Personally, for most of the DDQ i use some combo of Magneto, Storm and captain Marvel. I feel like they have decent synergy between them. I read somewhere that Daken, Wolverine and Bullseye was a good combo for the Big Enchilada.

He's got a champion 2* Storm. I'd be riding her all day and not even worrying about the 1*. 2* Storm's Lightning Strike is better, and her Wind Storm shits all over anything 1* Storm could possibly bring to the table.

I mean, if he didn't have the 2* Storm, maybe the 1* would be worth keeping around. As is? Meh. I'd sell the 1* and not look back, but that's me.


I would agree that in a roster crunch, you want to prioritize which 3* you're keeping. That said, he's got 20 of 41 (soon 42) 3* rostered. By the time he's adding anybody else in 3* land, he's going to be looking at 2nd and 3rd tier cats. Well, for the most part.

Looking at his 3*, the ones that jump out at me as 'roster and start building these guys ASAP' are Cyclops, Kamala Khan, and Luke Cage. Khan is just so so helpful to have around with her heals, and Cage is a bruiser with a really helpful Protect tile passive, and Cyclops brings the pain. Otherwise? No real quibbles with who he's got rostered right now. Just a matter of getting the Hero Points to add more slots so he can flesh out the 3* roster, really.

And that's the other thing - keeping as many 3* around as he can is, if nothing else, an extra taco token that can get him more champion levels for his 2* or more covers for the 3* he's got. Heck, he has my 2* TBE team of Magneto/Captain Marvel/Storm in champion territory, which means he's capable of getting the daily cover in DDQ when he has the 3* essential, too. I wouldn't be quick to throw away any of that. DDQ, once I had the 3* on board, is what really turbocharged my roster growth.


Yeah, choices do have to be made. At his stage, I would generally prioritize 3* > 4* > 5*, with exceptions for the 4* that drop in the Daily Resupply. Those are free covers that you'll wish you had later if you sell them (looking at you, She-Thor; if I had the two reds of yours I sold back in the day you'd be 4/4/5 right now). If you have the resources free to roster 4* covers you get, by all means! but try not to sacrifice your 3* roster growth if you can help it. Those 3* will, once championed, start delivering 4* covers, as well.

[quote]I'd only keep the 4* if I possibly had multiple covers and/or they're part of daily rewards like Sack said in the past.[quote]

It helps that at SCL7+, 4* are more obtainable than they've been in the past, too. If you can get 50-60% of the points available in an event, you can earn the 4* essential cover (which means even if you don't HAVE the 4* essential rostered, you can still get the cover). But you definitely don't want to throw away anybody who drops multiple covers via the Resupply.

Eventually, the 4* that drop in Resupply stop dropping multiple covers. I think Star-Lord might be the last one who does, and he only drops 2 instead of the 3 that Nick Fury, Elektra, She-Thor, Wolverine, Invisible Woman, and possibly one other I'm forgetting do. Everybody after Star-Lord drops a single cover, if memory serves. That's easier to let go of, but a free 1/1/1 or 1/1/0 shouldn't be easily discarded.


I got rid of the first one I ever pulled. That was back when my 3* roster was (deliberately) softcapped at 125-130 and before champions were a thing. With the advent of champions, and especially with my 4* roster growth, I haven't really noticed 5* to have a deleterious effect on my game. That said, I haven't put a single ISO into leveling any of them. Their match damage is so outrageous at 255 that it feels unnecessary.

I pair Green Goblin with 3* Cap and Scarlet Witch for fun and fuckery (he protects their countdowns and they wreck shit with shields and sorcery), and I use my other 5* as meatshields when clearing the "easy" PvE missions. Especially 5* Strange. But none of them have enough covers to enter 'regular' play for me, except the aforementioned GG, and it's likely to be a loooooong time before that changes. But in the meantime, I have all 41 current 3* rostered, I have all 4* rostered except Wasp, Agent Venom, and Carnage, and I'm sitting on almost 2000 HP for additional roster spots, so it's not like there's any reason for me NOT to carry the 5*.

