Newbie routine

Weisszach

Can anyone give advice for a relatively new player? I have been playing for 3 weeks but feel I am not being effective. I try and complete the DDQs but only can do the first three as I haven't got the characters to do the big enchilada. It seems like I haven't got enough roster slots. I have changed Thor, Wolverine and Cap Marvel ( 2 star and currently maxing) but progress is slow. Also PvP is difficult due to the level of my heroes. Am I missing something or is the grind.

Quebbster

Roster slots is indeed the primary limitation of a new player. The roster needs to be built from the ground up, so focus on the DDQ nodes you can complete and don't worry too much about the rest.

jym010

I agree with Quebbster.  Use HP for roster slots and don't use command points or Latest Legend tokens.  Go through the prologue and get the iso, hp and covers.

ThaRoadWarrior

you only need a single 1* character on roster, so pick your favorite from Sp1der-Man/1ron Man/Juggernaut (most say 1 or 3, but iron man is fine- you'll just never use his blue).  Any of those 3 can solo the 1* node in DDQ, and will never be required for anything else.

Then make sure you keep all your 2*s. Spend HP only on roster slots. Spend iso into 1 character at a time as you get covers for them rather than diluting it across everyone (this advice is maybe better after you have a solid team that can win regularly). There is no way to chase a particular 2* on purpose, so just add them as you get them. Bag-Man is a trophy, you only "need" him on April Fools during the Bags to Riches pvp, so don't feel obligated to roster him unless you want to. 

Try not to spend any Legendary Tokens or Command Points unless you have a roster slot for a new character. You can spend them any time after you have the resources, but the game really does go better if you roster every tier in its entirety before you move up - the champ rewards from lower tiers are the engine that feeds the higher tiers of play. Skipping ahead is actually going to slow down your roster progress, so learn to be okay with throwing away 4* covers if you need to. you may want to make space for 5*s though, they are super hard to come by for a long time in the game. 

There are definitely characters you should prioritize quickly. I would consider setting 3* Iron Man as your only 3* bonus hero, 4* Rocket and Groot as your sole 4*, and then 5*s you won't be seeing for awhile, but maybe Okoye? She'll make your entire roster better. Once you get Iron Man, you need 3* Dr Strange, then 3* Thanos, and you'll be off to the races for story-mode success. I would recommend making sure you roster all the 3* characters that get fed by 2* characters, since you'll be getting those through osmosis more quickly than anybody else.

rixmith

bbigler wrote a great post about how to progress in the game:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/74686/2018-guide-to-progressing-fast-from-1-to-5-characters#latest

It is geared toward becoming a competitive player fairly quickly, but should give you some ideas.

PiMacleod

All of this.  All of what they said.  

I've been playing since the beta, and I only wish I would've had the wisdom to not spend CP and Legendary Tokens (LTs) when I got them.  It really did slow me down, despite getting that happy surge of "oooo new shiny thing".

You're gonna be buying slots for a long time... and that's fine.  Dont be tempted to use HP for shielding in PvP... dont be tempted to buy the "on sale" 100 HP offers for special vaults and what-not.  Just save for slots.

bluewolf

There are 178 characters in the game now.  Somewhere around roster slot #70, they cost 1000 HP (until you have 300 slots and they cost 2000).

Roster slots are the primary income generator for this game and you will be constrained by them for a looooooonnnggg time.

bbigler

Welcome to Marvel Puzzle Quest.  Some call it Marvel Gambling Quest or Marvel Grind Fest or Marvel Spending Quest.  It sounds like you're doing the right thing and congratulations for finding the forum so early into playing.  In the beginning, battles are tough, so play any battle you can beat in any event, and manage your health packs carefully.  Wolverine is good for that.  Grinding for rewards is a part of the game and separates the competitive from the casual.  Roster slots are meant to be constraining because they want you to spend money on HP to avoid wasting any cover rewards.  To get more rewards, pick an SCL level for PVE events that's easier for you.  Also, join PVP events right when they open and beat the seed teams for some easy rewards.  This includes Lightning rounds. 

This game is a marathon, not a sprint, so understand that some things are out of your reach for now.  Save Legendary Tokens and CP for later.  I even saved Heroic tokens until I had all 3*s rostered, because they also reward 4* characters.  Also understand that your progression slows down the further you progress in the game.  The best way to build up is by first completing/champing all 2* characters (except Bagman).  Then do the same for all 3* characters.  If you do that, you'll have a strong foundation for entering a more competitive and higher level of play.  Building up is honestly all about the champ rewards, combined with very active play.

Good Luck and don't forget to have fun doing it! 

HoundofShadow

Welcome to MPQ.

I'm going to touch on something that are rarely being touched on.

