Feedback before making this official... Speed Levelling

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Hi Guys!

So, first things first, credit where credit is due. @badassninjadad, @jalia, @revelate, @coppersky - and to the many folks in Global and Peer Support Chat - the insight that you all have shared has been a tremendous benefit to me, and I am happy now to try and pay it forward!

I spent some time recently putting together feedback for several of my teammates in regard to their hero lineups. The thing that stood out in all three cases was that the different levels of all of the heroes; what happens is you start with one lineup, begin levelling them, then get new heroes, put them in the lineup instead, begin levelling them, then get new heroes, etc., etc.

So, we end up with a situation where you have many mid-level heroes over time. Then, you reach a point where the 4 and 5* heroes are so few and far between that you begin to focus on one or two teams at a time.

Now, with your semi-fixed lineup, you begin levelling your “A Team” or your “War Teams,” or both, but you are levelling each hero a little at a time.

I played that way for months myself, and the progression was very slow. At this point, through various tips and insights from other players, details I have read in the forums, and from my own experience, I am here to tell you that there is a better way!

So, I wanted to put together a little guide in regard to “Speed Levelling” your heroes, but before I put it out there as the “official” version, I would sincerely appreciate any corrections, additional tips and general feedback!

The “1st Draft” version of the Guide follows:

In order for to “Speed Level”, you need a constant supply of Feeders and Food. To accomplish this, you need to build more Farms and Training Camps.

As soon as you have your first Training Camp(TC) to level 6, build your second Training camp. As soon as you have it to level 11, build your third - at a minimum by the “mid-stage” of the game you should be running all 3 TC’s constantly.

TC 6 should be using the “Low Cost” training until you have completed TC 11. At that point, move all of your recruits from TC 6 and begin using the “Extra Low Cost” in TC11.

At this point, while building your third training camp up, begin using the first two options “Common” or “Uncommon” in TC 6. Which one you use depends on the resources you have available(You need backpacks for “Uncommon” and wooden swords for “Common”)

Then, continue upgrading your Stronghold and your 3rd Training camp. The goal is to get to TC 20 as quickly as you can so you can begin the “Legendary” training for your chance at 5* heroes(As I type this, my TC 20 has given me 3 5* heroes to date, and I’ve only had it running for a month)

Once you have TC6, TC11 and TC20 finished, guess what? Build another TC. :slight_smile: This one can only needs to be level 2, though - moving forward, continue training “Legendary” as often as you can afford, and keep the other three running “Extra Low Cost,” “Common,” and “Uncommon”

This training regimen will ensure that you have a constant supply of “Feeder” heroes to level your “A Team” and your “War Teams”

Now, in the beginning, you may need to keep some of your 2* heroes to help get your 30 heroes for the Alliance War, but otherwise, 1* and 2* heroes are food - don’t level them up.

As you pull 3, 4, and 5* heroes, you will rotate the lower level heroes out of your War Teams, and they will become food.

That said, whether you choose to work on your “A Team” or one of your “War Teams,” the method is the same:

ALWAYS use 10 feeders at once when levelling your hero.

Each time you level up, whether you use 1 hero or 10, the cost for training goes up by 100 food per/feeder. It costs 21,000 food to feed 10 1* hero to your 3* hero the first time you level up; but the next time you feed that same hero, it will cost 22,000. By the time you reach level 50, you are spending 100,000+ food each time you feed a hero.

By only using 10 heroes each time you level, you minimize this “increasing cost” factor to the best of your ability.

Second, try to use any trainer heroes you get with 3* heroes specifcially, and ALWAYS feed them 10 heroes of the SAME COLOR - this will ensure that you get the best % chance to increase your heroes special ability.

It is very common to get a 3* hero to max level only to have their special ability stuck at 5/8 - while this doesn’t guarantee you will max their special, it will give you the best chance.

Third - for any 4* or 5* hero you are working on, only level ONE HERO at a time until they are maxed, or until you hit a wall waiting for ascension materials. In this case, color does not matter, as you will definitely max their special before you finish reaching max level.

