Maximizing Grabs

Ah, the ultimate grab. Perhaps you got some from an event reward? Perhaps you spent your hard-earned gold. The ultimate grab holds so much promise.

Will you get an epic monster? An ultra? Maybe a super? Well, at least a special, right? Right?

And then the slot machine spins, slows, and comes to rest on a pathetic little rare. The same rare you assembled from puzzle pieces in Teepee Hollow when you were level 10...

Ultimate grabs are a rare resource for the non-spender, and one of the very few ways to get ultra and epic monsters. It's easy to get excited and use them immediately. However, like many things in Battle Camp, you can get an advantage if you're patient.

Ultimate grabs are special because they're the only grab with the "spin bonus". The spin bonus gives you extra stuff for spending several grabs one after another. PennyPop hopes this will entice you to spend real money on gold, to get a few more spins, but you can just as easily save up your ultimate grabs in order to get spin bonuses.

The spin bonuses do the following:

• 3 spins - you get 5 free energy and one monster grab.
• 6 spins - you get 10 free energy and one avatar grab.
• 9 spins - you get one random booster and one ultimate grab.

So, if you're willing to save your grabs, you can get some pretty good advantages. Here's how:

1. Wait until an event is happening, and your troop is fighting a raid boss. Have a full 5 energy.
2. Spend 10 or 15 spins.
3. You now have 20 energy. If you're lucky, you also got an elemental booster that you can use.

20 energy is enough for two full-blast 11x damage hits. That's about 3 hours worth of energy, plus the 10% damage boost for using 10 energy at a time. An element booster that matches your team will give you another big boost. That's a nice chunk of extra trophies, no gold required. (If you do have some gold, this might be a good time to spend it though, before the booster runs out.)

It can be hard to save those grabs through a couple events, but the reward is pretty nice. And, of course, you still get whatever monsters came out of your ultimate grabs, plus a monster grab and a piece of avatar clothing to boot.

So next time you win an ultimate grab, don't spend it right away. Think about how disappointed you're going to be when you get that useless rare, and wait. Because you'll feel a lot better about getting useless rares when they come with boosters and free energy.

Acquiring and Spending Gold

If you look it up in the App Store, you'll see that Battle Camp is free to download, and ostensibly free to play. But there's no such thing as a free lunch, and PennyPop isn't really giving the game away. They make their money through gold, the in-game currency of Battle Camp.

You can choose to play without ever touching gold, but you will miss out on some things. And ultimately, at very high levels, Battle Camp is pay-to-win. If you want to be in the top tiers of events, you're going to need gold, and lots of it.

On the other hand, for those of us who aren't worried about beating thousands of other players for that first place medal, a little bit of gold can go a long way. And you don't even have to spend any real money.

Spending Gold

There are currently three uses for gold: storage space, extra energy, and grabs.

Buying storage is straightforward. If your monster inventory is less than the maximum size, you can buy more slots. Additionally, you can buy storage lockers, each of which holds 10 monsters. Your default storage is pretty small, so many players will want to save some gold for these upgrades.

Buying energy can be done at any time, but most people will save it for events. More energy during an event lets you get more trophies, and thus get into higher tiers for better rewards. It can be especially beneficial if you've already used elemental damage boosters to increase the power of your team.

Grabs are essentially just a pull on a slot machine. Getting something good from a grab is a matter of luck (although you are guaranteed to get something). Be aware that you can also acquire free grabs from event and quest rewards. There are many types of grabs, some of which are easy to find, and others that are slightly hidden.

Grabs Available in Store Tab:

• Monster Grab - 5 gold - Common, Rare, Special and Super monsters, and Super puzzle pieces.
• Ultimate Grab - 50 gold - Rare, Special, Super, Ultra and Epic monsters.
• Avatar Grab - 25 gold- Avatar clothing (this grab is only available as a quest/event reward)
• Event Grab - 50 gold - Rare, Special, Super, Ultra and Epic, including "event monsters" that do bonus damage during the event (this grab is only available during an event).
• Avatar Store - This is the one place you can actually buy something, rather than taking a gamble. You can purchase outfits and clothing pieces.

Hidden Grabs:

• Lucky Grab - 50 gold - These offers pop up on your screen occasionally, and are basically an Ultimate grab, but with a 300% better chance of getting a particular monster (usually an Ultra or Epic).
• Special Grab - 25 gold - Offers only Specials. You can get to this grab by visiting your pet in the troop hall, tapping on it, and then tapping on the little "store" icon on the specials donation tab.

Getting Gold

There are three different ways to acquire gold:

• In-app purchase
• Watching video advertisements
• Completing TapJoy offers

All of these options are available in a window that opens when you tap on the coin symbol on the status bar at the top of the app.

In-app purchase is the most straightforward. You give PennyPop real-world money, and they give you gold. Options range from $3 (US) to $100. The more you spend in one transaction, the better deal you will get.

To earn gold watching ads, tap the "watch video offers" button. For each video you watch, you'll receive 2 gold nuggets. Nuggets are stored in the "items" section of your inventory. The Nuggeteer, in the bottom right corner of the "Camp" zone, will trade one gold for 20 nuggets. So you have to watch 10 videos to earn 1 gold. In my experience, there are usually 10-30 videos available per day.

To earn gold through TapJoy offers, tap the "complete offers" button. These offers can be a variety of things, including buying something, signing up for a website, downloading and running an app, taking surveys, or watching a video. Offers earn anywhere from one to hundreds of gold.

TapJoy also has an app and a mobile website. In my experience, the best offers are only available on the website. For example, On the website I sometimes see offers of 5-10 gold just to download and run an app, but these same offers never show up in the TapJoy app or in BattleCamp. If you want to get gold without spending money, these offers are your best bet.

Ultimately, if you want gold, you're going to have to spend either time or money.