When you first start out, there is a lot to learn.

Important starting points:

• Get through the story mode! Main Quest is your biggest source of XP. Bar None. It is also the largest source of Orbs for improving your heroes
  
  
• Gear Matters
  
  
• Gear ORDER matters
  
  
• When you start out, you are given a chance at getting some decent heroes for free. Try for Urd, she is one of the best healers in the game
  Urd is no longer one of the options, try for Blodu, as you get some good gear from the Adventurer's Hall quiz, some of which only Aesir can equip, and Blodu is the only Aesir option.
  
  
• Once you have finished the Main Quest, the only consistent sources of Diamonds are Daily Missions, and Arena ranks. Daily missions give 30 Diamonds for finishing them all every day. Arena ranks can give 100+ for Arena and another 100+ for Grand Arena

The game has 4 currencies, one of which is variable.

• Mana
  
• Diamonds
  
• Rubies
  
• Summon Coins

Mana is used to level your Heroes, Summon basic gear, and is spent upgrading items.

Diamonds is the real world money equivalent (IE can be bought for $$$)
Most Summons cost diamonds

Rubies are another real world money equivalent, used to alter the buffs on Artifacts, and spent in the Ruby Trader for unique gear

Summon Coins are earned by doing summons, are named after that summon, and disappear once that summon is no longer available.

All heroes come in 3 Classes, and 3 values
The categories:

• Melee
  
• Mage
  
• Ranger

All Melee heroes sit in the front row, and use ATK for their base damage
All Mages sit in the middle row, and use MATK for their base damage
All Rangers sit in the back row, some use ATK and some use MATK for their base damage. You can tell which uses which, with what damage type is used in their Action Skill. Example: Ninja Momiji uses ATK, Admiral Nautica uses MATK. Some, such as Wonderous Alice are trickier to tell, but in those cases, their primary stat is significantly higher (IE Wonderous Alice has about half again the MATK that she does ATK, and uses MATK)


The Values (known as Star levels or *levels)

• 1 Star (or 1*)
  
• 2 Star (or 2*)
  
• 3 Star (or 3*)

You can tell what Class a hero is by the symbol next to their portrait
You can tell what value a hero is by the stars at the bottom of their portrait when looking at their stats
All heroes have 2 portraits, their base value portrait, and a 5 star portrait.
Example:

• Hell Hound Garm is a 1 star hero
  
• Guardian God Heimdall is a 2 star hero
  
• Shield Knight Luca is a 3 star hero

1 Star heroes have lower stats than 2 star heroes
2 Star heroes have lower stats than 3 star heroes
Some 3 star heroes have better stats than others
Example: Heroes with the words Scion or Catalyst in their name tend to have higher stats than anyone else.
You can increase a heroes star value by doing Hero/Key quests or by Summoning that hero again. Once a hero has reached 5 star value, summoning them again gives a Supercharge boost. Supercharge gives a bonus of up to 10% to each stat. After reaching that cap, summoning a 2 star or higher hero again gives fruits that let you Supercharge other heroes

Heroes that come at 5 star simply skip some of the grind


Hero levels are capped by your player level. The fastest way to increase player level is Main Quest missions. Fastest way to increase Hero level is spending Mana. Fastest way to earn Mana is raids. Raids are easier to grind when your level is higher. So finish the Main Quest

Heroes have another stat limiting their growth: Orb level, shown by the frame around their portrait. Orb level also limits how much gear they can equip

• Gray Frame = 1 Equipment/Accessory
  
• Green Frame = 2 Equipments/Accessories
  
• Blue Frame = 3 Equipments/Accessories
  
• Purple Frame = 4 of them

Gear matters. Orb your heroes. Finish Main Quest so you CAN orb your heroes
Some heroes can move past Purple Frame, this requires summoning them multiple times to get potions specific to that hero. There are generic potions that can be used on any hero, but as of this writing they are extremely rare, perhaps not available enough to have used on any hero.

