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This guide assumes the player is familiar with the game screens and knows how to complete basic actions, such as adding friends, joining a galaxy, attacking/spying players, hitting pillars, checking rankings, shopping in the mall/auction, etc. If not, please start by checking out this link first: Ultimate Question and Answer Guide. Also, we use a lot acronyms in the game. I've tried to include all the popular ones below to help y'all understand them.
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SPOILER ALERT
If you'd rather experience the "thrill" of finding out stuff in-game through trial and error, please don't read the remainder of the post!
Also, this is not a defacto guide on the best way to play TW. There are many ways to approach how you build your heroes, apply skills, etc. I'm just sharing what works for me and is efficient IMO.
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Heroes:
An ideal number for new players to aim for in the beginning is 14 heroes: 5 War Mu (Rogue in arena), 4 Com Veeren (Warrior), 3 Build Veeren (Seer), and 2 Tech Mu (Jester). When I say War hero, that means War is the primary stat when you hire/promote it and you only increase the War stat each time it levels up. The reason I'm suggesting this deck of heroes is because you can win P8-P9 pirates battles (using some skill cards + a decent Arena gear set) even when your heroes are at blue rank. Pirate battles are really important for earning EXP.
Here's a suggested order to building your team. You have 5 hero slots to start and can open 3 more slots by adding 50 friends in game, giving you a total of 8 slots... so start by hiring:
- 1 Com Veeren - This will be your Fortress (MF)/Grand Fortress (GF) hero in the beginning only. Do not apply war hero skills to this.
- 4 War Mu heroes - These will be your Mothership (MS) heroes. Apply war skills to these only (see Skills section below). Human (Berzerker) and Veeren (Fighter) are also good choices but Mu (Rogue) is best and it'll be good to have at least 2-3 Mus.
- 2 Build Veeren
- 1 Tech Mu
Once you have these, open 6 more slots using coupons ASAP and hire:
- 3 Com Veeren (or 2 Veeren + 1 Human for Paladin)
- 1 Build Veeren (or 1 Alcon for Priest)
- 1 Tech Mu (or 1 Alcon for Deadeye)
- 1 War Mu - This will be your long-term MF/GF hero
When you are able to afford more hero slots, add more Build and Tech heroes. I ended up with 11 Build and 4 Tech heroes. That gives me 8 heroes to build on planets with and 3 to use for building ships. I've got 3 Labs and 1 Institute, so 4 Tech heroes.
More info on hero races/classes/ranks - http://timeworld.wikia.com/wiki/Heroes.
Note: You can build your team differently than above. For example, some prefer having 1 War MF/GF hero + 4 War=Com MS heroes for doing the highest pillar damage. Players who go this route keep their base War and Com stats at the same level. Or you could try different variations of War:Com. It's totally upto you... but your main MF/GF hero needs to be pure war (i.e., its Com needs to come only from gear and enhances). You need 400 Com to use a Fortress and 700 Com to use a Grand Fortress, these ships are your tanks and you can only equip one total.
If you just want to progress though chapters/collect as soon as possible (e.g., for the Dream World gems), then you might want to hire 4 or 5 Com heroes before hiring any War heroes.
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Recruiting Heroes From Tavern:
There are two ways of hiring purple heroes, directly from the tavern or promoting from green/blue. I prefer the latter because there is less chance and it gives you more control over hero race as well as its stats. For example, if you're looking for a War Mu... find a green Mu in tavern with any 3 stats = 4. For example, its Build = 20 and War/Com/Tech = 4... this is called a Build Mu. Hire it, put one War only gear (green+) on it, level it up, and promote it to blue. After promotion, it will now be a War Mu with War = 20, Com/Tech/Build = 4. Btw, you don't need to have a Mu with 3 stats = 4... they can be any number, it's just something that's possible to do if you're a "perfectionist".
If you promote heroes up the color ranks, you're going to need crystals (yellow, green, blue, purple, gold). These crystals can be obtained from Treasure Hunt (TH) and Raids/WOH/Pirates.
Keep 1 Tavern on any planet at level 1. When the "Refresh to Epic/Rare" count is lower than the level 1 Tavern's "Refresh" count, refresh in the Tavern to get a level 1 purple/blue hero. I wouldn't recommend buying Level 4 Hero cards in the auction as a new player because that only gives you a low chance of getting the exact hero you want and your creds are better spent elsewhere.
Within a Tavern you can also trade ore and energy for credits if you need to. Personally, I only convert energy (not ore) into credits when I'm in urgent need and wouldn't recommend buying either ore or energy with creds.
