Shops and currencies

The purpose of this guide is to briefly go over CounterSide’s various shops and currencies and detail spending priorities for each one.

The following shops are covered in this guide:

• Today’s Deals
• Convenience Goods Shop
• Planet Mall
• Dive Shop
• Shadow Palace Shop
• Consortium Shop
• Business Card Shop
• Gauntlet Shop
• Danger Close Shop
• Substream Shops

Today’s Deals is CounterSide’s daily shop. The shop contains a variety of random items that can be purchasable for credits or quartz, and the shop offerings can be refreshed for 15 quartz up to 5 times a day. Importantly, the daily shop has a chance of listing Employee Contracts for credits, allowing you to purchase them at a heavily discounted price. You are encouraged to refresh the shop 5 times every day.

The daily shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Today’s Deals

What to Buy

1. It’s easy to farm up millions of credits so you might as well purchase all the items listed for credits. However, most of the items are worth so little (what are you going to do with a single APT core?) you might as well ignore them. Items of note are:
• Prioritize: Employee Contracts, Ship Components
• Consider: Special Catalyst, Conversion Approval
2. The items listed for quartz are grossly overpriced. However, you may opt to spend quartz on Classified Employee Contracts.

The Convenience Goods shop sells an assortment of items. The majority of it is a scam, but some items are genuinely worth getting.

The Convenience Goods shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Convenience Goods

What to Buy

1. 1/3 Anti-Air Training Permit (Daily)
• Anti-Air Training Simulation drops S-APT cores. S-APT cores are one of your major resource bottlenecks because you need them to limit break characters and craft fusion cores.
• While the Anti-Air Simulation provides the most value in the long run, there is nothing wrong with doing the other simulations if you need those materials.
2. 3/3 Quantum Coords Crystals (Daily)
• Players have the option to purchase 3 Quantum Coords Crystals daily. Quantum Coords Crystals are used to gain entry into Shadow Palace.
• Of note, the Shadow Palace currency can be exchanged for T4 enhancement modules. At Shadow Palace 5, you can save ~3600 Eternium that would otherwise have been spent farming an equivalent amount of gear EXP from Anastasia’s Supply Maintenance.
3. 1/1 Set Binary (Monthly)
• The monthly set binary package gives you 30 set binaries for 1000 quartz. Set binaries are a scarce resource needed to reroll set bonuses on gear, and since gear is everything in this game you’re going to need as many set binaries as you can get.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

The Planet Mall sells SSR Operators. Operators are mainly used in the competitive game modes (i.e. Ranked Gauntlet, Danger Close). The system is a massive resource sink and is something players will want to grind through once they are satisfied with their character roster.

Task Planet Points are earned through recruitment at a rate of 10 Task Planet Points per pull. Task Planet Points are used almost exclusively to purchase operators.

The Convenience Goods shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Planet Mall > Operator

What to Buy

• Your first copy of Kim Hana
• After you get Kim Hana, forget about this shop. Sit on your Task Planet Points and let it accumulate until you get a better idea of which competitive game mode you want to prioritize first.

For more information on operators, we heavily encourage you to check the Prydwen Operator Guide. This guide goes over the operator system in far more detail and touches on the operator meta so you’ll know what to expect and see also, Prydwen’s operator reviews:

Operators and you

Operators

Completing Dives will yield Imaginary Cores, and at higher difficulties (Dive 50 onwards), also drop Gold Bullets. These two currencies are used in their respective shops.

The Dive shops can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Dive

What to Buy - Imaginary Core

• Special Ship Schematics & High Rarity Ship Components
• You will need ship crafting materials to craft ships. There are very few ships that actually affect gameplay in a meaningful way. You do not need to feel pressured to craft all the ships; you can complete almost all the general content with a level 100 Enterprise.
• Rerolling ship sockets becomes the endgame resource sink for High Rarity Ship Components, though the performance increase is so minor and the RNG is atrocious so it’s a fairly low priority system.
• Tuning Binaries
• Once you run out of ships to craft, the Imaginary Core shop becomes your secondary source of tuning binaries. There is no limit on the number of tuning binaries you can buy.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

