Guide to luck titles

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Contents

Overview

The Lucky and Unlucky titles are obtained through various means that involve chance in determining an outcome. The following activities return Lucky or Unlucky points, depending on the end result:

Acquisition Guide

There are three ways to gain lucky (and unlucky) points in large quantities: Winning (and losing) the Nine Rings game, winning (and losing) the Rings of Fortune game, and retaining (and breaking) lockpicks. The following tables compare the different methods.


Boardwalk Games Lucky Unlucky
Time to Max Title Gold to Max Title Time to Max Title Gold to Max Title
Nine Rings - corner circle 723.7 hours 2,205,882 2,050.4 hours 6,250,000
Nine Rings - side circle 723.7 hours 2,205,882 2,460.5 hours 7,500,000
Nine Rings - centre circle 723.7 hours 2,205,882 3,075.7 hours 9,375,000
Rings Of Fortune 3,611.1 hours 2,500,000 2,407.4 hours 1,666,667


Lockpicks Lucky Unlucky
Retention Rate1 Chests to Max Title Gold to Max Title2 Chests to Max Title Gold to Max Title2
10% 100,000 112,500,000 22,222 25,000,000
25% 40,000 37,500,000 10,667 10,000,000
50% 20,000 12,500,000 8,000 5,000,000
75% 13,333 4,166,667 10,667 3,333,333
90% 11,111 1,388,889 22,222 2,777,778

1Retention rate is determined by the type of chest, and by a player's ranking on the Treasure Hunter and Lucky title tracks.
2Assuming lockpicks can be purchased for 1250g each, and ignoring the values of any items acquired from the chests.

For nearly everyone, the swiftest and cheapest way to acquire Lucky points is to play the the Nine Rings game.

Nine Rings

  • The Nine Rings game can be played when the Shing Jea Boardwalk is open. This occurs only during the Dragon Festival, Canthan New Year, and Guild Wars Birthday Celebrations, unless otherwise noted by Arenanet.
  • Standing on the corners is best for gaining Unlucky points. When you stand on one of the corner circles you earn, on average, six unlucky points every nine rounds. The center circle earns only four points every nine rounds.
  • If you want to gain both Lucky and Unlucky points, stand in a corner circle. The number of tickets won will average out to be the same as the center or side circles. However, the corner circles have a higher variance of wins and can lead to longer strings of loses than the other circles.
  • The corner circle, on average, will earn 6 points towards the Unlucky title and 85 points towards the Lucky title for every 5 tickets bought.
  • Mathematical analysis: The center circle has a 1/9 chance of a direct hit, a 4/9 chance of an adjacent circle winning, and a 4/9 chance of losing. Out of 9 games the center will win 5 times (and lose the other 4). The side circles win 4 times and lose 5. The corner circles win 3 times and lose 6. Regardless of which circle is chosen, the net rate of ticket accumulation is -0.556 tickets per round. (You will eventually lose all your tickets regardless of where you stand.)
  • See the Nine Rings article for more information on the mechanics and probabilities of playing it.

Rings of Fortune

  • Like the Nine Rings game, it can only be played when the Shing Jea Boardwalk is open.
  • Playing the Rings of Fortune game is the cheapest way to acquire unlucky points. However, it is moderately slower than playing Nine Rings, and gains abysmally few lucky points in the process.
  • See the Rings of Fortune article for more information on the mechanics and probabilities of playing it.

Lockpicks

  • Lockpicks are always available, and picking any lock will increase your progress on the lucky or unlucky title track.
  • Lockpicks can be purchased from the discount merchants in ownable outposts in Factions and are often resold by players that can access the merchants. In order to get lucky points from lockpicks at the same speed as Nine Rings, one would have to open chests with 75% retention rate about every three minutes.
  • The cheapest way to get unlucky points from lockpicks is to have as high of a retention rate as possible; the fastest is to have a 50% retention rate.
  • If RR is your retention rate (in %), one chest on average will earn you 250*RR luck points, 250 * RR * (1-RR) unluck points, and cost (1-RR) lockpicks.

Four-leaf Clovers

  • Using a Four-leaf Clover and having it remove 15% Death Penalty, the maximum of which it is capable, will earn the user 4 points toward the Lucky title.

Acquiring Both Titles

Naturally, since no one will always win or always lose, it makes a degree of sense to work on both titles simultaneously. Otherwise, any 'extra' points toward the completed title are wasted while finishing the uncompleted title.

  • Since the maximum level of "Lucky" is 2.5 million points, and the maximum level of "Unlucky" is 500,000 points, earning both is a matter of achieving a 5:1 ratio of tickets won to games lost.
  • Over time, Nine Rings has a (roughly) 14:1 ratio in the corners, a 17:1 ratio on the sides, and a 21:1 ratio in the center.
  • Over time, Rings of Fortune has a (roughly) 3.3:1 ratio regardless of where you stand.
  • Lockpicks offer a 2:1 ratio if you have a 50/50 chance of retaining your lockpick. Your exact ratio will depend on the titles you have and the chests you open.

Regardless of how the title is approached, it will take a very long time to earn. Since there are some in-game benefits to earning ranks in the Lucky title, which are not countered by ranks in the Unlucky title, it makes sense to focus on the lucky title first (via Nine Rings), and then worry later about dragging the win:loss ratio into line. After reaching the next-to-last Lucky title (1 million lucky points), the 1.5-million-point 'gap' between there and the maximum level will generate 450,000 games lost using Rings of Fortune. Still, if you plan on earning both titles, you should always play the corners in Nine Rings - because the winnings are the same, but you get more losses in the corners.

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