Drops are Zwift’s virtual currency, used to purchase virtual frames and wheels from the Drop Shop. They’re also used to purchase bike upgrades, and it’s the recent addition of upgrading that has many newer Zwifters asking: How can I earn more Drops?
We’re here to help. Below, you’ll find a complete list of tips to help you maximize your Drops earning rate.
Earning Drops: the Basics
It is unknown precisely how your “Drop rate” (how quickly you receive Drops while riding) is calculated, as Zwift isn’t sharing the formula. But we know seven factors influence your Drop rate:
- Calories Burned: This is the main factor, and it is strictly based on the power you’re putting into the pedals.
- Current Gradient: The steeper the climb, the faster your earn rate. This bonus kicks in at 3% gradients, but scales up as the gradient increases.
- Ride Ons Received: When you receive a Ride On, your Drop rate doubles for 15 seconds. This is the “easiest” way to boost your Drop rate!
- Time Near a Robopacer: Sticking close to a Robopacer can increase your Drops rate (read more).
- Your Gender: Zwift awards female riders 10% more Drops than male riders for the same effort.
- Bike Frame: Upgrade an entry-level or mid-range bike frame to a high enough stage and it will earn 5% more Drops whenever you ride it (read more).
- Current Speed: This is a minor factor, but it’s true that more distance=more Drops.
Dive further into how these factors affect your Drop rate by reading How Zwift’s “Drops” Currency Works
Additionally, certain actions in the game award big Drops bonuses, including:
- A 50,000 Drop bonus each time you level up
- A Drops bonus if you complete the Ventoux KOM and the prize spinner lands on something you already own (example: 15,000 Drops for the helmet or gloves)
- A Drops bonus on the prize spinner for certain Zwift events like the Big Spin
Comparing Two Drop Farmers
Given the factors listed above, there are two “Drop Farmer Profiles” I would recommend if you’re looking to maximize your earn rate:
- The Robopacer Groupie: This rider sticks with a Robopacer for the duration of their ride, taking advantage of the Drops Multiplier game, increased speed in the draft, and Ride Ons from friendly nearby Zwifters.
- The Climber: This rider enjoys climbing steep, long hills and the extra Drops awarded when the road tilts upward.
Based on my tests, The Robopacer Groupie is the highest-grossing approach, earning around 25% more Drops than The Climber if both riders put in the same amount of work. A 75kg rider holding 200W for an hour while staying in a Robopacer group for the duration could expect to earn ~66,000 Drops, while The Climber would earn ~50,000 Drops if they spent their entire hour heading up a solid gradient of 8%+.
(For a baseline reference, a 75kg rider who receives no Ride Ons while just “doing their own thing” alone at 200W on a flattish course can expect to earn ~29,000 Drops hourly.)
The Ride On Question
Note that the estimates for my two Drop Farmers assume they receive 60 Ride Ons during their hour of riding, weighted toward the beginning of their activity. This is an imperfect but not impossible assumption, especially if you’re in a friendly RoboPacer group or you have lots of followers who like to give offline Ride Ons.
Ride Ons are a huge factor here, though, since they double your Drops rate for 15 seconds. Because of this, riding in a RoboPacer group gives you a major earning advantage, as nearby riders often drop “Ride On Bombs” in the group.
Ride Ons received in the RoboPacer group are especially lucrative when your Drops Multiplier is at 2.5x! In our tests, 5 minutes of solid Ride Ons when you first join the RoboPacer group will earn you around ~4800 Drops, while 5 minutes of solid Ride Ons when you’re at 2.5x will earn you ~12,000 Drops!
Ventoux Spinner
If you’re a climber, it’s worth mentioning that the newish prize spinner atop Ventoux helps to close the gap between The Climber and The RoboPacer Groupie approach. If you earn 15,000 extra Drops each time you summit Ventoux, you’re only 10-12% behind The RoboPacer Groupie approach… a margin that can easily swing in your favor if you’re a friendly Zwifter who gets a lot of Ride Ons.
3 Rules
In closing, here are three simple rules for maximizing your Drops earning rate:
- Ride with RoboPacers. If you don’t want to do that, go hit a long, steep climb.
- Make friends who give Ride Ons.
- Go hard.
Questions or Comments?
What strategies have you used to maximize your Drops? Share below!
Thank you for this, I hadn’t realised there is a drops bonus for levelling up – I’d lost interest in levels a while back so this will get me back in the game!
Don’t forget the 5% bonus for the low and mid tier bikes.
Ah yes. Added!
