Oh, please don’t buy those random packs from the store. The collective experience with all of them is horrible.
E&P is cleverly balanced so that even “whales” can’t buy a great team:
- You may get a lot of hero cards, but you can’t buy meaningful quantities of ascension materials
- You’ll also need feeder heroes, and those require grinding away for recruits
- The HotM implicitly rewards long-time players: “founders” were able to get Hel and Athena, but not newbie millionaire.
- there’s no mechanism to swap items/heroes with other players (which would create a black market)
There are some high-value use of gems in this game, and I strongly encourage people to focus a limited budget here:
- accelerating a Hero Wanted chest by <2 hours (the more Wanted chests you close, the more Elemental Chests you’re likely to get)
- Continuing the final levels of a Rare Quest if you’ve had a really good run and were really close to winning. 75 gems is a cheap way to “buy” the rare mat from the quest.
- Getting some decent heroes at the start of the game. Pray for great 4* heroes, not 5*.
- On Event pulls, hoping to get both the HotM and event heroes.
- the VIP pass. Great price for gems, and the double builder lets you get TC20 built twice as fast. TC20 is the budget plan for getting quality heroes.
I see so many new players spend a pile on getting great cards, but then running into the buzzsaw of ascension mat scarcity. If instead you draw heroes modestly, remain active and join a decent alliance, you’ll find that the available heroes and available mats line up pretty well.