The formula of Fall Guys is simple: pit 60 clumsy beans against one another in a series of elaborate races, puzzles, and survival scenarios until there's only one left. It's battle royale at its most brutal, but the crux of this gameplay loop is the reward given to those skilled (or lucky) players that manage to win the entire episode, the elusive crown. Within the game, crowns serve as the ultimate motivator, as players can use them to buy awesome cosmetics and collaboration content, but recently a debate has cropped up over how the game handles crowns, splitting the otherwise wholesome player base into two distinct groups.
Part of what makes Fall Guys great is that players don't have to win in order to have fun. With this game, it really is about the journey rather than the destination, as the hilarity that ensues in every match as players tumble over each other to reach the finish line can be just as satisfying as winning. That said, missing out on Legendary cosmetics never feels good, especially if it's for a collab that the player was particularly excited for. Thus players have started to puzzle out alternate ways for less skilled and casual players to earn crowns even if it's at a slower rate.
Fall Guys Crown Disparity
The player base of Fall Guys is vastly diverse in terms of skill level, a fact that is easy to see when comparing how many crowns players have. On the one hand, a vast majority of players have never won a single crown from a game, instead relying on Fall Guys' season pass system to get a few easy crowns. On the other extreme, there are a few talented players that know all the tricks to every level that have an insane amount of crowns to their name, often more than they could ever use.
Take the image above, for example, as the aptly named FallGuysAddict69 shows off their jaw dropping 669 crowns. This achievement is amazing and should be applauded, but it also shows the disparity between Fall Guys' best players and its average players. It would be impossible for this player to spend all their crowns before season 2 begins, and having this many might even carry them all the way through season 2 as well. At the moment, Fall Guys has no answers for the players that simply can't seem to win a game, but players have compiled a list of ideas to remedy the situation.
Winning Crowns in Fall Guys - Alternate Methods
Players have come up with a variety of different ideas for how crowns could be earned other than winning shows. One popular suggestions allows players to win or buy crown fragments that could be turned into crowns after receiving enough. This could perhaps reward all players that make it to the final round a crown fragment or they could be purchasable with Kudos. Either way, this would allow players that can't win frequently to still earn crowns, albeit at a much slower rate.
Another idea posits that simply removing the rotating store would help alleviate the problem, as players could take time to grind towards a specific legendary that they want even if they can't reliably win crowns in Fall Guys. The issue with this is that it still does nothing to help those that can't get any wins. One user even suggested creating a third currency and a brand new game mode. Players would only be able to enter this new game mode by spending a crown, but if they win they'd gain access to an even rarer currency. While this seems counterintuitive, to solving the problem, it would allow skilled players to compete against each other while leaving standard lobbies open to casual players.
Crowns Should Be Exclusive to Wins
There are two sides to this argument, those that want crowns to be more readily available and those that think it should stay how it is. The biggest point made by those that think things should stay the same is that crowns will lose their value if everyone can get them. To these players, legendary cosmetics set them apart from other players and act as a reward that keeps them coming back. By allowing all players access to legendary skins, there would be no reason to continue playing and striving to be good.
These players weren't too happy when Fall Guys announced it would be adding 600% more crowns to the season pass, as that means more players will be using legendary skins than before. The whole philosophy behind this mindset is "if everyone wins, no one does," and these players feel strongly that people should have to earn their right to wear legendary skins and get crowns by becoming skilled at the game, not through handouts.
Crowns Should be Available to Casuals
On the other hand, many players feel that crowns should be available to casuals as well, even if it's at a lower rate. The selling point for this argument is that casual players need a reason to keep playing the game as well, and if they're stuck wearing the same uninspired skins while skilled players around them show off legendary crown skins, it will only be a matter of time before they leave. Given that those causal players make up the majority of the game's players, a mass exodus of this sort would almost certainly spell doom for Fall Guys.
Additionally, these players believe that spreading the excitement of getting a legendary skin doesn't cause any harm to players that earned crowns the normal way. Those players will still have far more crowns and legendary skins than casual players by nature of them winning games, and they'll still get the satisfaction of coming out on top over 59 other competitors. Most of these players are suggesting ideas that allow casual players to win crowns over time, whether that's through the aforementioned crown fragment method or something different. Ultimately, each player will need to decide how they feel about this debacle for themselves, but Mediatonic will be the one to decide how Fall Guys handles crowns moving forward.
Fall Guys is available now on PC and PS4.
