Marvel: Contest Of Champions Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Remember the Marvel comic series Contest of Champions from the early 80s? No? That’s fine, because Kabam’s mobile fighting game Marvel: Contest of Champions takes only the broadest inspiration from the godfather of limited series. As you collect various heroes and villains, you’ll have to master your fighting skills in order to progress through a story involving Kang, the Collector, and a mysterious realm that is more than it first appears. That’s on top of PvP Arenas and daily events, which can also help you improve your team and the characters on it.

Sounds like fun, and it is. Of course you don’t have to step in against some of Marvel’s heaviest hitters alone. Follow Gamezebo’s Marvel: Contest of Champions Tips, Cheats and Strategies and you’ll have a leg up on the competition, no matter how super-powered it might be.

• The control system isn’t very complex as fighting games go (you won’t see this at EVO, in other words), but there’s more to it than just button-mashing. Defense is important, so learn to block. And since most characters still take some damage while blocking, it’s wise to learn to dodge by swiping left on the left side of the screen as well. The art of fighting in this game is about avoiding as much damage as possible and attacking only when you have an opening. However you do it, minimizing your loss of health is important because …
• Your Champions don’t recover health in-between fights during quests. The only way to recover it is by using consumable potions, so it behooves you to fight to conserve it as much as possible.
• You’ll want to move on from one-star Champions as soon as possible. They simply aren’t strong enough to tackle many of the game’s story-driven quests, even after being leveled up and ranked up. Look for two-star Champions ASAP with an eye on moving on to heroes and villains with three stars or more when you acquire them.

• There’s a rock-paper-scissors relationship between the six different classes of Champions, except that those items have a few more friends. The relationships look like this: Cosmic -> Skill -> Tech -> Mutant -> Science -> Mystic -> Cosmic. Unless there’s an extenuating circumstance (such as you have only one Champion left and no revive or healing potions), you should always try to be on the correct side of these match-ups, as doing so increases your attack power and reduces it for your opponent.
• It’s not a bad idea to begin every fight by blocking. The computer AI doesn’t do the same thing every time to begin a match, but it does seem awfully anxious to get in the first blow a vast majority of the time. Even if you’re wrong, you can quickly go on the offensive if necessary. No one’s watching, so it doesn’t matter if you look silly blocking for no reason. I’d do it just to be safe.

• The Special meter at the bottom of the screen fills up when you deal and take damage. Most Champions actually have multiple special moves they can utilize, but the meter will need to fill twice before using the second one and three times for the third. Hitting the button before the meter fills and changes color will use all of the meter, even if you are getting close to the next tier. For that reason, it’s good to use a Special as soon as you have it if you aren’t going to wait for the next one. Otherwise you’re wasting precious time to start refilling the meter again.
• Gold, ISO-8 and Catalysts work together to improve your Champions. A certain quanity of ISO-8 is required to gain one level each time, and you need Gold to actually infuse it into your character. After hitting max level, you can use Catalysts to increase your character’s rank unless that’s maxed out too. One and two-star Champions only unlock their later special moves when you increase their rank.
• You can sell unwanted Champions for Gold, but in practice, there’s no real compelling reason to do this. For starters, Gold is fairly easy to come by, as you get it just by moving around the board during quests. You’ll also want a variety of viable fighters because of the class system we discussed before. Some quests contain only a few classes of enemies, and having options allows you to tailor a team so you have an advantage most of the time. Finally, you can play as many PvP arena matches as you have Champions, with each one having to wait two hours before being used again. Might as well give yourself as many PvP battles as possible and keep them around just for that.

• The system of crystals and Units can get a little confusing, so we’ll simplify it for you. The crystal you get every four hours gives you consumables, while the one you receive every 24 hours gives you a two-star Champion (and more rarely, something better). Versus crystals are earned in PvP QuickMatches, and they give you either Gold or Battle Chips … which can be redeemed for an Arena Crystal, which offers you a chance at a four-star Champion. The purple crystals you find during quests can contain a variety of rewards but mostly yield ISO-8. Last and certainly not least are the Premium Hero crystals, which can be purchased with Units, the game’s premium currency. These crystals guarantee you a two-star Champion at least and can give you up to a four-star Champion if you’re lucky enough.
• You’ve probably figured this out after a few minutes of play, but no, there’s no way to get a specific hero. You’re at the whims of the Collector and his crystals, so keep on grinding if you haven’t found your favorite.
• Replaying quests you’ve already beaten isn’t a bad idea if you find your team too weak to keep progressing through the story. There are branching paths on most of the maps, and completing all of the possible routes (some of which can be much harder than others) earns you bonus rewards.

Nick Tylwalk

• 

Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.