Step-by-step F2P Guide
This is going to be a journal of playing SWGOH free-to-play from level 1. I've read/watched a lot of advice for new players, but nothing that takes the player through the leveling process.
The long-term plan
1. Get to 350 crystals as soon as possible, which happens at the end of level 5
2. Buy a hero
3. If the hero isn't good enough, repeat steps 1 and 2
4. For quite some time, use the bought hero with the best available heroes for my squad
5. Save crystals and stop at level 27 until the next set of daily quests refresh
6. Gather shards for Phoenix heroes - Ezra Bridger, Chopper, Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus and Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios in that order. Almost all resources will be spent improving those five heroes, with only surplus resources to be spent on a Dark Side squad
7. Climb as quickly as possible in Squad Arena once it is unlocked
8. Gradually replace the make-shift squads with Phoenix heroes
9. When I hit level 50, spend the minimum on mods
10. At level 58, prepare for Ships
11. At level 60, climb as quickly as possible in Fleet Arena
12. Around level 65 when my five Phoenix heroes are 7*, switch to improving Resistance heroes
My prior runs
* First run, I played like a newbie. In the mid 40’s, I tried switching my arena squad from my five best heroes to Phoenix, but I was too far behind the other players to ever catch up
* Second run, I went with Phoenix and did much better but not great. I totally mucked up fleets. I bought $10 worth of crystals, bought some things in the store and discovered that was a poor use of money. I decided to write a guide, so I started over
* Third run, I started with Finn and went from #495 to #4 in Squad Arena. I made it to #1 in Fleet Arena (I started as #32). As time went on, the effect of several mistakes caught up with me and I was dropping quickly in both Squad Arena and Fleet Arena. With the changes the developers had made, I decided I needed to do another run for this guide
The importance of starting well
As this is going to be free-to-play, every resource I gain has to earned from the game. The way the game is, the better you start (by better, I mean getting a high rank in Squad Arena, being able to complete Galactic War and eventually getting a high rank in Fleet Arena), the more resources you get. A good start means more resources, and more resources means you can compete more effectively, which leads to more resources
Timing of your start
The ideal time to start or restart is the first of the month. Every day you play, you get a log in bonus and that resets on the first of each month. It's best to get a full month in the first thirty-or-so days you play because the amount of credits you get increases steadily through the month, going from 20K to 150K. Also the more of a month you play, the more shards you get of that month's featured character. I've started this journey on Saturday 7/31/18 as I'd had a lot of time on that day to play the game.
Starting and buying your first character
The game leads you by the hand through the initial levels. I cleared Light Side Stage 1 Normal, Light Side Stage 1 Hard, and Light Side Stage 2 Normal. That took me to 150 purple crystals. I connected to my Facebook account by clicking on the gear in the upper left, getting 200 more. If I didn't have a Facebook account, I could level up to level 9 and then my inbox would unlock and I'd get a mail that had 200 crystals. With the 350 crystals, I bought a Chromium Data Card in the store. On your first buy, you get one of the characters at the bottom and I think can only get Light Side heroes. I don't know how often the list changes. I want a four-star character and there are nine of those. Of those nine, my top choice is Finn and my second is Lando Calrissian. Others I've seen recommended are Admiral Ackbar, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Old Ben), Wedge Antilles, CT-7567 "Rex", Baze Malbus, Jyn Erso and Chirrut Imwe. I bought the Chromium Data Card and as it wasn’t a hero I wanted, I restarted the game and leveled up until I could buy a Chromium Data Card again. I downloaded the Ko Player android emulator and used the Multi Manager to easily create new android phones with different device ID's.
Here's who I got:
Try #1 - Jyn Erso (4*)
Try #2 - Stormtrooper Han (3*)
Try #3 - Kit Fisto (2*)
Try #4 - Lando Calrissian (4*)
I'm really happy with Lando. He's got a good AOE attack, a good leadership ability which applies to Rebels and he's a Scoundrel, which I need for the Credit Heist event.
Useful heroes and conserving resources
Again, I’m going to pour everything I can into my Phoenix team, with the leftover going to my Dark Side team. Unfortunately, I don't have any Phoenix heroes yet. So any resource I spend on my current heroes are going to be something I can't spend on my Phoenix team. So how can I not be wasteful with resources during this time?
Having played through level 63 twice, I can say I always had a surplus of training droids. Through level 49, I always had a massive surplus of credits and when I hit level 50, I started spending millions of credits. A few thousand credits is just noise. At this point, only gear is something that using on one of these characters is really a waste. Items with a white border and that aren't crafted are easily gained, so there's little cost to giving them to heroes who aren't going to be used long-term.
How useful each hero is:
Snowtrooper - He'll be part of my Dark Side squad for a while
Royal Guard - He's useful even at 1* and will be on my Dark Side squad for a very long time
Ewok Scout - Lando puts him on the bench and I’ll use him only a couple more times
Clone Sergeant - He goes to the bench as soon as I get another Light Side hero. When I hit level 60, he becomes one of my best pilots
Jedi Consular - His healing is nice, but damage is more important so he’ll be the next one benched. When I hit level 60, he becomes one of my best pilots
Chewbecca - He’ll be on my team for a while. After that, I'll use him for Scoundrel-only events such as Credit Heist
Luke - When I had Finn as my 4* hero, I sent Luke to the bench after Clone Sergeant as he was a glass cannon. Because he has good synergies with Lando, he’ll stay on my team much longer
Lando - He'll go to the bench at level 42 or 43. After that, I'll use him for Scoundrel-only events such as Credit Heist
So gearing Ewok Scout is a waste but the rest are worth gearing.
The developers mucked up levels 4 through 6
At the beginning of July when I did a similar run, I reached level 6 when I cleared Light Side Normal node 1-F. The developers made a change to extend the amount of time it took to reach level 6. I'll see some oddities because of it. One oddity is that the nodes I have to clear now (Light Side 2-A Hard or 3-A Normal) are very difficult for a level 5 player. I defeated 3-A Normal but lost on 3-B Normal. I should have done battles for gear for Lando. Another oddity is that I ran out of Normal energy just shy of level 6 and I had to wait until my energy refreshes.
The long-term plan
1. Get to 350 crystals as soon as possible, which happens at the end of level 5
2. Buy a hero
3. If the hero isn't good enough, repeat steps 1 and 2
4. For quite some time, use the bought hero with the best available heroes for my squad
5. Save crystals and stop at level 27 until the next set of daily quests refresh
6. Gather shards for Phoenix heroes - Ezra Bridger, Chopper, Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus and Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios in that order. Almost all resources will be spent improving those five heroes, with only surplus resources to be spent on a Dark Side squad
7. Climb as quickly as possible in Squad Arena once it is unlocked
8. Gradually replace the make-shift squads with Phoenix heroes
9. When I hit level 50, spend the minimum on mods
10. At level 58, prepare for Ships
11. At level 60, climb as quickly as possible in Fleet Arena
12. Around level 65 when my five Phoenix heroes are 7*, switch to improving Resistance heroes
My prior runs
* First run, I played like a newbie. In the mid 40’s, I tried switching my arena squad from my five best heroes to Phoenix, but I was too far behind the other players to ever catch up
* Second run, I went with Phoenix and did much better but not great. I totally mucked up fleets. I bought $10 worth of crystals, bought some things in the store and discovered that was a poor use of money. I decided to write a guide, so I started over
* Third run, I started with Finn and went from #495 to #4 in Squad Arena. I made it to #1 in Fleet Arena (I started as #32). As time went on, the effect of several mistakes caught up with me and I was dropping quickly in both Squad Arena and Fleet Arena. With the changes the developers had made, I decided I needed to do another run for this guide
The importance of starting well
As this is going to be free-to-play, every resource I gain has to earned from the game. The way the game is, the better you start (by better, I mean getting a high rank in Squad Arena, being able to complete Galactic War and eventually getting a high rank in Fleet Arena), the more resources you get. A good start means more resources, and more resources means you can compete more effectively, which leads to more resources
Timing of your start
The ideal time to start or restart is the first of the month. Every day you play, you get a log in bonus and that resets on the first of each month. It's best to get a full month in the first thirty-or-so days you play because the amount of credits you get increases steadily through the month, going from 20K to 150K. Also the more of a month you play, the more shards you get of that month's featured character. I've started this journey on Saturday 7/31/18 as I'd had a lot of time on that day to play the game.
