Should I just quit?

Alsmir

Introduction:
I started playing MPQ around april 2016. I had no idea that mobile version existed. Eventually I downloaded an app, but quickly got discouraged after ealising that I would have to start over. I decided to stick to the Steam version.
I managed to champ 21 3* characters so far.
My best 4* are at 7-8 covers, most of my 3* are either fully covered or missing 1-2 covers.
In December I switched jobs, moved to a different town and suddenly realised that I have a lot less time to play.

Issue:
I have been playing casually for almost two months, by that I mean that I'm struggling to find 1hr a day for MPQ. Eventually I realised that some match 3 game, requiring at least 1hr/day is a bit crazy.
I can't remember when was the last time I reached progression in PvE, since I rarelly can commit ~1hr in at least 3 days in a row. I'm clearing DDQ with occasionally doing some clears in PvE or PvP.

The main problem is: I don't feel like I'm doing any progress at all. In most games playing a little means very slow progress, but I don't feel the same about MPQ. New character drops every ~2 weeks, and that's 1k HP, 13 covers + lots of ISO to champ him (her). Unfortunatelly that is way more than DDQ gives me in those 2 weeks. I'm collecting covers (thanks to my alliance) but ISO needs are killing me. Champing one 3* takes ~2 weeks, not hitting preogression means that I get hardly any CPs and I'm getting close to no 4* covers.

I'm pretty much stuck with the same 3* team that I had for months without any real chance of change. Because of that, even when I play some events I don't get to try anything new.
PvP blows because every time I have in my bracket (doesn't matter which one I choose) guys with champed 5* or multiple guys with champed boosted 4*.
PvE I'm having truble to build any decent team out of the boosted chars that I have.

I believe that if I had enough ISO to at least champ the fully covered guys, I'd be able to build some new interesting teams and have more fun, but the only way to do that is mindlessly grinding ISO with the same old teams.

Is there anything I can do?

(I'm not buying ISO, prices are riddiculous, and you know it.)

Prawnquistador

Should I just quit?

Yes

Teskal

Is it not possible to transfer the character to a smart phone? Maybe contact support.

wirius

Unfortunately steam is horrible when it comes to iso rewards. We're tens of thousands in the hole less than the mobile app, AND we can't play anytime we want.

No, it does not get better. The 4* transition is like watching an iceberg move, its very slow. If you finished championing off the 3*'s, pat yourself on the back as you've beaten the game. There is no new rewards for obtaining 4*'s and your MMR rises so you're facing BIGGER challenges like 5*'s.

Its much more work for less reward. I would honestly give up. If you're truly interested in higher tier gameplay, I would create a sandbox account and check them out there. For most sane people, the 4* transition this late in the game is something even a hamster wouldn't do.

veny

Similar situation - i got my degree, started to attend a job which resulted in less time overall. In addition the excitement from adding champions/promoting/shield clearance levels etc. has almost dissapeared.

How did i solve it? Well, i cant leave completely - my roster is too great. I am also waiting for new feature that were part of recent survey.
In PvE i am not aiming at top progress reward. Instead of it i end at 4* cover, which needs approx. half time. DDQ is a must and PvP... no real reason to try above 575 points. Together it takes approx. 2 hours each day (considering PvE, PvP, Shield and DDQ) which is good compared to potential 4-6 hours (for Lighting rounds, clearing all nodes in PvE, playing harder in PvE etc.)

Crnch73

the only reason I would say to quit is... are you burned out? If you are stuck and frustrated... and you aren't even having fun? I hav ebeen there, but I managed to break through the wall. If you are not having any sort of fun, then yes, you should quit.

Personally, I play on mobile, so I know it is much different for you. But I play maybe 20-30 minutes at lunch, maybe an hour sometime after I get home from work before bed. I balance this around a family, a job, working out, watching TV and eating dinner, etc. Because I stopped caring about placement, that means in PVE I can knock out all 4 clears on every node, in any order and at any time. 1.5 hours a day on a match-3 game still sounds ridiculous, but I enjoy the game, and since I spread it out all over the day, it's not anything terrible.

in that 1.5 hours, I can still hit max progression in PVE (which also nets me that 4* reward), and clear DDQ every day. If I am willing to spend more time, I can also do PVP and get to the 575 barrier most times. Mostly, I just do most of my playing at that "mindless" time of day such as a lunch break or after dinner while zoning out and watching TV. If you watch TV for 2 hours a night, then you could play this in the background or instead. All depends on if you find it fun.

Alsmir

I'm not sure if I'm burned out. I'm still excited to champ new characters and I can't wait to try 4*. At the same time I'm getting fked by Steam version. I definitely have more time to play on my phone than PC these days, my roster doeasn't transfer to my phone in any way, and I've reached the point (~9 months) where losing my progress (a.k.a. starting from scrach in the mobile version) would mean quitting the game completely.

Crnch73

Alsmir wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm burned out. I'm still excited to champ new characters and I can't wait to try 4*. At the same time I'm getting fked by Steam version. I definitely have more time to play on my phone than PC these days, my roster doeasn't transfer to my phone in any way, and I've reached the point (~9 months) where losing my progress (a.k.a. starting from scrach in the mobile version) would mean quitting the game completely.

I understand (as best that I can). I can tell you that I struggled with this pretty hardcore right before the holidays. I had zero 4* champs, I kept getting duplicate covers or covers for 4* that I didn't want. They keep releasing new characters, so pulling the 4* you want just gets harder. And since you are on steam, it's rough going with the inequality between the users. All of that sucks.

