Hero Points & Transition to ** for a newcomer

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I’m closing in on 70 days with Marvel Puzzle Quest, playing for free on Steam, and have all but finished the prologue. Right now, I only have 16 roster spots, and would like to get more (who wouldn’t?) but have an amazingly tough time with earning Hero Points. I got the prologue’s inventory on HP, but can’t reliably earn them anywhere else. My best finished in PvE events are around top 150, which is 50 HP (usually I’m top 300, earning 25 HP), and I can get ~25 from each season I’ve been in, but never get enough progress in PvP to get anything. (HP is usually given around 400 to begin with, but I can’t even break 200 points on most events before a wall of Lv. 94 + impedes my progress.) Also, the alliance I’m in hovers around 3200 rankings in everything.

Absurd matchmaking based on my roster aside, do I have to just wait it out and hope the daily reward generator smiles favorably upon me before I can expand my roster, or is there an easier way (without breaking the Steam wallet) to help earn HP.

Also, I’m making incredibly slow progres on building the star.png
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on my roster (about 1-2 usable covers a week). I hear just playing what I can in PvP helps, but I’m getting 70 Iso about 95% of the time, 4% of the other 5% earning a star.png
cover. I hear about the dreaded star.png
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to star.png
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transition all the time, but the transition to star.png
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feels really slow for me. Without anything permanent to focus on, I have to get favorable star.png
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in the events, and it gets harder to place as time goes by. Was/Is this natural for building up a roster of my size and age, or are there other techniques I could use to quicken the transition.

Before I forget, I’m nervous about opening tokens without available roster spots. If I got enough HP for some roster spots I can empty a good portion of my built up tokens and that could help my characters, but until them I’m, err, scared of wasting them.

2

Good news! The lightning rounds should start tomorrow at 12 noon eastern time. Be logged in 5 min early (to be safe. If you log in at 12 you’ll be screwed) and fight every seed team you can. Seed teams typically are level 1-21. Sometimes you’ll see battleangel, skip that one. Once your nodes all have lvl 94 opponents you will know all the seed teams are gone.

This will net you iso8 and covers to use. Rinse and repeat this process every 2 hrs for the next 48 hrs. This should give you enough 2* covers to start filling out your roster. Concentrate on obw and either thor or ares. Cstorm and mmags are also good but squishier. Once you have obw/thor you can get to the 400 pt pvp progression reward which is the 1st 25hp reward. That will allow you to start buying more slots.

If your hurting for slots already dump venom, yelena & hawkeye. Keep storm ironman and mbw until you have a solid 2* roster then whether you keep them or not depends on you and your roster situation.

Happy hunting.

Obw build 355
thor build 355
ares you can mess around with I went 454 many will say 535.

3

I feel bad for you guys, it’s so hard now to make transition, there are so many 3* it’s impossible to hit many covers on same hero and you just can’t afford all those roster spots for 1-2 cover 3*. You can’t make enough hp to buy roster spots because you can’t place with that roster.

Obw , Thor, Wolverine , Ares and cstorm are your tickets out of there, but it was easier back then too because obw used to true heal. Alternate between Thor Ares and Wolverine for damage, use health packs on OBW or make a second one

My advice is: focus on Patch and Black panther, berseker rage, rage of Panther is a great combo. Patch heals and saves health packs. The black-green boost gives you both colors you need for combo.

Join pvp with 45-30 min left, hit it has hard as you can, you should get top100 and a 3* cover & you won’t have to shield. Don’t do this on the last time shard, it won’t work. Try second or third
As soon as you can get 600 consistently in pvp, find a top100 alliance.
Never buy packs& tokens, save your hp and buy covers directly. (Although 50hp aniversary token was sweet deal)
What the other guy said about LR is great advice too

Good luck,

4

This is all great advice, except that for Ares, I would recommend 445. Sunder is Ares’ only power that sees an increase in base damage with the fifth cover, though if raising the threshold for double damage on Rampage from 25% to 30% (1470 to 1764 on a level 94 Ares) is especially important to you, then I guess 454 would be ok. I would never put a fifth cover on green, as the gain is much too small. But that’s just me–your mileage…er, coverage may vary.

