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Some math regarding the new card cosmetics

This post was inspired by u/Calculus_Made_Easy and his math regarding the quest rewards.

Assumptions and simplifications for easy calculation:

1.) Essence Pouches always give 25 essence (this fits my experience, but it may not be the case all the time). This would apply to the chests as well, containg 25, 200, and 300 essence for common, rare, and epic chests respectively.

2.) Common, rare, and epic presmatics recieved through boxes are worth 100, 200, and 300 respectivley.

3.) The rewards won through chests never upgrade (I know it does, but since I don't know the rate, I can't account for it right now).

4.) All future expansions occur every 8 weeks and are half the size as this last one (3 champs, 8 epics, 10 rares, and 17 commons).

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Quest Rewards:

Quest 1, refreshes weekly, 1 essence pouch = 25 essence/week

Quest 2, refeshes biweekly, 25 essence and 1 common = 62.5 essence/week

Quest 3, refreshes every 4 weeks, (25 + 1 common) + (200 + 1 rare) + (350 + 1 epic) = 293.75 essence/week

So every week, you effectively get 381.25 essence or 181.25 essence and some cards.

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Currently, there are 48 champions, 95 epics, 201 rares, and 293 commons, which translates to a whopping 131600 essence needed. At 381.25 essence a week, this translates to 345.18 weeks, or a little less than 6.5 years needed to make all the cards that are available currently.

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This recent expansion had 3 champions, 8 epics, 10 rares, and 17 commons for a total of 8200 essence. Assuming each new expansion would be roughly the same, you would need to obtain 1025 essence a week in order to keep up. If you do all of the quests available, then you would still need to make 643.75 essence a week in order to keep up with th expansions.

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The only other way of obtaining essence is through rank rewards.

Iron: 25 essence = 3.125 essence/week

Bronze: 1 common + 50 essence= 25 essence/week

Silver: 1 rare + 1 common + 225 essence= 65.625 essence/week

Gold: 1 epic + 1 rare + 550 essence = 131.25 essence/week

Plat: 1 epic + 1 rare + 1 common + 575 essence = 146.875 essence/week

Diamond: 1 epic + 2 rare + 750 essence = 181.25 essence/week

Masters: 3 epics + 1050 essence = 243.75 essence/week

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The main takeaway is that you will never be able to obtain a complete prismatic collection through grinding alone. Especially since new types or cosmetics may be rolled out in the future, although I'm sure no one is suprised by this conclusion. There were assumptions that I made that would probably make some of my calculations inacurrate, but the gap between new expansions and current rewards are big enough that I'm confident the conclusion would not change. Even though it might be disappointing to some, this curbs some of the FOMO I'd have that would push me to play expeditions just to finish the quests on time.

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