State of the game from a longtime casual player

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I’ve read some threads about 4* dilution and certain character teams (gritty) current power levels. I wanted to speak to both of them, so instead of posting in one of those threads I decided to start this one.

I know most of the posters here are hardcore players. I’m someone who has played for over 1100 days, with some breaks in between. I seldom fully clear PvE and my goal in PvP is to get the 10 CP at 575. I don’t schedule my life around MPQs clock. I do spend about $20 every few months.

Two things have made MPQ almost unbearable for someone like me. 4* dilution and facing the same impossible teams in PvP. Gritty is one that I see all the time. Another is Madusa & Carnage, although that one is beatable with the roster I have.

Because I don’t play in a top 50 alliance and don’t do full clears, I have not been able to keep up with the character release schedule. At this point I know that I will never catch up. Fine, I’ll play the game my way and have fun. Except that fun is being forcibly taken away from me. PvE got repetitive and boring, so I prefer PvP. Except now that I have 3 champed 4s (Iceman, Hulkbuster, and Ant-man) and a few 5 with multiple covers I end up facing the same limited teams made up of a small number of characters. Kitty, Grocket, Madusa, Captain Marvel, and a few other 4 and 5* over and over again.

I am stuck in MPQ purgatory. I have 1 cover of Kitty. 1 cover of 4* grocket. My own roster, while substantial, mostly consists of champed 3* is now mostly useless in PvP. Not only am I facing the same 8 characters in PvP, I am forced to use the same few on my roster that have the ability to even have a chance against them. So my progress is slowed and dilution gives me little to no chance at champing any new 4* or any 5*. I mostly get a 2nd or 3rd cover of a character I can’t use at that level or I get a new character I’ll never get fully covered. The game for me is purgatory, edging quickly towards hell. I’m seriously considering uninstalling it. I love the idea of MPQ, and the alliance events are still a lot of fun, but the light at the end of the MPQ tunnel is fading quickly.

IDK what the best solution is for the community as a whole. I just wanted to put a voice to what I assume are many like me that love to play MPQ, put money into it, but do no play to the extreme. People like me are being squeezed out the more times goes by. It makes me sad that a game I have mostly enjoyed for over 1100 days doesn’t seem to want me around anymore. I know it’s just a game, but I put a lot of time into it. Not the end of the world, but still sad.

2

First thing to say is: Don’t give up! In another thread I posted about how I managed to cover fully and champ Moon Knight from a 0/2/0 build by using bonus heroes - it is completely possible although not necessarilly very fast. I just really liked MK even though he wasn’t meta and when he is boosted I go nuts and wreck, it was totally worth the time invested! If you BH’ed 4* Captain Marvel AND 3* Captain Marvel who is in turn fed by 2* Captain Marvel you could definitely finish her in a much quicker timeframe. And a boosted CM4 is such wicked fun!

Secondly: Did you level your 5*? If so that might be causing some issues in PvP.

I’m also a day 1000+ player (Day 1000 for me was last anniversary!) and sometimes also play as casually as you do (I periodically skip PvE events altogether to stop getting bogged down by the repetition) but can only say that obtaining certain 4* and champing them really can change PvP for the better. Set yourself a goal - maybe like the Cap Marvel one above as something to look forward to in terms of progressing. With Pvp - try different time slices or starting earlier or later - you will be surprised at how things can change up depending on WHEN you play.

Hope things get better in the short term. :slight_smile:

3

Oh and EVERYBODY eventually runs into the wall of Gritty/Grockadusa in SHIELD Sim, it is very annoying!

4

All of my 5* are at lvl 255. I am afraid to level up any of them for fear of making things even worse. Then again, I can’t level much since my best 5 stars are only at 5 covers.

5
6

I think it’s about expectation. I’m a 100% FTP player clocking about half your in-game days and I’m in a top 5000 to 10000 alliance. I have about 25 champed 4* and I have rostered every single 4*. The reason is mainly because I play competitively (top 10 in PvEs) and top 10 in PvP SCL 6. However I’m in top 50 for PvP SCL 9.

So, I think you can see the roster progress difference between competitive and casual players.

The reward for 4* covers via progression and placement are pretty much fixed. You are only gaining 2 4* progression covers per week (different characters) due to your playstyle. Competitive players probably gain 10 to 15 4* covers (via progression and placement) per week, which is about 5 to 7 times your progress per week.

Season rewards, champ rewards and 4-stars from token pulls have not being included, due to the complexity and variation involved. But generally speaking, you are probably earning about 60-70CP per week from PvEs and PvPs, which is about an extra 2-3 4 covers.

The question is: what kind of progress do you expect to have, given your current playstyle, and probably spending. For example, how many champed 4* do you think you should have now, or should casual players similar to your situation have now?