5

I agree with most of the advice in this thread OP.

I would identify 4 2* as your primary targets (in descending order, but go with whichever covers you get)

  1. Original Black Widow (3/5/5) - the best level for level character in the game. Spam the AP steal, heal to extend matches, abuse strike tiles ruthlessly

  2. Ares (4/4/5) - Green is awesome, but the difference between 4 and 5 covers is minimal, red is only great when ares is badly hurt, but it also gets little advantage from 5 covers. Yellow gets a massive benefit from 5 covers (countdown is only 2 rounds, meaning it will usually resolve)

  3. Daken (no wrong answer for build, I go with 4/4/5) - not as great a character as these other three in terms of power, but true healing is essential for sustainability

  4. Thor (3/5/5) - even though last on this list, still a great character with high health, good synergy, and an aoe nuke.

Once you have those four 2* maxed, you can start stockpiling iso for your 3s (the other 2 team to consider is mnMags/cStorm/mHawkeye. They are an offensive force, but terrible on defense and very squishy). With so many 3* out there now, the only real ways to build are (1) spend a ton of cash as soon as you get a full power set for any 3*, or (2) get a whole bunch of roster slots and collect covers for all 3* at a steadyrate until, by random luck, you get up to 8-10 covers on one or two. Don’t pump iso into any 3* until you can level them up to 94-ish or higher (3s aren’t as good as 2s until level 104 and 3-4 covers in their main powers, but they are playable in the low 90s).

Wonko is right that patch and black panther are good characters. But black panther is now vaulted, so you won’t be getting any covers for him any time soon. Patch would be great if you can get him (especially 5 yellow covers for true regeneration), but there are at least a handful of good 3* still available in tokens, and any of them will do (blade, lazy cap, daredevil, hood, patch, arguably mystique and grocket to name a few).

And you are right to think that saving tokens until you have HP for a roster slot is wise. Having to sell 3* covers because you don’t have room will definitely slow down your transition considerably.

good luck!

EDIT: Adding a few things i forgot before.

Definitely don’t spend HP on packs, and be frugal about spending on shields (don’t hesitate to use a 3 hour shield to ensure you get an important 3* cover, 75 HP for a 3* cover is a good deal), but far and away the bulk of your HP should be saved for roster slots.

2* wolvie is good, but I prefer 2*daken (more strike tiles, better true healing).

Lightning rounds are the best source of 2* covers. the ideal strategy is the join as soon as the event opens to get seed opponents, and then play up to 100 pts (that gets you a nice 250 ISO rewards). don’t worry about going higher, it’s hard without a good roster and generally not worth the time spent. 5ish matches every two hours should turn into plenty of 2* covers before you know it.

Check out Polarity’s transition guide if you haven’t already. great summaries of the characters, as well as plenty of other useful info.

dont hesitate to drop unused 1* and 2* characters to make space for 3s. start with yelena and venom. also, don’t max your 1s if you can help it. once you can get a 2* to 40ish, anything spent on 1s is a total waste of iso. If it weren’t for the heroic events, balance of power, and teamups, 1s could be sold with impunity.

6

+1000 for using HP strictly for opening slots.

I wish I would have discovered this sooner. I spent so much HP shielding in tourneys that I could have a much larger roster than I do now. I’ve sold off many 3* that I would have fully carded and maxed by now had I not been so impatient. Daredevil and IM40 immediately comes to mind sigh

I found myself starved for ISO and HP for roster spots so I would often sacrifice a 2* for ISO and an open space. It did the trick to build my 3*'s, but the ISO I spent rebuilding the 2*'s could have gone toward leveling a stronger character. I’ve built Ares twice, OBW twice, Wolverine twice, Magneto four times, Hawkeye three times and Daken twice. I never cared for CStorm / MNMags combo because I destroy those teams with impunity. I get why they do it, but I never went that route.

