The Ultimate Guide to Bundles

The Marvel Snap Bundles we knew about in advance thanks to datamines have come to an end, and in combination with Personalized Bundles, a new era is beginning where we won’t know what to expect. Therefore, the importance of proper analysis of past bundles increases in order to correctly understand how good the current bundles are.

Let’s dive into how the calculation of the value of bundles is done, what variables are used, and how to utilize our latest tools for bundle evaluation!

Main Terms

When calculating the values for bundles, several key terms, principles, and input data are used.
Let’s start by defining the terms that will be used throughout the article and that are applied in other sections of the website. Terms are presented in alphabetical order.

1. Assumed Price – a conditional, yet justified price for an item that is not directly sold in the in-game store. After such an item becomes available for direct purchase, its Assumed Price may become the Standard Price.
2. Card Difference (card diff) – the difference between the number of new Series 5 cards obtained from purchasing a specific bundle the number of cards that could be obtained by purchasing Token Tuesday bundles for an equivalent sum, assuming Gold is spent entirely without any leftover. When calculating, it is assumed that a player has almost all cards; in other words, the number of unowned cards in each Spotlight Cache is one.
3. Conversion Rate – the ratio between the currency received and the currency spent.
4. Cosmetic Value – the percentage difference between the price of a bundle and the Standard or Assumed Price for similar content, including avatars, variants, titles, card backs, emotes, card borders – everything that serves a cosmetic function and does not directly affect gameplay.
5. Currency – Gold, Credits, Collector’s Tokens, USD.
6. Gold to Collector’s Tokens Conversion – purchasing Collector’s Tokens with Gold in the in-game shop via Token Tuesday bundles.
7. Gold to Credits Conversion – purchasing Credits through the shop tab or buying missions through the missions tab.
8. New Card – a Series 5 card that a player with an almost complete collection can obtain from the current Spotlight Cache, where the player can only get the single card they are missing.
9. Progress Value – the percentage difference between the price of a bundle and the standard price for similar bundle contents, including Credits, Gold, and Tokens – all of which contribute to the process of acquiring new cards.
10. Recurring Bundle – a bundle that belongs to the series of Ticket Bundles, Mystery Bundles, Token Tuesday Bundles, Booster Bundles, and other bundles that tend to recur with an identical name.
11. Spotlight Update – a game update that was released on July 12, 2023 (game version 17.17.0). In this patch, the economy and card acquisition system was significantly changed, which made it nearly impossible or incorrect to compare bundles from different systems (before and after the patch) without conducting additional adjustments and corrections. All bundles on the site are calculated according to the new system. The old bundles released before the Spotlight Update are present for archival purposes, and direct comparison with the modern bundles is incorrect.
12. Standard Price – the cost of items or currency when purchased through the in-game shop, assuming their regular or permanent availability (for example, the price of the constantly available conversion of Gold to Credits or the price of a regularly available conversion of Gold to Tokens).
13. Total Value – the cumulative percentage value of Progress Value and Cosmetic Value.
14. Unique (Named) Bundle – a bundle that does not belong to the series of Ticket Bundles, Mystery Bundles, Token Tuesday Bundles, Booster Pack Bundles, and other bundles that tend to recur with an identical name.
15. Web Shop – the official shop associated with Second Dinner, where bundles and other items can be purchased with USD at a more favorable rate due to the use of other countries’ currencies with a beneficial exchange rate as the payment currency.

Main Principles And Variables

Now let’s define the principles used in calculating the value of bundles. Without defining such key points, it’s impossible to accurately determine the value of a bundle.

