F2P After 1 Year – And what you can learn

Unknown

As another 365+ F2P player here, I do appreciate your post. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to keep up with the P2W players, but I've got 9 fully covered 3*s and am in a Top 25 alliance.

I do have to say that it helped to be able to get tri-color 2* rewards for just missing top 100. But that is balanced now by alliance rewards and daily ISO that we didn't have back then. It was also much easier to climb with prologue healing and spamming OBW/MStorm in jungle with a 3+ all boost (back when the 3+ all could be replenished with ISO not HP).

The game definitely has a different landscape now, but it still is viable to be F2P. If only there was sharding of F2Pers only...

Breakking

I want to give you a big thumbs up for a very well written and thought out post.

That's all

DrNitroman

Thanks for sharing and happy anniversary!

Unknown

Shadow wrote:

I'm about 3 weeks later than the OP and currently at day 344. Like the OP, I have never spent a cent in this game since the beginning. Not even for the roster slots at the early stage.

The journey here has been interesting and my roster at this time has a level 215 TGT 5/2/5, level 200 XF 5/5/3, 18 maxed level 3*, 9 at level 140 or above, Hood which I purposely left at 137 and 4 3* are at level 100. The only char not at that level is of course Squirrel Girl. Other than SG, only Luke Cage and Gamora would be missing covers as soon as FFW is over. My Fury is fully covered and my Dino will be as well when I reach the anniversary mark. Give it another 2 months and I expect that most of my 3* would be maxed except for the 3-4 newest characters.

To reiterate a key point that would really help people along is that you shouldn't be afraid to spend HP on missing covers that would give you an edge. On my mpq journey, there have been 3 chars that I have spent HP on. The first happened in 2* land during an era where 2* covers did not rain down from the skies (I mean from PvP). It was also before True Healing was introduced to the game. It took me well over a month (around day 40+) before I finally got a blue OBW. I spent 2k HP on her almost immediately. That expenditure immediately brought the aspect of healing into the picture for me giving me a slight edge when compared to using mnmags / cstorm prior to this. Shortly after, they started raining down the 2* which was a bit of a bummer. Then True Healing was introduced. This was when I spent HP on my 2nd character - Daken. 2 covers for 2500 HP made him usable for me. Since he tanked green at the time, he paired significantly well with a number of characters especially Thor. Then the era of 3* passed and it was time to enter 4* land. 6 covers for Thor from the PvE + season rewards (only used 2 from the seasons as I messed up thinking it was yellow still for the last season when they had changed it to red) still meant 7 missing covers. Picked 4 up from placement / progression and then spending HP on another 2 made her into a very usable 5/2/5 configuration. So, I have spent HP on every single phase of my journey but I'm still F2P as the HP spent was from PvP / PvE. I did not utilize shields until very much later into the game preferring to be around during the final moments of PvP and pushing then instead of spending the HP on shielding. OBW guaranteed continued gameplay before True Healing and Daken helped a lot after that change was introduced. So, the HP went toward purchasing essential covers instead of shielding. Today, there are options for continuous gameplay for both the 2* and 3* players which combined with time slices makes this strategy still a workable strategy.

My first 3* to be maxed was Punisher at 3 months into the game. That made Punisher + OBW my PvP team even after I managed to fully level a few other characters including 3* Cap. At a time when people were using Punisher + Cap for PvP, I still preferred my OBW option. Of course, this transition option may not be as good today as compared to when I was using it.

Another thing that greatly helped me in my journey was being a part of my alliance which has always been strong since the introduction of alliances. Very often I would only be able to get 1 of the 3* covers from PvP on my own and it was only with the alliance did I manage to get another cover. Looking at the alliance section of the forum, a top 100 alliance only has a requirement of 500 pts. Between tanking appropriately and continuous play, getting to this level really isn't as hard as it may seem. Too many transitioners focus on PvE instead of PvP which they really shouldn't. If they focused a bit more on PvP, they could probably meet the requirements of a top 100 alliance even if the alliance doesn't do so well in PvE. Getting into an alliance that makes 3 top 100 PvP per week is better value than getting into 1 that is top 50 for PvE but sucks at PvP.

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Commercial break:

A-Force is currently looking to fill a spot. If you're interested in joining an alliance that has been top 25 since the beginning, do drop me a PM. We do have a minimum requirement of 600 per PvP if you're a transitioner and 800 otherwise.

