Board Thread:Current Episode Discussion/@comment-9890645-20140910233740/@comment-13129747-20140912113449

Allies, allies, allies. When you're a lower level player, or just starting out in this game, you need allies. This is especially important with the latest round of changes Mobage has made. New players are going to have a hard time beating anything in raid. Your best bet is to use the free medals you get from joining the event to get R4 cards. Start to upgrade them slowly. Decide who you are going to upgrade based on the stats here:

http://www.geocities.ws/decoma/tfl/

I would say, start with the cards that have the highest attack. Manage your resources. Just starting this game, thinking you are going to T2 your first event is a pipe dream. Pick a lower tier (T4 or maybe T3) and focus on staying in that tier using as little resources as possible.

When I first started, I focused my efforts on the campaign events. I could get a half-decent evolve card with less resources than I could during a raid event. Then, once I got some good cards, I focused on finishing in T3. Then used those cards during the next raid to chip in 1 cube on big bosses my allies seeded me.

It's taken me over a year to get to a point where I can finish in T2 without breaking a sweat and losing resources. With the bump in boss strength, Mobage has made it easier to get R4 and R5 cards. For instance, on some levels the Combat Cache will give you half an R5 card which is good for newer players.

Your goal is to find the best card that's easiest to get. I'd look at the mission levels and find those that give an R5 in the Combat Cache and play those until you can get an R5.

Another bonus that comes from allies are ally points. Every day you can "cheer" your allies. This gives you ally points that you can exchange for cards. You can either sell those cards to get money, or use them to upgrade your better cards. I stockpiled 60k points and then cached them in to upgrade my StarScream from last episode.

You don't have to spend money to get to a better level. Paying for cards now is kind of a waste as you are never guaranteed to get a decent card like you were with the old space bridge. So, get into chat and start sending ally requests to people. When you can't finish a boss, you're pretty much guaranteed that those allies will. And on occasion you'll get a seed you can help kill for points.

Moving up will take time. Both in the amount you spending playing and over the course of months to upgrade your deck. This latest episode I've put in a lot of time and I'm sitting at 34, but it takes a lot of playing to get here and stay here.

Before these changes you could possibly start with a new account the day of the event and finish in T1 if you played a whole lot. I don't think that's possible any more. I remember when ARO said that the game had gotten too easy and he was going to do just that. The next episode, Mobage changed everything. I never followed up, but I don't think he did it.

Bottom line, if you want some pointers and allies, come into chat.