1. Prices in real currency are expressed in USD, based on in-game prices, excluding temporary promotions, discounts, and regional pricing, unless stated other.
2. 700 Gold is equivalent to 10 USD, according to the second offer in the in-game shop. This ratio is chosen for several reasons:
   • 10 USD is the price of a season pass, and 700 Gold is the price of a variant. Both are constantly available deals, and due to this permanence, it is convenient to base calculations on them.
   • If we calculate based on the most expensive offer in the shop at a price of 100 USD, offering 8,000 Gold, it can be misleading in situations with a low cost because it would imply that, for example, when a bundle is priced at 10 USD, a player always has the alternative to buy 800 Gold for this price. But in reality, such a ratio will not be available to them unless they spend 100 USD.
   • With such a calculation, the Welcome Bundle priced at 3 USD with a variant, avatar, and 700 Gold justifies the 8x Progress Value tag placed by the developers. In this case, the content’s Total Value becomes equal to 25 USD, which is 8.3 times more beneficial.
     If we calculate based on the most expensive bundle, the total value of the content would be equal to 21.87 USD, which corresponds to a Total Value of 7.29, which does not round up to 8.
3. The price for any variant that lacks rarity is set at 700 Gold. The logic here is that any player who wishes to play with variants can indeed afford to purchase a variant for 700 Gold. This is not the case for variants priced at 1,200 Gold, which may be too expensive for many players, making it unfair to compare a bundle with a deal that the player would not choose.
   Alternatively, we could base the calculation on the average price of 950 Gold, but the decision was made to stick with the price of 700 Gold. Moreover, as indicated in point 2, the price for a variant at 700 Gold does not contradict the 8x Value tag on the Welcome Bundle.
4. The price for an avatar, title, card back, and emote is based on a value of 350 Gold, representing half the price of a variant.
   This is because there are no offers that allow the direct purchase of one of the specified types of cosmetics as can be done with variants. Therefore, half the price of a variant was taken as the baseline.
   Moreover, in the case of the avatar, this corresponds to the x8 Progress Value tag on the Welcome Bundle. The title, being functionally similar to the avatar and also displayed at the start of a match, seems logically priced at 350 Gold as well. The card back is more complicated and could theoretically be valued slightly higher, but until there is a way to purchase a card back directly, its price will be set at 350 Gold in all calculations.
5. 1,000 Collector’s Tokens are equivalent to 1,400 Gold since Token Tuesdays are available every week with this ratio. Due to the consistency of their appearance, this allows Token Tuesdays to be a good starting point.
   Moreover, it’s important to note that without any additional spending, a player who does not purchase a season pass gets about 2,000 Gold per month. With a season pass, it’s 3,500 Gold. In either case, with a season spanning 4 weeks, this won’t allow the purchase of every Token Tuesday, which means this method of calculation doesn’t leave any surplus, allowing it to remain stable even if one desires to buy only Token Tuesdays.
6. 150 Credits are equivalent to 120 Gold. This is the cost of purchasing two additional missions (one for 50 Credits and another for 100 Credits) in the missions menu. The same ratio is found in the shop when buying 500 Credits for 400 Gold or 1,500 Credits for 1,200 Gold. In this case, you won’t receive experience for completing missions, but the is the same.
7. Spotlight Keys as has been calculated, yield a card every 2.5 keys if that card is the only one available for acquisition (a new card). Also, the 4th option (a random card from series 4/5) turns into 1,000 Collector’s Tokens if acquired. For the 2.5 keys, which on average are required to get 1 card, you will therefore receive an average of 500 Collector’s Tokens. This means that 1 key, on average, is worth 0.4 new Series 5 cards and 200 Collector’s Tokens.
8. Tickets are not taken into account in the calculations since they can be relatively easily obtained in Conquest, and the value of Medals and Tickets, as a consequence, is finite in terms of account progress.
   If you actively play Conquest, you will have plenty of tickets of various types anyway. If you do not actively play Conquest, why would you need tickets if you do not plan or want to use them? Buying Medals in this case could still look somewhat justified, but from this perspective, tickets have no value.
9. Boosters are not considered when evaluating the value, as active players will always have enough boosters for Collection Level progress. And if there aren’t enough, a few games in proving grounds will allow players to safely obtain more boosters without any risks.
   Overall, boosters as a resource are not worth Gold and USD. The value of a specific type of booster for creating beautiful splits is too individual and difficult to assess due to differences in tastes and the number of specific boosters each player has.