Starting and buying your first character
The game leads you by the hand through the initial levels. I cleared Light Side Stage 1 Normal, Light Side Stage 1 Hard, and Light Side Stage 2 Normal. That took me to 150 purple crystals. I connected to my Facebook account by clicking on the gear in the upper left, getting 200 more. If I didn't have a Facebook account, I could level up to level 9 and then my inbox would unlock and I'd get a mail that had 200 crystals. With the 350 crystals, I bought a Chromium Data Card in the store. On your first buy, you get one of the characters at the bottom and I think can only get Light Side heroes. I don't know how often the list changes. I want a four-star character and there are nine of those. Of those nine, my top choice is Finn and my second is Lando Calrissian. Others I've seen recommended are Admiral Ackbar, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Old Ben), Wedge Antilles, CT-7567 "Rex", Baze Malbus, Jyn Erso and Chirrut Imwe. I bought the Chromium Data Card and as it wasn’t a hero I wanted, I restarted the game and leveled up until I could buy a Chromium Data Card again. I downloaded the Ko Player android emulator and used the Multi Manager to easily create new android phones with different device ID's.
Here's who I got:
Try #1 - Jyn Erso (4*)
Try #2 - Stormtrooper Han (3*)
Try #3 - Kit Fisto (2*)
Try #4 - Lando Calrissian (4*)
I'm really happy with Lando. He's got a good AOE attack, a good leadership ability which applies to Rebels and he's a Scoundrel, which I need for the Credit Heist event.
Useful heroes and conserving resources
Again, I’m going to pour everything I can into my Phoenix team, with the leftover going to my Dark Side team. Unfortunately, I don't have any Phoenix heroes yet. So any resource I spend on my current heroes are going to be something I can't spend on my Phoenix team. So how can I not be wasteful with resources during this time?
Having played through level 63 twice, I can say I always had a surplus of training droids. Through level 49, I always had a massive surplus of credits and when I hit level 50, I started spending millions of credits. A few thousand credits is just noise. At this point, only gear is something that using on one of these characters is really a waste. Items with a white border and that aren't crafted are easily gained, so there's little cost to giving them to heroes who aren't going to be used long-term.
How useful each hero is:
Snowtrooper - He'll be part of my Dark Side squad for a while
Royal Guard - He's useful even at 1* and will be on my Dark Side squad for a very long time
Ewok Scout - Lando puts him on the bench and I’ll use him only a couple more times
Clone Sergeant - He goes to the bench as soon as I get another Light Side hero. When I hit level 60, he becomes one of my best pilots
Jedi Consular - His healing is nice, but damage is more important so he’ll be the next one benched. When I hit level 60, he becomes one of my best pilots
Chewbecca - He’ll be on my team for a while. After that, I'll use him for Scoundrel-only events such as Credit Heist
Luke - When I had Finn as my 4* hero, I sent Luke to the bench after Clone Sergeant as he was a glass cannon. Because he has good synergies with Lando, he’ll stay on my team much longer
Lando - He'll go to the bench at level 42 or 43. After that, I'll use him for Scoundrel-only events such as Credit Heist
So gearing Ewok Scout is a waste but the rest are worth gearing.
The developers mucked up levels 4 through 6
At the beginning of July when I did a similar run, I reached level 6 when I cleared Light Side Normal node 1-F. The developers made a change to extend the amount of time it took to reach level 6. I'll see some oddities because of it. One oddity is that the nodes I have to clear now (Light Side 2-A Hard or 3-A Normal) are very difficult for a level 5 player. I defeated 3-A Normal but lost on 3-B Normal. I should have done battles for gear for Lando. Another oddity is that I ran out of Normal energy just shy of level 6 and I had to wait until my energy refreshes.
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There's no rush to reach level 28. In fact, the longer you take the better. The only rule at this point is DON'T SPEND CRYSTALS.
Once I reached level 8, I unlocked Shipments. I opened Shipments and scrolled down to the bottom of the first tab. There are four items that I can buy for credits. I bought them. Every six hours, the Shipments tabs will refresh and I'll buy the four items at the bottom of the first tab again. I won't buy them if I've got a huge amount of them (say at least 50), but that won't happen for a while.
The Cantina table also unlocked. At this point, I can earn hero shards in one of two ways - the Cantina table or Hard nodes. From what I've read, the drop rate from both is one out of three. The big difference is that Hard nodes are limited to five uses a day whereas Cantina nodes can be used an unlimited amount. 1-2 shards a day is a trickle, so there are only a few heroes I plan to farm their shards from Hard nodes.
At level 9, I unlocked a side quest to win Light Size Battles 2-A, 2-B and 2-C. I've already cleared those levels. This is one of the oddities of the developers mucking with levels 4 through 6. I did the side quest anyway. I generally try to do all of the side quests I can as soon as I can.
I hit level 10 and unlocked Talia. She'll be my best Dark Side hero for quite some time. For Cantina, I'll use her instead of Clone Sergeant.
I did three Cantina battles and 2-A through 2-E Light Side Hard nodes. That took me to level 12, which unlocked Dark Side battles.
Hard nodes
For my Daily Activities quests, I have to fight five Hard node battles. There's no point in fighting more than five in a day. The number of shards gained through Hard nodes is trivial and the gear drop relative to Normal nodes is poor. At holo table level 6, there are some Hard nodes that have good drops and are worth farming for gear, but no Hard nodes before that are worth farming for gear.
Continuing on
I trained my three Dark Side heroes up to level 10 and cleared the first three Dark Side nodes. That took me to level 14. After that, I jumped around in terms of battles I fought because I always made sure that I'd win so that I wouldn't waste energy. It was a lot of battles before I reached level 15, where I unlocked Challenges. I hit level 16 quickly, unlocking the second level of the Cantina table. I cleared the first two nodes of the second level of the Cantina table.
At this point, my top priority is grinding the Cantina 2-B node, which gives Ezra shards. Ezra will be the first Phoenix team member I'll unlock. I've seen several guides recommend unlocking Hera Syndulla first, but her strength is her leader ability and it's only worthwhile if you have several Phoenix heroes on your team. Ezra is a good Attacker, so I'm going to farm him first. The node also gives Catina Battle Tokens, which I can use to buy Chopper shards.
Farming for gear
When choosing which node to attack for gear, I usually pick the right-most node in the list as it generally gives the most training droids and credits. But I also consider if the node also has other gear that I need. Just because the gear has a green dot doesn't mean it's needed - sometimes the gear is needed by heroes that I'm not equipping or I have 58 of them. The level 1 nodes will usually give 4-6 gear items compared to 2 for higher nodes, so I'll do those when I can.
At this point, my top priority for Normal energy is to gear up my heroes. I'll take my top 5 (Lando, Chewie, Luke, Talia, JC) up to the next level (Gear III at this point) and then I'll gear the other heroes I use (Clone Sergeant, Royal Guard and Snowtrooper) to the gear level below that.
Level 18 - Allies
I hit level 18 and unlocked Allies. Allies make clearing the Dark Side table much, much easier. I went to this thread, went to the last page and sent Ally requests to all the player who've posted their ally code recently. Another great thing about allies is that they increase the number of silver coins you get and at this point, the silver coins represent the most likely way of getting a new hero.
Level 18 also unlocked level 4 of the Light Side table. The levels of the enemies ramp up rapidly above my level, so I only feel comfortable attacking new nodes with the help of powerful allies. Consequently, I'm spending most of my energy gearing up my team. I took my top 5 (Lando, Chewie, Luke, Talia, JC) as well as Snowtrooper are to Gear III, plus Clone Sergeant and Royal Guard to Gear II.