The first skill that you have to use often in this game is prioritising or making tough choices. When I first started playing MPQ, I was overwhelmed by the vast amount of characters in the game. I figured, at that point of time, that this game was already 4 years old and it's unlikely that I'll be able to roster every characters in the game within a few months of playing. So, I set a goal and focused on 3 characters whose abilities that I like in each tier, except 1 for 5* tier. Set a goal and stick with it. Note that I focused on characters I like, not top 3 meta characters of each tier. If you focus on getting meta characters of each tier early, you are going to crash and burn pretty fast, unless you like the thrill of competition.

The second skill is knowing how to let go. Hero Points is one of the core sources of revenues for the devs. This is what keeps the company or game alive. Naturally, as you progress, you will realise that you are getting covers faster than you can earn Hero Points to buy roster slots. Cost for roster slots increases  the more roster slots you have. However, it caps at 1000 Hero Points till the 200th or 299th slot. You either use money to solve the problem (buy more Hero Points) or you can refer to skill one: prioritising or making tough choices. You need to figure out who's going to be the gamechanger for your style of gameplay and then let the other characters move to the back of the line.

The third skill is understanding how odds work. You will see odds like 1:5, 1:7, and 1:14 etc for the different comic stores in the game. 1:5 doesn't mean that you will always get a 3-stars for every 5 Heroic Tokens that you open. Scientifically speaking, odds are based on a large sample size.  It's the same with flipping a coin. The odds of getting a head or a tail is 0.5 or 1:2. If you flip a coin 10 times but you get tail 7 times, does it mean that the odds of getting a tail is 0.7? 

The fourth skill is patience. Like many had said in the past, MPQ is a marathon, not a race. If you expect to complete the game (roster all the characters in the game) within 6 months or 12 months of casual or competitive playing, you will likely to be unhappy. Overtime, you will finally get to champ or roster your favourite characters.

If you don't like all or most of the above skills, you are likely to be frustrated or you might even get angry at the game. I'm 400++ days in the game and the only time I feel really frustrated is when I make the wrong matches and allow the enemy team to defeat me. 

MushroomGenius808

Start learning synergy in the 2* realm; how characters interact and play off each other's abilities.  Storm/Mags/Hawkeye (Mags purple to feed Storm's blue and make match 5s for Hawkeye's passive); Wolv/Daken/Widow (Green matches create strike tiles from Daken passive + 6 Green AP lets you fire Wolv's Green placing more red strikes, which can be used as a nuke with Daken's blue, which can be leeched with Widow's black; Widow puts out a lot of damage when she tanks because of the extra damage bonus on her black).

Figuring out synergy early helps you with strategy in the next stages of play.  Target characters that play well together, not just a hodgepodge of whoever you happen to roster.

Salacious_D

A couple of more off-the-wall ideas from a player five months in, two covers and a month's ISO away from champing all the 3*s and with half the 4*s rostered:

When you have a Big Enchilada-worthy team, you can use DDQ to keep your three-stars rolling and gain extra taco and ISO rewards. Keep an eye on the sneak peek threads to see who's coming up for Dat Required Character and have one cover rostered and ready. Win the two missions but don't add the 3-star cover if you'll need the roster slot for someone else in a couple of days. This way you can keep more 3-stars in play and move forward a little more quickly.

The sneak peeks are also key to see who you'll need for upcoming stories. The PvP essentials become important when your gang is becoming strong enough to use your own character rather than the loaner.

If you've not joined an alliance yet or it's not that active, look to join a decent one when the next team event starts. Working hard in these is the clearest way for a new player to prove themselves, and you can get a full set of both a 3* and 4* character. Finding an alliance that suits you and places well will speed you along.

If you want to spend a little real money to get a lot, buy the smallest amount of HP available every 30 days. This will get you 30 days of regular goodies from good old Tony Stark (Elite and Heroic tokens, HP, ISO and CPs) when you play DDQ and story mode.

Totally agree with the advice to keep one full-power 1* and all of the 2*s, and to save CPs and Legendaries where you can. However, the best investments I have made were putting hundreds of CPs into championing Iron Man and Dr Strange early. It made me instantly competitive and has totally paid for itself. Keep trying and try to enjoy it!

FraggleinPA

Everything that was already said here.  The one thing I want to emphasize is - don’t open tokens that you don’t have to!  Roster spots are essential - especially when you are first starting out. If you open a Latest Legends token, spend any CP on a Classics token, or even open a Taco Token, you can get a 3*, 4*, or a 5*.  Of course you will want to use a precious roster spot to save that cover, and you will need those roster spots for your 1* and 2* characters.  SAVE your tokens and don’t open them (yet).  They won’t expire.

Choose just one 1* to roster.  Both Iron Man and Juggernaut are good.

Then focus on rostering all 2*.  There are certain nodes within the game that require a specific 2*, and if you don’t have that 2* in your roster, you can’t play that node and are SOL!