More information about boosters and how to target specific cards for the boosters you earn at the end of a match can be found here:

The Bundles Page

Here is the main page of the bundles. When you navigate to it, you’ll see a lot of things. So let’s break down the elements of each section. All calculations here are based on the principles and terms described in the previous sections.

1. In the first section, you can see the bundle’s name, its contents, availability dates, and a link to a guide if it’s available. If not, clicking on the Bundle Guide button will redirect you to the page with the bundle details. Also, for any bundle, you can open the details by clicking on its name. Read about the bundle details page in the next chapter.
2. The second section contains a number of elements used to determine the value of a bundle:
   • Price of a bundle, next to which there is a “filter” button. By clicking on the button you will be shown bundles only with the specified price within the limits of other selected filters.
   • Rating – assigned based on a comprehensive comparison of the bundle with other bundles. This is the only subjective indicator used in the bundles section, and it’s your choice to trust it or to analyze the bundles independently using the many tools available. Overall, a rating below 3 stars indicates a below-average bundle, 3 stars – an average bundle, 5 stars – an exceptionally good bundle, which are quite rare.
   • Value – here are shown 3 main indicators that are applicable to any bundle. Progress Value, Cosmetic Value, and Total Value.
   • The Card Difference scale shows the difference in the number of new cards for players with almost complete collections compared to buying Tokens Tuesdays at the price of the bundle. The Card Difference value answers the question “How much more profitable is it to buy a bundle instead of Token Tuesdays?”. Based on the position of the bar on the scale, one can understand the bundle’s position relative to the minimum, average, and maximum values for bundles at the same price as the bundle.
     Thus, this scale is designed to compare the bundle with other bundles in the same price category in terms of profitability compared to purchasing Token Tuesday bundles.
3. The third section is the largest, so I decided to make it last. This section contains various functionality for filtering bundles and changing the display of bundle values on the page.
   • The top row contains toggles for changing the display of the bundle time period: all bundles, current and future bundles (if known), past bundles released after the Spotlight Update, and bundles released before the Spotlight Update. In the same row, there is a button for guides, which, when clicked, will take you to the page with all the guides related to bundles.
   • Below is a search bar for bundles by their name or price – both in Gold and in USD, for the latter the value should be indicated with a dot, like: 9.99. Also next to it is a filter for the currency.
   • Next are the sorting buttons for bundles based on a variety of criteria: rating, date, Progress Value, Total Value, number of new cards per 700 Gold (or 10 USD), Credits for Gold, Tokens for Gold, Credits for USD, Tokens for USD, and Gold for USD.
     With the change of this setting, the second section is also altered (apart from the choice of sorting options by date and rating). Now, the bundles are not only sorted in the order you selected, but they also contain a scale for evaluating bundles according to the chosen criteria. For instance, below you can see an example of how a bundle is displayed when setting the filter to Credits per Gold.
   • Next, you can also filter bundles by rating.
   • Another setting is the selection of a period for calculation when determining the values on the scale and chart, in comparison with other bundles. In other words – you select the period of bundles that the current bundles will be compared against.
   • The last option here is the filter of bundles by price. Here are all the known prices for bundles. And next to this setting is a button to reset all the above filters.
     

Bundle Details Page

When you click on any bundle from the main page, you’ll be taken to the bundle details page. This page can also be divided into three parts. Let’s take a closer look at them.