I’ve gone from having way more drops than I need to suddenly wondering where I’m going to get 10 million from to unlock a halo bike! (plus all the upgrades along the way) 🙄🤣
Same!!
Almost at level 5 on my third Specialized bike but only have about 2 million drops. Guess I better hang close to those robopacers.
It would be nice if they added more ways to get Drops, as a relatively new rider I’m always low on Drops as there’s always something to buy or upgrade!
It’s particularly an issue when you have an upgrade you cannot afford so you’re losing out on getting the distance/elevation/time on the next upgrade. So you feel compelled to ride with a pacebot.
It would be great if events and races gave say 2x drop rate to encourage participation.
Spend the time earning more drops on a second priority upgrade bike, so if you decide to later you can upgrade the other bike/s faster
Do your upgrades wisely.
Pick a low end frame that, when upgraded, receives the 5x multipliers for XP and Drops.
Stay on it.
Stop wasting Drops on stuff that will only clutter your Garage later.
Not a 5x multiplier… a 5% multiplier. Big difference! 😆
I can but dream!
Do you really lose the distance/elevation/time? If I’m 800m elevation short and do the Alpe, once I upgrade I will already be 200m into the next goal.
There is a spinner on Mount Ventoux?
New yes. It can be 15k, 25k, or I once got 40k for landing on the wheels since I have that prize already. Alp du Huez is similar but earns xp rather than drops.
Eric, which prizes are on offer at Ven-Top ?
Same helmet, gloves, and wheels as Alpe du Zwift… I think?
If I do 50km recovery ride with Coco I’ll usually get about 100,000 drops because of the ride ons people dish out. I don’t get as many drops on the A and B pace partners if they aren’t as busy.
👍
Just as a matter os comparison:
I’m a 52kg (yes!) rider; with robopacers, my hourly drop rate @ 2,5x multiplier is
Coco: ~75k (holding ~160-165w)Yumi: ~78k (holding 165-170w); andJaques: ~83k (holding ~175-180w)
Are you an importer or exporter?
i’m an architect! 🤓
hey! you’re zwifting too!
Can anyone tell me where the nearest restroom is?
And now I have a (basic) question:
The more Ride Ons you give (Ride On Bombs), the more you receive? Or there is no such relationship ?
On the basis of purely anecdotal experience I would say that the more you give out the more you receive.
wrong i done 2 rides recently i gave watt bombs for an hour finished with 9 ride ons recieved next did not give 1 single ride on recieved 13.
No, I’m not ‘wrong’, it’s just that your experience on two rides was different from mine on many more.
I think you definitely get more Ride Ons if you give more Ride Ons:
Drop ride ons in Robopacer rides when the watts go on for an incline up hill. I’ll drop ride ons through the companion until I’ve saturated the bunch. I usually get 40-70 per 90 minutes in return. Ride on for ride on
If people like getting the ride ons, decide to follow you, and give you ride ons when they’re just in the app but not in the game, OR if you giving out ride on bombs in a group triggers other people in the group to think “you know what, maybe I should do one of those as well because I haven’t done one in a while” and that leads to a ride on storm tearing through the pack, then yes. Otherwise, I’m not so sure it matters. So, it’s all about peer pressure. Are you able to peer pressure other people into giving you ride ons by giving ride ons to them?
It would be interesting to know the average drops per rider, maybe per level bracket or something.
For all the noise about having to many drop to spend, I think most people are working towards purchasing something they can’t currently afford
Influencers/ Zwift raving fans often don’t realise that most people aren’t getting that many Ride Ons and the drops bonus they offer. I don’t think I have ever had 60 in an hour! Or maybe I’m just unsociable actually 😂
If you’re riding with a robopacer, do not take your coffee break on a climb, go hard for the max multiplier, recover to the group and then take a coffee break if you want. It’s amazing how many people take their coffee break on the short climb on the Volcano Circuit
What happens to the drop rate if you get two ride ons at the same time? 2x, 3x or 4x?
It applies them one after the other.
I think the current-speed impact on drop accrual rate is more than you’re giving it credit for. Compare the drop rate going up a hill at 10kph and 100w compared to going down the alpe at 75kph doing the same 100w. 36 vs 38kph will be minor of course.
The problem is, going uphill you have the uphill multiplier happening, so you can’t really tease out how much of the effect is that vs the speed.
Not that it matters all that much in the grand scheme of things but you could compare accruals at 100w flat (which is gonna be real slow) and 100w downhill at 70kph (which is pretty quick). The uphill having the climbing bonus in there shows how much the speed matters because it’s really, really slow when you’re crawling uphill.
