Every collectible on this site comes from one shared table, and the values never change between games. A coin is ten points in a runner, in a dungeon and in an arena. That consistency is what makes it possible to price a decision instead of guessing at one.
The nine values
Coin 10. Gem 25. Potion 30. Crystal 50. Star 60. Orb 75. Rune 100. Chest 250. And the key, which is worth nothing at all.
The spread matters more than the individual numbers. A chest is twenty-five coins, which means a single chest is worth an entire trail of coins and a detour that would be absurd for a coin is trivially correct for a chest.
The key at zero is the interesting one. It is worth no points because it is not a reward - it is a requirement, placed by a breadth-first search so that reaching it and then reaching the exit is a route rather than a hunt.
Learning the table takes about a minute and pays off in every game in the catalogue, because the colours are consistent too.
- Coin - 10, gold.
- Gem - 25, crimson.
- Potion - 30, green.
- Crystal - 50, violet.
- Star - 60, pale gold.
- Orb - 75, frost.
- Rune - 100, deep violet.
- Chest - 250, gold, and always somewhere dangerous.
- Key - 0, and the reason the exit opens.
Why runes and chests resist magnets
Seven of the nine can be pulled in by a Magnet or a Vacuum. The rune and the chest cannot, and the reason is stated plainly in the engine: an item that slid across the floor into your hand would remove the decision of whether to go and get it.
In several of these games that decision is the only one there is. A chest sitting in the dangerous part of a room is a question; a chest that comes to you is scenery.
So the highest-value items always cost a journey, and no power-up shortens it. That is worth knowing before you take a Magnet detour - the Magnet makes the cheap things free and does nothing at all about the expensive ones.
The engine flags the chest as a risk item explicitly, and games use that flag to decide where a pattern is allowed to be laid down. The placement is systematic rather than incidental.
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Pricing a detour
The calculation that works is a comparison of two numbers you can both estimate in about a second.
What is the item worth, multiplied by your current combo? A crystal at x4 is 200 points, which is a different proposition from the same crystal at x1.
And what does the detour risk? Not what it costs in time - what it risks. A sidestep on flat ground risks nothing. The same sidestep across a gap with a goblin patrolling risks the run, and the run is worth everything you have already banked.
The asymmetry is the point. Early in a run your accumulated score is small and risk is cheap; late in a run the same detour for the same item is a much worse bet, because the thing you are gambling has grown and the item has not.
Take the cheap things, always
The corollary is easy to miss: anything on your line is free, and free things should always be taken.
This sounds obvious and it is routinely ignored, because a coin at ten points feels beneath attention. But coins feed the combo, and the combo multiplies everything after it - so the coin is not worth ten, it is worth ten plus its contribution to the multiplier that the next chest will be scored against.
In the games where the combo rises every three or four pickups, a trail of five coins taken on the way past is frequently a full multiplier step. That step then applies to the crystal you were actually aiming for.
The habit: never route around a cheap item to reach an expensive one. Route through the cheap ones.
Where the patterns tell you what to do
Items are laid down in nine shapes, and the shape is information rather than decoration.
An arc traces a jump, so following it is the correct jump. A trail marks a safe run. A column marks a climb. A ring marks a place worth circling. A stair marks a sequence of platforms in the order you should take them.
Because the patterns are pure functions of position, a game can test one against its own terrain before committing to it - which is how the platformers avoid laying a line of coins through a wall. If a pattern is there, it fits.
So a shape you can see is a route you can trust. That is a stronger guarantee than it sounds, and it is the fastest way to read an unfamiliar level.
Five rules worth keeping
Compressed.
- Learn the nine values once; they are identical in every game.
- Never route around a cheap item to reach an expensive one.
- Price a detour as value times combo, against what the detour risks - not what it costs in time.
- Runes and chests never come to you, whatever power-up you are holding.
- A visible pattern is a tested route: following its shape is following the correct line.
Collecting is not the only way to score
It is worth knowing where treasure sits relative to the other scoring sources, because in several games it is not the largest one.
Castle Defender pays six points per remaining point of gate health at every wave clear, which across ten waves dwarfs the gold you picked up. Dragon Treasure multiplies a banked haul by up to nearly double for carrying it in one trip. Rolling Knight pays for airtime and rotation rather than for pickups at all.
So treasure is frequently a means rather than an end - it feeds the combo, which multiplies the thing that actually scores. A player optimising purely for collectibles in those games is optimising the smaller term.
The games where collection genuinely is the score are the pure collection ones: Treasure Hunt, Magic Crystal Quest, Dragon Coin Rush. There, and only there, is every detour worth taking on its own merits.
Key takeaways
- Nine values, fixed site-wide: coin 10, gem 25, potion 30, crystal 50, star 60, orb 75, rune 100, chest 250, key 0.
- Runes and chests are not magnetisable, deliberately - otherwise the decision to go and get them disappears.
- Price a detour as item value times combo, weighed against what it risks rather than what it costs in time.
- Risk is cheap early and expensive late, because what you are gambling grows and the item does not.
- Cheap items feed the combo, so taking them raises what the expensive one will score.
- The nine spawn patterns are tested against the terrain, so a visible shape is a route you can trust.
Frequently asked questions
What is each treasure type worth?
Coin 10, gem 25, potion 30, crystal 50, star 60, orb 75, rune 100 and chest 250. A key is worth nothing - it is a requirement, not a reward.
Why will a magnet not pull in a chest?
Because a chest that slid into your hand would remove the decision of whether to go and get it, which in several of these games is the only decision there is.
Is a coin worth stopping for?
Not stopping, but never route around one. Coins feed the combo, so a trail taken on the way past can raise the multiplier that your next crystal is scored against.
How do I know whether a detour is worth it?
Compare the item's value times your current combo against what the detour risks. Note that risk gets more expensive as a run goes on, while the item does not.
Do the treasure patterns mean anything?
Yes. An arc traces a jump, a column marks a climb, a stair marks platforms in order. Patterns are tested against the terrain before being placed, so a visible shape is a usable route.