1. The first segment includes the same elements that you see on the main bundle page. Here you can see the contents of the bundle, its price, rating, and the value scale, which changes when the settings are adjusted, along with the chart from the third segment.
   The main purpose of this segment, besides showing what the bundle contains, is to convey a subjective value of the bundle’s value in the form of a rating with a maximum value of 5 stars. This rating might not always suit you since it’s subjective or, in some cases, could be slightly outdated. Therefore, there are two other segments available.
2. The second segment also contains the bundle’s contents, but with the addition of various parameters and values of the bundle, calculated based on the principles and variables mentioned earlier.
   The primary purpose of this segment is to demonstrate the absolute value of the bundle, expressed in various values. Here you have access to a wide range of calculated values that may be useful to you when evaluating a bundle.
3. The third segment contains a comparison chart for bundles. The purpose of this segment is to show you the relative value of a bundle compared to other bundles based on various criteria.
   • The chart is fully interactive. You can zoom in and out, as well as drag it around.
   • When you hover over any point on the chart, the name of the bundle corresponding to that point is displayed at the top of the chart. When you click on this point, a new tab will open with the bundle’s details.
   • The selected bundle, on whose page you are currently on, is highlighted with a gray vertical bar.
   • The red horizontal line on the graph represents the minimum value of the selected bundle parameter (by default – Progress Value), while the green horizontal line shows the maximum value. The white horizontal line indicates the average value of the selected parameter, and the yellow-orange line represents the value of the current bundle.
   • Below the chart, dates are displayed; you can change the selected period either using the buttons within the chart element or using the filter below it. Clicking the All button will display all bundles released after the Spotlight update. The calculation is also carried out only among the bundles displayed on the chart.
   • Beneath the chart is the familiar filter from section 3 of the bundles page. When you select a criterion for comparison, the chart changes along with the value scale at the very top.
   • At the very bottom, there are 3 additional filters.
     • Compare within the same currency – when enabled, it shows and takes into account in calculations only bundles that cost the same currency as the bundle on the page you are on.
     • Compare within the same price – when enabled, it shows and takes into account in calculations only bundles with the exact same cost as the current bundle. If a bundle costs 10 USD, then enabling this option will show and take into account only bundles priced at 10 USD.
       Additionally, the Add a 25% price margin toggle appears. It allows expanding the display and accounting boundaries of bundles by 25% of the price. Useful if the bundle has a non-standard price or if the sample size for an accurate comparison is too small.
     • Compare only with unique (named) bundles – as the name suggests, removes Recurring Bundles from display and consideration, leaving only unique (named) bundles. Useful if you want to compare a unique bundle with similar ones as accurately as possible.

You can try these settings yourself, for instance, on this page.

Spotlight Update

Now, using all the tools described above, you can evaluate bundles on your own! You can see the subjective value in stars, the absolute value in numbers, and the relative value in comparison with other bundles.

Let’s now discuss an important point regarding the correct evaluation of bundles. I’m talking about a common misconception among both players and content creators, where modern bundles are compared to bundles from two years ago as if they are equal. This was briefly mentioned above, but let’s go into detail about why this should never be done and why such comparisons should not be laid as the foundation for modern bundle analyses.

Let’s take the Cyber Holiday bundle as an example, which many mistakenly consider the best bundle today and compare other bundles to it as a benchmark.

We will also need images of the contents of Collector’s Reserves from that time and today for comparison.

OId System

Let’s first get to grips with the old system. The first thing to do is to understand how much net Credits each reserve is worth. If you use the standard conversion of Gold (which you can get in addition to the reserves), it turns out that a group of four reserves will contain on average a total of 300 Credits, reducing the cost of each reserve by 75 Credits. Another 50 Credits need to be deducted from the cost of each reserve, since this amount of Credits is always found between them. As a result, we get a net price of each reserve at 475 Credits.

If we assume that the chance of getting a Series 4 card mean that you will receive 3,000 Collector’s Tokens, and upon receiving a Series 5 card – 6,000 Collector’s Tokens, it turns out that on average, a group of 4 reserves contains 849 Collector’s Tokens, or 212.25 Collector’s Tokens per reserve.

Thus, 9,500 Credits under the most favorable calculations will give you 20 reserves, which will contain an average of 4,245 Collector’s Tokens. And adding this value to the 3,000 Collector’s Tokens from the bundle, it turns out that the bundle provides 7,245 Collector’s Tokens, or 1.21 Series 5 cards.

If we assume that Series 4 cards are worthless to you or you already have them all, then the reserve value drops to 139.75 Collector’s Tokens. This means that from the reserves you will receive 2,795 Collector’s Tokens or a total of 5,795 Collector’s Tokens, which is equivalent to 0.97 Series 5 cards.

