The FTP Rebellion. Who wants to join? (Part 1)

OK, my F2P brethren (and sistren?), I need your advice. My willpower holding onto free summon opportunities is usually pretty strong, but I’m really tempted by the costume portal right now. My plan was this:

  • Use all challenge coins in June (targeting Falcon and Jackal; I only have the bat)
  • Use all EHTs in July, assuming Sand Empire slops over from June (targeting Jabbar and Gafar, and would be ecstatic over Yunan; already have Hisan)
  • Use all costume keys in July (assuming July HotM will be some kind of red Telly counter, and I have the rings)
  • Maybe use Atlantis pulls in July (it will only be two or three at most; this would again be based on a HotM that I want in July)
  • Probably hold Valhalla coins, assuming the really big dogs will be at the end of S3, but again if the July HotM is awesome, I could be persuaded.

But here we are in May, and I’m thinking about burning my costume keys. We still don’t know that Sand Empire will go into July, and we don’t know who the HotM will be that month anyway. They could be as bad as Raffale is expected to be in June. Advantages for pulling now:

  • Domitia is featured. She’s my strongest hero by TP (and at +17, it isn’t close), my defense team tank, and a hero that I use almost everywhere. Even if the costume is garbage (and I don’t think it is) it would be worth it for her stat boosts alone.
  • Magni is also featured, and I don’t have him at all. Both he and his costume would be great additions, and I do have the scopes.
  • Clarissa is clearly a great HotM (bird in the hand, and all that), but I’m out of tabards, having ascended Sartana not long ago.
  • Some of the new four-tier costumes look pretty good, especially Caedmon, for a green cleanser.
  • I would have just enough keys to open the ascension mats chest, not that I ever get anything good anyway.

On the con side:

  • Fewer potential pulls for July if the HotM is OP
  • I have all of the old three-star costumes except Hawkmoon and all the old four-star costumes except Li Xiu from last time I pulled, so a high chance for a lot of dupes.
  • Will almost certainly need to use gems to add roster space (100 gems for 5 slots), as I don’t currently hold some of the three-stars that got costumes this time (Renfeld, Azar, Prisca, Isshtak). I have been saving Google Play credit hoping that and gems will let me do a 10-pull during Guardians or Sand Empire if I don’t get who I’m targeting with my other pulls.

So what do you guys say? Try for some shiny new toys now, or hold firm and put most of my eggs in the potential-Telly-counter July HotM?

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In my decision-making, I focus more on the odds for 3* and 4*, as the odds for 5* / HOTM are really low anyway.

Pros of using costume keys now:

  1. potential for immediate, (relatively) low-cost boosts to your hero bench if you pull costumes of heroes you already have maxed (for example, I just pulled Caedmon’s costume, and stopped leveling Hansel (at 3/3) to work on the costume as I have 2 Caedmon’s maxed - won’t take long to benefit from it! A Green cleanser would be reully useful.)

  2. You have a better chance for the Domitia and Magni costumes. Who knows when they will be featured again? Definitely not by July. And when new batches of costumes are released, they will dilute the summon pool, so there’s a bit of a now-or-never element to it (the chances are very small, bu still…). I wasn’t able to get Rigard’s costume earlier, and now the odds for him are much lower.

Also: you already know about Clarissa, but we as yet don’t have a clue about the HOTM in July. Although, if you can wait a day or so and see if the July HOTM is tested in beta… that could help firm up your decision.

Good luck, may RNG be with you!

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Same here, but one of these days, it’s gonna hit! (Unfortunately, one of those times for me was July 2019, when I got Ranvir. :roll_eyes:)

I’m thinking this should be a wash, as I don’t expect more three- and four-star costumes to enter the pool before July, when I planned to pull anyway, but I guess they could.

Bummer. It’s as good as you heard. I almost never take him out of costume anymore. I held A BUNCH of Rigard dupes, and I will probably level another one with costume every time I don’t have another purple project.

I did consider this. (@zephyr1, do you have any read on whether it is possible/likely that the July HotM would hit beta in the next 18 hours or so? Totally unfair question, I know.)

In the immortal words of the late Tom Petty, “the waiting is the hardest part”. And it’ll get worse when my younger daughter wakes up and realizes the costume portal is open today. She’s really going to want me to pull now. :slight_smile:

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Hello, I happened to pass by this toppic (first time posting here). As a fairly new player, (10 months in game) I get estressed saving for pulls. So I decided on this, that works for me. If you can pull, you pull. The better you can get is a 10 pull, after 3 months, to get potentially nothing. So I usually always pull assap (now I’m starting to save gems for Valhalla, but always saving for a month at most). But, well, if you can manage the anticipation, strategically waiting is better. Just don’t let the wait ruin your game, those are my two cents.

