KOEN STRATEGIES
Arena Breakout has one of the most robust and evolving in-game economies in mobile gaming. Mastering combat and extracting is only half the battle, though. After valiantly escaping the Dark Zone you’ll finally face the true final frontier: The Market. These strategies will help you maximize profits, minimize losses, and make some quick koen in a pinch.
TURNING COUPONS INTO CASH
Bundle coupons are fairly easy to earn in Arena Breakout, but the major downside is that the rewards are all listed as Operation Supplies. This means they cannot be sold on the market until being cleared through a successful raid. This is typically the best way to unlock the full value of these items as selling to a contact yields far less koen. If you’ve built up a surplus of Operation Supplies in your stash it might be a good idea to bring some extra items into the raid with you, and upon clearing them you will be able to immediately sell and essentially get 100% free profits from bundle items.
For example, EX painkillers are common items in bundles, and while a contact pays only 1,600 koen, they can fetch upwards of 12,000 koen on the market. Throwing some extra EX painkillers in your backpack and extracting can supercharge your earnings with little to no burden on your weight and looting ability in the raid. Throwables are also a great way to easily clear thousands of extra koen per raid, and if you lose them, well they were free from the bundles anyway. Zero real losses!
GRABBING GOOD DEALS
The Arena Breakout market is dynamic and realtime, just like auction and stock markets in real life. This means that great deals can pop up frequently and be snatched by quick buyers. Keep an eye on certain categories to quickly grab essential items like keys and guns at major discounts. Concerning firearms, many can be purchased for below their true market value making them immediately profitable. Simply clear the gun in a successful raid and you can be reaping additional profits on your gun in addition to whatever other loot you found along the way.
For example, the M4A1 below was purchased for 34,000 koen but the true value was at least 41,000 when each part was stripped down. After clearing in a raid this would unlock 7,000 additional koen in profit if you sell.
REFRESH TRICK
As mentioned before, sometimes playing the market is all about timing. If you’re about to purchase parts while gunsmithing it is recommended to refresh the prices several times until the amount drops. As brand new cheap parts are listed on the market you can take advantage of the temporary low prices and save thousands while building firearms. Simply think of the refresh button as your personal savings button!
CONTACT EXCHANGES
Contacts frequently sell an array of items that can be very profitable to players. These items range from weapons, meds, armor, ammo, and more. These exchanges can be used for almost instant profit if players choose to fill the required items from the market. Then, you can immediately turn around and sell the exchanged items on the market for immediate gains.
Alternatively, players can fulfill the exchange orders the old fashioned way by finding these items throughout their raids. To keep track of what exchanges you are trying to fulfill you can use the “Add to Wishlist” button which marks the items you need with an orange icon. Should you encounter these items in your raid it will be easy to identify them with this marking.
PLAYING THE MARKET
Many players win in the Dark Zone but lose miserably on the market. After looting, fighting, and barely surviving, maximizing profits from your hard work should be a top priority. The market always recommends the lowest possible price for selling goods, and some players lose out on potentially thousands of koen by not pricing their items accordingly. Analyze the market graph to understand what the current average prices are, how many items are below it, and where you can strategically place your items to sell at a good price in a fair amount of time. In many cases items can take a few extra minutes to sell but yield hundreds or thousands more koen in the process. In some rare instances, more expensive items will even sell before their cheaper counterparts! The market remains as mysterious as ever.
Let’s take this Lightweight Stock as an example. Upon attempting to sell, the market is recommending a price of 2,106 koen. This is absolutely way too low, but undiscerning players may sell at this price anyway. The graph shows us the floor price is 3,248 and the average price is about 3,509. This window between the floor and average is where we can position ourselves to make extra money while still selling the listing rather quickly. Anything above the average may not sell in the 12 hour period, however selling below the floor price would leave hundreds of koen on the table.
