Super fun but too expensive to play

I love this game, the strategy of pairing cards and upgrading your deck is super enjoyable. However, after playing for a few days Ive hit a paywall that seems unreasonable. Let me explain.

The going rate for a gem is about 20 cents each, if a 3pack costs 60 gems, that means its $4 per card. This is pretty expensive to begin with but it gets crazier.

At some point in the game you need to level up your cards so that compete. The only way to level up your cards is use dust. To level up from 2-3 it usually costs 12 dust. To recycle cards in exchange for dust or install apps. You also cant exchange about 90% of your cards for various annoying reasons. Typically you get 1 dust per level 1 card. This means that it takes 12 cards to upgrade 1.

So to sum it up, it could cost you $48 to level up 1 card from 2-3! Thats busted.

dawgcrap17 about Little Alchemist, v1.35.15