So its been two months since I posted my initial Tips for Early Squad Development thread for Galaxy of Heroes. While submitting my screenshot to our Club’s weekly competition I noticed we still have alot of members playing, so thought another look into this game might be beneficial for some. This post assumes you have already read my initial Tips and goes a little more in depth into the game.
There has been no change in my real money spending on this game since my initial post. The only thing I’ve ever bought from it was the $5 Dooku pack from when the game launched.
The internet resources I’ve found most useful to review are the SWGoH Cantina Website and Tiny Grimes Gaming YouTube Channel.
Spending Purple Crystals:
* TLDR: Cantina Energy to farm a chosen battle for a Hero you’re chasing.
This was a dilemma I’ve struggled with. For a long time I’ve been buying the Chromium Mega Pack (8x Chromium Cards with 1 guaranteed character) after accumulating 3k or so Crystals. This worked well in the beginning when my Hero lineup wasn’t filled out so much. Lately I’ve found it less helpful, however I believe I found a useful alternative that works for me.
As I covered in my Tips for Early Squad Development Post the Cantina Battles are a great source of getting Hero Shards as well as Cantina Credits (which can be used to buy more Hero Shards!). For 100 Crystals you can get 120 Cantina Energy, this translates to 10-12 Battles. That results in an estimate of 4-6 shards from the Battle you’re farming as well as around 170 Cantina Credits, which is nearly half of the amount needed to buy 5 Shards from the Cantina Store. So for 100 Crystals you’re gaining approximately 6-8 Character Shards. Compared to a standard Chromium Data Card, where you’re most likely to only gain 7 character shards for 350 Crystals and its a steal.
Galactic War Tips:
* TLDR: Don’t Auto through any Battles, be aware of Cooldowns you want to be up at the start of the next Battle, manage your heals well, don’t be afraid to Retreat if a Battle is going poorly.
I’ve seen a few folks on Telegram mention that they have trouble with Galactic War. I’ve done some research on good strategies that others use for this and after adopting them I can’t remember a time that I haven’t been able to finish the entire Galactic War, often using the same five characters I started it with. Scroll down and look at my Arena Squad for who I use, the only change is Luminara is the Leader for her Leader Ability that grants a small heal each turn. So here’s my battle plan for those who struggle.
First thing to realize, the retreat option is your greatest asset. If in the middle of a Battle you lose a key Hero, hit retreat. It resets everything to before you entered. No lost character. All Health bars set to where they were when you started. All cooldowns set to when you started. It is a complete reset on the battle. There are days I don’t need to use this at all and there are other days I’ll reset one battle two or three times.
Next, each enemy Hero move is pre determined. If I enter a Battle and use my Dooku’s Force Lightning on an enemy Qui-Gonn and he resists it then does his special move and one shots my Sidious he will always respond in that sequence if I start with Dooku’s Force Lightning no matter how many times I reset. So I have to change my sequence. When I re-enter I’ll use Dooku’s normal attack on Qui-Gonn and he may do a different move. Or I may attack a different character on the enemy team. Or you can even just change the order of your Heroes on your team.
The Galactic War is a battle of attrition. There is a reason I have three healers on my team for it and why I use Luminara with the Heal Leader ability (Bariss would work too I think). Understand your Healer’s cooldowns. If I need a heal, my first option is to always look to my Consular. The cooldown on his heal is super quick compared to Daka or Luminara. However, if I have a character very low on Health I’d use Luminara’s in a heartbeat, which is a much larger heal and does two more rounds of heal over time. If I lost a character I’ll attempt to use Daka’s heal to revive them before retreating out of the battle (if everything else is going well).
Offensive cooldowns need to be managed too. I always start each Battle with Dooku’s Force Lightning on my focus target. At times I’ll use Luminara’s Force Wave move to block a Heal/Taunt during this burst phase or to block Captain Phasma’s Slow or Advantage ability until I can focus on her next. I rarely use Sidious’ special unless an enemy is low enough on health that I feel it will kill them and I want to put damage across the rest of their team as well.
My targeting priority I use on enemy teams is pretty simple. Qui-Gon dies first if he’s in the team, his Special lets him attack and calls for an assist that deals 75% more damage. That can one shot almost anyone on my team. Following him any character that can apply Healing Immunity debuff needs to die (Sidious, Kylo, IG-88, Anakin). Strong DPS come next (IG-88, First Order Pilot, etc). Then targets of opportunity, usually low health Heros who were silly and attacked Dooku and were crushed by his Ripostes.
How to be a “good” Ally:
* TLDR: Change your normal leaders to ones that are less common but still useful/interesting when you’re just farming content. IG-88, Old Daka, Qui-Gon, etc.
Something I didn’t realize is that the characters you can borrow from an Ally are the ones which they have set in their Leader spot for the specific activity you’re playing. So once you’ve finished your progression push in an activity (LS Battles, DS Battles, Cantina) and are just farming or Sim’ing Battles its a big advantage to change your Leader to a less common character who provides a nice Leader bonus.
I’ve started leveling IG-88’s Leader ability for this reason and have him set as my Leader for all of the Challenge Boards that allow Allies. Old Daka I have set for Dark Side Missions because she’s a pain to farm and there aren’t many Dark Side Healers. I don’t have a great Light Side Mission leader yet, but plan to use Qui-Gon or Mace once they are leveled up a bit more.
You can also use the knowledge to your advantage. Lots of people use Sidious as a Leader. So drop Sidious off your own Team and make IG-88 your Leader. Then accept a Sidious as your Ally. You get a significant bonus either way, but this does require some additional Squad flexibility.
My Current Squads & Future Plans for each:
Arena & Cantina Squad (Rank 100-200 consistently)
- Darth Sidious (Arena Leader)
- Count Dooku
- Jedi Consular
- Luminara Unduli
- Old Daka (Cantina Farming Leader)
These guys have been solid performers for me. I’m completely happy collecting 700 Arena Crystals a day from them and have no major plans to change this lineup. They were the first characters I got to Level 70, and all have their Gear basically maxed out at their level. Dooku and Daka I am still farming to get to 7 Star.
Light Side Squad:
- Luminara Unduli (Leader)
- Jedi Consular
- Resistance Pilot
- Admiral Ackbar
- CT-5555 “Fives”
I’ve been farming Mace Windu from Cantina Battles specifically for the Yoda Event, but with his recent ability changes he will be replacing Fives on my Light Side Squad at some point. Once I have finished Old Daka I’m going to transition my Cantina Coins spending to Qui-Gon. As mentioned before his attack is ridiculously strong, and he’s a character I’d love to have in my arsenal. He will likely take Admiral Ackbar’s place on this Squad eventually. I have no regrets buying Akbar from Squad Shipments though, I love his “Its a Trap!” ability when facing a Darth Vader team in the Galactic War.
Dark Side Squad:
- Darth Sidious (Progression Leader)
- Count Dooku (Farming Leader)
- Old Daka
- IG-88
- IG-86
Just working on IG-88 and IG-86 right now. I am also working on Poggle and HK, with plans to try out the Droid Arena Team at some point in the distant future.
Yoda Event Unlock Squad:
- Luminara Unduli (Leader)
- Jedi Consular
- Eeth Koth
- Mace Windu
- Qui-Gon Jinn
My roadblock to Yoda will be Qui-Gon. I fully expect every other character on this list to have Five Stars before the next Yoda Event. It has been extremely difficult not to shift my Cantina Coin spending from Daka to Qui-Gon for this, but I’ve managed to stay disciplined so far.
Farming Location Breakdown for the Heroes I use:
Arena Shipments
Darth Sidious
Admiral Ackbar
IG-88
HK-47
Galactic War Shipments
Luminara Unduli
Resistance Pilot
IG-86
Poggle
Cantina Coin Shipments
Old Daka - also 1 Hard Mode Battle
Qui-Gon
CT-5555 “Fives” - probably shouldn’t have invested in him)
Hard Mode Battles Only
Count Dooku - Hard Mode Battles (2)
Cantina Battles
Jedi Consular - Cantina Battle 3-A
Mace Windu - Cantina Battle 4-A & 1 Hard Mode Battle
