Making Time Crystals craftable is a genius move.

Prologue

2025 has been a great year for Praetoria (click here for a recap), with a lot of development going on in Land. It's almost year now that the new resourecs where introduced, creating a real market with real market movements.

Despite a higher production, prices remain stable. Especially grain, which had been very negative for a while when everyone was switching plot production, has recovered in production and is now more positive than it has ever been negative. Why aren't prices going down if there's an overflow?

Because of what is to come. That is also the reason why I bought 2 new grain plots for $12,50 each. I would've bought all three available, but I didn't have enough liquidity. A shame, really, as grain plots are now at around $30.

Just a few days ago, new craftables came into the game. And there's still a lot going on behind the scenes.

https://x.com/BeelzaelSL/status/2016215775648915633?s=20

Time Crystals

Before, we could only buy those speed up building time for resource facilities on our land. Now? We can burn cards! Each time crystal costs 135 Cinder, so exactly 90 collection power. That's around 1 Chaos Legion Epic Regular Foil - so $0.087.

Currently, the price in the shop is around 120 DEC, while the official price buying from Splinterlands is 100 DEC, so there's some room for improvement.

Important: That gives a floor price to many cards. If the price for the mentioned CLERF goes below 100 DEC, it makes sense to buy them and convert them into Time Crystals.

Genius? Genius!

Even more so since it can eventually burn up the excess cards from all editions. Except for reward cards, those can't be turned into Cinder.

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FYI, here are the current CP costs. Not Cinder, but Collection Power. There are some Rebellion cards that are already cheaper than Chaos Legion!

Phoenix Ash

We didn't only get a new sink for cards, but also for the resulting Time Crystals. 100 Phoenix Ashes are used to reduce the Land-Cooldown of a card by 24h. That can be incredibly useful, as a 3 day waiting period means a lot of loss in production that now can be shortened.

1 PA is currently 15 DEC, so 1500 DEC/day shortened. Give or take. When does it make sense? It doesn't yet. At the current prices, you'd need a card with 225k PP, as that's the line where it produces 1500 DEC/day.

Is the price inflated?

A little. PA consists of 0.02 TC (2 DEC) and 4 Aura (7,5 DEC/each), so the production costs 32 DEC, not counting in any boosts but using the resource prices. For wagon repair kits, Aura goes for 1.75 DEC, so the "real" value of PA is more around 9 DEC/PA. There is still some room to go lower.

Let's say PA settles around Midnight Potions, so 1 DEC/Aura, we'll be at 6 DEC/PA, or 600 DEC/Day. That's still a 100k PP card needed to have it make sense.

(As soon as @beaker007 works PA into his amazing BLT, we'll know more.)

Why are Phoenix Ashes still a winner?

Because it adds one more product to the market. One more part that can go down so low in price that it makes sense to produce it, and then all prices go up again.

The market is gaining complexity, which is what Praetoria needs. We went from a market of 1 Resource and 2 refinements to 4 resources and 3 refinements. Then we added another level of refining the refinement. There's a pyramid building, a real one, not a scheme:

When resource prices go higher, DEC/PP will go higher, too. And then, the opportunity cost of changing cards will go higher. Which will make PA more interesting, as part of it is a fix cost - the TC. And as long as it has a fix cost component, there will be a moment when it makes sense to use them.

When?

No idea. I might be able extrapolate that, but this post is already long enough and only one person I know would even read it and then correct my methods and mistakes, anyway. But honestly? I don't even think it's possible. We're getting to the point that there are too many moving parts to let us run an "easy" scenario.

Conclusion

And that's why Land is THE currency at the moment. That's why resource prices aren't going down although we're at highest production. That's why high PP cards get snatched left and right. That's why grain plots went +150% in price.

Complexity is rising, and a more complex market gives more possibilities to find that one under-appreciated item at that particular time and produce it until prices go down again - but until then, the next one is already waiting. It turns more into an internal economy, where smart production can outweigh mass production.

In a setting like that, where everything is looking very positive, it doesn't make sense to sell grain for 17 DEC/1k. It just takes one major update and suddenly we're at 25 DEC/1k, like with Land Cards. And we KNOW that there are many of those coming.

This is just the beginning.

P.S.: It all could fall apart, too. Remember that there's always risk.

5% of the rewards will go to @beaker007 for creating the BLT, and 2% to @saydie for free Dividers - Click here. Always grateful for all of that! Remember to support those who give you cool stuff for free 😉

Former Calculation Posts

Calculations around Land

Basic Land Card Calculations

Stone is a losing game

Doom or Prosperity? A deep dive into land cards.

Land - Setting it up.

Calculating Land part 1 - How to get your ROI
Calculating Land part 2 - Are pools worth it?
Calculating Land part 3 - Organic Growth
Land Plot Efficiency for non-whales
Card-Production-Coefficient - Combining LPE and ROI
Renting for Land - at what cost?
What do refined resources cost?
Calculating Totem and Title boosts
Calculating Plot Rarity Boost
Setting up a Rare Stone Plot

My perfect plot - Conclusion of my calculations

Land Plot Calculator