Level 20 - Events
When I got my next set of Daily Quests, I quickly got to level 20 and unlocked Events. I was lucky and there was an event giving a hero, T3-M4. T3-M4 kicks Clone Sergeant to the bench. Events are unpredictable, which makes this guide difficult as you'll have different events than I do.
You want to do your events every day.
Level 22 - Guilds
Being in a good guild makes a huge difference. A good guild provides you with a steady stream of gear and guild credits. But for you to earn guild credits, the guild has to frequently run guild raids at a level low enough for you to participate. If you join a sleepy guild that doesn't run many raids, you're going to lose out. If you join a high-powered guild that runs only high-level raids, you're going to lose out. I tried a number of guilds before I found "Orphans to the core", which is active enough to regularly run raids and is nice enough to regularly run Tier II Rancor raids fairly often.
What I do after my Daily Activities reset
Before my events reset (they reset at 11 am for me), I do Events and Guild Raids. I use my Normal and Cantina energy enough so that I'll be close to max energy when my Daily Activities reset.
When they reset, I:
* Click on Shipments, scroll to the bottom and buy what gear I can for credits
* Click on the Store, scroll right to the end and buy all the Bronzium Data Cards I can
* Do my Challenges
* Gear up with my new gear
* Fight 5 Hard Battles. My first priority for Hard nodes are those that complete a level. Completing a level gets me crystals, credits, Darth Vader shards and Ally points. If there are no Hard nodes that I haven't cleared before, I'll farm nodes for hero shards. I'll farm Dark Side Hard 1-A until I unlock Sabine Wren, and then I'll farm Resistance Trooper shards (Light Side 3-A or Dark Side 3-A).
* Fight Normal battles for gear
* Fight Cantina battles for Ezra or Hera shards
Level 25
This unlocked Fleet Commander Training: Admiral Ackbar. This is the first of the Training events that occur when you hit a certain level. I always do them as soon as they unlock. This one unlocked Resistance Pilot. If I didn't have T3-M4, then Resistance Pilot would send Clone Sergeant to the bench. But I do, so Resistance Pilot goes to the bench.
I have crazy amounts of both Cantina and Normal energy right now. As I've got all of my Daily Activities done, I'm free to do what I want. I'm going to use my Cantina energy first as unlocking Ezra as soon as possible is very important.
Ability Upgrades
I've gotten the material to upgrade abilities. For my first upgrade, the game forced me to upgrade Chewie's first ability Bowcaster. For my second, I upgraded Lando's second ability Double Down. Normally, I'd give top priority to the leader ability of my squad leader as that improves all my heroes, but currently only Lando and Luke benefit from Lando's leader ability. When I have my Phoenix squad, unique abilities will also be top priority. Next priority is AoE attacks (my Phoenix squad won't have any, so this gets skipped for them). Then basic attacks as they are the most used attacks. After that, I upgrade the abilities in the order of their importance.
In the long run, purple ability material will be the constraint for upgrading abilities and there'll be surplus greens and white, so using greens and whites now won't hurt me long term.
Level 26
The Rebels Basic Training event unlocked. This event gave me some shards, but didn't unlock any hero.
It's time to figure out who is going to be in my Squad Arena initially and then short-term. If I didn't have T3-M4, my initial Squad Arena team would be Lando, Chewie, Luke, Talia and JC, with JC getting bumped by Ezra as soon as he hits Gear III. But I do have T3-M4 (and you might have another hero that you go from an event of from a Bronzium Data Card) so I have to a different assessment. I have a 4* Lando and four 3* heroes (Chewie, Luke, Talia and T3-M4), so those five will be my initial Squad Arena squad. When Ezra gets to Gear III, I'm going to have him bump Talia. When I get Chopper to 3*, I'll have it probably bump Chewie. So I'm not going to gear Talia and Chewie any more.
I got T3-M4 up to Gear III and then started working on taking Lando to Gear IV.
Level 27
Another tier of Fleet Commander Training: Admiral Ackbar and another Rebels Basic Training event unlocked. The first unlocked the Resistance X-wing ship, which I won't use until level 60. The second gave me some more hero shards.
I stopped at 196 xp, 4 short of going to level 28, and then waited for my dailies to rest.
Time to focus on Phoenix
From this point, I'm going to pour all the resources I can into Phoenix heroes. Tomorrow when I start playing, I'm going to farm Ezra shards. When I unlock him, I'll gear him up and start using him whenever I can. I'll then start unlocking other Phoenix team members and I'll pour my resources into them. My other heroes are going to get just the leftovers. Lando will be the one hero that I'll continue to gear as I'll be using him for a long time.
Here are the levels where I unlocked each member of my Phoenix team:
Ezra - 30
Chopper - 34
Hera - 37
Kanan - 40
Zeb - 42
Scoundrels
I've read quite a few guides and a frequent topic is the need to unlock Scoundrels for the Credit Heist event. My advice - don't worry about Scoundrels for a long, long time. In my prior run, I did try to build a Scoundrel team for Credit Heist when I was my level was in the high 50's and it was a mistake. For this run, it might not be a problem as my bought hero (Lando) is a Scoundrel and the login reward hero is Dengar, who also is a Scoundrel. I already have Chewie, so that means I'll have three Scoundrels without expending any additional resources. I could expand that team by either getting Bobba Fett from a Bronzium Data Card or getting additional Scoundrels from events (I just missed getting Mission Vao and Zaalbar).
The problem with building a Scoundrel team for the Credit Heist event is that it takes a huge amount of resources including...credits. It costs 1.1 million credits to take a hero from level 1 to level 60. If I acquire Stormtrooper Han using Squad Arena Tokens, then my Kanan won't be competitive with my Squad Arena competition. If I acquire Cad Bane using Galactic War Tokens, then my Zeb won't be competitive with my Squad Arena competition. If I spend Normal energy to gear up my Scoundrels team, then my gear won't be competitive with my Squad Arena competition.
Once I get my Phoenix team to 7* and Gear VIII at about level 65, then it makes sense to think about building a Scoundrel team. But not until then.
Status:
* Level 27
* 11 heroes
* On Phoenix shards, I have 12 Ezra, 10 Chopper, 1 Hera and 1 Sabine
* Lando has Gear IV. Chewie, Luke, T3-M4, Talia, JC and Snowtrooper have Gear level III
* 598 Purple crystals
* 689.8K credits
I'm starting the day with 86 Cantina Energy and 163 Normal Energy. After I got my new daily quests, I bought my gear using credits and that took me to level 28.
When I hit level 28, I was put into a Squad Arena shard. When 20,000 players are added to the shard, a new shard is created. I'm starting at rank #6186. I have three possible opponents, two of which have a team that consists of Clone Sergeant - Phase I and Jedi Counselor. The highest rank opponent I can fight is ranked #5258. I can spin the wheel in the upper left for a different set of opponents, but only the first two will change.
Note: I should have fought my first Arena battle as soon as I hit level 28. I'll explain why later.
I'm really unhappy about the shard I'm in. I’m a little disappointed that I'm starting at rank #6186 (I was initially rank #495 in my prior run), but I'll climb quickly. What I do care about is that the rewards are given out at 5 am. I rarely play past 11 pm, which means that for six hours I'll be a sitting duck for my competition. I don't know if it's bad luck, but the four times I've joined a shard, the rewards were always given out at 5 am.
Instead of doing Squad Arena battles, I’m going to work on unlocking Phoenix heroes. I went to the Cantina table and farmed Ezra shards. I quickly hit level 29. When I used up all my Cantina Energy, I clicked on the Multi Sim button and paid 100 purple crystals to get 120 Cantina Energy. I did 15 more Cantina battles but didn't unlock Ezra. I got more Cantina Energy and used all of it, taking me to level 30 and unlocking Ezra.
