Balance XP, gold and loot before players do

Balance XP, gold and loot before your players do. One spreadsheet for your whole game economy: XP curves, gold faucets and sinks, shop prices, loot tables, upgrade costs and a 60-day player simulator. Change a yellow cell and every sheet, chart and verdict updates.

• XP Curve: 4 curve types (Linear, Power, Exponential, Blend) with rounding, XP per hour, hours per level and to max level, charts
• Summary: hours to max level against your target, with a plain-English verdict
• Economy: up to 12 gold faucets and sinks with growth per level and unlock levels; net gold per hour, wallet by level, sink ratio and inflation warnings
• Shop: prices from "hours of saving" at the unlock level, or check your own prices
• Drops: weights to chances, 1 in N, tries for 50/90/99% of players, hours to farm, expected tries with a pity counter
• Upgrades: +1 to +15 with failure chances: expected attempts and total cost in hours of income
• Simulator: level and gold of a typical player for 60 days
• 4 presets: mobile casual (30 levels), classic RPG (50), long-haul RPG (100), roguelite meta (20 ranks)
• Export to your engine: Godot 4 loader script, Unity ScriptableObject loader, Unreal DataTable row struct, plus ready CSV and JSON tables for every preset

Works in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc and Apple Numbers. No macros, no add-ons, works offline.

Real numbers, not guesses: the Classic RPG preset reaches level 50 in 60.5 hours against a 60-hour target; a 1% legendary drop needs 230 tries for 90% of players, and a pity counter at 200 brings the average to 86.6. Every preset is recalculated in LibreOffice and checked against the reference model.

FAQ

• Why not Machinations? It's a powerful online simulator with a learning curve and paid tiers. Grindscale is a plain spreadsheet you own, works offline and exports straight to Godot, Unity or Unreal.
• Why not a free XP calculator? Free calculators do one curve. Grindscale links XP, gold, shop, drops, upgrades and a simulator, so one change shows its effect everywhere.
• Do I need Excel? No: Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc and Apple Numbers work too (standard functions only, no macros).

Try the free web version first (XP curve + drop and pity calculator): CyberMax hub/grindscale/index.html

Also available: Classroom Licence for teachers ($29, share with up to 40 students) and the Indie Game Dev Bundle (Grindscale + Tintmoor 60 LUTs + Fernscatter Nature Pack + Blipwren 120 game sounds, $25 instead of $36.99).

Licence: use it for any number of your own games, commercial included; the numbers you make are yours. Don't resell or share the workbook itself. One-time purchase, instant download (zip, about 75 KB). © 2026 CyberMax.