Current System

In the current system, you no longer receive Gold from reserves, only Credits, but instead of every tenth reserve, you will receive a Key for the Spotlight Cache. From such a group, you will receive 3 reserves with an average of 175 Credits in each. This means that each reserve in a group of 10 will cost you 52.5 Credits less, which, taking into account the 50 Credits between reserves, gives a net price of a reserve at 497.5 Credits.

As a result, for 9,500 Credits, you will receive 1.91 Spotlight Keys and 17.2 reserves. If your Series 3 is complete (as in the previous example with the old system), then from the 17.2 reserves, you will receive 382.2 Collector’s Tokens.

Let’s now calculate what 1.91 Spotlight Keys give us. In the worst case scenario, if you have all the cards except the newest one in the Spotlight Cache, you would need to spend an average of 2.5 keys to get that card. This means that with 1.91 Spotlight Keys you would have 76% of a Series 5 card, or the equivalent of 4,584 Collector’s Tokens.

Calculating the percentage here based on obtaining 1 card from 2.5 Spotlight Caches is necessary because it is assumed that you are spending keys wisely over the long term, rather than opening them without having a sufficient number of keys. Otherwise, bundles with an amount of Credits closest to what would allow for an even number of keys and cards will be unfairly prioritized over other bundles on both the higher and lower ends of the spectrum.

Additionally, on average, you will receive around 385 Collector’s Tokens in the process, since there is a chance to get an option with 1,000 Collector’s Tokens before opening a card. Thus, the entire bundle in the worst-case scenario provides 7,969 Collector’s Tokens, or around 1.33 Series 5 cards.

In the ideal case, if all three cards are missing in your Spotlight Cache, then the keys will give you 1.43 Series 5 cards and 477.5 Collector’s Tokens. This means that the bundle, in total, grants 12,056 Collector’s Tokens, which is approximately equivalent to 2 Series 5 cards.

More information about the Spotlight Caches and the economy can be read here:

Conclusion

Ultimately, the difference between systems as exemplified by the Cyber Holiday bundle looks as follows:

As can be seen, the difference between the worst cases is 37.11%, and between the best ones, it’s 65.29%. This not only demonstrates how significantly the role of Credits has increased in the new system, but also allows us to say that in this case, on average, a correction factor of 50% is required.

But since the bundles page uses minimal values, let me show you what the Cyber Holiday Bundle would look like today if it were at the same value in terms of Series 5 cards as before.

As you can see, when adjusting the bundle to its real value today, it was necessary to remove 4,000 Credits from it. Only then does it become equal to the true value level today.

The placement of the bundle under real conditions doesn’t bode well – it loses in Progress Value to all bundles in its price range except for the absolutely terrible Artist Showcase: Kim Jacinto bundle, which was only good for those who were missing both Series 4 cards. Otherwise, Artist Showcase: Kim Jacinto couldn’t even compete with the regular shop.

Regarding the indicator of new cards for 700 Gold, the situation is the same: Cyber Holiday falls short against all competitors, as it has an impermissibly low value of 0.09 compared to 0.11 for Sugar, Spice, and Everything Ice and other bundles in the price range.

Therefore, under no circumstances should you compare bundles from different systems! All bundles released since the end of July 2023 have been in the new system, and they can be compared. Everything prior to that should not be compared.

Bundles from the old system can only be compared with each other, and even then, keeping in mind that the actual values are not correct, although the proportions are accurate. If you still want to compare bundles from different systems, just apply a 50% coefficient, reducing the Credits by half. This is a rough and sometimes inaccurate method, but it is much better than drawing direct parallels.

Final Words

Now you know the basis for all the numbers in the bundle section and understand how to work with our tools to grasp the value of bundles! Different aspects of comparison, including within price categories, should seriously help in making a purchase decision, even if we don’t know what bundles are coming up.

We also suggest reading about the Spotlight Planner and using it to plan your resource spending, which is necessary for optimal and fast collection progress.