Most free-to-play guides open with a shopping list. This one opens with the three habits that quietly cost accounts a month each, because avoiding them is worth more than any allocation you get right afterwards.
The three things not to do
Do not put legendary shards into Jabel. He reaches 5 stars through normal play. Every universal legendary shard you feed him is a shard that Marin — or a generational banner hero — never gets, and those do not top out on their own.
Do not empty your materials chasing an event rank. On an active server, finishing outside the top 100 is the normal outcome and it is fine. If you are sitting at 110th, a small push is good value. If you are 180th, forcing your way into the top 100 costs more than the bracket pays — that is the exact trade that burns out free-to-play accounts by the second month.
Do not buy resources at list price. Resources are the one thing the game hands out constantly. Gems spent on them are gems not spent on the things that genuinely do not drop.
Where the shards go
| Currency | Priority order | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary (gold) shards | Marin first, then the current generational banner hero | Marin to 3 stars, which unlocks skill 4 |
| Epic (purple) shards | Yeonwoo → Chenko → Howard | Whatever the stock supports; do not force it |
| Skill books | Chenko → Howard → Yeonwoo | Note this order differs from the shard order — it is not a typo |
Pull in bursts of 120, not in tens
Splitting pulls across several sessions is strictly worse than saving for one burst. A single run of 120 typically brings Salo to 3 stars; roughly three such runs — about 360 pulls — brings Zoe near 4 stars. Five stars is not a free-to-play target without a top alliance and long-horizon saving behind it, so stop at 4 and bank the gems. Knowing where to stop is the skill here.
Troop tiers: convert all at once
Train straight through T1–T6, then hold. The moment T7 production opens, convert everything in one pass; same again at T8, and at T9. Piecemeal conversion leaves you with a mixed army that is worse than either pure tier. Two practical ceilings: a free-to-play account gains little past roughly 440K troops, because the squads cannot field them, and Town Center 27 is the level that matters, since that is where T9 production unlocks.
Shop priorities
| Shop | Buy first | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Swordland shop | Design Sketches | Top priority — the only other source is the Fishing event |
| Championship shop | Pet Medals, then Gold Thread over Silk | Medals became first priority the moment Pets shipped |
| Arena shop | Legendary hero gear chest | Roughly one legendary gear piece every two weeks — the steadiest gear income a free account has |
| VIP shop | 5 Stamina, every week | Cheap, and never skip it |
Community-aggregated and unverified — the priorities and figures in this section are cross-checked player data, not published by Century Games. They can change with the server and the patch, so the in-game text always wins.
Two supply lines the publisher has actually documented
Everything above is community consensus. The two rules below come straight out of Century Games' own help centre, which means you can build a plan on them without worrying about which server or patch you are on.
Gold — Rebel Suppression idle income and Residents
The main source of gold are from residents and Rebel Suppression idle rewards. The higher the level reached in Rebel Suppression, the higher the idle income. Residents provides fixed gold income.
— Gold FAQ
The operative half is “the higher the level reached… the higher the idle income”. Residents pay a fixed rate — waiting longer never makes them pay more. Rebel Suppression is the opposite: every stage you clear permanently raises your gold per hour, forever. So a wall in Rebel Suppression is not a stalled side mode, it is a frozen income rate. Re-tune your heroes and troops and push one more stage; a single breakthrough changes the next several days of gold.
Mysterious Badge — Town Center 15, and then a day
The day after reaching Town Center Lv. 15
— Mysterious Badge FAQ
One word — “after” — generates most of the confusion around this reward. Completing every daily mission on the day you hit Lv. 15 will not produce the badge. That is the specification, not a bug. Which gives a small, free optimisation: if Town Center 15 is within reach, finish it before the daily reset rather than after. Hitting it late in the evening pushes the badge an entire extra day down the road.
Sources: Gold FAQ · Mysterious Badge FAQ