New player, having some issues with blue and red. Your advice?

Gameplay Help & Tactics
1

New player, currently around level 12 and castle level 7.

I played for a while, then invested 15$ to try to speed up my progress. I got 5* yellow Leonidas, 4* purple Tiburtus, and 4* green Caedmon. These 3 are the core of my team and they will be there for the foreseeable future.

Now my problem is i have extremely weak reds and blues. I need a healer else i’d burn through potions too fast, so I am using a 1* red (Sharan) that i leveled to the max. And for a lack of anything better, i am using the only other 4* or better i have : 5* green Margaret.

I tried to use the best blue i have, which is only 2*, and it is extremely weak, dies too fast, and blue gems will do very weak damage in combat, basically same damage as a yellow vs yellow, something like 20dmg per gem. For this reason i am using Margaret, she’s a lot more solid, and helps “shield” my weak 1* red with some dodge.

I am obviously having a very hard time killing red monsters and red heroes. The counter to red is blue, and that does no damage since i don’t have a blue hero. If i use red instead to attack, my red hero is only 1* so it’s a weak damage. If if i use green, well that’s the highest resist on green.

I am currently doing map 12, but i can’t go through it without using a bunch of potions. I can handle map 11 without much trouble and that’s where i go to farm (11-5 because of some article guide i found, it is supposed to be outdated but i can’t find a better explanation for where to spend energy for XP Mai's Guide to Efficient Farming – List of best lvls to farm monster, different resources, wanted missions and XP) – The article linked there that is supposed to be better is hard to read, i don’t see an equivalent information that says if you can handle maps of this level without potions, and you should farm X-Y.

Anyway back to my question, how can i solve my red / blue issue? I mostly want to be free to play, save for the 15$ i already spent, but if i can somehow solve this issue for something like 10$ then i’ll spend it. I have 600 gems (whatever the currency for the shop is called) in reserve and i am keeping it in case there is a shop event that sells a specific color such as red and blue, similar to how right now you can get green heroes easily.

  1. How often do they have these kind of color specific shop events? How long do i have to wait for a blue / red event?
  2. In the meantime, what’s your advice? Use a 2* blue, stay with the dual 2* green, or something else?

Screenshot of my heroes sorted by power, the first 5 are my current team, the others are a defensive team, and a level 3 max team (my understanding is that there are events where we can only use 3* heroes, the other 3* i use for xp since i don’t have room)

Imgur

Thanks!

1 Like
2

There’s actually little reason in general to farm higher Stages, and certainly not if you need to use items to do so.

8-7 is the gold standard for most farming as a default, because it’s the highest Recruits per flag of anywhere in the game.

5-8 is also popular for being a good source of Adventurer’s Kits, aka Backpacks.

The Guide you linked is indeed profoundly outdated. This is a far better one, which is being currently maintained and constantly improved: Barry Farmz Here -- Comprehensive data driven farming guide for Season 3, Season 2, Season 1, Elemental Chests, Atlantis Rises, Missions, and more

I would recommend you not worry about progressing farther on the World Map for now. There’s little benefit to doing so.

Don’t buy heroes in the Shop, they’re a terrible deal. I mean the offers that include some 3* heroes, sometimes with some items.

A better approach, if you’re dead-set on using Summons to get more heroes, is the Elemental Summon, which rotates between elements every couple of days in a fixed rotation of Nature => Holy => Dark => Fire => Ice, though the timing is specific to when you started playing.

Since you’ll most likely get 3* heroes from the Elemental Summons anyway, a better strategy is to just work on upgrading a Training Camp to Level 12 or 13. At Level 12 it will produce guaranteed 3* heroes, and at 13 it has a small (~5%) chance of producing 4* heroes.

I’m just quoting this again to save you frustrations later with this advice:

DON’T SPEND MONEY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS IN THIS GAME IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SPEND A TON

This game is long and very slow — while it starts off quickly, you will soon find yourself making slow progress for weeks and months to come.

That’s the nature of the game, and how it’s designed.

The obstacle you’re currently facing is the first of hundreds to come.

If you spend even $10 each time you encounter such an obstacle, you will spend thousands of dollars. And some of those obstacles would be far more expensive to overcome by spending alone.

The slowness of this game is the game.