A. Wolvie’s strike tiles + OBW Espionage is a wicked, wicked combination. You’ll smash teams a little stronger than you if you can keep those tiles on the board long enough…and when they are powered up for events? Ouch!

Be patient my friend! It’s not a sprint, it’s an Ironman competition (no pun intended)

7

Instead of skipping battleangel, just keep her queued (i.e. trapped icon_twisted.gif
) in that node, and swap to another node. This way, you don’t get battle angel again.

8

I guess I could have been clearer there. I meant what you said but worded it poorly. Thanks for the catch.

9

my advice is left this game ASPS

10

My path was to buy small increments of hp 5 bucks here 5 bucks there…and eventually the 3 stars started coming…only buy those roster spots and be patient.

11

Thanks for the advice you all have given me.

I guess patience is an essential virtue for making progress as it comes to building my roster. I do have star.png
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Thor and Wolverine near their cover goals, but have kept them at low levels until I can bring star.png
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Widow, Storm, Ares, Daken and Magneto to their level (Probably not all at once). No point in hurting myself with a 86 Thor/Wolverine if the rest of my roster can’t crack 55. I have about 65000 Iso saved up for bumping up my lower star.png
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. Ares and Daken benefit from Prodigal Sun because they’re progression rewards, but only one cover for each, so it’s not enough. I should buckle down and fight in PvP in between Prodigal Sun’s refresh. (assuming those darn Mafia don’t obliterate me with their 200+ strike tiles and constant pistol shots, grrr)

Right now, I’m not shooting for any star.png
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: If I only get one cover for one I tend to sell it because it won’t make a difference and I don’t have a guaranteed outlet for earning more. star.png
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and star.png
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are not my primary goals right now.

12

The best way to get HP is don’t use shields unless you’re fighting for someone that can make an immediate impact, and immediate impact means someone who at least has a chance of beating X Force. This doesn’t mean X Force will stop attacking you but if you got someone who can potentially beat him (like say, Punisher), at least when X Force bullies you for 10 points you have the option of countering for 40 points (with considerable risk) instead of just going to a corner and cry. Characters below roughly The Punisher’s tier of power is simply roadkill against X Force and it doesn’t matter how many of them you accumulated, they’d still do nothing for you in PvP and only slow down your overall progress. Now if you like certain characters or you’re a collector then go for whatever you want, but for progression purposes at least half of the 3* serves no purpose other than being a body when they show up as the required essential character in PvE.

13

I wouldn’t sell the 3*'s unless you are running out of room in your roster. I’d pick about 6 2s to focus on and dump the rest, giving yourself an A and B team. The 3s dont seem like much at first, but they add up over time and there will come a point where you think “Man, if I hadn’t sold that one cover I had…”

Only use HP to buy roster slots, to help offset keeping those 3s. Dump any 1s you have once you get leveled 2*s as this will make room too.

I would say its ok to go ahead and use your Standard Tokens as chances are you will only get 1* and 2* characters with the very rare 3* (bout every 100 tokens on average it seems)

Once you get you’re 2s leveled and decide on the ones you’re keeping, your roster should have room to start opening the Heroics and any event tokens you have in the hopes of adding to the 3s you managed to hang on to.

I also found it helpful to check the Daily Reward thread they have in the guide section to see whats coming up, along with the current list of Vaulted Characters in the Character section for help with deciding who to keep and who to dump.

And in my opinion, the villians are good. They are even better when boosted like in this PVE and Nefarious Foes PVP or Lightening rounds, but overall I find the Heroes more useful as they tend to get bosted far more often.

