Revision of Spirit Cave
Spirit Cave has always been a part of the game that did not necessarily have to be played for the core gameplay. Fun and competition were the main focus here. At most once a week, players would really put in the effort—when their storages were full and they felt like competing.
Several updates ago, Spirit Cave was integrated into the rotating quest board. We accepted the energy cost to block it every two days because the effort and the benefit (energy vs. no Spirit Cave quest) were balanced.
With update 11.0, however, we are now forced to play Spirit Cave every two days in order to block it on the quest board. At the same time, there is no benefit in this part of the game. This understandably leads to frustration.
If we look at the psychological aspect: being forced to do something without feeling any benefit always leads to negative emotions. Negative emotions result in a defensive attitude, and a defensive attitude reduces the willingness to invest money.
Possible solution:
To promote a sense of purpose for this game mode, it would make sense to integrate silver—similar to the CT.
Silver could be added to every chest after the boss: in Bronze League 10 silver per boss, in Silver League 20 silver per boss, and in Gold League 30 silver per boss. This would give playing Spirit Cave a clear purpose and encourage progression into higher leagues. The amount of silver gained should be higher than the silver from a hunting quest in order to create a real feeling of benefit.
In return, the silver reward from the Spirit Cave quest itself could be reduced.
Justification:
With the introduction of T7, silver income was reduced while demand increased. With update 11.0, the demand for silver was increased again. Silver is therefore a strong driving factor in the game and inevitably creates the desired feeling of benefit.
The tiered reward system—similar to CT—would encourage players to move up into higher leagues in order to earn more silver.