You will be perpetually waiting on resources and heroes for years to come. That’s how the game is designed.

Spending money can moderately accelerate that process, but it can’t completely eliminate it, even with 10s of thousands of dollars of spending.

For context, here’s what $17k USD can get you.

If you are going to spend some money on this game, the best deal by far is VIP, as it will accelerate your building progress, and give you additional resources.

For someone looking to spend very moderately, it’s the only thing I recommend spending any money on.

image
image828×431 308 KB

13 Likes
3

Farm 8-7 till your fingers fall off

5 Likes
4

Yes…but just in case the OP hasn’t seen it…

There is a fast forward/auto play button in the top right of the screen. Use this to farm very easy levels repeatedly while you get on with something else.

Also, @DrakenKin look around for a friendly teaching Alliance. They will assist you with this sort of advice and lots of other useful stuff.

6 Likes
5

8.7

I have been focusing on gaining as much experience as possible, mostly because i have a maxed 1* hero and i am curious about the “skill tree” that unlocked but can’t use until level 15.
Also i am always swimming in recruits, i must be doing something wrong if people are spending them fast enough to need to farm them.
I also have 60 backpacks right now, i can see if i do the 30 minute common-uncommon training that will be used in 16 hours, so maybe i should farm that. But I wanna see the level 15 skill trees first. Focusing on experience worked well for me so far, i was able to unlock titans and alliance wars, which i haven’t yet participated in yet.

I don’t understand how to read that. Again the most useful thing i got from the old guide was which area gave the most xp per energy. And it so happens that it gives a lot more food / metal per energy than 8-7 and 5-8, for instance right now the best map that my team can do without using any potions is 11-5, and the next one once i get stronger is 12-9… I can’t tell where the guide is outdated, the xp and resources numbers seem accurate so far. The food+metal from these maps is extremly useful in speeding up my castle + production buildings upgrades.
Let me know if i am missing something.

The only thing i bought was the 600 gems + 1 coin that grants a hero that usually costs 300 gems. This combines to a 900 gems value NOW (compared to waiting a month for the same from VIP), and this is 5$ per each. I spent 15$ to buy this 3 times, and this is how i got the 4* and 5* heroes i am using now.

My elemental summon is currently on nature, so i guess i’ll have to wait 4-6 days for the wanted red and blue. I think any 3* blue or red that can heal will help me a lot if i am that lucky to find one.

Thanks for the info about the training possibilities for 3*+, good to know, and ill try to be patient in case my current 600 gems doesn’t lead to anything good from the elemental summons.

Good to know also about the financial aspect. I’d definitely would never spend more than 20-30$ on a mobile game. I’ve been there in the past where a game asks for more else it slows to a crawl, and i usually quit at that point. I am willing to spend on a good game, up to a reasonable point.

And thanks for the VIP recommendation, yes i guess ill go for that and try to use the gems from there as best as i can.

I am aware of that, but i have only been using it when i am close to leveling up with plenty of energy, i do lower maps to try to get little xp and more loot / resources so i can spend all excess energy before popping that level up with a higher xp map.

I understand 8-7 is optimal for something (once i figure out how you’re spending recruits so fast, if you’re leveling, where is all the food coming from, i need it to upgrade my metal production and the tower most of the time), but honestly if i was just to login to run the same map on auto again and again i’d just get burned from the game and quit. I need to see progress on multiple fronts (i like xp maps better for now probably because of something i don’t quite understand yet), i am not sure where running the same map will get me.

Thanks all!

1 Like
6

Hi @DrakenKin

Gaining XP is usually a bi-product of lots of farming. Obtaining items and recruits to fully level heroes is the fundamental mechanism of the strategic long-game.

Anyone looking to make significant progress over several months will be playing the same levels hundreds of times - this is a slow burn game.

Using the autoplay button is just a convenient way of completing easily beatable levels without needing your full concentration. It’s not the same as loot tickets - which were you referring to?

This is where being in an alliance really helps because the social aspect of wars and titans keeps the game interesting. If you are anticipating making regular progress, you need to be getting the rare items that are part of the rewards system from these.

The skill tree - referred to as Talents is predominantly a way of adding a few additional trinkets to your maxxed heroes, it is not the main way of making significant progress, which is levelling up 4* and 5* heroes.

