I know there are a few f2p guides out there, but they get outdated and I have seen questions in forum from players who farmed Sid because of those. New meta shifts and events force to evaluate if they are worth changing the basic f2p strategy, and I will try to keep this guide up to date.
First off, I know there are several f2p meta, mostly droids, rebels and now even Rex/Sun Fac. But I recommend the Wedge/Biggs path because it's the fastest and as f2p you need to stay at top Arena ranks for the crystals and must be able to beat Credit Heist at all tiers immediately as you reach the respective levels.
This guide is proven successful when I started end of September. The account is level 77 now (two months later), mostly rank 1 at payout. Arena team is all at 7*, gear 9, level 77 and max abilities and reasonably good mods. Of course with changing meta etc. no repeat success is guaranteed but for now I'm pretty sure it still works very well.
Here's the steps you have to take in easy numbers:
1) Farm GS and Lando in Cantina, always two refreshes.
2) Farm QGJ in Cantina store
3) Farm STH in Arena store
4) Farm Phasma in GW store
This leads to a very easy to maintain Arena team of Phasma (L), GS, Lando, STH, QGJ. Always keep level, abilities and most important gear to maximum!
5) Farm Rey and Ewok Elder in Guild store
6) Farm IG-88 in Arena store after STH
7) Farm Chewie in Cantina to 5* after Lando and GS are at 7*
8) Farm Boba Fett from Cantina store
9) Farm Biggs from GW store after Phasma is at 7*
10) Farm Anakin and Rey from hard nodes
This gives you a Credit Heist team of Lando, STH, Boba, IG-88, Chewie which is good enough to beat it (just have Lando and STH on max, they are the stars). Ewok Elder is a slow farm, but worth it for Galactic War and Rancor raid.
11) You will have time until level 69, now finish mod nodes and farm 5 dot health mods to improve main chars
12) At level 69 farm Wedge from Cantina and gear Wedge and Biggs up as fast as possible
You may suffer a bit in Arena and fight for top 5 or even top 10 while doing this. When Wedge, Biggs, Rey are strong enough (priority on Wedge and Biggs) you can use them in Arena team, like Wegde, Biggs, Lando, STH/GSRey/QGJ depending on matchups. Wedge, Biggs and Lando are the core of the team.
At level 76 you probably can omega Wedge, Biggs and QGJ basic ability, at level 78 omega Lando, Wedge and Biggs second ability as much as you can get omegas already. Put speed mods on Biggs so he shoots first, then you can OHKO a key character of the opponent. With everyone at about level 76, gear 9 you should now find it very easy to stay top 5 in Arena and compete for top spots with the whales.
13) At level 77 farm Anakin from Cantina and gear him
This gives you the current f2p meta of Wedge, Biggs, Lando, STH, Anakin. Have fun! Until Anakin is ready for action, or even then, you should level and gear up Boba, he fits everywhere after his recent rework.
14) Farm Ackbar from Arena store
15) Farm Teebo from GW store
16) If you want to be competitive in Fleet Arena (and you will find this quite easy with GS, Wiggs and Boba who also are strong pilots by now, I was top 5 instantly) farm Resistance pilot from GW store, JC from hard nodes, Poe or Ahsoka from Cantina store and TFP from Cantina before starting with Anakin
Notes:
1) Don't hesitate to farm gear! Even if this means simming nodes for two days until the 50 stun cuffs are complete! Gear is simply the most important factor to make your team stronger.
2) Look out for a guild which does T7 raids and needs contributors for 600 daily tickets. Get GS or Lando to 7* as fast as possible and enjoy the T7 raid gear. With the above initial arena team (which are all 7* rather fast) I very soon wasn't even last, but placed in top 30 for raid, this team is amazingly strong very fast. It gets only a lot better with Wiggs.
3) Don't spend crystals on cards, only energy refreshes. This brings gear, cantina shards and levels you up faster. The mod pack cards which appear sometimes are an excellent buy though. I went the dolphin route to buy a few of these, they have loads of V-A and V-B mods which translate into huge secondary stats.
4) After the steps above you can farm whatever you like. I am going a resistance route for speed mod challenge and in case Millenium Falcon becomes available, but it's really your personal taste. Just never miss to level and gear your arena team to the max. You might even go for a healer, I didn't need one yet, also not for GW - I haven't even started on Lumi yet (Ackbar trap against Vader and self heals from Lando and STH does the trick).
5) It's good to cooperate with other top Arena players in a line group, making things a lot easier. Try to track them down in forum or via their guild leaders.
