One of my weaknesses, I shamefully state, is my love of superheroes. As a young lad, I was an unabashed fan of both of the major capes companies, and that nostalgic affection sometimes leads me to buy into things I wouldn’t normally dream of. So, my secret confession is that whenever anything Marvel or DC pops up, I check it out for at least a little while, and that includes Marvel: War of Heroes (Free). Judging by its position on the charts, I’m not the only one who put some time into it, and it seems like plenty of people out there are still trying it out. Like many of Mobage’s offerings, there isn’t exactly a ton of strategy to be found in the game, but I do have ten tips to get you on the road to enjoying the game without spending cash.
1) Make sure you allocate your attribute points when you level up. The game will remind you, but you can still miss it. If you have attribute points, spend them right away. There’s no value in waiting to become stronger.
2) In the beginning, allocate your stats to defense first. For the frugal player, your silver is your lifeblood. You don’t want other players looting you constantly or you’ll be out of cash in no time. This is where you have to use a little of the ol’ psychology. When players are choosing a target, they’re liable to choose the one with the lowest defense. What you want to do is make sure that person isn’t you. You should be aiming to have a tens digit higher than the average player your level, so if everyone else has 15, you should have 25.
3) You don’t need to focus too much on energy in the early stage. Your energy regenerates pretty quickly and level-ups come fast in the beginning, which will restore your energy. As a result, there’s not much value in putting points into it. You’ll likely regenerate enough to take on the early stages while you’re doing things like checking your present box or battling other players. I’m not saying you should never put any points into your energy. At some point, the missions will require more and more energy to play, and you’ll want to have the ability to, at the very minimum, fight three foes.
4) Don’t bother with any missions if you don’t have enough energy for three fights. Drops only come after every third fight. If you fight one or two at a time, you’ll never earn any extra goodies. In particular, you want to earn the resource sets which will earn you new rare cards.
5) Make sure you use a referral code when you start the game, no matter where you get it from. The card you’ll receive periodically changes, but one thing is always true: it’s extremely useful when you’re just getting started. Referral codes can be found almost anywhere players gather, from App Store reviews to our own forums.
6) Get as many teammates as you can, as each one will give you five attribute points. War of Heroes is nice because you can send teammate requests to people who are playing the game, rather than harass your poor friends. Getting those extra attribute points (up to 25!) in the beginning makes a huge difference.
7) If it’s not rare, it’s garbage. Any cards you get that aren’t three stars or higher are good only to use to boost your better cards. Yes, I know, some of them have cool artwork, but winning has its price. Fuse them to their highest form, then sacrifice them to a better card.
8) Your rally points will max out at 9999, so spend them freely. You can get card packs with them, albeit with an incredibly low chance of getting anything worthwhile. At the very least, they’re useful for boosting the worthwhile cards you do have.
9) Don’t invest too heavily in that Wolverine card the game gives you at the start. Yes, he’s super-rare and all that, but he’s a pretty lousy super-rare. He’ll get you by until you get something better, which you will probably have if you used a referral card. Certainly do not waste any of your ISO-8 on him.
10) Prioritize event missions over regular missions, the rewards are much better. There’s usually some type of event going on in War of Heroes (at the time of writing, there’s a nifty Galactus event happening), and the rewards are really good and nearly guaranteed with a minimal amount of time investment. This is probably where you’ll get your first decent cards outside of the ones you start with.
Like I said earlier, there’s not a huge amount of strategy to this game. What that means is the few strategic decisions you do make are all the more important. Whether you’re playing to kill time, fill out the collection of nicely drawn cards, or because, like me, you are a weak, weak person who cannot escape the chains of his nostalgia, these tips will help you have a smoother ride in War of Heroes.