3 Likes
7

Yes but right now i don’t even know what i need in terms of items, so how do i know which map to farm when i am not clear on that point yet.

So what should i be doing? So far my barracks (i have 2 of them) can train up to red heroes at a steep price, ill unlock the ice heroes next. Should i be doing the 3 hours per common/uncommon, or the 30 minutes for the same result? I’ve been running reds to try and find a higher star healer but no luck so far. In all cases the 3 hours per hero won’t use up enough recruits to require me to farm 8-7 non stop, not even close, so if i don’t need recruits, and the xp is bad, and the ressources are bad (talking from an energy standpoint) why should i be farming 8-7?

I was refering to the autoplay, i didn’t get any tickets yet since i didn’t have VIP until a minute ago.

Yes I joined an alliance early and we’re doing Titans, even if some make it out alive because not everyone is active and there are a few spots left in the alliance.

I unlocked wars, but wasn’t able to join the current one since it is ongoing, waiting for the next one to start to experience that content.

Ok so the talents are an endgame gimmick and i should focus on leveling, got it. I noticed that my 5* heroes cost twice as much food to upgrade as a 4* hero. It’s about 6000 food per gobbled hero compared to 3000 or so. On the other hand the jump from 3* to 4* is minimal, which makes me think it’s better to level up your 4* if you got them? Correct?
I am also guessing that leveling 3* is useful for specific events, but for someone like me who just wants just one strong team for now it’s better to focus on leveling my 4*?

8

Do you have an active leader? If your Alliance is treading water try looking here: Training Alliances or post a new thread asking for offers - you will get dozens of suggestions.

Use your backpack when possible to train uncommon heroes. The colour specific training is considered very poor value.

3* heroes are going to be useful to you for sometime so don’t discount them. But yes, park your 5* for a while.

8-7 is considered the best level for xp and recruits for 3 flags of world energy, but 5-4 is good for backpacks.

4 Likes
9

Ok let me explain why focusing on XP feels right for me (I am not saying it is the way to go) :

  1. When you level up, your energy is refilled. This means–especially for a new player–you get to play more, and make more progress in the same length of time. In fact, i am pretty sure the optimal maps are optimized for higher level players where leveling is extremely slow. If you factor in all the extra energy and resources (6x pvp fights, up to 8k food+metal from every win x6 that’s potentially 50k resources from a simple level up) from running more maps per day from the leveling, would not it be a faster progress curve?
  2. Early you have little room to store heroes, and capacity seems to go around +5 extra hero spaces per level up. This is great when you’re just starting and don’t know what to keep. But also, i am guessing it is optimal to gobble up 10 heroes at a time to maximise the chance to upgrade the ability of the hero, so 5 colors x10 heroes that’s 50 heroes spots needed, and this doesn’t even account for the heroes that you keep or are your main teams. Right now at level 13 or so i have only 45 hero slots, so those +5 i get from every level up give a lot of breathing room!
  3. Again unlocking gameplay elements, such as titans, wars, talents trees… My guess is that it’s better to focus on xp until level 20 or so, this way you unlock more things to do so the game feels more interesting. From the energy you get at every level up, i feel like this greatly accelerate your progress when starting out. I only started playing since a few days, definitely no more than a week, and i am about to hit level 14.
  4. If you have VIP, you can replay any HARD, potion consuming maps with a guaranteed win. For example i can run 11-5 easy, but i need potions to win 12-9. I unlocked VIP and with the tickets i was able to run 12-9, which gave me an extra 1000 food+metal and +200xp+ per run.This might be an argument for giving the map progress a little push compared to setting base in 8-7, since the tickets don’t care about difficulty.

I’d really someone to convince me that farming the same map is better at this stage (new players / early level) in the game. Again i agree and i see how it’s best for late game. But I am not sure at which point we should switch from xp focus to farming focus.

1 Like
10

@JonahTheBard

use your backpack

Ok that’s the 30 minutes. I’ll try to run that non stop then, ty.
Question : Would you prioritize that over upgrading the castle and resource producing buildings?

3* heroes are going to be useful to you for sometime so don’t discount them. But yes, park your 5* for a while.

It’s gonna hurt to park Leonidas, but i guess ill replace him with 3* Bane for the moment.
I’d be really curious to see at which ascendancy and level Bane becomes better than a basic un-upgraded Leonidas.