6) It's actually the first step actually, but probably too late for players interested in this guide, but still. Set your device to a not so popular time zone when you start playing SWGOH to avoid payout competition. I choose Baku and am the only one with this timezone at Arena payout. Also getting a few hours ahead allows you start the "new day" in the evening which allows you an early start in the day if you wish, I like it a lot this way.
7) Last but not least, never miss out on free energy and low cost shipments, give and take guild exchange liberally, and never let your energies stay on max.
May the force be with you.
Replies
GS for me is now a big mistake to farm if you're going for rebels. Choose between him and lando, don't do both, at least not at the start.
QGJ is the past, Boba Fett will be new meta as he ignores taunts and absolutely destroys buffed enemies.
I don't recommend spending guild currency on characters, equipment is way too useful, unless you got any of the characters you mention on a data card and it will really help you stay competitive at ALL times.
STH is the best arena char, no argument there.
For galactic war I feel there are still choices. If you need more healing you can go Lumi, if you need single target damage you can go Biggs, otherway Phasma is the best choice. I'm not sure, but Greedo may have a future with the new Boba fett.
Chewbacca just seems like a huge waste of time for me, STH, Royal Guard and Sun Fac are just better.
Still, mine is just another point of view.
For my latest account I got the free Wedge and the team i'm pursuing is: Wedge (L), Lando, STH, Boba, Biggs. Currently ranking #2 on arena because the #1 spent over $300 and has all chars at 6-7 stars since day 2 of the server.
I would definitely go with Boba over QuiGon because it will be a much faster farm. *daily log in plus hard nodes).
Agree with the rest.
Hi, I am a new player (4 days now, lvl 34 now) and have received a 4* Wedge on iOS.
Can't tell if it was anniversary gift or other present, though.
So I farm now for Boba Fett, Biggs, Lando, STH, Rey, Royal Guard.
Just a small "trick": If you as a new player enter a guild with high lvl players and add them as friends, their lvl 80 chars will be available to support. This helps me to farm Biggs right now, altough I couldn't win the fight with my lvl 33 chars yet on my own.
Plus, Boba is so hard to gear on top of Wedge and Biggs, while QGJ is easy to gear. QGJ needs 310 purple to get to gear 11 with 3 raid gears, this is 10 purple less then Wedge need just to go from gear 8 to gear 9! Boba needs 1210 purple until gear 11 with 6 raid gear, this is just no comparison. Especially since a new f2p player has his hands full to gear Wedge (1300 purple/gold to gear 11) and Biggs (1070 purple).
Getting your team up to max (necessary for arena) without paying for gear is next to impossible. QGJ just is the ideal mix of strong initial toon and easy gear, making him the best starter character, just like Geonosian Soldier who also needs just 480 purple/gold gear until gear 11 (270 purple until gear 10).
I have both Qui Gon and Boba and Qui Gon has kept gearing up even though he's not my focus because his gear requirements are much easier.
Boba's execute is also a dispell. The character is just a much stronger toon in arena than Qui Gon and doesn't need Bounty Hunter Synergy. If anything it's Qui Gon who looks to be a synergy toon once Zeta'd with other Jedi.
I think both Qui Gon and Geo Soldier are looking a little dated at the moment, though Qui Gons Zeta is impressive and he's very useful in both raids. He's clearly at least the second best though and I think it's a very close call.
Boba is a more viable late game arena character, is dark side (whereas QuiGon will likely end up your 6th best light side character) , a scoundrel and you get 30 free log in shards and hard modes. Will hit 7 stars much faster. He also has a ship and is great for galactic war (doesn't need healing).
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/78864/since-boba-rework-who-is-most-useful-in-cantina-shipments#latest
I think people may be biased because most people have played with Qui Gon but not the redone Boba but it seems safer to say farm Qui Gon first.
Perhaps revisit it in a month.
Also, in Cantina shipments, QGJ or Boba?
My plan is to use Lando, STHan, my actual 4* Biggs and two more characters this first weeks in the arena.
Any ideas?
I will set pay out to 8.00pm my time which help me a lot.
My Alt. account run Ackbar(Lead), StHan,Lando,RG,QGJ which now level62 at rank2 as rank1 is so whale,power is higher than me 2,500
Ackbar Lead help to use Double down on Lando 2 times continuously which great damage.
Rey, I prefer to trade gear on Guild currency than Rey.
Boba instead of QGJ is still not sure whether better?
Anyway, Great guide.
