Gem Usage for Free-To-Play(F2P) players

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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A little background about my time with this game. I’ve been playing for nearly 3 months as F2P. Current player level: 26, SH level: 17 with 3 TC at level 13. I’ve not used a single gem yet and my gems stand at 2.1k gems. My only 4-star heroes are Kashhrek(from Atlantis coin pull) and Li Xiu (from TC 13 after 30+ tries). The rest are just 3-star heroes. (no 5-star heroes)
Moving forward, I will take about 2 months to get to SH 20, then TC 20 before I can have a chance at getting 5-star heroes.

My initial plan was to saved up enough for a 10-Atlantis pull but having seen others having bad RNG Results: (1 X 5-star from 90 Atlantis pull), made me reconsider what I should do with my gems. Further more, I can wait for 5-star from Training Camps in a couple of months. So I’m currently reluctant on using gems for summons.

There’s other uses of gems that I’m considering.

  1. Expanding Hero Cap
  2. Reset Wanted Chest cool down timer(which will “refund” me 1-3 gems after I’ve completed the chest).

The 2nd option initially seemed unappealing to me but having gotten a 4-star ascension item from it and alliance mates telling me that high ascension items are what matters in the end. It doesn’t seem that bad after all. So, I’d appreciate kind advice on whether if it will be wise to spend gems for the above 2 options instead of using them for Atlantis summon(where HOTMs are available), and also if there’s better/other options for gem usage that a F2P should consider.

Do keep in mind that I don’t have the intention to spend and remain F2P.
Thanks in advance for any advice given. :slight_smile:

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Resetting wanted chests is certainly a better spend than expanding the hero cap. The hero cap increases as you level up. 5* heroes can be obtained through lv20 training camps (at roughly a 5% chance rate per training). You could do 10x Troop pulls, but if you really want to spend nothing then you could eventually get those with troop tokens.

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Hi there, thanks for the kind advice! That’s what I thought as well, I’ve seen the TC20 results from the forum too and to top it off, the chances of getting a 5-star is higher in TC as compared to summons. Yup, I’d want to spend my gems only on the most scarce resources which seem to be ascension materials. I’ve gotten a 4-star troop, with the rest at 3-star still but I will play the patience game and get epic troop tokens from Recruiting troops II quest. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Use the gems to summon atlantis when excellent heroes show up such as Gravemaker.

Pulling atlantis already included pulling from regular legendary summon

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I try to run 3x TC20 when I can. Skipping chest cooldowns also help you to get elemental chests faster. Titans and War Chest are a good source for ascension materials.

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Oh yes, I’ve heard of them but I think starting this game this late and being F2P meant that I should probably not consider premium heroes as such because even if I save gems for a whole year, I’d probably only manage enough to do 1X 30 Atlantis pull which might amount to no 5-star heroes. Someone did 90X Atlantis only to get just one 5-star hero. So being F2P I shouldn’t be considering that imo. Thanks for the advice (:

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Oh that sounds great, that sounds like my current goal which will take a couple of months haha. Unfortunately, I’m usually only getting B/C grade on 7-star or C grade on 8-star titans at the moment which limits the number of ascension items that I could get from the drop. Thanks for replying again (:

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I saw u said you wanna remain ftp but i gota say it. I would suggest at least to buy the monthly vip it will help you run things faster with the second builder for tclvl 20 plus 30 gems daily to use for skipping chests,as for the gems you have so far I’d suggest atlantis summon in case u get something shiny.

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9

Increasing the hero cap by 25 spots only costs 250 gems and is a very good deal. This is coming from a fellow F2P player’s personal experience… for me those were the best spent 250 gems in 9 month of gameplay… they actually got me something useful. Most pulls I’ve done with gems brought me 3* vanilla heroes, spiced from time to time with some unspectacular 4*. Atlantis coins were kinder to me, bringing me Proteus, Wilbur and Boldtusk, three of the most useful heroes the game has to offer. Must have done more than 200 pulls by now, gems, coins, epic tokens and no 5* ever was summoned… All my 5* (4 of them) came from TC20…

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10

Hi there! I was more or less in your same position some month ago. I play since last year and the only real money I spent in this game so far are 2 months of VIP. I perfectly understand your staying F2P and I respect that.

So here’s my advice: focus on building up a solid 4star team through TC13, it will help you on the long run more than some 5star now. While waiting for 4stars start working on your stronghold and iron deposit to get them to level 20. Continue stockpiling gems, I only spent them in hero cap upgrade (as long they cost 50gems) but that’s a personal choice.
Once you have a level 20 stronghold and TC20 you can start hoping to get 5star heroes from camps, it can be painful but thats a free route.

Also, keep and eye on atlantis and the featured heroes. If you find good heroes featured and a nice HOTM feel free to do a 10-hero pull in atlantis, you can get really good 4stars heroes.

Honestly I rushed to TC20 to have 5stars heroes and ended up hoping for 4stars for they are easier to level and ascend :slight_smile:

Hope this help.

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11

Hello,
I’m ctf mainly for the vip.will spend only on gem sale.($.99 to $1.99).
I never thought about the reset, good idea, Thanks.
I will never do a 10x pull.
I’ve been doing singles, been somewhat lucky, after a couple, i usually pack it in. I also mainly do elementals and events pulls.
I’ve read too many stories of total failures on 10x, or higher.
Just wish there was a way to gain more gems, the quests are a little cheap.
Thanks.
Have fun.
Wolf9

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I would use the gems to do the hero cap increase and rebuy wanted missions once WE is back to full. Would not bother with summons. I just did 20+ in knights of avalon and only got Grimm and Rigard for 4*, every other summon was a 3*. But having a higher hero cap will let you store feeders until you have 10 of a color a little easier.