8-7 is considered the best level for xp and recruits for 3 flags of world energy, but 5-4 is good for backpacks.

12-9 seem to be better?

Last time i ran them 8-7 gave me 9 recruits, while 12-9 gave me 10. Better but similar.
1387xp at 4e vs 817xp at 3e. That’s better… 346xp/e vs 272xp/e
8k ressouces at 4e vs 5.3k at 3e. That’s better… 2000 vs 1766
Bonus? When i ran 12-9 it gave me a backpack and a 5 star item, not sure if that’s every time or chance based when it comes to the backpack, ill take notes and see.

So basically for a tiny bit more recruits, you lost a bunch of resources and xp. Are recruits that precious?

11

You can still use him, if he’s better than Bane at the moment, but don’t level him up yet. Use both for a big punch. In your original post you are struggling with red and blue, it might be that double strength yellow will get you through. I had two 4* reds and no decent green for ages.

It’s cyclical - better heroes will allow you to compete for better loot. They will then hit a ceiling and you will need better farms and mines. Then the stronghold, then you can prioritize heroes again.

Recruits are really key imho, hero levels make such a difference to your ability to compete.

Again, it’s cyclical though. Do some farming of 3 flag levels. Level up. Push the map forward. Lather, rinse, repeat.

But you won’t get more recruits per energy than 8-7.

3 Likes
12

  1. Is there some kind of hero calculator to see how much leveling i have to put into Bane before he surpasses Leonidas?

  2. How about 4* heroes vs 3* heroes? I am using 4* purple Tiburtus, should i replace with 3* Renfeld for the same reason?

13

I don’t think anyone has built one that records every single level and SG haven’t provided the calculation for us.

Tibs has a really good skill, where as Renfeld is average, so in that case Tibs wins imo.

Knocking defence down is one of the most useful core skills.

16

I don’t think the OP is on season 2, let alone hard

3 Likes
17

Ok yeah…i see that now. I’ll withdraw comment. I misread. Thanks for heads up

2 Likes
18

Hello,
I’m a faily new player so i can share some of my experiences, this is what i have been doing.
Use tc4 (sword + 2 recruits + some ham) to stach your recruits, then pull them out by using the - to use some of the bacpacks. There no limit to how many recruits can be stored.
Ascent 3 and 4* first. When you reach Sh 11 use Tc 11 instead (little cheaper on ham).
I fill the monster chest on =P 5 level 2,4,6,8, / P 6 level 2 / P 7 level 2 /P 8 level 2, 8, that should fill the chest, plus the loot and recruits is not bad.
Open the map 1/ 2 levels at the time.
Keep the storages, farms, mines as up as you can.
Summons elementals for reds and blues(was already mentioned earlier in the posts.
Tc12/13 will give some 3* of all colors( also mentioned earlier)

Take your time, it is a long journey.
Have fun.
Wolf9
:sunglasses:
One more thing do Atlantis Rise,( 4th thursday every month), lots of exp., tons of loots,recruits. It is about the same level as S1 P12 to start on normal. Use the coins to summon, the heroes are pretty good, even the 3*.
Cheap (3 flags only)

1 Like
19

No! Keep Tibs feed him Renfeld.
Couldn’t see all of the heroes roster, from what i saw, Tibs,Caedmon,Berden,Bane, are worth levelling.
The 5* are very expensive to level, could be used as is, for now.
My 2 cents
Have fun.
Wolf9
:sunglasses:

20

Keep both! I know Renfeld is practically a meme here, but every 3* counts in the early days!

1 Like
21

Hello,
But would you ascent him?
I’m faily new too(4+ months), C4F (cheap 4 fun), maybe just luckier.
I couldn’t see his complete roster. Does he have any good dark heroes beside Tibs?
Even Layla is better maxed, imo. Add a few emblems, there you have mini3* Layla(still use her in wars max+15)
Have fun.
Wolf9
:sunglasses:

22

At some, probably unless Balthazar and Tyrum show up quick.

I’ve got every tc20 3* still and have two or three every colour maxxed for tournaments and events.

Renfeld is not particularly good, but in the early days 3* are hard to come by and good for stacking

1 Like