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NA/EU and Taiwan Premium Membership Comparison
Hey everyone, I saw some discussions about the premium memberships in other F2P regions in comparison to NA/EU and I thought I would provide some details of the Taiwan version for those interested. I believe much of the NA/EU client is based on the Taiwan client (during early betas there were some evidence that the localization team were using the fan based translation from Taiwan, since there were some words unique to the fan translation that slipped in).
How Premium Membership works in Taiwan
30 days Premium membership costs 430 Ncoins, which is about $13 USD if you do a currency exchange (400 ncoins = 400 NTD). This is the standard membership rate but sometimes there are special prices/bundles that make it a lot cheaper.
Unlike the NA/EU system, there is no such thing as Venture Tokens etc to get Hongmoon points. Instead, you get Hongmoon points daily for logging in. You get 1000 Hongmoon points immediately after purchasing a 30 days premium membership and then 600/day everyday while your premium membership is active (300/day if you are offline, 600/day if you are online for at least 5 hrs). So for a 30 day membership you can get 1000+18000 = 19k Hongmoon points if you log on everyday for 5 hrs. I personally much prefer this system as you can get alot of goodies for "free" via the Hongmoon points by simply logging in and not have to rely on the super low drop rate of the venture tokens.
There is no rank system for Premium Membership. Somethings like coin drops from mobs, access to dragon express/storage vault, decreased tax for auction listings etc are all automatic/baseline. Other things like decreased gold cost for upgrades, increased XP etc have to be purchased from the Hongmoon shop via the Hongmoon points you earn. So you totally have a choice here on what you want and don't need to keep spending real $ on the cashshop to get better premium ranks for better benefits. The rank system in NA/EU I believe was imported from China version of the game.
Permanent Costumes/No Weapon upgrade Failure
Taiwan has permanent costumes and no failure in upgrading weapons.I see people using this as a plus for the NA/EU version. 30 day Costumes and failures are only in the Chinese version I believe and the other F2P versions (Taiwan/Japan) all have permanent costumes and non-failures. So this is nothing special for NA/EU.
Wardrobe Access/Storage Vault
Wardrobe access in Taiwan is available for everyone and not locked behind a premium membership.
Storage Vault access via inventory is granted immediately once you purchase a premium membership and not locked behind a rank system (I believe you only get it on NA/EU if you are rank 9).
Hongmoon Shop
Lets take a look at the Hongmoon Shop, which is exclusive to Premium members and you purchase items from it using the Hongmoon points you earned daily for being a premium member.
Five page of costumes, some of the same ones being sold for $12-15 USD on the NA/EU version, which you can acquire for 3000-6000 Hongmoon points (equivalent to about 10 days of Hongmoon points collection at 600 pts/per day).
Brilliant keys for 3000 pts, Dragon Pouch 300 pts, and other food stuff.
These are the special buffs/discounts you can purchase if you want them. Some example are damage buff (+4 attack, +8 extra damage, +3% crit etc) and others like 20% reduction in upgrade costs, more auction listing, special movement animation etc. Some of them are the stuff that we get in our Premium membership in NA/EU if you reach a specific rank. The difference here is that you buy exactly what you want using the Hongmoon points you accumulate daily.
The RNG boxes purchased for Ncoins can be also brought for Hongmoon points. They cost 600 each or 12000 for 22. So you can get a RNG box a day if you want to use your points on that.
Cashshop
Taiwan also have a cashshop where you can purchase things for Ncoins. Here you can see the offerings - RNG boxes, new costumes like the Valentine one that was posted here a couple days ago. Some of the costumes are identical to the ones you can buy from Hongmoon shop. So for many costumes you have the option of buying via $$ or for "free" via your premium membership.
My Opinion
The Taiwan premium system feels a lot better and worthwhile compared to the NA/EU system. You get rewarded for logging in daily and can get ~3 costumes per month for free off the Hongmoon Shop if that is all you care about. Some essential things like bigger bag space can be resolved by using the points for dragon pouches. There is no need to deal with the ridiculously low drop rate for venture tokens and you can purchase the benefits you like directly instead of having to keep spending money to get better ranks for better benefits.
Yes there are RNG boxes in the Taiwan version but you can buy them with your accumulated Hongmoon points for being a Premium member. Wardrobe is not locked behind premium membership either, which felt like the biggest thing going for the NA/EU premium membership right now.
Since much of the NA/EU client was based on the Taiwan one, I am surprised they didn't include their premium membership model too and instead opted for a more cash grabbing model from China.