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10x pull is cheaper and the same chance of failure as 10 single pulls.

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Yes, but spread out over a few weeks, the disappointment is less. :laughing:
Have fun.
Wolf9

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15

Greetings from a fellow F2P (forever!). Here are my thoughts.

Wow! That shows a remarkable amount of restraint. Congratulations!

For where you are in the game, these are two pretty good heroes. Both are good tanks for your raiding level, and mana control (Li Xiu) can really make a difference on boss levels.

Here’s the thing about 10-pulls; you can’t stop once you get something helpful. So if you pull a 4- or 5-star on your first or second pull, you could be wasting the rest of those gems when you could have redirected to something else. Your preference for the Atlantis portal, however, is well-placed. There are some really good heroes you can only get there. Most of my best ones have come from Atlantis pulls.

With careful management, I’ve been able to avoid the need for doing this so far. I can still usually save up to 10-feed my heroes who don’t have a maxed special without issues. Once you get one with a maxed special, you can feed 1 at a time and save that space. If you are progressing through the player levels, my experience is that your roster space grows at just the right time. That said, roster space is relatively cheap in terms of gems.

This is kinda right, after a point, but my experience is that getting 4-star mats is rare enough that you may not notice a huge difference by doing a lot of wanted chests. I’ve never skipped chests, though, so maybe I should defer that observation to others.

Here’s something I would put out there for you to consider. There are a lot of things you can do with a 4-star rainbow team that you can’t really do effectively without one, including Epic tier challenge events, harder world levels (especially season 2, where you can get Atlantis coins), better war and titan performance, higher levels of seasonal events, second and third stage class trials, etc. Eventually you get to the point in these areas where you just need a hero that can stay alive, and the 3-stars don’t cut it past a certain level. Besides the all important ascension materials, you can also get emblems from many of these, which can really help 3- and 4-star heroes punch above their weight (says the guy who has Hawkmoon+20, Valen+14, and Bane+11). So don’t let your focus on getting 4-star mats (which again, are super important and SUPER rare) distract you from other things that can make your team better.

You already have a serviceable 4-star in green and yellow. What if you used some gems to do elemental pulls for red, blue, and purple until you get at least a 4-star in each? Now, you’ve got a rainbow team that you can level and progress with. They may not have great synergy, but honestly, for some of these, any four-star team will do. I think I beat the Dark Lord with Sabina, Melendor, Danzaburo, Gormek, and Kelile, and I don’t think any of them were fully leveled. That team isn’t really optimized for much of anything, but it had the stamina to survive those last few provinces instead of getting one-shot by enemies with Deathstrike like a maxed 3-star would. By the numbers, you should get a 4-star or better every 4-5 pulls, I think, on an elemental summon. So, you could spend maybe 60-70% of your gems and hopefully build a 4-star rainbow team. Thoughts?

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if you are going to do hero pulls do 10 pulls from atlantis you have a chance at better heroes, and you get a free ascenion chest

hold off on the hero cap until you absolutely have to do it, I am a year in and have not done one yet

speeding up chests is a good option, i usually spend 1-3 at the most a few times a week.

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Honestly I’d only increase the hero cap when you start running out of room to train 10 at a time of the same color. And that is only if you do same color training too… Me I do same color training but I took my time expanding my cap.

With your current heroes I think you’re doing well. 3 stars allow you to beat all of season 1 (with emblems towards the end of the map) and complete most of the quests. Besides I think the variety in them will be useful longterm for Challenge Events and raid tournaments.

If you find that you want more power though, you can’t really go wrong with a 10 pull on an event. Atlantis in particular gives you an ascension item after 10 pulls, so even if you get a lot of duplicate 3 stars, you can at least get something useful from them.

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Rule #1 as f2p (which I almost am with under 50$ spent after almost 2 years) is to never ever do epic or elemental summons. All those heroes can be obtained with TC. Save as much as you can and do only Atlantis ones. It’s basic.

Hero cap is a bit a waste of gem imho. I never used any and I managed my roster pretty well with the space I have. Remember if you ever feel the need of having more heroes than allowed, you can always stock up you silver summon tokens and use them when you’re maxed out on capacity. That way, you can have way more heroes than what you’re supposed to, for a short period of time. It helps along the road when you’re leveling many heroes at once and want to do 10x feed. I currently have 60+ of those tokens.

Reset wanted chest is good. But you’ll take way more time reaching 3000 gems.

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Oh haha I’ll be using the free VIP from friend referral when I have the time to do so to try it out and consider again. Yes they seem great but watching that youtube video where someone got only 1 X 5-star out of 90 pull, and knowing my RNG luck, I would refrain from it unless I’m able to somehow stay consistently above 3.5k gems in the future. Thank you for taking time to read and for your kind advice (:

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Thank you for penning out the sound advice. Sorry to hear that you weren’t bless by RNG :frowning: I would probably have similar luck as you do. I guess I’ll use it for hero cap and chests then. Oh, by the way, what’s “vanilla heroes”? wow 200 pulls in 9 months? :open_mouth: that sounds like more than 10k gems even if half of it were to be from Atlantis coins. :smile: