I know there are already many good beginner guides here but the thing that makes this guide different is the fact that my main focus point is the beginning of the game (levels 1-7).
Let's start with the basics:
A good start is really important, especially for Free-To-Play players, because without an early advantage you will get destroyed by big spenders. If you follow this guide properly, you will start your game with a solid 4 star hero and enough energy to reach level 30 on day one. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And the best part is you don't have to spend a single cent. You just need patience. Lots of it. This guide is divided into 3 phases, so let's start with phase 1: First Chromium Pull
Phase 1: First Chromium Pull
If you didn't know already, the first chromium pack you buy is almost always a full hero. We, of course, want to take advantage of this, so what you want to do in the beginning is to collect 350 crystals and then buy a single chromium pack. If the hero you receive is a bad one(only 2 stars or less), I suggest you re-roll and start a new account. I personally would continue rerolling until you get a good 4 star hero because it will help you tremendously. This might take a while (for me it takes usually 10 rerolls or so) but I guarantee that it is worth it.
When collecting crystals, just make sure your player level stays under 8. I repeat, DO NOT REACH LEVEL 8. I will explain why in the next section. The easiest way to collect 350 crystals and stay under level 8 is to finish normal missions 1 & 2 and Hard mode 1. Then collect the crystals from the achievements and do one or two daily missions. That should get you 350 crystals.
Now let's move on to phase 2.
Phase 2: Hoarding
If you followed phase 1 instructions correctly you should now have a good 4 star hero and your player level is under 8. Now I will explain why it is vital that you are not level 8. When you reach level 8, the game will automatically put you in an arena shard with all the other level 8 players. We do not want that to happen just yet because we need more time to prepare.
By preparation, I mean hoarding energy and items. You get free energy 3 times a day for a total of 135 points, so I suggest you hoard energy for at least 10 days. If you collect the free energy every day for 10 days, you will get a total of 1350 points and that is enough to reach level 30 in one day. In addition to energy, you can also hoard item shipments, free bronzium packs (you get 5 free ones every day) and daily login bonuses. I suggest you get them all in order to receive a big advantage.
After you finish your preparation, it's time to move on to the last phase.
Phase 3: Arena Here We Come!
You are almost done! If you completed phases 1 & 2, you should now have a 4 star hero, enough energy to reach level 30 in one day and dozens of useful items from free bronziums and from login bonuses. Now we just need to make sure that the arena shard you join is new and not a day old. Each arena shard consists of 20 000 players and they usually fill up in a couple days so in the best scenario you join the arena shard right after it is created and get to be in the top 100 right away. If you manage to do that you will save up a lot of crystals and get those sweet arena rank prizes straight away. You can quickly check whether the arena shard is new or old by creating a new account and leveling it to level 8.
I hope this guide was helpful for people who are planning to start a fresh account. This strategy definitely helped me to dominate my arena shard as a 100% Free-to-Play player and made the game much more enjoyable. If you have any questions, ask away!
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You cannot start another game on the same Google Play account, but you can create multiple Google Play accounts on the same device as well as a Guest account on your device.
To the OP, great tips, but would to add on another tip which should be number 1 as it would affect your account forever.
Pick a proper timezone at the time of account creation so that free energy payout and arena payout timing is all favorable. For example, if you set your timezone 4 hours earlier, your arena payout will be 2pm instead of 6pm, so you can fight for a better arena payout during lunch hour, rather than start hiding in the office toilet from 5pm onwards. It is also possible to pick a payout timing that may not be as populated and thus avoid stiff competition during payout hour.
No worries on this last query... I managed to get Rey on my 3rd attempt 8D So now begins Phase 2.
When I get to Phase 3, and I create another account to see if the arena shard is new, what am I looking for exactly? Ie. how can I tell if it's new or old? And if it's "old", how long do I wait before I jump in with my new legit account? Thanks for the help!
If you're on Android emulator, you can keep changing device ID and rolling Guest accounts until you find one you like before binding it.
Rey isn't that great for a first chromium, highly recommend Lando or even ST Han.
Shards fill up to 20,000 and take about 2 days. If you join in the 10,000s obviously that is bad. If you join within the first 1,000, that should be new enough. Best case scenario of course would be in the early 100s.
Thanks for the advice, Huatimus! I'm on iOS, so I'm just going to stick with Rey... who knows how long (and how many acct's) it'll take me to land a better one like Lando.
This is all new to me, so I'm still a bit lost - please bear with my newb-ness... Where am I looking for what position I am in the shard? And say I'm at like 15,000... how long do I wait to make the plunge with my real acct, hoping for the early hundreds?
Why isn't Rey great for a first Chromium? She is very useful for people who are new to the game. I still even have her in my Arena squad.
Slow farm via guilds and hard nodes.
Crew member but ship is locked behind huge pay wall.
Doesn't help towards some of the more important events such as Credit Heists and Palpatine.(Compared to Lando and ST Han)
If you had gotten Lando as your first Chromium, you'll be able to 7* him very early and start hitting heroic Rancor. Then you can slowly use your points to farm for Rey if you like her that much.
No one uses Lando in Arena anymore because of ShT and Barriss Zeta. He is also too slow and doesn't have a ship unlike Rey. He can still be useful in events and other game modes though.
Shoretrooper tournaments are over. Zeta is for when you're 80s. And like you said, Lando is useful for events and other game modes.
I agree. In my arena (lvl 69 ftp) still Lando is omnipresent. If I look at my top30, half of the teams use Lando as a lead, the other half Wedge. Here and there an Ackbar or an EP. Only the teams with Chaze skip Lando instead.
I'm still unclear about how to find out what the shard number is at - is it in the Squad Arena when I enter it the first time? Or is that number indicated somewhere else?
Is he usable in late and is it worth keeping him and start hoarding?
Yes, it is the position you are at when you enter the Squad Arena for the first time.
Why not farm both then? Both are pretty useful for both PvP and PvE.
However, it's still wise to farm Rey because once Episode 8 comes out, Resistance will be buffed and reworked and it will be the new meta in the game. Of course, it will take 10-11 months if it happens. Farming Lando would be great because he can help your team progress as you level up. And yes, farming Lando is better than farming Rey but it's still not that bad to farm her.
And now knowing that I eventually want to farm Critical Damage mods, which require Jawas to unlock, I kind of wish I had started farming JE right from the start instead of Rey.
By "JE" do you mean Jyn Erso or Jawa Engineer? Is there a place to farm shards for either one of them?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Brilliant guide!
Second, how exactly do you turn all the energy into XP? Do you use SIM tickets? If so, where do you get them? Or do you progress through the Light side battles?
If I had to choose between the 3 only, I'd go for Rey. OB is not that great, Mace will be given free as a fleet commander and Rey is a good DPS that's a long farm.
Auto missions 1-c and 1-d a lot. A lot of gear from those missions will be used.