The only solution is to increase 4* covers gained via progression to 3 covers per PvE or per PvP, or even 6, which is virtually impossible. Even an extra 4* cover per day in DDQ won’t solve whatever dilution problem there is for casual players. 365/80 4 stars = extra 3-4 specific 4* covers per year. Making a 70-80% PTW model will probably turn new players off.

End of the day, it still boils down to managing expectation…

7

Do you mean the 4’s are level 350 when boosted?

MMR is a mysterious thing, nobody knows for certain how it really works but we have all been there hitting that wall. You can get through it though. During vaulting I didn’t manage to champ a single meta character, I was that unlucky - where others got Vulture and R4G I was getting Mordo and Wasp before her re-make. So yeah, I know how it feels but the only option is to try and get the characters that can help you do better.

8

I do not expect to champ every 4* and 5*. There are a number of characters I do not care about and will never use unless required. I fully understand that I am not going to achieve the same level of play as those putting 8 hours a day into MPQ. I’m ok with that.

I do expect a game to be fun and right now MPQ isn’t because of 2 main issues. The biggest issue is dilution. I’m into 4* land now and even if I never got out of it I’d be fine as long as I had some feeling of progress as they continue to release additional 4* characters. The rate they come out with new 4* combined with the rate I obtain 4* covers have essentially stopped my roster progress. I’ve been stuck using Iceman, Hulkbuster and 5* Doom most of the time in PvP in order to get to the 575 and collect the 10CP. If I had some choice over what covers I could get when cashing in my CP it would help a lot. Right now chances are I will end up with a my first cover or a new character or the 2-5th cover of someone else who has been sitting on my roster for over a year. Bonus heroes don’t make any noticeable difference to a player like me.

I don’t need to get a new 4* champed in a month. what I would like is a way to champ A SINGLE 4* within a year after putting hours a day into this game. Give me some way to make some sort of progress so I can use new characters and keep the game fresh. I got my first Thing and 4* Kingpin covers a month into playing. 1100 play days later they sit at 6 covers each. I put multiple hours into the game many of those days.

Yes, there are ways to somewhat improve things, like hoarding CP. But this is a game and I want to have fun and feel some sense of progress. Hoarding CP for months gets me neither of those.

9

A few weeks ago I got it into my head that maybe…maybe…the character release train might slow a bit as a way to slow down dilution.

Then Sabretooth released a week after Rescue, and we see another character coming next week again, and it goes on and on for obvious reasons (new character = resource pressure and something to work for/keep playing). And that thought has left my head, we are continuing to speed down the tracks, adding more and more characters until someday the train runs out of track.

It makes me sad that they don’t know what to do about dilution. It’s been almost a year (just a few weeks away) since they changed the tokens.

My position for now is that any new player who isn’t going to be playing super hard (and spending) should play until they get the 3’s champed and plan to walk away. That’s kind of always been the case, but it’s even more obvious to me now.

New casual players really have no hope of making significant progress in the 4 tier without a lot of luck and bonusing certain people, and even then it will be slow given the laughable bonus rate. Even for someone who places well and draws a lot of Latests (my low end per day is usually 3, with many days having a lot more draws), bonus heroes are very rare.

One would like to think that there might be a path for a casual player to make slow but steady enough progress to move up and maybe even decide to try harder, but that path seems hard to find as things stand.

10

I mean they are lvl 350 minimum period. usually higher when they are boosted

11

@PartyOfFore , It would appear we were both in VERY similar positions in the game at one point in time, and I think you’ve correctly identified the problem–dilution.

A couple years ago, I had very low level 3* champs (all under Lv200, and probably below Lv180) with three 4* champs: Devil Dinosaur, Nick Fury and Star Lord. When I had a single 4* champ, even though it was Devil Dino, MMR typically matched me against purely 3* rosters or other single-champ 4* rosters. Once I champed Nick Fury, MMR started to assume that I had EVERY 4* champed, so I was suddenly seeing only boosted low-champed 4* and max-champed 3* teams (or teams with 5*'s in the Lv 330-360 range, no matter what the rest of the roster looked like), regardless of whether any of my 4*'s were boosted (and Devil Dino is only boosted two weeks for the entire year). I was about to either quit the game or sell most/all of my 4* champs to make the game bearable again (there was roster-based scaling in PVE at the time, which was also horrible for my roster). Fortunately for me, vaulting was implemented and between that, a head start on a few 4*'s I already had rostered and bonus heroes I was able to get a solid dozen more 4*'s champed in a 4-5 month period and stabilize the game from there. Now, I’m in a position where I still only have low 4* champs, but also a sizable number of 3* max champs which gives me the options I need to stay competitive in an MMR very similar to yours.

