Is purchasing necessary for new players?

Unknown

I just started to get into Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign. Naturally, I'm hooked. I was a huge fan of the original Puzzle Quest, so with the addition of Marvel IP, this is my new favorite game.

The problem is, I can theorycraft my ideal 3* team all day, but I have no clue how to go about getting the covers. I've seen sales for guaranteed 3* covers (like Iron Man 40 right now, though I don't want him), but other than dropping $20 for enough HP to buy one of those specials, let alone three, what ways can I go about getting the 3* covers I desire?

I've been collecting all mission rewards and I'm towards the end of the second chapter (Juggernaut). I started dabbling in events and finished in the top 75 for the Daredevil event (I got lucky I guess). I've tried the Shield versus a little bit, but haven't committed to it yet.

I also made a HUGE mistake in dumping a 2/2/0 M. Storm. I was transitioning to a 2* team and I didn't think I would need to keep her around. Needless to say, I've seen her utility in vs mode, and she crushes. I'd hate to start over just to get her back, but I may have to.

Thoughts? I'm not particularly partial to my roster at the moment. I've been leaning heavily on Iron Man 35 (1* @ level ~26) and a level 20 1* Hawkeye. I have a 2* Thor, 2* Dark Avenger Miss Marvel, 2* Black Widow, 2* Wolverine, 2* Hawkeye. None of my 2*'s are past level 13.

I have NO clue what I'm doing. Will dumping $20 for a 10x Hero Pack really help? Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks.

LOVE THIS GAME!

Unknown

I wouldn't say necessary but when you're new you get the best value you'll ever get in the game. Give yourself a bit of cash to get some roster slots and get a couple of cover packs...gives you a great start in the game.

Unknown

Answer is "NO". Well not yet anyway....play the game for 2 weeks, understand the mechanics - then decide if you should spend, and on what.

If you jump in now without understanding - you will be simply burning money

Unknown

not necessary but will definitely help you.

if you really want to spend, the 100 hp daily deal would be the most beneficial for you. (considering you don't have very many 2* covers)
the 2* covers will indirectly help you obtain 3* by advancing your roster to become competitive with ppl who have some 3*s.

if you want to maximize your $$, it's best to buy stuff early on. otherwise, you'll be spending big money to get covers for your 3*s or taking a risk on dupe covers you don't need for 2*s.

Unknown

As with all F2P games...

Power takes either Time or Money. Money saves Time, Time saves Money. I've been playing for over a month on less than 5$ spent.

Quick suggestion time:
Only spend HP on additional roster spots. (and later maybe shields once you get the hang of tourneys)

Im35, M.Storm, and one other char to the 20-30lv range. (Don't bother taking hawk over 10. He's best to sit in the back and just clear tiles as needed)

Why IM35 / MStorm: IM35 being a default character is more likely than other 1* to end up powered up on an event. M Storm can be useful for quite a while.

(I took Im35, Mstorm, and Juggs)

After that save all your ISO for 2*s not named Bagman.

Next up: PLAY THE EVENTS. All events EXCEPT the lightning rounds/Elite PayIn are bracketed with MMR ranking going on to keep your opponents reasonable. You will often be able to score in the top 100 due to these features and pickup MORE 2/3* covers. The main thing to know about any event is you want to be playing in the last hour or so as a lot of moving / shaking can happen then (don't assume you have a top 100 spot just because you left the game 2hrs before end at #50.)

radiopy

It's up to you, really. I like playing a bit of the LRs, grinding iso, winning heroic tokens or standard tokens, and competing for prizes in tournaments. You start with 1-stars, and get plenty of covers in the standard tokens/rewards of the prologue. You transition to 2-stars by completing the prologue (lots of Storm, Wolverine and Daken covers) and competing in tournaments (top 200 or so gets at least one 2-star cover). Once you have a powerful 2-star team, you start landing in the top 45 of tournaments and building a 3-star roster.

If you want to avoid the grind to get to a viable 3-star team, by all means, dump cash in. But be prepared to dump a LOT of cash in. Otherwise, just enjoy the ride, drop $5 early on to buy cover slots (or don't, it's up to you) and let things take their natural course.

Unknown

Life is pretty tough for newbies for the first month or so.

I'd focus on builing up a 2* team of Thor/Wolverine/OBW. Once they're maxed you should have enough firepower for top 15 finishes and start accruing 3* covers.

I think money is better spend on roster spots and shields then buying cover packs, but as other two posters mentioned, you will benefit the most as you are less likely to get duplicate at this early stage.

You'll also pick up covers thru daily rewards so make sure you do at least one fight a day to keep the counter moving.

Just keep grinding! You'll get there eventually if you are diligent.

Unknown

Short answer: no, it's not necessary.

Long version: Cool your head and think twice before you make monetary transactions. In this game you can get everything through patience and time without spending any real money. But if you are as impatient as me you will probably waste (too much) money on roster slots, covers, shields, health packs etc. It's quicker route but as soon as you get those covers you'll find that you're little short on ISO to level them properly so the cycle to grind ISO and get new covers begins.

