How to get Free Axes in Brightwood Adventures
It is actually possible to play the entire game without ever buying an Axe. But keep in mind that it is Kiwi's business model to try to persuade you to buy scarce Resources, especially Axes. And they have some valid reasons for this:
"There is no such thing as a free lunch."
"The laborer is worthy of his reward."
Free Axes
Free Axes are drip fed to you by the game in three ways:
- Every time you achieve a new Experience Level, you receive 1 to 4 Axes
- Certain Quests reward you with a few Axes, although as a rule most Quests have a net loss of Axes
- There is a 10 day cycle of Daily Rewards that includes 3 Axes
Between these three ways, the game gives you about 1 Free Axe per day, assuming you play the game every day.
You can also earn Free Axes, usually one at a time, by downloading stuff from Tapjoy. Just click the "Free Axes" button on the left-hand side of the same screen that lets you purchase Axes for Cash.
Beginner's Luck
Wait until the second day of playing, and you should be offered a package deal of 50 Gold, 25 Axes and 10,000 Coins for $3.99. Buy it, and don't complain, unless you spent less than that for your lunch today. By the time you have used all of those Axes, you should know whether you want to play the game any more, and how much you are willing to spend in order to do so.
The Axe Generator
Follow the Walkthrough to find the Axe Generator as early as possible. This will give you 10 Free Axes. After that it must be recharged with Gold. See Below.
Cheap Axes
You can buy Axes for cold, hard Cash at any time. But if you wait, Kiwi rotates through putting each Resource on Sale, with Axes going on Sale for about 3 consecutive days approximately once each month. The Sale gives you a graduated Bonus of Axes, with the Bonus percentage going up the more Cash you spend.
The Sale cost compared to the regular cost of Axes looks like this:
| Cost | Amount of Axes | Cost per Axe |
SALE Amount of Axes |
Bonus |
SALE Cost per Axe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2.99 | 15 | 20 cents | 19 | 25% | 15.8 cents |
| $4.99 | 28 | 17.9 cents | 42 | 50% | 11.9 cents |
| $9.99 | 60 | 16.7 cents | 105 | 75% | 9.5 cents |
| $19.99 | 130 | 15.4 cents | 260 | 100% | 7.7 cents |
| $49.99 | 375 | 13.3 cents | 843 | 125% | 5.9 cents |
| $99.99 | 1000 | 10 cents | 2500 | 150% | 4 cents |
Buying Axes on Sale works especially well for those who can afford to buy the larger bundles of Axes. At 4 cents per Axe, they are practically giving the things away. And it should take you months of chopping with reckless abandon to use up 2500 Axes
Cheaper Axes
For those who cannot afford the larger bundles, there is another way to get Cheap Axes at the lower purchase amounts. This works once you have the Axe Generator, and need to use Gold to recharge it. 40 Gold will get you 32 Axes, or a conversion rate of 1.25 Gold for one Axe. You will then need to put one Helper to work full time tending the Axe Generator, which can produce one Axe for you every 5 hours, or about 4 per day.
Now all you need is the Gold, and that goes on Sale at a straight Bonus of 100%, irrespective of how large or small a bundle of it you buy. This also gives you a second option in the Sale rotation for buying a Resource on Sale that can be converted to Axes, if you don't want to wait for the next Axe Sale.
The Cash cost of buying Gold on Sale and converting it to Axes looks like this:
| Cost |
SALE Amount of Gold |
SALE Cost per Gold |
Amount of Axes (and Gold left over) |
Cost per Axe (=Gold x 1.25) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2.99 | 48 | 6.25 cents | 32 (+8 Gold) | 7.8 cents |
| $4.99 | 88 | 5.7 cents | 64 (+8 Gold) | 7.1 cents |
| $9.99 | 192 | 5.2 cents | 128 (+32 Gold) | 6.5 cents |
| $19.99 | 416 | 4.8 cents | 320 (+16 Gold) | 6 cents |
| $49.99 | 1200 | 4.2 cents | 960 (+0 Gold) | 5.2 cents |
| $99.99 | 3200 | 3.1 cents | 2560 (+0 Gold) | 3.9 cents |
Keep in mind that at 4 Axes per day, it will take nearly 2 years to convert 2560 Gold into Axes. And your cost per Axe savings at this level is minimal, when compared to spending the same amount for Axes on Sale. Of course, you can spend the Gold on other things as well, so buying 3200 Gold doesn't actually commit you to tending the Axe Generator for the next 2 years.
But this option is far superior at the smaller purchase amounts, because it nets you almost twice as many Axes for the same cost, when compared to buying those Axes on Sale.
Coins for Axes
Finally, there is a way of getting a continuous supply of Axes that really is Free. You need three things in order to make this work for you.
First, you will need the Axe Generator, to convert Gold into Axes at a rate of 40 Gold to 32 Axes.
Second, you will need the Caravan , a unique Quest Building that is given to you quite early in the game, in the Mysterious Caravan quest. You should already have the Caravan long before you find the Axe Generator. But you need to read the page about the Caravan, to take all the mystery out of it, so you understand how to use it as a mechanism to convert Coins into Cheer and Gold at an approximate rate of 4625 Coins to 1 Gold (with 1650 Cheer as a bonus).
Third, you will need to be far enough into the game that you have more Coins than you know what to do with. In all likelihood, you will already be at this stage by the time you have found the Axe Generator. Once you are earning Coins faster than you can spend them, the Caravan becomes a useful place to spend down those excess Coins, and convert them to two Resources that are extremely useful. One of those being the extra Gold you will need to recharge the Axe Generator.
At this rate, it will take 185,000 Coins to get you the 40 Gold you need to buy 32 Axes. Or about 5780 Coins per Axe. But the Coins were Free, given to you by virtually everything in the game, from Buildings to Crops and Trees, and even Clutter. So the Axes are Free as well!