[Play style] Investment, Diminishing returns, Matchmaking, summons, and limited paths or Playing Empires when you have 5285 finished heroes in Extra low cost training
Progress
Empires uses unmodified RNG, and diminishing returns, so the game is not a single path, linear progression. With no checks on RNG, you get some weird hero rosters. But by storing Hero XP and food I can take advantage of RNG when it smiles on me.
Investment
Having 2018 finished heroes in Extra low cost training in one camp and 3268 in another is actually deceptive when trying to track my progress through the game.
I run a third Extra low cost training that has zero finished heroes.
I have been leveling what troops I can get from Epic Troop Tokens.
I actually off color, 1 day, power leveled Wilbur to 4*+1 and later Proteus to 4*+8. So when I get heroes that are game changers, I can level them quickly.
Brute force versus efficiency or Titans and War
I am always in the Top 5 of my alliance on titans and Top 10 war - Top 10 for all 60 players not Top 10 for my alliance - because I deconstruct games for fun ( freemium paywalls, the MMO principal of diminishing returns, attack stat soft caps, etc.). For more info, see below.
War Matchmaking
When my heroes reached 4*+5, I had to drop out of wars because the matchmaking algorithm is suboptimal - especially when it comes to nodes X*+1 to X*+15 - and I was costing my alliance 2 war chest points per week ( 1 point for a loss is brutal ). Yes I was always in the Top 5 for my alliance, but my roster is very oddly shaped so it throws off matchmaking. So far we are winning 2 more wars per month since I dropped out. Once I can get a solid set of 5x 5* heroes ( fingers crossed for Hero Academy ), I can rejoin very quickly.
But by dropping out, my teammates have been opening war chests faster and several have leveled critical heroes with the loot. Due to diminishing returns, it is better for me to skip the War Chests now, to help my whole alliance improve and take down bigger titans.
Raiding
Gryphonkit, my wife, and other teammates have a lot of 5* 4.80 heroes but are only ahead of me in raiding. Because 5* 4.80, and to a lesser extent 4* 4.70 heroes, are much more costly in Hero XP than 4* 3.60 heroes. Add the attack stat soft cap and there are some interesting things you can do with at least two healers on your team, 4* 3.60 heroes, and 5* 2.60 heroes. But raiding is not one of those activities.
Quests
I have stopped doing quests that do not guarantee at least 1 non farmable treasure. Part of this is the fault of Atlantis Rising having superior loot to the rest of the month. But most of it is I have so much stuff and nothing to use it on. At least Class quests gives me something to use Dragon bones and Midnight root.
Farming
Surprisingly I am leveling green Kadilen to 5* 2.60 and yellow Melia to 3*+1 for farming since they are both fast mana speed, attack all enemy, heroes. They also work well with yellow 4*+11 Wu Kong and green 3* 3.50 Brienne.
Summons
Since I have all the Classic 4* heroes except purple 4* Cyprian, I am really hoping Hero Academy gives me new heroes to work on. Having spent approximately $2.5 USD per day for approximately 1.4 years, gem summons have definitely reached the point of diminishing returns.
More Paths
I find it interesting that green 4* Kasshrek ( healer with elemental defense buff ), green 4* Little John ( mana generation debuff ) and green 5* Kadilen ( fast mana speed, attack all enemy ) are not part of the original Classic 4* / 5* heroes.
I am really hoping “skins” do not just boost Classic 4* / 5* heroes, but make them more versatile. Unlike matchmaking, which is out of my control, this would give me more options to explore.
After the basic “skins” are released, I would not mind a “Skin” of the Month.
Roster
4*+11= 9
4*+1= 4
5* 3.70= 2
4* 3.60= 17
5* 2.60= 5
3*+1= 4
3* 3.50= 10