++++++++++++++++++++From level 28 to level 39++++++++++++++++++++
I'm starting the day with 86 Cantina Energy and 163 Normal Energy. After I got my new daily quests, I bought my gear using credits and that took me to level 28.
When I hit level 28, I was put into a Squad Arena shard. When 20,000 players are added to the shard, a new shard is created. I'm starting at rank #6186. I have three possible opponents, two of which have a team that consists of Clone Sergeant - Phase I and Jedi Counselor. The highest rank opponent I can fight is ranked #5258. I can spin the wheel in the upper left for a different set of opponents, but only the first two will change.
Note: I should have fought my first Arena battle as soon as I hit level 28. I'll explain why later.
I'm really unhappy about the shard I'm in. I’m a little disappointed that I'm starting at rank #6186 (I was initially rank #495 in my prior run), but I'll climb quickly. What I do care about is that the rewards are given out at 5 am. I rarely play past 11 pm, which means that for six hours I'll be a sitting duck for my competition. I don't know if it's bad luck, but the four times I've joined a shard, the rewards were always given out at 5 am.
Instead of doing Squad Arena battles, I’m going to work on unlocking Phoenix heroes. I went to the Cantina table and farmed Ezra shards. I quickly hit level 29. When I used up all my Cantina Energy, I clicked on the Multi Sim button and paid 100 purple crystals to get 120 Cantina Energy. I did 15 more Cantina battles but didn't unlock Ezra. I got more Cantina Energy and used all of it, taking me to level 30 and unlocking Ezra.
I started gearing Ezra and when he got to Gear III, I started using him for my Light Side battles. This game is all about hero synergies and there's a Ezra-Lando synergy I wasn't expecting. Ezra has the highest speed so he always goes first. I always go with Watch and Learn and pick Lando. Lando has a 100% Crit Chance, so always Crits. When Lando Crits, he gets Critical Chance Up (+25% Critical Hit Chance) for a turn. When Lando goes, I have him do Double Down. If he gets a Crit on any of those attacks, the cooldown for that attack gets reset and he gets bonus damage on its next use. Sweet.
I recorded a battle and I discovered something interesting - Luke was doing much more damage with his attacks than Chewie even though Chewie had the higher Physical Damage rating. Luke averaged 444 damage on non-crits compared to Chewie's 281 while his Physical Damage rating was 277 to Chewie's 300. And that's with Luke's basic attack unimproved while Chewie's has been improved once. T3-M4 averaged 372 damage with its basic attack, much better than Chewie. Chewie is definitely the next to be benched.
I did the Tier III of Fleet Commander Training: Admiral Ackbar and Tier II of Rebels Basic Training; and got some shards from both.
I've discovered something - it's a good idea to fight your first Squad Arena battle as soon as you hit level 28. Until I do that first battle, my Squad Arena team consists of Jedi Consular and Clone Sergeant, which makes a very tempting target for people behind me. I got pushed out to #6225 and the highest ranked opponent I could fight was #5291 instead of #5258. Not a big loss.
I got Ezra up to Gear IV and then gave him what gear I could. I'm free to gear anyone and as my Light Side team is doing great, I decided to gear up my Dark Side heroes. I got all of them up to Gear III and then got Talia up to Gear IV.
I had an interesting choice on what to do next. I was planning on farming Ezra shards until I got him up to 3*, but he's already my second best hero. I changed plans and started farming Hera shards. If I unlock her, that gives me another hero to gear up.
Energy RefreshesWhat I normally do is refresh Normal energy until the cost is 100 crystals, and then I refresh Cantina energy until I run out of crystals or the cost is 200 crystals. For each energy expended in a successful battle, I get that amount of experience so refreshing Normal energy for 50 crystals levels me up faster than refreshing Cantina energy for 100 crystals.
At this point, I don't have a lot of great options for using my Normal energy. The only gear slots I don't have filled on Lando and Ezra are those that require a character level of 35. I've got Talia and Royal Guard up to Gear IV and I'm not sure if I want to gear them up higher than that. What I did was grind for gear for the gear slots I can't equip yet on Ezra and Lando until I used up all my Normal energy, and then I switched over to Cantina.
Sim TicketsI try to keep at least 35 of them in reserve in case I don't play until very late at night and then I want to use up my energy as fast as possible. I get more than I need every time I refresh energy, so it doesn't take long to build up more than 35.
