What to buy in the Arknights Certificate shop. So you’ve earned a bunch of Commendations and even saved up some Distinction certificates. Here’s how to make the most your hard earned green and yellow currency.
Earning Certificates
In case you were wondering, here’s how Yellow and Green Certificates are rewarded (Red ones are farmed via Tough Siege).
Distinctions (Yellow) are earned from first time recruitment, 5-6 Star duplicates or exchanged with 4-6 Star tokens. These certificates are therefore very hard to come by so you will want to spend them wisely.
Commendations (Green) are much more common and can be obtained from 1-4 Star duplicates and exchanged with 1-3 Star tokens. You will get a bunch of these from your routine recruitment.
Tokens are given for duplicates received for operators with max potential.
Commendations
The first tab “Commendations” is where you spend your Green Certificates.
A few things to note:
- There are 3 tiers.
- Subsequent tiers are unlocked once all items from the previous tier is purchased.
- The store refreshes monthly.
Commendations: Tier One
It’s quite sustainable to buy everything in the first tier. Value wise you will notice as you progress up the tiers the cost for the same items increase. Therefore this first tier is the most bang for buck out of the three.
However if you had to pick then prioritizing the Headhunting Permit, Orundum and Recruitment Permit are good choices.
Commendations: Tier Two
Here’s where you will want to pick and choose:
- The Recruitment Permits are still good value.
- The Elite Material are ok but they aren’t all equal in value.
- The Headhunting Permits are not so great anymore.
Elite Materials
How hard it is to obtain the material determines its value. Some Elite Materials are much harder to obtain than others. This is due to their drop rate and Stamina cost per run for the level that drops the material.
Here’s a table estimating the stamina value of each Elite Material option in the Tier Two Certificate Shop.
| Elite Material | Stamina Cost | Certificate Cost | Stamina per Certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
 Oriron Cluster | 52.87 | 35 | 1.51 |
 Loxic Kohl | 43.76 | 30 | 1.46 |
 Integrated Device | 54.33 | 45 | 1.21 |
 RMA70-12 | 53.60 | 45 | 1.19 |
 Aketon | 41.21 | 35 | 1.18 |
 Grindstone | 46.68 | 40 | 1.17 |
 Manganese Ore | 39.78 | 35 | 1.14 |
 Polyester Pack | 33.07 | 30 | 1.1 |
 Sugar Pack | 32.28 | 30 | 1.08 |
 Orirock Cluster | 24.10 | 25 | 0.96 |
| Stamina Cost taken at 14/4/20 courtesy of Penguin Statistics | |||
In summary the Oriron Cluster and Loxic Kohl give the best value. However keep in mind you should only purchase materials you need. After all there’s not much value in them sitting in your inventory.
Commendations: Tier Three
Should you have so many tickets that you clean out Tier Two then you will have access to the final tier in the Commendation Shop.
The options here are expensive and not worth it. I’ll probably never have this tier unlocked. But if you’ve gotten this far then you must be a baller with little concern for efficiency.
Distinctions
As mentioned previously Yellow Certificates are very hard to come by so be careful where you spend them.
Typically its recommended to spend your Distinctions on a 6 Star Operator that you want.
Now some 5 Star options may be tempting. But they are just much more easier to come by. Especially when you are often guaranteed one from your first 10x rolls every time a new banner comes around.
So what about the rest?
- Tokens – You need 4 of these to upgrade your 6 Star Operator’s potential, better save your Certificates on actually obtaining 6 Stars first.
- Elite Material – You can farm for these.
- Expedited Plan – Not even sure why this is here… total rip.
Headhunting Permit
Alright this one is a bit more tricky. You can purchase it 5 times costing a total 258 Distinction Certificates.
With each purchase the overall cost per permit decreases. Therefore although the initial purchase is very low in value it gets better as you go up the phases.
If you were to purchase this then it would be recommended that you save up enough to make all 5 purchases giving you 23 Headhunting Permits.
Why would you purchase these? Well there might be a banner worth rolling.
However keep in mind that the Distinction Shop is the only place where you can be guaranteed a specific 6 Star. Spending on banners is often a 50/50 and that’s even if you get a 6 Star.
So consider maintaining a reserve of 180 Distinction Certificates on top of the 258 you would need to buy the permits. You never know when that 6 Star operator you really want might appear.
