Live-service games, and especially free ones, have lots of currencies. Having a lot of different currencies isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just of keeping content in different parts of the game relevant. However, a lot of the time, this concept is used nefariously to confuse the player with currency overload, making it difficult to see where a given currency comes from, so you’re more likely to buy it outright.
If you’ve ever started a live service game and been completely overwhelmed by the number of different currencies it has, you’re not alone. Below, we’ll take a look at some games with the highest number of currencies.
Final Fantasy 14 has a fairly standard number of currencies for a decade-old MMORPG, but it’s still a lot more than you’d find in a traditional single-player RPG. Gil is the main form of money used when buying and selling on the Market Board, but you also have to keep track of the constantly rotating Tomestones that are awarded from endgame activities.
Each Allied Society (of which there are currently 19) has its own currency, and there are also several forms of currency for PvP. Side activities like the Island Sanctuary or Bozjan Southern Front also have their own currencies to keep track of.
Where most live-service games become bloated and succumb to their dozens of different currencies, Path of Exile has fully embraced the chaos. In Path of Exile, there is no central currency like gold; instead, you trade for items using currencies that all also have a primary use.
For example, the most basic currencies in the game are Scrolls of Wisdom, which are used to identify new items. There are also rarer items like Exalted Orbs, which modify items with new stats, or Jeweller’s Orbs, which re-roll the number of sockets an item has. Every currency in PoE has its use, but they can also be traded for items just like a normal currency in any other game.
Guild Wars 2 probably has the largest amount of currencies in any video game ever created. There’s the standard currency of gold (which is divided into increments of copper, silver, and gold), the paid currency Gems, and then about a million others.
Almost every new map that gets added to the game has its own new currency, like Airship Parts in Verdant Brink, Imperial Favors in Canthan zones, Pinches of Stardus in Amnytas, and many more. Luckily, lots of the game’s currencies are stored in a handy wallet, so you can keep track of them all without taking up valuable inventory space.
Neverwinter gives Guild Wars 2 a run for its money with how many currencies it’s managed to pack in. All the standard currencies you find in every MMO are here, but there are also separate currencies for each of the game’s different campaigns, which are essentially content groups of interconnected quests and dungeons.
Each campaign has several different currencies tied to it, and they’re only used within that campaign. Additionally, the game has several different seasonal event currencies like Light of Simril obtained from the Winter Festival, or Favor of Sune in the Summer Festival.
The precursor to the immensely popular Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd is a gacha action RPG that has been in operation for several years now. Throughout all that time, it’s no surprise that the game has added several different currencies, to the point where it’s even attempted to consolidate a few of them.
That said, the number of currencies always seems to go back up, even after the developers attempt to get rid of a few. Gacha games are no stranger to dozens of different currencies and materials, and Honkai Impact 3rd is no different.
Diablo Immortal is a free-to-play mobile version of Blizzard’s massive Diablo franchise, and it’s infamous for being one of the most pay-to-win games on the market. While the core gameplay itself is fine—it’s basically a watered-down version of Diablo 3—the number of currencies and systems set up to confuse the player is frankly absurd.
It’s designed in a way that you’re never sure just how much anything costs, because the currencies are all intertangled. There are dozens of different currencies all used and acquired in different parts of the game, but it’s all a carefully orchestrated web to entangle the most susceptible players and wring out their wallets.
Once Human is a free-to-play survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world. For a game about scrounging whatever you’re able to from a post-apocalyptic world, there sure are a lot of currencies to keep track of.
It gets more confusing due to the game’s inclusion of season mechanics, like those in ARPGs like Path of Exile, where a new season essentially resets the world. However, you’re able to bring some, but not all, of your currencies with you, so you not only have to keep track of what you’ve got, but also what you may keep.
It should come as no surprise that one of the most successful and long-running MMORPGs still has dozens of different currencies. For the most part, WoW actually does a good job, with Gold being the primary form of currency for a lot of things.
But there are also currencies for various pieces of content strewn throughout the game’s expansions, although these are somewhat necessary due to the spread of content available in the game. Luckily, several past currency items have been discontinued or converted into points, but there’s definitely still a lot to keep track of.