But if you still enjoy playing, then here is the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. My roster still isn't great, but I am having fun again at least. I got 12 covers for 4* thor, so I just bought her 13th cover for 120cp and champed her even without having a cover waiting on the vine. Then the same thing happened to ice man. Because the two of them were champed, I was able to hit 900 points in PVP for the first time, and I got the 13th cover I needed for 4* cyclops. I was also able to get Cho and Antman into 13 covers thanks to one lucky token pull and the rewards earned from 3* champions. Suddenly, I went from "I might quit because I hate RNG and I have no 4* worth using"... to having 5 champed 4*. So again, it's not like my roster just suddenly became awesome, but 5 champs in 4* land makes the game fun again. I am saving CP and might just buy the 13th cover for RHulk or for Teen Jean. Some people aren't as lucky as I was, and they hit their burnout before that first shoe drops. But I can at least attest, that it's possible to go from near-burnout to wanting-to-play if just a tiny bit of luck falls your way or you decide to strategize a little differently. Good luck

Alsmir

Crnch73 wrote:

Alsmir wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm burned out. I'm still excited to champ new characters and I can't wait to try 4*. At the same time I'm getting fked by Steam version. I definitely have more time to play on my phone than PC these days, my roster doeasn't transfer to my phone in any way, and I've reached the point (~9 months) where losing my progress (a.k.a. starting from scrach in the mobile version) would mean quitting the game completely.

I understand (as best that I can). I can tell you that I struggled with this pretty hardcore right before the holidays. I had zero 4* champs, I kept getting duplicate covers or covers for 4* that I didn't want. They keep releasing new characters, so pulling the 4* you want just gets harder. And since you are on steam, it's rough going with the inequality between the users. All of that sucks.

But if you still enjoy playing, then here is the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. My roster still isn't great, but I am having fun again at least. I got 12 covers for 4* thor, so I just bought her 13th cover for 120cp and champed her even without having a cover waiting on the vine. Then the same thing happened to ice man. Because the two of them were champed, I was able to hit 900 points in PVP for the first time, and I got the 13th cover I needed for 4* cyclops. I was also able to get Cho and Antman into 13 covers thanks to one lucky token pull and the rewards earned from 3* champions. Suddenly, I went from "I might quit because I hate RNG and I have no 4* worth using"... to having 5 champed 4*. So again, it's not like my roster just suddenly became awesome, but 5 champs in 4* land makes the game fun again. I am saving CP and might just buy the 13th cover for RHulk or for Teen Jean. Some people aren't as lucky as I was, and they hit their burnout before that first shoe drops. But I can at least attest, that it's possible to go from near-burnout to wanting-to-play if just a tiny bit of luck falls your way or you decide to strategize a little differently. Good luck

How is your scaling?
Can you handle PvE easily with those 4* characters or does it get tricky, when they are not boosted?

Crnch73

Alsmir wrote:

How is your scaling?
Can you handle PvE easily with those 4* characters or does it get tricky, when they are not boosted?

I won't lie and say it didn't get a little trickier than before. When not boosted, my difficulty went up a little bit, but not extremely. When boosted, the game becomes simpler. I had 2 boosted 4* champs in one event, and I only used 2 health packs per sub. Even when not boosted, I still have no problem getting to the final progression PVE reward. I still use my 3* plenty as well. KK, IM40, SWitch, Strang3... they still make regular appearances on my teams. I definitely think it was worth it.

Pogo

Alsmir wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm burned out. I'm still excited to champ new characters and I can't wait to try 4*. At the same time I'm getting fked by Steam version. I definitely have more time to play on my phone than PC these days, my roster doeasn't transfer to my phone in any way, and I've reached the point (~9 months) where losing my progress (a.k.a. starting from scrach in the mobile version) would mean quitting the game completely.

I'm in a similar position. I started when the game was new, played for a few months, then took a year off. Since then I've tripled my roster size. I have almost every 3-star, lots of 4-stars, and just a few 5-stars.

It's an endless grind. I do DDQ every day because it's short and it helps me with my champs, and I join in when there are alliance boss events. I don't enjoy PVP, and I'm tired of doing the same PVE events over and over. Champing does feel good, but seeing how much it costs to level 4-stars means that once all my 3-stars are champed, the game is going to get even slower.

Back when the game came out, I actually had a Windows phone, so I couldn't have played mobile even if I had wanted. Now that I'm so far along in the PC version, I would sooner quit the game altogether rather than start from scratch on mobile.

Sometimes when my rewards queue is empty, I'll take a few weeks off. I already know I'm not missing anything because actual new content only comes out a few times each year. The time away makes the game feel less boring when I come back.

Ultimately, grinding in MPQ takes up time that I could be spending on lots of other games, so my breaks will probably get longer and more frequent until I just forget about the game altogether.

bbigler

Yes, you should quit. This game is like smoking - we all know it's bad for you and that we should quit, but we don't want to. Some of us justify our addiction, but we really know it takes up too much time. The only way to see daily progress in this game is to play for at least 2 hrs a day. Even that much time only gives you slow 4* progression. Champing 3*s is "easy" and opens up your game possibilities. Champing 4*s is much, much harder, but the rewards are significant. A boosted champed 4* is about as strong as a level 400 5*. Boosted Champed 4*s can destroy anyone, so it's worth the time to champ them. But, is it worth the time taken away from your life to have that small enjoyment in the game? Probably not.

Think about this: the reward for playing the game is the ability to play more of the game. Seems pointless.

On a positive note: the real thing I enjoy in the game isn't gaining power, but discovering new teams that work great together, and then using them to destroy the enemies.