Gameplay Tips

# Tips

Some tips and tricks for you to quickly progress through the game from experienced players.

## Progress Tips

* Upgrading mines is key to progression in the early game. Most things cost gold in this game... training, buying orbs, buying potions, etc. All these are essential to quick progression. Upgrading your mines early and often will make sure that you don't have to wait to have enough gold to progress.

* Upgrade your various heroes to the 3rd evolution before you start purchasing duplicates. Having several weak heroes won't help you progress as much as having 1 strong hero!

* Even the green tier heroes have their uses. Don't be afraid to upgrade them early on until you get stronger heroes!

* Recommended Diamond Usage:
	+ Buy 120 Energy for 10 diamonds, limited number per day.
	+ Buy PvP chests for 50 diamonds, limited number per day.
	+ Refreshing Hero Orbs in stores - 5 Diamonds 3 times every 8 hours, good particularly on the weekends as you have double choice (use only if you have lots of gold to spare)
* Don't fill your barracks (training) with a lot of heroes, You won't be able to use them until after their training is finish. While you may want to always have a hero in training, try to use your rest time to do big upgrades (while you go to sleep, you may want to train a 6-8 hours upgrades in that time)
	+ Instant Training is good when you have a lot of money and want to do big upgrades on many heroes (some can take 150+h!)
* Don't forget to always have a chest to open, your heroes will thank you later. Those chests are the backbone to get orbs for your heroes, always have one running.
	+ You can watch 10 ads per day to double (2x) combat rewards or chests. Use them on epic or legendary chest to double the amount of orbs (usually yellow and/or purples orbs) and Diamonds in those chest! Use them also on Free chests (every 3h or 4h) to get more energy. Those videos have about 10 minutes between them.

## Battle Tips

* Consider team synergy when building a team for Quick Battles (ie: mine defense, etc.)
	+ Having 5 ranged/mage heroes without a tank to draw the enemy is usually a recipe for disaster.
	+ Combining excessively fast heroes with excessively slow heroes will generally separate your team into 2, making it easier for the enemy to handle.
	+ Putting healers with barbarians is usually ineffective as the healer will constantly chase the barbarian to heal, but never actually get to heal the barbarian because he will move out of healing range.

## Energy tips

What's the maximum amount of energy you should spend to pick up overworld nodes of each type?

### World energy: depends

This is an easy one, so using this as a tutorial:

* Energy nodes drop 12 energy in forest and midland, 15 in Black Bay and Great Valley
* Battles cost 3e in Forest, 4e in Castle and Midland, 5e in Black bay and Great valley, and 6e in Goblin outpost.
* Battle cost is fixed regardless of the number of waves in that battle.
* So go for an energy node only if it costs less in energy to get there, or if there's stuff you want on the way there, such as chests/keys/anvils.
* If orb farming, a 5-energy 2-wave battle in great valley actually only costs 2.5e.

### gold and XP: never spend energy to pick them up

Each campaign battle brings at least as much gold and usually more XP, but at the cost of a single energy.

### Orb nodes: spend max 2 energy in forest (so, I never battle for it), 4 in midland, 8 in great valley

* Each orb bag contains .04p + .30y + 1.24b + 4g (assuming usual color probabilities).
* HS campaign takes ~20 energy per epic L8 chest, containing .48p + 14.6y + 15.5b + 50g.
* So for the forest area, 1 energy gives .024p + .73y + .78b + 2.5g.
* Campaigns from other areas aren't as bountiful in epic chests, so multiply by 1.5-2 for midland, and 3-4 for barb/bob chests?
* What about lower chest levels? It feels cheaper to run campaigns to level them up, esp if orb farming?

Conclusion: never pick up orb nodes.

### Gems: 12e

Price from the shop, when buying E for gems. Note: Gem spots drop 2 gems in all of old castle, goblin outpost, on the 4-5 hardest spots of black bay, and in the top-right corner of great valley.

### Key: 60e

Buy in store for 5 gems, and 1 gem = 12e.

### Chest: 0-5e

Can get chests sometimes for 0e in Midland.

### Maps: 4-5e

I think map nodes have 25 in forest, and 40 in GV? So 6k-10k gold if buying them from the shop, that's 20-30mins with 3-4 maxed mines.

If you regen 1 energy every 6mins, a map node is worth 4-5e.

If not regenerating E, you can get 6-10k gold with 6-10e in VAH campaign.

### Anvil: 11-15e, or 5-21e

* I've never seen an anvil give a legendary,
* but let's assume anvil rarity drop chance \* store's item cost is .5\*5k + .31\*25k + .15\*100k + .04\*250k = 32k.
* This takes 3 mines at 115/minute around 90mins, or 15 energy (assuming E recharges every 6 min).
* With 4 maxed mines, 11e instead.

Other way to look at it:

* Each VAH run brings 1-2 rare + 1-2 epic + 1-2 leg anvil (?), worth 560k, and ~1k gold per energy.
* Cost is 300 maps and 7-14e per hex, so around 4k maps (buy for 1M gold) and 120e.
* Revenue is 680k if you have infinite maps, which is 6k per energy. Meaning 5e per overworld anvil.
* Revenue is 180k if buying half the maps, or 1.5k per energy. Meaning 21e per overworld anvil

### Is it worth it to refresh an overworld map?

In the forest, probably yes, a little bit:

* A refresh costs 5 gems, or 60e.
* If the map drops, say, a key that takes 3 battles to reach + a gem in 3 battles + energy in 2 battles, you make 60+12+12=84e, minus 24e on battles, so you net 0 energy. Still these battles are useful for orb farming.

In great valley, it's less likely to be worth it though:

* Battling costs 40e, so you're 16e in the red.
* But maybe you get chests on the way, or you're lucky and get 2 keys. And 2 keys usually makes a reset worth it

## Other Tips

* Join the Discord! There is a helpful community of players there and you can communicate with the Developers regarding any issues you may have! Because there are players around the globe, one will probably answer you quickly.

* Transferring data to a new phone:
	+ On IOS, it should works correctly.
	+ On Android:
		- On the old device: make sure you are signed in to Google via the army/settings button. Then win a battle or travel somewhere to trigger a save.
		- On the new device: long press the app icon and go to info/storage/clear local storage and cache.
		- When you open the game in the new device, make sure you sign in to Google when prompted, then it should load your progress.
	+ If nothing worked, then send an email to the support on the old device, and ask them for help. They will be able to give you a code on your new device which will load your save.