Not very noob friendly.

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I downloaded this game the other hoping for a good time, but I have already second thoughts since the game does nothing to introduce the player in a nice way. Events are all over the place. First Assignment is the same as X Men In Trouble, what is what and why? PVP is a mess as the game tries to match me with players 3x my level, the grind to get a nice reward is already a migraine matter, I need to “babysit” the app to max my “PVE” points, my roster is depressing with a few covers here and there which has stopped me from being able to level my heroes up, the need to buy roster slots for every golden point I find but still having 11 heroes I can’t roster because of that I can’t farm more currency etc. etc. etc.
I bet this game is fun for those who have played a year or more but as a new player it feels like I walked into a poisonous swamp.
There were also some Deadpool event starting today and I think the game “tricked” me into picking a difficulty way above my league because I can’t beat these nodes. Luke Cage be like “uppercut” and I die. It’s like the game didn’t teach me about “clearance levels” - and now I basically can’t play more for several days due to both PVE and PVP being too hard for my level 50 Iron Man and 4 covers Kalama.

I’m not sure if I’m approaching the game the wrong way?
Do noobs generally stay in the game or are they turned off by the slow and hard progress like me?

2

So I used these guides when I got serious:

https://forums.505go.com/discussion/74686/2019-guide-to-progressing-fast#latest

https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelPuzzleQuest/wiki/new-player-advice

I ignored the recommendation to spend money on HP since I’m pretty poor, though if you do wait for the shield packs or HP sale. If you spend a lot, find a alliance with whales. They should be easy to find on here or Reddit.

I also consult the above guides when I transition between star tiers. Good luck. There is a bit of a curve but the game can be fun if you like match-3 collecting games.

3

Hi Aueio!
Without knowing exactly where you are in game, we might need a bit more information to give more precise advice.

So the first question to ask is - have you finished Prologue? That is where you generally start out as a new player and it will equip you with a number of 1* and 2* characters with which to start building out your roster as well as other rewards such as iso-8 and some Hero Points. Finishing Prologue (if not already done) is a priority. Once you reach a certain rank (sorry can’t rememer what level that is), you can also apply to join an Alliance and the rewards and help you can get from your Alliance mates can be of great assistance in progressing - especially by giving higher level team-ups to help you with tricky battles.

Story mode (or PvE) is gated - you need to be a certain SHIELD Rank before you can play at higher levels so the game will not let you join a higher level than your ranking allows. Deapool vs MPQ is a bit of tricky event for newer players because it has the vast majority of opponents as actual characters/tile movers as opposed to goons who tend to just put out countdown tiles.
Versus or PvP is definitely not new player friendly but we can try and help with that also although you might be frustrated at first until you have built out your 2 * roster a bit better and moved into 3* territory.

Now as a player of quite a few years I can’t speak to what newer players on the Forums experience has been as MPQ has changed a lot over time so they might be able to give you a better perspective than I can.
It also depends on what sort of player you are - it is possible to “fast track” through MPQ and there are guides etc in various places but MPQ is also quite a bit a long game or as they say “A marathon not a sprint”.

4

For being brand new, this player seems to have picked up some insider terminology pretty quickly.

5

I’m not sure what you’re implying. I’ve stalked the forum and guides. Clearance Level and covers, they’re pretty self-explained. Nodes and roster, we have those in other games as well. Other than that I can’t see much terminology other than a few character and event names. I’m pretty sure “golden point” is called something else but I couldn’t remember what. ::smile:

6

Thanks for the write-up. I have absolutely completed the prologue and also all the campaigns up until Ragnarok (is that the end?) and done the First Attendance event for the Kamala covers. I have some of the starter heroes at their max level but they’re too bad to be used in PVP. And so I entered Deadpool event at a too hard difficulty so that’s a wall. I guess I’ll have a few days of doing nothing to help be decide if I wanna keep playing or not. It’s pretty harsh that I / we need 12 (13?) duplicates of the same hero to make them good, I think that alone is gonna make me delete the game but then again I knew this before I downloaded the game so I can only blame myself! :blush:

7

Your concerns are a reason that, for years, I’ve told D3 in their surveys that I am unlikely to recommend this game to new players. There’s just no real catchup mechanism to get up and running, and it’s a fairly uphill battle. I will say, I’m not well versed with 3* pvp (or even 4* pvp these days) so I don’t know what the scene is like, but having so many characters out there - with many of them not being very good at all - is daunting and unless you’re willing to spend,spend,spend to get yourself going and increase access to a wider variety of characters at a much quicker pace, it seems like it would be a very un-fun slog. Even then, that’s a double edged sword, because if you end up accumulating a few characters outside of your current range (IE getting a bunch of 4s and 5s when you’re trying to get yourself going in 3* land) it can be detrimental to you, especially with PVP matchmaking.

