Question Spire Archive useless?

[Sigmar von Krosta]

My fellowship has unlocked the first level of the Spire Archive with a perk point. Now, one member of our group claims that this point is wasted, as the mechanic only benefits players who would reach the very top of the Spire, which only one of us can do with enormous costs of resources. I cannot believe this is true, but I am too inexperienced to disprove this claim. Maybe you have to be in the highest bracket between two crystals on the Spire scale the group has reached while rising towards the top in order to qualify for the rewards of the crystal completed by using archive points (in that sense being "at the top", but of the fellows on the scale and not at the top of the Spire as a whole)? This would be plausible, and maybe she got confused by this. Who can explain the mechanic in detail, from experience rather than from speculation such as mine?

 

[Julian]

This benefits everyone who gets above the "fellowship score". Let's say the fellowship is a few points short of Silver. You can use your Spire Archive to get that Silver. Anyone above Silver (the frog boss in the Higher Halls) will then benefit from Silver.

 

[AsterObelix]

However, nobody has to reach the top of the Spire to receive an additional chest from archive points. Did I get that right?

Yes.

 

[Pauly7]

However, nobody has to reach the top of the Spire to receive an additional chest from archive points. Did I get that right?

Unless it is the top crystal you are taking with the perk points. If you only have one person reaching the top, I doubt that is the top crystal. When you are about to take the perk you can see from the green plus which the next crystal is that you are taking.

 

[schadenfreude]

You only get the group prizes for the checkpoints you've personally cleared that is surpassed by purple bar. Therefore, unlike the Tourney Archive, you'd still have to climb to get the most prizes.

The best place to use it would be to get the purple bar to reach/surpass the last crystal of Gateway, High Hall, or Lab because that's where the diamond prizes are. Assuming you get the purple past these major checkpoints, everyone that finishes Gateway gets 50 diamonds, +75 more diamonds if they reach High Halls, and another +125 diamonds if they finish the whole thing. The Spire is the best source of free diamonds. It lets you have a premo city without spending a penny.

People keep talking themselves into chicken or egg problem with the Spire. They don't think it's worth going further because the rest of the group isn't climbing. Forget them, just climb! If you've mastered the Spire and tourney, you pretty much have an open invitation to most top FS. Leave them behind while you go collect your weekly diamonds.

p.s. We're a Gold Spire FS but I opened a Spire Archive perk level for emergencies. People go on vacation, real life gets in the way, etc. It's good to have a plan B in place. We get our purple bar all the way to the top and it's still a good investment for us to have this perk.