AFK Arena is a casual gacha game geared especially towards those who don’t have the time to invest in other, more immersive RPGs. It offers the perfect blend of character building, team battles, and unlocking powerful characters that you can organize into unbeatable teams. As its name suggests, this game also features several automation features such as AFK farming, auto-battle, and fun-yet-quick activities that allow you to progress without having to sink too much time into it.

However, despite this game being mostly automatic in design, it still has a learning curve that you must overcome if you wish to brave it’s toughest challenges. To this end, we have created this guide, so that anyone can become familiar with the game’s elements. In this article, you will find all you need for beginning your adventure and facing the dangers that await you in Esperia.

The Main Screen

Once you have chosen a server and entered the game itself, you’ll be treated to the introductory cutscene where the lore of the world is explained. You can also learn about the story and events unfolding in Esperia in this cutscene, or read our AFK  Arena review to read up on the lore. Once the scene ends, you’ll be treated to a tutorial battle where your team goes up against a squad of baddies. Though the tutorial doesn’t do a really good job of explaining what the game is about, this fight is really easy and can be completed in a few seconds by clicking on your character’s portraits as soon as their ultimate gauge is ready.

After finishing your first battle, you will be treated to several other tutorials explaining how to add more characters to your party, how to level up your characters, and how to perform other basic tasks. Shortly after, you’ll be set free to explore and make your way through Esperia at your leisure.

The main screen of this game is the map view, where you can view your current location in Esperia in the top half, and your characters fighting through the realm on the bottom. Similar to Aurora Legend, your characters in this game farm on their own and generate resources passively as time passes. By clicking on the chest in the center of the main screen, you can pick up any loot that you characters gathered while AFK farming, including experience, hero essences, gold, and gear, among others. You can gather up to 12 hours of AFK loot before filling the chest, so make sure to check often.

In this main screen, the only thing you can do is move onto the next stage, and challenge the enemies therein. Once you complete a stage, your team will move automatically to the next level. To progress in the campaign, you’ll need to click on “begin” to enter the battle every time you want to enter a new level.

The Battle Prep Screen

Before entering any level, you will have to go through the battle prep screen. In this menu, you must choose the characters that you’re going to take into battle, as well as decide upon a formation. In this game, your formation is often much more important than your battle power, so always try to use a formation with good synergy, rather than going with brute force. Feel free to check out our early-game picks for champions to look for if you want a team that’ll easily carry up to around chapter 4.

Once you’ve selected a team and formation, all you have to do is click on “begin battle” and watch as your characters march against the enemy team.

As we mentioned above, most of the fighting in this game is performed automatically. Your characters attack and use their abilities without the need for input. However, once their ultimate gauge fills, you can click on their portraits to unleash their ultimate skill. These abilities are powerful, and can often change the tide of battle, so use them wisely.

This game was meant to be played automatically, so you’ll always want to keep auto-battle on. Sadly, depending on your team setup, this may not be possible since you’ll be too weak. Especially at the beginning, you might have trouble using auto-battle in the toughest stages. But don’t worry, as you progress, and get stronger characters, you’ll create teams that will steamroll through everything. If you want to learn more about creating good teams, we recommend reading through our AFK Arena unit guide.

Ranhorn

Once you beat stage 1-12, about 15 minutes into the game, you will arrive at Ranhorn, the game’s main hub. You’ll be spending a lot of time in this place, so let’s get acquainted with its facilities:

• The Noble Tavern: You can spend many types of currency in this place on summoning new heroes. You can perform either individual summonings or bulks summonings for a 10% discount.

• Temple of Ascension: This is one of the main buildings that you’ll use for improving your characters. By sacrificing other units, you can ascend your favorite characters to higher ranks, improving their stats dramatically.

• Library: You may read up on the lore of Esperia in this building. Furthermore, by filling the slots in every legend, you can activate passive bonuses that’ll help you considerably in battle.

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• Resonating Crystal: This building houses the Pentagram, where your 5 strongest characters are automatically placed within. With your heroes in place, you can assign other units from your roster to the empty slots in this building, where they will obtain the level of the weakest hero in your Pentagram. As long as the characters are in these slots, they will conserve their level. In this manner, you can have strong characters without the need to level them up.

• Guild Hall: Once you join a guild, you will gain access to this building. You can go on special missions called team hunts from the guild hall. Furthermore, you can also visit the guild store and purchase special goodies in this place.

• Rickety Cart: You can reset the level of any character in this building. By paying a 20-diamond fee per hero, you can reset their level back to 1, and get back everything you invested in the said heroes. This place is awesome for when you want to experiment with different builds, without completely committing to the resource investment.

The Dark Forest

Once you reach chapter 2, you will eventually unlock the Dark Forest, which is another type of hub. However, unlike Ranhorn, the buildings here are more geared towards combat and challenges, than utility. Let’s take a look at what you can find in this place:

• Arcane Labyrinth: A dungeon consisting of 3 levels with many battles per floor. In this place, you can interact with wizards, merchants, and face many enemies in combat. Every fight rewards you with labyrinth tokens, gold, experience, and other useful materials. The Arcane Labyrinth resets every 48 hours, so make sure to clear it whenever you can.

• Arena: A place for PvP where you can challenge other players in ladder matches. Every fight you win rewards you with ladder points that will help you climb the ranks in the leaderboards. Every arena season lasts 15 days, after which you will receive rewards depending on your standing at season’s end.

• Bounty Board: You can undertake timed missions in this building by dispatching your party members as mercenaries. Despite what it appears, your characters don’t actually leave your team when on missions, so you can freely assign your strongest characters and still have them available for other tasks. Once they complete their assignment, you will receive many rewards such as hero essences, gold, and even diamonds.

• King’s Tower: A tower consisting of many floors with a single tough battle in each one. Unlike the Arcane Labyrinth, the King’s Tower does not reset, and the idea is to go as high as you can with your current team. If you lose, you can go out, power up, and rechallenge the same floor with no limitations.

• Peaks of Time: A special building where you can tackle different challenges. It’s unlocked late in the game so it’s a good source of rare materials and wares.

If you want to succeed in this game, you will need to become intimate with each and every one of its buildings. As you move through the campaign, you will inevitably come across a wall that you won’t be able to overcome with your current strength. Luckily, with this guide, you now know exactly where to go to unlock new heroes, gather materials, and upgrade your power.

This game is now available on now.gg. Play AFK Arena online on the cloud now.

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