New Player Orientation

Welcome to Clash of the Dragons!
So you've started playing and now you have some questions. Well, the wiki is your friend and will endeavor to assist you. If you have additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and they may make their way onto this page.
== Common Questions == 
=== What do I spend my Platinum on? ===
In general, your best use for Platinum is on the current Battle Pack. At time of writing that is for the Tides and Time (set). It costs 5000 Platinum and has a chance to include a Rare, Epic, or even Legendary card!
=== What should I be doing? ===
Having fun!
If you are just starting out, then you would be best served by playing in Zone 20 - High Tide on Normal Mode. Once you have beaten all the nodes, reset the zone and play it again, or try another of the current Standard Zones. Doing so will help you to attain more cards (which drop from various nodes in that zone), along with more Platinum (to buy more packs), and level up (to attain more Skill Points). As your deck matures, try Hard mode and eventually Nightmare.
Along with playing in Normal Mode, you should also be brawling, though you will want to stick to the Standard brawls.
=== What do I use essence for? ===
Essence is used to craft a random card of a specific rarity. The current costs are:
# Common - 100
# Uncommon - 200
# Rare - 500
# Epic - 2500
# Legendary - 10000
Only cards that can be acquired from packs in the Standard set are craftable. This means that cards from the Bag of Luck are not craftable by redeeming your essence.
=== Where do I get essence? ===
# Essence can drop from Quest and Brawl fights. 
# Trading in your excess Skill Points at a 3 Essence per 1 Skill Point ratio, however you should max your character skills before doing this. 
# Redeeming excess copies of cards in the Standard set. Any cards over a playset will be redeemed for essence at 1/10 the value to buy a card of that rarity (e.g. 10 for Common, 250 for Epic).
# Certain sale items
== Legacy vs Standard ==
Put simply, Legacy refers to content (both Story Volumes and Cards) that were created before the reboot. In terms of zones, this would be Echoes (Zone 1) through Blood of Heroes (Zone 16). 
In terms of card sets, this would be First Clash through Tribes. 
The Standard set is designed to be a rotating pair of sets. Post Reboot that was the previously released Tribes and newly released Civil War. Tribes has since rotated out. At this point Civil War and Tides and Time are standard.
== Reboot ==
What is this Reboot of which you speak?
For a good overview of what changed, head over to the forum post: Reboot Overview for information from The Rider - Community Manager for Clash of the Dragons
=== Old players coming back ===
I used to play, but took a break. Why can't I play anymore?
First off, you can play and all of your cards can still be used. However, the bulk of them are not going to be usable for Standard play. That means that to try out the new zones you will need to create a new Standard compatible deck. The Deck Editor has filters to help with that.
Play through the new Standard zone on Normal. It was designed to be super easy. As you play through it, new cards may drop, which can help you improve your brand new Standard deck.
But you said that I can still use all my old cards!
You can, but only for Legacy content. Simply put, Legacy content is everything created before the reboot. If you want to ignore all the Standard stuff, then just play Zones 1-16 with your existing Legacy deck. The platinum you gain from doing that can be used to help you get new Standard cards, when you are ready to try that section of the game out.
== See Also ==
For more information, please take a look at Thyrace's forum post: A Quick Intro to the Post Reboot Clash for New and Returning Players