There is an experience bonus for using feeders of the same color, so it is arguably more efficient to use the same color. however; it will be slower, and in my opinion the return on that investment does not justify the time you will spend levelling your stronger heroes to max.

If you were to only use the same color feeders for each 4 or 5* hero, on average you will take 5x longer to level up each hero(really rough average, but the point stands) :slight_smile: Not only would it take longer to level up your team, but you’re overall Team Strength will increase more slowly as well, causing delays in your progression on the map levels and reducing effectiveness against Titans.

Now that we know how to speed level a given hero, the next question becomes … who should I level first? lol, I think that’s a topic for another time. :slight_smile:

Anyway, I hope this information is helpful, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would like to provide feedback!

So, that’s the “Guide” - thank you for taking the time to read through, and for the insight provided me while I have been learning.

Please let me know what you think - Thanks!
:slight_smile: Tima

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Nice guide and well written :slightly_smiling_face:
Your TC20 is operating well though…3 5* in approximately 30 days = 1 every 10 days on average = 20% success rate!
My vain efforts have yielded 3x 5* in 4 months! :face_with_raised_eyebrow::rage::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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This is really good; thanks for putting this together. I never realized that the food cost for leveling up increased that way. I had always thought that people advocated feeding 10 at a time in the mistaken belief that it would increase the chance of improving the hero’s special skill. (It doesn’t because those probabilities are additive.)
I’m starting to wonder if I should write an introduction to probability theory for E&P players :smile:

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I disagree. When you build SH20, you should immediately build TC#4 up to level 11. This ensures that you can keep a continuous flow of feeders while you first build TC20 and then research that level, both long processes.

I’m glad you phrase this as “in my opinion” because it really is about balancing priorities. On my main account, feeders (=experience adders) are what is scarce. I have plenty of most mats, and more than plenty of untrained heroes. Cross-training colors throws away 20% of the available experience rom those cross-color heroes, which in my circumstances is unacceptable. If, however, you draw a hero that will sharply improve your squad, this experience loss may be acceptable—my alt pulled Justice a while back, plugging a huge hole in that account’s war defense, so justice force-fed.

I particularly disagree with cross-color training if you are merely driving in To an ascension mat wall. Why waste feeders if you’re going to be stuck with a partially ascended hero? The only time I think speed leveling is appropriate is when you have all (or very nearly all) of the ascension materials that you will need. Building a partially ascended hero is not worth the waste, in my opinion.

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Chmm so…
How much food you spend for leveling your hero depend on current lvl when you feed him. If you start on lvl 60 and feed him with 10 heroes and you dont lvl up, next 10 heroes will cost same price. When you start on lvl 61 it will coast more then on lvl 60. So if you want to save some food, then use strategy: Feed hero to almost gain lvl and then use 10 feedrs. When your hero have big lvl then use trainers, you should not use them on low lvl.

4* and 5* lvl up with same colour aswell. In long term you will save a lot resources.
As you said when you use all colour to lvl up one hero then you are fast. But imagine that you have 5 heroes what you want lvl up. Use your strategy vs mine. You will have first hero lvl up before me that is true but when i will have all 5 heroes leveled you will be in middle of third hero…

To know what hero is good lvl up, check 7dd guide. Sometimes is better to cumulate feedrs in TC then lvl up weak hero.

Tc1,2,4,11,13, 19 and 20 are useful. Rest you can skip. Lvl 20 you need only if you are cheap to play or free to play player and then you need 3 if you are not lucky like you. I wait for 5* hero 4 months with 3 TC. Otherwise you need only one tc19 and rest lvl 11.

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By using the more efficient method of 5 heroes at a time feeding each their color feeders only, in the long run you’re actually levelling up those 5 heroes faster than by your method of single hero speed levelling, which isn’t the most efficient.

I play this game like a diesel. Efficiency pays off.