8

If you have been lurking around the forums hopefully you checked out this threadl
https://forums.505go.com/discussion/85181/watch-the-keys-to-success-video-guides-6-11-21#latest

It also looks like you fell into the trap that I see a lot of new players fall into. You tried to got too far too fast. The biggest tip I could give new players is:

Don’t expect to catch up in a week or two. Take your time.

The game has been out for almost 8 years so there is a lot of content. Take your time and build your 2* roster. Then move to the 3* roster. Then move up from there. Don’t roster 4* and 5* characters until you have a deep roster of high ranking (i.e. maxed or almost maxed) 2* and 3* characters. Unless you want to spend serious money having partial 4* and 5* characters will only hurt you (especially in PvP).

9

If you’ve been reading a ton of stuff and you’re looking to get hardcore right away, maybe that’s what I was picking up on. This is not meant to be a hardcore game, maybe ever, but certainly not at the beginning.

Play casually. The types of things you’re reading about aren’t going to be relevant for you until years from now, if ever, unless you’re going to be spending tens of thousands of dollars to skip past huge parts of the game and get competitive immediately.

10

I’m not looking to be hardcore right away, definitely not, I’m pointing at a few things in the game that are boring for a newbie to see. If a game splashes me with occasional 4 or 5 stars I’ll get them of course - a normal game wouldn’t “punish” my progression for doing so.
Honestly though I think the game looks to have enough content to give enough toys for a new player to toy around with so that he can actually play the events that are running and not having to “shelf” the game for several days. Again, not talkie about having an endgame roster after a week of playing, but, you know, “welcome to Marvel Puzzle Quest, here’s a little something for you to get a good start!”.

11

This game has been around for a very long time, significantly longer than many other games of this type, and it’s been around that long precisely because it’s had a consistent stream of new players from the beginning.

They’re incredibly successful at converting new players into small spenders, and that’s what keeps the game alive for everyone else. I don’t know how many of them stick around for years, but the mobile games industry assumes a large amount of player churn – that’s how these games are designed. They’re not made to be played seriously, they’re meant to be a diversion for a few minutes while you’re in the toilet.

I strongly suspect you’re an angry veteran player posing as a newbie trying to make some point, which is extremely weird but is a thing that perpetually-angry veteran players of this game would definitely do.

If by some chance you’re actually a new player, stop worrying about progressing optimally. Roster characters if you want to, or don’t. Play what you can play when you feel like it.

12

Welcome , but you’re 8 years behind the vast majority of players here . Still it’s a fun game after a few years in

13

This does feel very… Odd.

Joining a game of this type which naturally rewards longevity of play and/or spending money, a new player can’t expect to be challenging the harder aspects of the game from the off. That isn’t to say it can’t be enjoyable but the early weeks/months will be a slog until your roster starts bulking out.

As others have said, plenty of guides out there for new players, but ultimately if you aren’t enjoying it then delete the app and go find something that you can get instant gratification from.

14

This is a secret but don’t tell anyone… The players who’ve played a year or more were once new players. Also, those same players were noobs once who stayed in the game.

It’s a freemium game that tries to get you to spend money early on. Many have never spent money. Some spent some money early and then after a certain point don’t spend at all.

MPQ is hard.

15

Actually I’d say MPQ is a commitment.
You have to commit (30 minutes a day minimum) to playing the game to advance much past the prologue.

KGB

16

To advance much past the prologue? I’m pretty sure you can do an SCL1 PvE with a few 1*, and the game gives you a bunch of 2* at the very beginning now anyway.

