darkSpyro

So I started the game up about a day or two after it was released on Android systems.

As it stands right now I'm level 19 working my way towards 20. I havent spent any real life money into the game yet, just a bunch of days sitting around spamming crops and missions over and over.

I've only unlocked the Tech area and the Undead areas so far. 20/38 companions. 88/106 Skylanders. I'm trying to get an idea on where to focus my attention on things at the moment. I've got tasks starting to clog up in my scroll like crazy. I've mostly been bouncing around over the place, but I have most the "cheaper" companions out of the way (outside of the #1 Fans that I really dont care about) and the regions are going to start to get more pricey on gold as I unlock them. Should I focus on any Companions in particular that will help me more towards others ones? Should I get companions like Brock and Beatress first, or use that gold to unlock more Elemental areas instead?

#1fans are greta, but if you only get 1, get Tree Rexs, if you have Rex, Gnarly, and Barkly it makes them the highest gold earners

You've got 88 of 106 skylanders and only unlocked two areas? Amazing. Your game is about as open as it's possible to get. You could strike out in ANY direction and get reward. With THAT many skylanders, you could keep a flotilla of balloons afloat and still have plenty left over for totems. You'd only be limited by energy. All those balloons should mean the gold is just pouring in for you.

Brock isn't very valuable in my opinion. Opening up more islands is simply going to bombard you with more elemental quests. Around half those tasks you've got queued up are likely balloon adventures. I'd concentrate on getting those completed and collecting those quest rewards to clear the decks a bit.

Ultimately, this game is largely about two goals: collecting things (skylanders, buildings, etc) and completing quests. You're well advanced in the first, less so in the latter.

You'll eventually be forced to unlock more islands simply because you'll run out of room - at that point the game kind of makes the decision for you.

My advice - concentrate on completing quests and let the game itself steer you in the right direction.

My first priority was always opening islands. I had all the islands by about level 20 or so. I liked being able to use the sanctuaries, but that was before you could put three characters in each.

Yeah, I just went through most my collection and got the codes to unlock them all. I saw you got a gem from every time you leveled someone up. I figured the more characters to pick from would provide me with a pretty steady stream of gems from constant leveling. My main issue is I have a few sidekicks that I cant find the codes for now. I dont think I can place them on the portal and get a code by themselves, so I think I'm kinda screwed on being able to add them short of dropping gold, or somehow magically winning them from something. I'm just limited to Whisper Elf for Chompy Pods at the moment.

Leveling up skylanders used to be a significant source of gems for me too.

Woz's advice is absolutely spot on. Couldn't and wouldn't have said it better myself.

Having said that, here's a few more specific thoughts that you can take or leave:

Unlock your islands as cash permits. Sanctuaries are the biggest coin generators and you will start needing the space for more buildings to generate more kingdom xp or your leveling will start becoming a terrible grind. You also get a nice gem reward for activating the sanctuaries and clearing the debris from unlocked islands if I recall correctly.

Save your gems for giant houses/alt houses. Similarly save wish stones for halls of legends. I'd stop with the companions for now. (But if they're still 25 gems or less, get the #1 fans, they add a significant bonus to coins awarded by adventures and sanctuaries). The companions are of bigger benefit at higher levels. The houses and halls I suggest above generate cost-free gold, energy and gems (and kingdom xp, which is not for nothing at the higher levels). I get over half of my gems from houses and about a third to a half of my energy.

Steer clear of Dragon/Dark/Cadet/Scout/Bird houses until you are swimming in gems.

Buy as few mabu houses that aren't 2x2 as possible. Go to the ones that are 3x3 at most. Again, you will need the space at higher levels. You will be selling most of your early houses for 50% of what you paid for them eventually to make room.

Have fun!

Rock the one minute missions and one minute crops back to back for as long as you can handle it as they, pound for pound, pay out the most. It's tedious but if you sit on them for an hour, gold and energy rack up. I usually do it when a good tv show is on. I think at kingdom lvl 22 you unlock molekin mountain which is 3 minute mission and pays the most pound for pound, then I'd start sitting on that one in place of the one minute one, again if you can stomach the tedium. When I've done this I've moved gold, character levels and energy up quite nicely.

I've been spamming the 3 min ones as much as I can. The 1 min ones, as said are a bit tedious.

Since space is going to be getting a little tight here soon, I'm going to take the advice to expand to a few more elemental areas first.

Maintaining any sort of energy reserve right now seems to be the bane on my existence with the game.

Isn't Molekin Mountain available to Skylanders above level 10? Adventures are opened up on a Skylander level basis. Although you do have to be at a certain level to get Ramses in order for your Skylanders to go above 10.

I started when the Android app came out, and I feel like I’m powering through the game. I own all the SSA/SG toys and wave 1 of SSF, so I have a pretty big leg up. I’m level 25 and just unlocked the last island now.
I have to say, getting the companion that makes chests appear is a must, because combined with the one that gets you gems from chests it’s a great generator. And that’s more valuable than gold for someone who has all the Skylanders to choose from.
My most needed resource is energy – and the game tricks you with that because you start with HEAPS from inputting the codes. But once you start using the Sanctuaries that energy vanishes.

So, my big tips for toy collectors like me: Other than the character-specific houses, look for the fields going on sale and blow all your gems on them. The Sanctuaries push out gems, wish stones and gold, making them excellent at every point in the game (so far), but the buggers are energy hungry. If you spot blimps for 50% off, that’s good too.
Work your way towards the companion that makes chests appear (gold) and the one that gets you gems from chests (gems) and you’ll have your prime gem source ready for when levelling the toys stops being an easy gem flow.

