Trading Basics Compendium

Author : Luci

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Trading

Players from around the world can interact in-game to trade resources and improve their party. Players can initiate trades by searching for a specific IGN  (in-game name) and initiating a trade or gift. These trades will then be sent to the person you are dealing with so they can either accept and send back a trade, or reject by hitting the discard button of the trade screen. Once a trade is sent to you, you will also be given the chance to review your trade and either accept or discard the trade just as the other player.


Rebirth has created a new market, and encourages trading for specific guardian types to reborn new powerful and special types (bold, wise, sonic, etc) to enhance a specific guardian's greatest assets. Trading is essential for competitive play. Here are the various types of trades you might encounter.

Catalog trade
Providing catalog help to traders can be a valuable resource. By providing these catalog services, traders can complete catalog pages for lucrative rewards such as free SHT, stones, potions, and skill stones in exchange for a few silver slimes per guardian or group of guardians. The going rate is usually 1-2 SS per low tier guardian, and up to 1 GS for rare and high tier guardians such as FFIV and FFV guardians. If you're friends with the person, they might even do it for free or for catalog of something they themselves need. Oftentimes, it is standard to provide collateral. In other words the borrower must usually provide another 5 star guardian of roughly equal value to prevent the other person from losing or having their cards stolen.  

Silver Slimes (SS) trades
Slime trading is one of the very basic methods to get started and build your party up. These slimes are very valuable resources as they level cards very efficiently Since these cards are so cheap, it's a great place for newbies to buy good, unleveled, 4 stars for a few silver slimes a piece. Silver slimes can also be exchanged for stones or gold slimes if you have an excess. Furthermore farming slimes can be a good way to get you started in the stone trading market which can be exchanged for unneeded 5 stars. 

2*/3* feeder trading
This is one method of exchanging low level cards to level up your 4 or 5 star cards. Since specific type feeders level up the same type cards at a higher rate, it might be worth your time to exchange these with others that may need a different set of feeder. Be aware that the limit of gifting is 30 per game day since it will be easy to hit this mark when trading low level feeders.

Stone trading
Stones are the most readily accepted currency in this game. In real life, these would be the dollar amount you'd spend to buy something, whereas accepting 5 star trades would be like accepting a personal check in a large sum for payment. Stone trading can be an easy way to buy the guardians you need. Furthermore, sellers can sell unneeded cards for stones, then turn around and use them to buy the cards they do need. In addition, these can be added in to fill in the gap between different cards of different values as toppers in trades to make deals more even for the buyer and seller. Selling unneeded 5 stars or other items is in your best interest as cards tend to depreciate in value and usefulness in time whereas stone values remain relatively constant and largely unaffected by market forces over large periods of time. However, trading stones does come with a downside due to trading limitations in-game. For instance, large stone transactions can be very risky (see safe trading compendium).

4* trades/ non-5 star trades
In this market, 4 stars are given very low weight. These cards are often made more valuable as feeders for 5 star cards than they are for usefulness in battle. Reborn has created a large market for these 4*s since leveling can be very time consuming and cost a lot of GP.  The increased leveling requirements is now over three times what it once was, therefore the demand for these feeders remains high. Once these fully leveled 4*'s are no longer needed in your party, they can be sold for stones, and multiples can be sold to purchase 5 stars or used as currency toppers in 5 star trades. Stoning and high development of these cards will almost always see a very high loss in initial investment. The depreciation of these is generally highest. Only a few top ace 4* might be worth your while to invest in. For type references to improve the quality of your deck,  refer to the 4* Card Compendium or other resources such as GCX or GCF.

5 star trading
This comprises the bulk of trading cards, knowing card values relative to each other will get you far in the game. These are the several different types of 5 star trading which you might encounter. Knowing how to utilize these trades will allow you to utilize your deck resources efficiently. For type references to improve the quality of your deck,  refer to the 5* Card Compendium or other resources such as GCX or GCF.

