Spotlight Caches Early Analysis and Breakdown: Are They Good for Players?

Marvel Snap recently announced the newest change to the card acquisition system: The Spotlight Cache. This new system is set to replace tokens as the primary way to obtain new Series 4 and 5 cards. While the developers claim the new system will increase the number of new cards players will obtain, players have voiced mixed feelings for the new system.

Spotlight Caches – Details, Drop Rates and Card Acquisition Changes

In order to fully understand what this new system entails, this article will break down what it does and how it effects the new player experience, the beta player experience, and the average player experience. We will follow up with a full, complete mathematical analysis of the new system with calculations and advice (from the information we have been given so far) before the update!

The New System

For the official explanation of the new system, make sure to check out the developers announcement. This explanation, however, will be a simplified explanation. The basics are as follows:

1. In the collection track, every 120 CL will have the new Spotlight Cache (basically, every 10th collectors reserve will become a Spotlight Cache).
2. Each week, you can preview 4 cards that will be featured in the Spotlight Cache. It will contain 1 newly released card, 2 Series 4/5 cards chosen by Second Dinner, and a random Series 4/5 card (can be one you don’t own or a duplicate that you do own).
3. Each of the 4 cards have an equal 25% chance to obtain by opening the box. Once you gain a reward, it is removed from the box and the remaining rewards split evenly the chance to open the next reward.
4. Each week, a new set of 4 cards will launch. If you obtain each card of that week’s set, a new set of variants will appear (so the Spotlight caches are never empty). The first 3 variants will be Spotlight Variants, and the mystery card will be a Premium Mystery Variant.
5. If you own any of the cards displayed during a week, you will see a Spotlight Variant (some are time exclusive) picked by Second Dinner each week instead of the featured card.
6. The mystery card will give you a Premium Mystery Variant instead of a new card if you already own the card it rolls for you (yes, you can roll duplicates). The Premium Mystery Variants (new to the game) are similar the typical mystery variants you are used to, but they contain ultra rare (1,200 gold) variants and exclude pixels.
7. Currently, you will be able to hoard Spotlight Caches and open them when the spotlight week reset favors you more. You can also hoard your caches/reserves now until the update launches, and every 10th box will turn into a Spotlight Cache.

To go along with this new system, there will be changes to existing Collector’s Reserves:

1. Gold is being removed
2. Series 4/5 drops are being removed
3. The amount of tokens you can get from reserve rewards are being reduced from an average of 5000 per month to 800
4. If you are Series 3 complete, the replacement reward is now 50 tokens (down from 100)

With so many drastic changes so suddenly, it can be daunting to understand what these changes mean for you. To begin with, let’s break down how these changes can effect different player groups:

The New Player

With these new changes, a player who is just starting the game should be flooded with cards. A spotlight cache should often always yield a new card for a new player, meaning every week they can gain access to a newer card. Why is this better than the old system though?

The old system requires choice. You get tokens and a constantly evolving door of card choice from the shop. I’m sure you have seen at least one of those posts online where a player asks “should I get this card??” and players give their recommendations. This change eliminates the need for these players to worry about what cards to get, and simply gives them more cards to play with. It also eliminates buyers remorse as they didn’t choose to buy it.

The change does appear to effect new player’s ability to purchase Mystery Series 3 cards, as the amount of tokens they can get will be cut to be less than 1 card worth per month. This takes away the players agency of being able to pick between having a faster series 3 collection or having newer cards.

The Beta Player

When I refer to beta player, I include all players who have complete or near complete collections. I, for example, am a beta player with a CL of about 7,300 and am only missing 3 cards (Snowguard, Howard the Duck, and The Living Tribunal). For these beta players like me, these changes have a much different effect than for new players.

With the new system, you will only get a 25% chance to get either the new card of the week, or the mystery card (assuming you don’t pull a duplicate and just get a variant). This only changes if the two featured cards happen to be ones you are missing from your collection. If you don’t save up your spotlight caches, that means you have only one chance to get a new card each week, and if you roll poorly, you just get a variant. There currently is no mention of a pity system, so you could possibly pull a variant each week of the month and never get a new card.

One way of circumventing that poor luck system is that you could just save your caches each month, open a set of 4, and guarantee 1 cards you don’t own at a minimum, and 2 new cards if your mystery variant isn’t a duplicate. The biggest issue with this system is that players lose their ability to target a card that they want. If a new card, say Loki, is set to release on week 2 and you want it, the only reliable ways of getting it is to save 4 spotlight caches and open them all on his week. Alternatively you could use tokens, but with no gold to purchase token bundles and reduced token amounts, it will be much harder to acquire enough tokens to do this.

Using the system of cache hoarding and opening 4 at a time, you can simply stop opening caches once you obtain the card(s) you are aiming for. This can help keep a caches supply available to you each week. The first week of each season will also be a “dead” week, as there will be no new card added. Developers confirmed this week will replace the “new card” category with a Spotlight Variant. If you aren’t interested in variants, you can skip this week and save a cache or two.

