Why Costumes Rock -and- Why Costumes are the best opportunity for FTP and CTP players

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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First - Thank you SG for crafting the Costumes and continuing to support them, AND Thank you SG for including some Free-chances (Free Keys) for those who are FTP and CTP especially.

Why Costumes Rock:

  1. Classic Heroes (Richard, Elena, Sonya, etc.) seem to be the ‘weakest’ or ‘weaker’ than all other heroes in their class, but the costuming buffs (+5% attack/defense/mana, +10% health) will generally bring these same ‘weaker’ heroes up to par with most/many of the other heroes in their class. For example: Richard with Costume is arguably closer to stat-toughness as compared to King Arthur).

  2. One costume works for (many) more than one hero. This is HUGE for the FTP player, where it’s the exception and not the rule that they will end up with a 5* or 4* heroes costume. So, once I have a 5* costume, I can continually level up another and another and another 5* hero to use that costume. So, since a FTP player will generally only get to level up ‘classic’ heroes from the TC20’s, then these costumes will enable ALL of their classic heroes to have more potency and more flexibility (of abilities) as a result.

  3. Refreshing flexibility! My classic heroes can serve in multiple situations: sometimes Gunnar needs to be a protective paladin role in my team, and yet in a different team I can assign him to an enemy debilitating offensive gamechanger! Same hero! I love it. This brings new life and new excitement to my previously ignoble and previously loved heroes.

  4. Speed. My Costumed Rigard is nearing “Fast” in speed, with only a moderately leveled up mana-troop (lvl 17), and can conceivably reach “fast” as a result of the costume’s +5% buff. Hooray! Thank you for the exciting combination of emblems, levels, costumes, and troops, that can combine into a more capable version of a previously ‘meh’ hero!

If I was FTP (I am CTP for the record), then I would prioritize my precious gems on the Costume event, because once I’ve earned a certain costume, I can continue to level up multiples of that same hero, and that hero has more flexibility and capability than ever before.

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I agree with most of the things you say but I’m personally not very happy that costumes are behind a paywall - they are supposed to help FTP and C2P, after all.

I was very tempted to spend my gems there but decided to spend them in the Valhalla summon gate since I could get 2 elemental debuffers there - none of the costumes provide elemental debuff.

Also, the only unique non-maxed heroes I had (before I spent my gems on S3 yesterday) were Thorne, Obakan and Horghall. The costume chamber would give me costumes but most likely it wouldn’t give me any new heroes - the only S1 5* I’m missing are Elena and Justice. So I guess the costume chamber would be great for newer players but maybe not that interesting for people who have played for a long time.

(Also, the only 5* costume I have got for the few months the costume chamber has been here is Elena’s but I don’t have the original hero since I got it in the first chamber).

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Fair comments, D_DI, I’ll try to provide counterpoints:

Yes, the only “Free” costumes come from the keys you can get in the event levels (so 2 pulls plus change), and the few costume keys that you randomly get from Mission Chests (Monster Box, Hero Box, and Titan Box). Also, a Free-To-Play player will get some free Valhalla pulls (2 plus change in Valhalla coins) in the same way as the costume event (and the Valhalla heroe’s are fantastic heroes!). But Gems are the flexible currency, and so where a player spends the gems is where I was advising that the costumes are an excellent return for those limited free-to-play resources (Gems).

When you get a costume, you also get the hero (now), so if you are lucky enough to get a costume, you aren’t so unlucky that you don’t have a hero to use the costume! (this was huge for me when I pulled Horghall’s costume, since I didn’t have him yet!). Thus, pulling a costume IS ALSO pulling that same hero too (now).

When I was still FTP, I was running 2 Training Camps on level 20, which gives a small chance to get a 5* hero, and that TC20 opportunity is a primary way for the FTP players to get 5* heroes (I still got about 1/2 of my 5*'s from TC20). So, the more that you run a TC20 (or multilples of TC20), then the more there will be a chance to double or triple up that hard-to-acquire costume. If I was still FTP and still running two TC20, then spending my few gems would be (advisedly) best-spent on the Costume Event Chances, in my opinion.

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yup, costumes provide great value. the 3 and 4* costumes, which are much more obtainable, have meta changing effectiveness for the raid tournaments.

Looking forward to the next round of costume releases, I have a couple of pandas in need of a wardrobe change.

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Costumes behind a paywall is the opposite of f2p/c2p friendly. Period.

Who cares about that 2 free pulls every month if you get hawkmoon and bane costume almost every time?

