Journey for better heroes - A painstakingly long road to TC20 (and beyond) for a F2P

So… As an update… I started my first TC20 Legendary training approximately 2 nights ago after waiting for a week before then to get my the Legendary Training researched… While I am using the rest of the time to get my other TCs up to speed, at least one still runs TC13 to generate potentials… That one finished with one earlier tonight with a Renfeld.

So, the TC20 oven dinged with a chime about 5 minutes ago, with shaky fingers, I pressed the little word bubble that had a little human symbol on it that I’ve came to known so well… And out came…

Graymane

Not even human… And one I already have a copy of and thankfully already maxed. So this one immediately became food.

Any way, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy… But I had some more queued up for more training and I know I won’t be increasing my chances until I get at least another TC20 up and running alongside… So any way, now the first jitter is over, I think I’ll start reporting back after I get 5 to 10 training sessions. Just so the thread won’t be bombarded with a progress report ever 2 days.

Good night and happy 4th, to those of you who celebrates it.

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You might want to hang on to those duplicate Melendors and Keliles because they will prove useful in alliance wars.

On average one out of approximately 30 is a 5 star. But the next “ding” could be one, or you could have to wait for over 60 “dings”.

I’m not discouraging you. It’s all a matter of hanging in there and not missing a “ding”, so persist in that strategy to add a second one and keep them going 24/7. Soon enough you’ll get your first, and your next, and your next. Just hope it’s a Joon and a Lianna and not a Leonidas and Kadilen. Might as well set off with a punch right?

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Oh, I don’t doubt that they will, and I’ve been using that extra duplicate Melendor in the past few wars already. But ultimately, the current Alliance War in its current incarnation isn’t something that I really enjoy doing, it seemed more like a chore than it is fun. In fact, as a non-raiding player of this game (until it becomes necessary to advance through the maps), I find the war more like a chore than it is fun. It’s like huge raid party on both sides that don’t really achieve anything (heck, they don’t even fill hero chests).

Perhaps I just enjoy repetitive farming, Titan slaying, and collecting heroes. I liked the game for what it was before the wars came along.

Oh, I also have no problem waiting for better heroes to come in the next ding or whatnot, I’ve been C2P this long… It’s just rounding out the rest of the base for completions sake that I will be doing. The fact that I keep my expectations in check is the main reason why I’ve only still spent $0.99 in this game so far (and it isn’t really my money to begin with).

There is no real urgency for me to try to get the best heroes, there are plenty of players already doing that. I am probably going to try to complete my 4* teams first before I even sniff a 5*. But if the game wants to give me Leo or Kadi, more power to them, I won’t complain. With the speed I am going about this game, even if I eventually leveled up every building in my base (including that forge we all kept at level 5 to be used as a Troops building). There would likely always be something left for me to do, as long as this game is still around.

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Alright, progress report time. So how has the last 20 days since TC20 training been treating me? So while I am churning my TC#2 from 13 to 20 in these days (only taking a small break to update a house because there was a specific time period where if I continued, it will finish before I wake up). I might as well kept TC#3 running at 13 to see if it gets me any 4*.

Here it is, for the first 10 sets:
Date TC20 TC13
07/03/2018 - Graymane | Renfeld
07/05/2018 - Azar | Renfeld
07/07/2018 - Tyrum | Balthazar
07/09/2018 - Cyprian | Balthazar
07/11/2018 - Dawa | Cyprian
07/13/2018 - Graymane | Azar
07/15/2018 - Bane | Oberon
07/17/2018 - Friar Tuck | Balthazar
07/19/2018 - Belith | Gan Ju
07/21/2018 - Hawkmoon | Bane

The TC#3 13 actually finishes a few hours before the TC20 on the same date, but it gets recorded either way. So, in the 10 sets of trainings, the RNG essentially yawned and waved its hand and told me nothing to see here… I felt that I should note that I did managed to get Cyprian, my first purple 4*, not the most popular 4* purple (some can argue he might be the least popular 4* in not just purple, but all 4*), but my first 4* purple nevertheless. It is worth noting is that the TC13 actually gave me a duplicate Cyprian 2 days later.

The small sample distribution here seemed to lean very purple heavy because I was trolled by Balthazar a few times. The good thing is I would be able to get a special skill up for Balthazar if I get one more. The bad thing is that I already have a maxed Balthazar and not going for duplicates, the 3 Balthazars became food for my other lumbering 4* heroes just waiting to max, and has long since maxed their specials.

