Talk: Spice

Spice Values

I have added pictures of each spice and the best sale price I can find for them. If anyone can find better sell prices please edit the pictures or artical to let people know and take the "advisory sell price" out from the picture, Thanks Dd7900 20:28, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

The pink spice you linked is actually purple, and yes, pink and purple ARE different (both rare) also I got paid up to 50k for green spice, the prices are prone to fluctuation and local demand.--88.149.246.128 22:55, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't found purple yet, but I've got lots of pink, green, and tons of blue, red and yellow. While prices are random, it seems that the same planets have consistently high prices, and that prices stay the same or go up when the player is absent. This information could probably be added to a spice strategy page? Parthon 20:23, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

What's the best price people have seen for pink? We've got a good listing here of all the others. --Agamenoar 18:19, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, I found a place buying it for good money, and posted a picture. --Agamenoar 20:45, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The Advisory Price images... I just realized, those are only valid for the 'easy' mode of the game, aren't they? We should really make up a chart listing the best possible prices on each of Easy, Normal, and Hard. Based on the link to the spice calculation chart someone else posted, we should be able to just calculate this out. --Agamenoar 03:41, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The official guide is wrong on the base prices, extracting the game files got me the following:

• Red: 3375
• Yellow: 4500
• Blue: 5230
• Green: 10125
• Pink: 11242
• Purple: 14625

Other empires charge you base price for their spice, and I've personally never seen an empire want 6750 for their yellow.

The way the game calculates sale prices seems to be:

$Sale Price = Base Price * (1 + Premium)$

where Premium is the value obtained from the table in the game guide.

An aside on "advisory sale prices": Please note, this will get a little long and probablity heavy, skip down to "Conclusions" if you don't care for the reasoning, but, here I go.

The max sale price happens too rarely to be considered something to strive for.

Assuming the game guide is correct;

• Each planet chooses three kinds of spice it will buy, and two it will not buy, and;
• Each planet chooses one of ten different premiums to charge for spices it will buy.

I'm adding an eleventh premium (0), because I've seen Red spice (base price = 3375) have a sale price of 3374. I'm also assuming each premium is equally likely to occur.

Continuing the Red spice example, the probability of a non-Red producing planet charging max price for Red is:

$(oddsOfPlanetChoosingRed) * (oddsOfGettingMaximumPremium)$

$(3/5) * (1/11) = (3/55)$, which is approximately 5.5%/one of every nineteen non-Red producing planets. Fairly rare, and especially hard to find in the beginning of the game, where you may not have nineteen non-Red planets to go to!

I'm going to introduce expected value here. Expected value, like the die-rolling scenario, says if a die is rolled a large number of times, the value per die roll will approach 3.5. In Spore, we're not rolling dice, we're selling spice. Eventually, after selling lots of spice, we'll approach the "true value" of the spice. And, thus, to make a large profit without a large fuss, all we'll need to do is find a buyer at some price higher than this "true value"!

The expected value (of the premium) is dependent on difficulty level:

• Easy: 1.81
• Normal: 1.36
• Hard: .90

And, keeping this in mind with the way the game calculates sale prices:

• Easy: 2.81 * BasePrice
• Normal: 2.36 * BasePrice
• Hard: 1.9 * BasePrice

In tabular form:

• Easy
  • Red: 9483
  • Yellow: 12645
  • Blue: 14696
  • Green: 28451
  • Pink: 31590
  • Purple: 41096
• Normal
  • Red: 7965
  • Yellow: 10620
  • Blue: 13242
  • Green: 23895
  • Pink: 26531
  • Purple: 34515
• Hard
  • Red: 6412
  • Yellow: 8550
  • Blue: 9937
  • Green: 19237
  • Pink: 21359
  • Purple: 27787

Again, continuing with the Red spice example:

$(oddsOfPlanetChoosingRed) * (oddsOfPremium > EV)$

$(3/5) * (5/11) = (15/55)$, which is approximately 27%/one in every three and a half planets. Considerably more common.

Conclusions: The max sale price doesn't occur often enough to use as an advised sale price. The values in the table above essentially give the true value of the spice, and a large profit can easily be made by selling the spice above its true value, not needing it to be at maximum price. Cobaltate 00:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

though logical, im afraid that in hard mode in spore, i have seen a best price of blue spice in hard mode, 55064

Price Tables

I've just gone in and overhauled the Selling Spice section and corrected the Spice Types section, as per the fancy (and, so var, pleasingly accurate) spreadsheet I've cobbled together to show predicted spice prices. I've just spent a few hours on the formatting and so will be taking a break before posting (on a sub-page) the actual spreadsheet and math.

