Happy New Year, MPQers - My perspective as a transition play

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
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-er.

Hello, happy New Year! I’ve been playing MPQ for 174 days and I’ve enjoyed my time here. I haven’t been here from the beginning but I’ve seen some things change for the better and for the worse. This game is fun but frustrating at times, and I accept that it’s a Free to Play Phone Game - this isn’t my one and only game that I take 2302% seriously. I play for fun. I’m a transition player who’s only 3* can be leveled to 166 is 3*Steve. I would like to discuss/ask D3 for certain things:

-Please stop releasing 3* characters and 4* characters unless you’re going to help me cover them. Right now I only have 1 3*Character in 174 days of playing that I can max. Even if I did level Steve, I’d only put myself at a disadvantage in PVE and need to wait for 2 more characters to be 166 capable. This means I’ve been stuck behind the 166 wall for MONTHS. I don’t know your overall plan for keeping players engaged and keeping their growth going, but I’ve only been able to grow my roster horizontally(bigger) as opposed to vertically(level). Maybe you can have a ‘plan’ to help us fully cover a character or at least get them up to snuff?

Things that contribute to this:

~Weird distribution of covers - yes, some covers are better than others but that’s not our fault. We didn’t balance the game. Please consider what prizes you’re giving out and what order they’re in. Hell, let us PICK EQUIVALENT COVERS.
~Weird distribution of characters - why do we get so much Falcon? How come we don’t get ANY 3*Magneto(sure he was OP, but now he’s not. What’s the deal)?

-Please stop 7 day events UNLESS you are willing to up the rewards for them. PVP is two days and I can get similar rewards for a fraction of the effort. Seriously, would it kill you to give us a weekend event? I will be the first to admit I cannot keep up in 7 day events. The only reason I scored good in Enemy of the state was because I was sick!

If you refuse to stop doing 7 day events, fine, but all 7 day events should have a node that rewards a cover/LOTS of Iso(I mean 5,000+, not 2,000)/HP Like Prodigal Sun/Deadpool/Whatever the Hulk event is called.

-Please be less stingy with ISO: There are a bazillion characters(I counted!) and we need tons upon tons of ISO to level them. I don’t see why we get so little ISO for EVERYTHING(20 Iso per match? What?)?

-Please be less stingy with the AMOUNT or PERCENTAGE(of getting 3*/4*) of tokens we get. Again, there are a bazillion characters, and with tokens, there is no guarantee of us even getting a cover we need. I’m sure its not the first time you’ve heard this, but its depressing getting a 10pack and getting 2*characters out of it. Can we at least get a guarantee of a character/cover with 10 packs/40 packs? That’s how Magic the Gathering does it. Also, if you’ve ever looked at any token that’s not an anniversary token, the percentage of getting something is horrible(25%~ last time I checked). I don’t think it would be unreasonable to bring that to 50%.

I think these are reasonable requests - many other games let you play ‘catch up’ to more seasoned players by letting you level easier if you’re new, or even offer great stuff if you’re new. Please add to the discussion fellow MPQers!

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Agree. I don’t mind them releasing new characters, but I do find it a bit ridiculous how difficult it is to get covers. Particularly considering their ‘solution’ to this is to remove sets of characters for entire seasons. Not sure that’s fooling anyone, anymore - it’s not remotely helpful.

I’m on day 174 and still don’t have a single 3* with maxed covers, let alone levels. The closest I have is LThor at 12 covers, and one of those was ‘earnt’ because I got kicked off the forums by mistake. So 174 days to actually have gained 11 3* covers for one character. Obviously I have other 3* covers as well, but the point is really more the odds. After months of playing, I haven’t got a single character in the 3* transition fully covered.

I’m sure the point of this is to entice me to buy packs or covers, but my good-will towards games is a mirror image of what they put out. There are games I have spent $100s of dollars on, because I perceive value for money and don’t feel as though the game is designed for force me to spend money. Which actually encourages me to do so.

This ain’t one of those games. It could be, with a few minor tweaks. But presently, it’s just not worth taking this game ‘seriously’ enough to invest anything in it.

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Wait, you have star.png
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characters that are nearly maxed out?! I’m on day 340+ and have yet to max out a single star.png
star.png
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toon! What’s your secret?