So, my TC20 #2 should be done tomorrow morning and I’ve already made preparations to start it as soon as it is done, so that will give me TC20 x 2 to churn out heroes. I’d probably also going to upgrade a few other buildings rather than starting to shoot up a 3rd TC20.

I will probably come back with another progress report after 20 - 30 more sessions from both TC20s. If you are reading this thread and are hoping TC20 is a wonder pill that solves all of your hero problems, don’t be discouraged. While it hasn’t been for me, it just might be for you as I do remember hearing someone get Quintus on his/her first TC20 draw.

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Very thorough reporting. My SH20 completed this morning!
My development is incredibly similar to yours - same TCs, slow burn food storage etc

I have perhaps been more fortunate with my tc13 - I have 2 of each colour 4* except yellow. Apart from Wu Kong, I have good heroes in every slot (ok skittle skull is a bit useless) and I have had almost all the mats at the right time!

Very fortunate, I know, but I’ve enjoyed putting the hours in too!

Thanks for the update and demonstrating the long isn’t the wrong way.

Looking forward to seeing your first 5*. I hope it’s someone mighty!

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No Fivers yet, but this morning, while my last TC13 for a while gave me Kailani, and my first TC20 gave me Berden, my second TC that just turned 20 two days ago finished and out pops Sonya, my first 4* blue. Sure, to the long timers or $ spenders on the game it’s nothing special, but with her, after almost 7 months of playing, I can now mark my goal of fielding a 4* rainbow team as complete.

Here is a run down of how I first got my current sets of 4*s and not counting duplicates because I have gotten some before.

Kelile (Token)
Gormek (TC13)
Colen (TC13)
Melendor (Token)
Caedmon (TC13)
Li Xiu (Token)
Chao (Token)
Cyprian (TC20)
Sonya (TC20)

Notice none of them came from Gem summons (not even the 300 Gems that I used occasionally) and Yes, I remember vividly how I got each one of them because 1. I don’t have that many of them and 2. You tend to remember things that are more special in terms of rarity.

Again, small sample size of TC20s and what I can currently field is nothing to write home about. But given my C2P status and my luck thus far, it is still a milestone for me to reach. Any way onto the next milestone…

I would suggest that once you have TC20 running, the odds of a 4* out of TC13 are so bad (generally accepted at 3-4% vs. 20% out of TC20) that I would stop trying, empty the queue, and put that TC unit full time upgrade-to-20 mode.

If I recall correctly the upgrade time 13-20 is around two weeks, so you don’t get 7 TC13 heroes over that time. The expected number of 4* heroes out of that many pulls would be 0.28 aka most likely NONE assuming a 4% chance, worse at 3%

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Yes, Barry, I emptied the queue from that TC13 (#3) while I finish my second TC20. But I had to do some prep work the night before it finishes so as I backed them out, they mostly went nicely into the newly finished TC20 and I just had to make up the difference in recruits between a TC13 vs. a TC20 training. So it works out and I just let it finish its last training session so the food and the recruits don’t go to waste.

The reason I kept it running during the two weeks from TC13 to TC20 was really there to see if it can get me anything else and place holder for my excess food and recruits while #2 is upgrading and maybe to see if I can luck out on a 4*, which after that, #1 TC20 gave me a Cyprian and #3 TC13 gave me a duplicated Cyprian 2 days later.

So I am probably going to work on the rest of the base a little before getting #3 up to 20, as I already have 2 running full steam on Legendary training and just use #3 and #4 for cheap training or fast training, whichever I felt like at the time.

I highly recommend keeping #3 permanently at extra low cost / TC11, and letting the last one bounce around between modes, depending on what you have in stock.

A TC11 recruit bank and a TC20 food bank work best as a pair because you can store or recover millions of food as you move recruits between the two of them. (This would have covered the difference in food cost between TC13 and TC20 when you were moving things earlier)

No matter how many TCs I want to run at TC20, I expect to keep two permanently like that. (Unless I stop running TC20 entirely)

Although I thought I was going to let the TCs run its course now I have two TC20s running side by side non-stop and occasionally throwing more recruits and food into the queue. So since my last report ended on the 07/21 pull they were mostly 3*s and I did get Kashhrek, I felt the need to bring up a little milestone.

On my most recent pulls from TC20:
Session 23 gave me the most talked about and perhaps the most controversial simian Wu Kong
Session 24 gave me the most talked about and highly coveted and loved by many Boldtusk
Session 25 gave me my first 5* in the game with Aslan (er, wrong story), I mean, Azlar.
Session 26 gave me a duplicate Colen, which become the shadow training partner for his stronger self.