I started gearing Ezra and when he got to Gear III, I started using him for my Light Side battles. This game is all about hero synergies and there's a Ezra-Lando synergy I wasn't expecting. Ezra has the highest speed so he always goes first. I always go with Watch and Learn and pick Lando. Lando has a 100% Crit Chance, so always Crits. When Lando Crits, he gets Critical Chance Up (+25% Critical Hit Chance) for a turn. When Lando goes, I have him do Double Down. If he gets a Crit on any of those attacks, the cooldown for that attack gets reset and he gets bonus damage on its next use. Sweet.
I recorded a battle and I discovered something interesting - Luke was doing much more damage with his attacks than Chewie even though Chewie had the higher Physical Damage rating. Luke averaged 444 damage on non-crits compared to Chewie's 281 while his Physical Damage rating was 277 to Chewie's 300. And that's with Luke's basic attack unimproved while Chewie's has been improved once. T3-M4 averaged 372 damage with its basic attack, much better than Chewie. Chewie is definitely the next to be benched.
I did the Tier III of Fleet Commander Training: Admiral Ackbar and Tier II of Rebels Basic Training; and got some shards from both.
I've discovered something - it's a good idea to fight your first Squad Arena battle as soon as you hit level 28. Until I do that first battle, my Squad Arena team consists of Jedi Consular and Clone Sergeant, which makes a very tempting target for people behind me. I got pushed out to #6225 and the highest ranked opponent I could fight was #5291 instead of #5258. Not a big loss.
I got Ezra up to Gear IV and then gave him what gear I could. I'm free to gear anyone and as my Light Side team is doing great, I decided to gear up my Dark Side heroes. I got all of them up to Gear III and then got Talia up to Gear IV.
I had an interesting choice on what to do next. I was planning on farming Ezra shards until I got him up to 3*, but he's already my second best hero. I changed plans and started farming Hera shards. If I unlock her, that gives me another hero to gear up.
Energy Refreshes
What I normally do is refresh Normal energy until the cost is 100 crystals, and then I refresh Cantina energy until I run out of crystals or the cost is 200 crystals. For each energy expended in a successful battle, I get that amount of experience so refreshing Normal energy for 50 crystals levels me up faster than refreshing Cantina energy for 100 crystals.
At this point, I don't have a lot of great options for using my Normal energy. The only gear slots I don't have filled on Lando and Ezra are those that require a character level of 35. I've got Talia and Royal Guard up to Gear IV and I'm not sure if I want to gear them up higher than that. What I did was grind for gear for the gear slots I can't equip yet on Ezra and Lando until I used up all my Normal energy, and then I switched over to Cantina.
Sim Tickets
I try to keep at least 35 of them in reserve in case I don't play until very late at night and then I want to use up my energy as fast as possible. I get more than I need every time I refresh energy, so it doesn't take long to build up more than 35.
Guild Store
For the most part, you want to use Guild Tokens to buy gear. The best gear to buy at this point are crafted items with a lot of sub-pieces. I have have three choices in the Guild Store - the purple Mk 5 Nubian Design Tech Prototype Salvage for 260, the blue Mk 5 BioTech Implant for 100 and the blue Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator for 200. Which is the best choice?
Purple gear is a very long term investment as they aren't equipable until level 50 or so. I have an access database with some of the gear level information from SWGOH.GG and it turns out the none of the Phoenix team use the Mk 5 Nubian Design Tech Prototype Salvage, so it wouldn't be a good investment. Ditto for the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator. Four of them do use the Mk 5 BioTech Implant. If both the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator and the Mk 5 BioTech Implant were used by the Phoenix team members and cost the same, the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator would be the better buy as it has more components (13) than the Mk 5 BioTech Implant (7).
Continuing on
I'm level 33 now. I bought some Bronzium Data Cards and got IG-86 Sentinel Droid. It's a 1* hero, but it gives me a fourth Dark Side hero. I immediately took it to level 33 and geared it up best I could. I'll bring it up to Gear III and then stop.
Advice on Squad Arena battles
* Study your opponent's team before you start the fight. If it contains a hero you aren't familiar with, click on the hero and look over his/her/its abilities
* Concentrate your attacks to kill someone as quickly as possible, and then concentrate your attacks on the next hero. Getting and keeping a numbers advantage is vital to winning
* You have two ways of removing Taunt - Ezra's second attack and Chopper's third attack. Know who could Taunt on the other team and don't use your taunt-removing attacks against heroes that don't have Taunt if you need them to remove Taunt
* Kill first your opponents that have an AOE attack or debuff the whole team to keep them from messing up the whole team
* Next priority is healers. Hera is effectively a healer because of her Backup Plan ability. Don't waste attacks by having a healer heal the damage you've done
Squad Arena battles
It's getting towards the end of the day, so time for my Squad Arena battles. I defeated #4495, #3819, #3245 and #2758.
While I was doing that, I hit level 34. I was taken to a ships battles and the reward was the Jedi Consular's ship and enough shards to raise him to 3*.
For 50 crystals, I can get another five Arena Squad battles. The most I can drop in any battle is 15%, so I could drop 55.6% in five battles or ~#1225. That's one reward tier better, netting me 100 more Squad Arena Tokens and five more crystals. It's not worth it. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be worthwhile.
Note: I've decided later that I made the wrong choice - I should have paid the 50. I'd get more crystals and earn more Squad Arena tokens every day. Focusing on just one day was a poor way of making the decision.
My ability to advance is limited by the fact that those of ahead of me have been playing much longer than I have. Checking the RANKS tab on the Squad Arena window, #1 is level 49. The first player not in the 40's is #18 at level 39. #48, #49 and #50 are all level 39. The higher your initial rank, the more opponents have a head start on you and the less you’re going to be able to climb to the top of the Squad Arena rankings.
If I wanted to spend money, what should I spend it on?
If you're thinking of spending a lot of money, I'd recommend a concert, a musical or even a small vacation. I have no experience spending big money on a game that I'll get tired of in a few months. The only reason I'm still playing SWGOH is to write this guide.
If you're thinking of spending $20-$25, I'd recommend the 2,800 crystals for $20. I'd use to do all the Normal Energy refreshes for 50 and all of the Cantina Energy refreshes for 100. This game is all about hero synergies and Phoenix has the best early and mid-game synergies. In my prior run, I saw a lot of Squad Arena teams with Darth Vader on it well before Darth Vader could be unlocked by doing achievements. Darth Vader is a really good hero, but he has no synergy with a Phoenix team. Buying him gave the player very little value. It's a lot better to steadily improve your Phoenix team over a long period of time rather buying a 4* hero that will provide some benefit right now but not long-term.
Unlocking Phoenix
When I got my Squad Arena award, I bought 5 Kanan shards. I unlocked Chopper, which is nice as I really wanted another hero to gear. I got Chopper up to Gear III and then unlocked Hera. With Hera unlocked, I'm back to farming Ezra shards.
Level 35 and some research
I hit level 35 and then did Tier III of the Rebels Basic Training Event. It was quite the challenge. I'm going to put my advice for the Tier III of the different Basic Training Events in a separate post.
I cleared the last node of Dark Side level 4 - high-level allies are awesome! - so I've cleared all the Normal nodes I can clear. As for Hard, I have Light 1&2 cleared as well as Dark 1&2. I'm working on Light 3.
Lando and Ezra are at Gear V, Hera is at Gear IV and Chopper is at Gear III. Here's the Physical Damage, Special Damage, Speed and Health of some of my heroes:
Lando - 438 / NA / 95 / 3881
Ezra - 436 / NA / 110 / 3118
Hera - 313 / NA / 108 / 3408
Talia - 293 / 475 / 92 / 3107
Luke - 294 / NA / 102 / 2636
Chewie - 306 / NA / 88 / 3992
Jedi Consular - 228 / 346 / 89 / 2462
T3-M4 - NA / 445 / 99 / 2658
Chopper - 202 / NA / 127 / 2528
I recorded a couple of battles with Lando as leader and no Ezra and no Talia:
* Lando crit'd 7 of 8 tries, averaging 1246 on those crits
* Hera averaged 442 on non-crits
* Luke averaged non-crit 378 with his first attack and non-crit 539 with his second
* Jedi Consular averaged non-crit 331 on his first attack and non-crit 405 with his second. He had far fewer attacks than the other heroes
* T3-M4 - Averaged non-crit 400 with its first attack
Jedi Consular is much worse than the others.