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Yeah, I was also thinking we probably won’t get new costumes before July… so my point was more, we don’t know when Magni and Domitia costumes will be featured again. And especially on Domitia, you use her quite heavily and she’s by far your strongest.

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I didn’t have as many Keys saved up (last month’s event I had more keys dropped via RNG), so I pulled this morning and out came a dupe Tyrum, figure the RNG would like to throw a wrench in (I mean, what the heck, with 21 new heroes in to dilute the pool, you’d think I’d not get dupes in the first pull). Got 3 more new costumes though (Prisca, Caedmon, and Azar), out of which, I love Prisca’s design the most! I didn’t really like Green Hornet Caed as much though, Azar was just meh.

At any rate, this second batch of costumes and the variety of their specials seem to put the first batch to shame because if you look at original Carver, which is essentially a poor man’s Li Xiu, Li Xiu getting her costume is basically adjusting her stats and the % of the damage dealt and mana cut, but costumed Carver actually mana cut and mana gen delay, talk about a double dose. Little John is essentially a different hero with Margaret-like abilities.

Since I am basically hoarding my Valhalla Coins and Gems (for 30x pull) until S3 is finished (I guess around Christmas time?), I won’t have too many shiny new S3 heroes to play with other than the costumed marvels and possibly challenge / event heroes. Oh, which by the way, I purposely saved Challenge Coins (I didn’t pull from Wonderland last month because I already have Shrubbear and it’s not like RNG will give me anything else better), and than, for the second time in 5 months (one full rotation), RNG decides to spit on me in Grimforest, my last 10x pull and the Challenge Coin pulls ended up giving me 3* food, and I can’t even pull a freaking Pixie! I wanted Hansel/Gretel and would even settle for a Pixie because I have no Grimforest heroes. Believe me, I had wanted to drop a 10x pull on Grimforest (I have enough to do so twice now), but I stayed my hand because I am hoarding gems.

In fact it was because of that last crappy 10x Grimforest pull, that started my 30x pull gem hoard, and was going to use that on Atlantis so I could possibly get fishface (I am not even hoping for S2 5* any more and Atlantis Coins stream is basically dried up), then Season 3 showed up and my 30x pull has shifted towards that because you know what, at least that will give me heroes I don’t already have rather than this no Pixie nonsense. But who knows, maybe it will be another repeat of no Pixie in 5 months.

So now, my shot at Clarissa is basically done because I am done with Costumes and I am saving Valhalla Coins.

I am hoping to get some new Summer heroes this time, one thing I didn’t like about them was that there are no colored versions, as much as their sandiness is cool and all. I got multiple Arman last year, but really wanted Hisan. I also did managed to grab Jabbar last year (wanted Gafar). If I can pull a Hisan, I would consider the summer a success, assuming if there are no hero changes in Summer… (I don’t read beta threads as to not get spoiled so I don’t know what type of change there would be).

Well, what ever you decide, @Noble_Weasel mi compadre, I hope you best of luck.

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You mean design or utility? 'Cause his utility should be awesome. I’m flipping between Sonya’s skills (same as Caed’s)… All. The. Time. Super useful. His design is kind weird, though.

Definitely understandable, but you should at least try to get you some of that Nordri goodness. Trust me; the Grimforest baddies felt his wrath good and proper this weekend. And he was my first-ever S3 pull. (Like you, I was gonna mostly hoard Valhalla coins, but I went after Telluria in March… and failed. :frowning_face:)

Oh, this hurts my heart for my Guardians pulls next month. I missed Jackal and Falcon both last time; if it happens again, it’ll be a major bummer. I want to get those so I can go after Hansel and Gretel as well. Close call between pulling Guardians and Grimforest.

Smart criteria. The horse is awesome. If I get a dupe of him this time, I may well keep and level him, too.

Thanks, homie. Right now, I think I’m leaning toward giving it a shot. I love the class changes that costumes bring. Completely changed a lot of my trial teams for the better. And what if I pull the July HotM on one pull or something (yeah, right!) Then I would have completely skipped my shot at Clarissa for nothing.

Hope my last trip to the portal didn’t spoil me, though. Six new four-star costumes on something like 13 pulls. On the one hand, I doubt I’ll get that lucky again. On the other hand, it only takes one legendary pull to make it all worth it, since I have exactly zero legendary costumes.

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Well, my daughter got up and convinced me to go for it. Nine pulls:

2 x Bane (dupes)
2 x Gunnar (dupes)
Tyrum (dupe)
Belith (new)
Rigard (dupe)
Sonya (dupe)
Kiril (new)

Overall, pretty disappointing, but I do use Kiril a ton, so not a total loss. Ascension mat chest netted me the cape to max Kiril’s costume. If I get one more key before the portal closes, I could make one more pull. Probably will, if I do. Might as well now.

