Yeah; don’t touch those free youtube internet gem offers as that will get your account cancelled; spend money or gain them a few at a time; they are worth ~$0.07 each but better during offers. Enjoy within the rules and regs.
Thank you so much for all the helpful tips 
I just started playing, and I am rather overwhelmed! It went from “just this app game I want to check out”, to hook me, and make me want to dive deeper into all of the aspects it has to offer. Much appreciated with the help along the way such as this post, thank you again!
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twilight, there is no way. Do VIP, quests and MV, and that’s it. You can buy them cheaper at events.
If you are F2P (Free to Play, you don’t use real money), just do all Missions, Wanted Missions and Quests, some of them will give you gems. Also participate in events, Path of Valor, etc.
Prolly 33 months at the time those screenshots were taken. Do the grind and be efficient. 1st year in the game should give you at least a rainbow 5* team unless you don’t spend anything and are cursed at tc20.
Consider me officially cursed. I’ve done plenty of grinding and spending believe me and this forum is full of vitriolic threads and posts by me cursing SG; this last 6 months I have been drowned by Banes, Ulmers, Gunnars, Hawkmoons, Nashgars and the inevitable parade of Little johns and Elena, the 5 star Dawa.
So, when you start a new game, there is always the worry “am I doing something wrong?”. As I always get the same questions from friends starting this great game, I’ve made a short list of DO’s and DON’Ts when you start Empires & Puzzles. I thought it might be a good idea to share them here:
DO’s
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your main focus when you start should be to get as many leveled 3* and 4* heroes (for war, raids, quests & titans). Do achieve this, focus your build order on getting your training camp to level 13 (guaranteed 3* hero, sometimes a 4*)
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join an Alliance (you can do this from level 5 onward). The main benefit is you can fight titans and get great loot! Try to join an alliance fighting 1* or 2* titans, so you can be helpful (higher titans will be too powerful when you just start)
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use a friends code to get a free VIP pass. You can enter the code via inbox → invites. If you don’t have friend playing this game, you can use my code: U13ARE4
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you will get quite some gems, use the for 1 purpose at the start: buy heroes during 2 events: Valhalla & Atlantis Rising. There you have a change of heroes that will take you all the way to level 40 and beyond. For example, one of my first pulls was Wilbur (from Atlantis), and I still use now that I’m level 47
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For leveling heroes, focus on leveling 3* & 4* (5* will take way to long at an early level). Try to get 1 per color, so you can have a good raid team and take on most quests/missions
DON’Ts
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Never level any 1* or 2* heroes! Once you are level 15 or so, you will never use them anymore! It is a full waste of time and resources
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on the other hand, don’t use any 3*/4*/5* hero to level another hero until you have the knowledge to be absolutely sure you don’t need that hero
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Don’t spend gems on speeding up buildings or replenishing resources, give it some time!
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If you want to spend money, don’t just spend it on any deal you see, be wise: the best value are the VIP passes, Path of Valor pass (this is a big event running for 2 months) and the daily gem buys in the shop (if you need more gems)
So, hopefully this is helpful and makes you steer away from pitfalls that I made (yes, I have a few fully leveled 2* heroes that I never use)!
Cheers,
Bram
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When fighting an enemy one make a tile match but those tiles do not hit the other players heroes. They come back to you giving double mana.
The fast forward button located in the upper right hand corner of the tile match screen.
When you make a match horizontally only one or two tiles may hit the opposing hero. When you make one vertically all three tiles will hit.
This is still great advice.
Unfortunately, #9 does not apply to heroes. There are so many summoning portals now, and everything except S1 is paywalled: challenge events, seasonal events, S2, S3, Tavern of Legends, and Ninja Tower. S4 will be the same.
Oh, and about S1? Every trainable hero from tc20 now has a costume. Another paywall.
To be clear, I write the above not to dump on the game. I still enjoy playing after 3+ years. It’s just the reality for obtaining heroes.
I’d offer the following advice:
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Watch Mystic Vision. It’s rare but you can get goodies including hero/troop tokens, non-farmable 3* and 4* ascension materials (“mats”), up to 50 emblems (super rare but it does happen) etc. At least, the usual few gems or emblems is still useful.