Any way, a milestone certainly has been reached, a small streak of 4* and above going (watch me jinx myself), and my first 5* (certainly not who I was really wanting, but what the heck). None of them are beefed up to be of any immediate use for me. But hey, not in a hurry. Remember, painstakingly long road I am taking for myself?

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Hello… I will be nearing my progress report for my TC20 pulls soon, I plan to update after 100 pulls, but as I am on a journey for better heroes, here is something else that happened recently.

  1. Google Play Store gave me $2 promo somewhere around the time of the Pirates event this month, so I spent them on the flash deals on Gems. So that’s now a total of $2.97 of not-my-$ to begin with.
  2. I’ve hoarded enough Gems to attempt my first 10x pull in this game. I had a choice to make, use slightly more for Atlantis this month, or save them for Fables, Guardians, or King Arthur? Whatever happened to my original thought of doing 10x elemental?

There are heroes I wanted in each of those events, but knowing my luck, I’d probably end up getting none of them and duplicated S1 heroes. As for the elemental summons, I might just keep the TC20 going to see if they will round someone out, I have 2 running non-stop and they are queued to give me 1 result every day, I might eventually come back to that if I am short on some colors and needed some potential nudge.

So in the end I went for Atlantis (it will have the highest odds of giving me unique heroes for my collection) for my 10x pull (1st one since playing) this morning, I got.
Chochin x 3
Gato
Ameonna
Namahage
Rigard (1st one)
Boldtusk (duplicate, fed)
Hawkmoon (fed)
Nashgar (fed)

I had some Atlantis Coins saved up and have enough Gems left to do a single pull. So what I got was Namahage (duplicate, will feed), and a Mnesseus (duplicate, will feed). Seems like this one went heavier on Sakura family for me (probably because I made fun of their design a lot). The 10x pull that filled the Ascension Material Chest gave me Mystic Rings, and 2 other farmable material. RNG Gawds strikes again with no Alberich, no HoTM.

So for 3350 Gems + Atlantis Coins, I essentially got 5 heroes I previously did not have, and a Mystic Ring. Not a very good return on investment IMHO, and it is back to Gem hoarding for me again, and the next 10x pull will probably be on troops.

Another Progress report, just finished my 100th pull from my 2 x TC20s from the beginning. They were working non-stop since I started getting TC20 and one finishes around 11PM the other next morning around 6AM, so I am technically getting a shot every day. While this is all happening, I have at least gotten one of each of my buildings to level 20 to finish all the building missions.

Now the progress report, in the 100 pulls I’ve gotten (including duplicates)
73 x 3*
24 x 4*
3 x 5*

So this small sample size is not much different than what the general distribution established, perhaps on the slightly lower end for 5*, little more for 4*, and little less on the 3*. All the 3* and duplicate 4* went or will be food source. Personal preference, I really only like 1 copy of each hero.

So of the 3 5* I got, I got Azlar (1st 5*), Quintus, and Elena. All coincidentally are slow mana heroes. Not sure if the slower heroes show up more often than average/fast ones. Of them I am only really actively using Quintus to help me farm (great job assignment for a Mad Scientist huh?) and he was pretty squishy at first when I placed him into the farming rotation, but he’s starting to be a little better.

I have gotten all except 5 x 4* that I’ve never gotten that I am still waiting to come around for the first time (Skittleskull, Little John, Scarlett, Hu Tao, and Kiril), with the exception of Kiril, these aren’t really high on the priority list other than completion purposes.

With acquisition of some Atlantis heroes, there is definitely plenty of heroes to level.

So I am now reached some of the milestones since playing. What’s left on the list are 1st rainbow 5*, 4* troops for all colors, and HoTM (don’t have any).

Now, onto 250 pulls or 500 pulls as the next progress report. Hopefully I’ll at least be done with getting all S1 4* by then.

Until next time.

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So… here we are… another 4 months or so have passed. Where do I stand when it comes to heroes?

I still do not have any event / seasonal / HotM to show for. I did have a Troop 10x pull, which is the main reason why I did have another chance at a 10x hero pull yet. That, the troop pull, was actually kind of disastrous, all 3* and a few duplicate troop types. And wouldn’t you know it, I got 2 purple 4* troops from Troop Tokens a few weeks later. If I can only get my hands on a red 4*

So onto TC20s, about two months ago, I placed my 3rd TC20 into service to speed up the hero collection process. I am eventually done with my 4th TC20, but that 4th one is actually servicing as my small feeder training facility while I finish rounding out the rest of my base. Will I finish with all my buildings before SGG release new buildings? Who knows.

