Newcomer's Guide to MSF

We try to combine our common knowledge to give new players some hints for a great start into the game.

Power Cores

• Maybe the best investment of your power cores would be to refresh your campaign energy . If you've got enough cores you could buy up to four times a refill for 50 cores each, getting 120 energy per refill. As soon as it costs 100 cores you should stop because of the poorer cost-benefit ratio.
• Ocassionally you can buy some event-orbs for cores to help you unlock newly released toons.

Shops

• Main Shop: Don't waste cores on the shard offers for toons. It's a bad cost-benefit ratio. The only exception might be to fill up the last bit to get a new star for the toon. But even that is only worth the price if it's a toon you regularly use.
• Blitz Shop: Buy blitz‐orbs with your blitz credits . Even if you've maxed out more and more of the "blitz‐shop‐toons". They usually have one toon in the orbs that is available nowhere else. And even if you get shards of maxed toons they will be transferred into ultra credits that you need to unlock and star up Ultimus. If you're able to star up a whole focused team you should ignore this hint temporarily and buy the respective toon in the blitz shop directly.
• Raid Shop: Focus your raid credits always on one toon. First to unlock one after the other, later to fill their stars one after another (beginning with toons of focused teams). Only four toons are available at once on a randomized rotation. So sometimes you have to wait for a preferred toon.
• Arena Shop: Focus your arena credits always on one toon. First to unlock one after the other, later to fill their stars one after another (beginning with toons of focused teams).
• War Shop: Focus your war credits always on one toon. First to unlock one after the other, later to fill their stars one after another (beginning with toons of focused teams). Only three toons are available at once on a randomized rotation. So sometimes you have to wait for a preferred toon.
• Elite Shop: Silver and gold promotion credits are most likely the rarest regular currency in the game. Use it wisely! It's definitively worth saving up for toons you're focused on. And not even for all of them! I try to keep up the latest suggestions which toons are worth promoting. (See other pages on this site!)

Arena

(The "common" arena, not the real‐time arena!)
• Never underestimate the might of the arena! Annoying as it might be it's your main source of power cores and arena credits .
• Always try to stay at least in the top 200 or even better, in the top 50. If you like the game mode go for top 10 ranks. It's always worth the effort!
• Never cease to improve your arena toons. The enemy never sleeps and does the same!

Real‐Time Arena

• This game mode is partially an endless grind. On the other hand it's not based on recharging energy and long waiting periodes until you can go on. This way you can binge grind it as a side activity, like for example while rewatching your favorite Marvel movies.

Unlocks by Level

Important Times of the Day

(Based on UTC and CET/CEST)

UTC	WT	ST	Event
12:00am	01:00	02:00	• start of events • start of blitz (Mon: orb‐blitz, Tue+Fri: character‐blitz) • start of legendary‐events • cooldown alliance donation • cooldown free blitz‐attacks • shops get restocked • reset of real‐time arena • reset of repeating milestones; begin/end of solitary milestones
08:00am	09:00	10:00	• shops get restocked
10:00am	11:00	12:00	• free energy: 80x , 80x (eventually 80x event‐energy)
04:00pm	17:00	18:00	• shops get restocked • free energy: 80x , 80x (eventually 80x event‐energy) • arena‐payout
07:00pm	20:00	21:00	• free energy: 80x , 80x (eventually 80x event‐energy) • start of major game‐updates (usually on tuesdays; they get announced beforehand)
10:00pm	23:00	24:00	• reset of daily objectives • reset of arena attempts • reset of campaign‐node attempts • reset of dark dimension attempts

Another guide for new players of Marvel Strike Force. Shared by DokHollywoood.

The (Dok and Bosses) Guide to Being an MSF Newby

New? Fair enough, we all were, at some point, and this handy mini-compendium will get you through your first 100 days or so of gameplay, free!

First, welcome to MSF, and thanks for playing. We actually are always in need of fresh meat, and that will likely not end anytime soon, if ever.

Second, remember to do what the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy suggests, and just “Don’t Panic!” This is a pretty cool game; and it can be really rewarding to play, but there are no game-crushing mistakes you can make during your first couple weeks or so.

Third, MSF is a squad-based strategy RPG. As such it is all about building teams that can compete with and overcome other teams. If your teams are not up to par, or if you are using the wrong team for the job, then you are not going to be successful. That being said, most teams rely on synergizing the characters for the best effect. Some synergies are labeled in the team creation page, (e.g.: Defenders,) while others are not (e.g.: Star Lord and Minn-Erva). So now let us move onto the teams!

(1) First Team: Defenders (and Punisher)!

Defenders (and Punisher) are easy to farm starting out, and they have some pretty amazing synergies when you add them together. if anyone has played Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, they will make the immediate comparison of the Defenders in MSF to the Phoenix team of SWGoH, and that is a perfect analogy. The Defenders are not the best at anything, but they are definitely one of the most versatile teams of MSF. Not only will they get you (almost) all the way through the heroes campaign, but they can carry you through almost all of the the non-end-game raids (e.g.: Ultimus I through V and some of VI). Defenders are pretty amazing.

