PerBlue Entertainment is a mobile game developer that started operations in 2008 and is considered as among the pioneers in the industry. While fairly successful games such as Titan Empires, Greed for Glory, and Parallel Kingdom: Age of Ascension has been officially retired after several years following their respective release dates, Portal Quest, along with Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, continues to grow strong with an increasing fanbase, earning largely positive reviews and downloads from both Android and iOS platform players. Although Portal Quest has been out for a while, it’s still a great game, so if you are looking for a strategy RPG to play with friends be sure to give it a try.
Portal Quest has a good mix of familiar gameplay mechanics and systems coupled with unique ones that make it all blend well together. The graphics is light and somewhat refreshing to see as 3D cartoon style characters makes for a much likable appeal to gamers of all ages, genders, and preferences. Portal Quest takes you to a mystical fantasy world where you gather and strengthen your heroes to wage war against the Hollow forces that corrupt the land. Each hero holds a unique set of skills and has his or her own strength and finding how to meld these strengths into a formidable 5-person team make up part of the challenge of the game itself.
Battle through story campaigns, partake in guild activities, and challenge players in the arena to amass resources and glory to further your rise to power. There’s a wide variety of other game modes to unlock and engage in as you progress through Portal Quest and reach new levels. Most actions involve consuming in-game stamina which replenishes over time so at some point you will have to be selective in terms of which activities to prioritize.
The first few battles you engage in as you dive into the world of Portal Quest provides all the basic controls and mechanics you need to learn and understand to play the game. While there are several features, mechanics, and game modes in Portal Quest, it is still a pretty simple game to get started on even if you are a complete strategy RPG rookie. On top of the basic tutorials, information pages abound across multiple game mode windows that you can readily access as you please. Knowing all the basic controls and game mechanics is just half the battle, though, as strategy and resource management that follows is a feat that can pose as a challenge as well.
If you just started playing Portal Quest or have been on it for quite some time but still looking for more efficient means of levelling up, increasing power, and progressing through the game’s various game modes; our Portal Quest beginner’s guide contains numerous helpful tips, cheats and strategies to jumpstart your progress and take you steps further to boost your experience-gathering and power-raising journey.
1. Progress Through The Campaign Mode
The Campaign Mode in Portal Quest, much like in most strategy RPGs, is the most basic game mode that touches on the game’s story and likewise serves as the top source of experience points to level up your account and heroes as well as your main supply of gears and even hero fragments you need to summon new heroes and promote existing ones.
The tutorial basically takes you through the initial stages of the campaign and leaves a few break periods in-between for guides on equipment, skills upgrades, and similar aspects of the game. Once you can freely venture on your own, you should push to proceed and complete campaign stages as far as you can take it. As you will need to constantly secure more experience points and gears for your squad of heroes, spending your limited stamina on progressing through chapter quests is the best way to go. As later on you will come to find that you need to replay some stages to farm equipment for your team, it is best to unlock more chapters early on to have more sources of a wide array of items and equipment. It won’t be very evident on the first few stages but the campaign chapters grow more difficult with every step you take. You will have to make upgrades and enhancements in-between some stages, but make effort to go further and stop only if you have certainly hit an unbeatable chapter stage.
Once you unlock the Elite difficulty level, try to progress as much as you can on it as well. Only main levels are available on elite mode and though it is much more difficult to progress, there is a chance to obtain specific hero shards on each of the available levels. You would want to open up as many stages here as you can and later on focus farming for hero shards of one of your heroes. It costs twice as many stamina points here and grants twice as much XP. You can only battle through each stage 3 times per day as well.
2. Form A Team And Focus On 5 Heroes
It will initially take some time for you to gather 5 heroes and form your first team in Portal Quest but as you progress through the game further and take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, you will soon have more than enough heroes and would have to choose the best 5 from among them. While it would be much better to bank on 2 or 3 star heroes early on, you may not be that fortunate to secure such quality of heroes. As such, make the most out of the ones you have and switch heroes in and out as you acquire new ones.
