disappears.

"This bug has not been fixed yet." However, according to CryptoJimi, after the game became popular, a large influx of new players led to a backlog of bug reports due to the small number of employees at their U.S. headquarters and the lack of overtime culture. As the officials begin to hire more staff, the bug issues should improve significantly.

"This game is gradually getting better." This is the general sentiment of old studios like CryptoJimi towards Bigtime. However, recently, a new studio player, KK, chose to withdraw at the same time.

In discussions about Bigtime in GryphsisAcademy, KK stated that his studio chose to leave because they realized their specific position in the game's ecological food chain.

"On the first day of gold farming on October 10, six accounts made about 30,000 RMB, but by October 13, we found that the cost of time crystals had increased tenfold, and calculating it made the profits seem less appealing."

Time crystals are items used to charge Time Guardians' equipment to speed up the process and are one of the standard configurations for gold farming in Bigtime.

Additionally, other costs have also increased, such as the price of Time Guardians rising from an initial $800 to a maximum of $1,800, while a purple time equipment piece has increased from around $770 to nearly $2,000.

On one hand, there are issues with profits; on the other hand, KK believes that the current model may be difficult to sustain in the long run.

"Currently, most participants in gold farming are internal testers and old studios (which have lower production costs), along with some newly entered studios. Only a small portion are new players who entered due to FOMO around the tokens." KK's concern is that players who entered due to token FOMO may also exit when the tokens drop.

"Gold farming is particularly sensitive to market sentiment. For example, earlier with RACA, when it was rumored to be a game made by Elon Musk's mother, it became popular for a while, but later the MEME effect faded, and the game cooled down." KK stated, "The key is to accurately identify your position in the food chain."

Time Equipment Charging Stations: A New Choice for Casual Players

For instance, a new business that has emerged alongside the popularity of Bigtime is the crystal charging business, humorously referred to by players as the charging station business.

Players can profit by purchasing empty equipment from the market, charging them, and then selling them to players in need. For example, a legendary level equipment with 414.97 minutes remaining is priced at $2,999, while one with 30,200 minutes remaining is priced at $6,999.

The cost of buying time crystals has increased, and now about $50 can buy 500 of them. Players specializing in the charging station business can buy empty equipment at a low price, charge them, and then sell them at a higher price to profit from the price difference.

OG player Red Bull is one such representative. According to CryptoJimi, Red Bull stockpiled a lot of Space at low prices last year and is now specifically manufacturing equipment.

In fact, both CryptoJimi and Xiao Xin believe that if you don't consider the gold farming aspect, the game itself is quite fun. If you don't want to play so aggressively, being a casual player and engaging in the charging station business or treating it as a side job while working is also a good choice.

"This is exactly what the game officials hope for, as it will prolong the game's lifecycle without fostering too strong a competitive mindset," Red Bull said.