They coule have made costumes great for f2p/c2p but greedy as they are, they had to go the money way… as always :frowning:

So yeah… every month I am happy for 2 free chances like in almost every event, but that is not f2p/c2p friendly … sad but true

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Another nice thing about costumes in general, and perhaps particularly for C/F2P is that the costume makes the non-costumed hero stronger, approximating several levels of emblems. Someone can do the math to determine whether leveling up the costume consumes more or less material investment than emblems, but feeders are more easily found than emblems, so a plus, IMO.

Edit: Thank you, @Trash, for a second cheery post today!

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Agreed @RicElDracz. @Trash has been crushing it today! I have just been too busy to respond.

As F2P I love costume chamber and ToL! If I get time I can elaborate.

I would say the perspective of F2P/C2P is very different from P2P/P2W and is very under represented on the boards, so these have been refreshing.

Cheers!

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You say behind a paywall but whilst I do pay I got Richard and his costume from the keys playing the challenges.

Everything in the game has a paywall but everything in the game can be obtained for free if you are lucky.

What you are fundamentally saying is “the heroes I want may take many pulls which I may have to pay to get”

Which is true of anything in this game. If you are patient you will get what you want. It just might you a lot longer but that is the choice you make.

Not saying I agree or disagree…you just have to accept the reality.

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I’ll go ahead and toss this in here.

Costume Chamber - when it first came out, I thought, “what a joke. A new cash grab portal with only Season One heroes in it, with reduced chances to pull a 5*. What’s the point?”

I have since come around and changed my mind. Even though it’s a huge pain in the ■■■ to level both the hero and their costumes, the added stats they gain as a result are quite significant. Costumed versions of otherwise “mostly useless” heroes are suddenly relevant. Keys are relatively easy to come by, even for FTP.

While I am still disappointed that they reduced the odds of pulling 5* costumes… overall? Costume chamber is probably one of the best features they’ve added to the game in recent memory.

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Yes, I agree, costume make duplicate S1 heroes have valuable. Specially keys heroes that would use for War and Tournament.
I already have 2x C.Rigard maxed, 1x C.Kiril maxed, 2rd C.Kiril on the way. 1x C.Melendor maxed.
C.Caedmon will be my next project after 3rd Hansel maxed.
Waiting for Sonya.

No 5* costume heroes so far… :man_shrugging:

I think it is lvl5 mana troop from 10 tiles become 9 tiles (and yes 9 tiles is big advantage).
One of this option, can make avarage heroes to 9 tiles:

  • Troop 23
  • Troop 17 + Class
  • Troop 11 + Class 20
  • Troop 5 + Costume
  • Troop 1 + Costume + Class
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I also like that only 5 keys are needed for a summon instead of 10 like challenge coins.

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I did a 10 pull right at the start of it (don’t even get me started on that :joy:) but since then I have just done Key pulls as the game seems fairly generous with them (shhh…you didn’t hear that SGG…)

I’ve got Rigard, Boldtusk, Li Xui, Tiburtus all levelled and I have Sonya, Skittleskull, Melandor sat waiting on me.

I love even if I don’t use the costume version that it makes those heroes relevant again. I tend to use Boldtusk as vase version but the extra little tickle from the bonus is noticeable.

I have a mass of the 3* ones too and they make a huge difference. Gunnar becomes awesome…Phoenix from the flames there…who’d have thought I’d be dusting him off (2nd hero I ever levelled…fun fact). Hawkmoon, Brienne, Bane…all become very good.

My 10 pull gave me 5 Gunnars, 3 Brienne and 2 Hawkmoon. So all the 4* and the 5* came from Keys

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They should put this closet in TC20, so S1 guys would stop being born naked. Lol

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I have costume Melendor +20 and have loved the results. I couldn’t recommend it enough. He’s basically my version of a 5* healer.

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My personal non-biased POV:

Costumes are a premium feature and being paywalled doesn’t negate their usefulness for everyone regardless their spendings.

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I have mixed feelings about the costume chamber tbh. Overall i feel it was a good addition, but calling it f2p or c2p friendly is disingenuous at best.

First the good: i absolutely LOVE that it only takes 5 keys to do a summon. It is entirely possible to earn a free pull (or 2 even!) each month outside of the event. I get ~7-10 keys from various chests and visions, every month and this is definitely the most f2p friendly aspect. By contrast, i haven’t gotten a free pull yet from valhalla coins from the same sources, and maybe one and a half from atlantis during my year or so playing.

