The High Cost of Expansion

Most of us that are Westbound are living in cramped quarters. It takes pickaxes to expand our territory. Kiwi, the original game developer, thoughtfully provides at least four different ways to exhaust our pickaxes to force us to purchase more: the Exploration Mine, the Exploration Boat, and the trains to Snowy Mountain and El Dorado. To preserve these precious resources, many of us are reluctant to explore unless we have a specific reason--a quest. But there are rewards to exploring for exploration's sake. There's treasure to be found. Yeah! ... But what are those chests actually worth? Not much!
== Current Results ==
Numbers obtained September 2014
Spending 200 pickaxes resulted in finding 40 treasure chests, 20 Spinning Wheels and 20 Scratch Chests. The player found one chest every 6 - 8 spaces of canyon cleared. The winnings from the chests were slim indeed. Don't clear canyon for resources!!!
Winnings
Resource	Total
Pickaxes	6
Gold 	49
Silver 	3,000
Tonic 	13,200
==Gallery==
44 Treasure Chests Unopened.png|She already had 4 unrelated chests, so this is 44. Seems like a lot, right?
40 Treasure Chests Opened.png|She opened the 40 found using 200 pickaxes.
Treasure Chest Spin To Win.png|Not once did she spin 10 pickaxes.
==Raw Results==
Spinnning Wheel
Prize 	Times Won	Winnings
10 pickaxes 	0 	0 pickaxes
5 gold 	1 	5 gold
3 gold 	5 	15 gold
1 gold 	5 	5 gold
2,000 silver	1 	2,000 silver
1,000 silver	1 	1,000 silver
1,000 tonic 	2 	2,000 tonic
600 tonic 	5 	3,000 tonic
Scratch Chests
Prize 	Times Won	Winnings
2 pickaxes 	3 	6 pickaxes
5 gold 	1 	5 gold
4 gold 	1 	4 gold
3 gold 	3 	9 gold
2 gold 	3 	6 gold
1,500 tonic	1 	1,500 tonic
1,000 tonic	3 	3,000 tonic
800 tonic 	4 	3,200 tonic
500 tonic 	1 	500 tonic
==Original Results Dec 2013==
Here's the total results of spending 300 axes and opening the resulting 100 chests. Remember, you will not get this much anymore.
*300 acres of clear land to develop further
*137 axes
*118 gold
*14,000 coins
*24,700 tonic
*1 crash (not counted above)
==Original Raw Numbers Dec 2013==
Spinning Wheel
Prize 	Times Won	Winnings
10 pickaxes 	9 	90 pickaxes
1 gold 	4 	4 gold
3 gold 	7 	21 gold
5 gold 	3 	15 gold
1,000 silver	4 	4,000 silver
2,000 silver	5 	10,000 silver
500 tonic 	5 	2,500 tonic
1,000 tonic 	4 	4,000 tonic
Scratch Chests
Prize 	Times Won	Winnings
5 pickaxes 	5 	25 pickaxes
3 pickaxes 	4 	12 pickaxes
2 pickaxes 	5 	10 pickaxes
5 gold 	3 	15 gold
4 gold 	4 	16 gold
3 gold 	9 	27 gold
2 gold 	10 	20 gold
1,500 tonic	4 	6,000 tonic
1,000 tonic	7 	7,000 tonic
800 tonic 	4 	3,200 tonic
500 tonic 	4 	2,000 tonic
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Credit to SiBurning for the original work. Tami Mallett did the 2014 (current) work. Thanks both of you!
Category:Tips/Strategy
Category:Resources