What to Buy - Gold Bullet

• Counter Maze gear
• Given the glacial pace at which you’ll be earning Gold Bullets, you may want to prioritize the case first, as they are used in more gear presets than other Maze pieces.
• Other Maze gear
• Binaries/ Evolved-001
• Evolved-001 is a farmable ASSR that can be purchased for 3000 Gold Bullets. Evolved-001 is used exclusively as a PVP unit. Players may opt to skip it.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

For more information on dives, see those guides:

Mode overview

Dive 48 - 50 guide

Dive - 60

Clearing Shadow Palace awards Shadow Fragments that can be exchanged for gear molds and binaries. Shadow Palace gear (primarily Spectral gear) represents a cheap, low-commitment alternative to Maze/ Gordias gear. As farmable gear with a smaller set and substat pool, it is much easier to assemble niche sets without feeling like you’ve wasted a Maze piece.

Some general notes on Shadow Palace items:

• 1 Quantum Coords Crystal is generated daily, which can be accumulated up to a limit of 7.
• Quantum Coords Crystals are used to gain entry into the Shadow Palaces.
• You may consider purchasing an additional 3 Quantum Coords Crystals daily.
• Clearing the Shadow Palace will reward Shadow Fragments.
• Shadow Fragments can be used in the Shadow Palace shop.
• There is an instant skip function, so you don’t need to clear the Palaces past the first clear.

The Shadow Palace shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center >Shadow Palace

What to Buy

1. 50/50 Set Binaries (Monthly)
• The set binaries refresh monthly, while the rest of the shop refreshes weekly. You may want to pace yourself if you intend to purchase some of the weekly items. You will earn far more Shadow Fragments than is needed to clear the shop, so in the long-run this won’t be an issue.
2. 30/30 Tuning Binaries (Weekly)
3. 75% Discounted Universal Molds
4. Enhancement Module
• Refer back to the Convenience Goods Shop section for more details.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

For more information on Shadow Palace, check this guide:

Mode overview

Consortium Co-op Battle (CCB) is a game mode exclusive to Consortiums, CounterSide’s equivalent to player guilds. Participating in Consortium activities will grant Coalition Tokens, which can be exchanged for various items in the Consortium Shop.

Coalition Tokens are earned via:

• Consortium Check-in rewards (Daily)
• Consortium donations (Daily)
• CCB Raid Boss damage rewards (Weekly)
• CCB Kill Points milestones rewards (Seasonal)

The Consortium shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Consortium

What to Buy

1. 5/5 Set Binaries (Weekly)
2. Single Purchase Items*
• The single purchase items are permanent, while the rest of the shop refreshes weekly. You may want to pace yourself if you intend to purchase some of the weekly items.
3. 1/1 Fusion Core (Weekly)

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

For more information on Shadow Palace, check this guide:

Mode overview

*The full list of permanent items have been listed below:

• Step 1 - 6 Fusion Cores
• Step 2 - 20 Set Binaries
• Step 3 - 6 Fusion Cores
• Step 4 - 250 Special Catalysts
• Step 5 - 6 Fusion Cores
• Step 6 - 75 T6 Enhancement Modules
• Step 7 - 6 Fusion Cores
• Step 8 - 150 Tuning Binaries
• Step 9 - 6 Fusion Cores

Business Cards can be obtained by dismissing units of R rarity or higher. It is difficult to clear this shop, but as long as you are farming the Substream stages, you should have a constant inflow of business cards. Obviously, pulling on the gacha banners will also generate business cards.

The Business Card shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Exchange Center > Business Card

What to Buy

1. 5/5 Fusion Cores (Weekly)
2. Prime Rearmament Data
• Early on you will have many strong rearms to catch up on so this is very important. After you finish those, this is an unnecessary purchase.
3. 10/10 Fusion Core Fragments (Weekly)
4. 10/10 [S-APT Core] Coupons (Weekly)
5. Lifetime Contract
• At 100 Loyalty, characters will receive a 2% stat buff. Loyalty is lost when characters fail a mission. Lifetime Contracts prevent characters from losing Loyalty.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

The Gauntlet shop is composed of a monthly refreshing tiered shop of various resources, a permanent shop selling limited quantities of T6 gear (Maze, Gordias, Seasonal), and some minor cosmetic items.