With the current dilution, you’re much more limited in your options. You will need to focus your bonus hero draws on a single 4* (preferably one fed by a 3*, or as @DAZ0273 suggested going 2/3/4 with Captain Marvel). This hero MUST be someone who can punch above their weight, meaning they can take on boosted 4*'s even when they are not boosted. For me, that character was 4Thor, who with IM40 could hold her own (though admittedly, I was using her in a much slower meta than the current one). Aside from 4* Carol, other options would include Peggy Carter (fed by 3* Psylocke) or maybe Nova (fed by Dr Strange). As good as 4* GRocket is, he loses some of his value if he’s not with better teammates and I don’t see either GRocket/Iceman or GRocket/3*Gamora being good enough when they’re not boosted.

Using what you already have, Iceman with 3* Iron Man might be your best option currently, when none of the others are boosted. Not a top tier option, mind you, but good enough for 16 wins. Otherwise, Ant-Man/4* Carol is a deceptively good pairing, which also covers 5/6 colors (you want your Ant-Man to be x/x/5 to maximize the interaction with Carol).

If I were you, I would suggest going Carol-or-bust and see if that one extra champion could turn the tables for you. You can also play PVP early for seed teams with 1* or 2* characters and bait attacks from 2* players to try and get 16 wins in PVP instead of 575 points (this sometimes works wonders, but isn’t always reliable). Also, consider playing the PVP season simulator very early and only going for wins (during the current season, I was able to play 75 wins for the Ronin cover without either using or facing a single Rocket & Groot team–I skipped them all, just to see if it were possible; of course, I never crested 1,500 points, but with only playing ~5 games a day for the first two weeks of the season, I had to expect to take my lumps). This will only net you a single 4* cover, but it will feed your 2* farm and get you 3* covers to accelerate their champ levels, without necessarily hitting the wall of top-tier teams at higher point levels.. Beyond that, as your 3*'s start to get closer to max-champing, not only do your rewards go up, but you also have some high level 3*'s to supplement your low-champed 4*'s (which is the exact situation I’m in right now).

I’m not going to lie: none of these are great solutions, but they’re viable if you want to stick with the game.

12

I think as a casual player, that is the major problem with the game. There’s another Marvel game I play where they just released Bishop this week. I had rostered him within 10 minutes of launching the game after the patch, and have continued to advance him every single day. It isn’t RNG. If there’s a character you want to work on, that character will get better. Period.

Jump back to MPQ, and there 4*'s I haven’t finished in literally a year after their release. There are 5*'s that I haven’t gotten a single cover for in literally a year. RNG and dilution just have this horrible multiplicative effect. And, sure sure, I could sacrifice 36 draws and pay the 720 HP directly for a single cover. But… something about the math on that equation just doesn’t seem like I’m getting a fair deal.

13

I was never a big PvP player and used to get 300 points and stop. Now I don’t bother because MMR means that I’m getting 5* champs continually (I have none) and normally gritty teams. I can beat them but it’s just not worth it to me in terms of time investment and the climb element where I get hit faster than I can climb.

I know I can get more covers and CP by doing more PvP so but there isn’t much point: I’m on day 2022, I’m not overly bothered about competing in PvP so the rewards go on upgrading characters for PvE. That makes little or no difference any more either so they become nice to haves. I only really compete on PvE new character releases now but always hit max progression on all events.

I don’t quite know how I feel about it. My waning interest is a shame, but nothing more. I’ve had more than 5 years of entertainment value, collected over 180 characters and even will max a level 5 support soon. Yes I could have got more covers through investing more time. I still play and enjoy it when I do, i just don’t care about placement so I guess that’s ok. I don’t begrudge others playing more and progressing faster. I have always wished that the rewards would be more balanced for PvE and PvP but I get why they’re not. And I wouldn’t play more if they were.

TLDR version: For mainly PvE players, dilution is even worse due to lower rewards and both MMR and gritty have killed PvP for me. But mostly MMR.

14

Dilution is my biggest complaint. I don’t think there is a viable solution and it’s frustrating that they won’t acknowledge it or atleast have an open discussion about possible solutions.

I found PVP helps me get more 4 star covers, but it’s more of an annoyance to climb in pvp as sometimes I get to 850 and keep getting hit non stop so I never hit 900 unless I start dropping coin on shields.

Overall I think if they released some metrics about the playerbase and how dilution is impacting or not impacting players would be great.

15

I don’t know what is going on for you there, sorry. I have Thor at 350 and everybody else below and do not suffer with that sort of MMR.

16

@Brigby
@Malcrof

Can we get this combined with the other treads speaking to dilution blah blah blah. The OP stated in his opening sentence that we was speaking to existing threads and topics.