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Skills:
Skills are obtained from magic books and are upgraded using either upgrade books or extra skills of the same type. Magic books can be bought in the mall using coupons/gold. Upgrade books can only be bought using gold. You also have a low chance of finding both books from doing visits and from the daily spin. Here's my suggestion for applying skills. You don't have to follow this, either ask around to get advice from your galaxy mates or apply your own choices.
- MF/GF War Hero (Gold): When purple rank... Multi, Triple, Penetrate, Dodge, Stealth, Repair, DefUp, AtkUp. After promotion to gold rank, the hero will have 10 skill slots... so then add Hit and Speed. If you're not using gold to level up, can consider using Talent skill after promoting to gold rank (until it hits L100) and then switch it out.
- 1 MS War Hero (Gold): When purple rank... Multi, Triple, Penetrate, Dodge, CommUp + any 3 of AtkUp, Hit, Speed, Stealth or Repair. I've listed these skills in the order I prefer them over others. After promoting to gold rank... add the skills you left out. Once again, the Talent skill is a good temporary option after promotion to gold rank.
- 3 MS War Heroes (Purple): Multi, Triple, Penetrate, Dodge + any 4 of AtkUp, Hit, Speed, Stealth, CommUp, Repair.
- Com Heroes (Purple): Combo, Crit, Lethality + any skills not used on MF/GF or MS heroes. FYI, you could also use combo and crit on your war heroes. However, long-term players prefer not to do that because they proc before Multi/Triple/Penetrate, which reduces the chance of these 3 triggering.
- Tech Heroes (Purple): Scientist and EXP only.
- Build Heroes (Purple): Engineer and EXP only.
Notes: 1). Multi and Triple are the two hardest skills to find from magic books, so use upgrade books to increase their level instead of using on more common skills. 2). Please keep in mind your Race's weapon stats and Gold Spirit stats when choosing which skill to apply. For example, Hit matters more to a Veeren than to a Human or Mu. 3). Plan how to apply skills to your MF/GF hero and MS heroes so you're not wasting skill books before you convert your MF/GF hero to gold rank. 4). After all 5 of your war heroes have their skill levels at level 4-5, it's advisable to focus upgrading skill levels on your MF/GF hero because it's your most important hero.
Hatemakingnames maintains a superb spreadsheet with skill and other game related info. Bookmark this link, it's an excellent resource!: Weapon Stats and Other Info.
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Gear:
- For all 5 war heroes, start off with sets of level 50 blue gear (45W/35C)... easily obtained from the mall for 100k creds. This will save your resources to buy a good purple set for your MF/GF hero. Having 4 sets of level 50 blue War/Build is nice for defense (i.e., when you're offline) because it lowers your army. War/Build also helps a bit with build times, if you need to use war heroes to build stuff.
- Try getting a set (head, weap, body, neck) of level 70+ War/Com gear ASAP. War/Com = War is primary stat and Com is second or third stat. Since level 80 and 75 gear are the highest and costliest available, you should be able to buy a set of level 70 88w/70c gear for your MF/GF hero for a reasonable price in the auction. Then you can work on getting more sets for your 4 MS heroes. I'd suggest getting only level 65+ for head/hand/body/neck.
- Only use gems to enhance gear that you're going to keep long-term, e.g., your MF/GF hero's gear (on which you should enhance War to level 10 and Com until you have 700 Com). For your MS hero's gear, there's no point enhancing War over level 4 and Com over level 3, unless it is high level gear you will use long-term. Build and Tech gems should be used to maximize the stat on your best Build and Tech gear.
- Headgear is only available for purchase with credits in the auction. They do not appear in the mall lottery.
- IMO, mall gear that is worthwhile getting with coupons is the best headgear available there (currently the 2016 Bunny Ears... Playmage updates with new gear every Easter, Halloween and Christmas). Level 75-80 War/Com headgear costs a ton of credits in the auction, so you might want to get one coupon headgear for your MF/GF hero at some point.
- For Com heroes, start off with sets of 45C/35W blue gear. As you progress though the game, you'll probably want to buy sets of level 70-80 Com/War or Com gear.
