Diamonds

Diamonds are what makes DBE a freemium rather than free game: Diamonds are used for a variety of different things in the game, and, while you can find some in-game, you can also buy them with real money.

Other than VIP and the Surprise! goal, there is no difference between found and purchased diamonds.

Free diamonds
There are many ways to get free diamonds in the game. For example:
 * Elite enemies sometimes drop 10 diamonds
 * Elite instance roulettes and multiplayer rounds can drop diamond bags
 * Daily quests rated 3 stars and above can give diamonds as a quest reward
 * Star chests on instance and elite pages, goal milestones, etc. often have diamonds
 * Events often give diamonds
 * Routine points give 50 diamonds for 75 rpoints
 * Dragon's Lair Answers can give diamonds
 * VIP rewards give free diamonds every week

Purchased diamonds
The other way to get diamonds is with an In-App Purchase. Click the Get Diamonds link in the top-left corner.

The cost is:
 * $2.99 for 88 (3.4¢)
 * $9.99 for 300 (3.3¢)
 * $24.99 for 800 (3.1¢)
 * $49.99 for 1800 (2.8¢)
 * $99.99 for 4000 (2.5¢)

VIP
The list of VIP privileges is available in-game, so only the key benefits are listed here:


 * VIP 1: 60 diamonds ($2.99). Skip combats, auto tourney, and auto-farm instances and elites.
 * VIP 2: 1300 diamonds ($49.99). Auto-farm dungeon, no talent/forge cooldowns.
 * VIP 3: 2600 diamonds ($79.98). 20 arena attacks instead of 10.
 * VIP 4: 8000 diamonds ($199.98).
 * VIP 5: 16000 diamonds ($399.96).
 * VIP 6: 32000 diamonds ($799.92). Kasumi (a very good 2-gold companion).
 * VIP 7: 70000 diamonds ($1799.82).
 * VIP 8: 180000 diamonds ($4499.55).
 * VIP 9: 360000 diamonds ($8999.10).
 * VIP 10: 2000000 diamonds ($49995.00).

In addition to the documented benefits:
 * You get some free chests at the start of the game, and occasionally during events, that can only be opened by VIP 1. And inside those chests will be a chest that can only be opened by VIP 2. And so on.
 * Many features with diamond costs have a discount based on your VIP level.
 * Gear inheritance gives you (50 + VIP*5)% of the difference in forge levels, so a VIP 9 will inherit 95% while a VIP 1 inherits only 55%. (However, this also comes with a disadvantage, because the diamond cost goes up the higher the final inherited level is. And it goes up a lot faster than the VIP discount!)
 * After you become a VIP you gain a "V" logo next to your character name.

Tips
If you're going to spend $800 on the game, spend it all up-front. Better to get Kasumi (and explore for Ying Chen) early instead of building up lesser comps; better to get the XP bonuses through the whole game instead of only much later; better to get the bonus stats while they still make a huge difference and can help you climb higher in the arena and tourney instead of when they're barely noticeable; etc.

Don't spend diamonds until you see your daily quests and guild quests, because they'll often ask you to, e.g., exploit the altar 4 times, or spend diamonds 5 times, or do 3 diamond guild constructions.

Some of the most useful ways to spend diamonds are:
 * Resetting dungeon, Dragon's Lair, and (when you have the stamina) the best page of elites you can beat.
 * Guild construction, and maybe contribution (but construction has a chance of giving double the reward).
 * Exploring for Ying Chen and Kincade.
 * Training.
 * Altar exploitation.
 * Resetting 1* and 2* daily quests.
 * Protection stones, if you plan to do evolution beyond tier 5.

However, the game also gives you a lot of very stupid ways to spend diamonds, and events give you even more. (If you're not sure whether an event is a good way to spend diamonds or not, go to the forum; it's virtually guaranteed that there will be a thread angrily calling it a ripoff if it is.)

Notice that some of them increase in cost the more times you do them per day—for example, altar exploitation is a great deal for the first one at 2 diamonds, but not so much for the 20th at 40 diamonds.