Altar

The Altar is an important functionality in the town that allows players to exchange Silver Keys and Gold Keys in order to mainly obtain units and unit tokens but also other various rewards.
The Altar is very similar to "opening packs" in other games, as the end goal of doing Altar draws is to obtain units.
Please note that not all units are available via the altar - no SR+ unit can be recruited or found here, in either token or complete unit form.
=Units vs. Unit Tokens=
There is a distinction between fully recruiting a unit and obtaining unit tokens.
* Unit Tokens are just that - like in other parts of the game, they will be placed into the player inventory. With sufficient amounts, the player may then either unlock unrecruited units, or increase the star ranking of those existing units.
* Dropping an unrecruited unit from the Altar makes it immediately available to the player, at its default star ranking. If the player already owns that unit, an equivalent number of unit tokens is immediately added to the player's inventory, which then the player can utilize to increase that unit's ranking or activate potential.
Unit Rarity	Available in Altar	Default Ranking	Equivalent Tokens
R 	Yes 	★ 	10
SR 	Yes 	★★ 	30
SR+ 	No 	★★★ 	80
SSR 	Yes 	★★★ 	80
=Silver Altar=
Using Silver Keys, the player can exchange them for various rewards.
==Units Available==
At the Silver Altar the player can only recruit R and (some) SR units, or obtain equivalent unit tokens, in accordance to the table below:
Faction 	Unit Pool
Castle 	
Rampart 	
Stronghold	
Necropolis	
Inferno 	
Tower 	
Conflux 	
Dungeon 	
Fortress 	
Cove 	
==Drop Rates==
Every pull is governed by the following probability distribution:
Item 	Drop Chance
R or SR Unit 	3%
R or SR Unit Token(s)	14%
Others 	83%
Unit tokens are always dropped in quantities of 2x or 3x.
The pool of "Others" includes:
* 3x Regular Material - tier scaled to the Player Level
* 1x Book Material - tier scaled based on the Player Level
* 1x Roster Runes for specific rosters
Note: While there are three different means of purchasing pulls (x1, x10 and x100) there is virtually no difference in the actual drops between them. They do speed up the user experience though.
==Strategy==
It is generally not recommended to invest in buying Silver Keys. They drop as rewards in various parts of the game, so consider them freebies you can spend at your discretion.
=Gold Altar=
Using the much more expensive Gold Keys, the player may attempt to obtain much better rewards than on the Silver Altar, including highly coveted SSR units.
==Units Available==
Unlike the Silver Altar, all R, SR and SSR units are obtainable via the Gold Altar.
Please note that newly released units will not be immediately available in the altar. If in doubt, always consult the ingame list.
Faction 	R/SR Units	SSR Units
Castle 	 	
Rampart 	 	
Stronghold	 	
Necropolis	 	
Inferno 	 	
Tower 	 	
Conflux 	 	
Dungeon 	 	
Fortress 	 	
Cove 	 	
==Drop Rates==
Every pull is governed by the following probability distribution:
Item 	Drop Chance
SSR Unit 	1.41%
SR or R Unit 	5.5%
SR or R Unit Token(s)	93.09%
Notice that the Gold Altar never drops anything but Units or Unit Tokens.
R Unit Tokens drop in quantities of 1x and 2x. SR Unit Tokens drop in quantities of 2x or 3x. SSR Unit Tokens do not drop.
There is no difference between a 1x and 10x pull drop.
==Obtaining Gold Keys==
Gold Keys are obtainable via the Main Story and special events, but are also available in the altar for purchase.
There are two types of purchases that can be done by the user:
* Buy 1x with 300 (full price)
* Buy 10x with 2700 (10% discount)
If a player wishes to purchase gold keys, it is advisable to buying 10x at a time in order to benefit from the discount.
==Guarantees and Pity Timer==
Unlike the Silver Altar, the Gold Altar has two guarantees for the player:
* Every 10x pulls guarantee at least one SR Unit. 
** Do note that this applies even when the player performs 1x Pulls, and resets on the first encountered SR unit. 
** It is not clear if it also resets when an SSR unit is pulled.
* Every 100x pulls guarantee an SSR Unit. 
** This is signaled with a counter visible in the user interface. 
** Every non-SSR pull decreases it by 1. 
** Individual pulls in a 10x pull are individually considered and non-SSR pulls will decrease the counter. 
** If the counter reaches 1, your next pull is guaranteed to be an SSR unit. 
** Whenever an SSR unit is pulled, the counter is reset. 
** Subsequeunt non-SSRs in a 10x pull with an SSR pull are taken into account for the purpose of decreasing the counter.
==Strategy by Tilwin - 30th August 2020==
In spite of the pity counter, the player base generally agrees that Gold Keys are a rather poor diamond investment.
