Complete guide, level per level, about how to get rank #1 in your server everyday (F2P)
I'm rank #1 in my server in my timezone everyday, I'm playing from december 2015, and I'm a F2P player, I only have paid 5 dollars at the beginning.
The best way to accelerate the evolution in the game is get a good rank in the Arena, because the rank #1 have a reward of 500 crystals and 1000 arena tokens, and these crystals and tokens are very useful to get and improve characters.
FROM LEVEL 1 TO LEVEL 40
First of all, in the Cantina nodes, start farming Geonosian Soldier, that it's the best character at the beginning, with Poggle as leader can deal critical damages of around 12K, and if the assist is IG-86, IG-88, First Order TIE Pilot (FOTP) or Rey, it can be a total damage of around 18K. With the assist the special ability of GS is the best of the game, and his speed is one of the best.
The Sim tickets, that simulates a node, will increase everyday, so you can use it from the beggining.
Begin to get Darth Sidious with the arena tokens and improve he to 7 stars. He have a good leader ability and is a nice character at the beginning. Then get Eeth Koth and Savage Opress.
Eeth Koth is useful to get Yoda. To get Yoda you need 5 jedis, so you can play with Barriss Offee as leader, Luminara, Jedi Consular, Eeth Koth and Qui-Gon Jinn.
In the Cantina shipments the best is get Qui-Gon Jinn and then Fives and Daka.
When you arrive to lvl 40, you will unlock the Galactic War, where you can get GW shipments.
Start getting Luminara Unduli, that have a very nice healing ability, a strong special ability and a strong basic attack.
Then get Poggle and then IG-86.
Poggle can apply offense up, the characters will inflict 50% more damage, and +25% speed to the droid. Also with Poggle as leader, the Geonosian Soldier and droids gain 25% offense.
IG-86 is very strong, his basic attack in level 70, with Poggle as leader and the offense up, can deal damages of around 9K, and the special ability critical damages of around 14K and the assist.
So, at the beginning, your priorities are:
Cantina nodes: Geonosian Soldier
Arena shipments: Darth Sidious & Eeth Koth.
Galactic War shipments: Luminara, Poggle & IG-86.
You need play the game everyday and accomplish all the daily activities. Also play the game when the energy it's full.
Improve the gears and get the max level of the best characters. Don't improve the gears of the bad characters, let they in level 20 or 30, that it's useful for accomplish the daily activities, one of them is put a gear and the other is train a character, you can put an abundant gear in a bad character and use only a training droid of 1 star to accomplish these activities.
Use the daily free crystals to buy 2 times normal energy refreshes, that costs 50 crystals the first 2 times, and if you have more crystals use it to buy a Cantina energy refresh by 100 crystals to get faster the shards of the Cantina nodes and get faster the shards of the Cantina shipments.
An important character is Royal Guard (RG), the best tank in the game, only farmable from the level 77 in the level 7 of the Cantina nodes. The taunt of RG is activated automatically and have 80% chance to stun an emeny when his health is more than 50%, so is very useful. Also is very needed in the Mace Windu (INT) challenge.
There are 2 hard nodes where you can get shards of Royal Guard: 1-D (Light Sight) and 5-F (Dark Side). With these hard nodes you can get an average of 2 shards per day.
The Royal Guard also appears frecuently in the bronzium data cards, so meanwhile you are farming RG you will get extra shards. Also appears in a very frecuency in the in the shipments, 2 shards by 100 crystals or 3 shards by 150 crystals, it is the same as refresh the hard nodes and have a drop rate of 33%, that is the normal rate, an average of 2 shards per day for every 6 attempts.
If you get an average of 3 shards of RG per day, you will have 4* RG in around 18 days, and maybe less if you buy more shards in the shipments and you have luck with the bronzium data cards. From 4* RG is viable in the arena, at least in the TOP 100-200, also there are teams in the TOP 20 using a Royal Guard of 4 stars.
Another interesting character to farm from the beginning of the game is Rey, that in the level 80 and max gear is the fastest character of the game. There are 3 hard nodes where you can farm Rey: 2-A (LS), 5-D (DS) and 7-B (DS). If you get an average of 3 shards per day, you will be able to start to use 4* Rey in around 25 days.
