Basic Trope: There are two currencies: one is easy to get, while the other is rarer, more valuable, and may require real money.
- Straight: The mobile game Mary and Spencer's Town Builder gives the player two currencies. You can earn Pennies from just playing the game and waiting for timers to finish, while Gems can only be bought with real money or waiting for a rare event.
- Exaggerated: Gems can only be obtained with real money, and are used to buy practically everything of value.
- Downplayed: You can still get a decent stream of Gems by just playing the game every day. It's slower than if you just paid real money, but still feasible to buy some special items.
- Justified: In the game world, Gems require a lot of time and effort to be produced, so they aren't used or traded as often as Pennies.
- Inverted: There's only one currency, and its rarity fluctuates.
- Subverted: After an hour or two of gameplay, Gems start showing up more often and you can buy items with them almost as fast as Pennies.
- Double Subverted: The first few Gem items are just exceptionally cheap; ones after require an obscene amount that's unfeasible to earn without paying.
- Parodied: The premium currency is called Real World Bucks. It's meant to remind you just how much you're paying on a Freemium game.
- Averted:
- There is only one currency in the game.
- There is no currency.
- Enforced: It's an Allegedly Free Game. There needs to be some incentive to keep players logging in, and give them an outlet to directly spend money.
- Lampshaded: Mary and Spencer give a tutorial to the player that explains the currencies. Mary points out that it's harder to get Gems than Pennies.
- Invoked: Mary gets the idea of introducing a new, rarer currency to town because the value of Pennies is suffering from inflation.
- Exploited: Gems are specifically introduced to extort money through high exchange rates.
- Defied: Mary and Spencer decide that it's just easier to use Pennies to buy everything, and phase out accepting Gems as currency.
- Discussed: Spencer tries to buy something, but is told that it takes Gems instead of Pennies. He questions why Gems are so rare, and how people are even supposed to get them.
- Conversed: "I think they just made these 'Gems' expensive so you waste money on the game."
- Deconstructed: Players see that Gems are just a money-grubbing scam and stop playing the game.
- Reconstructed: The developers notice and lower the cost of Gem items, in addition to adding a feature to convert Pennies to Gems.
- Played for Laughs: The premium currency is something silly, like Spencer's Underwear.
- Played for Drama: Every time you go into the Gem mines to get some, you have to look at the miserable miners who aren't happy to be toiling for your greed.
- Played for Horror: The premium currency shop is owned by the terrifying and powerful Big Bad. Every time you spend it, you're giving him more resources to build a bigger base and raise a stronger army.
You must spend 1000 Pennies or 20 Gems to go back to Premium Currency.
