11. Investing too much in starter characters
You will get a few starter characters free, some of which you will only end up using for a few levels. Invest resources into them slowly over time, as you find them necessary to complete content. I don’t remember what characters everyone starts with. I do know that Jedi Consular and Chewbacca see use for a long time, and I think IG-86 is a starter also, and is very good (but easy to farm). Characters such as Royal Guard, Clone Sergeant and Ewok Scout are, at least for now, underpowered, and rarely seen above level 40.
12. Investing in characters before researching them and trying to level too many characters at once
Strengthening characters requires raising their level (which requires training droids and credits), gearing them up (which requires equipment and a few credits) and increasing their star rating (which requires shards and credits). You also have to increase their abilities, though this is independent of level and star rating. Maxing out a new character is a major investment, even for an established player. Make sure not to work on too many at once, or you will perpetually be behind the power curve, and frustrated as you are always low on credits and droids.
Use the sites I linked above and thoroughly research characters before investing in them. I wasted hundreds of shards on characters early on because 1 or 2 people told me they were great, and it turned out either they were wrong, or the characters only were great because of other characters I didn’t have.
13. Upgrading all character abilities as soon as possible
Upgrading abilities requires “ability materials”, of which there are three types: Tier I (green triangle), Tier II (blue square) and Tier III (purple pentagon). Geez, it’s like a box of Lucky Charms in here! The first two upgrades (to level 3) require only triangles and squares, which are relatively easy to get (and at high levels you will have hundreds of spares of). Anything above level 3 on an ability, though, requires those purple guys, and they are much harder to get. You have to save them and use them wisely.
Note that you often have to scroll down to see the requirement for the purple hexagons but it is there for everything above level 3.
Only do upgrades on characters you are sure you are going to keep, and save the materials for upgrades that have a big impact. For example, Count Dooku’s lightning attack: level 4 gives +5% damage, which is nice, but isn’t going to turn a battle. But at level 5 his chance of a secondary stun on this attack increases by 15%. That’s even better than it sounds because it is an increase in the base rate, which goes from 25% to 40%, so it’s actually 60% more likely (40/25 = 1.6). That is a worthwhile upgrade, even if you have to take a relatively useless +5% at level 4 to get it. Just watch your material counts.
14. Not spending crystals on refreshes wisely
If you are a big spender, buy whatever suits your fancy. If you are on a budget, your best uses for crystals are generally going to be for two regular energy refreshes (50 crystals each) and one Cantina energy refresh (100 crystals). After that things get increasingly expensive. You get a certain number of crystals for free even if you don’t buy any, so use them on refreshes. If you get the crystal subscription you can do this even if your PvP rank is very low.
If you are buying lots of crystals, feel free to go up the next rank to 100 crystal regular refreshes and 200 crystal Cantina refreshes. After that it gets very expensive very fast.
Remember that in Cantina you can get shards both from the missions and shipments, so while twice as expensive you get more for your crystal. (Some of the best chars are also in Cantina shipments.) But you get more XP by doing a larger number of regular refreshes, so you level faster. Tradeoff.
15. Spending crystals on credits and droids, or spending Cantina shipment tokens on ability materials
I will catch flak for this, but I think this is a waste unless you are a big spender. I have never purchased credit packs or droids, ever. Get good at Galactic War, do challenges and missions, and pace yourself, and you shouldn’t run out of credits except temporarily as you get to the upper levels. Droids I never come close to running out of. Be patient and save the crystals for more worthwhile uses, again, unless you are a big spender and just want to level things up fast.
Cantina shipments let you spend “orange balls” on Tier I and Tier II ability materials. Never do this! They are easy to get and useless without the Tier III materials very quickly, as mentioned above. To give you an idea, I currently have 652 Tier I and 324 Tier II materials, most of which are useless because I only have 35 Tier III. There are many great characters in Cantina shipments, use your tokens on those.