That said? Super don't recommend spending Command Points or opening Legendary tokens until you start to champion your 3* characters. You don't need the 5* characters to do what you're doing now, and they WILL have an effect on your scaling and MMR if your highest level character otherwise is a low-100s 2* champion. So just sit on the Command Points and any Legendary Tokens you get until your 3* roster is ready to carry the load, and then you will have a veritable joygasm of token opening.

Just make sure you always have enough HP on hand to roster a new character should one arise once you get to that point. That way you don't waste new 4* or 5* covers. If you pull a new character, roster them, and are then out of HP? Go back to hoarding until you have enough HP for another roster spot.


I've heard both sides of this one. I'm primarily a PVE player, but you're right that it's not a trivial time commitment. If you play for max progression, you're probably looking at 2-3 hours a day. If you have characters who can clear nodes faster, you might need less time than that. If you're playing for placement, especially in the higher SCLs, you're realistically looking at 4 hours a day - two hours or so for the final grind in each sub, and then two hours rolling into the new sub.

PVP offers the rewards it offers with much less time commitment, but the other side of that is the paywall - if you play for PVP progression, you will probably need to invest in shields, and unless your HP flow without spending money is strong, that'll mean a financial investment. So it's kind of pick your poison on that front.

I generally focus on progression first, and if I find myself in a position to place well in PVE, I'll take advantage of that. But I don't go into a PVE event looking for placement. Usually. There are exceptions, but because you can't control who you get bracketed with, it's not a good idea to go into an event "expecting" a top 10 or top 20 finish unless you KNOW you'll have the time to devote to it.


Don't forget the SHIELD Simulator. Those points count for season progression. I find I can typically "float" around 1200-1500 points with that over the course of the season, which means that I can hit the Heroic 10 pack if I have the patience to play to 300 or so in each event. SHIELD Simulator also yields 2* and 3* covers, as well as a max progression 4* reward (which I've only ever managed to attain in the shortened seasons when the Sim ladder caps at 800).

Also, super nifty thing - PVP matches now yield +2 XP per fight you win. That accelerates leveling your SHIELD Rank, which means bonus ISO rewards come faster and, eventually, you can move up to higher SHIELD Clearance Levels. So the Simulator, if nothing else, is worth playing. Oh, and that XP is also awarded in Lightning Round fights, so abuse the hell out of those seed fights.

My 3* roster owes so, so much to the bolded three. Once those three started winning Big Enchiladas for me, shit got real.

I have 39 3* champions now, and Sentry/Strange will join them just as soon as I get the rest of the covers I need.

Picked up my 13th cover for Bullseye, too bad he is so far away from level 94, as my 3 extra covers for him may go to waste. I also bit the bullet on leveling up Daken, so he's a champion now. Now if I can only get this stupid Black Widow cover before 4pm et Friday, I can get her to champion without wasting these covers.

Lightning rounds. The next one starts in an hour, and then every two hours after that until 10 am Pacific on Thursday. That's going to be the fastest way to get 2* covers for the least work, if you can get the ~10 seed fights by jumping in as soon as a lightning round starts. You can get 2* cover drops from other PVP fights also, but you're fighting actual user rosters instead of the "seed" teams.

I just championed my first 3*...Mohawk storm. I don't have every 3* yet but I'm working on getting them.

33 3* at the moment. And I have the hp to roster two more...Or one . And the spiderwoman purple I have waiting....but if I get a 4*, I'd rather have Thor...With storm giving 3 copies of her eventually

She-Thor drops in the daily on Days 490, 520, and 550. Don't know how far you are from then.

I'm on day 218. I get 1000 iso tomorrow.

Then if Spider-Woman is in serious consideration for a roster spot, I would roster her and if you get a She-Thor cover (or one of the others from the Daily Resupply), you can rearrange the deck chairs.

Otherwise, roster two 3* you haven't rostered yet. The more of those you have, the more tacos you can get, and the more 3* covers you'll be able to get for your burgeoning 3* roster.