Recorded two more battles with Lando, Talia, Luke, T3-M4 and Chopper:
* In terms of speed, Chopper got extra attacks whereas everyone else just attacked in Speed order. Chopper got 14 attacks to Luke and Lando's 10
* Chopper averaged 224 on non-crits
* Talia averaged 405 on non-crits on her first attack
Level 36
I hit level 36 and did the Fleet Commander Training: Grand Moff Tarkin. That unlocked TIE Fighter Pilot, giving me a full team of Dark Side heroes. He's a good hero, will be a major part of my Empire Dark Side team and will also be one of my pilots when I unlock ships.
I did the first Empire Basic Training Event
Squad Arena
My team is Lando, Ezra, Hera, Luke and T3-M4. I defeated #2343, #1991, #1690, #1437 (very close) and #1220.
Should I spend 50 crystals for five more battles? While I was thinking of it, I hit level 37. If I won all my battles, I'd be around #542, which is one reward level better. Not using the crystals means I can do another Catina Energy refresh. Ultimately, I decide not to refresh the Squad Arena battles because it's late at night.
To level 39
I got Hera as geared as best I can and started on gearing Chopper. I got Ezra to 3* and switched to farming Hera shards.
I recorded another couple of battles. Chopper's basic attack damage is now higher than Luke's, 413 to 396. I then maxed his gear out for his level. Lando as leader makes the team better compared to Hera as leader, but it was closer than I thought it would be.
I can't gear up Phoenix heroes right now, so I'm going to gear up Dark Side heroes, starting with TIE Fighter Pilot. I don't have much of an income of crystals, so I can't do as many refreshes as I’d like.
My Squad Arena team is now Lando, Ezra, Hera, Chopper and T3-M4. I defeated #1220, #1036, #879, #746, #634, #537, #455, #385, #327 and #282. For the last battle, I could have fought #278 but I wasn't sure I'd win so I went for the safer battle.
I did Tier III of the Empire Basic Training Event and got shards.
I regret not spending the 50 crystals on getting more Squad Arena battles when I could have first done it. If I had done it, I would have enough Squad Arena tokens to unlock Kanan after the three Squad Arena battles today and then I could use all my Normal Energy gearing him. Then I'd be able to add him to my Squad Arena team in place of T3-M4. I'd make Hera the leader and I'd have a more powerful squad. Instead, I've farmed gear for Jedi Consular. I'll need his healing in Galactic War when it gets unlocked at level 40.
Status:
* Level 39
* 19 heroes
* Phoenix stars: Ezra 3, Hera and Chopper 2, Kanan 20 shards, Sabine 1 shard and nothing for Zeb
* Gear: Lando, Ezra, Hera and Chopper are at V; TIE Fighter Pilot, Talia and Royal Guard are at IV
* 1.76M credits
Day 1 - Started at #6186 , pushed to #6225 , defeated #5291, #4495, #3819, #3245 and #2758. Got the reward for #2758
Day 2 - Defeated #2343, #1991, #1690, #1437 (very close) and #1220. Got the reward for #1220
Day 3 - Defeated #1220, #1036, #879, #746, #634, #537, #455, #385, #327 and #282. Got the reward for #287
Day 4 - Defeated #244, #209, #182, #167 and #149. Got the reward for #177
Day 5 - Started at #345, defeated #294, #248, #211, #182 and #158. Got the reward for #158
Day 6 - Started at #158, defeated #133, #116, #105, #92 and #77. Got the reward for #93
Day 7 - Started at #150, defeated #129, #114, #100, #87 and #74. Got the reward for #86
Day 8 - Started at #121, lost to #105, defeated #106, #96, #86 and #77. Got the reward for #101
Day 9 - Started at #114, defeated #104 and #89, was spushed back to #105, deafeated #89, was spushed back to #105. lost to #89, defeated #90. Got the reward for #125
Day 10 - Started at #147, defeated #125, #106 and #90, lost badly to #80, defeated #86.
Day 11 - Started at #177, defeated #149, #127, #108, #92 and #76. Got the reward for #111
Day 12 - Started at #133, defeated #111, #92 and #79. had a draw with #76, defeated #76. Got the reward for #84
Day 13 - Started at #137, defeated #115, #98, #84, #72 and #64. Got the reward for #93
Tier III Rebels Basic Training Event
The big thing is to use Stun, Slow, Ability Block and Time removal to keep your opponents from doing anything. Things to keep in mind:
* You want to kill Thrawn, then Palpatine and then Vader. If the big 3 are dead, you've got things in hand
* TIE Pilot is not a threat so don't worry about him
* If Thrawn, Vader or Palpatine take a turn without Ability Block on them, battle is over
* If one of the two Stormtroopers gains Taunt, things get very difficult so you don't want them to take a turn unless they have Ability Block or Buff Immunity on them
* For R2D2, only use his first ability as it has an 80% chance to Stun
* Luke's first attack inflicts Speed Down and you want to have everyone but TIE Fighter Pilot with Speed Down eventually. If the opponent had Defense Down, Luke's first attack also stuns them. A twofer
* Luke's second attack removes 100% of the opponent's turn meter. You want to use it on the threat with the most turn meter
* Use Ben’s second ability whenever you can. If you can't use his second ability, use his first on whoever you're trying to kill. Only use Ben's third ability if you think it’ll prevent a hero from being killed
* If Leia can hide, do so. Otherwise, shoot however you're trying to kill
* Han's second ability stuns opponents. Use it first to stun the biggest threat
* Han's first ability removes Turn Meter from someone with at least 50% Turn Meter. Use it on opponents with at least 50% Turn Meter to keep them from doing anything
* Use Han's third ability whenever there isn't someone who needs to be stunned or slowed, and if you don't have the Critical Chance buff up
* My opening moves are: Han shoots Thrawn, stunning him; Leia hides; Luke uses his third ability and then uses his first ability on the first Stormtrooper; Ben uses his second ability; Han uses his second ability on Vader to stun him; R2D2 attacks Palpatine to stun him. If I don't get those three stuns, I restart
Tier III Empire Basic Training Event
* There isn't as much tactics this time. I basically don't want the Rebels to do what they did when I did the Rebel Basic Event training
* I want to kill Han quickly so he can't stun my heroes
* I'm going to ignore R2D2 as the AI doesn't use his basic attack very much
* I'm going to ignore Leia as she only deals damage
* I want to keep Old Ben from using his Mind Trick ability but I'd like to kill him second to last (before R2D2). TIE Fighter Pilot's second ability when Ben is highlighted applies Ability Block to him
* I want to remove Defense Down so Luke can't stun with his basic attack. I'd like to keep him from using his non-basic abilities
* My opening moves are: Vader's second ability, TIE Fighter Pilot's second ability on Old Ben, Thrawn's second ability on Han, Vader's third ability on Han, TIE Fighter Pilot shots Han, Palpatine's second ability
Tier III First Order Basic Training Event
* This one is about stunning and Turn Meter management
* Try to kill Rey first and then Finn
* Ignore BB-8 until the end
* First Order Stormtrooper's (FOS) first ability can apply Speed Down. Apply Speed Down liberally, particularly on Poe, Finn and Rey
* Captain Phasma's second ability grants allies 50% Turn Meter. Use when several allies are low on Turn Meter. His third ability has a 90% chance of applying Speed Down. Once all or most of the Resistance is slowed, the battle is fairly easy
* First Order TIE Pilot's (FOTP) second ability applies ability block if he has Advantage, which is useful for keeping Poe from Taunting
* Kylo Ren's third ability will Stun as long as he has full health. Stun early and often
* First Order Officer's (FOO) second ability allows you to activate an ally. Use that on Kylo Ren to Stun or FOTP to apply Ability Block. His third ability removes up to 50% Turn Meter. Use it to remove Turn Meter from the opponent with the most Turn Meter
* Opening moves: FOO use his second ability to activate FOTP. FOTP use his second ability on Poe. Kylo Ren use his third ability on Finn. CP use his second ability. FOS use his first ability on Rey. FOO uses his third ability on Rey. FOTP uses first ability on Rey. Kylo Ren use his second ability. CP use his third ability.