FROM LEVEL 40 TO LEVEL 50
Now the priority is get Luminara, Poggle and IG-86 with the Galactic War shipments.
After get Geonosian Soldier of 7 stars, the best is farm Jedi Consular (JC), to get Yoda. You farm JC from the 3-A Cantina a node.
When you arrive to the level 6 of the Cantina, the best is start to farm Barriss Offee, that is very useful in the Galactic Wars, to use as leader, with Luminara, QGJ, GS and Rey/IG-86, and to use in the challenges to get Yoda.
Use this web to see what is the best abilities to improve first with the skill materials:
http://www.swgohcantina.com/character-max-stats/
Also the following website is very useful:
http://www.star-wars-galaxy.com/characters
http://www.star-wars-galaxy.com/characters/view-stats
In the Arena, start using Sidious as leader, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luminara, Geonosian Soldier and the last character can be Jedi Consular.
Then the objective is get Poggle and IG-86 and play with a team with Poggle as leader, Geonosian Soldier, IG-86, Qui-Gon Jinn and Luminara.
FROM LEVEL 50 TO LEVEL 60
After get a good team in the arena, you can use the refresh of 50 crystals that allows you to play another 5 battles and improve your rank.
You can see videos of my arena battles for learn to play:
https://www.youtube.com/c/QuimLC
FROM LEVEL 60 TO LEVEL 80
After get level 70 you will be able to get the rank TOP 20, and everyday will be easier get a better rank and get more crystals.
It is important play the battles from 2 hours before the rewards, because if you play battles 10 hours before, other people in other timezones will play against you and you will lose positions, if your payout time is at 06:00 PM, then is better play the first battle at 04:20 PM, for example, enough time to play 10 battles, because every battle is 10 minutes, and the 6th battle you can play without wait, so you can play the first from 04:20 to 04:30, the 2th from 04:30 to 04:40, the 3th from 04:50 to 05:00, the 5th at 05:00, the 6th from 05:05 to 05:15, the 7th from 05:15 to 05:25, the 8th from 05:25 to 05:35, the 9th from 05:35 to 05:45 and the 10th from 05:45 to 05:55, also you can play when only remains 7 minutes and wait to the last 20 seconds to give the final blow, if someone want play against you will not have enough time.
If you can't play from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM, you can let your team in the 2th or 3th position, that it's more easy that no one play against you because the people who want be rank #1 will play the last battle from 5th or 4th to 1th, and sometimes these people doesn't play against the 2th and 3th positions. Maybe the best is be 3th to maintain the rank more hours, because the people who already have received the rewards, but still have attempts to use, they will use it before 00:00 to get a better position during the night, while they are sleeping, so they will try to get the 1th or 2th position, or maybe people who can't play the game from 04:00 to 06:00 PM will play at 00:00 or in the morning, or people in different timezones, so the 3th position is the best to maintain the rank if you can't play from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM.
When you get the rank 1 and get a daily reward of 500 crystals, adding up the daily free crystals with the daily activities and the galactic war, you will have 600 daily crystals to spend, but the best is let 150 crystals to use in the Arena if you need it, the first 50 crystals for the battles from 5th to 10th, and the other 100 crystals if you need use it to another 5 battles. If you can't get the rank 1 with 10 battes, then is better start to play at 03:30 PM, enought time to play 15 battles.
With the rest of crystals, around 500 crystals, the best is purchase 2 times the refresh of Cantina energy (100+200) and 2 times the refresh of normal energy (50+50). You will save everyday between 100 and 200 crystals, you can use it to buy shards of Royal Guard in the shipments, that appears quite often.
If you now are around level 60 you don't need a lot of time to get the rank 1, maybe 1 month, if you are level 30 you will need 2 months.
When you have saved 300 crystals, and after rewards you have 800 or 900 crystals, you can use it to refresh the attempts of hard nodes of Rey and get more shards of Rey, for every extra 150 crystals you can get 3 extra shards.
SUMMARY:
1) Get Geonosian Soldier in the first Cantina node and get Qui-Gon Jinn in the Cantina shipments.
2) Use the free crystals for the first 2 refreshes of normal energy and accomplish all daily activities and challenges everyday.
