A Skins, Spools and DST-Shop Guide

[Viktor234]

This guide has been designed to help you to manage your waveable skins and the DST shop.

Skins are purely cosmetic items that players can use to customize their Characters, originally to distinguish players from each other.

• Without loss of generality: The value of a skin is the number of spools you get when unraveling the skin.
• A copy of an already owned skin is known as a duplicate, and it doesn't grant you access to more content.
  • A waveable duplicate has no options besides unraveling it, so getting a duplicate (via drop or ingame shop) can be considered as only a drop of spools.
• A not owned skin will have its value increased by a factor of 3 because you will no longer have to use 3 skins of the same tier or 9 skins of the next lower tier to wave this skin.
  • It's not like skins are worth only 1/3 when unraveling them but getting a new skin is 3 times more worth than getting just a duplicate.
• You'll neither win nor loose anything if you wave a skin, but the value of the woven skin won't be multiplied by 3 if it drops naturally (via drop or ingame shop) because the drop will drop as a duplicate.
  • You might consider this before deciding to buy it on the shop, but the chances to get the right Elegant via the 15 drops every week is about 1 to 500, there's a good chance to get that skin in the next ~10 years if you keep trying every week.
• Unraveling a non-duplicate skin will grant you spools but in total you will loose twice the value of the skin, because to get that skin back you'll need to use 3 skins of the same tier, and unraveling it granted you only as many spools as one skin of the same tier.

There are actual 3 different ways to obtain waveable skins:

• Get them as weekly drop
• Wave them with spools
• Buy them in the DST-Shop or as DLC

While the Weekly Drop is the cheapest way to get any skin you want to, you'll not always get the skin you wanted and as stated above: Obtaining the proper elegant skin might take up to 10 years. Trading with other players is not an option because waveable skins aren't tradeable.

So there are still 2 options left: Waving or buying.

But which one is the more effective way? Do you spend more money by waving skins or by buying them?

Many Chests in the DST-Shop grant you more skins for less money in case of if you don't own any skin included in this Chest and really want to obtain every skin included in this Chest. But there are exceptions, for example:

• Buying any non-Deluxe Winona Chest which contains 2 Skins (1x Elegant + 1x Distinguished) costs as much as the Forge Weapons Chest which grants you a total of 7 Elegants. If you buy the Forge Weapons Chest, unravel 4 Elegants and use them to wave all the skins available in the Winona Chest you'll get all the contents of the Winona Chest for the same cost but also 3 skins from the Forge Weapons Chest: More skins for the same cost.

To manage cases like these I made a cheat sheet which analyzes every Chest available in the DST-Shop and returns the lowest price at which you could obtain every skin in the Chest.

Column meanings:

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1. Spools/'Currency': How many Spools you get for each 'Currency' you spend (after unraveling).
2. Wave Spools: You need that many Spools to wave the whole Chest by your own.
3. Unravel Spools: How many Spools you get from unraveling all the skins in this Chest.
4. For Spools: Is it worth it to buy unravel the whole bundle for spools?
   • Yes: It's worth it.
   • No: It isn't - Just move closer to the top and pick the first bundle marked with a 'Yes', that will grant more spools for the same or even less cost.
   • !: This Chest can be purchased only once because it's only available as DLC. Unraveling skins will make the skins in this Chest unavailable for you.
5. Full Chest: A Complete Chest contains every skin of a certain skin set. You'll get every purchasable skin without duplicates if you buy every Complete Chest.
6. Has Items: Does this Chest contain any belongings? (skins for craftable items or structures)
7. Price: The cost of this Chest.
8. DLC Price: The cost of this Chest if bought as DLC.
9. Wave Price: The cost of this Chest if you keep buying & unraveling the most effective Spools/'Currency' Chest and use all the Spools to wave every skin in this Chest, only valid if you don't own any skin available in this Chest, otherwise the cost might become lower.
10. -25% W. P. (-25% Sale! Wave Price): The cost of this Chest if you keep buying & unraveling the most effective Spools/'Currency' Chest when it's for -25% on Sale and use all the Spools to wave every skin in this Chest, only valid if you don't own any skin available in this Chest.
11. Worth Wave: If your missing skins from this Chest can be woven for that amount of spools or less then it's cheaper to wave the missing skins, based on the Chest with the highest Spools per currency value.
12. Worth Unravel: If your available skins from this Chest can be unraveled for that amount of spools or more then it's worth it to wave the missing skins, based on the Chest with the highest Spools per currency value.
13. -25% W. W. (-25% Sale! Worth Wave): If your missing skins from this Chest can be woven for that amount of spools or less then it's cheaper to wave the missing skins, based on the Chest with the highest Spools per € value if it's for -25% on sale.
14. -25% W. U. (-25% Sale! Worth Unravel): If your available skins from this Chest can be unraveled for that amount of spools or more then it's worth it to wave the missing skins, based on the Chest with the highest Spools per currency value if it's for -25% on sale.
15. Total Skins: The total number of skins available in this Chest.

The columns marked with '-25%' mean if the Magmatic Bundle is on sale for -25% but not the actual Chest you want to have. If both chests are on sale, use the column without '-25%'. Compared to the '-20%' chest, the '-25%' chest will have a discount of only 6.25%.