Some heroes have access to something called Awakening.
This requires items from various Connect Battles, and from Key Quests from 3 heroes.
Awakening gives that hero a strong passive percentile based boost to their stats, and a strong passive skill.
All Awakened heroes are of some use, though many such as Valkyrie Skuld or Cleric Litany are of less use than others. Valkyrie Skuld maintains some use as a tank (Giving up to a 15% HP boost to all Aesir) Cleric Litany as DPS for some Connect Battles (though usually being outperformed by such as Thunder God Thor, she gives multi-hit light damage for fight such as Fafnir)
NOTE: The bonuses from the % stat boosts make Valkyrie Skuld useful for a long time, despite being a 1 star hero. It is my understanding that this % boost applies to all gear equipped (If I am wrong, please cite source) though obviously higher star level heroes would have a stat advantage simply by being a higher base star level.
UnAwakened heroes do Non-Elemental damage for their Basic Attack
Awakened heroes do Elemental damage based on their Awakening (IE Thunder God Thor does Light damage, Queen Hel does Dark)

GEAR. MATTERS.
This is one of the bigger tips.

All gear comes in 3 types, and 3 values.

• Equipment
  
• Accessories
  
• Artifacts

Each turn you each hero either performs a basic attack, or uses the skills on their Equipment, starting at the top of the list, then moving down a step each turn. Turn 5 they move back to the top of the list. The stats on all equipped Equipment are cumulative

Accessories are passive bonus. Their stats are fully cumulative. Their passive bonuses are cumulative, but cap at +50%. IE Bangle of Defense and Guard Dog Ring both offer a bonus to DEF, 25% and 30% respectively. Equipping both does not give you a 55% bonus to DEF, only a 50%.

Artifacts are crafted with items earned from Raids, and give passive bonuses like Accessories. Artifact bonuses stack with, but are separate from Accessory or Equipment bonuses, thus an Artifact can increase your DEF in addition to the 50% cap mentioned above
NOTE: If I am wrong about this, please state the source, I may be wrong, but to my knowledge, all different types of bonus (such as Equipment vs Accessory vs Artifact) stack past that cap, but within each type of bonus, there is a 50% cap?

• 1 Star (or 1*)
  
• 2 Star (or 2*)
  
• 3 Star (or 3*)

Just like with Heroes, 1 star gear has lower stats than 2 star, which have lower stats than 3 star.

Most 1 star gear is used to level your 2 and 3 star gear.

Most 2 star gear is used until you have 3 star gear that does the same thing, then sold to buy gear from the Blacksmith Trader (usually for Reforge items)

3 star gear is the strongest gear you can get

All gear can be increased to 5* value, increasing it's maximum stats, level, and skill level.
Higher Star level gives better stats on it's own
Higher level gives better stats
Higher Skill Level makes the Skill stronger, AND more likely to happen rather than a Basic Attack

To increase Star level, you need 2-3 copies of the item and/or Reforge Rune Knives (for Equipment) or Reforge Rune Rings (for Accessories)
Reforge Rune items come in 1 star 2 star and 3 star values, and let you reforge that star value item. 1 star Reforge Rune items are worth very little (because 1 star gear is worth so little) and 2 star Reforge Rune items are worth very little (because 2 star gear is so readily available through Mana Summon) but 3 star Reforge Rune items are very valuable, as they let you get more rare items from limited time events to 5 star. Most 3 star Reforge items are found in the Blacksmith Trader, which is easily funded with Mana Summon.

Skill Level can be increased with dedicated fusion items that state that they give a chance of increasing Skill Level, or by fusing a 2nd copy of the same item. Higher Skill levels take more of to increase. A Skill Level 1 item can be increased to Skill Level 2 with any 1 star Skill level item. However, 15 of those same items (the maximum that can be fused at once) only give a 75% chance to increase a Skill Level 4 item to Skill Level 5.
The items for fusing to increase skill level are most commonly found from Mana Summons or Raids.