You don’t have to commit to anything. Not everyone wants to be competitive. Not everyone aims to build a top-5% roster (which nearly everyone who posts here has).

If your goal is to get into the top 5% of all players, then yeah, that’s going to take either a lot of time or a lot of money, or both. That shouldn’t be news. The game has been around forever and a lot of top players have also been around forever.

17

I just went through the first few weeks of the game with my daughter recently. Here are a few thoughts:

  • 1* characters become irrelevant very fast, certainly within the first week of regular play. Keep only one of these – Spider-Man is probably the best choice – and sell off the rest as you need to.

  • 2* characters should be your primary focus at the start of the game. Try to roster all of them, but don’t worry too much about leveling all of them up. Focus on the ones that you get a lot of covers for and try to get the full 13 covers for them, then level them up to 94 (and beyond). If you have a choice, Thor, Wolverine, Black Widow, Storm, and Ares are some of the better ones. Don’t waste space on Spider-Man (Bagman).

  • Quests give a very good push in the direction the game wants you to go. Check Milestone Quests frequently to see how you can make progress. Sometimes the Milestones don’t make intuitive sense; there are several things about this game that don’t make intuitive sense. Just go with it and reap the rewards.

  • Don’t spend Hero Points on anything except more roster slots.

  • If you are willing to spend a little money, the offers that pop up for three days each time you hit a new clearance level are worth the price. For example, for $20 you can collect the first three clearance level offers. This will provide you with all the 2* characters, and probably enough Hero Points to roster them.

  • Having one cover of a 4* character can be very useful in the first week or two. Once your other characters surpass level 70, though, that 4* character will not be worth keeping. The roster slot will be better spent on 2* or 3* characters. You will probably benefit more from having the ISO-8 for selling a 4* character than from adding that character to your roster.

  • Having one cover of a 5* character will be game-warping. It will likely make Story events much easier and quicker, but it is also likely to wreck your fun in Versus events, due to how the game pairs you with opponents.

  • For the above reason, opening a Latest Legends token is going to yield a reward you probably can’t use. I am loathe to recommend hoarding tokens for later progress, but if there is one area in which hoarding is probably best for new players, it is here. Fortunately, you shouldn’t encounter many of them. But don’t worry too much about selling off the results of a Latest Legends token (even if it’s a 5*). One cover won’t make much difference in the endgame.

  • For the above reasons, Command Points should not be spent on Latest Legends or Classic Legends tokens. Instead, they are better spent (at least in the first month or two) on adding covers to specific 3* characters. I would highly recommend setting either Thanos or Doctor Strange as your 3* target for shards, then spending any Command Points on adding covers to those characters. (Thanos will quickly wipe out the enemy team after you down one character, while Doctor Strange will penalize the enemy team for firing powers.)

  • Since there are over 40 3* characters, you will likely have to pick and choose which ones you roster initially. Each 2* character gives rewards for a 3* character. This can serve as a guide for which ones are more important to add to your roster. For example, 2* Wolverine will eventually give rewards for 3* Wolverine.

  • Story events become significantly harder for each clearance level, and therefore more time-consuming. Analyze the rewards you wish to obtain and decide whether it’s worth the time investment. It may be a fine balance to join Story events at 1-3 levels below your highest available choice.

  • Playing Story events is a little strange. As with the first practice event that unlocks (First Attendance), Story events are designed for you to play each mission multiple times to attain the highest scores. The optimal method of play is to play through the missions 4 times each when each subchapter begins, then return near the end of the subchapter to play through the missions another 3 times.

  • Joining an alliance can be very useful. Not only will you gain rewards based on alliance performance, but you can also request team-ups from other alliance members every half hour. If the other members of your alliance have been playing for awhile, their higher-level team-ups will make your battles quicker and easier.

  • Unlike Story events, Versus events are not harder when you play in a higher clearance level, so there is probably no compelling reason not to join the highest possible level when you can. Matches in Versus events will take a lot longer than in Story events, generally, due to the higher-level characters that are loaned to each player. This is especially true when the featured character of the event is a 4* or a 5* character.