I only have the spiderwoman cover in waiting currently. I do like the love and fear feature of her. I know psykloke is coming down the pipe in the next month and she is one of the ones I lack. I am opening every possible chance at 3*s to get one of the ones I lack. So I don't have a whole lot in the hole at the moment.

So the Black Widow cover I needs is one of the rewards for this Galactus task. No clue how long that will take though, and looks like it will be dependent on how much my Alliance mates play.

Hey General Mike

I dropped my alt account on T.R.O.U.T. You can send a join request and one of the commanders should let you in

Thanks. I sent my request in.

Just getting into this game, I seem to be quite late to the party, haha.

Mike, approved it. You're a full-fledged member of TROUT.

It's only kinda sorta dependent on your alliance mates. TROUT usually has pretty good participation for these things; I don't think we've ever cleared round 8 but we're usually good for round 6 and, sometimes, round 7. Different ball of wax with the holiday this weekend, but if we get anything like normal participation, you oughtn't to have any trouble getting to 281k points. Remember that the way Galactus works is, you get points towards progression whether you kill him or not. However many points you lop off his health bar, that's how many you get for the fight.

Where alliance play comes into things is mainly for the alliance round rewards, and to push us/you into the higher rounds where each fight is worth more points because he has more health.

You're not going to have any trouble reaching 281500 if you're playing regularly. 711000, 802500 and 900000 though, yeah, will depend on how much participation we get.

Julio, it's never too late!

If for no other reason than that you have this wonderful thread (and the sequel I created with some FAQ stuff that seems to have died on the vine) and are able to learn from the mistakes and wisdom of those who have come before you. Plus, you have DDQ awaiting you from the word go, where some of us had to wait a year or two for that.

It's really an exciting time to be a newbie, from my perspective.

I mean, I wouldn't give up my account/progress to start over, but there's a lot of good stuff going on for new players, for sure.

Playing everything I can to get a Spiderman so I can get one more round of Galactus in.

Best bets:

1) If you haven't x4 cleared everything in The Hunt yet, do that. You should get 1 standard token from most of those nodes, and there is a 1* Spiderman. Easiest way to get one.

2) If you've already x4 cleared The Hunt, you can (though I don't recommend it) spend ISO on standard tokens to the same effect.

3) SHIELD Simulator will drop 2* covers, and PVP is the only place you can get a 2* Spidey (Bag-Man).

Did what I could for the event, but don't have Patch, so that node is locked. If I can find a 2* Wolverine cover I can get him for my next champion level.

Will it not let you use 2* Wolverine? I know for me it defaulted to 5* Old Man Logan for that node, which suggests that you should be able to use character variants if they're available.

It has 2* and X-Force locked out so I guess not.

In other news Bullseye is almost a champion. I'm holding onto 20K in ISO for Black Widow, but have gotten Him up to level 93. Between Hunt rewards and DDQ tomorrow, he should be there.

I'm pretty sure that I had one node for Wolverine (that I used Old Man Logan for) and one that specified Wolverine(Patch).

This is a beginners question that I should know the answer to after years of playing, but if I leave a cover in my list until it expires do I still get the iso-8 for it?

Only if you sell it before it expires. If it poofs, you get nothing. Let it sit there, by all means - imma have to do that with Deadpool (3) in a few days to push back the time until I get the level 183 champion reward from him - but make sure you apply or sell the cover *before* the timer runs out.

I found a Wolverine cover in the prologue so was able to get Patch. Had to buy hero points, so you are all the big winners.

Thank you, sir. My mad dash to 120 CP so I can finish off my 4* Deadpool is the beneficiary of your largesse.

Speaking of CP, I have 141 accumulated, and I plan on holding on to them, but how long? I see the 3* covers are 20 CP, so is it when I get in a situation where you have covers you can't use to push them over the top?

Really wouldn't use CP on 3* characters. I mean, you can, and everybody's gotta make their own call about how to spend the resources, but between progression rewards, elite tokens (earned from personal and alliance placement in sub-events and main events) and DDQ, 3* covers are common enough that you'll get characters covered sooner or later.

