"A Risky Gamble" case study, and which guide to follow from here?

OldFanLogan · 26 November 2024, 18:20

I have greatly enjoyed following the Risky Gamble token strategy. It has delivered on its promise of fast progress in the game. Below, I'll describe where I was when I started following it and where I am today.

I hope this is helpful to new players who come across it and are considering their strategy.

And I could use help. I have been wondering whether it is time to switch to the traditional player's guide style (which now includes a section on the bottom summarizing Risky Gamble). If not now, then when?

Please post your thoughts in the comments - has my progress been worth it, and when should I (or anyone following this) switch methods?

Btw, I have not yet spent any money on the game. I will, because I think the devs deserve it for the fun I'm having playing, but I wanted to run this experiment and report the results in case it helps other new players who want to start free to play.

Risky Gamble summary

tl:dr:

Once you've rostered all the 2-star characters, open Standard, Elite, Heroic and Event/Vault tokens.
Continue to hoard Mighty Tokens, LL tokens, and CP
Juggle 3 & 4 stars on the vine

The main purpose of Risky Gamble - get HP as fast as possible to spend on roster slots - has made sense to me. HP is the limiting factor early in the game; ISO is limiting later. Get HP fast early while building excess ISO that will be used later. It feels analogous to assembly lines focusing on speeding up the bottleneck step. Holding tokens for months to eventually get extra 4* covers for a character that I don't have ISO (let alone need/desire) to level up would slow down my ability to roster anyone and level up the important ones.

My starting point, early April 2024

I had sporadically played MPQ for a few years with zero attention to efficiency and consistency. I don't remember my roster at the time, but I probably had all the 1*s, some 2*s, a few low level 3*s, and a couple 4*s with a couple covers each (Yondu and Red Hulk). I hadn't even finished the campaign. I had accumulated some tokens because a friend had guided me to hold them, not really internalizing the point of it. One day in early April, 2024, I decided to open everything. Apparently that avalanche of rewards, relative to what I had seen before, got me hooked and I began playing consistently since. That's when I read the player's guide and Risky Gamble. I was convinced by Risky Gamble and excited about the speed it proposed, so started using it.

Status in June, 2-3 months in

From that point, I quickly finished the campaign, focused on PVE, did as much DDQ as I could, and played a little PVP each day. I made a few mistakes like spending some CP on levels prematurely, and not joining an alliance right away. I joined a solid alliance sometime in mid-late May.

Mid-June, 2.5 months in, I took notes on my roster status. Here are some highlights:

4*: Rostered ascended 4*, level 270 Spider Rex and Honey Badger from vaults.
I was doing well in PVE SCL 5 & 6 partnering either of them with 3* April Parker (Mayhem) at lvl 117 and 4* Polaris at lvl 70 with her single purple cover. (I had favorited Mayhem for a bit to get shards for those levels).
3*: IM40 was my highest at 180 (also leveled up through favorite/shards). I didn't have many others.
2*: My farm was well underway, many if not all champed.
1*: I had ascended Iron Man, Black Widow, Juggernaut, and Spider Man, with the others heading that direction.

Highlights in late August, almost 5 months in

4*: Vault pulls got me ascended, level 270 Patch and Deadpool.
3*: I had a handful more, maybe around 10-15 total.
2*: By now, I had max champed, sold, and re-rostered quite a few.
I had stayed in PVE SCL 6 to focus on completing quickly and getting covers I would use rather than the 4* that comes at SCL 7.
I was doing fairly well in boss events, holding my own in round 7 but mostly losing the main nodes in round 8.
When our alliance got 5* covers, I chose to sell them.

Highlights today, nearly 8 months in

5*: I caved on the method and rostered Agatha (2 covers, boss event) and Mighty Thor (1 red, 1 yellow, vault pull and reward). Agatha is now my fastest way to destroy repeater tiles when those quests come up.
4*: I have 17 of the 4* ascended characters from vaults, many thanks to That's A Steel. Polaris was favorited until level 270. I briefly favorited Spider-Man 2099 so I can get easy web tiles for those quests with his passive yellow. Now I'm working on Rocket & Groot, having gotten enough shards for three yellow covers.
3*: I have 18 champed and 21 others rostered. 22 remain to be rostered. My go-to's are Dr Strange (lvl 240 through many shards), Omega Red (lvl 171, also some shards), and Iron May (lvl 169, many shards).
2* & 1*: My farms from 1* ascended and 2* characters are going well. The overall pace of my progress has noticeably accelerated because of them. Throughout, I have prioritized rostering duplicates of 1*s over a new 3* to keep them moving. I have already sold each character at least once, except keeping Juggernaut, Spider-man, and Yelena. I've leveled-up enough duplicates of 1* SM and Yelena that they're close to ascending to 3*, and Juggernaut is already there.
I still stick with PVE SCL 6, and it goes quickly. I'll start toying with higher ones soon.
I win Round 8 boss event battles almost every time.
I have some great supports at levels 100-160 like Royal Talon Fighter, Space Stone (thanks, community!), Carol's Communicator, Lucky, Stormbreaker, and Taskmaster's Sword.
1300 CP (many from the alliance)
70 latest legend and 27 classic legend tokens
5.0 million ISO - patiently growing the nest egg for those 4*s and 5*s

What next?

Sometimes I think I should start holding onto tokens until I have enough HP for a roster slot.

Other times, I enjoy the immediate gains that come from opening every Standard, Elite, Heroic and Event/Vault token.

At the moment, I lean toward continuing with the Risky Gamble strategy, but prioritizing roster slots for my farms to get HP as fast as possible, until I have all 4*s rostered. It means I'll keep selling some 3/4* covers from Heroic and vault tokens, and 5*s from boss events. Maybe I'll try always holding enough HP in reserve for a couple roster slots so I can get meta 4/5* characters if their covers come my way.

Along the way to getting all 4*s rostered, the strategy naturally transitions into the traditional one - open Mighty tokens or higher only if I'm ready to roster, hoard CL/LL tokens and CP, etc.

As I said at the start, it would be great to hear your thoughts in the comments - has my progress been worth it, and when should I (or anyone following this) switch methods?

Thank you in advance for any input!