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Focus on your hero roster. There will always be another player with more 3*/4*/5* heroes than you. Comparison is the thief of joy! And don’t worry about troops until later.
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This is some of the best advice, because not only can Mystic Vision give some good loot (yes, it’s rare but does happen), it’s also one of the few things in the game that literally costs you nothing to complete. All you have to do is suffer through an ad, and you get something. I’ve been playing for over a year, and I still watch Mystic Vision 2-3 times a day.
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#9 does apply to heroes. With the Training Camp level 20 you can theoretically summon any Season 1 hero and then retrain it into a non-Season 1 hero via the Hero Academy. In theory, it could give you almost any hero (except for the newer ones).
In addition, you can (theoretically) gain a great amount of gems only via playing, and gems can summon you (theoretically) any hero if you make enough pulls from a portal.
Portals aren’t entirely paywalled since all of them include a F2P summoning option - like the challenge events portal which can be loaded with challenge coins, and those are % chance farmable from challenge event maps. Or the costumes event portal, which can be loaded with keys dropped from multiple places (these are non-farmable sadly). But of course every portal is partially paywalled since if you want a specific hero (even S1), then you have to pay to get it via gem pulls.
I’d add several advices myself:
- Give your main account a 130 days of free VIP pass. 3 steps to achieve that:
A. Use your starting account to invite your main account
B. Level up your main account to 5 to reap the starting benefits (100 gems + 10 days VIP)
C. Create over 20 new accounts and invite them to play E&P via your main account. Then level up those 20 new accounts to level 10
It’s best to create your new accounts on a different device, but I’d been running them for a month and a half now and have yet to see any trouble with switching between them - none whatsoever detected (Android phone).
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If you don’t like what most alliances offer (and I personally don’t), then make your own! Costs 50 gems, and you can at least fight 1-1 wars with a moderate chance of winning since the game should pair you vs other 1-man alliances with the same strength. But even if you lose, don’t lose hope since you will always be the best represented player in your own alliance in wars and even if you lose, you’d still have a decent chance of getting a 3* unfarmable ascension material! Also, even with 25 losses you will get the most of what’s in that alliance chest for more unfarmable ascension mats (hopefully). Edit: Also there is no risk of anyone kicking you out of the alliance and thus lose the alliance chest rewards just before opening. And if you fear you won’t be able to kill titans, you have 2 options - either hit them and don’t care (they still give food + iron + low-level items upon escape) OR use your 20 side accounts and start killing the titans yourself. That takes about 2-3 hours daily, but at least you can ensure your main account to be always on top - A+ score, which even on 2* titans translates into loot tier V = a chance of getting a 3* unfarmable material, so at the beginning of the game you don’t really need to go over 2* titans.
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Start competing those rare quests ASAP! Although more experienced players could do it with a lower team power , I recommend to start doing it when you have a team of 3* 50-level heroes (around 2200 team power). With that team and a forge of level 8 (Axe attacks are important) you will be able to finish any rare quest up to the last chapter, and that means 3* unfarmable ascension mats. And although the last level for the 4* item is also within the grasp of a 3* team, I highly doubt that a new F2P player can achieve it. Plus all you need to ascend the 4* heroes you will most probably get early on is 3* unfarmable ascension mats, so focus on getting these.
Edit: Forgot to mention troops…although it’s indeed important to focus on the heroes first, troops should not be neglected. Leveling them a bit from a Barracks level 1 still has some merit. First of all, it’s not so expensive - only a bit of feeder troops wasted - but even a ** attack troop has way more value at lvl 4. Then there is the Find Recruits II reward which has a secret reward 50% of the time - an Epic Troop Token that can at least summon a solid 3* troop, even 4* at times. Those can be leveled if only a bit in the barracks lvl 1, but it’s worth it - both for the Path of Valor challenges and for any battle, because there is a difference between 10% and 12% attack bonus for example. Not a big one, but in the beginning of the game even such small differences could matter.