I’m glad to have new content, both in the form of heroes and a new quest. Giving us some new things to do and use is great. And especially I’m glad to see the diversity in 3 stars, it’s really revitalized tournaments and challenge events. It’s refreshing to see winning teams be different than just 5 of the same fast event hero, and even some 4 and 5 star tourney/event teams using these 3 star heroes

However…

There is definitely a significant paywall aspect to this now. I was pretty lucky in that my main defense team s1 heroes (mostly 4 stars) got costumes in the first round, because now the pool has gotten pretty diluted. Instead of just having “featured 5 star heroes”, I’d like to see a featured element run during the event, where maybe you have a 2x chance to pull that element. Maybe a different element each day, so that you don’t have to wait 5 months for the cycle.

Getting a little tired too of the game’s idea of “challenging” be “add stats to mobs”. I especially notice this during events, but the costume quest just takes so long to kill the repetitive mobs i find it just boring. There’s no doubt i will survive to the bosses at least, but it takes 5 minutes or more of just matching tiles before i get there. Maybe a field effect based on the majority mob element, or based on the ultimate central boss where tiles charge the field mana (at a slow rate) and it has a powerful effect (% hp damage, all mana lost, dispell all hero buffs/debuffs on enemies). Something more than just “spend more time matching tiles”. The runic rocks were a really interesting addition, let’s see more of that!

The excitement of having costumes available has kind of died off now too, seeing that so many others have them and i have so few. I get that f2p/c2p is a choice, got to have revenue, blah blah blah, but it’s getting discouraging that now my s1 heroes are actually even more obsolescent because i don’t have many costumes yet. Why isn’t there some chance in tc that for every hero you have a chance to get their costume too? Would a 10% (or honestly even as high as 50) chance to pull a hero with costume really unbalance the game? The 5 star drop rate is so low on tc 20 anyway, throw us a bone here. People will still spend on pulls.

I’m glad that they changed the chamber to give the hero with the costume, but esp since I’ve got a more full roster now (esp with 4 stars) I’d like an option to just pull for costumes. Maybe 200 gems (or 150^^) and you only get the costume. I don’t need more copies of melendor and costume, i need more chances to pull a costume for my few five stars or the fully ascended 4 stars i have without costumes already.

Anyway i don’t mean to derail this thread with complaints, i don’t hate this chamber just want to see a few improvements. Cheers

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As a CTP gone FTP…

Yes the costumes are somewhat “paywalled”…

But the paywall between a FTP and a halfway decent hero costume is virtually papier-mâché compared to the concrete wall standing between FTPs and the old HotMs being held prisoner in the Torture chamber of Legends.

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Not gonna get into the F2P/C2P aspect but I’ll just say, costumes have significantly improved my raid teams and changed the way I raid.

To give a concrete example: there are no fast S1 4* purple heroes, all of them being average speed, and only one hitter (!) - Tiburtus. Thus I had limited options against yellow tanks, and half the time would end up rerolling right past them.

Not anymore with the introduction of costumes. First, Rigard gets a significant upgrade with that +48% atk buff, and Kiss Tibs’ costume turns him into a mini Isarnia but at effectively fast speed. But the biggest game changer has to be that 5% mana bonus. It is so incredibly awesome to be able to charge an average hero in 9 tiles (3 matches) with a lv5 mana troop, which is much more accessible than trying to get to a lv23 troop. Once I maxed out the costume for both, I started using them in almost every raid. That atk up + def down means once they get going, half the enemy team goes poof, or can be finished from tiles alone.

So costumes turned one hero I’d only use situationally (Tibs) and another reluctantly (Rigard), to two heroes I bring on almost every raid. :+1:

Oh yeah, the stats boost is nice too, and officially SG rates them as equivalent to +7 talent (maxed costume adds 35 TP; each node is 5 TP). But really it’s more like +9 talent in terms of stats since two of the nodes are for the class talent rather than stat boost. This means you can save on emblems and use them elsewhere, or make that 4* hero into a true 5* caliber hero (uneblemed) if you take them to +18.

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Right. Instead of balancing S1 heroes to make them relevant it’s better to throw costumes on them. After all they give you few keys as an opportunity to grab those shiny costumes even if there’s a pawall! It definitely helps make FTP/C2P rosters slightly more powerful than today and decrease the gap.

/s…this whole place is on kool-aid.

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I think this costume thingy just made the game better… that 5% mana boost is HUGE. Especially with average speed heroes… Sonya, Melendor, Boldtusk, Kiril, not to mention Tiburtus (I want one so badly…). This was the best f2p movement I saw since I started (16 month ago).

Note: I’m p2p but still feel that these costumes made the game so much better for a free 2 play that it’s incredible… best move from SGG ever…

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