Marvel Strike Force: 7 Tips for a Beginning MSF Player

Welcome back to MSF Mondays! Each week we break down one more aspect of the hottest mobile game, Marvel Strike Force!

Marvel Strike has been around for a while now and it features dozens of characters with more being released quarterly. There are endless equipment types, oodles of orbs, and several shard types. All that adds up to what can be an overwhelming on-ramp for new players.

I mean, where the heck do you even begin with this game??!? We got you. Below are 7 tips for the beginning Marvel Strike Force player that you can jump right into as you get your mind wrapped around the game.

7 Tips for a Beginning MSF Player

Remember, these are beginner tips. They’ll serve you well for your first month or two, and maybe more! By then you’ll hit mid-game and you’ll want to scroll below to read through our 20 guides for the variety of elements of modes for the game.

7. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Buy Orbs, Not Shards

There is a variety of stores in the game, Raid, Arena, and WAR, to name a few. In most of those stores you are able to buy 5 character shards for the particular currency. This is a trap!

While buying shards with currency allows you to get a few shards of the particular character you are targeting, if you use the currency to buy orbs in the store, you will get more shards for much less currency, giving you tremendous value over time.

Sure, orbs have random drops, so you won’t be able to target. But a beginning player wants as many shards as possible to get as many unlocks as possible. Yeah, those minion shards don’t feel fun if they drop from an orb but I promise you that you’ll be happy to have all the characters unlocked as cheaply as possible.

Granted, I cheat on this. I’ll often start mixing in direct shard purchases when I see a character inch close to being unlocked and a direct shard purchase will take it over the edge. I’d encourage that for you as well. Focus on orb purchases with your store credits, but it’s a game and games are supposed to be fun, so live a little.

6. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Finish Those Dailies!

You need shards to unlock characters but you also need gold and gear to level up those characters. The best way to get that gear and gold is to knock out your dailies every single day. Basically, do the things in the game you’d do anyway and get free stuff for doing it!

Simply doing the dailies will advance your on the STRIKE track, which is additional free stuff, even you you don’t pony up for the $20 STRIKE Pass. So, do those dailies and get the free stuff!

Doing your dailies will also tie into the Milestones, which are an excellent source of free stuff. This creates a nice virtuous cycle where you can achieve incremental gains in the game simply by doing the stuff you’d normally do daily.

5. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Treat Yourself!

The YouTubers blather on and on about the characters you must unlock for end game and you shouldn’t waste your time on any other character. This is poor advice for several reasons.

Firstly, you are supposed to waste time in this game. YouTubers treat it as a job, when the majority of us gen pop folks simply want to enjoy it as a 20-minute time filler while we are sitting on the can.
Second, if you are starting out, you are a long way from end game so don’t add the pressure of who someone else says you should unlock.
Finally, unlock who you want to. If you enjoy a character, go for it without concern about the “meta.” This is a game and games are supposed to be fun, not work.

So enjoy yourself and unlock who you want to. Build teams how you want to. Get weird, have fun.

4. Marvel Strike Force Tips: But Maybe Focus on Sinister Six

But maybe ignore the above advice occasionally! MSF have characters called “Legendary” characters. Legendaries are characters like Magneto and Doc Ock and while they sometimes represent the most powerful or popular characters from the comics, it’s more accurate to say they are tagged as “Legendary” because they are hard to get. You have to unlock them using a pre-determined team lineup.

If you are interested in unlocking Legendary characters a little later in the game, then start early by unlocking characters with the “Sinister Six” tag because the Sinister Six team can be used to unlock two Legendary characters in the future.

And Sinister Six is fun to play to boot.

3. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Focus on a Couple Game Modes

There are a variety of game modes in the game, but if you are just starting out, focus on the Campaign and Real-Time Arena (RTA). Now, don’t skimp out on the others, particularly if they have Daily requirements.

The Campaign mode is excellent for brand new players. First, you’ll tackle the Heroes Campaign, then you’ll unlock the Villains Campaign, where your unlocked Sinister Six (see above) can shine again. Once you “3-Star” a Campaign node you’ll be able to Auto clear it, which gives you additional free stuff. Focus on those nodes that potentially give you character shards!

RTA is another mode to focus on as a brand new player because it gives you yet more free stuff, even without paying for the upgrade. Better, the RTA gives you character shards of a different character each month and they are typically among the newer, more desirable characters.

2. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Learn Where to Place Your Characters

Placement matters I the game, meaning you should give thought to how your 5 characters are lined up. We did a full article just on team positioning, so I’ll point you there.

1. Marvel Strike Force Tips: Understand the Status Circles

You’ll notice right away that there are an assortment of green and red circles that pop over over the character’s heads when you battle. These circles represent the powers, abilities, and statuses – both good and bad – that you’ll see I the game.

Hover over them as you do your 5 v 5 battles and quickly familiarize yourself with them because it’s not at all intuitive what they are or what they do when they pop up. Sure, a red drop of blood over a character’s head makes sense when you realize it is the Bleed Status, but that’s hardly intuitive when you are just starting out.

I wish there was an easier why to download all the info of these status circles into your brain Matrix style, but you’ll simply need to learn them as you go. We do have helper on them however and I’ll point you there.

Well I hope this helps you take your Squad from a D+ to a B- Commander, while also increasing your Marvel comic book lore!

Game Radar

Blitz: We continue our celebration of Pride month with the upcoming Blitzes! Monday features Hell’s Kitchen’s enforcer, Daredevil! On Thursday, beat the heat when Iceman comes to the Blitz rotation!

Upcoming Legendary: Adam Warlock‘s first Mythic Legendary event begins on June 28th. To unlock this Legendary Infinity Watch character, you’ll need Jubilee at 5 Stars, Four X-Factor Characters at 5 Stars, Character Level 65, Gear Tier 12, and T1 Iso-8 (Green Class) at Tier 3.

Previous Installments

You can check out all of our other Marvel Strike Force articles right here! We try to put out a new article every Monday, so stay tuned for even more content.

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