Core:

• Luke Cage (Heroes 3-3 and Blitz orbs)
• Iron Fist (Nexus 1-9 and Milestone orbs)
• DareDevil (Arena store and Milestone orbs)
• Jessica Jones (Villains 2-9 and Nexus 4-9; Milestone and Gamma orbs)
• Punisher (Heroes 1-6; Milestone and Gamma orbs)

Update (15 Oct 2020): while this still holds true, even now, it is important to note that I would highly suggest gradually replacing them with the Young Avengers and Spider-Man (Symbiote; AKA “SSM”) as soon as you can. Young Avengers + SSM and Spider-Man are great for taking out nodes 1 to 3 of Chapter 7 of the Heroes Campaign. They also make an incredibly powerful War Defense team. They are also extremely versatile, since — as long as you keep both MM and Squirrel girl — you can trade out everyone else on the team with any Hero Brawler!!!

As soon as you can begin farming MM, (node 2-6 of the Mystic Campaign,) I would start building her up to trade out with one of the Defenders — probably starting with Jessica Jones first, since she is a Hero Controller, rather than a Hero Brawler. Squirrel Girl, SSM, Spider-Man, and Miles Morales just gradually drop from orbs, so build them up as you begin acquiring them.

Once you start building up the other Young-Avengers/Hero-Brawlers, just gradually begin replacing the other Defenders as well, most likely starting with SSM and Squirrel Girl, then finally moving on to Spider-Man and Miles Morales.

Again, I highly advise against farming individual characters from the raid and Blitz stores until you have them all at about 6 stars. Just open orbs as you get credits. Trust me when I say that this will increase your roster way faster than if you were to do otherwise, and you will honestly need most of those characters anyway.

(2) Second Team: Cosmic Mystic (Villains)

While the Defenders are pretty on-point for your first heroes team, you have three major roadblocks to get to end-game: the Villain, Cosmic, and Mystic campaigns. For these three campaigns, you could create three different teams... But wait, why not create one core team of 3 or 4 characters and sub out 1 or 2 characters depending on the circumstance? That way you can minimize your resource expenditure and therefore maximize your profit! Brilliant idea, my friend! You just saved yourself a lot of work starting out.

For this to work, we need to create a core team of Cosmic, Mystic Villains. Keep in mind that these are the easily-obtainable characters; you can either buy others or get really lucky with premium orbs (from the weekly orb blitz). Other than Yondu, these characters all belong to pretty great teams in their own right, so the resources spent on them are resources fully well-spent indeed.

Core:

• Yondu (Heroes 1-9 and Milestone orbs — can be used to unlock Starlord)
• Mordo (arena store and Milestone orbs — eventually needed for Phoenix unlock)
• Loki (milestone orbs and mystic 3-6 — eventually needed for Phoenix unlock)
• Ronan (raid and milestone orbs — eventually needed for Phoenix unlock)

Additional characters, when (and if) you can get them:

• Thanos (milestone, Alpha, and premium orbs and node-farmable toward end-game much, much later)
• Hela (premium, mega, and Alpha orbs and node-farmable toward end-game much, much later — also eventually needed for Black Bolt unlock, and can possibly be used to unlock Phoenix)

Suitable Substitutes:

• All Guardians of the Galaxy (Cosmic-only — also needed for Starlord unlock later)
• All Kree (Cosmic and Villain — the minions are also needed for Nick Fury unlock later)
• Hand Sentry (Villain and Mystic)
• Hand Assassin (Villain and Mystic — also needed for Phoenix unlock later)
• Hand Sorceress (Villain and Mystic)
• Dr Strange (Cosmic and Mystic)
• The remaining Asgardians (Cosmic and either Mystic or Skill — also needed for Black Bolt unlock far, far later)

Less-Suitable (but still good) Substitutes:

• Crossbones (Villain-only)
• Winter Soldier (Villain-only)
• Hydra minions (Villain-only)
• Scarlet Witch (Mystic-only)

(3) Third Team: Guardians and Ravager(s)

This is the 3rd easiest team to farm, and the end result is both unlocking and ranking up Starlord.

Team:

• Yondu (already should be ranked, geared, and ready to go, at this point)
• Gamora (Blitz and Milestone orbs)
• Mantis (Milestone, Blitz, and Gamma orbs)
• Drax (Arena store; Milestone and Gamma orbs)
• Groot (Nexus 2-9; Milestone and Gamma orbs)

Suitable Substitutes (the only ones)

• Ravagers Stitcher (Milestone and Raid orbs)
• Ravager Boomer (Milestone, Blitz, and Beta orbs)

(...And again, do not buy these from the store!!! They naturally just drop from orbs! Also, do not invest a whole lot of resources into these, because chances are you will never use them for anything else!!!)

And there you go! There are characters and items to collect, teams to build, challenges to overcome, monthly activities, and a ton more things to do. You are off to a great start, and maybe we will see you in the game!