Firstly it is due to the poor drop rate of SSR units.
To guarantee an SSR unit, the player must perform 100 pulls, which is equivalent to 27000.
Taking the actual drop rate into account, the player starts getting a favorable chance around 50 pulls. (which is 13500). Favorable means a chance greater than 50% to drop an SSR unit in that many pulls.
Secondly, this is still a form of gambling. Sometimes players get lucky, other times they get very unlucky. This makes planning resources around Gold Keys very difficult, with only the guaranteed drop being a certainty.
The last and most important reason is the large SSR pool. As the game expands, more and more units are being added to the SSR pool.
With a lack of a wishlist or "Units of the Week" functionality in the altar, it is very difficult for players to actually chase specific SSR units in the Altar.
This is problematic for two reasons:
* Powerful heroes demand very specific units, most often in their own faction. Players who have recruited Xeron as their main hero, for example, will find little usage for SSR units like Green Dragon or Psychic Elemental. For them, the most coveted SSR unit would certainly have to be the Devil. 
* As the game progresses and SR units grow in rank and unlock potential, they begin to surpass 3* SSR units. Astral players with 3* Naga will find themselves easily overpowered by full 6* R/SR formations with high potentials. These players will want to chase as many Naga copies as possible to further develop their main hero's formation instead of investing resources in random SSR units.
While the examples above may suggest that only non-F2P players need to follow this advice, it is also the case for F2P heroes such as Jeddite and Solmyr. While it is true that they are much more flexible and don't rely on particular units, there are a handful of SSR units that find a better home in such teams and function well even at lower ranking. Due to the more limited budget, it is even more important for F2P players to carefully plan their resources.
=Faction Altar=
Every week the faction altar will feature one of the 10 main factions (most likely depending on the "faction week"). So during Castle week, it will also be featured in the faction altar.
==Costs==
Faction altar pulls do not use keys, but instead require diamonds. The costs are similar to that of gold keys, that is 300 for a single pull, and 2700 for ten pulls.
Although highly unlikely, every Faction Altar has a limit of 1000 pulls per week.
==Drop==
Unlike the regular altars, the Faction altar drops the following (all applicable for the faction of the week only though):
* R and SR units that are also available in the Gold Altar of that faction
* R and SR units awakening Soul Stones (though not SR+)
* Special faction chests that allow selection of SSR Tokens and Souls (with an exchange rate of 1:1). Fresh units released via Limited Time Recruitment do not contain that unit. It is unknown at this point if the chests already in inventory get retroactively updated or not.
10x pulls also follows an approach that guarantees chests:
* Every pull features 9-12 chests (random, luck-driven)
* Every 6th pull guarantees a full-chests pull (of 30 chests)
The 6th pull guarantee carries over from a day to another but not to the next week's altar. Therefore when planning your resources it is recommended you plan your pulls in one week's altar (but not necessarily all pulls during the same day).
It is unclear at this point if one would obtain the same results if they pulled one chest at a time.
==Estimating Cost==
To estimate cost you can use the tool in the spreadsheet here: (provided and maintained by Tilwin). Please note that since we are dealing with chance there is of course a degree of randomness involved.
==SSR Tokens Average==
On average (10 unit tokens dropped on average per regular pull), here are the estimated current diamond costs for full unit ranks (assuming no excess shards exist in the inventory or are planned to be exchanged via Barracks):
From Rank	To Rank	To Rank	To Rank	To Rank
From Rank	3* 	4* 	5* 	6*
None 	16.2K 	37.8K 	67.5K 	110.7K
3* 	- 	21.6K 	51.3K 	94.5K
4* 	- 	- 	32.4K 	72.9K
5* 	- 	- 	- 	43.2K
(notice that this assumes an average so if you get unlucky you may require more pulls, hence more diamonds)
==SSR Souls==
On average (10 awakening souls dropped on average per regular pull), here are the estimated current diamond costs for full awakening ranks (assuming no excess souls exist in the inventory or are planned to be bought in Gods Store):
From Rank	To Rank	To Rank	To Rank	To Rank	To Rank
From Rank	2* 	3* 	4* 	5* 	6*
1* 	8.1K 	16.2K 	35.1K 	64.8K 	108K
2* 	- 	16.2K 	32.4K 	64.8K 	102.6K
3* 	- 	- 	21.6K 	51.3K 	94.5K
4* 	- 	- 	- 	32.4K 	72.9K
5* 	- 	- 	- 	- 	43.2K