Summoning / Shards Acquisition
Summoning in RoH is based on fragments. When you summon, you get shards (pieces of a unit) and not the full unit itself. When you acquire the required pieces, then you can summon that Skylander.
Currently there are many ways you can do summons: with gems, summoning tickets (acquired as quest rewards only), Swap Scrolls (acquired from quest rewards and at guild shop) and with wish stones (acquired while farming the scenarios – NOT Labyrinths and from in game friends by going to the social tab).
Summoning can be fun, frustrating or addicting, depending on how you take the game.
Personally, I think the best way to take it is to have no expectations.
Shards can be acquired through the summoning methods I mentioned above, as well as from scenario stages, Realm of Souls floors and omni-gems.
Omni-Gems
Omni-gems are a currency that can be used as an exchange for pieces of a Skylander, but only on ones you have already summoned!! There are 5 rarities of omni-gems: Normal, Premium, Rare, Heroic and Legendary, all of which are aligned with a corresponded natural star level of the Skylanders, i.e. Normal Omni-gems for Nat1 Skylanders, Premium for Nat2 etc. Each rarity gives a different number of pieces. Furthermore omni-gems can differentiate according to the Skylander type (Attack, Defense, Support, Expert). For example, Heroic Support Omni gem etc. You can acquire omni-gems through Mirage Tower, Arena Shop, Guild Shop and Realm of Souls. I would advise saving them or at least not using them with ease as far as the Rare, Heroic and Legendary ones are concerned.
Experience and Levelling
Once you summon/acquire some Skylanders it’s time to level them up! There are two ways to gain experience! First of all, there are the red potions. The other way is through the scenarios – don’t forget to place spectator units!! They gain XP too but at a smaller rate than the main team. Also, the XP gained by the main team is static every time. It doesn’t change according to how many Skylanders there are in the team or if any or more are maxed level. Villains don’t get experience from battles. They are levelled up only using blue potions.
Villains
Villains will accompany you throughout all your adventures in the game. Every Villain has one unique ability (which doesn’t cost any mana) and one passive that defines how much time a Villain is alive (to be specific the Villain will be unsummoned after X amount of skills used by him). If you want a healer Chompy Mage is a really nice one but will take some time to farm all the pieces from the Standard Kaos Dungeos. A nice alternative if you want someone to take a hit or two is Gulper. Both are viable options. Check Kaos Dungeons in order to see how to get pieces for those Villains.
10x Auto System
The 10x Auto Battle system is one of the best features of the game. It runs the labyrinths/cave of gold/scenarios at an extra fast speed. To be able to take advantage of this feature you have to 3 star the stage.
The requirements to 3 star any stage, are to Clear the Stage, for All your Skylanders to survive and to Clear within 4min 0sec.
Clear times change depending on the content:
- Easy scenarios: 5mins
- Normal scenarios: 4mins
- Hard scenarios: 3mins
- Labyrinths: 3mins
When the 10 runs are completed you will be presented with the Total rewards you get (wish stones/gold/runes/Villain or Skylander shards etc.)
Upgrade Stones
Through various locations and methods in the game you can acquire Upgrade Stones of different rarity. Those stones are used to level up a skill/ability of a Villain or a Skylander. What’s really nice in this game is that you can select the skill/ability you want to level up each time. It’s not random!
HOWEVER, you don’t get many of them so USE THEM WISELY!
Quest System
It will guide you through various quest and give you tasks to do in order to familiarize yourself with the game. The rewards are good but pay attention that the quests don’t get completed retroactively! They must be completed in their respective order .
Scenarios
Scenarios as of right now are the most efficient place to farm. It is best to farm the scenario that drops the shards for the Skylander you are aiming to build. Farming stages 1 to 6 don’t make any difference to the number of shards you get (it’s pure RNG), so farm whatever stage you can farm FAST AND EFFICIENTLY.