Now I am level 78 with the account this guide is based on and following this guide you will have QGJ close to gear 11 (he is that easy to gear, only missing gear is already crafted, but needs level 80) and Wiggs, Lando, STH at gear 9 and needing about 10 Mk 6 Hypos (Boba needs 3 Hypo to get to gear 9...) which really is the limit at this stage, besides credits (if you really concentrate on Arena and CH team and ignore pilots, credits aren't much of a problem actually. It's the luxury of getting Rank 1 really every day now with which you can play around a lot as FTP too. But even with concentrating on one team the progress would stall at the dämn Mk 6 Hypos.
Back to the topic, even Phasma gets dropped at level 75 when Wiggs is ready in my guide. Since you already have Wiggs, you really must farm Biggs in GW store, no question. Put together a quick team with Wedge, Biggs, Lando, QGJ, STH, concentrate on this team every which way and a top Arena rank is sure. You can farm Phasma or Teebo (if you need a strong raid squad) or save GW token for ships later, but leave Lumi alone.
No, time zone is totally fixed, you can only start a new account with your device set to an unpopular time zone. But be careful, three hours east of east coast in Atlantic can be surprisingly popular as I learned as other players had the same idea. Also the Atlantic ocean was west from me which was no good idea anyway. I made another new account with Baku time zone which is unchallenged at payout (India is apparently not bad as well) and the "new day" starts 3 hours earlier which also is nice in the evening.
I agree Ackbar is great, but you need to farm STH in Arena store which is important for the meta team I suggest. Farming both is good, but I suggest to start with STH, then IG-88, then Ackbar.
Rey is actually good for GW, and in a strong guild the Guild store is not needed. But if you need the gear, farm this, I have no problem with this.
QGJ is better for the start, with Boba you get into the trap that all main characters need the same gear and you can't make progress. QGJ and GS help a lot to diversify gear. QGJ is very useful fast which is important as f2p.
Forget Phasma. Since you have wedge, you should be farming Biggs from Galactic War.
I am arena rank 15 currently, also because I made some mistakes with changing guild. Therefore missed a lot of mats. My arena team is
Wedge (L), Lando (5stars now), Biggs, STH, Boba.
Just some hints for noobs I had not found in this guide:
- you get 120 Energy for 50 crystals twice every 24 hours. That's a must in my eyes.
- other crystals go to cantina, until you have farmed Lando and QGJ (or Boba in my case), i.e. activated this char.
- if you start in arena low rank (I started 6000), you might want to spent 50 crystals for another 5 fights a day. this will pay off soon.
(- other crystals depend on where needed, normal or cantina energy or maybe additional arena fights)
- the offers at shops are reset multiple times a day (6 hours), so if you earned like 800 or 1200 currency, visit the shop multiple times a day. In GW (galactic war), you get 15 shards of Biggs a day like this.
- wondered why some heroes are cheaper to farm? That means you get it with lower than 4 stars. E.G. I farmed Biggs for 20 shards, but now I have to pay 65 shards for the fifth star like other chars too.
- If you decide to change your guild, you will be blocked from requesting ressources for 24h.
- if you change your guild too often (I think 2 times) you can't join a new one for a time (I think it was 48h).
- guild currency on Rey? I don't think I have the mats for another char. I will spent it on mats therefore.
so if you can be at rank 1-100 in day 1 easily if you know that.
That will save many crystal to get in top rank, I did that and get rank1 in day2 , and rank 3 in day1
Actually I can get rank 1 but run out of time before beat rank1
Anyway, if whale pay a lot you may not can beat him to get rank1 for long term but top 5 is easy.
And it gets worse: I got AA in my chromium - why is the game forcing me to play rebels again? ^^
Droids certainly are possible. It's just not a good setup to start the game, probably even not for p2p. Two key toons are in the arena store, and Jawa Engineer is a long farm.
Thanks for your input anyway, I appreciate it!
Also, sometimes I can fully finish gw, but sometimes if I lose Talia and Jedi counselor I can't finish. Any tips here? Good squad comps while I'm still farming my arena team?
Thanks for any help!
Oh also I have gear on all my arena team as high as I can right now, should I gear gs for when I use him later? Or focus on a gw team? Or try to get gear for the arena team for when they hit the next level?
GW shouldn't depend on Talia or JC, but at your level they might be necessary. Should become better once your characters have protection. Ackbar is also great at this level, because he can convert Sid/Vader debuffs into health.
With gear I would gear up GS, trying to get gear for next level is hard because a lot of needed nodes aren't open yet.
Edit:
All the others go to full mod when 50. Maybe interesting for you:
The Mod Challenges give you the chance for higher value health mods. I could easily clear the first mod challenge with 3 stars so I can sim it. So maybe dont level your 1star health mods to 15, but wait for the 3 star health mods.
The process of putting all mods to level15 cost me about 1,8 mio credits, and I invested 200 crystals in cantina energy to stay in top 20 today...