How long does it take to level a character to max!

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

So after seeing a lot of people talking about needing more ISO to level all these new 4 stars that are coming in. I wanted to know about how long it would take to level my character if I only played DDQ and/or Lightning rounds by only beating the initial 3 seed teams of 10 LR.

Character iso8.png
costs to max 13/13 covers
4* = 365896
3* = 119919
2* = 69524
1* L50 = 28420
1* L40 = 18720

Completing all of DDQ and not counting the 3 star reward or DDQ tokens, per week you get 25,900 iso8.png

Entering 10 Lightning Rounds and beating the initial 3 seed teams, getting (70 iso8.png
) per victory and the rewards from progression, you get per week 7,000 iso8.png
. So total you are getting 32,900 iso8.png
per week.

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 11.12
3* = 3.64
2* = 2.11
1* L50 = 0.86
1* L40 = 0.57

Now, what if I only completed the first 3 nodes of DDQ and not counting the DDQ reward token and doing the LR’s the same as above. I would then be getting only 18,900 iso8.png
.

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 19.36
3* = 6.34
2* = 3.68
1* L50 = 1.50
1* L40 = 0.99

So, then I got to thinking, what if, I didn’t do DDQ (yeah right!) and did not do LR (possible). What if I am a true PVPer and I do nothing else on the game.

Well, there are 3 PVP’s per week, all with the exact same progression rewards. Assuming the first 100 points you get are from the initial seed teams, and per victory you get (70 iso8.png
), then for each 100 points you have to beat 4 enemy teams and per victory (70 iso8.png
). Let’s say that you only aim for the 650 progression reward and are done. On Average per week you get 11,100 iso8.png
.

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 32.96
3* = 10.80
2* = 6.26
1* L50 = 2.56
1* L40 = 1.69

Now for the flip side of PVP, PVE’s come in three forms, 3 day, 4 day and 7 day. 3 day and 4 day PVEs, have the same progression reward structure. The assumption is that you use and sell all tokens and their cover (250 iso8.png
) and sell all covers and tokens from the progression rewards.

3-4 day PVE on average provide 7,740 iso8.png
per week this is a combination of a 3 day and a 4 day event back to back to = one week.

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 47.27
3* = 15.49
2* = 8.98
1* L50 = 3.67
1* L40 = 2.42

7 day events on average provide 4,450 iso8.png
per week.

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 82.22
3* = 26.95
2* = 15.62
1* L50 = 6.39
1* L40 = 4.21

So, if you haven’t noticed the progression, of time it takes to level your characters with each section, it gets longer and longer to do, if your doing just DDQ and LR or just PVP or just PVE.

Putting all of it together doing all of it at once, DDQ, LR, PVP and PVE you can obtain approximately 50,095 iso8.png

So the amount of weeks it would take to level:
4* = 7.30
3* = 2.39
2* = 1.39
1* L50 = 0.57
1* L40 = 0.37

It should be noted that there is no mention of placement rewards or rewards from nodes in PVE. Taking these into account can sway the time table by a week or more faster than the above. Also, did not take into account bonus iso from PVP matches as it can be unreliable.

It takes 3 times as long to level a 4 star compared to a 3 star now. So, if you want to level them fast, you have to play everything. Otherwise the next fastest route is DDQ and LR.

2

Doing PVE, PVP, and LRs, i have earned over 85k in 3 days…

I understand you are doing worst case scenario.. but LRs are way more profitable, and even if you do only the 3 seeds, you still get the extra 70 iso for participating as well.

3

I kinda TL;DR’d this so apologies if there are caveats here, but:

a) Just flipping through, the ROI on a PvP battle is more than 70, it’s closer to double that from my records,
b) I made around 35-45k (forget the exact number) in the 7 day event for Ant-Man, and I quit the last two days.

And overall, 55k seems like an underestimation of what’s possible in a week. Overall since DDQ was introduced I’m up around 15-16k per day. Which would cut your timeline in half, and I’m not even among the elite there I’m sure. Even just following your model, I’m leaving 33k / week in LR iso on the table.

4

Correct, worse case scenario is the model. Also, out of the 85K, are you taking into account placement rewards and PVE node rewards as this is not taken into account in the above. I could factor those in, but they would vary way too much to take into consideration.

So, by your earnings, there is no ISO shortage, and if you can consistently make 85k in 3 days, you would be maxing a fully covered 3 star in about 5 days and a fully covered 4 star in about 13-14 days. Correct?

5

Well, the above, does not take into account placement or pve node rewards. I am not saying that you could not do better in the amount of ISO than the OP. The OP is based on a worst case scenario of how long it would take to level a fully covered character. But as with your post, it also indicates that there would be no ISO shortage the system is working fine. We only need more characters and more covers.

6

Went heavy into Heroic PVE because i need the Psylocke covers, going to level off tomorrow, don’t need red, so going to drop out of t10 and let someone who needs it get it, i just want black.

Also, 70k+ in a typical week is not unheard of, if it is slow at work, i play… this week was a but more, because i love BoP and did it quite a bit. So an average week is 70-100k if i play hardcore, 50+ if i play casually. So still i can level 1 3* from nothing in a week and a half or so, that said, still a year to cover what i currently have

7

As above, when I wasn’t a dirty late joiner in PvE, it was common to pull at least 50k ISO a week with normal play. Yes placement awards, tokens and what not are included but they cannot be taken separately, they are part of the package.

For a single character it’s not too bad, but as many have an entire roster to level it looks more daunting. Selective leveling to maximise your reward is the usual path to take.

8

With these numbers I’m wondering what I’m missing.

3/5 the 5 nodes in DPD are typically available to me (I don’t have enough 3 stars to have the daily one most days which sucks because my team could complete them) If you don’t have the 3 star you lose out on the large bonus for completing all nodes and a single taco every day, along with the iso from the rounds. thats already at min 2000 less for every day you don’t have the character. (like personally I didn’t have any of the last 5, which kinda sucks. Especially since my team is capable of completing the final node.

Lightning rounds? I mean I enter like 4, I hate how they’re timed because I live in ny so during traveling and such I can’t say whether I’ll even have internet access for long enough periods to do the seeds let alone what I’ll be doing during them.

So my numbers get chopped a bit. LR being available more often would make a huge difference. on the weekends or downtime days I usually could play a few 10 minute sessions here and there, but they aren’t available then.

9

While I like where you’re going with this, your calculation is WAAAAY off.

I only play PVP and DDQ for the most part. I supplement here and there with some LRs and PVE on a very rare occasion (I actually don’t play for anything more than ISO and progress rewards when needed - i.e. played till I got SW just now…). Between tokens and covers gained through the pvp/pve and fb rewards from allies, I tend to do about 10k/day. This is sufficient to level most of my 3*s.

Now, I’m not saying this is enough - in fact, it isn’t nearly so. However, it’s also not as bleak as you make it sound…

Just my 5 cents (no pennies in Canada).

EDIT: I level one character at a time. I used to level more until most were about equal, and I had a sufficient roster to play PVP regularly without fearing not having enough health packs. Now I just do the ones I care about. SW/IF and Psy are getting preferrential treatment at the moment. In terms of ISO, I had 800 yesterday, today I have 18,000 - mostly just LRs and PVE with DDQ added in as a nice 4k boost.