Runes
Runes are REALLY important and are the basis for all things from early game to end game. Slot 1 will always be flat ATK. Slot 3 will always be flat DEF. Slot 5 will always be flat HP. Crit Rate% primary stat, is exclusive to Slot 2 and Crit Dmg% is exclusive to Slot 6. Slot 4 is your “defensive” slot, so there you should expect DEF, DEF%, HP, HP%, Effect ACC and Block Rate. On Slot 2 besides Crit Rate% you can have as a primary stat ATK, ATK%, DEF, DEF% and ACC. Lastly on Slot 6 besides Crit Dmg% you can have as a primary stat ATK, ATK%, HP, HP%, Evasion and Effect RES.
ATTENTION: FLAT RUNES AREN’T BAD. KEEP THEM AT EARLY/MID GAME!
Rune secondary stats
Aside from the main stats, runes can also have secondary stats and substats. Secondary stat is a stat that appears under the main stat and changes the name of the rune by adding a prefix (i.e. Sturdy xxx rune always has DEF as a secondary stat).
Rune Rarity and Substats
Whenever you get a rune, it will have a rarity and depending on that rarity, a certain number of substats. The rarity of a rune is determined by the number of substats it will have when it drops. The number of natural substats increases from 0 to 4 according to the rarity in the following order: Normal (White) < Premium (Green) < Rare (Blue) < Heroic (Purple) < Legendary (Orange). A Premium rune will always increase the existing substat at +3 and create new ones at random for +6, +9 and +12. A Rare rune will increase one of its 2 substats at random on +3 and again at random on +6 (may be a different one or the same) and then create new ones for +9 and +12.
Rune builds
A useful and common way to communicate a rune build is the following format:
(main rune set)/(secondary rune set) (main stat for slot 2) (main stat for slot 4) (main stat for slot 6)
Example: Strike/Energy ATK HP ATK is a Skylander who is runed with 4 Strike runes, forming the Strike set and 2 Energy runes forming the Energy set. The Skylander uses ATK as the main stat for slot 2, HP as the main stat for slot 4 and ATK as the main stat for slot 6.
Sometimes people can use 3 2-part sets for a Skylander for some particular reason, so Energy\Hit\Dodge DEF HP% HP% is also possible. Other times, people can refer to sets as “broken” which just means that the extra runes don’t complete a secondary rune set: Strike\Broken ATK DEF ATK means 4 Strike runes equipped and two other runes that are either different or are not part of the same secondary rune set.
Also, a good rule of thumb is to power up 4* runes to +9, 5* runes to +12 and 6* runes to +15.
Dailies/Weekly Missions
By clicking the Mission icon, you can see your daily and weekly missions as well as other achievements. Don’t rush to complete them! You can achieve them by playing the game. However, feel free t do all your daily activities; they don’t take long, are quite easy and net you 80 gems. These crystals may not look like much, but they add up to 2400 a month! Also don’t forget to do your weekly quests!
Tip: If you fast cleared Mirage Tower at its reset (see below if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and cannot progress any further you can do floor 1 or any other previous cleared stage to complete the quest!
Useful Skylanders
Everyone will start with Hot Dog and Blades. After completing some Quests, you will get Stealth Elf which is a nat3 and a core unit to your early game progression. After finishing Part 1 of the Quest chain you will get Enigma (nat 4), another amazing unit. A beginner team (ignoring nat5s) would be Stealth Elf, Hot Dog and Enigma (Blades or any other unit before you get him).
Beginner/Progression Teams
- Clear Quest Part I: Stealth Elf, Hot Dog, Blades
- BL6 1st Option: Stealth Elf (5* Unawakened), Ka-Boom, Enigma (5* Unawakened)
- BL6 2nd Option: Stealth Elf (5* Unawakened), Whirlwind(4* Unawakened), Enigma (5* Unawakened)
- BL7 Safe Farm 1st Option: Stealth Elf (5* Unawakened), Ka-Boom, Enigma (5* Unawakened)
- BL7 Safe Farm 2nd Option: Stealth Elf (5* Unawakened), Whirlwind(4* Unawakened), Enigma (5* Unawakened)Â BL8 1st Option: Wham-shell , Stealth Elf (6* Unawakened and >80% Crit Rate)
- BL8 2nd Option: Stealth Elf (6* Unawakened and >80% Crit Rate), Whirlwind (6* Unawakened)
- BL9 Clear: Wham Shell (6* Awakened ), Boomer (6* Awakened)
- BL9 Auto Farm: Wham Shell (6* Awakened ), Boomer (6* Awakened) , Smolderdash or Tree Rex for their Leader skills. (unruned and without the need to level them up)
- Safe Farm BL9: Wham Shell (6* Awakened ), Boomer (6* Awakened ), Skylander you have with the best leader skill (ex ATK Power)
For BL8 team may differ according to the Skylanders you have summoned!
