As I noted in my review,
Marvel: War of Heroes has a great deal of complexity to it if you invest the time. It also features some bewildering design decisions that may make it slightly off-putting for new players.
I couldn't find a decent
Complete Beginner's Guide to Marvel: War of Heroes anywhere on the net, which made the game exceptionally obtuse for the first few days I played it.
Rather than sulk and whine, though, I decided to use my own special powers - plus
Pocket Gamer's CMS - to conjure up a walkthrough of my own.
Here we are, then: everything you need to know to get started with Cygames and DeNA's superhero-themed card battler.
Beginnings
Before you begin the game, you're given the chance to enter a referral code. You
absolutely should take advantage of this opportunity, so boot up Google and search for the following terms: "marvel war of heroes referral".
There are plenty of people who have put their code out there for the likes of you and me, so track one down and enter the information when the game prompts you to.
Bam! You've just netted yourself a rare card and a load of Silver (the game's soft currency). You've also just helped out a fellow player, and in doing so earned some real-world karma. Go, you! You'll be glad you've done this later in the game, but I'll come onto that further down this guide.
For now, just follow the instructions and make it through the "tutorial"... if you can call it that. Basically, you want to complete the first Operation as soon as possible.
Now that you've done this and are onto the second set of missions, you can proceed in any way you would like. It's open like that. Yay.
Go to 'My Page' and register your device. Without doing this very simple act, you'll miss out on loads of Presents and the Daily Bonus for logging in. And this is the very last thing you want to do, for these elements are super-useful.
Complete the second Operation and the boss encounter, and then instead of selecting 'Next Mission', tap the 'Mission' tab, scroll all the way down to 'Operations', and select it. You'll see that HYDRA Hijinks can be taken on again, and you should do so at least once more.
Boosting
Repeating this content gives you another swing at collecting all of the cards on offer, and will drastically increase the number of feeder cards you have access to.
You can use feeder cards to "boost" the primary card you take into missions. Boost is one of the core components of the deck used when in battle with players from around the world.
Tap the 'Boost' tab to open the menu to do this - you're then presented with your Base Card. If you'd like to change this, just tap 'Change Base Card' for Boost. Scroll down and you'll see that you're looking at the recommended list of cards available to boost.
This automatically populates a list of potential candidates. (Deselect all those you'd like to keep, though, by tapping the 'Select' checkbox next to them.) Hit 'Boost' at the bottom of the screen, and then confirm the boost. After the animation, you'll be notified that the Card XP has gone up, whether its level has increased, and that its ATK (attack) and DEF (defence) have risen.
So, why would you want to boost? Well, it's useful to increase the numbers of your cards for missions and battles. Essentially, the higher the numbers you have, the more likely you are to win, as the in-battle tactics aren't exactly what you would call 'intricate'.
Fusion
The other reason you'd want to boost is to increase two copies of the same card to a maximum level, and then use "Fusion" to make an even more powerful, rarer card.
Go to the 'Fusion' tab, then select the Base Card you'd like to fuse. Scroll to the card you'd like to fuse with, tap 'Select this for Fuser Card', then confirm.
Once you've used Fusion, it's the end of the evolutionary line for the majority of cards. There are a couple that can be fused twice, but they surface later in the game and are not really relevant to this beginner's guide.
If you'd like a bonus, fully boost both the cards being used for Fusion. This will result in 10 per cent (rather than the usual 5 per cent) of the fused card's stats being transferred to the Base Card. It's probably not worth doing for really low-rank cards, but it definitely is for the more uncommon ones, as they're inherently more powerful.
Miscellaneous tips
You can only hold 60 cards to begin with, so if you need space for a lengthy Feeder Card grind session, either sell the ones you don't need or fuse these lower-end cards. This creates better cards, and clears room in the process.
It's worth your assigning the Attribute Points you earn through mission completion, too. Make sure you go for the recommended distribution offered, mind, until you've really got your head round the mechanics, and established your own particular play style. Too much in one area can leave you exposed in others.
Battles require you to build both offensive and defensive decks. To gain access to this screen, tap the 'Menu' tab, then 'Deck Edit'. For newer players, I'd recommend looking at the suggested strategies and tapping the 'Copy Deck' option.
Once you've formed a dream team of superheroes, you can start forming custom decks. Before that, though, it's pretty much pointless to do so.
You might be tempted to attack much lower-level players in Battles for an easy victory, but don't. The game punishes you heavily for doing this, awarding automatic victory to the less experienced player and seizing a truckload of Silver from you in the process.
Make sure you get social with other players, too. You want to request people join your Team as often as you can, for they'll lend you cards in the tougher boss fights that begin at around Operation 5. Without these 'friends', you'll be stuck for an awfully long time.
Finally, get as comfortable as possible with the menu system in the game. It takes a lot of getting used to, but once you understand where each tap will lead you, and how best to quickly gain access to the information you need, the pace becomes fairly fast moving.
Got any tips to share? Let us and the rest of the PG community know by leaving them in the comments section below.
