RAID: Shadow Legends is a visually stunning turn-based RPG that takes players into the epic world of Teleria, a land under siege by dark forces. With over 700 unique champions spread across 14 factions, including Elves, Orcs, Undead Hordes, and more, players can strategize by building teams that complement their playstyle. Players can engage in thrilling PvE campaigns across vast dungeons, test their mettle in boss battles, or compete against others in PvP arenas. In this beginners guide, we will be explaining the core combat mechanics and growth systems involved in kickstarting your account progression!

Choosing a Starter Champion

Just as you complete the tutorial and start the game, players will be given a choice to select 1 out of 4 starter Rare grade champions. They are as follows:

• Kael – Magic affinity Rare damage dealer
• Athel – Magic affinity Rare damage dealer
• Galek – Magic affinity Rare damage dealer
• Elhain – Magic affinity Rare damage dealer

Out of the starter champions, the most popular one to pick is definitely Kael. His kit brings the Poison debuffs that are crucial for early game boss fights and clan boss raids. Nearly all the starter champions have the same stats and can deal a decent chunk of damage. It is recommended that you focus all your exp potions and chickens to upgrade the starter champion to 6-star and level 40 in order to maximize their efficiency. Early on, you will not be having much luck in terms of acquiring ancient shards to summon more champions, so instead dump all your resources to strengthen the starter champion.

Understanding the Combat Mechanics of RAID: Shadow Legends

RAID: Shadow Legends is a turn-based RPG that deploys multiple PvE and PvP game modes for players to enjoy and progress in. As a new player, your primary goal should be to push through the campaign mode to gain account experience and unlock new game modes. The campaign mode consists of multiple chapters, each further constituting 7 stages. The last stage in each chapter features a boss enemy. The combat happens in a strategic turn-based system wherein all heroes and enemies take their turns according to their Speed stat. 

Players can compose a team of 5 heroes to send out in battles. In an interesting turn of events, the game supports deploying the same heroes multiple times. The game comes fully equipped with multiple quality-of-life features such as 2X battle speed and auto battling. After clearing a stage, you can even multi-battle to clear the stage multiple times in the background without the need to play through them 1-by-1. In the beginner phase, we would recommend checking out the abilities of all heroes and familiarize yourself with the affinity system. There are 4 distinct affinities in the game, and they interact with each other in the following manner:

• Spirit affinity is weaker to Magic but stronger against Force.
• Magic affinity is weaker to Force but stronger against Spirit.
• Force affinity is weaker to Spirit but stronger against Magic.
• Void affinity is neutral against all the other affinities.

In boss fights or dungeons, try to bring heroes that counter the enemy’s affinity to deal more damage, and have an increased hit rate and accuracy. 

Energy, Silver, and Gems

The core resource to play the game is called “Energy”. Players can see it at the top of their screen. Energy is used to enter any game mode, and it regenerates automatically at a slow pace. Players can choose to either use their energy refills or gems to instantly get more energy. Gems are the premium currency of the game, and they are used primarily to purchase energy refills, increase champion and artifact storage, and purchase masteries for champions. 

Additionally, the game features a gem shop that has lucrative items such as shards, silver, and tomes up for grabs at the cost of some gems. However, indulging in them as a new player is not recommended since you should be focusing on farming campaign stages and dungeons for leveling up your champions and getting stronger artifacts. 

Silver is the main freemium currency that all players will get in abundance. You can get it from farming campaign stages, dungeons, selling artifacts, completing quests, events, tournaments, redeem codes, and more. Silver is used primarily in champion growth processes, and artifact enhancement. You will be needing more silver as your account grows, so be judicious on what artifacts you enhance. 

Champions

Champions are the main playable characters that players can summon and use in combat scenarios. These champions make up the core backbone of your account. In fact, your total player power is a representation of your owned champions and artifacts. They come in different rarities – Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical. The higher the rarity, the stronger the base stats and more powerful the abilities they possess. Some champions also come with a leader skill that grants significant stat boosts to all other champions in the team. Mythical champions have 2 distinct forms that they can switch between effortlessly at the click of a button. 

The Shard System (Gacha)

Players can summon more champions from the innate gacha system of RAID: Shadow Legends. The gacha system entails different shards that you can open to get different rarities of champions. The shard types are as follows:

• Mystery – Used to summon spirit/force/magic affinity uncommon – rare grade champions
• Ancient – Used to summon spirit/force/magic affinity rare-legendary grade champions
• Void – Used to summon void affinity rare-legendary grade champions
• Sacred – Used to summon spirit/force/magic affinity epic-legendary grade champions
• Primal – Used to summon spirit/force/magic affinity rare-mythical grade champions

Participating in events and tournaments allows players to earn a large number of shards. Every day, the shop gives away a free mystery shard, and every week, a free ancient shard. You can also use Gems to buy Ancient shards in packs of three or eleven for 275 and 900 Gems respectively. Void shards can be obtained at the tag team arena shop in the Gold Tier, clan boss prizes, and the Doom Tower.

Ancient shards can also be obtained from the bronze-tier tag team arena shop, clan boss rewards, or the Doom Tower. Sacred shards can be obtained solely through the monthly mission, Doom Tower, and Clan Boss awards (brutal, nightmare, and ultra-nightmare difficulty). Primal shards are usually given as free login gifts, or can be purchased via in-game microtransactions in the form of packs.

Players can enjoy RAID: Shadow Legends even more on a bigger screen of their PC or Laptop, complete with your keyboard and mouse via BlueStacks!