14

yeah dump useless 2*, once you have an established 3* it is easy to get them again to complete roster for heroic or essentials

15

Agreed, good advice in this thread. Personally, I would say don’t spend HP on 2* covers - you’ll get them in PvP if you are patient. Save that precious HP for roster slots. I’d prioritize:
OBW (3/5/5), Ares (4/4/5), Thor (3/5/5 - though 4/5/4 isn’t bad - that’s what my 2** Thor is currently), Classic Storm (5/5/3), Wolverine (5/5/3). I would advise to always keep 2 ** Thor & Wolverine, as they’re buffed quite frequently and are both good. 2 ** Wolverine gets a lot of flak, but he still has a cheap green that deals out some respectable damage and strike tiles, and a pretty nasty red that will make you groan even at the 3-star level if he lands it. Plus, on defense, the AI seems to have a preternatural ability to match yellow if there’s a heavily injured Wolverine on the team- I’ve wasted many powerful abilities (Retribution on a 400 hit point 2 ** Wolverine, for example), simply because I was simmering with rage over the third yellow match in a row by the enemy team with an injured 2 star wolverine (that had no use for the yellow AP).

16

Again, thanks for all of your suggestions. I’m glad I’m getting support for what direction to go in.

The daily reward I collected today has lessened the gap a little (now I only need 200 for the next 2 slots), but I’m getting progressively worse placements in the events as I try to build up the roster. For instance, I could always earn a star.png
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from PvP, even if I started early, won all the doable matches in my queue, and didn’t go back to fight the impossible teams. Now, with First Avenger and Trial by Combat, I’m stuck below 300 in the rankings. I barely clawed up to 270, but got retaliated by Lv.94’s and the queue decided “Well, you’ve gotten 200 points in the event, here are some 166 teams and teams with 7-10 covers for their X-Force. Have fun!” At this rate, random cover drops and the PvE are my only saving grace for getting a decent star.png
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roster.

17

Aaron, what time slice are you in where a 1-2 star transition player like you is matched against maxed 3* teams? I like 5/4/4 better on my cStorm. 1 extra turn of stun isnt a huge difference, but a few hundred more damage on her passive can b a gamechanger. Also, mnMags should b 4/5/4 because red and blue too expensive at 5 and purple is invaluable. Pve events can b a great place to get ISO and a relatively easy to get (depending on event) guaranteed 3* from progression.

18

Did you score higher than usual in balance of power. those weird PVP events can do strange things to your MMR, which might explain why you are seeing 94s earlier than you did in the past.

19

I’m picking the 3rd-4th of the 6 slices most of the time. Granted, not every node is a maxed star.png
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team, but plenty of star.png
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with decent covers floating in my queue with X-Force and maxed star.png
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.
I do want to build my Magneto 4/5/4, and you make a good point for CStorm’s Raging Tempest. When I get a yellow cover for her I’ll decide if I want to roll out 4 yellow as opposed to my initial goal of 3.

I got up to 400 points before I turned my focus to getting curb-stomped in the gauntlet. Don’t remember how I finished in terms of rankings but it wasn’t spectacular (Probably around 200th). I’ll give it a few more events before I can actually determine if Balance of Power screwed me out of star.png
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rewards. I haven’t even joined any slice in the Sentry one that just started. If I join late it might change my fortunes. (even though I only want Ares’ green and don’t need Loki) Fingers crossed…

20

Peeking at your roster, you can definitely dump Classic Hawkeye to make room.

Personally, I would jettison Ms. Marvel next - her best power has a 50-50 chance of only doing half damage, and her yellow is only good for creating cascades.

Modern Black Widow would also be on the chopping block, although at your levels, keeping her around for the cheap stun might be worth it.

Lastly, though I don’t advise ever dumping 3*s, if your back is against a wall, Dr. Doom will seldom be an Essential character, and if he is, more likely than not it will be Simulator, where he’ll only be required for one round.

Don’t forget that there’s usually 50-100 HP in Progression each PVE.

Good luck.