Trading up/Trading down
Trading up is a type of 5 star trading involves trading your bad types for better types by adding the right amount of toppers to compensate your trading partner for the difference in type. This allows you to to reborn new types such as sonic or wise cards efficiently. These can typically be topped with a proper stone amount or with other 5 star cards. When trading up, your trading partner will be interested in trading down their cards. Some of those people will be interested in rebirthing an Ace or Cool type cards. Since rebirth fodder for Ace or Cool type cards do not take preference to different types, one could  downgrade their decent or best type card for a poor type or worst type card and collect additional resources.

Ace 5 star trading
Once you've improved your deck enough to a full deck of reborn cards, it might be time to dabble in the ace trading market. These lucrative 5 stars are the most desirable to own, so the price of them will also be much higher than than the best types reborn of the same guardian. Prices for these are usually very difficult to to pinpoint, so successful ace trading is very advanced and will require successful negotiations and feedback from both parties to come to an amicable trade. Knowing values is key since profit and loss margins are high with these trades. When trading for these aces, be on heightened alert for illicit cards as these could put your account at risk (see safe trading compendium)

Border card trading
Battle in the coliseum rewards players with various limited edition cards that can be used exclusively in Veteran, Elite and the new special coliseum.
Great- These bronze-bordered 5 stars often pale in comparison to their mighty and almighty counterparts. As a result, undesirable great cards of poor type might be sold and used as feeder cards when fully leveled.
Mighty- Up to three different  mighty cards can be used in the new veteran coliseum. Powerful silver-bordered mighties with good types often will sell for a very high price as they will be even more powerful than many of the best ace 5 stars.
Almighty- These extremely powerful gold-bordered cards are limited to elite or special coliseum play. Values for these cards can vary extremely wildly. Similar to ace trading, the opportunity for profit or loss is also very high with these cards. The highest tiered and best typed almighties will typically be the most expensive cards to trade for whereas other undesirable almighties with poor types can be traded for rather cheaply. For type references to improve the quality of your deck,  refer to the Almighty Card Compendium or other resources such as GCX or GCF.

There are still a few other forms of trading such as Real Money Trading(RMT), Cross Trading etc. which will not be covered in this guide since it isn't allowed by Square Enix and also in the GuadrianCross-Forums. This guide should help new comers understand the basics of trading and how to acquire a better card deck and thus a better gaming experience through trading.

Guardian Cross is ultimately a trading card game. Part of the fun of the game is working together, for mutually beneficial trades. Though you might make some costly mistakes trading, keep at it, and surely you'll become a much more craftier trader, able to climb to the highest ranks of competition. Have fun with the game, and take time to make some beneficial alliances and friends along the way.

Safe Trading Compendium

Author : Luci

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Beware of scammers!!!
Be wary at all times when it comes to trades. You are dealing with traders from all around the world, and a small percentage of them are simply not trustworthy. Moderators at GCF do their very best with resources available to them in order to create a safe trading environment. However, all of you need to do your best so as to help yourselves. These forums are not overseen by Square Enix officially, so if you're the victim of a scam, you might not be able to retrieve what was stolen from you. Don't feed them the scammers. It makes it much harder for everybody to compete competitively if you're fooled by them.
 
Warning signs  

1. Low rep:
Let’s be honest, forum reputation systems (whether numerical rep at GCF or interpersonal familiarity on other forums or trading channels) have inherent flaws to them as none are completely foolproof to scammers. However, if you're careful, you can generally avoid having your precious 5 star cards and other resources such as stones and feeders stolen from you. Take time to review a person's past transactions, in order to determine if he is trustworthy or not. A person with many 5 star transactions won't likely risk banishment from the forums; because it is a valuable resource to him or her. Whereas a person with many rep, but all very small transactions like stones or slime exchanges doesn't necessarily mean they are indeed trustworthy. Of course there are always new forum users all the time, but be on the lookout for risky or compromising transactions which might be vulnerable to scamming or even having your account restricted for accepting illicitly acquired cards (dupes or fakes).  

