Sounds like you started playing about a month after I started.
In approximate 14 months of playing, it sounds like you were doing sort of an even leveled approach all your buildings. That was what I had been doing for the first 3 months of playing until the focus changed, thanks to few pointers provided by veterans on the forum. Then it’s been straight shoot up of the Stronghold to 20, alongside of Iron Storage, Food Storage, and the Training Camps.
Difference is that I don’t spend money and I don’t have much luck with summons. I didn’t get my first 5* Hero until TC20 came along and I pulled Azlar out of one of the sessions (approximately 8 months after I started playing). So it sounds like you might not be that far off in Food Storage Levels (which you will need for the TC20 research on Legendary training). With you having VIP Pass, I would not let any part of my base go idle without any sort of building upgrade at any point, don’t waste those 2nd builders.
TC20 will be the most reliable source of 5* heroes as others have pointed out. For the Ascension Material, just have to do everything that the game offers that give you loot, fill monster / hero / Titan / elemental chests, kill Titans, participate in wars (to fill the alliance chest), raid tournaments, challenge events, and don’t ignore the Mystic Vision, they could occasional surprise you. Finally, don’t miss out on the Rare Quests that give you guaranteed ascension material in their 4th and 5th stages (Mt. Umber, Frostmarch, etc.) Depends on the 4* heroes you have on your roster, you may/may not have problem getting past the stages, but there are a lot of resources on the forum about how to tackle these Rare Quests.
@Shohoku79 has excellent advice here. It will
Move you along as a F2P and give you a sense of accomplishment.
Only thing I did slightly different was bring a TC up to 11, I use it as a bank for recruits and food.
Good luck!! May RNGesus smile upon you.
You need to get your training camp to tc20. TC20 will get you 4 star heroes and occasionally give 5 stars. Your teammates have more 5 stars because they are spending a lot of money. The leader of my alliance has been playing for 18 months and has spent over 600 dollars to get a fully leveled 5 star team. My guess is that number is higher based on how often he pulls. I have been playing 10 months but got to tc20 before him by following the guides on the forum. I do 1 Atlantis 10 pull a month. I have pulled as many 5 stars from my tc20s as from summoning. With regards to ascension materials you will need to hit higher level titans. Once we started hitting 8s and 9s I had more than enough unfarmable 3 star materials. I have been super unlucky when it comes to 4 star materials. I have pulled twice as many rings and tonics as darts and telescopes. However I am at the point where my main holdup is feeders and not heroes to train.
If they have iOS, they cannot use the Android/Game Center way to check their start date. (There IS a way to check iOS, but i will need to ask a more tech savvy mod or player to step in and explain the steps…)
Yes, the point was that even on Android you can get the wrong date if Google Play was disabled on your phone (I tend to disable as many Google apps as I can - call it paranoia). It is Google Play that stores those dates, not E&P - on Android.
I tried finding the created date for the E&P app folder through my computer (as a flash drive) but I couldn’t track it down. The working directory for E&P is recr4ated every time you start it.
I had the same experience @nevarmaor had, but there is one other thing you can do to approximate your start date. If you’ve never changed alliances, and joined one quickly, check your alliance page to see how long you’ve been in it.
I think I might be a happy person, as I received an apology and flask at seemingly random? I don’t know if was the same or a different issue but I found it thoughtful of them to think of without costing a pile of cash.
