Part of the Getting Started Series:

Quick Answer

The five that cost the most, in order:

  1. Playing without an active alliance. Opting out of most of the game's acceleration.
  2. Spreading hero fragments across everyone instead of finishing three heroes.
  3. Spending resources between events instead of banking them for scoring windows.
  4. Rushing HQ ahead of troops and research. Makes you a farm.
  5. Leaving builders, the lab, training queues and marches idle.

None of these are subtle, all of them are free to fix, and together they account for most of the gap between accounts of the same age.

Overview

This game punishes bad habits slowly, which is what makes them dangerous. You don't lose in a moment; you arrive at month three noticeably behind people who started when you did and can't see why.

What you'll find is that almost every serious mistake here is a timing or focus error rather than a knowledge gap. The information is available. The discipline is what separates accounts.

Here's the useful framing: assume the person doing better than you isn't playing more. They're probably playing the same amount, at better moments, on fewer things.

The Twelve

If any of the vocabulary below is unfamiliar, the glossary has it.

1. Playing without an active alliance

Alliance help cuts build timers substantially, and the large reward pools are alliance-scored. Playing solo means opting out of both.

Fix: join on day one, even somewhere mediocre. Judge alliances on help speed and chat activity, not power ranking, and leave dead ones without guilt. See the alliance hub.

2. Spreading hero fragments

Eight heroes at two stars contribute less than three at five, because you field three heroes at a time. Fragments are hero-specific and scarce, which makes this the most expensive form of indecision available.

Fix: pick a core and finish it. The tier list covers who's worth it.

3. Spending between events

Scoring events pay milestones for construction, research, and troop upgrades you were going to do anyway. Do them on a quiet Tuesday and you get the upgrade only.

Fix: bank resources, speed-ups and ready-to-start upgrades, then fire everything inside the window. See the events hub.

4. Rushing HQ ahead of everything else

A high HQ with thin troops and lagging research advertises you as an easy target, and the resulting farming is how people quit.

Fix: grow troop power and research alongside HQ level. HQ is a gate, not a score.

5. Leaving things idle

Idle builders, an idle Research Lab, empty training queues, and marches sitting at home. This is the single largest cumulative loss in the game and it's entirely free to fix.

Fix: never log off with anything idle. Start something cheap rather than saving toward something expensive.

6. Mismatching heroes and troops

Investing in Rider heroes while training Infantry wastes both. Your hero buffs one troop type, and it needs to be the type you actually field.

Fix: pick a dominant troop type, then build heroes to match. The formations guide covers ratios.

7. Attacking without scouting

The troop-type counter swings fights harder than power difference does. Attacking blind means guessing at the largest input to the result.

Fix: scout, read the composition, then pick the counter. Sometimes the answer is not to attack.

8. Sitting unshielded overnight during warfare

Losing months of troop investment while asleep is the most expensive avoidable event in the game.

Fix: shield before you log off during warfare windows. Recall marches first, since shields don't cover them.

9. Buying the wrong things with biocaps

Instant-finishing timers out of impatience, and buying resource bundles you'll later have a surplus of.

Fix: builder slots first, march slots second. Never spend biocaps on something time gives you free. See the biocaps guide.

10. Specialising your garrison

You don't choose who attacks you, so a pure-type garrison is efficient against one attacker and free food for the other two.

Fix: keep defence roughly balanced, around 35/35/30.

11. Ignoring the boring systems

Research, chief badges, and gathering all feel unrewarding and all compound heavily. Research in particular is the biggest hidden gap between accounts of similar age.

Fix: keep the lab running permanently, prioritise badges over gear, and run every gathering march.

12. Chasing cheats and mod APKs

Resources are server-side, so they cannot be fabricated. What those downloads deliver is malware and banned accounts.

Fix: read the cheats reality check and use the legitimate accelerators instead.

The Mistakes That Aren't

Worth clearing up, because people worry about these and shouldn't:

Base layout. Purely cosmetic. Placement affects nothing. Arrange it however you like.

Missing a collab event. Most licensed heroes return through later channels. Countdown timers are not a reason to buy.

Not spending money. Free accounts progress genuinely well. There's a ceiling in top-tier open PvP and everything below it is competitive.

Playing on an emulator. Normal and widely used. It's modified clients and unattended bots that draw bans, not PC play.

Being in a mid-table alliance. An active mid-table alliance beats a dead top-three one comfortably.

F2P vs Spender

F2P accounts are hurt most by mistakes 1, 3, and 5 — alliance, event timing, and idle capacity. All three are free to fix and together they're worth more than a modest spending habit.

Spending accounts are hurt most by 2 and 9 — spreading investment and buying poorly. Money spread thinly across a wide hero roster produces very little, and buying outside events forfeits the milestone rewards that would have doubled the value.

FAQ

What's the biggest mistake new players make? Playing without an active alliance. Help requests and alliance-scored events are most of the game's acceleration.

Should I rush my HQ level? No. A high HQ with weak troops makes you a target. Grow power alongside level.

How many heroes should I invest in? Three as a core, plus a cheap gathering hero. More than that dilutes fragments.

When should I spend my resources? Inside scoring events. Banking between them and firing during the window pays milestones for the same work.

Do I need to spend money to be competitive? No, within your bracket. There's a real ceiling in top-tier open PvP; everything below is reachable free.

Is it bad to leave an alliance? No, it's normal. Everyone switches, usually more than once. Leave dead ones early.

Does my base layout matter? No. It's cosmetic and affects nothing.

Key Takeaways

  • Join an active alliance on day one. Judge on help speed and chat, not power ranking.
  • Finish three heroes rather than starting eight.
  • Bank between events, spend inside them. Same work, plus milestones.
  • Don't rush HQ past your troops and research, or you become a farm.
  • Never leave builders, the lab, training queues or marches idle.
  • Scout before attacking, and shield before sleeping during warfare.
  • Layout, missed collabs, emulators and not spending are not mistakes. Stop worrying about those.