How much time / $ needed to move into the upper tiers?

BigMao

Hello everyone! I started playing this game around last Christmas, and I enjoy it quite a bit (I liked original Puzzle Quest the most, followed by this one, followed by Galactrix and PQ2).

After spending ~50 hours on this game and ~$100 on in-game purchases, I have a low to mid-range roster (in the context of this forum). I beat all the missions in the Prologue, I was able to do a few of the Hulk fights (placing in the top 20,000) and I placed in the Top 45 for one of the Double Shot tournaments, winning a yellow Spidey. I would like to know, from your experience, how much time / money is needed to spend on this game to reach the three-star tier, because from what I've seen it seems to take a much larger investment (in terms of time or money) than what I've put in so far.

Here's my roster, consisting of some mid-range 2-star characters and some low-level 3-star covers:

**Thor (5/2/3; Level 60)
**Wolverine (3/5/5; Level 40) [After reading forum advice, I might have to rebuild him - is it worth it?]
*Iron Man (3/5/5; Level 36)
**Captain America (2/3/5; Level 36)
**Black Widow (2/3/3; Level 36)
**Storm (3/2/2; Level 36)
***Hulk (1/1/0; Level 18)
***Spiderman (1/1/0; Level 15)
***Iron Man (0/1/0; Level 15)
**Magneto (1/2/1; Level 6)

Here are the purchases that I've made so far, and I doubt I can afford to spend much more than this amount of money on the game.
Logan's Loonies (2900 HP) x2, cost $19.99 each
Hidden Stash (8800 ISO) x1, cost $19.99 (before the New Year)
Mother Lode x1 (52000 ISO) x1, cost $49.99 (before the New Year)

So how much time / money have you spent on the game to get to your current point? Do I need to spend much more time/money to advance significantly, or have I been making lots of wrong decisions?

Thanks.

(Edited for typos.)

Unknown

Well, couple mistakes you made where buying the ISO, mostly not worth it, not sure if that's still the case with the new pricing. HP is the best thing to buy though.

How many slots do you have?
I would stop putting ISO into wolvie and see if you can build up a second one(without trashing the first).
Other than that just pull on as many recruit tokens as you can, don't buy heroics.

If you want to buy some covers, I'd say the diabolical pack might be your best bet for 5000 HP. Otherwise just keep doing what you're doing and slowly build up. If you can hit top 45 in one tourney you can do it in others as well.

*I'd say about 2 months of playing a couple hours a day for me.

Unknown

about $40.00 usd to get enough HP to max out any good skill on a three star hero. Blue spidey, red rag, red mag.

MarvelMan

I havent spent any cash and have played about an hour a day 5-6 days a week since mid/late Oct. Im mostly transitioned to 3* and could be there if I hadnt made a couple early mistakes (sold two C.Mag covers, dumped all HP to Rag then pulled covers) or could overcome my OCD/packrat-ness (stockpiling HP/ISO).

If I had spent $$ it wouldnt be hard, but the key would be where you put it. Overcoming the desire to level the hero/villian du jour based on the tourney that is running is huge. Pick your goal (maxed Rag/Mag/Spidey/GSBW) and focus on what will get you there, accepting that means you wont do well in every tourney til you reach that goal.

Looking at your roster the next steps for you are to acquire covers for those 3* which is just luck. Then, if you are willing, maybe spend a little cash on HP to level a couple key skills (red Rag, blue Spidey, green GSBW, red C.Mag) then put in the time to build iso. If you are going to spend $$, figure out how much you are going to play and how much you are willing to spend then buy the right HP (take that with a grain of salt as I have not spent any $$...yet)

Unknown

Well, in general, the further your progression, the more money it costs to advance yourself. Each tier does get exponentially longer/more expensive to progress to, though if you do it smart, it can be shortened. But, by skipping progression, you are skipping out on the majority of the game, IMO. I understand jumping to 2*s though, the game starts to be a bit less grindy I feel like once you reach the 2 stars, and you get some of the more interesting characters.

Unknown

once you get 5 red rag and 5 green widow at level 80+, you should be on easy street. any other purchase is questionable, because those 2 heros will make it rain like no other

Unknown

Upper tiers takes awhile. But you can be smart about it, reading the forums certainly gives you clues on who the power hitter characters are and the ones you should focus on if you can. Also, picking which tourneys to participate, when to tank your MMR, when to shield, etc. Lots of strategies to save you time as you climb up the ladder. But at the end of the day, it's just a matter of how much you're willing to put into the game. You'll still get better if you play one hour a day over the next few weeks versus 16 hours a day. Just won't be as fast

I'm unfortunately a cover addict and have been collecting everything I can... often ADDing which covers to level up based on what tournament is happening this week. Not very focused, but still working out

Unknown

Time is more important than money. When i was at your stage i played 2 hours a day or so.

Unknown

Sounds like me three months ago. You need to invest in one or two characters only right now if you get a red rag then dump your hp in that our a blue spidey. You want your team to be able to compete in LR that way you can get the iso and possible the other covers.

Money spent 50 bucks
time 2 hrs a day everyday
also tank your team every once and a while in a LR to get easier opponents.

BigMao

Thanks everyone for the replies, I'm looking forward to reading more. It sounds like the best investment of HP right now is upgrading my Spiderman's blue skill (currently at level 1). Is it fair to say that my team will become much stronger if I max out just that one skill and focus on leveling him up?

Unknown

Spidey w/ 5 blue is scary good on offense, and reasonable on defense. But his level doesn't make all that much difference -- you probably want to keep him lower than your mainstays until you have a strong 3* team, so I wouldn't level him beyond 60-80. He's not all that squishy, but you simply don't want him tanking while on offense.

Unknown

I started the day before Christmas and basically spent my entire 2 weeks off grinding (6+ hours a day). Spent $0, but have a maxed out 1* team, cStorm, Wolvie, Thor, and OBW with 5 or 6 covers each, and probably 15 *** covers spread over 5 heroes. That said, I'm getting *** covers from tournaments (got 2 GSBW in No Man's Land and 3 IM40's in Widowmaker 2. Got 2 Spidey's in Double Shot 1) so I feel like I'm getting close to switching up to a 2* or 3* hero to replace my all 1* team.

Unknown

I've put about 200 hours into this game. Capped lots of 2** chars (cover-wise). At the moment I'm rolling with Thor (85), Wolvie (85) and OBW (77), which is more than enough to do well in most events, and currently transitioning into ***.
I've spent a decent amount of money to get 30 roster slots. As a former MTG player, I like to collect stuff
I'm not sure though I'd ever pay to buy covers. That's like paying to finish the game faster... then what?
Just my opinion, of course

Unknown

Playing since last Halloween, still haven't spent money yet. Maybe when I get a blue spidey cover. I've got a 5/2/3 IM40, level 85 storm, some lvl 30-40 3 star villians, and some lvl 40-50 2 stars - at least one of every non one star cover except Invisible Woman. Since the introduction of shields I've been placing better in tournaments.