Based on what was data-mined in the December patch, I thought I would do the math and see how many, and if any, characters would be mastered at launch.

According to snap.fan, we know a few things:

There are 0-30 levels where 0xp to 1300xp needed to get to level 30. 25% progress on a character will get you to level 14, 50% will get you to 20, and 75% will get you to level 25.

https://preview.redd.it/qot9wqfueede1.png?width=558&format=png&auto=webp&s=e622af563d357615b671089b8725bbd4c32b5a10

Here is what we know about the XP given per variant

• Rare Variant: 25xp
• Super Rare Variant: 75xp
• Spotlight Variant: 125xp
• Ultimate Variant: 250xp
• Each Infinity Split: 15xp

Using just these values, you need to split a character 87 times, or ~134,000 credits. If you grab the 25 free credits every 8 hours and you never miss a quest, you will earn at the minimum about 5,175 credits per week. So for cards that have no variants like Lasher and King E, you could get them both mastered if you spent pretty much all of your free credits just splitting them for a year. You also need around 13,000 boosters. Now assuming that every 12 games you get all 6 boosters for a character, that would be 26,000 games per character. Cool.

Thankfully we have variants to cut down the grind. And wow, they really do. Each infinity split will cost you 155 boosters and 1525 credits to earn 15xp. Here is the equivalent of that for each variant:

Rare Variant: 258 boosters, 2542 credits
Super Rare Variants: 775 boosters, 7625 credits
Spotlight Variants: 1291 boosters, 12708 credits
Ultimate Variants: 2583 boosters, 25416 credits.

If you plan on grinding it out via splits only and expect yourself to master a character, you are in for a very long grind. Variants are the way to go.

The good thing is that the shop is so good about getting you the variants you need!

New Player With Storm as an Example

Let's say you are a new player and you wanted to master Storm. Great choice! Storm currently has 13 variants available in the shop, 3 Rare and 10 Super Rare. Assuming you could get them all to show up in your shop, that would be 14,100 gold. That would get you to level 22. Congrats! You are halfway there. The rest would have to come from splits. 32 of them to be specific. So 5,115 boosters (or 10,230 games) and 47,275 credits or 9.5 weeks.

My Stats

Now, let's take those values and apply them to myself: a beta player who has never missed doing a quest since launch and a former whale, now dolphin.

CL: 33,900
Characters: 315/318
Rare Variants: 849*
Super Rare Variants: 200
Spotlight Variants: 79
Ultimate Variants: 3
Season Pass Variants: 96
Bundle Variants: 33
Conquest Variants: 19
Promo Variants: 31
Album Variants: 22
Deadpool Diner Variants: 1
High Voltage Variants: 1
Total Variants: 1334
Infinity Splits: 1001
Max Variants for a character: 12
Most Splits for a character: 16
^\ That is all of them)

My Results

^\ Now, we do not have values for the following variant types: Bundle Variants, Conquest Variants, Promo Variants, Album Variants, Deadpool Diner Variants, and High Voltage Variants. For argument's sake, let's say they are 75xp each.)

I have no characters mastered**. With the values we have data-mined, I have only two past the 50% mark.**

Split/Variant Ratio Analysis

Even just using the data-mined values, variants are way more valuable than splits.

TL/DR; With the values that have been data-mined, good luck getting more than a few characters mastered. Ever.

Edited: Added a section on new player experience.