In the meantime, the page now shows in italics all values that I haven't yet personally verified. If any of you find one of these "missing" prices in-game, I'd sure appreciate an edit; I don't look forward to putting as much work into the Normal/Hard chart as the Easy one took. >.<

By extension, though, all values which are not in italics have been personally verified by me in-game and all the italic values are calculated from those. So far, the Easy chart has almost no error at all and the Normal/Hard chart starts accurate at low prices and slowly increases to an error of 5 or 6 sporebucks for the really high values. Still, that's more than close enough for most people.  :-)

--DarkRyder 19:33, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

I've noticed in my game that green sells for $60K or something like that, not the maximum $50K like it imposes, also a nifty little trick that i MIGHT make a new secion about tells me that green is rarer, and so it sells for more. Even though pink IS rarer, i will not deny that, it is not worth as much. Lone Helper 07:43, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

It's probably because they aren't at the same level, it's probably Green's next level of price up so it defeats Pink's price at the previous level. It's like getting expensive red and cheap purple. Thanks, TimeMaster Talk Main Contribs 16:37, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I know that, but i am just saying that i could sell it for 60K MAXIMUM, and that sais that you can only sell it for 50K MAXIMUM, but I cannot go through the prices to change them because A) I don't know how they are coded and B) I don't have all the prices. i might get a pic soon, if i can find an empire that buys them for that 60K on easy. Lone Helper 20:13, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you test Pink for the MAXIMUM, please? Thanks, TimeMaster Talk Main Contribs 21:58, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I found that max for pink a lot of times while serching for it, but not that 60K that i think you might think i mistook it for.Lone Helper 04:30, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Terraforming and spice

Is the color of spice affected by terraforming the planet? And is this predictable? - Redmess 21:38, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Only the amount of spice changes due to the amount of buildings your colony can sustain due to the terra score. Wormulon 21:41, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Nope, it depends on the star is orbits and if it is in the goldilocks zone or not. Thanks, TimeMaster Talk Main Contribs 21:45, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

And a degree of probability. Lone Helper 08:35, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

My gliched install

I know since that secion has been up for MORE than a day that it wasn't cross editing. And since it has been deleted i have come to the conclusion that i WILL go ON TO my spore, FIND AN EMPIRE that buys it for 60K and THEN prove it to you ALL that you are wrong. Lone Helper 20:19, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I noticed the price of spice goes up and down, and games can vary slightly. I to have had spice with the price greater than maximum, though it probably is a glitch. Wormulon 20:48, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not talking about the prices going up and down, i KNOW that, i'm talking about the people that have it DRILLED into their skulls that the maximum price of green spice is 50.something K. I come across it MULTIPLE times and in that section, i showed something that surports that theory, now i have a picture. Getting it soon.

Lone Helper 21:12, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you give a screenshot as proof? - Redmess 22:54, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't find one in time for school, i'm going to keep trying to find it.

Also, that picture, it shows that green is rarer than pink because it's more to the right than pink. Hope that makes senceLone Helper 04:25, 17 March 2009 (UTC)]

Lone Helper, are you claiming that green spice is rarer than pink, because everyone knows that pink is rarer than green. I have an explanation: the value of green spice can exceed pink spice, but most of the time it doesn't. Also a glitch in the game could be causing the spice to reach over 50 K. Everyone experiences the Spore game differently. I have never had green spice at 60K. Wormulon 10:19, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Also, the order in my game goes "Re, Ye, Bl, Gr, Pi, Pu," unlike in yours. Otherwise, Wormulon is right, and I haven't gotten Green for 60K yet, and I've got 60K for Pink, but that's the highest. Thanks, TimeMaster Talk Main Contribs 16:13, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Well then i have had a gliched installation. It makes sence anyway (well at least for me) that green would be inbetween pink and purple, gives a break about colour, ya know? Well i guess now that whenever i come across a price chart, i swap around the prices of pink and green. Lone Helper 19:41, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I would rather have had two more distinct colors. For me, those last two colors are a bit close. - Redmess 19:45, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I have flew over the Galaxy and have seen a lot more Green Spice planets that Pink Spice Planets, and if you look at the Spice probability section, there is only one place where pink is more common than green. Liquid Ink 22-08-09 (UTC)