NOTE 1:
Many heroes, such as Thor, Hel, and Skuld, have access to items only they can equip. These gear are noted by the tag (Sp.) in their name. Most (Sp.) gear, known simply as SP gear, come in two categories, SP and SPX
Example:

• Valkyrie Blade (Sp.)
  
• Valkyrie Blade X (Sp.)

Being Skuld's two items.

• Mjolnir (Sp.)
  
• Mjolnir X (Sp.)

Being Thor's
For Fusing to increase skill levels, an SP item counts as the same as an SPX item. You can use Valkyrie Blade (Sp.) to increase the Skill Level of Valkyrie Blade X (Sp.)

NOTE 2:
Most 2 star gear becomes useless fairly quickly (especially if you have access to Video Summon, and thus more ready access to 3 star gear)
Druid Cloak is one to hold onto for a long time, it's HP Up effect is a version of healing, that sidesteps the negative effect Brand.
Brand converts most healing into damage, negating any bonus from trying to heal.
HP Up does not "heal" but the way it applies the bonus HP keeps some of it after the effect fades, giving a form of healing that, while weaker than straight up healing, does not trigger Brand's effect.

There are 4 kinds of summons.

• Mana Summon
  
• Video Summon
  
• Other
  
• Lucky

Mana Summon gives you 1 star heroes and 1-2 star gear
Mana Summon is far from worthless though, as it gives you material for the Soul Trader, things to sell for the Blacksmith trader, and material to level your gear. Once your heroes have reached the level cap, Mana Summon is where most of your mana will go.

Video Summon is not available through Steam, but since you are on PC, you can download an emulator and get access to that
Video Summon gives access to all basic 3 star heroes, and a few that are not readily available in other places, but are of great worth, such as Dark Knight Zato and Thorn Princess Gardina.
Video Summon also gives access to all basic 3 star gear
Video summon involves watching 5-10 video ads, 5-30 seconds long, to get 1-2, 10x summons

All other summons cost Diamonds
What Other Summons are available, and what they offer changes with time.
They will have names such as Yggdra Summon
Most offer a discount on the first 1-3 tries at each 10x summon.
Most offer increased chances at specific heroes on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th summon attempt
Some offer a guaranteed hero out of a specified set of 4-8 on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th summon attempt. IE they offer around 8 heroes, you pick 1-4 (out of a specified set) and on the 3rd-5th try at a 10x summon, you are guaranteed one of the heroes you picked.
If you plan to stay FTP? Save your Diamonds for those Guaranteed summon events.
Many offer coins you earn by doing the summon, and will have another page in the Trader where you can exchange your coins for Heroes or Gear. Getting Specified heroes from the Trader usually takes 50k+ Diamonds. Save your Diamonds for either those, or a Guaranteed summon

Lucky Summons are like Other summons, but NEVER offer a Guarantee, and usually have low odds for their Specified heroes. However, "Lucky" heroes will never be available anywhere else, and so if you want one of them, save up your Diamonds until you can do enough summons for them that you can exchange the Lucky coins in the Trader for that hero.

NOTE:
Thunder God Thor
Trickster God Loki
Battle God Thrud
...
And all other heroes with a 0.274% or thereabout Appearance Rate (down the list below where they stop showing hero portraits) are used as filler for all summons that cost diamonds. You can also find those heroes in the Soul Trader, which can be funded with Mana summon.

Once the Main Quest is finished, Connect Battles (known as CBs) are one of the biggest parts of the game.

You will fight a variety of foes, under a variety of limitations, for a variety of rewards.
Element. Race. Gender. Resistances. Buffs. ATK or MATK damage. Whether you are flying or grounded. Every stat is involved in one fight or another.

For example, the Mermaid Marmalade will be fought under an Eclipse Field (reducing healing, and removing the ability to buff your party, unless they Resist Eclipse) and will render most Female heroes incapable of acting. Marmalade is also guarded by two pair of crystals, who are best taken down by Earth and Dark type damage.

