Gaming Calculator

Enchanting systems turn resource management into a psychological thriller. Tension arise when you have hovered over the upgrade button for the twelfth time; it’s valuable but the odds is typically against you. It’s no longer just currency being spent; it’s the management of risk as your heart rate spikes or go flat, deciding what happens … Read more

People generally picture shiny hunting as a matter of luck. In practice however, planning your time makes that view wrong. Each encounter is an independent probability event; the odds reset with every single encounter. Instead of thinking about shiny hunting as a slot machine, approach it as a project with variables. That shift transform what … Read more

You have enough currency for another pull. There is a button under your thumb. You hold out for that one legendary hero, or skin wrapped up in its shiny golden wrapper. You click and watch the animation but it is nothing more than another common item. This experience isn’t all down to bad luck, that … Read more

It’s a ticket, or a gem, or some other resource that you hold in your hands. Its weight is meaningful, and you’ve crunched the numbers in your brain. You realize there’s only a two-and-a-half-percent base chance of winning. And you’re aware that you have forty more pulls left until time runs out. Your gut tells … Read more

In an RPG, you’re frequently faced with staring at two sets of gear, neither of which are obviously superior. “This one does so much damage.” Sure it does, but look over here: “this one has a high crit rate.” Players get mad when they can’t see what the tooltip says (because the tooltip shows potential); … Read more

The drop rate was one percent. That’s reasonable. But maybe you didn’t get it after two hundred tries, or even four hundred. Maybe you’re thinking something is wrong with the game, the odds were changed on you, or you’re cursed. Often, it’s simply normal variance. Look at math on the dry streak calculator to understand … Read more

Defeat the boss. Check your inventory. There is nothing. You beat the boss again. Again. And again. Somewhere along the way, the math no longer feels like part of the game. It begin to feel like a personal affront. Is the system rigged? Are you simply unlucky? More often then not, the answer is something … Read more

That’s what happens during the season. Every day you log on, there’s that countdown clock counting away in the corner of your screen. There are 52 tiers to climb before the reset. It looks like a lot. The numbers look daunting, but it’s never an impossible number. It is not usualy that way. It’s not … Read more

There’s a certain type of anxiousness from watching a build timer tick down in a strategy game. When you first queue up next level, there’s excitement. If your next alliance war starts tomorrow and the building won’t be done until three days later, then there’s only dread. Do you use one of those rare speedup … Read more

Typically, when the spinning wheel appears, it’s because system is not “broken.” It’s just busy doing its thing. Queue math is invisible to most players, who view matchmaking as a sort of magic. But there’s nothing magical about it; it’s logical math that translates into either three or twenty minutes. The calculator up top change … Read more

After a long week I’m always afraid to open my game because I see the season pass progress bar hasn’t budged an inch. No, it’s not a matter of being upset over lost currency or skins. I fear there isn’t enough time left to complete it before reset rolls around. And that fear stems from … Read more

How frustrating is it to get right down to business at work only to find your health bar won’t fill? You’ve got 20 minutes to kill and your game require 22 to power up enough juice to beat the day’s stage. Two measly points, yet they’re apparently behind a mathematical barrier you can’t leap. Rather … Read more