Where F2P Power Comes From in Season 1

In Season 1, your HQ caps at level 30 — so growth shifts away from HQ levels and into the systems you can keep deepening for free: finishing T10 / Unit X, pushing gold gear, investing in the right heroes, and levelling your Profession (which caps at Level 40 this season). There is no oil in Season 1 — that arrives in a later phase — so don't plan around it.

The F2P mission for the season is simple: concentrate everything into one squad, claim the free power spikes the game hands out, and win through your alliance rather than your wallet.

The Single Best F2P Play: Promote Mason

Every shard you invest in Mason on the Wall of Honor before you promote him from SSR to UR is refunded when he is promoted. That makes investing in Mason effectively zero net cost — you get the power now and the shards back later to reinvest. For an F2P account, Mason is the correct first major Wall of Honor project. Keep feeding him.

(The exact timing of the SSR→UR upgrade unlock is worth confirming in-game, as it has shifted between updates — but the refund mechanic is the constant, and it's why Mason is the F2P priority.)

Keep It to One Squad

The temptation in Season 1 is to branch out into a second squad type. Resist it. A focused, fully-geared mono-type squad beats two half-built ones in every game mode that matters. Commit your best heroes, your gold gear, and your tech to one squad until it is genuinely finished, then — and only then — consider a second.

When you do invest gear, push toward gold (UR) pieces and favour damage over defence. Lower-tier gear doesn't scale and you'll dismantle it anyway; damage pieces carry you in both PvE farming and PvP.

The Daily Routine

The Season 1 rhythm is the same engine as pre-season, with the stakes raised:

Versus / Alliance Duel remains your core event. Keep banking speed-ups for the training day and timing badge-heavy research for the research day.
Stamina becomes a major sink — monster-killing, alliance captures, and event tasks all burn it. Bank stamina and convert a little of your free gem income into stamina when a big scoring day lands.
Coordinate with your alliance on rallies and captures. Alliance rewards are where F2P accounts gain the most ground.

Surviving Enemy Buster (PvP Day) as a Low Spender

The PvP-focused Duel day (Enemy Buster) is where lower-power F2P accounts can bleed points. Play it defensively:

Buy a shield in advance — a planned shield is far cheaper than an emergency one bought mid-attack.
Pull your squads off garrison/defence before the window so a lost fight costs you as little as possible.
Don't try to trade hits with spenders. Your goal is to deny them easy points and protect your own, not to win the leaderboard.

Shield and emergency-shield gem costs vary by patch — check the current price in-game before relying on a number.

Awakening Is Not a F2P Season 1 Goal

Hero Awakening is tied to top-tier UR heroes and later seasons, and it is not realistically achievable for a free-to-play account in Season 1. Don't plan your shard economy around it. Put your resources into the free core — Murphy, Mason, your mono-type squad — and let awakening be a much-later consideration if your account ever moves toward spending.

Realistic F2P Milestones

A healthy F2P Season 1 arc looks like this:

MilestoneHow F2P reaches it

Full T10 / Unit X squadFinish the Special Forces tree with banked coin — the foundation laid in pre-season

Mason promoted to URFree, via the refundable Wall of Honor investment

Mono-type squad in gold gearConcentrated gear farming, damage pieces first

Profession progressing to Lv 40Steady free profession EXP; cap is 40 this season

Where do you compete? In team and alliance outcomes, and in the lower-to-mid PvP brackets — not on the top individual leaderboards, which are spender-dominated (the same reason F2P skips chasing Arms Race rank). Win the fights your power bracket can win, contribute to every alliance event, and your account compounds steadily into the next season.

Common F2P Mistakes in Season 1

Splitting into multiple squads instead of finishing one.
Pouring shards into a dead-end hero rather than Mason (whose investment is refunded on promotion).
Sitting undefended on Enemy Buster day instead of shielding ahead of time.
Planning around Awakening — it isn't a F2P Season 1 goal.
Premium/full-price spending and random summons — the same traps as pre-season.

Related Guides

F2P Pre-Season Guide — the foundation this builds on
SSR to UR Upgrade Guide — how Mason's promotion (and the refund) works
Wall of Honor Guide — where to invest hero shards
Alliance Duel VS Guide — the day-by-day event that drives F2P rewards
Enemy Buster Day Guide — surviving and scoring on PvP day

F2P Season 1 Guide — Staying Competitive Without Spending

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