Farming

Hi... I added a section that tells how to exploit game loopholes to farm spice like a fiend, but since I don't know much about the wiki I couldn't include a picture... Also, I have seen a buy price for purple spice on easy mode at over 97k before, so the values placed on the page itself MUST be wrong. Buzz me for chat about this - Nokota

211.31.60.169 23:30, May 17, 2013 (UTC) I have a similar thing. I once had an empire pay 40k for my blue spice. I have a t2 gas giant moon that makes it.

Personal Observations

Ok just based on what I have seen I believe the game bases what a spice sells for in a solar system by asking 3 basic questions

1. Does the solar system have that type of spice(obviously if it does then it will not be worth much)? 2. Does a connecting solar system have that type of spice( so if a species has a solar system with all yellow spice but the a connecting one with all red spice red spice will not sell for a lot)? 3. And finally what is that solar system worth? (So if you go to a solar system that has pink spice even if the planet is uninhabited they will naturally pay more for your spice because the solar system is worth more)

So if you want to find a place that will pay the most for your spice find a system that does not contain and is not connected to a solar system that contain the color you want to sell and also try to find a system that contains a rare spice itself. P.S. when I say

Number three is very interesting indeed. If true, one could raise the price for spice in a solar system by making all the planets t3. This is certainly worth testing. - Redmess 16:00, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma?

Is Spice a Solid, a liquid, a gas, or plasma? I always thought of spice as a powder. Liquid Ink 21-08-09

Well powder is a solid. I think spice is a fluid, either like natural gas or like the geysers found in Yellowstone (US) or Iceland. Wormulon 10:25, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Seeing how it comes out of geysers and the simbol for spice resembles a mound with a star over it (a sparkle perhaps?), you could argue for powder, which would make it a solid. - Redmess 16:03, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Or maybe it is Liquid in a natural state, but when your planet harvests it they capture it in balloons, possibly because they have turned it into gas. and then when they give it to you to sell it to others, they have made it into powder for different reasons. Or maybe it just exists as gas all the time, and has to be frozen down to become powder... hmm i wonder... Sporesauce 95 18:46, March 23, 2010 (UTC)

Just running with that idea, spice could be liquid in its natural state (geyser), but it would be counter-effective to turn the spice into gas for transport (Gas has lower density so they couldn't transport as much). Turning the spice to solid would make much more sense as solids have a lower density than liquid (in all cases except water).

A better explanation could be that the geysers are in fact powdered spice floating in hot air. This would make the balloons make sense, and the organism would simply collect the spice dust in crates for transport to save space. Spriggs077 02:43, August 15, 2010 (UTC)

Maybe these are just arbitrary symbols meant to communicate to the player where to place spice derricks, which vehicles are transporting spice, and how much and what types of spice are in the cargo hold.

White Spice Section

I thought the White Spice glitch was removed in a recent patch? FNRKK 19:53, September 11, 2009 (UTC)

Another Thing About White Spice

THE WHITE SPICE SECTION SAYS ITS WORTH OVER 100,000 SPOREBUCKS BUT IT CAN'T BE SOLD, CAN IT BE SOLD OR NOT It must be because this website is a wiki 86.159.4.119 16:50, November 21, 2009 (UTC)

I think there is a mod that can let you get hold of white spice. You are right, the page contradicts its self. Wormulon Talk to me

Real world spices

Hasn't ANYONE thought that the spices might be based on real world spices?

It's like another of those references that EA put into the game, like the Village Folks achievement icon being creatures spelling YMCA. (For all of you that don't know, YMCA is a popular song written by the Village People.)

I've figured out what some of the spices relate to in real life.

Red spice: Chilli. Yellow spice: Lemon. Green spice: Mint.