Spools/€:

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Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r4c-vHXHazgqOtiUdvA4d8uS-zL47I1L7QuryVH7Np0/edit?usp=sharing

Compared to the best Chest on the DST-Shop (Magmatic Bundle on -25% Sale!), skins on the Steam Market should cost that much or less to grant more Spools/€:

• Common (5): 0.0034 €
• Classy (15): 0.0103 €
• Spiffy / Heirloom Classy (50): 0.0343 €
• Distinguished (150): 0.10 €
• Elegant / Heirloom Distinguished (450): 0.31 €
• Heirloom Elegant (1350): 0.93 €

Spools/$:

• Not available yet: I need the cost of every Chest which is available on the sheet in $ in text, screenshots or another sheet. Use Spoiler please if posting these.

Spools/Other currencies:

• Not available yet: I need the cost of every Chest which is available on the sheet in your currency in text, screenshots or another sheet. Use Spoiler please if posting these.

Examples:

Spoiler

• If you buy the Magmatic Bundle, unravel all the skins + an elegant / a heirloom distinguished / three distinguished skins, then you'll have enough spools to wave every incoming character and a full Skin set for each character.
  • That's almost the same as buying each of the 4 character chests but you'll need to pay only 4.20 € + 1/4 of an Elegant for each character and you can choose your exclusive skin by your own.
• The cheapest way to get every character (without skins) is to buy the 'All Survivors Gladiator Chest' and the 'Forge Weapons Chest' and unravel all skins. That will give you a total of 11,530 Spools for 15.78 € (3.945 € per character) which is enough to wave all the characters.
• You can also buy the Forge Weapons Chest DLC once for 3.99 € and unravel all the skins which will grant you 3,150 Spools (789.47 Spools/€), that's enough for a single character and a Distinguished skin or 2 Elegants + 1 Distinguished.
  • 3.99 € for a single character (without skins) + a single Distinguished skin.
  • Because only the DLC costs 3.99 € and you can't buy DLCs twice, you'll need to pay 4.99€ (631.26 Spools/€) next time when doing that.
• Contenders Promo Chest costs 10.79 €:
  • If you own no Contender Skins: Contenders Promo Chest grants you no duplicates; You get 13,995 Spools or 1297.0 Spools/€
    • Unlike Magmatic Bundle, you get more than 1091.72 Spools/€
    • If the Magmatic Bundle is on sale for -25%, it will be more cost effective to wave the Contender Skins with the Magmatic Bundle (1455.63 Spools/€) but if the Contenders Promo Chest is on sale for -20%, then the Contenders Promo Chest will become with 1621.25 Spools/€ more effective once again.
  • If you own 2 Elegant and 2 Distinguished Contender skins which could be unraveled into 1,200 Spools: Contenders Promo Chest still grants you all the skins you wanted but also a duplicate of the two Elegant and two Distinguished skins (-2,400 Spools) which have no other use than being unraveled; You get 11,595 Spools or 1074.6 Spools/€
    • That's almost same but bit less compared to the Magmatic Bundle
  • If you own each of the character skins but are still heading for the belongings which could be waved for 8,100 Spools: Contenders Promo Chest still grants you all the skins you wanted but also each of the already owned character skins which have once again no other use than being unraveled; You get 10,065 Spools or 932.8 Spools/€
    • Buying and unraveling the Magmatic Bundle would grant you all the skins you wanted for only 9.22 € (only in theory because Magmatic Bundle needs to be bought for 16.79 €) which would save you 1.57 €

Useful Links & Mods:

Spoiler

• Checking your available skins: https://dst-skins-checklist.github.io/
• Unraveling all the duplicate skins works pretty quick with this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1557935632&searchtext=skin+quene
  • It only works if you already had the skins before purchasing them once again because otherwise there won't any duplicates and the mod won't recognize them automatically.

 

[Prismaux]

This is a very well done guide.Thanks for taking attention to detail and having to effort to arrange this stuff out.

[Esnes Nommoc]

Thank you thank you thank you! This is super helpful. I thought you can't purchase a bundle twice but apparently you can. So basically I can buy two magmatic bundle and have enough to weave all the upcoming characters and their selective skin sets I wanna use with spools to spare.

[Viktor234]

Just updated my sheet, added the Ghastly Attic Chest (looks cost efficient) and new columns for the introduced -25% sale.

Also, according to the DST Shop in my country: The Magmatic Bundle is on sale for -25% which allows you to buy 18,330 Spools for 12.59€ (1455.63 Spools/€). It may be a good time to restock your spools for new skins or the new incoming characters.

[KainMorgen]

Can the Magmatic Bundle be purchased just once or several times?
If it can be purchased repeatedly: Would I have to unravel all magmatic skins before purchasing again to get all skins or does the order not matter because if I'd purchased first I'd have every magmatic skin twice?

[Maxposting]

17 minutes ago, KainMorgen said:

Can the Magmatic Bundle be purchased just once or several times?
If it can be purchased repeatedly: Would I have to unravel all magmatic skins before purchasing again to get all skins or does the order not matter because if I'd purchased first I'd have every magmatic skin twice?

You can buy it several times, you don't have to unravel the skins because they will be added as a duplicate ( basically the skin twice )

Order doesn't matter.

[Viktor234]

42 minutes ago, KainMorgen said:

Can the Magmatic Bundle be purchased just once or several times?
If it can be purchased repeatedly: Would I have to unravel all magmatic skins before purchasing again to get all skins or does the order not matter because if I'd purchased first I'd have every magmatic skin twice?

You can buy an unlimited amount of chests in the DST shop, but the DLCs in the Steam shop which unlock skins for DST can be only bought once. Skins which are only available via Steam DLC because they aren't available in the DST shop right now are marked with a '!' in 'For Spools' column.

So: Yes, you can purchase the Magmatic Bundle as often as you want to and stock up your amount of spools and the order doesn't matter, you'll get every skin whenever you purchase.