F2P Pre-Season Guide — The Race to T10 Without Spending
The F2P Pre-Season Goal
Pre-season is one long race to a single finish line: HQ 30 + Tech Center 30, which unlock T10 troops (Unit X) before Season 1 begins. Everything a free-to-play player does in this phase should serve that goal. You don't need to spend a penny to get there — you need to be efficient and consistent, because the players who arrive at Season 1 with a full T10 squad have a power lead that lasts the whole season.
This guide assumes you spend nothing (or only the very cheapest value pack at most). The good news: pre-season is the most F2P-friendly phase in the game. Resources are abundant, the research path is the same for everyone, and the biggest advantages come from habits, not wallets.
The single biggest F2P pace rule is to keep your builder and your research queue busy at all times. A builder standing idle overnight is the most expensive mistake in the game — it costs you nothing in resources but permanently loses you time you can never recover. Queue something before you log off, every time. Unlocking a second builder (VIP 6) effectively doubles your build speed and is the highest-value early goal for the patient F2P player.
Research Order — The Badge-Efficient Path
Tech Center research is where T10 is actually earned, and it is largely irreversible — badges spent down the wrong tree are gone. Follow a path that compounds early and saves badges for what matters:
Keep your Tech Center level matched to your HQ the whole way up. The final T10 nodes are gated behind Tech Center 30 — if your Tech Center lags, you simply cannot finish Unit X no matter how much gold you have.
T10's final Special Forces nodes cost enormous amounts of gold (hundreds of millions each) and Valor Badges. Treat coin/gold as the real bottleneck and bank it toward these nodes. Exact node costs shift with updates — use the in-game tree as the source of truth.
Build One Squad, One Type
Spread thin and you stay weak everywhere. Pick one troop type (Tank is the standard F2P anchor) and build a single mono-type squad. A mono-type team earns its same-type synergy bonus; a half-Tank, half-Aircraft split throws that away and leaves you with two mediocre squads instead of one strong one.
Only consider starting a second squad much later, once your first squad already has several gold (UR) gear pieces and is genuinely finished. Until then, every hero, every gear piece, and every bit of tech goes into the one squad.
Free Gems and Where to Spend Them
You earn premium currency steadily for free — from daily and weekly tasks, mutant/monster events, mystery supply boxes, trade-truck missions, and event mail. Spend it with discipline:
The VIP path is the highest-value gem destination by a wide margin. Reaching VIP 6 for the second builder accelerates your entire account permanently. Random summons feel exciting but are a F2P trap — the gems you'd burn on a 10-pull do far more for you funnelled into VIP and, later, stamina. See the Gem Economy guide for the full spending order.
The Daily Routine That Actually Matters
You don't need to play all day. A few things carry most of the value:
- Versus / Alliance Duel (VS) is the most important recurring event for F2P. Its days are themed (radar, building, research, hero training, total mobilisation, and a PvP day). Do the tasks that line up with what you were already doing.
- Bank your speed-ups for the troop-training day. Hold construction/training/research speed-ups through the early days and dump them on the training-focused Duel day for the biggest single-day reward of the cycle.
- Time big research nodes for the research-themed Duel day so a badge-heavy unlock scores double.
- Prioritise Duel over Arms Race ranking. Arms Race top spots are dominated by spenders; Duel rewards benefit you and your whole alliance, so that's where an F2P player's effort pays off.
The exact Duel day names vary by server and localisation. Treat the order above as the pattern and confirm the current day labels in-game.
Heroes for F2P
- Murphy is the best free Tank and is typically the first UR a new account gets — he anchors your F2P front line.
- Mason is the best free SSR attacker and the most important hero to invest in early, because he can later be upgraded from SSR to UR. Start banking Mason shards now. (Why this matters so much is covered in the Season 1 F2P guide.)
- Don't chase premium UR summons as F2P — they're the whale-tier picks. Build your free core instead.
See the Hero Leveling Guide for the order to level your core, and the SSR to UR Upgrade Guide for the heroes that promote.
What to Bank for Season Start
Resources and speed-ups in your inventory cannot be raided, so it's safe to stockpile them for the cost spikes that come at HQ 27+ and at season launch. Save:
- Speed-ups (construction, training, research, healing) — for the Duel training day and the season opening push
- Stamina — you'll burn it fast on monsters and captures once the season starts
- Mason shards and recruitment tickets toward your core heroes
- Resource chests — open them when costs spike, not before
- Teleports — for repositioning when the season map opens
Common F2P Mistakes
- Idle builder/research queues — the costliest habit; always queue before logging off.
- Building mixed or multiple squads — you lose the same-type bonus and finish nothing.
- Spending gems on random summons — the classic F2P resource sink.
- Researching down the wrong tree — research is irreversible; follow the badge-efficient order.
- Hoarding resources instead of upgrading HQ — resources sitting unused don't move you toward T10.
- Chasing Arms Race rank as F2P instead of banking the better Duel rewards.
Related Guides
- HQ Progression Guide — the level-by-level build order to HQ 30
- Fastest Path to T10 Troops — the Unit X research and coin plan in depth
- Tech Center Research — Pre-Season — the exact node order for the foundation phase
- VIP Guide — why VIP 6 is the F2P priority
- F2P Season 1 Guide — what to do once the season opens (supporter content)