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Gold ROI calculator
Gold has one income structure: fixed yearly income plus a few compound pieces. Once you know it, you know whether to buy a card or save.
What is hard data and what is an estimate. Base income 9, merchant starts at 30 and +15 per card, reroll starts at 10 and +10 per reroll, expansion 30 come from the community wiki Gold page. Vault currencyPerLevel = 3, shrine initialCost = 9 / costDecrementPerLevel = 3, dispenser boostPerCoin = 1.005 come from local client fields (now shown on each building page). Building cards have no independent cost field, so "price of a building" is estimated from the merchant curve.
Inputs
Results
Next merchant card price——
Vault gain per level——
Vault payback——
Net gain over remaining years——
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Payback lookup (cost ÷ yearly gain)
| Yearly gain \ price | 30 | 45 | 60 | 75 |
|---|
Full gold ledger
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Base yearly income | 9 | Settled every year, win or lose (wiki Gold page) |
| Merchant | 30 + 15 × bought | +15 per purchase; Bargain x2 leaves 1/4 price |
| Reroll | 10 + 10 × rerolls | Payroll turns the first reroll of each encounter into +10 gold |
| Plot expansion | 30 | Fixed price, independent of plot count |
| Vault / level | +3 / year | currencyPerLevel = 3; level 3 = +9, doubling base income |
| Shrine / year | 9 → 6 → 3 → 0 | initialCost = 9, costDecrementPerLevel = 3; buy levels with gold |
| Loan | +99 | 20 stacks = 1980, about 11 years of base income upfront |
| Mercenary | 9 / unit | goldPerTroop = 9; gold stock is its unit count |
| Scapegoat | 3 / level on death | goldPerLevelOnDeath = 3 |
| Dispenser | +0.5% attack speed / gold | boostPerCoin = 1.005; income becomes combat power |
Three counter-intuitive conclusions
- Without Overwork or a discount, Vault pays back in 10 years. First card 30 ÷ 3 per year = 10 years. It is only worth buying early with Overwork (x2/x3) or Bargain (15 gold).（currencyPerLevel = 3）
- Shrine is the valve that turns excess gold into levels. It only costs 9/6/3 per year, and levels multiply everything. When gold overflows, its marginal value beats any 30-gold card.（initialCost = 9; costDecrementPerLevel = 3）
- Dispenser makes saving itself produce combat power. boostPerCoin = 1.005 compounds: 200 gold is +100% attack speed. Greed builds should stockpile before spending.（boostPerCoin = 1.005）
Not included: combat value (many cards are not about gold), merchant pool probabilities, and trigger frequency for Midas Touch / Insurance / Salvage. Codex CardsPerLevel = 1 means hand size is also a resource, but it does not enter the gold formula.（CardsPerLevel = 1）