The idea basically revolves around focusing on 5 heroes at all times as much of the resource you need to enhance and upgrade heroes are very limited and it will be best to manage all those resources well to ensure you always have enough of what you need for your main team. As you progress further through the campaign, accomplish certain feats, and grab freebies along the way, keep in mind that your focus should continue to be on the top 5 characters that you will use for most game modes.
For starters, take note of the hero formation where two characters, mainly tanks, are situated at the frontlines of the battle while 3 heroes, who are top damage dealers, man the back row. BE sure to keep this in mind when selecting which from among your growing roster of heroes best fit all slots in the formation.
Another important factor to consider is the aspect or kind of the elemental affinity that each hero has. There are only 3 aspects in Portal Quest and these are Finesse, Fury, and Focus. It works following the “rock-paper-scissors” method of giving advantages and disadvantages in battle and having knowing and remembering which one works best against the other can give you some advantages, especially on more challenging confrontations. Finesse is strong against Fury but weak against Focus; Fury is strong against Focus but weak against Finesse; and Focus is strong against Finesse but weak against Fury. An advantageous aspect can deal 25% more damage on the disadvantaged aspect and takes 20% less damage from it. Be sure to have each aspect represented as evenly as you can across your squad and any combination is better than having a team exclusively belonging to any one aspect.
Although upgrading the hero quality unlocks subsequent skills for each of your heroes, you can readily view the description of each skill to see how each hero will grow later on. Keep in mind that it’s very much possible for some heroes to seem underwhelming initially but become well above average as they reach new heights and fully unlock all their skills.
3. Upgrade And Enhance Your Main Heroes Whenever You Can
Most of the activities you engage in as you progress through Portal Quest earns you experience points not just for each hero but also for your account. Team experience is important as it is initially the basis of unlocking additional game modes and features and it serves as the level cap for your heroes and their skills. As you go through one battle after another, the disparity between your team level, which can be seen underneath your avatar at the top-left corner of the screen, and each of your hero’s levels will grow farther apart. Don’t fret though as you can easily level them up by consuming Hero XP bottles which you will surely have an overabundance of in the early stages of your game. To do so, simply click on the “Heroes” icon at the bottom left area of your screen, click on a hero, tap the “Stats” tab, and click on the “Add XP” button to your heart’s content. Take note that your heroes’ levels cannot exceed your team level so you may want to stop a level less than the cap to not waste Hero XP bottles. Additionally, you can discontinue levelling up heroes you no longer include on your main team as the higher the heroes’ level goes, the more Hero XP bottles you will need so it would be best to save some extra for later.
As you battle through campaign stages, you will acquire a lot of items and equipment. Even before heading into battle you may already see red indicators on some potential rewards meaning that you can get gears needed by one or some of your heroes. If you can still easily clear the stage, then simply keep moving forward. Once it becomes challenging, head on to the hero page and equip your heroes with newly acquired gear. Each hero has six unique gear slots that can be filled per quality. If you see a plus sign, then you have a piece of that equipment in your inventory or you can craft one. If you see an arrow symbol, it means that you can access the stage or stages where you can farm the needed item.
Feel free to farm for items when you need to raise your characters’ power levels. More importantly, if a hero’s equipment slots are only filled ones and arrow symbols, then push to farm the needed equipment to complete the set. A hero with all six gears equipped can be promoted to the next level of quality at the cost of gold and a change in the color of quality leads to unlocking new skills. The quality colors are white, green, blue, and purple.
Remember to upgrade the skill levels of each hero you have in your main team. Each upgrade costs more gold as the skill level grow higher and you can only perform 10 consecutive upgrades at one time. Additional skill points will regenerate over time, so you may want to check back on skill points from time to time if you haven’t maxed out skills yet and if you can still afford to do so.
The last power boosting enhancement and also the most difficult one to max out is evolution. You can evolve heroes once you collect enough hero shards. You can obtain additional shards from chests, the campaign, as well as the Trophies. Keep in mind that the evolution requirements as far as shards are concerned cost more as a hero’s star level rises which is why you should consider yourself very lucky if you happen to nab a 3-star hero from the chests early on. You can view sources of hero shards by scrolling down the “Stats” tab of any hero. Once you have unlocked the Elite difficulty of the campaign, you can view the stages where you can farm specific shards for some heroes.
