Hey all. Just wanted to come and give a little insight into the current Battle Armor event and my two cents on this one.

Currently I have my battle armor capped at rank 3 8/50 for rank 4 and every point of progress at this level takes 5 medium threads. This means that, with the cost of 38 per thread, it takes 190 ingots, for one point of progress. Assuming I was at 0 and extremely unlucky, like the most unlucky SoB in the world, it would take me all 50 points to level it up to rank 4. This means it would cost 50 x 190 = 9500 ingots. That's $190 just for that one rank. Now assuming rank 5 takes only 2x as much experience to fill the meter you're looking at 2x the price, 19000 ingots, $380. Now, in reality, most people will not be that unlucky but in order to keep costs realistic you could cut that down by about 20% I'd say, first rank coming at 40/50 and second at 80/100 (if that value holds true). So you're looking at roughly $460 then. Another 20% would be around $350.

I'm not posting this to encourage anger towards anyone who does spend to get these bonuses nor to discourage anyone from spending to get there. I am simply posting this so people have a rough visual for just how much it will cost and can plan to spend for their best interests accordingly. The rewards for getting your battle armor upgraded are good and the actual stats you get from the armor itself are incredible but the price is hefty. Of course I only looked at very generic numbers and didn't include the gift packs that save you 50 cost per 10 threads but in the end that won't change the values too terribly. Even I, as a relatively high, paying player don't intend to invest too heavily into this event, especially before seeing what the new SA stage monday will bring as rewards. So for the large F2P or low paying community I would strongly advise looking into what you want the most and working towards that. If you are only upgrading the battle armor for the scroll bonuses you are better off flat out buying scrolls or doing the dice event, which is also better if you just want random rewards and a chance at rare ninja in boxes. However, if you really desire some long term raw stats, battle armor is a good choice.