On a more positive spin on the same idea, you could save 4 spotlight caches and high roll the new card your first try. This would allow you to save those caches for the next card that releases. This means players could roll the high luck and pull a new card every week even being at a near complete collection. Of course, this amount of cards could be much more value than the current system.

The Average Player

These are players who aren’t exactly new, but don’t have a full series 3 collection either. They might have more targeted card preferences than a new player, so they may have some reasons to save some spotlight caches, but some of the weeks will more likely yield a better value than that of a beta player.

Similar to a beta player, trying to target a new card will require holding onto some spotlight caches. Different from a beta player, however, is there would likely be less chances of getting variants since they need more cards.

Getting “lucky” will be much easier than a beta player as well. Since you need more cards, you may have several weeks in a row of seeing a spotlight cache where every card offered is new to you. This also means these players are less likely to have “dull” weeks where there is a high chance of getting a variant rather than a new card.

Now that we have compared different player experiences, let’s separate our the pros and cons of this system as a whole.

Pros

• The new Spotlight Cache system seems like it will greatly improve card acquisition and experience of a new player. This is a huge benefit for not only new player progression, but for helping the game continue to grow in the future without making players feel they are left behind.

• The system eliminates buyers remorse and purchase indecision by removing the need to constantly buy cards.

• In some situations, even a nearly complete collection player could gain a new card every week if they have a string of luck.

• Spotlight Cache’s guarantee every 120 CL (every 10th reserve) will make sure players get something of value, be it a special variant or a new card. This is more frequent than the old system of 1 guaranteed series 4 card every 38 reserves opened.

Cons

• Players lose agency over choosing what card they want, and rather have to use luck to get access to new cards.

• Bad luck could lead to repeated Spotlight Caches that don’t offer new cards. With no pity timer on pulling a new card, players are incentivized to hoard spotlight caches until they have enough to guarantee a card.

• No more gold in the CL track. This removes many free to play player’s access to most of the gold they could get, meaning they have less ability to access bundles and variants.

• The new weekend missions are harder to complete with the newly released card since you have less agency to obtain it.

• The Spotlight Cache mystery card can roll duplicates, which means opening 4 spotlight caches can yield only 1 card sometimes. The bigger your collection, the less likely you get new cards.

Considering Other Card Acquisition Changes

In order to fully understand what these changes are intended for, we need to consider the other card acquisition changes that have been implemented. Flexible Series Drops were one of the biggest changes. Having cards launch directly into series 4 makes them more affordable to purchase with tokens, even with a reduced amount incoming. It also changed how cards fall into series 3. This is worth noting as with Spotlight Caches, you may get more Series 4/5 cards, but less cards are entering Series 3 on a monthly basis.

Weekend Missions are also a big change that effects the card acquisition system. If you manage to get the new card each week, you can use the new card on the weekend to get extra tokens, which will help maintain getting new cards. It also gives season pass buyers access to some of that lost gold.

Conquest mode is another factor to consider as well with the new shop rewards. Extra gold and credits are available for purchase in this shop, which again replace some of that lost gold in the CL track. With these changes rolling out slowly before the Spotlight Cache change, we have seen an increase of gold, only to be dropped back down with the new system later. So it’s clear these changes weren’t meant to be extra gold for players, but a limited time bonus as the way we obtain gold has changed.

Another note for the Conquest mode is that the Medal Shop may have tokens added to it. Developers mentioned on the official Q/A that they would like to add tokens to the Conquest shop. They cite that their only delay in launching this is that they need to develop a fallback system that will convert tokens into another reward for new players who can’t collect tokens yet.

Bringing it All Together

Based on the facts we know about the new system, seeing how it can effect different players in different ways, and weighing the pros and cons, we can start to paint a picture. The new system clearly benefits new players more than older players, meaning new players can acquire cards faster than an older player. This basically means any player can eventually catch up to older players without spending money. The mixed reactions from players likely stems from those players being in different collection levels, and thus being effected by these changes differently.

The drawbacks of the new system (less tokens and gold) are likely due to bringing back down the gold and tokens amounts that have increased lately from previous card acquisition updates. While many free to play player’s lose out on access to as much gold, Second Dinner seems to be pushing their season pass as their primary source of income, with bundles and variant purchases being secondary. It may not be a fan favorite change, but the game has to make money to continue, and making the season pass a better value may help gravitate players toward that monthly purchase.

This early analysis suggests the developers are looking to speed up early player progression, while slowing down full collection players. With time-limited variants as well, it also keeps the developer’s vision of letting players keep their collection unique from other players. While the full effects of these changes are still being studied, initial analysis suggests these changes are great for new players, neutral for the average player, and bad-neutral for beta players. While beta players can hoard caches to dodge variants easier, forcing players to hoard caches to avoid bad luck is never a good change.

What do you think about the new system? Will you be hoarding caches, or just opening them as you go? Do you like not having to worry about buying cards any more? Let us know in the comments!