I just spent 16 dollars on era characters and progress stayed the same

I was paying because I wanted to get them higher than G12 which is FTP by the end. But I think I am spent out the last two packs have been more expensive but much less impactful. Seems I will have to wait for FTP to catch up then get the material eventually FTP. So I think I will end up with the same level but a bit more Era currency until they catch up. 

It feels like colosseum is more of a punishment tool.  Fighting AT-ST, I for S&G opened the turn tab and watched the AT-ST insert itself ahead of my team 3 times, meaning it took three turns in a row in order to kill my team before they reached 90%.  I watched it happen with the cats yesterday.  They took 4 turns each killing my team at 60%.  

Both my toons are 34 tier 3 all bosses, so on top of the paywall on progression, there’s this push back from the game itself to make sure certain level characters can’t achieve certain percentages.  Also, it did not matter if it was Luke lead or IG lead.  Same mechanics were witnessed and gameplay failed at 88% 5 times in a row.  

Try for yourself and see what you perception is.  

Exactly, the rewards to level up are met when you have characters leveled up already, so you invest money to progress and then when you hit the reward you realize that you already have them (Becasue you spent money) and now to level up again you need a different reward that is impossible with your current level so you need to spend money again. It’s a cycle where very 10 levels you need to at least buy 1-2 bundles to progress (assuming you are leveling up 1 character because as there are 2 now it means you need to invest double to progress as both has to be almost the same level otherwise the bosses get impossible to beat)

You need to keep your characters fairly evenly leveled up
if your Luke is level 44 and Ig is level 41, "borrowed" units will scale to the level of your lowest era character

It's pretty much rigged....i mean set up...so that you have to get 10 levels to make the jump worth it.  Level 24 doesn't quite get you to that magical level to take down a level 25 boss, but 25 does.  You see that jump and think that $10 will make a difference but it doesn't, but too late you've spent. But you hover at 19% or 29% on that arena boss and it makes you think that next $10 will get you that 1% for rewards, but, no. No it doesn't.  Same with the era challenge. You would think when they say you need be level 25, for example, that you'd have an RNG change at 23 or 24, but you don't. You still get your butt handed to you. But, hit 25 and there you go. It's as if the code checks the players era levels and if you aren't the special recommended level, you have no chance, but they set it up so you think you do if you just get that next little bit, but the only way to get it is to spend.  Drug dealers see the setup and are impressed, no doubt.

That’s fair. I only spent money because I wanted to get these characters as high as possible so when the third one comes I wouldn’t have to spend all new resources in that. But it doesn’t make sense, if we are stuck now and can’t get new rewards then with a new era character it will be even worse as you now have to level up that character with resources that you don’t have, so mathematically I can’t see a way to progress unless you pay. There should be another stream of era resources so every day we can at least progress more, but with this in game economy unless you pay, I don’t see how you can progress. Today doing the AT-ST it took 4 turns in a row! I don’t know if they do it in purpose to induce us to pay even more, but it creates frustration and that’s the last thing a product want, that’s basic UX that this game for sure is missing 

I had a similar issue getting Luke to 44 and Ig to 45. Not as extreme but only increased 10% for £13.99 and I am still not getting mats relevant to progressing any further as I needed to jump 40% to get mats I needed before I spent to level up. The packs are increasingly expensive but level up less, we also now have 2 characters it’s dilutes down progress as the 3rd is based on your lowest and you need mats across both. Main problem is the materials you need are too far up the reward track from what you are capped at. Not sure I will be spending next Era as you keep immediately hitting new paywalls. With an investment fallacy keep pushing to spend more and it’s not satisfying to immediately hit another cap. The best strategy would be to either not spend or go in on the first character as this unlocks more rewards for subsequent characters. I also had the realisation I would not spend £50 on a relic 10 but I have spent well over that on this Era for 1 LST and some progress towards relic 10 so the micro transactions have meant I have spent more than I would like for the products I am receiving as it’s more obscure on value. They have LST and relic 10 in the store so it may be clearer to just purchase it outright when you want it and slowly get the Era currency on a FTP basis.