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I know you’re joking, but I partly got lucky(tokens) and it’s Captain America(they give him out like a bad rash!). I actually only have him at 114 b/c I don’t want PVE to scale(and I only have 1 potential 166 character right now).

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I would add “make Alliances the optional minor bonus you presented them as and not the mandatory rewards you balance everything around.”

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I started in December of last year and it took me till July to get my first 3* to 13 covers and it was Punisher. Now 6 months later I have 25 max covered 3-4* characters and 5 more nearly maxed. Once you get a couple of the right 3* characters you can get to a point where you get top 25 consistantly in PVP, and you can continue to place well in PVE if you have the time. If you are also in a top 100 alliance it is a huge help as well. It takes a long time to get to be a 3* player, but once you do get there it becomes much easier to earn them. If you continue to place well in 3 months you will look at your roster and see a lot more playable 3* and you will be short on ISO not nearly as many covers.

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No one is saying this isn’t true. What you’re saying is sort of beside the point.

And why do I gotta join a top 100 guild to actually progress? It’s a catch 22.

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So you don’t need to join a top 100 alliance to actually progress. a top 100 alliance will help you progress faster. I was not in a top 100 alliance for PVP and seasons until October of this year so I missed out on Fury covers, and Xforce covers, but because I was able to stay with the game and be a top 25 player in PVP. My alliance scored well in PVE so I got those extra covers.

I guess what I am trying to say is MPQ has made it really easy to get to a maxed 2* roster and has left it difficult to get to a 3* roster. By doing this D3 is saying from when you pick up the game to get to 3* land should take 6-9 months. I am F2P and that is how long it took me so that is where my assumption comes into play. In order to make it easier to get to 3* land they need to make a real 4* tier of 10+ characters. Once this happens then can make it easier for people to earn 3*. Players want more ISO so now we have 7 day PVE’s. It is not how we wanted it, but it is a way to get significantly more ISO if you want to play to get it.

Overall the transition will happen for players if they keep playing and play the right way. Do I want more ISO for just rewards yes, but as it is right now I can earn over 100k ISO each week doing Lightning rounds, PVP and PVE. There is enough HP out there to buy a roster slot every 2 weeks. I know not everybody is at that point, but as an RPG they should not be. I will tell every 2* player be patient do well in PVE and score as well as you can in PVP and you will get there. It takes a lot of time so enjoy the game.

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The joke about being in a top 100 alliance is there are exactly 2000 players in the top 100 alliances. As a member of an alliance that rarely breaks top 1000 in any event the idea of being top 100 is farfetched, I may personally get top 25 in most PvP events thanks to having 3 full covered characters(Patch, Punisher, Spidey) but the only character I have decently covered after those 3 is Hulk.

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Like I said - its a catch 22 - you need a powerful roster and/or guild to get covers.

I also am confused what rightminded top 100 guild would take in a transition(or maybe a 1* player) in order to help them get 3* covers by leeching off their alliance. What benefit does that guild get? The only thing I can think of is the newer player paying them to get in or something.

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Our alliance has a 2* player and we are top 50 for the season. They do well in PVE and do as well as they can in PVP. We also have some really strong players in PVP. It is tough for a 2* player to get into a top 100 alliance, but for us they bring some nice scoring in PVE and in return they earn more 3* covers.
Not every alliances is like this but it is possible.

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We’ve had 2* players in Django a few times. In fact, when I came in there was one who had been there for a couple seasons. He has since progressed into an awesome roster. Top be top 100 you don’t need 20 players with 3* rosters. You need maybe 18 players who put up really good scores and can support a couple of transition players who are cool people and fun to have around and will get there with some help. It’s quite nice actually.

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That’s great to hear, but in my history of gaming, generally hardcore guilds don’t let in noobs or are very strict/punishing. I wouldn’t have even dreamed of joining a top 100 guild before you said anything.

Ofc I’m a casual player so that influences me, but alot of the guilds I see recruiting say you must have X PVE score and score 600-800 in PVP, neither of which is always possible for me(but especially PVP. Brackets can be brutal with 4*Thor on the line and certain top tier/new characters).