4* is a little trickier; buying a 4* cover has an effective opportunity cost equal to 3-5 additional 4* (or 5*!) covers. If you spent 20 CP on four Latest or six Classic Legendary tokens, you might get the cover you need. On the other hand, with 40'ish 4* in the pool and over a dozen 5*, you're looking at 150 cover possibilities, so maybe it makes sense in a particular circumstance to buy the rank for a 4* so you don't waste a cover.

That's what I'm apt to end up doing for 4* Deadpool, since I'm 4 days or so away from getting 3* Deadpool's 183rd champion level, which drops an otherwise unusable Deadpool cover; my next guaranteed cover would be 40 3* Deadpool covers away. So...the current plan is to save another 55 CP, buy a rank in black or purple for Deadpool, champion him, and then turn that otherwise-unusable cover into a Latest Legendary.

It's not a plan I'm super excited about! But...Deadpool is also the only 4* character whose feeder is approaching level 183 AND can't use the reward otherwise AND can actually do something about it. Iceman can't use the blue that Psylocke is coming up on, but I have no definite path to a green cover or 5 so that he CAN use it. All of the other 3* approaching 183, their 4* partners can use the covers they'll drop.

So barring a stroke of luck from a Heroic token or something, I'm gonna hold my nose and do it.

But I wouldn't generally counsel that, and I SUPER wouldn't counsel it for 3*. Save the CP for building your 4* and 5* rosters.

Also, just to reiterate - don't buy Legendary tokens until you're at the point where you're starting to champion 3* characters. The 4* you'd pull won't hurt you - your 2* champions are well beyond level 70 - but the 5* might, and your 3* roster is still in its infancy.

The other particular advantage for you of taking the advice from my previous post is that once you get to the point where you have several fully-covered 3* and you're starting to champion them, you'll be able to have a friggin' Legendary Token PARTY. When DDQ started, I'd estimate it took me probably 6 months or so to fully cover 39 3*? 6-9 months, somewhere in there? And that was before Elite tokens got added to the Story reward structure. It's not gonna be appreciably slower than that for you. Maybe a skoche, because two 3* have been added since who weren't there when I fully covered mine, but I feel like the acceleration in other places - the extra 3* cover at SCL7+ and elite tokens rewarding 2* and 3* characters, plus 2* champions feeding covers to 3* characters - will counterbalance that.

Keep saving your CP, and once you're firmly in the position to start maxing and champing 3*, you're going to have a bunchaton of potential Legendaries to open.

(Just ALSO make sure that when you DO open them, you treat them as though each one has a character you haven't rostered, and never open more tokens at once than you have the ability to buy roster spots for, with coins or otherwise.)

Yeah that makes sense. I'm still weighing whether I should sell my 5* Dr. Strange. I don't know if it's messing up my scaling, but I feel like I'm getting bad matchups in the simulator, but maybe it is just the other teams having similar guys to my Dr Strange that make it seem like that.

Also, gonna sell Bagman when I need a spot next.

OH GOD WHAT IS DDQ??

I've been playing through the prologue stuff, Right now I'm clearing out all the Venom stages.. My 4 star Medusa has been carrying the team as they grow, heh. I'm kind of getting a feel for who makes a good team in concert with each other, but I don't think I have nailed it down yet, plus I only have 8 on my team this early in the game.. I do think this is easily the best match 3 game out there though, I can see it being a time killer for a good long while.

But seriously, what is DDQ?

Ah, I looked it up, Deadpools Daily thing.. I'm nowhere near powerful enough to take on the 2 waves yet. Getting closer though.

Scaling and MMR are two different things. Scaling is how strong the enemies get in Story. MMR is your Simulator/PVP experience, and yes, having a 5* on a roster that's otherwise 2* champions will skew your MMR.