Tier III Resistance Basic Training Event
* It's all about removing Turn Meter and applying Slows and Stuns
* With BB8, you want to use his second ability initially to get it started spreading. After that, you want to use his first ability twice in a row on an enemy to Stun. When his third ability is available, it's a game winner
* Poe's second ability applies Buff Immunity, which you want to apply to the First Order Stormtroopers (FOS) to kept them from Taunting. Also, his second ability removes Turn Meter and applies Expose. Use it whenever you can
* Finn's third ability applies Expose and can Stun. You want to use it on enemies with the most Turn Meter
* Resistance Trooper (RT)'s second ability is awesome. You want to use it only on debuffed opponents. Apply enough Speed Down's and the enemies can't do anything
* You want to use Rey's third ability on an Exposed enemy
* Initial moves: BB8 use his second ability, Rey use her second ability on FOO, Poe use his second ability against first FOS (need to get several Expose), RT use his second ability on FOO (a Speed Down for me), Finn use third ability on second FOS, RT use his secnd ability on someone with a debuff (but not Speed Down)
Galactic War is unlocked! Yeah! This is a huge source of crystals and Ability Materials. Galactic War is like twelve Squad Arena battles in a row with the characters being the same at the start at the new battle as they were at the end of the previous battle. A full Phoenix team has no problems with Galactic War.
My advice for Galactic War is very similar to that for Squad Arena. Additional advice is:
* I do each battle manually as the AI won't set up properly for the next battle
* It's very important to be close to full health at the end of each battle
* When I have the other squad down to one hero, I usually use only my basic attacks and heals
* It's important to know what each opponent hero does. Before each battle, I check out the other squad and if I see a hero that I’m not familiar with, I’ll check them out before I start the battle
* If I've made some mistakes or the battle isn't going well, I’ll retreat and try again. Retreat is a choice from the menu when I click on the gear in the upper left
* If there's a team I can't defeat, I’ll send my second best set of heroes and have them do as much damage as possible. Then hopefully my main team can then win the battle
* Having Chewie be the last hero standing is usually a good thing as he'll frequently do Defiant Roar when he's all alone and it's his turn to attack. That gives my team more time to heal/reduce cooldown timers without taking damage
* The sixth battle is typically much harder than the preceding and following battles
I'm going with a team of Lando, Ezra, Hera, Chopper and Jedi Consular. Jedi Consular is to keep the team at full health. I made a mistake with this run. I should have fought a few easy battles, stopped and then waited until I unlocked Kanan and gained another level before continuing. Instead, I used my second best heroes to soften up the sixth battle and then continued to the 11th battle. The opponents there are all level 43 and Hera is down to one-third health. Now, I've stopped and waited. I'm going to take advantage of that I don't have to complete a Galactic War in 24 hours; in fact I can take 47 hours to complete it and still complete the next.
Squad arena: I'm seeing teams where the player obviously spent money; having characters like Darth Vader and Asaji Ventress. Consequently, I'm having to pick and choose fights. Even players at my level are more powerful then me. I defeated #244, #209, #182, #167 and #149.
When I got my Squad Arena award, I unlocked Kanan and geared him up to V, hitting level 41 as I did so. I used him instead of Jedi Consular and made Hera the leader, and was able to win the last two battles of Galactic War.
Tonight, I'll unlock Zeb and will have a full Phoenix team for my Squad Arena battles. I should be able to advance really well after that. I started acquiring gear for Zeb so I'll be able to take him to Gear V right away. I'm tempted to fight a SA battle now so that I can set my SA squad to Hera, Lando, Ezra, Kanan and Chopper. I've been pushed out to #346 with my current squad.
I did the initial First Order Basic Training Event and got some shards. I got Hera and Chopper to 3*.
I hit level 42, finished the the Fleet Commander Training: Grand Moff Tarkin event and unlocked Grand Moff Tarkin. He's going to be the leader of my Dark Side team for a very long time.
I unlocked Zeb, finished my GW run and then did SA. I started at #345, defeated #294, #248, #211, #182 and #158.
The joy of having made the right decision
At first glance, it'll be really hard for me to make the top 50 of Squad Arena. My team's power is 11,126 and the three possible matches I'm looking at all have a power of more than 14K. I'm level 42 and #50 is level 46 with a 5* Chewie, a 5* Talia, a 5* Darth Vader, a 5* Jedi Consular and a 4* Kylo Ren. But these teams have two problems - they have no synergy and they're not going to be able to keep up with my increases in stars. Because I use all four easy sources of shards (Cantina table, Cantina Battles Store, Squad Arena Store and Galactic War Store), I'll average 10-15 shards for each hero per day. Because my team will gain stars so quickly, I'll will eventually surpass non-Phoenix teams.
Level 43
I took Hera, Chopper and Zeb to Gear VI. In SA, I started at #158, defeated #133, #116, #105, #92 and #77. I promoted Kanan to 3*.
I've cleared all of the Hard Node so I'm going to start farming Hard nodes I've already cleared. The first such node is Dark Side 1-A for Sabine shards. I currently have one. I want Sabine as she'll be a crew member of the Phanton II, but it'll be at least level 64 before I unlock the Phantom II so there isn't a big rush.
I got Poggle the Lesser from a Bronzium Data Card. He's very weak for a 4* hero, but he's better than Snowtrooper, who gets bumped for my Dark Side team.
Level 44
I took Ezra and Kanan to Gear VI. All of the Phoenix team is now Gear VI. I promoted Zeb to 3*, so the whole squad is 3*.
I got Embo in an event, giving me a third Scoundrel of at least 3*. Yeah! He'll bump Royal Guard off of my Dark Side team once I get him some gear.
Did Light Side Stage 5 unlock this level or last level? I started clearing nodes on Stage 5 and quickly reached the point where I could only get a 3* win with the help of a high-level ally.
The importance of guild to gearing
Now that my Phoenix team is Gear VI, all of them have 4-5 gear slots that take at least 20 of the same gear to fill. If the only way you acquire those items is through grinding, then it will take a huge amount of grinding.
Upcoming gear needs:
Level 48 - 60 Mk 4 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage
Level 49 - 80 Mk 4 A/KT Stun Gun and 100 Mk 5 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage
Level 50 - 60 Mk 4 Arakyd Droid Caller Salvage
Level 51 - 40 Mk 4 CEC Fusion Furnance Prototype Salvage, 30 Mk 5 Nubian Security Scanner Prototype Salvage, 120 Mk 5 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage and 30 Mk 6 Loronar Power Cell Salvage
Level 52 - 60 Mk 6 BioTech Implant Prototype Salvage
Level 53 - 20 Mk 4 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage and 20 Mk 8 BlasTech Weapon Mod Prototype Salvage
Those are all purple gear. I think the gear I've been encountering before purple drops one out of every three battles. I'd guess that purple gear drops one out of every six battles. If you do the math, that's lots of battles.
To make gaining all the gear easier, I'm going to be utilizing all possible sources of gear. Challenges are a source, but until level 62 only Mk 4 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage from that list drop in Challenges. The two sources I'm going to discuss are Guild gear requests and the Guild Store. Every 24 hours, I can request gear from my guildies and for the foreseeable future, I'm going to be requesting something every day on the above list. The best items to ask for are the Mk 4 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage, the Mk 4 A/KT Stun Gun, the Mk 5 SoroSuub Keypad Salvage and the Mk 4 Arakyd Droid Caller Salvage as those are given in Challenges. Also, I'm going to buy items on that list from the Guild Store whenever I can.