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Can’t speak with much authority for any but the one I’m in, but we’ve gone PVE optional (anyone with crazy scores is free to merc their score to others, if we happen to end up with t100 incidentally, so be it), and yes there’s generally a PVP score requirement, but they’ve been lower for 2* players when they’re around. It’s usually not the requirement that’s a problem for people, it’s that you need to get it for every PVP. If you want to take one off, that’s a sticking point for a lot of other alliances it seems. But it’s really all about finding the right fit. With the ease of communicating outside of the game through things like LINE chat, it becomes fairly trivial to keep a loose association of more than 20 players, 20 of whom are active in an event at any time. That means if someone wants out for an event or two due to real life, lack of interest, etc, there’s someone who can hop into the alliance to put ina score.

Communication is often times a lot more important than the scores.

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Interesting. But I still hesitate, because lets take my most recent PVP for example:

In Top Gun, I hit the 166 wall around 500 pts and shielded at 505~ points - this wasn’t even enough for top 100. I’m not saying this always happens, but depending on the bracket/4*Thor/prizes/etc, its been happening more often lately. And I know you said I would be able to communicate but in that situation It would’ve been 3 hours till event was over so it would be hard to find a replacement for me.

With time slots, there’s very few PVPs I can’t play anymore - its really my bracket(and the 166 wall) that determines whether I can get to 600 points or not. I just wouldn’t want to let my team down and its hard to tell if my bracket will let me get the points i need before its game time.

Also, another thread y’all might be interested in: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/21521

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We have more than one 2* player in our alliance, actually. They don’t always make it to our 650 PvP requirement, but they put in what points they can (and some of them are huge PvE scorers).

I was lucky enough to transition at a time when there were fewer 3* covers and cover packs with guaranteed characters. When I see our transitioners now, I’m glad I went through that phase at an easier time.
There is, however, that very convenient period where you have a couple of useful max-covered 3* at the same level as your 2*. (I’m not sure it will be as convenient now than it was back during my own transition, MMR has been changed more than once since.)

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Devs don’t care about 2-3 trans players. Every change they make only makes the situation worse.

You’ll just have to drop $100 bucks and buy a 42 pack…oh wait…you won’t get any good covers out of that either lmao.

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I am in the same position as you. I hit day 149 today. You have a lot of great points.

But wow. To see where you are compared to me I’ve had some crappy luck with the draws. I have 23 3* characters and my highest leveled ones are 76 Hulk and 76 Colossus. I seem to get the 3* covers but always different characters, never multiple covers or colors. Most of mine are stuck at lvs 50-40. I still hit that wall in PvP that I can’t move past, don’t even come close to the 3* covers. I do fairly well in the events, but just don’t seem to get the lucky drops.

I did botch up the 1*-2* transition. Once I found this forum I’ve taken the advice and making much better progress now.

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I am sick of seeing posts like this. It takes time and the will to play. No one is going to gift you covers. I started playing in December of last year, didn’t get my 1st 3* until June. It was Punisher, I didnt get my 2nd until October it was Patch. After i got those 2 I was able to place top 25 ever since. Now I have 6 maxed 3*'s and several more maxed covered. It just takes time, but once the gate opens its like a flood.

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Transition Game

I started about a Month after the game began and it took me about 3 months to get a useable 3* (Punisher was my first maxed)

I played a ton though and a lot of the current players don’t push as hard. Back then maxing a 2* was different, you could place in an event and get 3 of the same 2* covers similar to how 3* are given out now. However we didn’t get 2* covers from half of our wins to easily max them out

A lvl 94 2* is probably equal to something like 115 3* in power, maybe less maybe more depending on the character.

A good way to ease this transition I think would be to remove the level cap relation to how many covers you’ve collected. We’ve all used the newly won 1/1/2 3* with the 90 levels boosted in the following pve/pvp and know that they aren’t nearly as good as a truly maxed 3* but are at least useable. Allowing leveling to the max regardless of covers I think solves this problem.

And just so you know, 2* shouldn’t be competitive with 4* yet I see a ton of these 2* rosters with almost no 3* covered/leveld but nearly max XForce etc. I think it should be harder for a 2* team to acquire a 4* so that is the variance we see in pvp which will be even more extreme with shield neutering. In PVE, lots of 2* rosters have an easy easy time (until this current one) because the level ratio of their hyper boosted characters to their enemies is a ton easier to deal with than the 3* rosters who deal with 395s (166(+30) vs 395 is much much more difficult than 94(+40) vs 150-200, especially when enemies have broken scaling of 1* and 2* going up to 395.