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Buildings:
Upgrade Ore Mine (OM) and Power Plant (PP) to increase resources earned. To start, you may want to focus on upgrading OM and PP to level 31-35+, on planets other than where you're raising main Lab, SY and Inst. Later on, it's recommended to upgrade a total of 2-4 Laboratories and atleast 1 Institute on separate planets. One level 41 shipyard (SY) will be needed to build a GF, the rest can be kept at level 16 to build MS. Keep 1 tavern at level 1, ideally not the tavern on your 1st planet (P1) because you'll want to upgrade all buildings on P1 to level 30 (for the badge). The badge gives you a reward of 10m creds, 10m ore and 5m energy... so complete it ASAP. P1 has a lower build-time/cost compared to other planets for buildings up to level 30. You can upgrade the remaining taverns to whatever level you like, although it's not required to upgrade them beyond level 10. Upgrading emplacement (Emp) is up to you. Emp defense does help in the beginning so I'd raise to a low level and leave there until you are richer and know what you want.
Example of buildings (1 SY + 2 main Lab + 1 Inst + 2 secondary lab) spread over 8 planets:
- P1: CC/SY/Lab to 26. All buildings to 30. SY/Lab to 41. Lab to 55. OM/PP to 55.
- P2: SY to 16. Lab/Emp/Tav to 10. OM/PP to 31. SY/Insti to 26. Insti to 55. OM/PP to 55.
- P3-5: SY to 16. Inst/Emp/Tav to 10. OM/PP to 31. Lab to 55. OM/PP to 55.
- P6-8: SY to 16. Lab/Inst/Emp to 10. Tav = 1. OM/PP to 55.
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Tech:
Primary Tech (raise these as high as possible ASAP):
- Racial Weapon (Human = Missile, Mu = Carrot, Alcon = Laser, Veeren = Bio)
- Attack
- Dodge
- Lethality Defence
- Carrot Weapon for non-Mu folks (Laser for Mu folks)
- Missile Defence
- Laser Defence
- Bio Defence
- Target
Secondary Tech (raise these after your primary tech is at a good level):
- Defense
- Carrot Defense
- Laser Weapon for Human or Bio
- Lethality (if you'd like to equip Leth Fighters on defense)
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WoH Skill Cards:
P8 and P9 pirates are the best way of earning EXP for your heroes. If you've built a deck of 14 heroes as suggested above and obtain blue/purple skill cards, you should have no problem winning these pirate battles as well as Raid battles (such as General Staudt or Mummy King). The recommended order of getting blue/purple skill cards is: Precise Sniper, Hell Fire, Punch... work on these 3 first... then Laser, Nuclear Fission... and then whatever else you'd like to get next. For pirates, take only PSniper, HFire and Punch.
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Chapters/Collect:
- Chapters give good resource rewards, open new planets to build and collect resources from, and allows you to raise CC/Lab to higher levels. Finish chapter 9 ASAP, this will allow you to build CC/SY to 26 for building MFs. Use motherships instead of fighters to prolong your ships' life. When you get MF, then use 1 MF + 4 MS heroes.
- After completing a chapter, finish the corresponding "collect" for that chapter. The collect boss's army increases the more chapters you complete, e.g., if you're at chapter 10 and attempt collect boss 5.1, the boss's army is 25m... but if you're at chapter 16, the 5.1 boss's army could be 30m+.
- Completing a chapter gives you a full AP refresh. So use up all your AP on collect before attempting the chapter boss.
- Ask for 2 reinforcements (RFs) from your galaxy mates or in Kong chat when doing chapters/collect. Reinforcements are some of your friends' heroes coming to help you out in battles and a necessity. The type of RF you can get depends on your army size: 2m = Fighter or MS RF, 125m = MF RF, 200m = GF RF. Powerful reinforcements can make it very easy to complete chapters, especially if they have 1500+ war on the hero (preferably 1800+). Look at "Rank > Hero" for top players in game to add to your friend list.
- You should be able to do upto chapter 10/collect 8 using fighter or MS RFs (I always have fighters for defense so if you need a fighter RF, ask when you see me online), and chapter 15/collect 10 using MF RFs easily. Thereafter, you'll most likely need GF RFs to progress. If you're having trouble with any boss, try asking for MF/GF RFs that are built to counter its weapons and defense. For the highest chapters (17-19), you will need to build your own army to counter the bosses too.
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Coupons:
Coupons are your friend. You are going to need millions of coupons for opening hero slots, buying magic books, red/yellow gems, VIP, 2xEXP, gear (only the best headgear and weapon). They are best earned through hitting pillars, TH, daily login bonus, pink crystals (obtained from raids).
