Not very noob friendly.

Bad

So you knew that characters need 13 covers to make them good... you knew a lot of things more than me before dowloading then.
And do you have the habit to read forums before playing the game?
Pretty interesting indeed.

TheEyeDoctorsWife

I think I’ve done as well as I could for a free game without spending money . I’m on 900 days , and been finishing top 50 in the highest competitive tier since I reached it 6 months ago. I just started reading the forum myself but other alliance members keep you informed what’s coming in a good alliance. That means best case scenario it takes 2 YEARS in a good alliance to at least be able to tread water with the best . The good news is the game evolves annually so last years top teams are this years mediocre, and in a few years you’ll be able to roster the best characters as soon as released thus being instantly competitive 

HoundofShadow

The no.1 root cause has always been instant gratification, or impatience. Anyone who come into any game of such genre expecting to:

1) catch up quickly with top/veteran players  (by playing casually at their own paces while spending pittances)

2) complete every events available

3) dominate quickly in the game

4) Get the best rewards easily

usually won't be very happy. In the end, they are likely to leave the game. Even if they continue to play the game, it will likely to be a love/hate relationship.

PvEs are where the majority of rewards are at, and if you are not playing competitively, you don't need to "babysit" your points. Each tier beginning from 2* land is a building block to the next level. You will complete 3* land (which means champ all 3*) in approximately 6-10 months, depending on how fast you want to progress. It could be more or less but that's a rough timeline. If you play competitively and hoard, you can champ latest 3 5* in ~ 1 year, if you want to skip 4* land.

You have gone through the guide and there were a lot of great advices given. So, what's left is to tame your impatience. This game has been around for close to 8 years, not 8 days nor 8 weeks. Naturally, it will take some time.

TheEyeDoctorsWife

An alternative, and faster , in my opinion , is to focus ONLY on the characters you need to advance. There are hundreds of characters and the game is so diluted with them that 80% of them are completely useless except for 3 days a year on average . A lot of people play as collectionism being their primary reason , or “I must own the most toys to be the winner”. Others play for speed or reward placement. You can decide what path you enjoy, there is no wrong way to play as long as you’re doing what you enjoy . 

Aueio

Bad said:

So you knew that characters need 13 covers to make them good... you knew a lot of things more than me before dowloading then.
And do you have the habit to read forums before playing the game?
Pretty interesting indeed.

Maybe it's other times now or we're just different but yeah, I've watched YouTube videos, read stuff. I generally know a lot about a game before I play it whether be it a mobile or console game.
Waiting for this game called World Flipper (some japanese RPG light with pinball influences) and it's been out in Japan for a while and I know exactly what to aim for, who to build, how mechanics work etc. even though we could still be months from release.
For this same reason I know a lot about so many games I've never tried. I know about Puzzle Quest 3 and why to avoid it (sadly). I'm on several discord servers for games I've been interesting in but never tried, couldn't find one for this game though which is why the forum's been a source of intel.

I didn't know 13 covers were needed to make heroes "GOOD" - I absolutely thought they'd be useful even during the building process (and I guess they also are, my Kamala is doing good so far) but I knew that in order to get the most out of your hero you will need to pull him/her 13 times.

Aueio

Thank you to the guys who wrote long posts with tips and sharing their early-on experiences! I "liked" all of your posts but it feels odd to thank you individually.

HoundofShadow

Some context is needed about "needing 13 covers for characters to be good."

A 1* player who lucked into a 5* cover won't need 13 covers of 5* to play through his tier of the game. 1 is enough.

A 5* player with multiple champed 5* who got only 1 cover would need 10-13 covers of that 5* because of his mmr. However, this is quite true for only pvps, but not necessarily true for pves.

 2* players with 6-7 3* covers is considered "enough" for their tier of play but it might not be enough for 4* players.

To many 5* players, max champed 2* and 3* are "useless" for their tier of plays due to the difference in levels and powers.

As you can see, it's not necessarily to have 13 covers of a hero to be good. Even having max champed characters might not be good enough. It depends on where you are in the game.

Srheer0

The game is not very good at explaining to you about low covered 3s being weaker than fully covered 2s, low covered 4s being weaker than covered 3s etc etc. 

I know I pulled LL tokens too quickly which messed up my pvp a tad (had a single ghostrider cover vs Th5rs in 3star land lol).  

My advice is to take it slowly. HP does come in slow at the start, but you need less of it per roster slot increase at that stage.  

Work on 2s, then 3s, then 4s, then 5s. With champing the previous tier as you recruit the next.  

As I am sure others have said, don't pull heroics or Latest Legend tokens until you are ready for 4stars and 5stars.

And don't pull tokens if you lack the HP to roster new characters.  

3star land is very easy with Dr Strange and then Ironman40 as your first championed characters. Follow with Ironfist, Luke Cage, Thanos, Cyclops and Kumala Kahn.

4star, start with Polaris, then Rocket and Groot (4star), then a choice of medusa, karnak, Juggernaut (4) and whoever else you like the look of.

With daily play, you can potentially champion all the 3s within a few months of recruiting all of them. It just takes I dunno, up to 6 months to get to that spot without buying HP with real money.

Bad

Aueio said:

Maybe it's other times now or we're just different but yeah, I've watched YouTube videos, read stuff. I generally know a lot about a game before I play it whether be it a mobile or console game.

Fair enough. It's interesting for a username so seemingly easy and vocal(but look at who is talking about usernames. Although my username in here has half of my IGN name).

Other concepts from someone playing from 2 years and a half, and you hardly will read:

If you are the competitive type everybody playing more years than you will surpass you on 3* and 4* tier.
Under that scenario you can take it easy or you can take the red pill: pass to 5* land.
It will be hard but it's certainly doable: try to get all cps you can and do not waste anyone.
That will shut your 4* and 5* roster, although it is heavily recommended to not drop any character you get because later it will help.
Build a great hoard of 300 pulls between LT tokens and cps and wait until useful characters in LT store appear.
With 300 pulls you can champ at least 2 of them and then it will be your stepping stone to a competitive and juicier play experience. 
It will take a year tough.

hothie

There are some common 3* teams that are very popular to run in 3* land. Strange and Ironman are one of the top recommended, along with Iron Fist and Luke Cage, Kamala and Hulk. But those generally are for when they are champed. Before you get into champing 3*s though, there are a few abilities that work well together among 2* and 3* characters.

Cap Marvel 2*s yellow puts team up tiles on the board.  Then if you can fire 3* Magneto's red right after, he destroys all team up tiles on the board, dealing damage. That's a nice 1-2 punch if you can pull it off without needing to have either champed.

Also, I found that 2* Bullseye and 3* Black Widow work well together. With her purple you can usually create green match-5s, then you can use his green to set up more match-5s. If you get them champed, and add in 3* Magneto, you can get into a "winfinite" situation with the 3 of them, where you basically get BW's purple to fire, then you can manipulate the board into a situation where you keep generating enough AP that keeps you firing your powers. Eventually, you whittle down the other team on your one single turn until the game ends. I used this trio a lot while I was in 3* land, and it got me more wins than losses against teams that had better characters than mine. Now, keep in mind, you're gonna lose on the revenge attack, but you'll get progression awards for the wins that you get.

I know there are others, but this might help you as you progress.

Akoni

Aueio said:

Maybe it's other times now or we're just different but yeah, I've watched YouTube videos, read stuff. I generally know a lot about a game before I play it whether be it a mobile or console game.

I did the same thing before playing MPQ. I tend to research every game I play before downloading it, so I don't think that is weird of you at all.