Last week, we discussed my latest mobile obsession, Marvel Strike Force, a game that is basically Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes for Marvel fans. If you read the article and found your interest piqued, you’re in luck, because this week we’ll be offering some tips on how to best get started with the game.
Spend Power Cores on Energy Refreshes
This likely applies to most mobile games, but Marvel Strike Force definitely leans towards the stingier end of the spectrum, so I feel this advice is even more applicable here. Don’t waste Power Cores (the game’s paid currency) you earn on anything but refreshing your energy as needed. It’s just a waste. Buying orbs for 450 cores a pop for a couple of shards of a random character doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If you know what you’re doing, the game gives you a good degree of control when it comes to acquiring most of the characters you want, and energy is key to farming those characters.
Stay Focused
In the early levels it may seem like you can keep up tricking out and leveling a broad collection of characters, but things will tighten up significantly as you go along. It’s best to identify which characters you want on your team and their purpose before investing resources into them. It’s a good idea to think about characters that can be easily farmed and work well in multiple different game modes. Let’s take Yondu, for example. Yondu is an amazing character who excels in literally all modes the game offers, he’ll be a huge help in tackling the Cosmic campaign later in the game, and he’s easy to farm. If you’re planning on being a strictly F2P player, these are the sorts of characters you’ll want to focus on.
…But Also Keep a Deep Bench
This may seem like it’s in conflict with the previous point, but it’s not. You should absolutely recruit a large roster, but you don’t need to go crazy trying to invest into everyone. Ideally, you’ll want a competent team of heroes to handle the heroes campaign, villains to handle the villains campaign, and at least a general B (or even C) team to use when participating in Blitz or Alliance Raids. You can cobble together an Arena team from these characters. I’d suggest in trying to invest in ten characters (five heroes, five villains) and then throw a bit here and there to a C team. Characters with Cosmic (like Yondu) or Mystic tags are a good idea to have since you’ll need them for later campaigns.
Join an Alliance!
Seriously. Raids are both fun and a great way to get ability resources, gear, and additional characters. You can only participate in raids if you’re in an Alliance, though. I would suggest finding an Alliance that’s only half full or so as raid slots are first come, first serve. I joined a small Alliance and I’ve been able to participate in and complete raids every day.
Don’t Neglect Blitz or Arena
Like raids, Blitz and Arena are great ways to gather important materials and unlock characters. You may look at the high rank requirements needed for the best Blitz rewards and feel deflated, but try to consider that stuff a bonus. Earning Blitz currency and snagging some extra orbs will net you free Premium orbs with some regularity and the currency will allow you to unlock some of the game’s best characters, such as Gamora. Blitz is where your A, B, and C teams are most important. Characters go on cooldown for six hours when used in Blitz, this means the more teams you have, the more fights you can participate in before your entire roster is on cooldown. I start each Blitz by working my way up from my crappiest team to my best team, saving my best characters for the hardest fights as I drive the reward multiplier up.
Arena is a bit more straightforward. Just put together your most powerful team and try to slowly work your way up the ladder. Pure power is more important than composition until you get higher up in the ladder. Keep in mind that you can only be attacked on defense while you are fighting enemy teams on offense, so it’s a good idea to play on maximum speed (x3) to ensure your window to be attacked in Arena is as narrow as possible.
Also, you should think about your defending team from the POV of how the AI works and less about how good a character is. For example, Crossbones is a “tank” but what he’s really used for is his massive nuke ultimate. If you’re playing him manually, you pretty much never want him to actually taunt or the likelihood he’ll get killed before he can get his nuke off is high. Unfortunately, the AI is programmed to use his taunt turn one, so you’d never want to put him on a defending team because he’ll never get a chance to do his job. Pay attention to what different characters do on turns 1-2-3 as you fight them, and you’ll have an idea for who’s a good idea to field on defense.
Bookmark MSF.GG
MSF.GG is a great resource for Marvel Strike Force and if you intend on playing the game regularly you should bookmark it immediately. The site includes a database of all the characters (as well as what their abilities look like at each upgrade level), raid maps, and more.
Got any of your own tips for starting out? Drop 'em in the comments below!