Gauntlet shop items are purchased with Gauntlet Points. Contrary to the game mode, you do not actually need to play PVP against real players to receive the full benefit of the Gauntlet shop. Unearned Gauntlet Points will naturally accumulate up to a limit of 900. These unearned Gauntlet Points can be received by playing:

• Ranked Gauntlet: Real-time PVP against other players
• Strategy Battle: Fighting pre-assembled teams built by other players
• Strategy Battle: Fighting pre-assembled bot teams built into the game mode

For the PVP-adverse, you can repeatedly fight the bot teams to collect all your Gauntlet Points. Players will also receive Gauntlet Points at the end of each week (excluding the last week of the season) depending on their Ranked Gauntlet and Strategy Battle rank division.

The Gauntlet shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Seasonal> Gauntlet

What to Buy

1. Regular Gear
• Prioritize the Counter gear, then purchase the Soldier and Mech Maze gear as needed.
2. Gauntlet Point Shop
• The Gauntlet Point shop refreshes on a monthly basis. The shop isn’t good enough that you should feel pressured to clear it every month. The items offered at the shop’s third tier are largely up to player discretion.
3. Seasonal Gear
• Prioritize the Counter Sincere movements. Purchase Devoted cases as needed.
• Realistically, you’re not going to touch Seasonal gear until you finish working on Maze/ Gordias. These items are extremely low priority.
• Seasonal gear will periodically receive 50% discounts, aligning with their namesake PVP season. These discounts are nice to have, but in the long run it won’t make a difference. It is not worth waiting for the seasonal gear discount to purchase the seasonal gear.

Danger Close is CounterSide’s competitive PVE game mode. Danger Close sees you optimizing a team to kill one of many rotating bosses as efficiently as possible to maximize your score.

Rewards are distributed at the end of every DC season depending on your leaderboard placement at the end of the season. Importantly, DC awards Danger Close Performance Points, a currency used to purchase items from the Danger Close shop.

Danger Close Performance Points can be earned from:

• Score milestones against Danger Close bosses.
• Your leaderboards placement at the end of every Danger Close season.

The Danger Close shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Seasonal> Danger Close

What to Buy

1. Limited Gear (Maze)
• Prioritize the Counter gear, then purchase the Soldier and Mech Maze gear as needed.
2. 50/50 Set Binaries (Monthly)
• 50 Set Binaries are purchasable from the Gear Growth Support tab, refreshing monthly.
3. 1/1 Fusion Core (Monthly)
• For some bizarre reason you can buy a singular Fusion Core from the Employee Growth Support tab for 20 Danger Close Performance Points, refreshing monthly.
4. Limited Gear (Hummingbird)
• Prioritize the Counter gear. Unless you know exactly what you intend to do with the Soldier/ Mech Hummingbird weapon, do not bother purchasing them.
• Hummingbird is used to make CDR sets for backline supporters.
5. Set Binaries (Monthly)/ Exceed Tuner (Monthly)
• If you have any currency remaining, you may consider spending the rest on the second tier of Set Binaries, or buy an Exceed Tuner. Contrary to what the item description would suggest, Exceed Tuners can be used on any piece of gear. Exceed Tuners save Eternium that would otherwise go into the enhancement module farming.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion

For more information on Dange Close, check this guide:

Danger Close

Substreams are CounterSide’s equivalent to side stories. Substreams are released with Normal and Hard stages. Importantly, the Hard stages drop Unit Data for certain SSR/ SR characters, which can in sufficient quantities be redeemed for the full character. On top of Unit Data, you will also receive some currency for clearing the stage.

Each Substream has its own dedicated currency that can be exchanged for various items from their respective shops. From time to time, the game will run events increasing currency drop rates for a specified Substream.

The Substream shops are hideously inefficient, even during the drop rate up events. You would not go out of your way to farm currency to clear out the Substream shop. Substream shop offerings should be treated as a small bonus for when you farm Unit Data.

The Substream shops shop can be accessed from: Shop > Shop List > Substream

What to Buy

1. Limited Substream-Exclusive Items
• Certain items can only be purchased from Substream shops. These are:
• Pure Possibilities
• Lobby Backgrounds
2. Scarce Resources
• Set Binaries are purchasable from certain Substream shops. It is up to the player’s discretion how they choose to prioritize their Eternium.

• Red outline - Priority
• Blue outline - Up to player discretion