A Risky Gamble: Alternative Token Strategy for Newer Players

The new player guide provides a conservative approach that preserves the most resources for the long game. Most importantly to this post, to only open tokens if you have a roster slot available for any possible character you could pull (example: Don't open Heroics if you can't roster a new 4 star).

This is incredibly important information to understand about the game economy. The guide should be recommended and ideally read if you want to have the most efficient resource usage, especially if you are free-to-play (F2P). I don't think this strategy recommendation should be changed in the guide.

However, I think an alternative path should be laid out, which I will do here, to trade long-term efficiency and resource preservation for a faster start. Certain changes with new developers have changed the long-term economics anyway.

This isn't a fully fleshed out guide like my other posts. More observations and suggestions to consider.

TL;DR: Give it to me straight

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

Pros:

• Faster SHIELD Rank progress to open more rewarding SCLs (especially for PvP)
• Accelerated 2-star farm growth vs following the guide
• Accelerated pace to complete special events/DPD nodes
• Faster growth via shards of favorited characters (notably Polaris)

Cons:

• You will sell a lot of 3 and 4 star covers
• Like, a LOT of 3 and 4 star covers
• Yes, even some of that cool character who might be really awesome in that edge case that comes up once in a while

Why Stray from the Guide?

2 Star Team/Farm Opportunity Cost

In the early game, the biggest resource bottleneck is HP.

The biggest, most reliable source of HP, post-campaign, is your 2-star farm. 85% of the Heroic token pulls are 2 stars. Saving Heroics in order to preserve the 4 star covers you will pull while holding off on hundreds of 2 star covers that will provide champ rewards and 125 HP each time you sell a max champ is delaying most of the rewards you need sooner.

HP pressures have risen. If You're in a good alliance, you will get your first 5 star cover within a month or two. It will change your game. You will crush many nodes that took time. Next month, it will be less exciting. By the third month, the 5 star covers are going to start choking your roster if your HP income isn't stepping up. Think it is hard to sell a 3 star cover? Wait until you have to sell a 5. (On my alt, I've sold several already... F2P and I don't play regularly).

The reason for this is bosses used to give LL tokens. Far less exciting, and they could be stored for later. Now, you get a use-it-or-lose-it 5 star cover. Great for the LL train, bad for new players who don't like selling covers. The pressure is on to get you to spend money.

Finally, getting a good team together at the lower ranks is tough if you are F2P. Getting key 2 stars leveled up quicker is more important than long-term efficiency for conserving 3 and 4 star covers. The sooner you can do the HP-reward node in DPD and punch up in PvE and PvP the more return on investment you get sooner.

In short, conserving Heroics and Elites for the sake of 3 and 4 star covers has a significant tradeoff in opportunity cost for 2 star players.

Shards

The advice in guide originated before sharding was in the game. In 2023, bonus shard chances were greatly improved. This means that growing a specific 3/4/5 character is much faster, so long as you are opening tokens.

Specifically, 3 star Dr Strange (Still the ideal first 3 Sharget) and Polaris (4 star queen) change your gameplay and allow you to move up and tackle bigger challenges. Opening tokens and selling 3/4 covers still accelerate getting these to playable levels.

If you champ Strange, you can play SCL 6 easily and SCL 7 most of the time with not having to spend hours doing it. Clear times should be 30-45 mins. The sooner you get him there, the sooner you reap those rewards (which, BTW, includes more HP). Opening tokens gets you more shards for that. Getting Omega Red, Iron Man after that speeds things up even more.

Omega Red (w taskmaster sword) and Thanos can clear the 3-star DP node in 2-3 moves.

Also, 3 stars come pretty fast. My 3 star farm seems to flip every 2-3 months (from roster to max champ). Throttling or delaying your HP income means delaying the time it will take you to get all the 3s rostered.

I don't think I need to comment on Polaris' impact.

Also, you're trading the opportunity cost of getting further in boss events or puzzle gauntlet or pve rewards sooner, for the delayed gratification on the most diluted tiers in the game.

4 Stars Aren't That Great: Welcome to the (ISO) Desert of the Real

Once upon a time, 4 star covers were really powerful and hard to get. Now they are easier to obtain and at the same time the over-dilution means that only the top 10-12 are going to see regular use.

On top of that, once you get all the 4 stars rostered, HP becomes much more plentiful and you enter the ISO desert that takes even longer to get through.

By the time I was down the to the last few 4 stars to champ, I had as many as 30 saved covers on 4 stars I never used. But I desperately needed iso.

Guess what? You get iso for selling 4 stars you open in 2 star land. You may not realize it or believe us veteran players, but the ISO desert is real. So more ISO isn't a bad thing.

This is the flip side of the opportunity cost in 2 star land - the resources you are trying to conserve really aren't all that precious in the long run. The shards, the 2 star covers, and even the iso are more valuable than holding off to spare a Talos cover from being sold.

Pro Gamer Move: Juggling the Vine

If you are opening all these tokens and getting characters you can't use, what do you do with them?

I suggest leaving them in your Inbox (aka Vine) and rostering the ones that are essential for DPD's Required Character node, or events. When I was moving through 3 star land I had a "swap spot" that I regularly deleted and re-rostered the daily/event essential I needed.

Just before they expire, roster any that you haven't rostered before. The first cover you roster gets XP towards your SHIELD rank only the first time you roster them. Might as well grab it now and advance your rank towards better rewards.

What About Ascension?

Ascension gets valuable rewards, but isn't great for HP for starting rosters. Here's some suggestions for the HP-poor.

• Ascend 1 stars to 2 stars, sell them when they are max 2 stars (except Spider-Man and Juggernaut. And maybe Yelena. Keep them leveling up.)
• Don't ascend 2 or 3 stars, sell the max champ and re-roster. The character-specific champ rewards and the HP are far more valuable than more LL covers at this point.

Priority of Characters

You will have a lot more decisions to make about what to keep and what to sell. Here's some suggestions:

Keep Meta Characters/Those that Change Your Daily Play The meta shifts, and your own play preferences come in to consideration here. But think about on a scale of Polaris to Elsa Bloodstone, are you really going to use this character often?

Keep Puzzle Gauntlet MvPs (if you can) such as Cloak & Dagger, Quake, Mystique, Patch and Eddie Brock Venom. These 4 aren't just "good", there are puzzles you cannot solve without them (or a lot of luck).

Keep the latest 3/4 (if you can) As you are rostering 3 stars, the new 3 stars will have bonus pull rates and will get to useable levels faster. As you are rostering 4 stars, new releases will be essential more often, and in SCL7+ you can get them to 13 covers before they rotate out of the latest with T100 play in PvE and PvP.