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To wrap things up, I'm almost a year into the game and have nearly maxed all my 3* chars. In 2+ months, they would all be maxed. I've shared a couple of tips which hopefully would have been worth the read and help people on their own journey in this game.

I find your story quite amazing! I am at day 240 and do not have 1 maxed 3* that I haven't paid for. I have no idea how you managed all those roster slots (I just dropped 700 HP for slot #53) and all those covers without spending a penny. I've spent several hundred dollars and don't have a roster nearly as good as yours. I have 166 Thor and 166 Daken (I bought 4 covers for each). Hopefully, in 100 days, my roster will be more fleshed out. Aside from HP, I am assuming the main difference in your cover acquisition was being in a top 100 alliance (I didn't realize the requirements were so low). My alliance is good for HP but I've only gotten 1 cover in 5 seasons. I focus mainly on PvP (600-670 pts) and I play PvE when a new character is introduced or for HP and iso. Considering the money I've spent, I don't have the roster I think I should have. Is taking the next step joining a top 100 alliance? Thoughts? I really don't want to spend any more money on this game. I think I've spent too much already.

atomzed

Yes, joining a 100 alliance is the best way you can build up your roster.

Assuming 10 pvp per season, you will get 10 3* covers, 500 HP per season.

It makes a lot of difference. You really should look for a top 100 alliance to join.

El Satanno

Shadow wrote:

I find your story quite amazing! I am at day 240 and do not have 1 maxed 3* that I haven't paid for. I have no idea how you managed all those roster slots (I just dropped 700 HP for slot #53) and all those covers without spending a penny. I've spent several hundred dollars and don't have a roster nearly as good as yours. I have 166 Thor and 166 Daken (I bought 4 covers for each). Hopefully, in 100 days, my roster will be more fleshed out. Aside from HP, I am assuming the main difference in your cover acquisition was being in a top 100 alliance (I didn't realize the requirements were so low). My alliance is good for HP but I've only gotten 1 cover in 5 seasons. I focus mainly on PvP (600-670 pts) and I play PvE when a new character is introduced or for HP and iso. Considering the money I've spent, I don't have the roster I think I should have. Is taking the next step joining a top 100 alliance? Thoughts? I really don't want to spend any more money on this game. I think I've spent too much already.

You know, I'm a little surprised whenever I hear this kind of story. I say that because based on this kind of tale I seem to be doing very weIl, yet I thought I was pretty middle-of-the-road.

I didn't want to get into details about my lineup, but I guess it'll be helpful for comparison. I'm at day 308, 53 roster slots, 1/5/4 X-Force soft-capped at level 213, 7 maxed 3* (with 6 more cover-maxed but not leveled completely, and 2 more at 12 covers). I have not spent a single penny on this game, although I have been tempted to do so at every sale...in addition to being powerful close to putting it down on a couple other occasions. I helped to found a rather relaxed alliance that has never done better than top 500. I've never received a cover for alliance rewards. The only really big event for me was that I hit the 2900(?) HP jackpot from a very lucky anniversary token, and almost all of that is still sitting in my pocket. I have bought exactly two covers with HP (a Patch green and a Hood blue) and am seriously considering buying another green X-Force.

Although it's a little obvious, I got to where I am by playing every day. A lot. I'd say roughly 4 hours a day, cumulatively: After dropping the kids off at daycare before work some, both ways during my commute, an hour during lunch, and an hour or two in and around other video games after work. That tends to ramp up depending on whether or not I want to push for a goal in an event. I compete in both PvE and PvP very actively, regardless of rewards, because even if I don't really need the covers I can always use the HP. Despite all that, I have only ever won one PvE (the Doc Ock release ) and have only placed as high as #3 in PvE once. I do tend to place top 25 in most PvPs and often top 10 (or higher) in PvEs. I can't say if that's any more or less crazy than some of the real heavy-hitters around here.

Pretty soon after starting I found this forum which was absolutely instrumental in helping me develop a strategy for both play and roster development. (BIG shout-out to NorthernPolarity's essential guide!) Lurking here for a good long while has proven to be a very sound idea. Why try to figure out good builds and tactics when lots of other people will do it for you, right?

