How long time does an average Arcade Mode run take you (and how far do you get)?

Teddy

Developer
Staff member
Hey all!

We're trying to collect some intel on how long it takes for people to finish an Arcade Mode run (which for most people mean where they die)!

So: How far do you usually get in Arcade Mode and how long does such a run last?

We're looking to use the replies in order to tweak how much gold you get per run, and how much the buildings cost.

So, yeah, for all of you who play Arcade Mode at all, feel free to reply below!
 

Own

Moderator
Keep in mind the overwhelming majority of players will be on next to no gold at the end of each run by sinking it all in rapidly increasing healing costs. :p Top arena players have so much gold because they spend nothing on healing and don't have to buy items due to being really good at fishing/event rooms. Don't balance gold around us!
 

The G-Meister

Giga Slime
A full clear took me consistently an hour every time using the Battletank build, though that was in previous patches. Couldn't give a gold figure, although it's normally very low as a lot is spent on Nurses.
 

Teddy

Developer
Staff member
Keep in mind the overwhelming majority of players will be on next to no gold at the end of each run by sinking it all in rapidly increasing healing costs. :p Top arena players have so much gold because they spend nothing on healing and don't have to buy items due to being really good at fishing/event rooms. Don't balance gold around us!

The idea is that excess gold should be a bonus and that most gold will be generated by, well, "active time" (aka time before reaching C-rank, + bonus for progress)! So the end-of-run gold, while kept, isn't really a part of our equation here, since we're mostly focused on getting the building cost balance right. For the people who farm 20k+ per 25-minute run, the gold will most likely be spent on stuff like vanity items and other silliness!

Thanks for the replies so far! Keep 'em coming!
 

Justcallme0

Green Slime
For me getting to winter takes about 30 mins a run with danil and about 10-15k gold depending on how much i sell
 
So today was the first time I officially beat Winter, though I've reached him a few times by now. When I first started, simply getting to the fortress was very difficult.

After playing for a bit and picking up a few things from better people like Eleaa and G, I think I can say that on average I reach Winter in Arcade mode. After timing myself today I got 1:13:39 (hr:min:s) after beating winter. I'm not surprised by those numbers, so I'm pretty sure my average time in arcade is an hour or a bit over an hour.

Alternatively, if Marino appears in Seasonne at all, my run almost always ends at him. (I only say "almost" because today was the first day it didn't end at him.) I don't have a time stamp for that, but I can try to provide one if you want.

I'll point out that I tend to run 2H melee. I think it's relevant since at this point it seems that in arcade running mage gets you through quicker/easier than running melee...especially with Marino. So that probably affects the average times and average progress. I only beat Marino this time because I used frosty the snowman...so I guess after Marino you could consider me "mixed." (I kept the summon along for the ride in the temple...though at low levels)
 

p00rleno

Green Slime
I usually get to F12, after about 30-40 minutes. Plus probably about 10 minutes of resets trying to get mage glasses on F1.
 

res7less

Jumpkin
I usually die in the Flying Fortress to one of the bosses. And I have no idea about the time it takes, but I generally try to finish the rooms asap as opposed to playing safe. But genuinely, I'm not a big fan of the Rogue Like principle, so I don't think I'm a suitable candidate to measure anything.
 

Mythics

Green Slime
When solo, I go rather slow and usually die in the Flying Fortress. I've measured twice and it's about 25 minutes before my death outside of the menu.

im pretty bad, i usually get to pumpkin woods, and die takes 15 minutes to get there

This is me and my wife, very consistently.. lol. We really don't handle specific things together well though with how the difficulty scales. Boars, especially elites, are about as frequent a run killer for us as boss fights.. sadly.
 

AngusOReily

Green Slime
I have a hard time in arcade mode. Typically make it to the forest quickly and die. Honestly, it feels really punishing at the start. I know there are people out there who are great at it, but I feel like I would have to put in way too much time to get good at it. In story mode, I feel like I can grow, develop a build and grind bonuses if I need to. Getting to the forest and dying doesn't really let me get any better. And I am the sort of player who loves action rouglites (I have over 1200 hours in the Binding of Isaac series, with full completions). Anyway, a lot of these posts come from really successful people, and I figured I'd chime in as someone who has interest in this mode, can't get traction, and is discouraged from putting in the time to learn it because the difficulty feels so high and the payoffs for moderate success so low. Just my two cents. Love story mode though.
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
Sooo, I got an idea. Instead of asking players about how their performance and subjective opinion on balance, maybe collect the data yourself using some kind of telemetry? I've seen some games do this in early stages to achieve better balancing. You could collect stuff like picked skills, damage taken, clear time, rough strategy and all their relations to performance. This kind of statistical data would make it easier to identify OP or underpowered skills, too difficult enemies and difficulty steeps, how much gold and essence is earned, number of unused skill points and such. Here's an example post on the subject: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/discordgames/chasm/posts/1616461
This could be useful especially in later game on final balancing pass, but also could help right now with planning new content (both in Story and Arcade modes).
 
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