Guild StoreFor the most part, you want to use Guild Tokens to buy gear. The best gear to buy at this point are crafted items with a lot of sub-pieces. I have have three choices in the Guild Store - the purple Mk 5 Nubian Design Tech Prototype Salvage for 260, the blue Mk 5 BioTech Implant for 100 and the blue Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator for 200. Which is the best choice?
Purple gear is a very long term investment as they aren't equipable until level 50 or so. I have an access database with some of the gear level information from
SWGOH.GG and it turns out the none of the Phoenix team use the Mk 5 Nubian Design Tech Prototype Salvage, so it wouldn't be a good investment. Ditto for the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator. Four of them do use the Mk 5 BioTech Implant. If both the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator and the Mk 5 BioTech Implant were used by the Phoenix team members and cost the same, the Mk 3 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator would be the better buy as it has more components (13) than the Mk 5 BioTech Implant (7).
Continuing onI'm level 33 now. I bought some Bronzium Data Cards and got IG-86 Sentinel Droid. It's a 1* hero, but it gives me a fourth Dark Side hero. I immediately took it to level 33 and geared it up best I could. I'll bring it up to Gear III and then stop.
Advice on Squad Arena battles* Study your opponent's team before you start the fight. If it contains a hero you aren't familiar with, click on the hero and look over his/her/its abilities
* Concentrate your attacks to kill someone as quickly as possible, and then concentrate your attacks on the next hero. Getting and keeping a numbers advantage is vital to winning
* You have two ways of removing Taunt - Ezra's second attack and Chopper's third attack. Know who could Taunt on the other team and don't use your taunt-removing attacks against heroes that don't have Taunt if you need them to remove Taunt
* Kill first your opponents that have an AOE attack or debuff the whole team to keep them from messing up the whole team
* Next priority is healers. Hera is effectively a healer because of her Backup Plan ability. Don't waste attacks by having a healer heal the damage you've done
Squad Arena battlesIt's getting towards the end of the day, so time for my Squad Arena battles. I defeated #4495, #3819, #3245 and #2758.
While I was doing that, I hit level 34. I was taken to a ships battles and the reward was the Jedi Consular's ship and enough shards to raise him to 3*.
For 50 crystals, I can get another five Arena Squad battles. The most I can drop in any battle is 15%, so I could drop 55.6% in five battles or ~#1225. That's one reward tier better, netting me 100 more Squad Arena Tokens and five more crystals. It's not worth it. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be worthwhile.
Note: I've decided later that I made the wrong choice - I should have paid the 50. I'd get more crystals and earn more Squad Arena tokens every day. Focusing on just one day was a poor way of making the decision.
My ability to advance is limited by the fact that those of ahead of me have been playing much longer than I have. Checking the RANKS tab on the Squad Arena window, #1 is level 49. The first player not in the 40's is #18 at level 39. #48, #49 and #50 are all level 39. The higher your initial rank, the more opponents have a head start on you and the less you’re going to be able to climb to the top of the Squad Arena rankings.
If I wanted to spend money, what should I spend it on?If you're thinking of spending a lot of money, I'd recommend a concert, a musical or even a small vacation. I have no experience spending big money on a game that I'll get tired of in a few months. The only reason I'm still playing SWGOH is to write this guide.
If you're thinking of spending $20-$25, I'd recommend the 2,800 crystals for $20. I'd use to do all the Normal Energy refreshes for 50 and all of the Cantina Energy refreshes for 100. This game is all about hero synergies and Phoenix has the best early and mid-game synergies. In my prior run, I saw a lot of Squad Arena teams with Darth Vader on it well before Darth Vader could be unlocked by doing achievements. Darth Vader is a really good hero, but he has no synergy with a Phoenix team. Buying him gave the player very little value. It's a lot better to steadily improve your Phoenix team over a long period of time rather buying a 4* hero that will provide some benefit right now but not long-term.
Unlocking PhoenixWhen I got my Squad Arena award, I bought 5 Kanan shards. I unlocked Chopper, which is nice as I really wanted another hero to gear. I got Chopper up to Gear III and then unlocked Hera. With Hera unlocked, I'm back to farming Ezra shards.