Scottee has touched on plenty of good advice in the initial post, but I can add two more bits which have certainly made my ride much smoother. One, set your own goals for whatever event you are competing in. Anything past that goal is just icing. Two, and this one has changed my whole outlook on the game, is not to sweat failing to hit your goals. I have seen plenty of raging (and certainly done some of my own) about missing rewards and losing out on covers for whatever reason. It's really comforting to know that you will be able to get those rewards sooner or later. Don't grind your teeth down to nubs because you missed that Luke Cage cover a week or so back. He will show up again. I promise. You're not gonna die.

Certainly things have changed since I started, True Healing being the big one, and this has made things different for different players. But my experience has been that I can still get plenty of good prizes and more importantly continue to have fun playing. Hope you can, too!

Unknown

EstherC wrote:

hi thanks for sharing and i respect your post, but it's not quite relevant to a 3-6 month (newbie) player today. Why?

you started off back in the days with much lesser heroes, lesser 3-4*s and way lesser player base with maxxed 4* X forces and Goddess Thor. Thus it might have been easier to make t25/t100 for a cover without or less shielding.

additionally, congrats on your incredible token pull luck. The percentages do not always work the way you described. I have hoarded plentiful of heroics/pve/standards and i have not gotten a single IW or Thorina from these. My recent hoard of 30 heroics were all 2*s. What can i say.

You are up there now because of your early move advantage. Enjoy it. It's just not going to be same for new joiners today.

NB: i am in day 185.

thats a cop out.. im on day 270ish, have a similar experience as the op, except i spent a little money for shields. i dont try to collect everything, all you need are 2 strong covers from each star class and you can compete. I cant remember how long i used obw and thor/ares but using them i have been top25 in pvp since day 1, a couple of top50 sprinkled in there but thats it. Then i used obw and sentry to compete in pvp. Same story, top 25, and now its xforce hood daken...if you look at my roster i only have xforce hood and doom maxed out, nobody else, sold sentry, sold thor ares obw..etc. the key has always been shields in order to place high because of the onslaught of ppl that can attack you. So if you saving hp to buy covers... dont....save hp to buy shields to place top 25 and the covers just flow. If you try and level everyone with your iso, dont, you dont need to, put your resources into covers that will help you win, instead of trying to be a completionist.

Unknown

Good story. The game has changed a little bit over time, as you admitted yourself, which is a mix of good and bad depending on who you are.

I am a newer player myself at less than 100 days, and while not F2P, I do already see the effects of steady gameplay. It seems to come down to this though..you want a better roster than those around you. The best method for this is just to stick it out and play longer. Eventually you out-endurance those around you, and hopefully enough players ahead of you leave or stop playing for abit and you can slip into their place.

loroku

EstherC is right. OP's story is a great one but literally no one can ever do what he did ever again, because he was playing a game that no longer exists. Glad you got what you got, all the same.

KrazyKeylime

GothicKratos wrote:

Arondite wrote:

EstherC wrote:

hi thanks for sharing and i respect your post, but it's not quite relevant to a 3-6 month (newbie) player today. Why?

you started off back in the days with much lesser heroes, lesser 3-4*s and way lesser player base with maxxed 4* X forces and Goddess Thor. Thus it might have been easier to make t25/t100 for a cover without or less shielding.

additionally, congrats on your incredible token pull luck. The percentages do not always work the way you described. I have hoarded plentiful of heroics/pve/standards and i have not gotten a single IW or Thorina from these. My recent hoard of 30 heroics were all 2*s. What can i say.

You are up there now because of your early move advantage. Enjoy it. It's just not going to be same for new joiners today.

NB: i am in day 185.

I mean, it is harder for us newer players than it was for players who have to deal with vaulting, diverse 3* pulls, more established opponents, etc

But the two aren't worlds apart. Transitioning is transitioning - you're disadvantaged compared to the people who are not. His strategies - that he so kindly shared - still work and are still applicable. That information still helps you achieve what he achieved.

There's no need to be sort of rude or try to belittle his achievement.

Took the words right out my mouth.

I don't know if he is being rude. He brings up some valid points on the difference between when the OP was starting and the current state of the game for transitioners. I know that the current pull for tokens is a lot worse then back in the day with a smaller pool of characters making it easier to concentrate covers. Looking back, the challenges we faced while transitioning have only gotten worse with time. a Tier system could help facilitate the transition but that is another topic.

mohio

This is in reply to the post right above, just on my phone and don't want to cut out that huge quote manually. Anyway, I thought the same thing. Didn't think the post was particularly rude, and like you said noted real differences. I'm a few days behind scottee, but also free to play and basically have the same experiences. I wasn't scoring all that highly in PvP cause I could get a pretty new bracket with an hour to go, hit 3-400 and still pick up 2 covers. Once I joined an alliance and started trying in PvP I was hitting 730 or so, which was typically good enough for top 10. Can you imagine that now? First few seasons I averaged around 950 or so and never missed a top 5, the covers just poured in. Once you're at that point it snowballs.