Defeating Phoenix Teams
In today's SA battles, I mostly fought Phoenix squads similar to mine. Here's my advice to defeating them:
* I always start by attacking Hera and I almost always kill her first. I might kill someone else if they somehow get really low on health and I think I can kill them before Hera can use Backup Plan on them. I go after Hera first because I don't want to get close to killing someone and then have Hera cast Backup Plan on them
* My opponent has two heroes who put up Taunt - Chopper and Kanan. I have two ways of removing Taunt - Chopper's Metal Menance and Ezra' Flourish. Early one, I save those two attacks for Taunt removal
* Because Phoenix self heals and can provide protection to each other, it's about slowly grinding down each hero
* Once I kill Hera, I normally kill Chopper next and then Kanan. By doing that, I don't have to waste turns removing Taunt from Chopper and Kanan. If someone is really low on health, I'll try to capitalize on that but it rarely happens
* One thing I don't want to do is run out of time. If I get under two minutes left, I'll typically press AUTO as that attacks much faster than I can
Fleet Crew
When I hit level 45, I unlocked another fleet event and got the Geonosian Soldier and his ship. I'll eventually get one more ship, the Clone Sergeant's ARC-170. When I start fleet battles, I'll use four non-capital ships so one non-capital ship won't be used. Based on my experience with my prior run, I'm going to bench the Resistance X-Wing. I discovered the hard way that it's a terrible ship. The AI attacks it first and it frequently dies in the first round of shooting. Once it dies, I'm a ship down in the battle and am well on the way to losing. In the little testing I've done, when I use the Geonosian Soldier's ship instead of the Resistance X-Wing, the AI attacks the Jedi Consular's ship and that's lasts much longer.
Level 45
I got Ezra up to 4*. The lowest level of the unequipped gear for my Phoenix team is level 48, so I'm going to focus on gearing up my Dark Side team for the next couple of levels. Well, only Grand Moff Tarkin, TIE Fighter Pilot and Embo as they are the only Dark Side heroes with a future.
So far, I've been really short on green ability materials. I've been maxing the basic attack and unique ability of my Phoenix team members and haven't been able to upgrade much the other abilities. I've finally gotten all abilities up to level 2. Watch and Learn is at level 3. I think I'll stop upgrading there and save my ability materials for level 46 when I can upgrade basic attacks again.
SA: Just wow - the player at #94 is level 44 and has a 7* Darth Nihilus, a 7* Darth Sidious, a 6* Darth Maul, a 6* Count Dooku and a 5* Darth Vader. #64 is level 45 and has a 7* Bastila Shan, a 7* Lando, a 5* Darth Vader, a 5* Bobba Fett and a 5* Jedi Knight Anakin. No one in the top 50 have a 7* leader, but I'm guessing those two will be in the top 50 shortly.
Level 46
I've hit the point that I have excess green ability materials. Time to start upgrading the abilities of my Dark Side heroes.
I got Zeb to 4*.
Level 47
I got Chopper, Kanan and Hera to 4*, brining the whole team to 4*. It'll be a long time before I get another star.
Level 48
I'm getting pushed back hard recently in Squad Arena (Day 10 and 11) and that's not surprising. One reason is that there's very little difference between Phoenix teams at this point. We all have basically the same number of stars and the same gear. I can beat almost any level 48 Phoenix team and almost any level 48 Phoenix team can beat me. The other reason I’m getting pushed back so much is that I'm getting close to level 50 and at level 50 mods are unlocked. Mods provide quite a boost to heroes. So players who are level 50 and had a so-so squad at level 49 suddenly have a squad better than those under level 50.
Level 49
I fought a Nightsisters team in Squad Arena.
Advice for defeating Nightsister teams
* I fought a team of Mother Talzin, Old Daka, Asaji Ventruss, Nightsister Acolyte and Nightsister Zombie
* I always kill Old Daka first as she has an ability to revive defeated Nightsisters
* I next kill Mother Talzin as she does so much damage
* After that, I attack Nightsister Acolyte whenever she isn't stealthed
* When it's down to Nightsister Acolyte and Nightsister Zombie, I hit AUTO until Nightsister Acolyte loses stealth and then I hit her with everything I can. If she goes stealth again, I hit AUTO again
Status:
* Level 49
* 26 heroes
* Phoenix stars: Chopper, Ezra, Hera, Kanan and Zeb are all 4*. Sabine 12 shards
* Gear: Phoenix team plus TIE Fighter Pilot are at Gear VI; Grand Moff Tarkin and Lando are at V; Embo, Jedi Consular, Talia, Clone Sergeant and Royal Guard are at IV
* 4M+ credits
Level 50 unlocks mods. Before I discuss mods, I want to talk about the increase in credits for leveling. Here's the cost to go one level:
9 -> 10: 1,065
19 -> 20: 2,130
29 -> 30: 2,982
39 -> 40: 17,040
49 -> 50: 46,221
Taking a Light Side and a Dark Side squad from level 49 to level 50 takes almost 500K of credits. It's really important from now on to only level up heroes that I need to level up.
Mods
Mods are a terrible game feature because (1) it's very confusing and complex, (2) it's a great way for whales to insanely boost their heroes and (3) you don't know how good a mod is until you upgrade it to level 12.
Mods are something you equip to improve your character. You can only equip six mods and you can only have one mod of each shape. The shapes are square, diamond, circle, arrow, triangle and cross. There are two different attributes to determine mod quality - their initial color and the number of dots. The initial colors in order of improving quality are: white, green, blue, purple, gold. White 1-dot mods are the worst quality mod and gold 5-dot mods are the best quality mods.
Some guides:
Warrior Presents' BEST MOD GUIDE video
Grraahhggh's Massive Mods Guide
MobileGamer's MOD Guide Revised - Speed Secondaries video
BritishBambi's Beginners Guide To Mods video
Gaming-Fans.com Mod suggestions for many heroes
Crouching Rancor's Mod Advisor Tool (You have to enter your ally code to use the tool)
There's three parts to mods: acquiring them, upgrading them and then equipping them.
Acquiring mods
The first place you'll acquire mods is the Mod Battles holotable. On the first stage, you get 1-dot or 2-dot white mods. That's basically the worst and second worst quality mods in the game. On the eighth stage, you get 1-dot or 2-dot white mods. After completing stage 3, you unlock three Mod Challenges. The only point in battling on the Mod Battles holotable is to unlock Mod Challenges.
The second place you'll acquire mods is Mod Challenges. The Mod Challenges and the type of heroes required to perform it:
All - Health
Jedi - Defense
Jawas - Critical Damage
Scoundrels - Critical Chance (Must complete Stage 4 Mod Battles first)
Rebels - Tenacity (Must complete Stage 5 Mod Battles first)
First Order - Offense (Must complete Stage 6 Mod Battles first)
Empire - Potency (Must complete Stage 7 Mod Battles first)
Resistance - Speed (Must complete Stage 8 Mod Battles first)
Each Mod Challenge has three tiers and has five stages:
Tier I - Gives 1-dot, 2-dot and 3-dot mods, oppenents are level 65
Tier II - Gives 2-dot, 3-dot and 4-dot mods, oppenents are level 70
Tier III - Gives 3-dot, 4-dot and 5-dot mods, oppenents are level 75
I was able to clear Tier III of the All challenge with little difficulty in my prior run with a level 58 Phoenix team. The first time I cleared a Mod Challenge, I got two White mods of the highest possible dots. After that, I got a random mix of colors and dot levels. I've found nothing on drop rates for colors or number of dots for a Mod Challenge.
The third place to acquire mods is from the Mod Store. The great thing about the Mod Store is that you see what you're going to buy. The two bad things about the Mod Store is how rarely good mods show up and how expensive they are. The Mod Store is why I'd love to have 50M credits at level 50.
The fourth place to acquire mods is events which happen randomly. I've got ten 5-dot Blue mods and six 3-dot Blue mods from prior events.