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I am talking about the design for Caed… Not really digging the Green Hornet look. Also, original Caedmon has been talked about on the same fulcrum with Sonya since their release and this was basically their chance to differentiate them. Sonya’s original and costume (if we hold off talking about the class and stat change for just a bit), is essentially whether the secondary effect dispels or cleanses, and Caedmon, got essentially the same treatment here. I mean sure, you can now take a Cleansing Sniper as well as a Dispelling Sniper of different colors. But I was really hoping for a different direction with these two. Felt kind of bored and disappointed here.

I was very enamored with Azlar’s costume, aside from the secondary / tertiary effects that basically made him a brand new hero, his non-costumed version of him looked naked in comparison (design-wise).

I know those pulls you made were probably not in order, but I’d have stopped if I gotten some dupes and come back later.

I was really disappointed with Belith’s new costume (design), felt like they just gave her a red dress and changed her horns to antlers.

Would’ve liked to get a Kiril costume too, if just for the stat boost, because my Isarnia is basically getting all of my Wizard Emblems until she is finished.

Imagine if you’d have pulled a costume that you didn’t have a hero to pair with (like the first costume release) and then of course we later learned that when costumes came back you don’t get the hero you pulled costumes of in the first. I think this group of players felt the worst.

Agree, to a point. But at least both remain useful in and out of costume, and the differing colors makes them desirable.

Probably should have. Belith and Kiril came late in the sequence.

Yes, these mostly color change ones are the most disappointing.

Basically what I’m looking at, too. He might make my Trial of Shadows team as a sorcerer, though. I do have a dupe Kiril, so it’s not impossible that I would run them together, or at least in the same war.

Yep. Happened to my alliance mate, who got Elena’s costume, but no Elena. Meanwhile, I’m sitting over here with four Elenas and no costume.

I would say there’s about a 30% chance of that.

It would make sense if they pull Hero Academy and Alchemy Lab for updates, and want to push something new out for testing in the meantime.

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@sleepyhead has a good approach - target 4* mainly

The thing though is, even the best constructed plans for FTP seem to fail me.

All my HOTM pulls came by sheer luck rather than any concrete planning.

I remember hoarding up like 25 EHT for Margaret (Yes, I know - I was desperate for ANY green 5*) and I don’t think I even pulled a 4*!!

On the other hand, with my last EHT received from a titan chest that our alliance had just killed, I decided to try one last time on March 30 and got Telluria…go figure…

So I guess what I mean to say is, the planning is nice (in fact it is important to have a plan as an FTP) but sometimes randomly going for it produces the surprise.

TLDR: If you want to go for Magni / Domitia now you can try a couple of cheeky pulls??? (Oh I just read your follow-up post…sorry to hear but it happens!)

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gasp! praise from the founder! oh be still my beating heart :slight_smile:

I agree though, with the summoning odds so low, most often you just get surprised (pleasant or otherwise). similar experiences for me, saved up like 30 EHT for Mother North or Santa, best I pulled was Rudolph and some super vanilla 4*s.

but used an EHT on a whim two Springvales ago, pulled Lepus.

RNG, oh RNG.

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Well, having seen the first iteration of the July HotM, I feel better about having gone ahead and done my costume pulls. Not a strong Telly counter, and not a must-have hero, even though I think she will be cooler than most people seem to. I may save my EHTs for Sand Empire until July, because I think this hero is at least as good as the June HotM, and the gap between her and Elena or Khagan (my other reds waiting for rings) isn’t as great as the gap between the June HotM and someone like Richard or Isarnia, who I’d prefer to give scopes to if they pop out of my TC 20. Also, none of the previewed HotMs (June, July, August, or September) seems like a must-have world beater, so I will probably just keep using costume keys as I get them for the foreseeable future. No sense hoarding for any of those HotMs, and the costumes can potentially help now.

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Is it normal for FTPs to save up all their gems and tokens and whatnot to chase a specific HotM? Early on, I would save up for elemental pulls in colors where I was lacking depth. Then I progressed to now saving for specific seasonal and/or events that have assorted heroes that could be useful to me. I never actually expect to pull a HotM, or even really any 5* hero for that matter. On the rare occasions that I do, I just consider it a happy accident.

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I usually try to notice who the HotM is, just in case I get them. I wish I’d started doing that before I drew Ranvir; should have saved those pulls until the next month for a shot a Seshat. It’s never very many pulls anyway, but I pulled Onatel and Poseidon in two pulls in their respective months, and I think I got Ranvir in four, so it’s not something to ignore. I’m bummed that neither the June or July HotMs look like game changers, since I’ll be doing pulls for Guardians and Sand Empire in those months.

The only HotM I actually chased was Telly - who I didn’t get. I spent all my Google credit to get Valhalla coins and pushed through several Valhalla levels to try and get a few more pulls before the portal closed in hopes of getting Telly. The last pull did get me Brynhild, who I like a lot, so not a total loss.