So... Go easy on the covers at first. Maybe get some cover slots for future. At first you really should focus on few strong 2* characters and worry about those 3* guys later. They are harder to get and will suck your ISO reserves quicker.

Gigas Breaker

I haven't spent any money and I am placing top 5 and top 15 in events. The real game is about managing your MMR and timing.

NorthernPolarity

I think money is only necessary for getting enough roster slots to keep up with the 2*/3*s that you get. Otherwise you can play the entire game without spending any money.

Eddiemon

I don't encourage not spending money, because without it they turn off the servers and go home. But if you buy a 10 pack of covers you are going to be up for more cash to store the covers. The cheapest way to grow your team is to buy the daily deals. You need just about anything so you're not looking for guaranteed haracter X.

Given your progress you probably are unfamiliar with PvE events. They are tournaments that run or 5 to 7 days with maps and missions just like the prologue. These tend to hand out a lot of recruitment tokens, similar to the prologue. This will allow you to rebuild Storm and get a tart on 2 star covers.

Unknown

Everyone keeps mentioning roster slots. How many is a good number to have?

I have 8 right now.

Twysta

Just keep buying roster slots til your life depended on it.
I think there's about what 33 characters in teh game now?
So depending on how sentimental/much of a collector you are, you're going to want to keep getting til you've exhausted the character limit.
Otherwise it's personal preference.
As a free user you have to really manage your roster space and choose which heroes you want and which you don't, at least until you get enough HP to get more roster to space to recruit them (if you wish).

Unknown

I would STRONGLY recommend doing lightning rounds until you get to about 50 pts in each since they usually start with pathetic seed teams and you'll get a token and a decent some of iso . If you get beatable teams up to 100 pts, even better. They each last 90 minutes with a 30 minute break after and go from tuesday 12pm eastern to thursday 12pm eastern. You won't be competitive in the rankings for them but just for the progression awards, it will be totally worth it. You also get to use a free lvl 15 3* each of those so less regen required for you between fights

Unknown

I second the Lightning Round suggestion. Early in the game, the easy ISO and standard tokens make a huge difference. People actually need the common one-star characters from those tokens. I've got an alt account on an old iPad that would cut you deeply and twist the knife for a red M. Storm and 140 ISO.

Unknown

This game is not like other 'gacha' games (Puzzels and Dragons) or CCG games like Magic/Hearthstone.

If you 'get lucky' and pull a rare cover, it does very little to make your roster better. You need to 'get lucky' 5 or 6 times with the same character before you really enjoy the benefits of that character.

Unknown

I think I'd be less tempted to spend if I had a 3-person 2* roster to settle on. Right now, I'm not very happy with the way my team synergizes. Once I get the 2* team down, I can dump my ISO into them, until the 3* characters start trickling in.

I wish I knew percentages for the 10x hero packs. I'd hate to buy one and just get 10 covers for two toons I don't use/want.

I do agree with what's been said before. If I were to buy a pack, now would be the time.

Unknown

I will start doing Lightning rounds. I had seen them previously (last week?), but I wasn't in a place to start competing yet, not to say that I really am now.

And I completely understand about needing to get more covers. While I admit I'd be severly underpowered and almost totally useless with 1 power 2* characters, at least I'd have the peace of mind: Here is my 2* team. Here is my 3* team, etc.

On a side note, no, I did NOT copy all of the character information from the dark reign wiki and start piecing together my perfect 2* and 3* teams in a spreadsheet. I did NOT do that at all.

Unknown

If you can do the lightning rounds up to the 100 pt. progression award, you generally get about 1000 ISO. Look for kicksthatkick, pyromantic, freerangec@ge, b@conm@gic, and I'm probably missing someone, but they'll just have the (provided) villain plus a couple of 1st or 2nd level guys.

Unknown

I made this cheap sheet of stats and active abilities, to help me better visualize the team I want to build moving forward. I'll post it separately in case it helps anyone else:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4W1yL ... sp=sharing

Unknown

Start playing events ASAP. The rewards are vastly greater than the prologue. Even if you do horribly, you won't lose anything and there are great progression rewards on the low end (e.g. 500 ISO for 50 - that's 2 matches, 2* or better token at 300). You'll probably do much better than you think. The *top 10* for a lot of brackets are filled with guys with middling 1* and 2* rosters thanks to an... interesting... matchmaking system. Not that much effort is required to get, say top 200 and get at least 1 2* cover, you've got a great shot at top 45 and getting at least 1 3* cover. And if the matchmaking gods are kind, you may never get attacked and could win your bracket - I've seen it happen. Personally I would try to get these sort of middle tier placement rewards on every without spending on shields if you can - unless there's some covers you really want/need.

Try to compete in everything to get at least a little reward. Lightning rounds are great. Enter as many as you can and play to 100 pts (4 or 5 matches). If you've got time and are doing well, try to push for some tokens. I built up my 3*'s villians that way, which then helped me place to get 3* hero covers, although I think LRs are tougher now. I got a pretty good roster that way without spending any money, then I bought some HP largely just as a thank you and to support the game. Give all the events a go for a while, and then if you want to speed your progression throw in some cash.