Beginner's Guide

This starter guide provides advice for players who recently started playing Mech Arena. It mainly focuses on making the right decisions that will help you enjoy the game in the long run.

## Account Set-Up

Its is recommended to save your game progress in an account you can reliably access. PC users will have already created a Plarium account that saves your game progress, which you can further insure by linking to your Google/Facebook account for easier password recovery. Mobile players are recommended to tap their Profile -> Connections and link their profile to a Google/Facebook account or create a Plarium account. Note on that last one: REGISTER a new Plarium account, not LOG IN to a Plarium account which might overwrite the profile you already started on your device. Linking your account would back up your data in case something happens to your mobile device.

## Resources and Progression

Everyone enjoys the game in their own way and you can have fun playing your initial hanger indefinitely without any progression or playing in a non-optimized way. That said, the following are recommended steps to optimize your resource economy with long-term gameplay progression in mind.

* Don't upgrade anything. Focus your progression on unlocking Gear Hub tiers by buying mechs and weapons from your highest available tier. Those will be more valuable and powerful than upgraded beginner gear. Once you get closer to mid- or end-game you'll have a better understanding of what gear is worth upgrading.
* Regularly completing daily objectives (and watching ads on mobile) contributes greatly to obtaining resources.
* Pilot resources are SLOW to accumulate, it is best to start saving early. Consider acquiring an epic pilot (Such as Rosa which is arguably the only non-legendary pilot that remains useful in end-game hangers) to facilitate completion of daily pilot objectives. Also, be careful about spending too many Pilot Marks upgrading rare pilots which lose their relevance at the end-game. Upgrading rare pilots up to rank 4 is considered a reasonable compromise.
* While it seems initially that you mostly need Credits, within a few weeks you can accumulate a surplus of millions of Credits (especially since you're doing your daily ads/objectives and NOT UPGRADING ANYTHING). The bottleneck that would dictate your progress is A-Coins, so be diligent about obtaining A-Coins and prudent about spending them.
* After the first couple of Gear Hub tiers (which are comparatively cheap and can be unlocked within a few days of free play) it is advisable to only spend resources when an event compensates you for it. Remember: as your hanger becomes more powerful the game gets harder. Why not demand compensation for making your own game more difficult?
* This game can be played 100% free without any In-App Purchases. Spending real money could potentially speed up your progression, but be wary of the Constant Upgrade Fallacy. If your hanger becomes more powerful faster than the rate at which your skills improve, you will struggle and lose more battles. If you do decide you want to spend real money, consider the following:
	+ Shop offers are generated by an algorithm without human review and they vary *dramatically* in their value/price ratio (That is, if you assign an enjoyment value to a digital token that is technically worth $0.00). Credits are absurdly overpriced in the store so you can ignore the official "discount percentage" as an indicator of value. Generally speaking, the gold season pass offers a better-than-average value/price so you can use that as a benchmark when considering shop offers.
	+ If you're considering an In-App-Purchase of mechs or weapons, consider how much it would cost using in-game currencies in the Gear Hub PLUS how much it costs to upgrade mechs or weapons to the natural rank you would have acquired in the Gear Hub. Buying a legendary rank 2 Disc Launcher 8 for $1.99 seems like a great deal until you realize you could have purchased it for Credits (basically free resource - see points above) and you would need to spend over 5,000 A-Coins to upgrade it back up to its natural rank 5.

## Matchmaking

Matchmaking will pair you against players and bots that correspond to your most powerful mech or weapon. To get easier matches or a fair fight, try to:

* Have a balanced hanger of roughly equivalent ranks of mechs and weapons (avoid having one high rank weapon/mech in an overall lower rank hanger)
* Don't rush unlocking additional hanger slots. The more slots you unlock the harder game will be. With just 3 mechs in your hanger you can do almost everything (Except participate in Tournaments on a Free-For-All week but those are rife with SP Dropping so new player experience there is not great)
* If you've done these steps and you're mostly paired against challenging yet fairly matched opponents - don't upgrade anything! Upgrades are irreversible and you might end up with difficult or unfair matches. The best time to upgrade is after you've battled the same-powered opponents for a while, you learned how to easily deal with bots of that rank and battles get repetitive / easy / boring.
* If you're facing overpowered opponents and the bots' speed and aim accuracy is too challenging for you: replace your powerful mechs/weapons with lower rank mechs/weapons, ensure all your mechs have at least 1 weapon and all your unlocked hanger slots are populated, and play several quick matches. Matchmaking should adjust within a few games and give you a better play experience. If you're still struggling, remove powerful/legendary pilots and try again.

## Other Guides

Scape211 Beginners' Guide (YouTube playlist)