Which is, as mentioned, why I recommend not spending CP on Legendaries until your 3* are more grown up. :)

Bagman is a dude worth keeping and growing if and when you have a spare spot because he's the ONLY 2* champion who has a Legendary token as a champion reward. But he's a luxury, not a necessity, because as a character he isn't very good.

But where are the Bagman tokens? I have one, and haven't even come close to sniffing one. Is he hidden in the vaults?

DDQ is Deadpool's Daily Quest. You beat missions and get tokens/ Iso as rewards. You can't just jump into it, because there are restrictions on certain missions (1* only, 1&2* only, required character)

If you're far enough to have earned a 4* Medusa, you're far enough to have unlocked Deadpool's Daily Quest.

It's not a treadmill you can jump right on and immediately boom riches and manna from heaven, but once your 2* characters start to get covers and get to around level 50+, it starts being useful for you. There's a 1*-only fight, good for 500 ISO every day. You can probably rock that with what you've got, since you PROBABLY didn't earn a Medusa with a bunch of single-cover 1*.

The second fight is a two-wave random fight that you can use 1*, 2*, or a mixture of the two in. The reward is a taco and 200 ISO. Tacos, once opened, reveal 2* characters, 3* characters, a slim chance of a 4* or a Legendary token, and have coins, ISO, and health packs scattered in there also.

The third fight is a 2* fight against three other characters, who may be 2*, 3*, or 4*. That one's tougher to clear unless you have three 2* who are well-leveled. They don't have to be champions, but you aren't going to clear that fight with 2* who aren't at least pushing 80 or 90, like as not. The reward there is 1000 ISO.

The 4th fight is a 3* required fight. You can pair anybody else with that 3*, but you have to have that specific 3* to play. If you win, you get a second taco, and you unlock the 5th fight.

The 5th fight is a 4-wave fight, and the reward at the end is a cover for that 3* essential. You can use any team you want in that fight, but realistically you aren't going to clear it unless you have at minimum a team of 2* who work well together and who are all at least level 70.

If you clear all five fights in a given day, your total prize haul is 3700 ISO, two tacos, and the daily 3* cover.

When you first start playing DDQ, you're probably going to be able to clear the 1* and 2-wave fights. Possibly also the 2* fight, if you're able to clear the 2-wave. But until your 3* diversity grows, the 4th and 5th fights are going to be blocked off for you. Once you crack that wall, though? Your growth will take off. You'll start pulling 3* covers from tacos; not every taco, because they've added coins, ISO, and health packs to the mix, along with the addition of the 4* prizes, but enough tacos. You'll be pulling down the daily cover as well, and as you open tacos and apply covers, the XP you earn will be pushing you towards SHIELD Clearance Level 7, where you start getting 2 covers of the essential 3* in every event.

DDQ is a gateway to the wider world of MPQ. You can get there without it, but it's definitely slower. If you tailor your early approach with DDQ in mind, you'll be amazed how quickly you vault into the 3* game.

I feel like I hit the wall in this Galactus events. Really struggling with even the sub events now.

They're kind of dicks about scaling in this event. The first couple refreshes are nice and easy and then the third one jumps about a hundred levels. There's still one more jump coming, but I'm hoping we can clear at least round 5 anyway. I could use those Punisher (MAX) covers.

That SAID, if you can get Galactus unlocked, even with the extra levels, he isn't bad. You just need a heavy hitter and someone who can give you board control. I've been using Jean Grey mainly this time around because her purple can just wipe those countdowns away.

But the last time this event ran, I had success with Captain America and Scarlet Witch. Cap overwrites tiles and Witch, although she can't STUN him, can still do some decent damage.

I'm tempted to run a team of Cap/Jean/Witch or Widow/Cap/Witch and see how he likes those.

Medusa was actually my 4th or 5th character I think. Got a good draw on one of those naughty or nice tokens.

I'm slowly working my guys up to the higher levels, have some of them into the 30's so far. Wish a character with covers was worth as much Iso 8 as a leveled up character with covers. I'll be feeling good when I get to the point I can clear that first multi wave fight.

