I still think reworking Extra Lives is still better since with Extra Lives being what it is as of right now, you’re investing on an item that overall, reduces the chance of success in the long run if it ever gets used.
Dying already takes some keys away from you, so I’d only find it fair if the nerf you get after dying isn’t too big, to justify for the keys lost when that item gets used.
I also find that a solution that asks you to invest even more keys just to get this “buff” (that you may or may not even use throughout the fight) just increases the amount of keys lost once the mission’s ended. (Which is most likely why I won’t be using this as I don’t die as often now, it’ll be a waste)
Key investment is a pain to go through, and I hate having to do the math myself, but I had to if I want to earn keys while playing instead of losing them, which kinda takes away the fun of it if I was more of a newbie who had just realized this fact.
Imagine explaining how to invest keys to newbies so they could actually win keys and use the keys they won properly to do more missions that could win them more keys, and so on … for a more positive feedback loop.
Like, right now, whenever I do a mission, I always calculate on the top of my head, how much keys I’ve actually used, and compare that to the final keys I’ve got just to decide if I should be happy with what I’ve done. It’s definitely not fun to tell a newbie all of this.