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Overall @Tima, I like your guide and appreciate the shout-out. Unfortunately, I’m a little busy today and have to delay my feedback (which I do have) until later tonight. Nice job, though, and cool to see you willing and able to help other players. :smiley:

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First of all, thank you all for taking the time to read through the post and provide your feedback - one of my favorite parts of this game is the camaraderie and community! :slight_smile:

Thank you! :slight_smile:

Yes, I realize I have been lucky with the drop rate from TC20, especially compared to the results in the “TC 20” megathread - I really only threw that in the guide so that other players would be encouraged about the possibilities of being “lucky” with their own TC. :slight_smile:

Thank you, and you’re welcome - I am very much enjoying the journey! Note that as @OneMilionYearsOldOrc pointed out, the increased food cost is actually more nuanced than I originally posted. :slight_smile:

Now wait - what?

lol, maybe! If nothing else, I would be interested, especially because I’m not sure I understood your sentiment. :slight_smile:

Feeding 10 at a time of the same color does in fact increase the % chance at which the special skill will increase - further, feeding a hero 4 of the same hero will increase the probability to 100%.

Brilliant! This is definitely a better approach - as written, you will really only have two TC’s putting out feeders while slogging through to get to TC20, but with your approach, you would have three TC’s running in as little time as possible. :slight_smile:

Certainly “Speed Levelling” has it’s place, situation specific and much like choosing which heroes to level, depends a great deal on the players priorities - perhaps a brief section on priorities near the beginning would ensure this is more clear.

Well, again I think this is situational, and particularly relevant to the players I was coaching this week, whose lineups consist of mid-level 3*, mid-level and maxed 2* heroes, with very low level 4*'s in the mix - in this scenario, getting one of those 4* heroes to 3.60 would be more valuable in terms of overall Team Power and effectiveness then bringing one of the 3*'s to max, don’t you think?

For example, in my case I was originally working with a team of 5 3* heroes, and then pulled Chao, my first 4* hero - it took forever to get the final Magic Orb I needed to fully ascend him, but even at 3.60 he was the most powerful hero in my roster for some time.

I think that emphasizing priorities will be an important aspect to “finishing,” this guide, because otherwise, you are right, with a strong team of 4* heroes, running full speed to partially level a 5* hero doesn’t necessarily make sense.

That’s a beautiful observation - it’s subtle, so I honestly never noticed, but you are correct, the cost only increases with the heroes level, not with how frequently you feed them.

I think feeding a hero up to the point they are almost levelling up with “scraps” (one or two at a time) makes good sense in the early game, when you don’t have as many resources available (feeders and food) and your heroes are relatively low level.

In the later stages, higher level 4 and 5* heroes require more than 10 feeders per level-up anyway, so it becomes less critical, but still an absolutely valid point.

Now this just depends on how evenly your TC’s are producing a given color. There have been many times where all of my TC’s give me one color more frequently than others (like 10 red for every 1 blue) - in this case, you could spend quite a bit of time collecting 10 heroes of the same color, for each of the 5 colors on your team, and I may very well win the race.

That said, even using my current method, I will always feed the hero I am levelling with their own color first. For example I am currently working on Vivica, and if I have 10 yellow heroes, that’s what she is eating for breakfast - she can mix colors for brunch. :slight_smile:

I assumed this was implied, but in re-reading my original post, I think I should mention explicitly that if you have the same color for the hero you are levelling that you should in fact use that color first. :slight_smile:

I’m c2p personally, but I can imagine a situation in the future where increasing to 3 TC 20 will be appropriate, for now though, those resources are earmarked to feed and level my shiny new 5* heroes as well as a variety of 4*'s for my war-teams.

Honestly, though, with the pull-rates for 5* heroes from Event/Elemental summons, even p2p players would benefit in the long run by having multiple TC20’s.