But it’s all just minutae of a secret equation and if drops are the goal, go sit with Coco or whoever for an hour or two.
I thought you got drops by giving ride ons? Not true?
Not true.
I wish that Zwift would slightly increase the drop rate during races. It shouldn’t be high enough that min-maxers start joining races instead of robopacers for zone 2 rides, but it would be nice if it was high enough that new riders who almost only race aren’t left behind on upgrades. Maybe a 1.5x multiplier would be appropriate.
Maybe you need to ride more if you want more drops.
I’m actually fine with drops, because I’m not like the rider I described.
However, I know people who are struggling a bit, because they’re mostly racing and doing group rides (not robo-pacers).
Adding the drops bonus to Ventoux was a big help for riders who prefer solo climbing to robo-pacers, but it’s still slow going for riders who prefer races and organized group rides. Unless the group ride is very well attended, the ride-on count is super low.
Eric, does Zwift have any plan of reworking the garage? I have many frames which I don’t use anymore or don’t want to use. Can you give Zwift a heads up to put same sort of archive garage in there as it’s pretty messy and confusing finding frames (wheels as well for that matter) at the moment? Or add some sort of filter or sort things by km ridden for example…
Haven’t heard of any plans, although they do certainly know that’s a popular request.
Or, adding to Greg’s good points, Zwift allows you to trade in unwanted frames and wheels for new, say by giving you back 50% of the drops used to make the original purchase. It will help riders like me afford a halo bike 😀
Yes! I’d even take 20% lol.
yeah long time top 10 request for sure. I would add the option to donate less used equipment to new zwifters =)
How do all the factors play together.
If I am riding in a robo pacer group with a 2.5x multiplier and I get a ride on do I have a 5x multiplier or a 3.5x multiplier? Likewise for mountains, speed, bike frame, gender ….
If you’re riding at 2.5x multiplier and you get a Ride On, you have a 5x multiplier. As near as I can tell, everything just gets multiplied together…
Don’t stop pedalling downhill or the drops stop going up.
…and always ride back downhill in the climb portals. “Free” XP and drops for lightly pedaling.
I noticed offline Ride Ons are mentioned. Do they have an effect on drops?
Yes, if someone who is offline gives you a Ride On, it doubles your Drops rate for 15s just like any other Ride On.
I just noticed something on my drops counter I hadn’t seen before! On the right side, there’s a small flashing drop icon. With a pace bot, it alternates between the drop and the robo pacer symbol. When you get a ride on, it switches to a flashing thumbs-up and the drop, showing where your drops multiplier comes from.
What robopacer route(s) yields the highest amount of drops overall? Something like Sand and Sequoias? Taking Ride Ons out of the equation.
Cadence matters, too – I just noticed it this month. Your drops accumulate faster when over 90rpm, I watched the rate increase while holding everything else (HR, speed, power, distance to robo pacer) even. Starts kicking up at 90rpm – it’s a legit difference.
You also missed structured workouts. If you’re going to climb for drops, you might as well either make a workout at your target watts, or do one of the standard ones. You get XP for finishing your workout, which gets you closer to levelling up and the subsequent drop bonus.
Also make sure your FTP isn’t set too high. If you’ve been off the bike for a while, a higher-than-accurate FTP will mean your zones are off, so you’ll get less drops.
GP Lama did a video on farming drops a while back – highly recommend it!
Would love for Zwift to introduce double-drop events and I expect they would be very popular. In the old days, drops were almost irrelevant once people had got the kit they were happy with, but double-XP events were popular as a way to level-up faster.
But now, Zwift is giving out XP bonuses like candy, while also increasing the demand for drops by introducing upgrades and Halo bikes.
I’m actually thinking that I will pass on the new Unlocked events as I want neither the kit nor the XP – I can just do route/workout/climb of the week if that suits my training better, and I still get lots of XP. What I really need are drops…
One question:
When we receive a Ride On while riding, we get (I think) double drops for 15 seconds for each Ride On, is this correct?
What if we’re riding with a pacebot and, let’s say are getting 1,4x drops and receive a Ride On. Do we get 2,0x for 15 seconds or 2,8x?
Thank you!
Pretty sure you get 2.8x.
Thanks @Eric Schlange !
So it’s best to start giving rideons when we get a good multiplier like 1,6x or so instead of starting giving them from the start, right?
This assuming people will send them back, of course…
Yeah, I suppose so!