3) Improve your first characters to the max level and max gears, characters as Jedi Consular, Chewbacca, Jawa, Phasma, Talia, Royal Guard, Ewok Elder, First Order Stormtrooper, Phasma, the enough to have a team for the Light Side and a team for the Dark Side.
4) Start the battles in the Arena to get the first arena tokens and exchange it by shards of Darth Sidious.
5) In the level 40 start the Galactic Wars and exchange the GW tokens by shards of Luminara. After get Luminara get shards of Poggle and then shards of IG-86.
6) After get Geonosian Soldier, start to get Jedi Consular in the 3-A Cantina node.
7) After get Darth Sidious, start to farm Eeth Koth, that will be important for the Yoda challenge. After Eeth Koth you can get Savage Opress.
8) After get Qui-Gon Jinn, start to get shards of Fives and then Daka.
9) Focus your game in this team: Poggle as leader, Geonosian Soldier, IG-86, Qui-Gon Jinn and Royal Guard. While you get IG-86 you can use Luminara, while you get Poggle you can use Darth Sidious.
10) Start to play the Arena battles at 04:20 PM for to play 10 battles, and that the last battle coincide with the payout time.
11) When you get crystals with the Arena, use it to refresh the Cantina energy by 100 crystals.
12) When you get a good rank, at least TOP 5, you can start to purchase a second refresh of Cantina energy.
13) Try to get the rank #1 everyday and use the crystals to buy shards of Royal Guard and purchase extra attempts in the hard nodes of Rey.
14) After get Jedi Consular of at least 5 stars, start to farm Barriss Offee in the 6-A Cantina node. With Barriss (L), JC, Luminara, QGJ and Eeth Koth you will be able to get Yoda.
15) After get the Jedis, you can start to get Dooku in the 6-G Cantina node. If you get the lvl 77, start to farm Royal Guard from the level 7 of the Cantina nodes.
16) The final team could be QGJ (L), Yoda, GS, Rey and Royal Guard, but there are a lot of good combinations.
TIPS:
● Prioritize your best characters all the time, don't improve Chewbacca if you will not use he, don't improve Talia or Clone Sergeant if you have 5 better characters in the Light Side and 5 better characters in the Dark Side.
● When you search a gear, and the gear appears in a hard node, play this hard node to get the gear and the shards, if the shard is interesting, for example if it is a shard of Poggle, Jedi Consular, Barriss Offee, Royal Guard, IG-86, etc., then you can get the gear and the shard at same time, or al least if you don't get the gear maybe you get the shard.
● Use the following web to know the stats and the next improvements of every character: http://www.swgohcantina.com/character-max-stats/
● Use alarms in your mobile phone to remember that it's time to play the Arena, for example an alarm at 04:15 PM, and also must be activated the notifications to receive alerts when the energy is full or when you can claim extra energy.
● You can set alarms to remember that it's time to buy shipments. Every 6 hours you can buy shipments, but if you don't join in the game the clock is stopped and only the next 6 hours begin when you join to the game, so you can set 4 alarms, every 6 hours, or set at least 3 alarms. Thanks to the shipments you can buy 3 purple gear, for example, that would cost around 80 energy to get it, so you can accelerate your gears if you play the game at least 3 times everyday.
● Don't buy chromium packs with the free crystals, it would be to waste crystals, and don't buy money credits, it's better wait to the galactic war, when you can get around 500K everyday, that with the money rewards of the Cantina nodes and the daily activities is around 700K everyday, or 1 million if there is a credits challenge.
● Buy gears until have 100 units per gear. When you have 100 units stop to buy it.
● Get the best reward in every challenge, if you have problems in some challenge, for example the Mace Windu challenge, then improve the characters to get it easier. If you need help in the Mace Windu challenge, you can get IG-100 MagnaGuard, available in the Cantina nodes, and up to level 52, for example, with gear 7 and basic skill level 5, he have 60% chance to inflict offense down and prevent the special ability of Mace Windu.
● If you want be grateful to EA for the game, you can buy a crystals pack, the best is a daily enhancer crystals, you don't need spend more money to be rank 1 in the game.
● In the shards shop don't buy shard of characters easy to get, as IG-86 or Qui-Gon Jinn, use it to get shards of Rey or Royal Guard, for example.