Small Giant should really consider upping the drop rates on 4* and 5* heroes. Especially those that come out of the training camps. A person has already spent a lot of time gathering the necessary resources and doing the upgrades through the game play. And it is frustrating to do all that work and waiting only to get another 3* that you already have. That does not help with the word of mouth recommendation for this game. It will not hurt Small Giant any to do that. Those that are going to spend money on this game will and those that aren’t won’t. But if the drop rates were adjusted to give a better chance of getting a 4* or 5* those that do spend a little may actually spend a little more. And it may even help the word of mouth recommendations.
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Sometimes I’ll actually watch the MV ad. 
We can definitely open it, and not watch it. 
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One thing I don’t see mentioned much is the upgrading of the watch tower. I realize it is not a priority but it can be upgraded with just food which is good while you are waiting to accumulate enough iron for the next stronghold upgrade. And it does add to your overall food and iron production. The only other building to use only food is the iron mines themselves. So there can be a lot of waiting for the necessary iron. I have heard it is always best to keep your builder busy. I am a cheap to play player but I have bought the VIP pass because it does give you a second builder which is nice. I am at SH15 and the next level will take over 3 days to complete. It will be nice to have that extra builder to upgrade other buildings while I wait.
You have missed the point about heroes. For those that may be unaware: HA10 does not include seasonal event, newer challenge event, HOTM <12 months old, S3 and Ninja heroes. Some seasonal event heroes are a few years old now.
HA10 has 95% chance of S1 hero, no costume. Yes, it is better odds than any summoning portal. Unfortunately, there are players who have run HA10 for literally months, and not gotten a single non-S1 hero.
You can see this, and other re-trainings in this thread:
https://forum.smallgiantgames.com/t/hero-academy-level-10-results-reporting/200638/1422?u=samme
To be clear, you are correct that summoning portals aren’t entirely paywalled. However, with such low summoning odds, you either have to be lucky or pay for more chances to get any non-S1 5*.
You can still play the game for free, but this has long ceased to be a f2p friendly game.
I’d also add the following advice: If you haven’t already, read the summoning odds before making any pulls! It is normal to get a 3*. With such limited pulls, I consider getting 4* and ofc any 5* to be lucky.
I know that going from SH15 - 16 is going to cost 1073K in iron and will take 3 days 19 hours. My current iron capacity is 1084K and that is with 2 storage at level 13, 2 at level 12 and 1 at level 10. It takes a lot of iron to upgrade these suckers too. 13 to 14 cost 502K and 18 hours. 12 to 13 cost 412K and 14 hours 35 mins. 10 to 11 cost 259K and 9 hours. But as someone has said to go from SH19 to SH20 you will have to have all five at level 18 and it will take over 7 days.
All that is true. However it’s also true that one needs nothing but S1 heroes to complete any task in the game, and win any raid vs top premium non S1 defender team with the right board. So I don’t see a problem being a F2P player unless you set your hopes way too high and want to either collect every hero in the game or be in top 100 world rank. Neither of those gives special rewards.
@Drogan0660 : VIP pass indeed helps a lot not to waste resources and build your base twice as fast, it’s a great deal for a beginner and can be achieved even via F2P means, but buying the special VIP deals is definitely worth it in my book. However what I found out was that bringing farms at level higher than 15 you will have a terrible time trying to put all that food to good use. Same with mines at level higher than 16. I’d say stop upgrading all those, including the watchtower, after level 15/16, and focus on iron storages/stronghold/training camps/forge until you hit level 20 Stronghold. TC and forge gives you ways to spend your extra food on research and crafting useful items (healing potion, potent healing potion, mana potion, even revive scroll) and iron as well (bomb attack, axe attack, arrow attack, don’t bother with banners).
Also concerning 4* heroes…A new player has limited resources and no access to TC19 for faster level-up option, so he barely can level up a bunch of 3*, let alone 4*. Speaking from my own perspecive, at this moment the game offers a very nice correspondence between the odds of getting a 4* and 5* hero, the ascension mat item % rates and the food/feeder hero options - meaning, you get not as many 4* and 5*, but you will probably be able to ascend at least half of them (I managed to ascend exactly half - been playing for 3 and a half months btw). I also watched the things happening with my side accounts, and I will tell you that those which got only 3* heroes started way stronger than those that got 1 or 2 4* heroes.
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