Upgrading Mods
Mods are like yearling race horses. You can look at their bloodlines to guess which one will turn out best, but it's only until you've spent a lot of money training it do you know how good they actually are. You don't see all of the Secondary Stats of a Mod until level 12. Upgrading every Mod up to level 12 costs a prohibitive amount of credits.
I'm not going to go into how Mods change as they upgrade as it would be too long. See BritishBambi's Beginners Guide To Mods video. From what I've heard, the color changing will stop in Mods 2.0
Unless you have lots of credits, you want to stop upgrading your mods at level 12. Up to level 12, the Primary Stat gets upgraded and a Secondary Stat gets added or upgraded. At level 15, only the Primary Stat gets upgraded. The credit cost to upgrade the different dot count of mods to levels 12 & 15 are:
1 - 5.8K & 13.4K
2 - 12.3K & 28.8K
3 - 27.6K & 73.2K
4 - 47.7K & 128.7K
5 - 86.2K & 248.4K
Equipping Mods
You want to equip the mods that best suit the role of your hero. I looked at the Gaming-Fans.com Mod suggestions. Their list is probably awesome, but (1) I think it probably applies to 5-dot mods and (2) the recommendations are probably going to change radically once Mods 2.0 drops.
So, I'm going to go by a few simple guidelines initially:
* Speed is the most important attribute for all my heroes except for maybe Kanan. Ezra should have first dibs for Speed and Hera second
* Arrow mods with a Speed primary are much, much more desirable than any other type of Arrow mods (none of my initial Arrow mods have a Speed primary)
* Health and Protection are good for all characters, though Kanan should have first dibs on these and Chopper second
* For now, ignore % Protection as it doesn't kick in until Gear VII
* Chopper's other important attributes: Defense, Tenacity
* Ezra's other important attributes: Offense, Critical Chance and Critical Damage
* Hera's other important attributes: Potency and Offense with Tenacity and Defense as nice-to-have's
* Kanan - MAX HIS PROTECTION. other important attributes: Defense and Tenacity
* Zeb's other important attributes: Potency
Set bonuses
Each mod has a type and a set of each type gives the hero a bonus. Initially, all my mods are Health mods and for every pair of Health mods, that hero gets a bonus to his health (the amount of the bonus will change with Mods 2.0).
This may change after Mods 2.0, but for now long-term here are the number of each type of mod I'd like for my heroes:
Chopper: 4 Health and 2 Defense (Triangle and Circle)
Ezra: 4 Offense and 2 Critical Chance (Triangle and Circle)
Hera: 6 Health
Kanan: 4 Defense and 2 Health (Triangle and Plus)
Zeb: 4 Health and 2 Potency (Diamond and Triangle)
Rules for buying from the Mod Store:
* Top priority is an Arrow mod with a Speed primary for all characters except Kanan
* Next priority is a Critical Chance triangle mod with Critical Damage primary for Ezra
* Buy only mods that fit the type of sets I want long-term for my heroes
* Buy only mods with at least a 4 Speed secondary (unless it's an Arrow mod with a Speed primary)
* Have at least 1 million in credits after the purchase. I don't want to be unable to upgrade a hero because I bought a mod when I shouldn't have
First steps with Mods
To unlock mods, I trained a hero to level 50, which unlocks the Mod Battles. Mod battles have five stages instead of the normal three because...well because. Don't make the same mistake I did on my first Mod battle and not change the default order of heroes - I didn't have Hera as leader and lost the share of unique abilities. Once I won my first Mod battle, mods themselves were unlocked.
Next, I went to the Mod store to see if there were any mods I wanted to buy. It's pretty rare that there is one, but I was lucky today - there was a 5-dot blue Offense diamond mod with a 5 Speed secondary. That set me back 2.93M credits.
I want enough mods to have a complete set for each Phoenix team member. After clearing Stage 1 of the Battles holotable, I had four of the pluses and at least five of the rest. I did another 1-F to have a full set for everyone.
Now, it's time to upgrade my mods. First off, I upgraded all my 1-dot and 2 dot mods to level 12 and my 3-dot mods to level 9. I then upgraded my 5-dot mods with a Speed secondary of at least 4 to level 12 (I have three, including the one I bought).
Lastly, I assign my mods. One mistake I see a lot is players who put everything on Ezra and put poor mods on the rest of their heroes. I'm particularly happy when I see Hera with little in the way of mods as she's the first hero I try to kill. Kanan has first priority for mods that give either absolute amount of protection. I assign the mods in the following order: Ezra, Kanan, Chopper, Hera, Zeb. My two leftover mods I gave to Grand Moff Tarkin.
My plans for mods for the future
The most important thing to understand about mods is that most of them suck. Spending a lot of resources to acquire new mods has a very low return on investment. I personally prefer the sure return of spending Cantina energy to get hero shards to the gamble that after spending a huge amount of resources I might get some good mods. Consequently, I'm not going to be getting a lot of new mods.
If I've got at least 2.25M credits, I'll peruse the Mod Store. If there's a good mod I can afford, I'll buy it. If I get some mods from an event, I'll do what I did above (upgrade 3-dot to level 9, upgrade 5-dot mods to level 12 if they have a Speed secondary of at least 4) and assign them. But I should rarely get a new mod.
When my heroes hit Gear VII and get protection, I'll change around my mods to take advantage of % Protection. That should be the only time I do wholesale mod reassignment.
Level 50
I think Dark Side Stage 5 was unlocked last level, but I didn't clear any of the nodes. Now, I need to reach Dark Side 5-K to farm Mk 4 Arakyd Droid Caller Salvage. I can win the fights on Stage 5 if I have an ally with the power of at least 4K, but I don't have many of those. So I'm waiting and waiting for the ones I have to become available.
I have 79 Darth Vader shards. To get #80, I have to activate one more hero or promote two more heroes. Not sure which while happen first.
I got Zeb to 5* and then did my Squad Arena run for Day 13.
Buying shards in the Guild Store
My guild Orphans to the core regularly runs raids that I can participate in, which means I get a steady amount of Guild Tokens. My first priority for Guild Tokens is to buy gear, but often the gear choices aren’t helpful to my Phoenix team. Consequently, I’ve steadily built up Guild Tokens. When I have more than 900 Guild Tokens, I look at buying hero shards. There are only three heroes I’ll buy shards for in the Guild Store - Resistance Trooper (top priority), Finn and Poe. Those three will be the heart of the team that will eventually replace my Phoenix team.
Side note: In my last run, I got several side quests that had Guild Tokens as a reward. I've got none so far this run. I don't know if I've been unlucky now and lucky before or if there was a major change in the rewards for guild side quests.
Unlocked Darth Vader
I got Ima-Gun Di from a Bronzium Data Card. That gave me my 17th Light Side Character, which gave me two more Darth Vader shards. With 81 shards, I was able to activiate Darth Vader. I immediately trained him up to level 50 and geared him. That makes my Dark Side team Grand Moff Tarkin, TIE Fighter Pilot, Royal Guard, Darth Vader and Embo.
The current event is Corsucant, the second tier of which requires three Empire heroes with at least three stars. Darth Vader gives me my third such hero, joining Grand Moff Tarkin and TIE Fighter Pilot.
(To be updated. In before Mod 2.0)
Man, you have a lot of time in your day! :
About why payout is always at 5am: your payout correlates to your time zone. You have your time zone set up so it thinks 6/7pm (depending on DST) is at 5am your time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SWGalaxyOfHeroes/comments/45r5nd/time_zones_and_arena_payouts_guide_to_optimizing/
Everywhere I check says its a guaranteed full character with the first 350 crystal buy, but I keep getting shards. I've tried bluestacks with tweaker to change ID. I've tried ko player as you did, etc. I tried getting to 5 and using the facebook +200 and instantly opening probably 10 different ways. I've tried getting to 12+ then using the +200 from hitting 9.
ETC. I'm sure you get the point.
It gives me 10-15 shards of a random character EVERY time.
Any advice? Something obvious I'm missing?