Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is one of the newest games in the long-running science fiction franchise’s history. The title is only for mobile devices, including Android and iPhone.
To kick things off, Galaxy of Heroes isn’t like the recently released Star Wars: Battlefront. Instead, this little mobile title is all about collecting new Heroes and battling them against unknown enemies and well known villains from the franchise. It is a strategic party battle game.
Acquiring New Heroes:
Every player begins the game with a couple of basic Heroes, but you need to progress throughout the mobile game in order to unlock new characters and skills. The easiest way to collect new characters for use in the battles is by purchasing Data Cards (which comes in Packs). These cost real money.. This should give you an early edge over the competition.
However, you can also unlock new characters by farming Shards. Simply head to the character screen, then hit the holo image of a single character, and select the ‘Find’ button. This will reveal exactly which battles you must perform well in in order to unlock a Shard for that specific Hero. Upon acquiring enough Shards, the character can be created.
Training and Promotion:
Regardless of which card pack you pull a character from, each one will unlock at a specific Star Level. The more powerful Heroes will require at least 80 Shards in order to unlock at Star Level 4, 50 Shards for Star Level 3, 25 Shards for Star Level 2, and 10 Shards for Star Level 1.
Promotion is one of the easiest ways to increase the strength of your characters. The Star Promotion Level will affect their primary stat gains in Strength, Agility, and Intelligence based on their Number level. You can also train your Heroes by using remotes. These will increase the character’s level to the Max equal to that of the Player Level. You should not over-train, though. If you do over-train, this is simply wasted experience.
Gearing Up:
Another way to increase the performance of a specific character is to offer them new gear. Gear is, unfortunately, quite linear. Do not expect any form of customization within Galaxy of Heroes. You will simply click on an empty gear slot in each character’s profile and equip the new items you managed to score during a battle.
In order to obtain new gear you will need to complete missions. Equip all six slots of gear and you can promote the gear level of a character, which will consume all of the equipped items, increase the Hero’s statistics, and open all six slots up again for stronger gear.
Upon leveling up your gear, the character portrait will change from white, to green, to blue, and lastly to purple. Each tier is more difficult to acquire, but offers far better benefits for the player while in the midst of battle.
Status Effects:
Many of the characters within Galaxy of Heroes are subject to providing a positive effect to their Squad members or a negative effect to the opponent’s team. These are represented within the game with a small icon hovering over each character’s head. Green icons are used for positive status effects, while red is used for a negative a side effect.
You cannot change these, so don’t bother trying to.
Currency:
There are multiple forms of currency within Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, including:
- Crystals – These are a premium currency used to purchase new Data Cards, Shipment Crates, and to recharge Energies.
- Credits – These bits of currency are used throughout the galaxy to train and promote characters, purchase shipments, and craft new gear.
- Cantina Credits – These are earned by completing Cantina Battles, and may be used to purchase new Cantina Shipment Crates
- Energy – This is replenished over time, but is needed in order to complete Light & Dark Side Battles.
- Cantina Energy – This form of currency is also replenished over time, and is required for completing any Cantina Battles you undertake.
- Arena Tokens – These are award to the player for completing Squad Arena Battles and for buying Arena Shipment Crates.
- War Tokens – These are given to the player as a reward for defeating enemies and opening new chests within the Galactic War map. They can be used to purchase Galactic War Shipment Crates.
- Sim Tickets – These are given at random by battle victories and when recharging energy. They can be spent automatically to resolve or Simulate a battle as a win for a mission the player has already obtained a 3-star rating in Victory.
- Social Points – These are awarded to the player for using allies and for someone using your Leader as their 6th party member. They are used to purchase Bronzium Data Cards.
Campaign Battles:
The single-player campaign kicks off with Light Side Battles, but you can unlock the Dark Side by leveling up and acquiring new Dark Side characters. The Dark Side is, honestly, a bit more difficult and will require far more strategy to complete.
Within the campaign, the player can select from normal and hard mode battles. Hard mode will cost twice the normal amount of energy, and you are limited to only 3 attempts per day. Normal battles, however, are perfect for outfitting your Heroes with brand new gear. Hard mode will grant you twice the experience points, and are the main location to farm character Shards.
Completing Dailies:
In order to succeed in Galaxy of Heroes, the player is going to want to complete Dailies as often as possible, just like in an MMORPG.
Daily quests are great for leveling up your Player Level. You must think as tactically and strategically as possible moving forward. Should you be trying to obtain Shards to unlock a Dark Side character, then you should be completing Dark Side 1-C. Light Side 1-C is for obtaining Shards for the Light Side, obviously.
Daily Checklist:
- Complete all Daily Quests
- Finish all Challenges
- Pull free Data Cards when timer is up
- Complete all Squad Arena Battles
- Purchase items from Shipment Crates every six hours
- Complete All Events
- Farm Shards and Gear
- Progress in Campaigns
- Progress Cantina Battles
Do the above every single day in order to reach the very top.
In the end, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is not an overly difficult title, but it is rather interesting and time-sucking. It is not hard to get addicted to your smart phone while playing, so make sure you have it on hand at all times.
