Realm Grinder Money Levels

[Dunstan Jomphe]

RealmGrinder is an incredible little idle game that has only a few flaws and works really well to engage the player into playing more in order to unlock new mechanics and systems. Instead of just making numbers grow higher, this game throws together plenty of interesting ways for you to interact with it and have different 'runs' most of the time. I'm still playing it after more than three weeks, and I plan on playing it until I grow bored, if that ever happens. If my iOS reviews seem to lag behind in the future, you know what game to blame!

The very core concept of Realm Grinder is that you tap to produce coins, which can be used to buy buildings that produce coins passively. Buying enough buildings unlock upgrades for them, increasing their output. After you've collected a few coins, you can unlock an alignment, either good or evil, both with their strengths and weaknesses. Doing so unlocks races that you can pick from, each with different abilities. Each race has multiple tiers of passive abilities and spells that you can unlock via 'faction coins' that you gather by clicking or passively with assistants (helpers that get unlocked when you buy specific upgrades). Many races have special abilities that allow them to get more faction coins as well. At the beginning of the game, these can be a roadblock. You need increasing number of those in order to get more powerful abilities and without special powers to collect them, your count increases really slowly.

The game is free to play and you can buy various things like rubies, used for special upgrades, and other bonuses. You can also view ads to get more mana, more money over time, or some faction coins. I'll admit that I'm using it almost all the time, because it's more efficient that way, and it's not a too terrible way to give some money back to the developers. Mana is what's used to cast spells, there are a bunch of them and you can increase your mana regen and maximum via upgrades and you can even unlock automatic casting to help you with that. I really enjoy how many upgrades get unlocked when you complete achievements since it encourages the player to try and accomplish various challenges.

After you've accumulated enough money, you can abdicate and collect gems based on the amount of money you've got. Gems increase your production and some races have special abilities that depend on the gems you have. You need a high total of gems in order to Reincarnate, which resets your money and gems to zero, but unlock a bunch of new abilities and challenges. This is one of the only part of the game that breaks down for me, it seems that some combinations of races and playstyles work really well at generating gems while others just won't net you enough money to increase your gem count, I wish that every race had the potential to get there without you having to wait forever.

Another mechanic you get later are archaeology expeditions where you dig to get faction coins, rubies and artefacts, this really helps when you need faction coins fast to unlock new abilities and you don't want to wait forever. The cost of expeditions increase as you perform them, and it resets when you reincarnate, so this balances out. You unlock many things with expeditions, like the neutrality alignment - with three new races - and even two extra races that stack on top of the one you select at the start of the game, each with their own three tiers of powers and spells. Further along, you get special challenges that are quite difficult but boost your races in unique ways. This game is full of mechanics like that. You won't just get "+5% production for Undead buildings", but you'll rather get upgrades that add flavor and uniqueness to each faction.

There sometimes are events, like there was with Easter, but I missed it because I had to update the app in order to participate, I kinda wish the app would pull info from the web and tell me to update it in order to get on the event. I wonder how frequently they occur and if their rewards are worth it. Another thing I have unlocked is the Mercenary race that allows you to mix and match spells and abilities from every other faction, I think it's a fun idea, but in practice I haven't managed to create any good combination that worked better than the default stock choices, so I don't think I'll thinker with it too much.

And there's still more to come! Researches and bloodlines and spell levels and a ton more stuff! That's why I think I'll be playing Realm Grinder some more in the future, I still want to see what's in reserve for me. I'm at Reincarnation 8 right now and there are new mechanics that unlock at Reincarnation 70? I'm almost tempted to try and link my iOS version with the web version, if it's possible! It's a really neat idle game and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly!

Of course, the person telling me about her high food bill was more of a typical high-income spender in many ways. Her family also took out loans to buy new cars, had at least one $2500 carbon fiber road bike gleaming in the garage, and hired out the household chores to allow them to conveniently work a double-career-with-kids while still taking plenty of short vacations involving air travel. Looking back, I probably could have predicted a non-Mustachian grocery bill.

But the experience still reminded me of the amazing variety of spending levels we all have available to us here in the United States. It is simultaneously one of the cheapest industrialized countries in the world to live in, and the most expensive. It all depends on the choices you make in your shopping, because everything in the world is available right here for your buying convenience.

Aha.. now things are sounding much better. Although not all of the foods above cost less than $1 per meal, they can certainly average out to less than that, depending on how you combine them. And when planning your menu to meet a certain budget, averaging out is exactly your goal. You still want to be able to eat apples, organic chicken breast, or whatever your heart desires. You just have to not eat entirely those most expensive foods.

Similarly, you can mix other foods from the under-$1.00 list into meals, freeing up space for expensive garnishes. Chicken and rice recipes with oils, spices, and vegetables are delicious and can be made in many different styles (Asian, Mediterranean, Indian, Mexican) while still coming in at under $1/meal.

For snacking, I usually eat handfuls of roasted almonds and other mixed nuts, combined with fresh fruits and vegetables. The nuts provide most of the calories, while the fruits provide the various nutrients and healthy stuff.

An average person might want to shoot for about 75 grams of protein per day, while an athlete might consume 150 grams. As a fairly regular weightlifter and manual-laborer, I go for the higher number myself.

The key is to look at the protein content already in your basic staples before deciding how much you need to supplement it, and then do so intelligently based on your own activity level. The average American diet is actually quite oversupplied with protein, due to the fact that most people eat meat with every meal, even while most are not competitive weight-training athletes. The opportunity for savings is enormous.

To research this article, I biked over to the health food store in my town, a place called Natural Grocers that attempts to imitate Whole Foods. It seemed like a friendly place, where the customers are unusually slim, the bike rack sees frequent use, and everyone brings their own cloth grocery bags.

All of these prices are more than double the levels of the nearest Costco, which is one of the best places to shop for your calories and protein, unless you have even better options in your area. The prices I quoted in my $1.00 meals table above were Costco prices, and unless you already have unlimited money, you should stay miles away from Whole Foods or any of its cousins.

What to Eat

Finally, the fun part! As the wise people of India have proven beyond all other cultures*, amazing food is all about preparation and spices, rather than starting with costly ingredients. Once you know which ingredients make good staples, you can easily poke around on the Internet or in any cookbook to find an infinite number of good recipes that use them.

Fry the onion, ginger and garlic in some oil for a few minutes. Add the curry paste and cook for a few more minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, coconut milk, salt, squash and shredded lime leaves. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.

This soup is extremely filling due to the deliciously high fat content of coconut milk, and so good you will not believe it came from your own kitchen. It also stores well in the fridge and freezer, and can be brought to work or on road trips and reheated anywhere.

I also make homemade pizza/pizza dough about once a week for my husband and I. It is SO much healthier and cheaper being able to control the amount of cheese and toppings. If you look at the pre-made crusts in the store, there are loads of preservatives (read: SILICATES). I make one batch of dough and split it into 2, resulting in 2 nights of thin-crust pizza. Cheers to pizza fanatics!

I am in the same boat, shop and cook dinners. Last year we were an average family. Switched stores and we are now doing better. However I have not gotten down to your levels. Still averaging $120/week for a family of 6. or $1.37 per meal.

Day 3- Make more broth from dark meat. After, place dark meat in 9X13 pan, add a can of cream of mushroom soup and line edges with broccoli. Realized was out of bread that day, so tried an experiment and made some from scratch. Verified 4 year old yeast is past shelf life.

We live in Northern Virigina and the best price I have found is $7/lb for 1/4 of a grass-fed cow. If anyone in this area knows of a better source (we are buying from Maple Ave Market in Vienna) I would love to know. Thank you! :)

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