Level 35 and some researchI hit level 35 and then did Tier III of the Rebels Basic Training Event. It was quite the challenge. I'm going to put my advice for the Tier III of the different Basic Training Events in a separate post.
I cleared the last node of Dark Side level 4 - high-level allies are awesome! - so I've cleared all the Normal nodes I can clear. As for Hard, I have Light 1&2 cleared as well as Dark 1&2. I'm working on Light 3.
Lando and Ezra are at Gear V, Hera is at Gear IV and Chopper is at Gear III. Here's the Physical Damage, Special Damage, Speed and Health of some of my heroes:
Lando - 438 / NA / 95 / 3881
Ezra - 436 / NA / 110 / 3118
Hera - 313 / NA / 108 / 3408
Talia - 293 / 475 / 92 / 3107
Luke - 294 / NA / 102 / 2636
Chewie - 306 / NA / 88 / 3992
Jedi Consular - 228 / 346 / 89 / 2462
T3-M4 - NA / 445 / 99 / 2658
Chopper - 202 / NA / 127 / 2528
I recorded a couple of battles with Lando as leader and no Ezra and no Talia:
* Lando crit'd 7 of 8 tries, averaging 1246 on those crits
* Hera averaged 442 on non-crits
* Luke averaged non-crit 378 with his first attack and non-crit 539 with his second
* Jedi Consular averaged non-crit 331 on his first attack and non-crit 405 with his second. He had far fewer attacks than the other heroes
* T3-M4 - Averaged non-crit 400 with its first attack
Jedi Consular is much worse than the others.
Recorded two more battles with Lando, Talia, Luke, T3-M4 and Chopper:
* In terms of speed, Chopper got extra attacks whereas everyone else just attacked in Speed order. Chopper got 14 attacks to Luke and Lando's 10
* Chopper averaged 224 on non-crits
* Talia averaged 405 on non-crits on her first attack
Level 36I hit level 36 and did the Fleet Commander Training: Grand Moff Tarkin. That unlocked TIE Fighter Pilot, giving me a full team of Dark Side heroes. He's a good hero, will be a major part of my Empire Dark Side team and will also be one of my pilots when I unlock ships.
I did the first Empire Basic Training Event
Squad ArenaMy team is Lando, Ezra, Hera, Luke and T3-M4. I defeated #2343, #1991, #1690, #1437 (very close) and #1220.
Should I spend 50 crystals for five more battles? While I was thinking of it, I hit level 37. If I won all my battles, I'd be around #542, which is one reward level better. Not using the crystals means I can do another Catina Energy refresh. Ultimately, I decide not to refresh the Squad Arena battles because it's late at night.
To level 39I got Hera as geared as best I can and started on gearing Chopper. I got Ezra to 3* and switched to farming Hera shards.
I recorded another couple of battles. Chopper's basic attack damage is now higher than Luke's, 413 to 396. I then maxed his gear out for his level. Lando as leader makes the team better compared to Hera as leader, but it was closer than I thought it would be.
I can't gear up Phoenix heroes right now, so I'm going to gear up Dark Side heroes, starting with TIE Fighter Pilot. I don't have much of an income of crystals, so I can't do as many refreshes as I’d like.
My Squad Arena team is now Lando, Ezra, Hera, Chopper and T3-M4. I defeated #1220, #1036, #879, #746, #634, #537, #455, #385, #327 and #282. For the last battle, I could have fought #278 but I wasn't sure I'd win so I went for the safer battle.
I did Tier III of the Empire Basic Training Event and got shards.
I regret not spending the 50 crystals on getting more Squad Arena battles when I could have first done it. If I had done it, I would have enough Squad Arena tokens to unlock Kanan after the three Squad Arena battles today and then I could use all my Normal Energy gearing him. Then I'd be able to add him to my Squad Arena team in place of T3-M4. I'd make Hera the leader and I'd have a more powerful squad. Instead, I've farmed gear for Jedi Consular. I'll need his healing in Galactic War when it gets unlocked at level 40.
Status:
* Level 39
* 19 heroes
* Phoenix stars: Ezra 3, Hera and Chopper 2, Kanan 20 shards, Sabine 1 shard and nothing for Zeb
* Gear: Lando, Ezra, Hera and Chopper are at V; TIE Fighter Pilot, Talia and Royal Guard are at IV
* 1.76M credits