Blue spice: Vallmo? Cause vallmo is kind of greyish blue. lol.. Sporesauce 95 18:37, March 23, 2010 (UTC)

Also pink and purple representing Sweet 'N' Low (and some obscure floor polish) and dried plums respectively.dickdickdick

I added this into the page...now I feel like I'm not the ONLY nerd that noticed it XD D34THROW 04:29, April 26, 2010 (UTC)

• I do believe that I'm the true nerd here, pink seems a reference to this: http://www.hulu.com/watch/61320/saturday-night-live-shimmer-floor-wax 67.234.106.128 15:05, January 13, 2011 (UTC)

um... a Google got me this... http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/08/30/cooking-lavender/ Flymousechiu (talk) 20:51, December 22, 2012 (UTC)

Multiple spice types on homeworld

Somehow my homeworld gives me three kinds of spice, red and either blue or pink (I haven't been getting pink for quite some time already though). The amount of secondary spice collected is about half that of the main red spice, and it doesn't show up on the trade page. Jacxis 7:34, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

Do you have any trade routes?--Liquid Ink 07:42, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

I do have a few. They actually contribute to the spice you collect from your homeworld? Jacxis 8:25, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I get red and blue spice from my homeworld.--Liquid Ink 09:25, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

It seems as though the spice coming in from trade routes will dwindle after a while. I used to get 5 or 10 units of yellow and blue spice on every trip to my homeworld in addition to the red spice I produced, but I only get red spice now. D34THROW 01:59, August 15, 2010 (UTC)

Unknown type of spice

Before i got Spore someone told me that there was a very ancient and super duper rare form of spice called "Crystallized Brown Spice" something, could there be such a thing? Sporesauce 95 18:53, March 23, 2010 (UTC)

Spice can come in other colours (see White spice), but it is only a glitch and it is unobtainable. Wormulon Talk to me 18:58, March 23, 2010 (UTC)

No such spice exists with the name "Crystallized Brown Spice." Only mods could produce such a spice.

Sporty Spice

What is the fake spice "Sporty Spice" supposed to be like? For adventure purposes. Comrade Liquid Ink 10:48, September 9, 2010 (UTC)

---

Five Sporebucks says this 'Sporty Spice' was invented as some kind of reference to illegal drugs. It's definatly non-canon though (not real). Spriggs077 Just Sayin' my Bit, Say Yours! 11:51, September 9, 2010 (UTC)

black spice

hey i found black spice, but is this becouse i have installed better spore? if it isn't please tell me!

Yes, it is. Oh, and in future, remember to sign your posts with four tildes (~). Ghelae - (talk) 16:35, April 5, 2011 (UTC)

i know, its now very late for me, thats the matter hehe, thx for your reminder--stay of my wodka, SUKA!!! 19:28, April 5, 2011 (UTC)

MODDED SPICE

should we also make a price table for modded spice? i mean, a wiki must provide all info connected to the game :)--stay of my wodka, SUKA!!! 10:58, April 25, 2011 (UTC)

The mods have nothing to do with the actual gameplay, plus there is probably so many mods it will be different depending on which mod was downloaded. We do have a spinoff wiki, Spore Modding Wiki, for that kind of content otherwise SporeWiki mainspace concerns only the original gameplay. Wormulon Talk to me 11:47, April 25, 2011 (UTC)

ahh i get it, well can we do it on another page?--stay of my wodka, SUKA!!! 17:19, April 25, 2011 (UTC)

about the probability stuff

how is this the case, then? [1]Flymousechiu (talk) 23:27, November 24, 2012 (UTC)

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Plum Pudding Model?

Could the purple spice possibly be a reference to the plum pudding model of the atom developed by J.J. Thompson?

Ziebro (talk) 18:26, May 2, 2013 (UTC)

Other uses for spice?

I noticed on the main page in the opening paragraph, other uses for spice are referred to. I have never seen any reference in-game stating that spice was used for construction or as an energy source. I am abstaining from spore until late April and am unable to check. However, I am fairly certain this is just speculation, good speculation that feeds the imagination, but speculation nonetheless. Does anyone know where these uses for spice are stated in-game?

Can you add some stuff?

What are the rules for spice production on binary systems with stars of different colors? Also put down a tip that yellow star systems are the only ones with green orbit line purple spice, and should be visited for easily obtainable purple spice. 47.204.231.156 14:25, March 18, 2017 (UTC) Anonymous

oh, nvm about the binary production. just found a binary yellow and blue system with blue spice in places a blue star would have it, and also had some yellow star exclusive planets. in that case, just add the purple spice tip and that binary production is a combination of the percentages of the two star types in the system. 47.204.231.156 14:39, March 18, 2017 (UTC) Anonymous