AFK Arena is a game that largely revolves around waiting. Many of your resources will come passively by collecting AFK rewards and completing Campaign Chapters. I will be going over all the common things you should know in order to manage your resources properly so that you can progress faster.
GATHERING RESOURCES
1. Complete all Daily Tasks (and Weekly)
2. Log in every 12 hours to collect AFK Rewards
3. Dispatch heroes for the Bounty Board missions
4. Participate in Guild Hunts
5. Send Companion Points to your friends
6. Complete all stages of Arcane Labyrinth
7. Retire common heroes at the Rickety Cart
8. Progress in Campaign
9. Progress in King's Tower
10. Complete Peaks of Time stages
MANAGING RESOURCES
Knowing where to gather the resources and using them efficiently is extremely important. You do not want to waste unnecessary resources by being hasty and wanting something now and end up spending on things you can wait for a bit.
They are used for summoning and also in other things such as buying gear, resetting hero or shop times, just to name a few.
Most of the time, you will want to spend your diamonds for summoning as you always need to ascend heroes to make them stronger.
You should go for the “Summon 10” option when trying to recruit new heroes because you get a discount. Do not be impatient and summon with single pulls because it will hurt you in the long run!
EXPERIENCE
Most of the hero EXP you’ll gain throughout your time playing will come from AFK Rewards. This has a cap of 12 hours, so you’ll need to login and collect it every 12 hours to maximize its potential.
The most important thing you should know about spending your experience is: LEVEL ONLY 5 HEROES!
Many players make the mistake of spending their exp. to level up all their heroes and as a result, they are slowing down their progress significantly. You should only level up your 5 main heroes (the ones that have the highest ascension) and put the rest in the Resonating Crystal.
When you add a hero to the Resonating Crystal, it will instantly be the same level as the lowest level hero on the pentagram.
From experience, leveling your whole team evenly will make the fight go more consistently as the spike damage you take wont be as bad but it also limits your own raw damage by not over-leveling your carry.
Everything that you do in this game rewards you with gold. Because of this, it’s likely that you won’t even farm it before noticing that you have millions of this currency, which is great because you’ll burn through it when upgrading heroes to the highest levels and enchanting gear.
The most important tip I can give you about spending your gold is: DO NOT SPEND GOLD TO MAX GEAR THAT IS NOT MYTHIC!
Many players, including myself, have made the mistake of using lots of gold on maxing legendary and even epic gear. You should not enhance Gear below mythic as it is a gold sink. You will need all the gold you can get late game for upgrading mythic gear, leveling your heroes and purchasing daily items from the store.
If you have to enhance gear because you're stuck on a level, you should only enhance it to 2/3 stars max, as the cost is not so drastic.
If you find yourself running low on gold, you can try betting in Battle Wagers or completing Peaks of Time.
HERO ESSENCE
When you level your hero to various levels, you will need hero essence to get past that cap. That cap also indicates that you can unlock or upgrade a skill of your hero.
To get an ascended hero to 240 will require a total of 118,100 hero essence. You will also need more hero essence when further upgrading them past 240 using the resonating crystal.
Hero essence is the biggest road block late game, besides getting copies for ascension. You need insane amounts of essence to level up and the game simply doesn't give you enough. You will often find yourself waiting weeks just for a level if you don't plan in advance.
BUY ESSENCE WITH GOLD DAILY!
I can't stress this enough. It is crucial to buy it everyday. It doesn't matter that you don't need it right now, you will regret not buying it later on.
Quick tip: Hourglasses
You will get plenty of hourglasses by doing quests and completing Arcane Labyrinth. Most of the players get impatient and open them up right away. You should hold onto them until you absolutely need them because they give increased amounts of resources based on your progress in Campaign.
HERO COINS
You get hero coins by retiring common heroes at the Rickety Cart. The barracks stocks Rare & Elite Soulstones, and specific heroes. The items require hero coins to purchase them. This store resets once every month, and the heroes available never change, they just reset.
SPEND HERO COINS ON ELITE SOULSTONES!
Hero coins take some time to farm up. You should save them until you have enough to buy 60 elite Soulstones which reward you with a random elite hero. It is the best option available in the shop and you should take advantage of it whenever you get the chance.
LABYRINTH TOKENS
Labyrinth tokens can be obtained in the Arcane Labyrinth. The Labyrinth Store contains items that require labyrinth tokens to purchase them. The store restocks every month.
SPEND LAB TOKENS ON ELITE HEROES!
If you buy anything else other than elite heroes you are hurting your progress drastically. These heroes are a guaranteed way to ascend as they are the same every month. No RNG, just farming.
Best way to progress as free to play is to buy enough copies of Shemira to get her Ascended, then Nemora, Khasos and finally Estrilda.
GUILD COINS
Guild coins can be acquired by attempting the guild bosses. The guild store only stocks gear, and requires guild coins to purchase items. This is the best source of gear in the game, as it’s completely free and easy to obtain.
SPEND GUILD COINS ON MYTHIC GEAR!
Mythic gear will be purchasable from guild store once a player has beaten Chapter 12 – Stage 2 of the campaign.
Mythic gear is a tremendous increase in power compared to legendary gear. You should save up your coins until you unlock mythic gear in the store. It is considered a waste of resources to spend guild coins on anything other than mythic gear because you will have enough legendary and epic gear from afk rewards.
CHALLENGER STORE
This store only stocks specific Elite heroes. It requires currency that can only be obtained by playing in the Legends’ Challenger Tournament. The heroes available to purchase never change. You get a fixed amount of currency per hour based on your rank.
It takes A LONG time to acquire the currency so choose wisely.
If you're looking to play the game for a long time, Athalia is the best investment.
ASCENDING HEROES - GENERAL ADVICE
1. NEVER USE ASCENDED TIER HEROES AS FODDER - however tempting it may be, do not do it! You are giving up late game progression for a temporary boost. You need as many ascended heroes as possible to level up your resonating crystal and increase the level cap above 240.
2. Do not ascend a hero to legendary if you don't have enough copies to make him legendary+ right away. If you ascend too many heroes to legendary you will run out of fodder and you will get stuck for a long time. The reason is that you don't know for sure when you're gonna pull two more copies of that hero (can be a week, can be a year). You will depend too much on RNG and will get frustrated when you don't get the hero you need.
3. Use the wishlist to increase your chances of getting a specific hero.
4. If you made a mistake, you can revert a hero at the Rickety Cart for 500 diamonds. You will get an Elite+ copy of that hero and enough fodder to ascend them.