Neanderthal Room vs. Flute Room

As you know if you have been following this blog at all, I have been saving up my gold to buy a Flute room. Someone said, "Why a Flute room, why not some Golden Goose rooms or a whole bunch of Neanderthal rooms?"

I've already done the analysis of why not to buy a Golden Goose room (I simply don't find it worth the expense, when I can get as much or more gold each day just from the Community Chest cards - more on that in another blog).

But this got me wondering about the Neanderthal rooms.

This room is only found in the Ventnor Museum, costs 90 gold bars at full price, and yields M$312,500 and 77,968 experience points every six hours.

When I first bought the Ventnor Museum, this room was the object of my room lust. Great experience points boost every few hours, plus a nice fat payout of M$, what's not to like?

Saved up my gold from checking out the "Free Gold" videos and the then very rare gold from Community Chest cards, and finally lucked out in that I had 45 gold bars when EA put up their last "gold rooms for half off" sale a few weeks ago.

I've been loving that room. It only takes up a single square, and it pays out *nicely* each time!

But, recently, I've been lusting for the Flute room.

This one is available in each of the normal hotels, also takes up only one square, and it produces even better: M$10,000,000 and 225,000 experience points every 8 hours.

But there's the price tag: a whopping 1,998 gold bars.

Until the recent addition of the Boxing Gloves room, the Flute room was the most expensive room you could buy for gold.

And until the recent upgrade to Monopoly Hotels, this room seemed entirely out of reach for someone like me who refuses to spend cash on freemium upgrades to a game.

But now, with the easier-to-earn gold in the sticker book, not to mention the Golden Goose room, the Midas room, and, of course, the Community Chest cards, it's no longer so far out of reach.

It will still take a while to save up enough gold for this room, but it's doable.

My friend's question made me think, though: what if I filled up the Ventnor Museum with all Neanderthal rooms? Would that equal or exceed the daily take from a Flute room in M$ and experience points? Potentially for less than buying a Flute room?

Hmm.

Let's do the analysis.

First off, how many Neanderthal rooms can I buy for the same price as a single Flute room?

That's easy enough: 1,998 into 90, which means I can buy 22.2 Neanderthal rooms for the same gold. (Assuming that the Ventnor Museum takes a total of 40 squares, that means it would cost approximately as much to fill the museum as it would to buy two Flute rooms.)

Back to the math: I can buy 22 Neanderthal rooms for the price of a single Flute room. 

22 Neanderthal rooms means M$312,500 x 22, or M$6,875,000 every 6 hours.

And 77,968 x 22, or 1,715,296 experience points every 6 hours.

At first glance, the Flute room seems to win if you consider M$ alone: 10,000,000 versus 6,875,000. But consider also that the payout schedule is slightly different: the Flute room only pays out once every 8 hours, while Neanderthal rooms pay out every 6 hours.

So, to truly compare apples to apples, let's figure out the per-hour yield from 22 Neanderthal rooms versus a single Flute room.

22 Neanderthal rooms:
M$6,875,000 /  6 = M$1,145,833.33 per hour

1 Flute room:
M$10,000,000 / 8 = M$1,250,000 per hour

Hmmmmmm.

And similarly, let's compare the experience points yield.

22 Neanderthal rooms:
1,715,296 / 6 = 285,882.667 experience points per hour

1 Flute room:

225,000 / 8 = 28, 125 experience points per hour

Well, that math makes it even more interesting again. I would obviously make slightly more cash on a per-hour average by investing in a Flute room, but I would make TEN times as much experience points with the 22 Neanderthal rooms.

Which brings up the question: which do I need more, cash or experience points?

For me, the answer is experience points. As you get higher and higher in levels on the game it's harder and harder to collect enough experience points to move up to the next level!

Oh, if you are wondering what the math looks like when EA puts on a 50% off gold rooms sale, let me reassure you that the math does not change. 

The Flute room will then be at half price, but so will the Neanderthal rooms, so the ratios remain the same, so the sale is irrelevant, except for the fact that you may not have enough saved to buy a Flute room even at half price(998 gold bars), but you will likely have enough to buy one (45 gold bars) or more Neanderthal rooms!

Also, keep in mind that there is only one Ventnor Museum, so the maximum you can buy is probably 40-ish Neanderthal rooms.

I think my strategy is going to be to slowly fill up the Museum with Neanderthal rooms first, collecting huge numbers of xp every day, and then, once it's full, start tackling the Flute rooms.

Of course, if you are willing to pay real cash to buy gold, then you will have no need for this analysis - you can buy one or more of each of these rooms as it takes your fancy. :)