Galactic War Guide (Max lvl 75/80)
I have another guide here:
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/31235/galactic-war-guide-max-lvl-75-80
The best way to accelerate the evolution in the game is get a good rank in the Arena, because the rank #1 have a reward of 500 crystals and 1000 arena tokens, and these crystals and tokens are very useful to get and improve characters.
FROM LEVEL 1 TO LEVEL 40
First of all, in the Cantina nodes, start farming Geonosian Soldier, that it's the best character at the beginning, with Poggle as leader can deal critical damages of around 12K, and if the assist is IG-86, IG-88, First Order TIE Pilot (FOTP) or Rey, it can be a total damage of around 18K. With the assist the special ability of GS is the best of the game, and his speed is one of the best.
The Sim tickets, that simulates a node, will increase everyday, so you can use it from the beggining.
Begin to get Darth Sidious with the arena tokens and improve he to 7 stars. He have a good leader ability and is a nice character at the beginning. Then get Eeth Koth and Savage Opress.
Eeth Koth is useful to get Yoda. To get Yoda you need 5 jedis, so you can play with Barriss Offee as leader, Luminara, Jedi Consular, Eeth Koth and Qui-Gon Jinn.
In the Cantina shipments the best is get Qui-Gon Jinn and then Fives and Daka.
When you arrive to lvl 40, you will unlock the Galactic War, where you can get GW shipments.
Start getting Luminara Unduli, that have a very nice healing ability, a strong special ability and a strong basic attack.
Then get Poggle and then IG-86.
Poggle can apply offense up, the characters will inflict 50% more damage, and +25% speed to the droid. Also with Poggle as leader, the Geonosian Soldier and droids gain 25% offense.
IG-86 is very strong, his basic attack in level 70, with Poggle as leader and the offense up, can deal damages of around 9K, and the special ability critical damages of around 14K and the assist.
So, at the beginning, your priorities are:
Cantina nodes: Geonosian Soldier
Arena shipments: Darth Sidious & Eeth Koth.
Galactic War shipments: Luminara, Poggle & IG-86.
You need play the game everyday and accomplish all the daily activities. Also play the game when the energy it's full.
Improve the gears and get the max level of the best characters. Don't improve the gears of the bad characters, let they in level 20 or 30, that it's useful for accomplish the daily activities, one of them is put a gear and the other is train a character, you can put an abundant gear in a bad character and use only a training droid of 1 star to accomplish these activities.
Use the daily free crystals to buy 2 times normal energy refreshes, that costs 50 crystals the first 2 times, and if you have more crystals use it to buy a Cantina energy refresh by 100 crystals to get faster the shards of the Cantina nodes and get faster the shards of the Cantina shipments.
An important character is Royal Guard (RG), the best tank in the game, only farmable from the level 77 in the level 7 of the Cantina nodes. The taunt of RG is activated automatically and have 80% chance to stun an emeny when his health is more than 50%, so is very useful. Also is very needed in the Mace Windu (INT) challenge.
There are 2 hard nodes where you can get shards of Royal Guard: 1-D (Light Sight) and 5-F (Dark Side). With these hard nodes you can get an average of 2 shards per day.
The Royal Guard also appears frecuently in the bronzium data cards, so meanwhile you are farming RG you will get extra shards. Also appears in a very frecuency in the in the shipments, 2 shards by 100 crystals or 3 shards by 150 crystals, it is the same as refresh the hard nodes and have a drop rate of 33%, that is the normal rate, an average of 2 shards per day for every 6 attempts.
If you get an average of 3 shards of RG per day, you will have 4* RG in around 18 days, and maybe less if you buy more shards in the shipments and you have luck with the bronzium data cards. From 4* RG is viable in the arena, at least in the TOP 100-200, also there are teams in the TOP 20 using a Royal Guard of 4 stars.
Another interesting character to farm from the beginning of the game is Rey, that in the level 80 and max gear is the fastest character of the game. There are 3 hard nodes where you can farm Rey: 2-A (LS), 5-D (DS) and 7-B (DS). If you get an average of 3 shards per day, you will be able to start to use 4* Rey in around 25 days.
FROM LEVEL 40 TO LEVEL 50
Now the priority is get Luminara, Poggle and IG-86 with the Galactic War shipments.