Anyway I mention this mostly to say that I don't think it's all the changes or even necessarily the double amount of 3* in the game that's making it so much harder now. I think it's just that so many have been there already so it's harder to push up into the ranks. When scottee and I (and many others judging by comments here) were transitioning we only had the guys here from the start to complete with. They had all the old chars maxed already and there weren't so many of them that you couldn't just put in a little more time/effort to beat out the other 2* teams for top prizes (or close to it). Nowadays everyone is trying hard for season scores or their alliance, and there's quite a few more already transitioned players, so it's much harder to break into even that top 25 range as a 2* or transitioning player.

Edit: wanted to add one more thing. Another thing that I think makes a difference is that some of the top teams at the time (Spidey/x, patchneto) were actually pretty easy to beat, even for 2* or transitioning teams. Yeah it was intimidating just to be taking on 141s with 85s, but you could still put up a decent fight, you just couldn't win as fast as they could. Now you see way more teams with at least one guy with 10k+ health if not an entire team of them and I can't imagine 2* teams really standing a chance, or being able to win quickly enough for it to be worth trying.

Sorry if I rambled, hope my point didn't get lost. Best of luck to everyone trying to transition these days, and definitely find yourself a top 100 alliance for the extra covers if you're serious about wanting to progress.

scottee

Agreed that the transition is slower now for two main reasons:
1. There are more 3/4* heroes, so it is less likely a token or event will award the specific 3/4* you are trying to level.
2. There are more players with maxed 3* rosters than before.


While both of the above are true, that doesn't mean a transitioner should be scared off. To address the above:
1. The percent chance of getting a gold cover in heroic/standard tokens has not changed. So the same amount of gold covers are awarded, but you need more roster slots to accommodate the usable covers you want to keep. However, this doesn't change the fact that when an event comes around that has a character you're trying to max, that you should still save HP for shields and go all out. You can still target covers, though it's not as often as before.
2. This argument may not even be valid, because while the number of players with maxed rosters has increased in quantity, it's only matters on what percentage of the user base it is. We know over half the playerbase has joined since Sept. So anyone who's been playing before Sept should already be in top 50% of rosters. That's automatically top 250 out of 500. So you're only competing against the other top 250 to get one of the top 100 spots.

I maintain my premise. You can look at the situation and say it's hopeless, or you can say, "I'm going to figure out how to do it." All those who have quit said the former, all those who have completed the transition said the latter.

If I were transitioning right now, here's what I'd be doing this week. Winning every token possible in the Hunt. Let's say you get an average of 8 standard tokens per sub, and win 1 heroic token per sub. I don't remember the exact percentages, so let's say standards give gold 1.5% of the time, and heroics at 14%. For 6 subs, that's 48 standards, 6 heroics, and 2 event tokens. That gives you on average 1.84 gold covers, plus a ridiculously easy Squirrel Girl cover. So The Hunt grants 2.84 3/4* covers, BEFORE placement rewards. The tokens actually give you an expected value of more gold covers than the guaranteed placement reward itself.

I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying, find ways to do it faster than those who are in a similar boat as you. Worry about beating them, not people who have invested way more time/money in the game than you. Don't compare yourself to the top, compare yourself to those around you.

scottee

Because I wanted weak teams in to semi-tank in the Squirrel Girl event, I decided to see how hard it was to be a 2* player. I pushed to 633 pretty easily. I walked away and didn't shield. To transitioners complaining PVP is too hard, if you can't make 600 before shielding, and 700-800 with 3-4 shields, maybe working on your match-3 game should be the next step. CStorm/MMags and OBW/Thor are just as powerful as I remember them.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Because I wanted weak teams in to semi-tank in the Squirrel Girl event, I decided to see how hard it was to be a 2* player. I pushed to 633 pretty easily. I walked away and didn't shield. To transitioners complaining PVP is too hard, if you can't make 600 before shielding, and 700-800 with 3-4 shields, maybe working on your match-3 game should be the next step. CStorm/MMags and OBW/Thor are just as powerful as I remember them.