Meanwhile the Mad Fafnir is fought under a Gravity Field (slowing the action rate of all who do not Resist Gravity) and is covered by a shield that requires hitting it 10-20 times before Fafnir himself can be hurt, possibly requiring you to bring heroes that are not what you might think, in order to help bring the field down (Sun God Amaterasu does not Resist Gravity, but her SP weapons are multi-hit, making her more effective than most other options)

All of each CB's stats are listed in game, and solving the puzzle of building your team is a large part of the gameplay

Each CB comes in one of 5 categories
Normal
Super
Infernal
Heinous
Limited

Most Normal CBs are listed in difficulty ranging from 1 star to 8 star
Super CBs come at difficulties S1 and S2
Infernal and Heinous come at difficulties S3 and S4

Limited come in a variety of difficulties, their only common trait being that they are only available for a limited time.

CBS offer two groups of rewards

• Host
  
• Multi

When looking at a CB, the Multi rewards have a red square with 3 silouettes on it (iconic for most multiplayer icons) Host rewards are the ones that do not have that symbol.
Whoever hosts a CB gets the host rewards, people who join a CB without hosting do not get those.
Both parties get Multi rewards, but only if the CB is set to Multi at launch (IE if you run a CB in Solo mode, you only get the Host rewards)
When joining someone else's Multi CB, you are given the option to spend stamina to get the Host rewards, or to join without spending stamina, in which case you get only the Multi rewards.

Solo CBs are lower difficulty, Multi CBs offer greater rewards

NOTE: If you do not do at least 10% of the damage in the CB? You get reduced or zero rewards. So as a general rule: If you cannot run the CB in solo? Don't try running it in Multi, unless you have someone you know can carry you through it AND you know you can do at least 10% of the damage involved, and survive.

NOTE: If you die during a CB, you usually get some Connect Tokens to trade at the Connect Trader. Getting some of the Bangles (Strength, Wisdom, Defense, Faith) go a long way to boosting your stats. Having a Bangle that boosts your offensive stat (Bangle of Strength or Wisdom) and one that protects you against the boss's attacks (Bangle of Defense or Faith) is a good starting point for team building for 7-8 star CBs

Raids are similar to CBs, the big difference being that where CBs are designed for 1-3 players. Raids are designed for up to 20 players. As such, you will be the only team shown during a Raid. Rewards are based on your DPS rank within the raid, and whether or not you hosted.
Hosts are given extra rewards, but cost 3x what it costs to simply join.

Easy and Normal difficulty raids cost Stamina to host or join.
Hard and Hell difficulty raids cost Tickets that are earned from Easy and Normal raids

Raids are the source of the items needed to craft Artifacts.
Higher difficulty raids give the items needed for stronger Artifacts.

The basic Artifacts of each element can be equipped by any class or race, the others have limits listed in game.

Artifacts gain passive bonuses as you increase their star level, changing these bonuses costs Rubies

PVP comes mostly in 2 types.

• Arena/Grand Arena
  
• Guild Battles

Arena and Grand Arena are available to every player, and are the primary source of Diamonds for FTP players.
Status Effects (such as Paralyze/Petrify/Sleep/Charm) and DPS seem to be the rules for higher level Arena play. The strongest hero in the game becomes a hurt to your team if he is Charmed, but you cannot win if you do not take out more of their team than they do yours.
Draws go to the defender.

Guild Battles are a large source of Guild Tokens, used in Awakening heroes, and spent in the Guild Trader.
Guild Battles require you to be in a guild, and for the upper leadership of the guild to begin one.
You will be fighting through a fortress built by their Guild Master, and can only act so often.
Some times you will be fighting a player 's Arena team, some times you will simply be pounding on a wall, that is only vulnerable to some types of damage (ATK, Purple Frame, SPD, etc...)
Some guilds are active in Guild Battles. Some are not.

Guilds are also a source of more Stamina, as you can "help" up to 10 guild mates each day for a boost to stamina (for you) and guild tokens (for them)