The four ways you earn, and the one that moves your fleet

This lesson prepares you to: Name the four income sources on Helm and identify the only one that moves your fleet.

Four sources, one that moves your fleet

Money reaches your diamond balance four ways. They pay out identically, at the same split, and they all count toward your lifetime diamonds. Where they differ matters a lot, so read to the end of this lesson before you plan a stream around them.

• Gifts. Sent during a live or on your posts. Every coin spent becomes one diamond credited to you.
• Hearts. Heart Me sends one Heart. That is 1 coin and 1 diamond, once per viewer per creator per day. Sending a first Heart also joins that creator's free Circle, which is not the paid Crew.
• Power-ups. A viewer buys a power-up and activates it on your live. You are credited diamonds equal to the power-up's full coin price, exactly as if it were a gift. Surge is 50 coins, Gale 120, Spotlight 40, Combo 30.
• Crew. A paid monthly membership between $2.99 and $99.99 a month, across up to three tiers. Every charge mints diamonds equal to the gross cents paid. Crew memberships open after the beta.

Crew at $10.00 a month = 1,000 diamonds = $5.00 to you at the 50% base.

Now the rule that is easy to get wrong and expensive to learn late. Only gifts count toward your weekly fleet total and the weekly leaderboard. Hearts do not. Power-ups do not. Crew does not. A creator can have a strong Crew month, a wall of Hearts and a live full of power-ups, and still finish the week on Bronze Anchor.

None of that makes the other three lesser. They pay the same rate per diamond and they build your lifetime total exactly like gifts do. Crew in particular is recurring, which gifts are not. A Heart costs a viewer one cent and is the cheapest possible way for someone new to back you, and it pulls them into your Circle at the same time.

So when you are deciding what to ask for on air, be specific about which one you mean. Heart Me builds your Circle and pays you a cent. A gift pays you the same per coin and also moves your fleet, which lifts the value of every diamond you already hold. Both are worth asking for. They are just not interchangeable.