After get Geonosian Soldier of 7 stars, the best is farm Jedi Consular (JC), to get Yoda. You farm JC from the 3-A Cantina a node.
When you arrive to the level 6 of the Cantina, the best is start to farm Barriss Offee, that is very useful in the Galactic Wars, to use as leader, with Luminara, QGJ, GS and Rey/IG-86, and to use in the challenges to get Yoda.
Use this web to see what is the best abilities to improve first with the skill materials:
http://www.swgohcantina.com/character-max-stats/
Also the following website is very useful:
http://www.star-wars-galaxy.com/characters
http://www.star-wars-galaxy.com/characters/view-stats
In the Arena, start using Sidious as leader, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luminara, Geonosian Soldier and the last character can be Jedi Consular.
Then the objective is get Poggle and IG-86 and play with a team with Poggle as leader, Geonosian Soldier, IG-86, Qui-Gon Jinn and Luminara.
FROM LEVEL 50 TO LEVEL 60
After get a good team in the arena, you can use the refresh of 50 crystals that allows you to play another 5 battles and improve your rank.
You can see videos of my arena battles for learn to play:
https://www.youtube.com/c/QuimLC
FROM LEVEL 60 TO LEVEL 80
After get level 70 you will be able to get the rank TOP 20, and everyday will be easier get a better rank and get more crystals.
It is important play the battles from 2 hours before the rewards, because if you play battles 10 hours before, other people in other timezones will play against you and you will lose positions, if your payout time is at 06:00 PM, then is better play the first battle at 04:20 PM, for example, enough time to play 10 battles, because every battle is 10 minutes, and the 6th battle you can play without wait, so you can play the first from 04:20 to 04:30, the 2th from 04:30 to 04:40, the 3th from 04:50 to 05:00, the 5th at 05:00, the 6th from 05:05 to 05:15, the 7th from 05:15 to 05:25, the 8th from 05:25 to 05:35, the 9th from 05:35 to 05:45 and the 10th from 05:45 to 05:55, also you can play when only remains 7 minutes and wait to the last 20 seconds to give the final blow, if someone want play against you will not have enough time.
If you can't play from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM, you can let your team in the 2th or 3th position, that it's more easy that no one play against you because the people who want be rank #1 will play the last battle from 5th or 4th to 1th, and sometimes these people doesn't play against the 2th and 3th positions. Maybe the best is be 3th to maintain the rank more hours, because the people who already have received the rewards, but still have attempts to use, they will use it before 00:00 to get a better position during the night, while they are sleeping, so they will try to get the 1th or 2th position, or maybe people who can't play the game from 04:00 to 06:00 PM will play at 00:00 or in the morning, or people in different timezones, so the 3th position is the best to maintain the rank if you can't play from 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM.
When you get the rank 1 and get a daily reward of 500 crystals, adding up the daily free crystals with the daily activities and the galactic war, you will have 600 daily crystals to spend, but the best is let 150 crystals to use in the Arena if you need it, the first 50 crystals for the battles from 5th to 10th, and the other 100 crystals if you need use it to another 5 battles. If you can't get the rank 1 with 10 battes, then is better start to play at 03:30 PM, enought time to play 15 battles.
With the rest of crystals, around 500 crystals, the best is purchase 2 times the refresh of Cantina energy (100+200) and 2 times the refresh of normal energy (50+50). You will save everyday between 100 and 200 crystals, you can use it to buy shards of Royal Guard in the shipments, that appears quite often.
If you now are around level 60 you don't need a lot of time to get the rank 1, maybe 1 month, if you are level 30 you will need 2 months.
When you have saved 300 crystals, and after rewards you have 800 or 900 crystals, you can use it to refresh the attempts of hard nodes of Rey and get more shards of Rey, for every extra 150 crystals you can get 3 extra shards.
SUMMARY:
1) Get Geonosian Soldier in the first Cantina node and get Qui-Gon Jinn in the Cantina shipments.
2) Use the free crystals for the first 2 refreshes of normal energy and accomplish all daily activities and challenges everyday.
3) Improve your first characters to the max level and max gears, characters as Jedi Consular, Chewbacca, Jawa, Phasma, Talia, Royal Guard, Ewok Elder, First Order Stormtrooper, Phasma, the enough to have a team for the Light Side and a team for the Dark Side.