2. Trade-locked scammers:
These are your typical low-lives that purposely lock themselves out of being able to trade to entice you to gift your trade first. These people tend to be very pushy and offer extremely generous trades. Once you send over a majority or all of the trade items, you might never hear from them again. For large stone transactions, be absolutely sure you can trust them. Otherwise it's not worth the risk. Ace reborn cards or premium best types are rarely sold for stones. If the offer appears to be too good to be true, then it’s possibly a scam. If a person is trade locked, wait for them to either complete the trade or trade the next day after the daily trade reset time so that the trade is sent back to him or her. Do not give into pressure; it's one of most easily recognizable tell-tale sign of a scammer.

3. Catalog swap scammers:
Yet another way thieves will try to steal your cards by asking for help in order to fill out their catalog by borrowing your rare 5 star cards. Collateral prevents scammers from not returning your 5 star after completing a catalog entry. This implies that if you wouldn’t actually trade for his/her collateral, do not risk your card. It cannot be stressed enough! Helping others is always a good thing, but if it puts you at risk; don't do it. It's not right for them to ask you to rely on trust alone. For this reason, a lot of catalog swaps will need to be planned during the short period between coliseums. Also, never use Aces, best types, or otherwise reborn/developed cards for swaps. There is no need to risk those at all. You could easily turn an honest person into a swindler that way as the temptation to steal is much greater this way. Don't do it!
 
4. Un-solicited gifts:
If your IGN is known, (which is possible if your IGN is posted online or in your forum signature) it's possible for scammers to put your account at high risk by sending duped or illicit freebies. It's recommended that you send these back to the sender. However, if you accidentally accept the gifts; DO NOT PANIC! Instead, feed them to your low star guardians and sell them for GP immediately. Do not keep these in your gift inbox or your card inventory because those are scanned for illicit cards as well. Review your gifts before accepting or hitting the "take all" feature of your trade/gift inbox. 

5. Dubious or clearly hacked cards:
Check available resources such as GCX for a list of all possible abilities a guardian can learn. Does the Morrighan or Atlas you're trading for learn greater heal? If it has an ability, it cannot learn; it’s an obvious fake which will put your account at high risk. Border cards gained from coliseum rewards cannot be ace type, so watch out for those as well. Even if your game profile has never been hacked, accepting a trade for an illicit guardian is grounds for permanent restriction of your in-game account. Square Enix's ban-hammer swings fast and unexpectedly so be warned. Though it may not be possible for everybody, one helpful way to prevent dupes from entering your account is to let a suspect trade guardian "incubate" in a 3rd party's inactive account for a day or two, to filter out the illicit ones. If it is does turn out to be illicit, you may have lost your trade card, but it's much more preferable than losing your entire account.
 
6. Forum name and IGN discrepancies:
Low level accounts with very highly developed cards can be, but not always; a sign of high risk. Often, these can be borrowed IGNs from high level accounts, but it's not typical that they indulge in trading directly. Strange random IGNs can be harder to track down, and are likely a spare account held by scammers. Another sub-set of these types of scammers are your impersonators that pretend to be a reputable trading partner on another site. They might constantly try to assure you they are indeed trustworthy, but if they ask you to put yourself in a compromising situation, it's likely they may be out to scam you. If it looks and feels fishy, don't put yourself at risk. 
 
7. Guardian does not match trade description by seller:
Always check the type and development of your trade. Type and skill discrepancies can make or break the card's value. Be sure to check if the guardian being traded matches the description given by the seller and review each card carefully before accepting a trade. Square Enix has improved the trading system by allowing cards to be reviewed before completing the trade. Make sure, that you take a screenshot of the card inside the trade request and cross check the details with GCX before proceeding with the completion of the trade. Screenshots can also act as evidence in case you have been scammed or if you realize that the card is illicit, the forum moderators can take action against such users.

Despite following these guidelines, one cannot be completely immune to scams since sometimes one can be scammed by their close friends as well. Such scams are unavoidable but have a life’s lesson hidden in them. Hopefully this guide can help everyone protect their valuables and avoid getting scammed. Thanks for reading!

Scammers BEWARE: Your days are numbered!!!