The entire range has probably been pushed up for this event because of the double iso and Blade covers. At what range did you start hitting X-Force + 166s?

scottee

daibar wrote:

scottee wrote:

Because I wanted weak teams in to semi-tank in the Squirrel Girl event, I decided to see how hard it was to be a 2* player. I pushed to 633 pretty easily. I walked away and didn't shield. To transitioners complaining PVP is too hard, if you can't make 600 before shielding, and 700-800 with 3-4 shields, maybe working on your match-3 game should be the next step. CStorm/MMags and OBW/Thor are just as powerful as I remember them.

The entire range has probably been pushed up for this event because of the double iso and Blade covers. At what range did you start hitting X-Force + 166s?

I don't remember exactly, but it was below 400. Here's the thing. They're beatable. Plenty of X-Forces are underleveled and undercovered. Most XForces below 200 are cake to beat. Gotta stop being scared of them. I went up against plenty of 166 teams. Beatable. If you wanna be the best, you gotta beat the best. I wiped twice. I wanted to see what would happen against a maxed XForce and 130+ Doom. I don't remember what the other wipe was.

Also, a lot of my matches were worth less than 20 points, because as long as the team was beatable, I didn't care. I was only farming iso.

FIght teams. Let them beat on you. Then walk retaliations up past 600.

TLCstormz

This was an interesting read and thank you for posting it, but..............why do you all NOT realize that your "journey to stardom" is no where near as easy as it is for NEW players? Denial? Privilege?

The previous ways that the game operated with new releases, rewards, healing shenanigans, PvE location perks, anniversary events, token distributions, etc were handled and doled out is worlds apart from how paltry the system works, nowadays. There is actually very little that these newer players can "learn" from your experience, and the experience for most players that have been playing for at least 5 or 6 months now, let alone a year. The game has changed...........

And don't even get me started on comments like "back when 2* covers weren't handed out like candy lulllz."

And I can't believe ya'll got mad at the previous person who basically said "thx for the advice, but you're privileged." They DID say thank you and they DID tell the truth. Just the same as I am doing. lol

*EDIT : Having read the rest of the replies, I'd like to thank you for KIND OF (begrudgingly) acknowledging that the game has changed, and send this post out to the other 90% of "vets."

scottee

TLCstormz wrote:

This was an interesting read and thank you for posting it, but..............why do you all NOT realize that your "journey to stardom" is no where near as easy as it is for NEW players? Denial? Privilege?

The previous ways that the game operated with new releases, rewards, healing shenanigans, PvE location perks, anniversary events, token distributions, etc were handled and doled out is worlds apart from how paltry the system works, nowadays. There is actually very little that these newer players can "learn" from your experience, and the experience for most players that have been playing for at least 5 or 6 months now, let alone a year. The game has changed...........

And don't even get me started on comments like "back when 2* covers weren't handed out like candy lulllz."

And I can't believe ya'll got mad at the previous person who basically said "thx for the advice, but you're privileged." They DID say thank you and they DID tell the truth. Just the same as I am doing. lol

*EDIT : Having read the rest of the replies, I'd like to thank you for KIND OF (begrudgingly) acknowledging that the game has changed, and send this post out to the other 90% of "vets."

Not sure how many of those issues are "worlds apart":

new releases- It's been about 2 per month for as long as I can remember. (except Anniversary Week)
rewards- They've actually increased the amount of 3* covers released per event. You can get them at a lower ranking now. They also just lowered the progression reward and token thresholds.
healing shenanigans- OBW was certainly powerful before. She was the only one really affected by the True Healing change.
PVE location perks- I'll assume you mean living in a time zone where PVE timezone rewards were easier. They're actually easier now with time slices.
anniversary events- Do you mean more rewards were given out during the anniversary and now they're not available? Yes, every time period looks paltry when compared to the anniversary week.
token distributions- The token percentages for gold covers have been essentially unchanged forever. The main issue is dilution, that's it's harder to focus on building up one specific character at a time. This is the main reason the transition is harder now.

I disagree there's not a lot that can be learned. I think people tend to be too results oriented. Instead of focusing on "those veterans are too far ahead for me to catch up", focus on "what can I do to get ahead of the people who have a similar roster as me?" We don't have control over the past, we only have control over the current decisions we make.

They give a 3* cover to the top 20% of each PVP event, yet maxed 3* rosters make up less than 20% of the player base. All transitioners want one of those 3* covers, so work on being one of them.