I can’t argue with the efficiency - but again I think it depends on your priorities at the time. I did a test with a team of five 1* heroes, where I brought each of them up to level 2, then created a duplicate team, and left all of them level 1 except for one, whom I levelled to 5 - the difference in the Team Strength was literally 1 point, so in this case speed or efficiency seemed irrelevent to the outcome.

That said, as I mentioned earlier, having a 4.60 Chao paired with my mid-level 3* team seemed noticeably stronger than having them all mid-level(I replaced Bane with Chao, and I remember that everyone else was roughly 2nd ascension, low level, maybe level 10 or 12?) - and of course regardless of how your reach maximum level (efficiently or quickly) - once you are maxed out, the result is the same.

@badassninjadad - I look forward to your feedback.

Again, guys, thank you for your time and effort - this is exactly the reason I didn’t title this post “Speed Levelling Guide” - it is clearly in need of some refinement, and your feedback will make this a tremendous resource for my team, and perhaps for other players as well!

I sincerely appreciate you all! :slight_smile:

Thanks,
:slight_smile: Tima

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Fair replies. The efficiency loss for 3* isn’t as painful, and I can definitely see a reason for a new player to want that first 4* up ASAP, even if only to 3/60. So it’s probably best to clearly preface this piece to ID your target audience.

Power leveling in 7DD et al. involves banking hundreds of feeders and food in the TCs, hoarding all the Trainer cards in inventory. Then when you pull that new HotM, you can then pull all those feeders, using them first and saving the Trainers to last, to save food. How do you get so much food, you may ask. Again, using your training camps. TC20 is a great food store; when you shift recruits from TC20 to TC11, you net quite a lot of food.

But that technique is for someone for whom adding another middling-quality 5* doesn’t matter, and you’d rather hold the 4* mats for a top-tier event hero or HotM.

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I tryed to say that this game is about patience. Unfortunately not all heroes are worth to level up becouse they are weak and spend ascending items on 4* and 5* is something about what you need twice think before you do it.

If you are talking only about power leveling one hero not 30ty, then feed hero with one colour is right, but if you want to be helpfull and strong in wars and titans you need think how to save as much material as you can. Lvl up 5* is really expensive and you need be able lvl up your building and make battle items so you will be short of food and recruits.

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You can buy food in store.

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When working with my alliance mates earlier in the week, I had a very specific target audience. :slight_smile:

However; as you have pointed out in the case of 7DD, clearly this method is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

My intention originally was just to post this in our group facebook page, but then I started thinking that putting it out in the forums might reach and help more people. If nothing else it has already given me new insights into the game!

It definitely brought my A teams and war teams up to speed more quickly then what I was doing before, and is now helping me to hurry up and get Azlar and Vivica off the bench and onto my Raid or War Defense team. (Azlar is stuck at 3.70, but is now my most powerful Red hero, even against my Boldtusk at 4.70)

But I wonder if the focus is a little too narrow to apply to many people after all; or, rather, I wonder how precisely I would need to preface this guide! :slight_smile:

lol, I suppose that method makes sense for 7DD, but we aren’t nearly at that level. Out of the 27 members in our Alliance, I believe there are only 7 or 8 of us that have any 5* heroes, and only 3 with more than one . :slight_smile:

It just demonstrates how much more I have to look forward to in the game, growing as a player and helping to lead my alliance to a place where “another middling-quality 5*” really doesn’t matter. :slight_smile:

Again, sir, my thanks for your time and consideration! :slight_smile:

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I don’t disagree with you; the game is about patience, and the more patient you are, I think the better your result will be.

That said, if you are stuck or frustrated due to a lack of progress, and decide to leave the game because of this, than no one is better because of it.

And I understand that there are many weaker 4 or 5* heroes - it would make sense to save those valuable ascenscion materials for a better 5* hero, sure.

But when that weaker 4 or 5* hero is the only 4 or 5* hero you have, if “wasting” those valuable ascencion materials helps you to find more enjoyment from the game while patiently waiting to acheive your loftier goals - isn’t this also something one should consider carefully? :slight_smile:

This is also a valid point, but I think it really does depend on what your priorities are.