For new players, the best early use of coupons is to open a total of 14 hero slots, and then buy magic books until you've equipped your 5 war heroes with 8 good skills and upgraded most of the skills (if not all) to level 3 or 4. You can use skill books to upgrade skills too. Then start looking at buying 30 day VIP and 2xEXP (only when you intend to use AP for levelling your heoes). Plan out your purchases so you don't run out of VIP/2xEXP when you need it. A couple of backpacks will be nice too. You can use your starting 20 gold to buy a backpack (thanks for the tip @EvilGM). Gems and gear can come later on. You're going to need a ton of gems to upgrade your gear, so only upgrade the best.
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Pillars:
- Join a good pillar hitting galaxy at the earliest. Pillars grant a 50% bonus to the resources you collect. You get a coupon reward when your galaxy finishes in the top 6 ranks of hitters on the pillar (1st = 3k, 2nd = 2.5k, 3rd = 2k, 4th = 1.5k, 5th = 1k, 6th = 500). However, you need to hit a pillar once every 36 hours in order to earn more than 100 coupons as your reward.
- If you cannot find an opponent who you can beat in the player phase or your opponent is causing you to lose large amounts of ships, equip 1 MS or fighter on all 5 heroes for the player phase and then switch back to full army for the pillar phase. This way, you don't lose ships and are saved the trouble of rebuilding.
- Do not use fighters to hit pillars (or even to do chapters or attack players) because they get damaged easily and are costly to replace. Fighters are great for defense and for reinforcing new players only. Most players prefer to use 1 GF/MF + 4 MS/Battleships/Cruisers for other purposes.
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Treasure Hunt (TH):
Do TH every day, best way to earn coupons and collect crystals (including the elusive gold crystals). If you do TH in a team of 5-6 and your team's tiles clicked total is more than 50% of the map, then everyone in team also gets a gem (red, yellow, blue or green). When doing TH in teams, try to observe what strategy others in your team are following to click tiles and learn from that... starting from the top left/right and then going left-to-right or right-to-left using 1, 2 or 3 rows is generally a good practice. Don't put yourself or a team mate in a position where the only tile they can click is a High-Tech tile because High-Tech detectors cost gold and you'll be stuck.
Btw, you can do TH solo or in team, the choice is yours. Doing TH solo has the advantage of being able to click whatever tiles you want. Some prefer doing that to have a better chance of finding GCs.
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Daily Missions and Help Links:
Do the missions every day: 3 attacks, 3 visits, 1 WoH raid, craft 1 WoH card. You should be doing more than 3 attacks/visits though. Try to find a good balance between how you spend your AP (i.e., helping your galaxy hit pillars, doing chapters/collect/WoH arena, and attacking/visiting players for resources and EXP. The most efficient use of AP when attacking players is to attack players in galaxies that your galaxy is at war with. You get 100% more resources for a win against a player in a "war" galaxy, 50% more for "hostile" galaxy. To check your galaxy's diplomacy status, go to Galaxy Screen > Galaxy Settings > Diplomacy tab. You can also find targets in the Phantom Nebula and in the Targets screen (Rank button > Targets tab). Btw, if you find yourself getting attacked a lot or revenged by people you've attacked, equip War only gear and fighters on your 4 MS heroes to help you defend. I like to keep 1.5x the number of fighters I can equip on my 4 MS heroes in storage to use for when I'm afk or offline.
Also do 5 raids daily. There are 3 different bosses you can raid: Mummy King, General Staudt and Summoner... and 3 difficulty levels: Insane, Hard, Normal and Easy. General Staudt Hard (GSH) is the best for time spent to resources earned. New players should try to get on a GSH team with more experienced members every day! It's easy enough for stronger players to carry you through it and is an excellent source of resources when you're new. When you are stronger (i.e., have your deck of 14 and skill cards at purple rank), you can attempt Insane raids (MKI, GSI, SI). They are best for WOH gear and finding GCs.
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Hero Spirits:
Spirits can be crafted and enhanced in the Hero screen. Each spirit has a primary bonus (war, command, tech or build) and a secondary bonus that affects ship battles (attack, defense, speed, hit or avoid). Popular spirits are Blade of War, Evasion of War and Armor of War. For more information on spirits, read the patch notes from July 8, 2014.
IMO, new players shouldn't spend too many credits here... spirits are more for advanced players who have lots of resources. I suggest getting some blue/purple war spirits for your war heroes, to give them a little stat boost. Any extra spirits can be used to boost your MF/GF hero's spirit. Wait until you are much further along before trying to find gold spirits and using resources to enhance them. Enhancing spirits is very expensive and you're going to need a lot of resources for the other things mentioned in the guide, most notably for building, gear, and TH.
Tip: Hold "S" to craft and press "C" to close dialog boxes.