Now, I have done 250 pulls and having #3 helped with the speed to which I got to it. I realized there is pretty much solid enough data from the other players to determine the % of each tier so I won’t go into too much details in my own percentages because I don’t think it will deviate too much from the others’ data.

In trainings and acquisitions, I have all of S1 4* heroes except Skittleskull. So I guess I am still working on that, funny how people always seem to be missing different ones. Not that Skittles is someone I would use regularly, but with the introduction of the Emblem trials, I may have to start thinking differently. The 5* is where I have much better luck than summons, I now have 10 S1 5* heroes. - Azlar, Quintus, Elena, Isarnia, Khagan, Lianna, Elkanen, Kadilen, Horghall, and Obakan (and a few duplicates that were fed to themselves).

Not a bad list of heroes to hold onto, I was afraid my luck is going to have me have slow heroes for a long time. But luckily I was able to get Isarnia, probably really the only hero I looked forward getting. She is the queen, and everyone are just extras. Getting Lianna is also wonderful, they are both being worked on while Quintus and Azlar’s progress has been put on the backburner until I leveled some other heroes up.

Amazing how I essentially have no more need for the Nature Elemental Summon portal (I am not going to Nature summon to attempt to get Skittles) and I am still without a Yellow 5* hero, wonder who it will be, and hope I won’t have to wait too much longer to find out.

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Still chugging along and I did nab another 5* hero from TC20 since the last post and it was… Thorne. Yes, Thorne. The butt of jokes and ridicule amongst the E&P community, the recent buff he received in Version 20 didn’t seem to change too much of the opinion on him. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any more 5* come out of TC20 camp since getting Thorne.

But last night was a milestone. The proverbial monkey (or at least one of them) is now off my back. Atlantis summon showed up after 2AM CST, I dropped 100 Atlantis Coins into the slot, it thought about it for a while… Out came Mnesseus, Sigh, it was going to be one of those summon attempts, I see. At least it was towards the majority S2 rare hero odds, I suppose. But out came… Frida.

Yes, Frida, March 2019 HoTM Frida. My first and only HoTM since playing over a year and 2 months ago just showed up on a single 100 Atlantis Coin bonus pull at 2AM in the morning. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and when I found out I wasn’t, went ahead and Locked her up. Turn off my lights and went to sleep. Might as well quit while I am ahead, I think.

The other Monkeys still on my back are seasonal, event heroes and season 2 5* heroes, but the fact is that the advertised 1.3% odds just happened made those others felt a little lighter.

Save the Polar Bears!

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I know who’s back it saddled instead. :frowning_face:

That simian stings the back it stays on doesn’t it?

I feel you. Whenever you hear about alliance mates or forum players doing one pull and landing the bonus draw month after month and events after events, while you constantly get 3* s1 dupes is not something easy to bear. Looking at your profile, it looks like you have been playing for longer than I have, so I definitely tip my hat off to you for staying the course as long as you have and gunning for a HoTM.

Sending whatever mind powered luck your way in hopes that a HoTM will land in your camp soon.

Thank you.

Summons in this game is something where common sense and knowledge of math contradict with emotions. Logically you know that 1.7% is nearly impossible and you must be prepared to getting yet another 3*, but emotions boil and demand some luck. :slight_smile:

Wolf9
I just started playing at the beginnings of the month,and,after reading your logs,congratulations to all.
I plan on just buying the vip, so i’ m not a ftp.
My question is where are you on the maps.because for me,at least my main goal is to clear the 2 seaons,titans,wars,raids, in that order.
Any insight will be most welcome.

  1. Join an active alliance around your level

  1. Develop your village, rushing your training camps up to Extra low cost trainings, then work on resources and other stuff… a single forge could help you to earn ascension materials that you’ll need later in the game.

  1. Keep all of the heroes above 3 stars and try to empower them, you will need them to complete quests and events (rewards) and do well on titans and alliance wars (cooperation + rewards).

  1. Try to not rush on maps, there are many safe levels where to farm as season1 7.4 for the 100 monster’s chest, try to reach and stay on gold tier raids to farm recruits.

  1. Use your gems to expand your heroes capacity at first and perform summons with epic hero tokens when you are interested into the featured Hero Of The Month (aka HOTM).
    While the chance is small… So you are telling me there’s a chance? :blush:

Ps. take a trip here:

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