What is Star Wars : Galaxy of Heroes?
Star Wars : Galaxy of Heroes is mobile free-to-play turn-based battle game for Andorid/iOS based in the Star Wars universe. In GoH, you will collect heroes such as Chewbacca, Stormtroopers, Luke Skywalker (with a gun!) and Darth Vader, level them up and gear them out, and use them to battle other teams of heroes in a multitude of modes.
What is the gameplay like?
Similar to any turn-based battle RPG, only a bit more simplified than most. Each team can consist of up to five characters, six in certain modes, and each character can have up to 4 abilities at their disposal ranging from attacks, passive traits, and leader skills. Every character has an HP meter and a Turn meter. The HP meter is self explanatory, while the Turn meter shows how quickly your character can move and can be altered by many events. Certain skills have cooldowns, buffs and debuffs can be given to enemies an allies, and so on. It's no Hearthstone, but there is a solid amount of strategy and team synergy to be experimented with the deeper you get.
I want Darth Vader and I want him now. How do I get him (and other heroes)?
Good luck, because to get heroes in GoH will either require a lot of grinding or a lot of money, and even then it's not guaranteed you'll get the hero you want. The game uses a system similar to something like Marvel Future Fight where you collect "shards" of a character. Once you have enough shards, which can range from 10-80 depending on the character, you can then unlock the hero. After you unlock a hero, any shards gathered for that character will now go towards promoting them to a new tier.
There are a multitude of ways to get shards, with some being easier than others, and some characters are fairly easy to grind shards for in-game, but the most efficient way is to buy data card packs with premium currency. These data cards will either get you shards for heroes, or just unlock the heroes straight up. But the packs are random, so there's no telling which character shards or characters in general you may actually get from them.
What are the F2P trappings and how bad do they suck?
Purple fucking crystals or whatever are your premium currency, and as mentioned above, are mainly used for buying data card packs for characters and character shards. They can also be used to buy various item "shipments", (daily shuffled specific items and shards), credits, and refresh shop items and encounters instantly. These can be purchased for real money in the in-game shop if you decide you want to speed up your progress. To put things into perspective, 20$ worth of purple fucking crystals (2,800), will give you enough to buy 8 data card packs and THE BEST CHANCE TO UNLOCK KYLO-REN, with a little to spare. There are also occasionally deals that appear in the shop that can be purchased straight up with real money, usually consisting of character bundles. There is also your typical F2P energy system that can vary in annoyance, but usually gives you enough to work with.
As for the free player, it's actually not too bad, but your progress will obviously be slower. The game gives you daily challenges every day, and completing them all will gain you a solid amount of purple fucking crystals. The arena also provides you with purple fucking crystals everyday based on your rank. If you do most of what you can do each day in the game, you will usually end up with around 200-250 purple fucking crystals for free a day.
What are the modes that I can dick around in?
Light Side Battles
Use Light Side heroes to battle dark side heroes throughout a basic campaign, collecting gear on the way.
Dark Side Battles
The opposite of Light Side Battles. (And superior because fuck rebel scum.)
Cantina Battles
Use any combination of characters to fight through a much harder seperate campaign.
Arena Battles
Use any combination of characters to fight against other player's teams for purple fucking crystals.
Galactic War
Use all of your characters in any combination to fight through a campaign of other player's teams. Your character's health and cooldowns will all be persistent throughout the campaign, so strategic use of all of your heroes is key.
Challenges
Every day there is a rotation of challenges to do:
Str/Int/Agi challenge (5 per day) - Fight a set battle against someone that requires a specific strategy to score gear.
Training remote (level up)/Mining drop (money)/Ability Mat (level up abilities) challenge (3 per day) - Same as above, just on a different schedule.
All challenges are available on Sunday!
Events
Special events will show up in this mode from time to time. These events usually give specific rewards exclusive to that event. The events will only be available for a limited time, but will return at a later date once they conclude. Droid and Credit earning events are always available.
Will I hate myself just a little bit for playing this game?
Of course, but that's ok. It's pretty fun. Especially if you are itching for Star Wars. At first it didn't seem like much, but I'm getting more addicted by the day to the point I figured I'd go ahead and make an OT for it. Just be careful with your wallet.