I just feel like this is when we need moderation on continuing discussion vs moderation that is just sending a thread to suggestions.

17

There is another option for you to champ specific 4* of your choice. One that hasn’t been mentioned because most players don’t like to consider it.

But you could purchase a specific cover for a 4* for 120 cp. For example your Thing/KP both sit at 6 covers. You need 7 more which is 120X7=840 CP to champ 1 of them. Players on here will howl that’s a bad use of CP but it’s only 42 Classic draws. 42 draws is only 1/2 of a cover for the 80+ 4* characters.

If you don’t ever plan to go to the 5* tier or champ ever 4* then this could be a very viable option for you to get a few more 4* champs in a reasonable about of time (If you earn 30 CP a week from PvE/PvP/Deadpool/Daily Resupply) that’s 28 weeks or 6 months time so you could finish 2 more 4* this way in a year. More if you earn more CP a week.

Incidentally, I’d focus on 4* Carol over Thing/KP if you have a decent amount of covers for her since she’s a much better 4*. Medusa’s great too since she speeds PvE up thanks to her attack tile. 4* Rocket’s great for that too but you only have 1 cover.

KGB

18

I just championed 4* Iron Spider and thought to myself “OOh, I never get a new 4* championed so quickly”

Then I realized that he has probably been around a year…

Been playing 5 years and I have three Championed 5* characters.

Dilution sucks.

19

@PartyOfFore
@PartyOfFore
Thank You for sharing. The long term vets that play at a higher level have been very vocal about this but it is great to see a casual player speak up about the same issues. I hope that the Dev team looks at this but I think this is all for a lost cause anymore.

20

This is actually the primary reason why my rating for the game is quite low when they ask how likely I am to recommend this game to a friend.

The game doesn’t seem very well equipped to handle casual play past the 3* tier.

There are a number of ways they could address the dilution issue:

  1. Go back to vaulting. The advantage of this is that it makes it easier to fully cover new 4* characters but on the flip side it makes it even more difficult to get older 4* characters (although one could question if that matters considering the current state of dilution).

  2. Run thematic token festivals centered around various affiliations. For a limited period of time, such a token would provide significantly increased odds at getting characters associated with that affiliation. So for example, X-men festival would provide increased odds on all 4*, 3*, 2* X-men characters.

I recommend this be done with Heroic Tokens instead of creating new tokens so it gives a player the power of choice: they can hoard their tokens until the festival of their desired character(s) is featured and maximize their chances of getting the character(s) they want.

Maybe such festivals can happen on off weeks when new characters aren’t released?

Possible Major Affiliations:
Avengers
Champions
Fantastic Four (plus Inhumans?)

Spider-verse
X-men
Villains

Would be the Major Affiliation groups, although every now and then they could try other categories like:

Street Brawler (street level superhero types: Daredevil, Elektra, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Spider-man)
Mystic Warriors: (magic users: Mordo, Nico Minoru, Wiccan, Magik, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

and so on

Ideally the festivals should do a full cycle every three months as it gives players something to work towards that is neither too soon or too far.

  1. A popular suggestion is adding a new node to Deadpool Daily that rewards a 4* cover daily. Considering the amount of 4* characters, I don’t think it will ruin the game economy and would be a nice gesture to build good will with the community.

  2. A new 4* only token type that randomly drops as a bonus reward.

  3. New events with smaller vaults that are focused almost exclusively on 4* and 3* characters. Maybe provide an event ticket to all players for one free run through where they can earn x amount of tokens to the the vault. If they wish to play the event again and gain more tokens, they have to pay using HP.

For example: a vault can contain 10 4* covers, 30 3* covers, 4 4* only tokens, and 6 Hero Points rewards (one: 1000 HP, two: 250 HP, three: 100 HP). Maybe have it cost 500 HP for another try. A full run through will reward 8 tokens to the vault, however, the event should be challenging meaning most players won’t be able to get the full 8 tokens.

Ideally the event won’t be accessible until a player has almost finished the 3* tier (have no clue what Shield Rank that would be)

A 3* player should be able to net: 3~4 tokens through one play through.
A 4* player should be able to net: 4~6 tokens through one play through.
A 5* player should be able to net: 6~7 tokens through one play through.

And only the strongest, most resourceful or clever players should be able to get all 8 tokens.

Hopefully said event would focus on the more puzzle like aspects of the game (think: Kaecilius, Apocalypse, Ultron) and would be available to play for 7~10 days.

Obviously, it would be nice if such an event could be updated and have different challenges each run through but I understand the dev team only has so much time and resources.

I do think, however, that it behooves the dev team to focus on courting casual players, dealing with this dilution issue and introducing new ways of enjoying the game.