Stealth Elf Skills:Â Poison Spores , Blade Slash
Enigma Skills: Mystic Staff , All Eye For Several Eyes
In order to do BL8 your Tuff Luck is advised to have at least full 6* runes. Also, if you are stuck at any point at 99.99% it will be because of your runes!
Suggested runes for the above Skylanders:
- Stealth Elf: Strike ATK/DEF/ATK
- Hot Dog: HP/DEF(HP)/ATK – You can swap Slot 2 and 6
- Blades: Dodge Rune Set with HP/DEF/HP
- Enigma: HP/DEF/HP
- Tuff Luck: ATK/DEF/ATK
- Wham-Shell: Ward Rune Set Pref with DEF/DEF/HP
- Boomer: Strike Rune Set with ATK%/HP(DEF)/ATK%
Talents
Talents are acquired by allocating Talent Cubes. Cubes come in pairs (except light and dark). For example Fire & Magic cubes and are used to provide a small stat boost to either ATK, DEF or HP (to either of the two elements-NOT BOTH). Advancing a talent cost cubes, gold and elemental ores.
Guilds
There isn’t too much guild content atm but I advise you to join a guild asap. You get good rewards and can request Skylander shards from the other guild members. YOU CAN REQUEST ONLY SKYLANDERS YOU HAVE SUMMONED!
Furthermore, each day you CLICK THE ATTENDACE BUTTON in order to claim rewards the next day. More attendances = MORE REWARDS! Attendances reset the same time as daily quests at 00:00 PST. There are also Guild Mission that you can complete as a guild that will give you Guild points. (Click Mission button within Guilds to see and claim the rewards). With Guild Points you can buy Stat Statues (not really of any worth atm) and some summoning scrolls (not worth it either).
Mirage Tower
Mirage Tower is a challenge you overcome in steps. Don’t worry too much over it if you can’t climb too far, as this is not supposed to be something you’ll be doing easily during the first week of progression. It resets once a month and you should just try to go as far as possible every month.
Cave of Gold
It’s a dungeon you can do 3 times a day for gold. It has 5 stages and each stage gives a different amount of gold. The higher the stage, the higher the amount of gold you get.
Realm of Souls
It has 3 main Skylanders (nat3,nat4,nat5 only!) who you have to defeat, and 6 stages to defeat them in. Each stage has all 3 Skylanders, but with different difficulties. The Skylanders change daily, and the rewards include pieces of said Skylanders and omni-gems. Clear as high as you can each day! You get 20 pieces of each of the three Skylanders each day!
Kaos Dungeons
Kaos Dungeos are dungeons that provide either Villain shards (Standard) or random Skylanders’ shards(Extreme). They are divided into two categories. Extreme and Standard. You can do 5 Standard and 3 Extreme per day beside your owns.
An extreme dungeon has a small chance to proc while doing a Standard one. You can also pop an Extreme every two Kaos levels you gain or if a friend has procced one.
Standard Kaos dungeons are procced while farming the Adventure or the Distorted Dimensions. Through those you get Talent Cubes and pieces from one nat3 Villain. Either Chompy Mage, Gulper or Chef Pepper Jack.
Standard have no time limit. Extreme have. Each dungeon has three stages. Each stage is progressively difficult.
Meditating Woodland
Is a dungeon designed to provide quick XP to your monster but with high energy cost. Good if you want to burn energy fast but in general not worth it.
Elemental Dungeons/ Elemental Ores/Neutral Elixirs
Elemental Ores and Neutral Elixirs are used together with Shards to power up, evolve and awaken a Skylander. Both come with 3 rarities/sizes. Small (Normal), Medium(Rare), Large(Legendary). You can craft an elixir/ore of the next best quality by combining a specific amount of the previous ones. You can do this by clicking the Cog wheel up right, Inventory>Ores/Elixirs and selecting the Ore/Elixir you want to craft!