The DDQ today seemed harder than normal. Maybe it was just me tho and the fact that I only have 2 purple covers for Spidey. In general I think I'm gonna struggle until I get more 3* covers. Between the 29 3*s on my roster, I probably have less then 100 total covers.

PvP only. You can get them as reward drops for winning a fight, but not from tokens. That's why he's the only 2* with a Legendary token champion reward.

Good to know. I hate PVP, so I dumped him.

Also, just got my first win in the Big Enchilada(Thanos version). Used 2*s of Storm, Thor and Black Widow. Feels good to know I could get it done. BW bit the dust early, and Storm and Thor barely made it.

I've been playing around with 2-star Storm, Magneto, and Hawkeye and doing really well. Magneto's pink power feeds Storm's blue and Hawkeye's speedshot is a nice power to team it with.

Yeah, it seems like it would be good. I like Daken and Wolverine with Bullseye. Pink matches put protects on the board and Wolverine's skills and Daken's pair well with putting strike tiles on the board.

Storm/ Mags/ Marvel seems like my go to team right now, but I like to switch it up.

Pulled the Legendary token from the ISO-8 Brotherhood vault. Was hoping for one of the two Deadpool 4* covers, but can't ever be upset with pulling a Legendary token.

I didn't get Deadpool from that token, but I DID get the elusive Iceman green. Played with him in tonight's clears, and...man, is he fun with some covers and levels in him. I still want more than a single green, but pair him with 3* Iron Man and/or Star-Lord and things get lulzy in a hurry. Iceman's stun at 5 covers is probably already the best bang for your buck in the game, and Star-Lord just makes it ridiculously cheap.

Alternatively, 3* Iron Man keeps him well-supplied with blue and green AP to wreck shit with. I'd like to run all three out there at once, but Star-Lord has a habit of covering the yellows with his AP reduction countdowns, and then Iron Man can't battery it up.

Probably for the best because infinite AP + cost reduction + stun city = legal grounds for murder, heh.

Just grinding away for 2* and 3* covers. I got a legendary token the other day from one of the vaults and then opened it like a dumbass. Ended up getting a Mr. Fantastic, but I'm still waiting to roster him.

If I can get a green Ares cover, I can champion him and put 2 covers in him before they expire. That would give me the full set of 2* champs, well besides Bag Man. My 3*s all still pretty worthless to me, but I have 3 with 5 covers in them now.

Lightning rounds, yo. PvP in general can be farmed for 2* covers.

I got my much coveted Deadpool 4* from the vault today, enabling me to spend the points I was saving. Got consecutive 5* Thanos pulls. Good day.

Haaaaaattteee youuuuuuu

I know, I just seem to miss the timing of the Lightning rounds starting. Plus I'll miss the seed battles.

Every two hours. If you're in the game before they start (gonna use Central time zones because that's how I roll) you'll always get at least three seeds.

So, for example, the first one this week should be Tuesday at noon central. If I enter the game at 12:01, it's a crapshoot. I might get 3 seeds, I might get 10, I might get none. It all depends on how quickly people start populating the leaderboard. If, on the other hand, I'm in the game at 11:45? when the lightning round starts, I'll have 10 seeds in the queue if I go to play the lightning round at all close to when it kicked off. That'll run noon to 1:30. Thirty minute cooldown, the next one goes off at 2pm central, run to 3:30. Thirty minute cooldown, the next is at 4pm central. Etc. Every two hours for the subsequent 48ish hours. I'm never quite sure if the last one begins at 10am Central on Thursday, or if they run one at noon on Thursday to make it a full 48 hour period.

But that's what it looks like. If I recall, you're in New Jersey, so adjust all of that later by an hour. 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm, 11pm on Tuesdays, 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm, 11pm on Wednesdays, and 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am for certain on Thursdays, all times Eastern.

You can also get the seed fights if you prejoin a regular PVP event and, again, make sure you're in the game as soon as the slice you chose begins. That'll get you 10 seed fights. If you join a regular PVP event at any other time, it's dependent on whether you get a fresh bracket or not as to whether you'll see seed fights.