My biggest mistake: I had one ‘working’ island (the newest open) that was a mess and the others were nice, neat and tidy – themed so that water was full of palm trees and tourist shops, the fire one had mines and forges, magic had potion shops and libraries, etc. It looked great, but I realised too late that having perfectly manicured islands seems to limit the spawning of trolls/sheep/chests/etc. I’ve have to blow holes in my perfect islands to get stuff spawning again.

Quote: Tel Prydain

I started when the Android app came out, and I feel like I’m powering through the game. I own all the SSA/SG toys and wave 1 of SSF, so I have a pretty big leg up. I’m level 25 and just unlocked the last island now.
I have to say, getting the companion that makes chests appear is a must, because combined with the one that gets you gems from chests it’s a great generator. And that’s more valuable than gold for someone who has all the Skylanders to choose from.
My most needed resource is energy – and the game tricks you with that because you start with HEAPS from inputting the codes. But once you start using the Sanctuaries that energy vanishes.

So, my big tips for toy collectors like me: Other than the character-specific houses, look for the fields going on sale and blow all your gems on them. The Sanctuaries push out gems, wish stones and gold, making them excellent at every point in the game (so far), but the buggers are energy hungry. If you spot blimps for 50% off, that’s good too.
Work your way towards the companion that makes chests appear (gold) and the one that gets you gems from chests (gems) and you’ll have your prime gem source ready for when levelling the toys stops being an easy gem flow.

My biggest mistake: I had one ‘working’ island (the newest open) that was a mess and the others were nice, neat and tidy – themed so that water was full of palm trees and tourist shops, the fire one had mines and forges, magic had potion shops and libraries, etc. It looked great, but I realised too late that having perfectly manicured islands seems to limit the spawning of trolls/sheep/chests/etc. I’ve have to blow holes in my perfect islands to get stuff spawning again.

Adventure balloons were 75% off over the weekend. That's usually the going sale rate for them. I thought about buying another 1 or 2, but as much as I want to get as much gold as possible, I'm at about 90 mil, right now. I still have a few quests that need building being built, but I think I have enough mabu from B&Bs to take care of them. I'm waiting until after Christmas to see what Skylanders we'll have to put in the game from the physical figures my son will get before spinning. After that, though, I may want to start spinning as we won't have much money to pick up all the figures, this time around. I figure the adventure balloons will go on sale, again.

As its been roughly a month now, I feel the urge to update. Rather than make a new thread, I figured I'd just continue forth with this one.

As it stands right now I'm now level 29 working my way towards 30. I have spent $10 via one of the sales (my $0.99 issue was corrected and refunded)

I've unlocked all the island areas now. All islands are cleared, and all sanctuaries are working. 32/44 companions. 97/120 Skylanders. (Wind-Up is in the mail)

Regarding the $10 deal I broke down and time traveled only ONCE and that was to make sure I picked up both Ermit and Diggs for the 50% off sale. What I got with the deal combined with my saved gems at the time was enough to be able to get them both. I dont feel to bad about spending the money as I got a few figures for free from TRU's based on the coupon I got with my members card. I'm going to try however to refrain from really spending anything into the game if I can help it.

That aside I feel pretty good on my progression so far. I will need to start focusing a bit more on just getting a few characters to level 12 and dealing with the Mayor so I dont get stuck on level 30 for to much longer than I have to be. I've had a MASSIVE backlog of tasks for sending characters on the adventure for reaching level 8, so my leveling of everyone has been rather even across the board trying to slowly move everyone there. The broken element of the day of course hasnt helped much as its killed any bonuses to things.

For those level 30+, is there anything else I should expect to pop up? Any Characters/Buildings/Tasks I should start planning ahead for ? Or am I just riding the wave at this point unlocking whats left, and of course anything new that gets added as we go?

Lots of buildings that require mabu, as well as expensive houses (up to 20M gold) that provide lots of them, unlock in the last ten levels. So, save up your gold.

Enjoy the fact that you've still got quests. One day, you'll have none.

There is a BIIIIIIG difference between levelling characters from 11 to 12 and levelling them from 14 to 15. When you start to think it's time to try and level all your characters up, you may want to think seriously about getting Wheellock. Those last few levels seem to go on forever.

Lvl 1-14 = 95,000 xp
Lvl 14-15 = 80,000 xp

Yeah, 14-15 is a slog

Still, what is the benefit of having your skylanders at level 15?

I have all the skylanders, 2 at level 15, and roughly 1/3 of the rest at 14 and 2/3 at 13. Most days, I've been getting the offer to get Wheellock at 50% off, but I really don't see the point.

At the lower levels, it's important to level up to be able to go on the differently timed adventures and to get the character's quests, but is there really any difference between a character being at level 15 instead of 14?

Level 15 characters earn more gold from sanctuaries than level 12. It is only a big deal if generating a massive gold machine is your goal.

You get a few gems every time you level up too, so there's that.

True, you get gems when your skylanders level up, but you get those gems only once per level and eventually will total the same amount whether you have Wheellock or not, so you never make up the gems you spend to get him.

Unless they enhance the characters to "re-max out", the same way you can now continue to collect island experience and get gem rewards for filling the bar, even when already at level 40, Wheellock will have no impact on number of gems earned.

And if I want to increase gold production, there are much better ways than rushing to have level 15 skylanders in my sanctuaries instead of level 13s and 14s.

So I think he remains an easy pass for me.