You farm ores and elixirs at the different Elemental Dungeons (Tech, Life, Water etc.) in the Distorted Dimension that open up each day. Each floor level you farm, gives you different a rarity.
Below you can see the rotation of these dungeons:
- Monday: Life, Water, Fire, Air
- Tuesday: Earth, Tech, Magic, Undead
- Wednesday: Life, Water, Fire, Air
- Thursday: Earth, Tech, Magic, Undead
- Friday: Light, Dark
- Saturday: Life, Water, Fire, Air, Dark
- Sunday: Earth, Tech, Magic, Undead, Light
Power Up, Evolve, Awaken
Power Up: Imagine it like a stair: You start at the bottom, and each step you take gets you closer to your goal, which is evolving that Skylander to the next star. Powering up makes the Skylanders a little bit stronger each time.
Evolve: When you reach +5 Power Ups you can evolve your Skylander to the next star. (From 1 star to 2 stars etc.). Evolving makes the Skylander stronger.
Awaken: At any point, and without the need to Power Up or Evolve your Skylander, you can awaken him. That means that it will change its appearance, but most importantly it will boost their stats and modify one of their abilities. Awakening a Skylander is a tedious and long process when it comes to nat3/nat4/nat5s but it is worth it!!!
Skylanders can be brought up to 6 stars +5 Power Ups in total! At a recent patch there is no level limit to the power up,evolution or the awakening process.
Arena and Arena points
Try to do it as much as possible. Winning will net you Arena points that you can use to buy omni-gems and shards of specific Skylanders. Early on I suggest buying the Premium and Rare omni-gems because they are the most cost efficient. Later on, and if you spend all of your arena gears as they recharge, you should be able to buy all the omni-gems (Normal, Premium, Rare, Legendary)
Invasions
Invasions are guild-related content that each day rotates. You fight a boss with “buffed” stats and abilities. As you progress, the fight becomes harder and harder. Some bosses need a Skylander with DISRUPT skill else they wipe your team. According to your damage, you are give a score. Based on that you get Guild Points and Wishstones. Do the invasion boss DAILY!
Guild Wars
We don’t know yet :p
Fighting other players
Don’t be fooled by enemy Skylanders in Arena. Sometimes they may look OP because they wrecked you, but that is not always the case! It can also happen because you have worse runes or because they are just Skylanders that work better when the overall level of runes is low.
Gems
Com2us is rather generous regarding this “rare” resource when compared to similar “limited resources” in f2p games. Gems are usable for mainly 2 things: 1. Refills (mostly energy, but also Arena medals) and summoning (normal, premium and event summons).
There is a bit of a discussion to be held on what is the best way to spend gems and DISCLAIMER, the following is the way I feel is best with some explanation as to why.
Refills are overall NOT efficient when you are at lower levels, simply because you get max energy whenever you level up and this happens quite fast, up to level 20-25, and while not so fast afterwards, you can still manage to level up whenever energy is low to get the maximum out of it. So, if you shouldn’t use refills when in lower levels, then you should use them for summons, right? Not quite. I personally think the best thing to do is to do 3 Premium Summons(800 crystal ones) in order to get the random nat5 and then stop. You’ll still need a lot of resources when you start farming shards for Skylanders or runes in the Labyrinths. So, start saving early for energy refills.
Structures/buildings
I don’t think it’s necessary to go into detail about the structures, but I would advise to fully upgrade energy collector (gives energy) and magic collector (gives gems) first.
Thus, you’ve reached the end of beginner’s guide to Skylanders: RoH and what I wanted to share. Don’t trouble yourself with remembering every detail here, as this will take some time getting used to, but soon enough you’ll get the hang of it! Trust me when I say, this is the bare minimum of ROH knowledge!
This is supposed to be an evolving topic, so if any of you (veteran or newcomer!) have anything that you think should\could be added, fixed or explained better, let me know and I’ll gladly consider it.
