balance: prestige income upgrade cliff at income_10/income_11 #170

New Issue

2026-03-31T14:15:00-07:00

hikari commented

2026-03-31 14:15:00 -07:00

Summary

The prestige income upgrade tree has a severe cost cliff at its top two tiers. income_10 costs 30,000 runestones and income_11 costs 80,000 runestones — together that's ~110k of the ~130k total income upgrade budget (78%) concentrated in just 2 of 11 tiers.

At maximum runestone yield (1,125/prestige with all multipliers), income_11 alone requires approximately 71 prestiges worth of savings to purchase. The tiers below it are comparatively cheap.

Impact

Players who reach the endgame prestige loop will experience a dramatic stall where the cost curve goes nearly vertical. The upgrade that would most accelerate their progress is also the one furthest out of reach.

Possible Solutions

Reduce income_10 and income_11 runestone costs
Add one or two intermediate income tiers between income_9 and income_11 to spread the cost more evenly
Reduce the multipliers on income_10/income_11 proportionally with the costs so the per-runestone value stays consistent

Data

Upgrade	Cost	Multiplier	Cost-per-mult ratio
income_7	2,000	×25	80/mult
income_8	5,000	×50	100/mult
income_9	12,000	×100	120/mult
income_10	30,000	×200	150/mult
income_11	80,000	×500	160/mult

The ratio is rising but the absolute jump from 12k → 30k → 80k is the problem.

✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

## Summary The prestige income upgrade tree has a severe cost cliff at its top two tiers. `income_10` costs **30,000 runestones** and `income_11` costs **80,000 runestones** — together that's ~110k of the ~130k total income upgrade budget (78%) concentrated in just 2 of 11 tiers. At maximum runestone yield (1,125/prestige with all multipliers), `income_11` alone requires approximately **71 prestiges** worth of savings to purchase. The tiers below it are comparatively cheap. ## Impact Players who reach the endgame prestige loop will experience a dramatic stall where the cost curve goes nearly vertical. The upgrade that would most accelerate their progress is also the one furthest out of reach. ## Possible Solutions - Reduce `income_10` and `income_11` runestone costs - Add one or two intermediate income tiers between `income_9` and `income_11` to spread the cost more evenly - Reduce the multipliers on `income_10`/`income_11` proportionally with the costs so the per-runestone value stays consistent ## Data | Upgrade | Cost | Multiplier | Cost-per-mult ratio | |---|---|---|---| | income_7 | 2,000 | ×25 | 80/mult | | income_8 | 5,000 | ×50 | 100/mult | | income_9 | 12,000 | ×100 | 120/mult | | income_10 | 30,000 | ×200 | 150/mult | | income_11 | 80,000 | ×500 | 160/mult | The ratio is rising but the absolute jump from 12k → 30k → 80k is the problem. ✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

hikari referenced this issue from a commit

2026-03-31 15:05:47 -07:00

balance: smooth prestige income cliff, quadratic milestones, exponential combat scaling (#170, #171)

hikari referenced this issue from a commit

2026-04-06 18:55:10 -07:00

balance: increase runestone yield and reduce income_10/11 costs (closes #166, #170)

hikari referenced this issue

2026-04-06 18:55:38 -07:00

balance: comprehensive balance pass (closes #165, #166, #167, #170, #172, #173, #215) #239

naomi referenced this issue from a commit

2026-04-06 18:58:05 -07:00

feat: comprehensive balance pass (#239)

hikari closed this issue

2026-04-06 19:04:24 -07:00

hikari commented

2026-04-06 19:04:32 -07:00

Resolved in PR #239 — income_10 reduced from 30K→22.5K and income_11 reduced from 80K→60K runestones. ✨ This issue was closed with help from Hikari~ 🌸

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Reference: nhcarrigan/elysium#170