The Ultimate Guide to the Sanctum Showdown Economy - Feb '26
Lauren guides you through the ins and outs of the latest edition of Sanctum Showdown.
Showdown's back! This guide will cover the economy for the latest edition of Sanctum Showdown. It should help you decide how to spend your resources, including whether or not the Premium Pass is right for you.
If you're interested in strategy and decks, don't forget to check out Scott's guide!
Scosco
I'm going to start something new with this guide. There's a lot of shared structure across events – and that means there's a lot of shared tips and tricks. If you're interested in these, you can follow the link below and read any section with the Sanctum Showdown logo.
LaurenWhatevs
Fourth Location subscribers had early access to this economy guide until the event was ~48 hours old.
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Grand Prizes
On the Free Pass: the brand new card, Starhawk!
Aaaand on the Premium Pass: this epic pelvic thrust Variant of our new card!
Scrolls
Head over to the Tickets section of our universal event guide if you need more information about how these work.
Starting Scrolls: 6
Regenerating Scrolls: 4 every 8 hours
Scrolls Soft Cap: 9 (you cannot regenerate above 9)
Scrolls Hard Cap: 99 (you cannot buy or collect Scrolls above 99)
Free Pass Scrolls: 10
Premium Pass Scrolls: 12
Total Free Scrolls: 100
Total Premium Scrolls: 112
There's been just a small change here compared to the last Showdown and Arena — each pass comes with 2 fewer Scrolls.
During the first Sanctum Showdown, I collected game data from several players.
Games: 439
Avg. Win Charms: 18.3
Avg. Loss/Tie Charms: 9.2
Roughly, a 50% win rate means you'll play two games per Scroll (one win, one loss) and earn about 27.5 Charms. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on your play style.
Passes
The Premium Pass costs 800 Gold and comes with 650 XP, two Scrolls, and a Fire Purple Border upon purchase.
Here's everything you can find on each Pass (Premium instant rewards listed at 0 XP):
Premium Value
In terms of progress value (how close you get to acquiring your next card from the Token Shop), this Premium Pass comes in at exactly the same value as this month's Grand Arena: 63.42% progress value.
As usual, I'd never recommend buying a bundle with such low value unless you adored the cosmetics. The Premium Pass is a bit more complicated than a simple bundle, though.
It's a great deal for cosmetics (y'know, if you like them). Besides the exclusive Starhawk Variant, it comes with 1,800 Charms to spend in the Shop. That could buy you a new Emote or a couple more Variants!
For a different type of player, the instant 650 XP means time savings. You can spend 800 Gold to grab Starhawk without playing a single game of Showdown.
Time Investment
The table below shows how many games you'll have to play to get Starhawk or complete the Passes. You can see the time savings provided by Premium, requiring about 43 fewer games to reach Starhawk, or 48 fewer games to complete the Pass.
Even with the reduction in Scrolls, it's still totally doable to complete the Free Pass with a poor win rate and without spending any Gold. A player with a 35% win rate will need about 89 Scrolls to finish the Pass. You can get 100 for free.
Shop
Here's everything in the shop!
Each Portal Pull you buy randomly gives you one of these three prizes, out of the ones you don't have yet.
If you are going to spend Gold in the Shop, it's good to be strategic because every item has a different Gold:Charms conversion rate (lower "Gold Ratio" is better).
Expected Charms
Players who skip the Premium Pass will have 3,500 Charms by the time they finish the Free Pass. Players with the Premium Pass will have 4,650.
You can earn even more if you decide to keep playing! Here's how many Charms you can expect to earn if you spend every Scroll from the Passes and regeneration:
Conclusion
Mostly, this event is super on par with the last two big events (Grand Arena and January's Sanctum Showdown). And that's a good thing! The Passes have reasonable expectations that are totally achievable through active play.
The Premium Pass continues to jump you straight to the biggest prize on the Free Pass. I almost always skip the Premium, but I like that there's an option for players to opt out of the mode completely without missing the new card.
It's a small change for the worse that each Pass lost two Scrolls, but I really don't think it's a big deal. The event is already quite generous, being possible to complete the Pass with a 35% win rate and no Gold.
I think I will once again be skipping the Premium. I'm interested in Dan Hipp Makkari and the Mystique emote, but I can get those for free – even if it takes three Portal Pulls! Don't get me wrong, the Magik and X-23 are both great, I just already have Variants for them that I like. Sanctum Showdown is my favorite mode, so I'll be happy to put the time in.