You are right, power-leveling a single hero to max will take resources away from crafting and building upgrades;
but what use is having a level 20 forge or barracks, or a dozen Dragon Attacks, if a Titan can one-shot your strongest hero?

lol, sorry if that was a bit melodramatic, but I stand by the premise. :wink:

It will be different for every player during each “stage” of the game; we all have to balance our personal goals with the needs of the alliance in regard to Titans and Wars - which brings up the point my “Guide” is quickly turning into “Guidelines!” :slight_smile:

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Amen. I’ve advocated this point often, and at length, in both my own alliance, and in start-ups I’ve visited. The odds of pulling 5* heros, let alone event or HotM, are small, so the constant brainwashing of players to “wait for a better one” merely serves to dilute their enjoyment of the game. Level as high as you can the aforementioned hero, or max it if you can.
Should you actually get a “superior” one? Then congratulations, and remember to do the rare quests. After all, everyone is very quick to point out you can max a full rainbow team on those alone :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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There are a few things that I’d like to highlight:

We all see this sort of thing in the forum. People post pics of their heroes and they have 6 fully leveled heroes and 60 others in vastly different stages of development, so I think addressing this is important.
For my part, I almost ALWAYS try to finish whatever hero im working on as far as I can.

And I think when you reference TC6, you mean TC4.
And yes, leveling 10 at a time, same color, is generally the way to go. I use a bit different method that I’ll come back to as I don’t believe I’ve ever ‘speed-leveled’ unless you wanna count the spurts of tc19 training.

I generally like how you structured the actual TC leveling advice in your guide, especially with the additional input from @Kerridoc. Of additional importance is your driving the point home about ALWAYS having your TC’s running. Maybe you should add something about the requirements for TC20? Or perhaps that is beyond the scope.

My personal preference is to level 5 heroes at a time, one for each color. That 20 % experience boost, over the long haul, is just too valuable for me to throw away. Of course, there are times where I must, for lack of an appropriate hero, double or even triple up on a color e.g. blue AND red feeders into red heroes. But that really doesn’t happen very often and I almost always have a hero in each color to work on.
And I know it works as I’ve only been playing since the first of the year and I have a ton of fully leveled heroes.

I absolutely agree with you on the ‘types’ of TC’s to run. I use 1 or 2 TC20, 1 or 2 TC11, and either TC2, TC19 mostly. Also, concerning feeding trainer heroes to 3* heroes, I’ve read and seen it suggested not to use them in order to maximize the number of potential ‘rolls’ for special skills, meaning % increase isn’t worth the lost rolls for levels passed by using, say a 3* trainer.

Thanks for helping to improve understanding of our game. Cheers!! :smiley:

p.s. one additional thing I wanted to mention is that I have no problem with the thinking behind taking 4s and 5s as far as ascension items limit. Sometimes 3*-50s are better, in other cases a 4* at 3-60 may be better, it depends on which heroes you’re comparing.

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If you do not have power to wait for correct hero then delete this game otherwise it will cost you a lot of money. I saw a lot players who play it by your stile and then they were really angry and sad. Trust to old orc. Never lvl up weak hero, in time the powerfull one will come.

Btw to make mistake in 5* hurt really lot becouse it take at least 8 months to collect enough ascending material and you have to play in top guild. But 4* … you can do a mistakes its only 1month lost.

Btw i see one important thing. You said that ppl lvl up more heroes and when they got new hero then they stop lvl up old one and start lvl up this new hero. I would like say that your guide should be more about to say. When you choose one hero to lvl up - finish him. But never choose weak heroes and then in long term you will be ok.

And when you are casual player without ambition and you just want play then you dont need guide at all.

