Pricing the King of Tokyo Card Row: What Is Energy Worth?

At Level 1 you sorted Power cards by job. Now you put a price on them. Experts do not ask whether a card is good. They ask whether it is good for its cost, for them, with this many turns left. That question has a rough answer you can work out at the table.

What one Energy is worth

The dice odds lesson gave a yardstick. A whole turn chasing Energy averages about 2.5 cubes. A whole turn chasing 3s averages about 1.8 points. So a turn spent on Energy instead of 3s trades about 1.8 points for 2.5 cubes.

That makes one Energy worth roughly 0.7 points of dice time. It is a rough rate, not a law, but it gives every card a price tag in points:

A card has to return more than that over the rest of the game to be worth it. Energy you rolled while chasing something else, such as a stray cube on a Smash turn, is cheaper, so do not be afraid to spend it.

Discard cards: a fixed return

A Discard card’s value is easy to count because it happens once. Death from Above costs 5 Energy and gives 2 points plus Tokyo, according to the rulebook. On our price table, 5 Energy is about 3.5 points, so the 2 points alone are a poor trade. The card earns its cost only when taking Tokyo is worth something extra: a seat you would hold for the next turn’s 2 points, or a Monster you need to push out. Late in the game, when the points end it, the price stops mattering at all.

Keep cards: count the turns

A Keep card pays a little each turn, so its value is what it gives per turn times the turns left. That is why early Keep cards are cheap and late ones are expensive.

How many turns are left? Look at the leader. A Monster that is 10 points from 20 needs several more turns, and a Monster in Tokyo gains 2 points a turn without rolling well. As a rough guide, a game with the leader at 10 has a good handful of turns left for each player. A game with the leader at 16 may have one or two.

Take a card that adds a die. The dice odds lesson showed it raises your average on any one goal by about 0.4 of a face per turn. Over eight turns, that adds up to several more Energy, points, or wounds. Over two turns, it is barely more than one.

The sweep

Paying 2 Energy to sweep the row is a purchase like any other. It buys three new cards to look at, about 1.4 points of dice time on our rate. Sweep when:

• You can afford a card from the new row. Sweeping with exactly 2 cubes shows you three cards you cannot buy, and shows them to the next player too.
• The row has a card the next player can afford and would love. Removing it may be worth more than anything you could buy.

Buying for defense

Life, points, and Energy are open, so you can always see what the next player can afford. A card bought to keep it from a rival is called a hate buy. It is worth making when:

• The card wins them the game, or would let them hold Tokyo through your whole table’s attack.
• You have spare Energy that would otherwise sit unused.
• No better card is for sale for you.

If a card is only useful to them, and sweeping costs less than buying it, sweep instead.

Cards that change the price

A few cards from the rulebook’s clarifications bend these rules:

• Opportunist (3 Energy, Keep) lets you buy a newly revealed card the moment it appears, so every sweep and purchase by others is a chance for you. It is worth most when you keep a full purse.
• Metamorph (3 Energy, Keep) lets you discard your Keep cards at the end of your turn for their full printed cost in Energy. That turns old Keep cards, whose turns have run out, back into cubes for a late finisher.
• Mimic (8 Energy, Keep) copies another Keep card in play, and you can move it for 1 Energy at the start of your turn. Its value is the best Keep card at the table, which is usually high in a long game.

The habit

Before you buy, say two numbers: what it costs in points, and what it gives you over the turns that are left. Most purchases will be obvious. The close ones are where experts win games.