18

You must have misunderstood what I meant by commitment.
As you said, you can always enter events at very low CL’s if you just want to match a few tiles / win a couple battles and put the game away until another day.
But if you want to advance your roster in any meaningful way (more than a handful of characters rostered, higher level characters in terms of ISO and covers) you have to play. A fair bit, not just 5 or 10 minutes here and there. And you have to repeat the same stuff (PvE events plus multiple hits on nodes within each PvE event, DDQ, PvP etc) over and over again without being bored by that (ie there is no long RPG story mode to play through like the prologue is).

KGB

19

Hi. I picked up this game less than a year ago (November), and I generally don’t do too badly in the 4* land pvp events, and am mostly successful at completing the SCL9 pve events. (The 5* nodes can tend to kick my butt, but it’s worth doing the higher SCL levels for the rewards.)

Yes, it is frustrating to have a queue of characters that you can’t roster early on. Eventually you will get to a point where you can. My strategy has been to chase every Hero Point I can realistically get. I do spend a relatively low amount (around $50/,month) on packs that contain enough Hero Points so that can usually roster the characters that I want. Although now that my queue is very short (2), I don’t spend nearly as much anymore because I can usually roster the covers before they expire.

Advice that has been given to me and that I have learned is this:

  1. Have a goal. Keep your goals short term focused mainly, with possible long term goals as well.

1A. Early on your goal should be to roster all of the 2* characters (some debate whether Bagman is worth the slot, but I have him champed, so to me he’s a yes. Others he’s a no, and that’s fine. It’s your choice.) Then you should champ all of your 2s to begin setting up your “farm.”
The reason for this is that you will get many, many 2 covers just through playing the game. Spending the ISO to champ 2s is worth it, because once your characters are champed, they will then start earning rewards for you with subsequent covers. Once a 2 character gets “max champed” (level 144), that is when you will want to sell them, but don’t make the mistake of selling them before they get to 144. At level 144, you get about 65K Iso (and 120 HP), which is just about what it takes to champ them from level 15 to level 94. Meaning the Iso that you invest in them in the beginning is what you get back when they’re max champed, so everything you earn from level 94 to 144 is a bonus, and well worth it.

1B Then I recommend having a goal of rostering all of the 3*s, (but your goals may be different than mine were,) and then

1C. get them champed. This is not a quick feat. It took me 5-6 months of playing to complete this goal, but in doing so, now every 2* and 3* cover I get is a bonus. Yes, I am in deep iso debt at the moment (about 1.7M required to level all of the characters that I can), but again, that’s just another aspect of building your roster. I don’t expect to have everyone as high as they can be right away. I could pay more actual money to do so, but I’m content earning the Iso and spending it where I wish.

  1. Join an alliance. Some are ultra competitive, and some are more relaxed, so find one that works for you. You will get daily rewards from them, as well as team ups and advice, so it’s something to definitely look into. Also, if you’re looking at an alliance where all of the members have 200+ slots and you have like 25, you may want to look elsewhere. There is a board on these forums for finding alliances.

  2. Save LL tokens and Command Points. I know it’s very tempting to spend them, but until you complete 1A and 1B goals, you’re more likely to have those covers end up getting sold instead of getting rostered, and that sucks because 4 and 5* covers are more difficult to come by.

Anyway, there’s more and better advice that the veteran members can give you, but for me, this is what I would tell newer players. Welcome. and have fun! :slight_smile:

20

Two more points that I missed on my first pass in my previous post. I have since edited them in, but I also present them here since I see that the OP has already read my original version.

  • Since you won’t likely be rostering 4* and 5* characters, opening a Latest Legends token is going to yield a reward you probably can’t use. I am loathe to recommend hoarding tokens for later progress, but if there is one area in which hoarding is probably best for new players, it is here. Fortunately, you shouldn’t encounter many of them. But don’t worry too much about selling off the results of a Latest Legends token (even if it’s a 5*). One cover won’t make much difference in the endgame.

  • For the above reasons, Command Points should not be spent on Latest Legends or Classic Legends tokens. Instead, they are better spent (at least in the first month or two) on adding covers to specific 3* characters. I would highly recommend setting either Thanos or Doctor Strange as your 3* target for shards, then spending any Command Points on adding covers to those characters. (Thanos will quickly wipe out the enemy team after you down one character, while Doctor Strange will penalize the enemy team for firing powers.)