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And it can easily be 8 months to get a 5* hero to begin with. I am very C2P and it took me nearly 11 months to acquire my first one (14 months playing time have given me 7x 5* total).
Yes, I may be on the extreme end of bad luck regards summoning/training, but I’m certainly not the only example. In your opinion, I finally get a hero and I’m supposed to ignore it, simply because a group of players who have EVERY hero, who wrote the grading spreadsheet, say so? No, I don’t think so.
I have maxed every hero on my roster (including Thorne :slightly_smiling_face:) and have never regretted a single one. I am competitive on our 10* titan and regularly haunt the top 200 on raids (top 100 if I wish to use flasks). The fun and skill of Empires is learning to use what you have, not be forever yearning for the jackpot summon.

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Hmm no but there are weak, average and best heroes. To lvl up weak ones is what i warning you. I am f2p and luck is what i never met. My first 5* hero was quintus. He was most weak hero in game ( i am not sure how good he is now after double buf ) and if i lvl up him, now i will not be as good as i am and my sartana will be 3/70. But as you see i didnt wait for panther or hel.

And i am f2p. I killed 12* rare as A+, i was on 1 in raids but you know all is about patience or you can substitute patience by money :wink:

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Good Morning! :slight_smile:

As I ponder my original thoughts this morning, I think that this was the underlying motivation in putting together some sort of guide in the first place.

Regardless of whether you are passionate about always using the same color feeder, or you prefer to “speed level” using many colors, by focusing on and completing each character you choose to level, the end result is what matters - a stronger(and more effective) lineup than you had before.

In my case, where I originally replaced Bane with Chao (my first 4* pull) - I can’t recall if I was using all yellow feeders or not; but focusing on levelling him as high as I could before continuing to work on other heroes was primarily where the benefit was acheived.

Chao improvied my Team Power, helped me to advance on the World Map and in the Raid Arena. It didn’t really matter whether I fed him “quickly” or “efficiently” at the time. :slight_smile:

You are correct sir, TC4, I will correct that. At this point, I think the intention and scope of the guide are dynamic, and changing quickly as a result of all the terrific feedback I have been receiving. :slight_smile:

Kind words, and much appreciated! Thank you for all of the input you have given me, both here and in previous posts as well!

You, sir, are a Rockstar! :slight_smile:

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I’ve always believed that knowing one’s weakness is strength. For myself, I am generally a patient person, but when it comes to entertainment, if I’m frustrated or fed-up, I will find something else to do.

The need to collect stronger and stronger heroes is a real motivation for many players, and I applaud anyone with the patience to set aside their first or second 5* pulls and wait diligently for a stronger hero - but if were playing with Bane while waiting on someone stronger than Chao, I probably wouldn’t be here posting in the forum right now. I’d be playing something else.

While I don’t disagree with you in general @OneMillionYearsOldOrc, I just don’t have the level of patience you describe - understanding my lack of patience has actually helped me continue to enjoy this game! :slight_smile:

I completely agree, and I will be the first to tell you that writing such a guide is only 70% of the project. The members on my Alliance are wonderful people, but like you said, we are more casual, so getting the members of my Alliance to read the guide will be the other 30%! :slight_smile:

And perhaps I am the middle-ground, if you will, because I enjoyed saving up my first 2600 gems, and remember the elation when I finally had enough for my first 10 Pull Event Summons - that was fun! (Albeit short lived, two 4*, eight 3*, 7 duplicates of heroes I already had. :angry:)

lol, well technically…

I’m glad you added some clarity, here, it serves your point well.

I think that you are very patient and attentive, it’s obvious you had done some research about the game before you pulled Quintus, and had already defined clear goals.

That said, the Quintus I know is a beast, and since I don’t have a 5* Purple hero, I will tell you that if I draw Quintus this week, I will throw everything I have at getting him maxed out(once I finish Vivica) :slight_smile:

lol, I guess the point here is that we all play differently - but if we can enjoy the game equally with our different approaches, then we both win! :slight_smile:

I will be working to refine the details and scope of my Guide over the next couple of days.

I really do appreciate everyone chipping in - I will post with any revisions or updates to the guide as they are written.

Thanks again guys!
:slight_smile: Tima

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