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I guess I just never paid much attention to the HotMs until they were actually released (don’t usually read all the beta stuff). When I see a new monthly hero pop up, I check it out, look at the stats. Some look cool, others just meh. Mostly depends on what I’m looking for at the time. Vela and Telly both looked quite promising once I saw them in final release form. IMO? They still look pretty good even after nerf. But that’s all subjective. I never really know for sure how a hero is going to perform in real world situations until I level them up and test drive them myself, which is why, before feeding a bunch of scopes or tonics or whatnot to a hero, I come to seek wisdom from the forum gurus who already have said heroes maxed out, to save myself the trouble of throwing good mats after bad heroes.

@Noble_Weasel, I went with sleepy heads opinion. Did get Clarissa although she’s waiting and some 3* hero’s I didn’t have, damn I wanted Renfeld!! (Really, really strange having those words come out of my mouth) and Kiril. So I didn’t get Domitia or Magni, or even Renfeld but Belith and Balthazar will come in handy one tourney.

I’m with you on the sand empire. I’ve had Yunan maxed for some time and he’s still one of my favorite tanks. Gaffar and Jaffar elude me like many 5*, like GM and Kage until this past Atlantis when I used my remaining tokens and even some of my very scarce gems hoping GM would finally come home. He didn’t but can’t really complain about Kage can I?

I find the Valhalla hero’s, especially the 4* Mist (Myst is better) and Brynhild are actually quite powerful. It’s like they took a 5* ‘s special and said hey let’s see what happens if we make these 4* really good. I mean Mist shutting down 3 enemies buffs for 3 turns is beyond handy (oh no Boril, no riposte for you!!) plus 175% damage to 3, -64% mana generation and -34% defense against special skills for 3 turns on top of being FAST, and Holy. Yes please can I have 2?? Brynhild just being equally useful. I’m perfectly happy with those 2-4* I somehow summoned. Both leveled fast, both saved me my dwindling supply of Tomes (2) and Damascus blades (1) but I DO have 54 compasses and 51 gloves if anyone is short. It’s all anything gives me anymore?
So I’d say go for Sand Empire and Definitely use those Valhalla tokens. You’ll have more by July too. Maybe just do a couple of pulls. I can’t think of a current Valhalla hero I wouldn’t eventually level offhand?

No matter what you decide I wish you the best of Luck. May RNGesus be sneezing when you make your summons!!!

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Kiril was definitely the prize of the pulls for me. I’d like to try out Shredder Kiril on the Trials of Mysticism tomorrow, but I don’t think I can get him fully maxed by then.

While he ain’t Telluria, I gotta think he would be a mean pairing with my Vela. And I’m completely void of legendary greens, so it’d be a win on a couple of fronts to pull him.

I’m at 19 EHTs and counting. There will be two in the event, so I could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 when July rolls around. Surely to goodness I can manage at least one of them in that many pulls, but who knows? Every time I do the Trials of Fortitude (like last Sunday), I think, “This would be so much easier with Gafar shutting down Viv’s healing.”

No. No you can’t. LOL Congrats on a great pull. The dispel-before-hitting really ticks me off when I face him. I almost did some Atlantis pulls this time, knowing it was the last remotely realistic shot at GM, but I decided to pass. Then, I almost did my two free ToL pulls to see if he’d show up, but I’m waiting to see if they adjust the odds (if spending wasn’t what they’d hoped).

I keep hearing the rave reviews on Mist. I’m down to leveling Hu Tao in yellow, so she’d be a great pickup, if I could get her. I do have Brynhild. Still working out how best to use her, but she was great during that recent four-star buff booster tourney. I finished top 1% for maybe the third time ever.

My only holdup here is the potential for some world-beater hero to be released at the end of S3, and me have used all my coins already. (I was one of the lucky ones who landed Poseidon about four hours after he was released!) We see from Atlantis how rare they will become after we get all the S3 stages finished. But I agree in the main on S3 heroes. Love my Nordri, and Ei-Dunn and Kvasir are getting some run in the current raid tourney, as well. Would love to add a Myst or Guillinbursti (spelling?), as well as a few long shots at Clarissa, since the upcoming HotMs don’t look so great.

Some wait longer, but I’ll level one of anybody. I actually have a Gobbler who made it to final ascension before he got bumped by costumes for Melendor, Skittleskull, and Belith, plus Brynhild. It’s only the dupes that I say I would never level, and not all of those.

Thanks much. I’ve really got a lot of eggs in the Guardians/Sand Empire basket. With Hero Academy looking mostly like a bust, I need some fresh talent for my roster in those two summoning windows.

(This is just our dummy shopfront, a lot of the action is happening behind closed doors back at our lair…)

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