4) Start the battles in the Arena to get the first arena tokens and exchange it by shards of Darth Sidious.
5) In the level 40 start the Galactic Wars and exchange the GW tokens by shards of Luminara. After get Luminara get shards of Poggle and then shards of IG-86.
6) After get Geonosian Soldier, start to get Jedi Consular in the 3-A Cantina node.
7) After get Darth Sidious, start to farm Eeth Koth, that will be important for the Yoda challenge. After Eeth Koth you can get Savage Opress.
8) After get Qui-Gon Jinn, start to get shards of Fives and then Daka.
9) Focus your game in this team: Poggle as leader, Geonosian Soldier, IG-86, Qui-Gon Jinn and Royal Guard. While you get IG-86 you can use Luminara, while you get Poggle you can use Darth Sidious.
10) Start to play the Arena battles at 04:20 PM for to play 10 battles, and that the last battle coincide with the payout time.
11) When you get crystals with the Arena, use it to refresh the Cantina energy by 100 crystals.
12) When you get a good rank, at least TOP 5, you can start to purchase a second refresh of Cantina energy.
13) Try to get the rank #1 everyday and use the crystals to buy shards of Royal Guard and purchase extra attempts in the hard nodes of Rey.
14) After get Jedi Consular of at least 5 stars, start to farm Barriss Offee in the 6-A Cantina node. With Barriss (L), JC, Luminara, QGJ and Eeth Koth you will be able to get Yoda.
15) After get the Jedis, you can start to get Dooku in the 6-G Cantina node. If you get the lvl 77, start to farm Royal Guard from the level 7 of the Cantina nodes.
16) The final team could be QGJ (L), Yoda, GS, Rey and Royal Guard, but there are a lot of good combinations.
TIPS:
● Prioritize your best characters all the time, don't improve Chewbacca if you will not use he, don't improve Talia or Clone Sergeant if you have 5 better characters in the Light Side and 5 better characters in the Dark Side.
● When you search a gear, and the gear appears in a hard node, play this hard node to get the gear and the shards, if the shard is interesting, for example if it is a shard of Poggle, Jedi Consular, Barriss Offee, Royal Guard, IG-86, etc., then you can get the gear and the shard at same time, or al least if you don't get the gear maybe you get the shard.
● Use the following web to know the stats and the next improvements of every character: http://www.swgohcantina.com/character-max-stats/
● Use alarms in your mobile phone to remember that it's time to play the Arena, for example an alarm at 04:15 PM, and also must be activated the notifications to receive alerts when the energy is full or when you can claim extra energy.
● You can set alarms to remember that it's time to buy shipments. Every 6 hours you can buy shipments, but if you don't join in the game the clock is stopped and only the next 6 hours begin when you join to the game, so you can set 4 alarms, every 6 hours, or set at least 3 alarms. Thanks to the shipments you can buy 3 purple gear, for example, that would cost around 80 energy to get it, so you can accelerate your gears if you play the game at least 3 times everyday.
● Don't buy chromium packs with the free crystals, it would be to waste crystals, and don't buy money credits, it's better wait to the galactic war, when you can get around 500K everyday, that with the money rewards of the Cantina nodes and the daily activities is around 700K everyday, or 1 million if there is a credits challenge.
● Buy gears until have 100 units per gear. When you have 100 units stop to buy it.
● Get the best reward in every challenge, if you have problems in some challenge, for example the Mace Windu challenge, then improve the characters to get it easier. If you need help in the Mace Windu challenge, you can get IG-100 MagnaGuard, available in the Cantina nodes, and up to level 52, for example, with gear 7 and basic skill level 5, he have 60% chance to inflict offense down and prevent the special ability of Mace Windu.
● If you want be grateful to EA for the game, you can buy a crystals pack, the best is a daily enhancer crystals, you don't need spend more money to be rank 1 in the game.
● In the shards shop don't buy shard of characters easy to get, as IG-86 or Qui-Gon Jinn, use it to get shards of Rey or Royal Guard, for example.
Galactic War Guide (Max lvl 75/80)
I have another guide here:
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/31235/galactic-war-guide-max-lvl-75-80