4. Join A Guild As Soon As You Can
Like most multiplayer online games, Portal Quest holds a guild system that provides a variety of perks and advantages for each member, especially active ones. If you are totally new to guild systems, it is important to understand that many games, though playable completely on your own, makes gaming all the more fun and exciting when played with others. Guild systems, and many similarly-themed player groups like clans, factions, associations, and so on have been an integral part of any in-game community. It is no longer a question of whether or not you should join one but rather, which one should you be a party of. In any case, be sure to choose guilds that seem promising based on the number of members they can hold and their overall power. Likewise, contribute as much time and effort into guild activities as every bit of effort each member provides benefits the entirety of the guild.
Once you become accepted as a member of your chosen guild, remember to sign in daily to acquire some instant rewards. All successfully completed quests and campaign stages earn you influence points which can be used by the guild leader and officers to upgrade the perks you get out of the guild. Some additional game modes like Guild Wars and Fortress can only be accessed when you are a member of a guild so be sure to participate in these events once they become available. Remember to put mercenaries on the Job Board to earn you some extra gold over time. If there are some available, you can also hire heroes of your guildmates as mercenaries for Fortress and Crusade battles.
5. Expend All Attempts In The Extra Game Modes
There’s a wide variety of game modes in Portal Quest to revel in and it typically only takes a few moments and a bit of effort to accomplish them. As each one offers rewards which can help you one way or another to grow stronger faster, it is highly advisable for you to partake and expend all available attempts on each of the game modes you have unlocked.
The Arena is your basic PvP mode in Portal Quest and although battles are locked in Auto Mode, team power and strategic team composition still matters a lot. As the rewards you can obtain from the arena vary depending on the tier you’re in and your rank within it, it is best to choose cautiously as to which opponent you would want to challenge. You have 5 attempts daily and each there is a 10-minute cooldown period between each battle. Challenging and succeeding in battle against a higher-ranked opponent boosts your rank. Once you make it to the top 5 of your current tier, a countdown period will initiate and surviving through it and staying within the top 5 rank will promote you to the next tier. Don’t be afraid to take on players who have slightly higher power than you if there are hardly other choices. There is always a chance to win and you should only stop trying if you are out of attempts to do so.
The Tower is a unique game mode that can reward you with tons of XP or gold, depending on the day. The Pinnacle is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays and it offers practically free experience points per completion. The Depths, on the other hand, is where you can get much needed gold for all those upgrade and purchase needs. It is available every Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekends. You can only accomplish each one twice a day but failed attempts won’t expend any tries. Higher difficulty levels can be unlocked based on your team level so once one becomes available, you should always try it out first before settling for lower difficulty levels.
The Fortress is a guild exclusive game mode that you should always take active participation in as Fortress Tokens you and your guildmates can earn from here can be exchanged for a variety of useful items at the Fortress Shop. Each battle will be difficult and you shouldn’t feel bad for not achieving victory in battles here. Enemies are way too tough for one person as this is a team effort and everyone’s attack contributes to the damage dealt to the Hollows. Remember that each of your heroes can only be used once here daily and remember to use mercenaries form your guildmates to spread out your heroes further.
The Trials hold battles that delimit the heroes you can use based on their aspect and, as such, may become a reason for you to upgrade more heroes beyond the five that you use on your main team. A battle mode exclusively for Finesse heroes is available every Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. Another one for Focus Heroes can be engaged in every Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Last but not the least is the Fury-exclusive battle mode which opens every Sunday, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Be sure to expend all 5 daily attempts here and gather important pieces of equipment for your heroes. Even if you don’t currently have a need for the particular piece of equipment being offered as a reward, you may still have a need for one later on.
The Crusade is another unique game mode where you must battle through 15 areas divided into 5 stages, each with only 1 wave of enemies, where your heroes’ health and energy levels carry over to the succeeding battle. This is yet another game mode where you can benefit from having more than 5 upgraded heroes. You can earn rewards after each stage which is after the third battle and the succeeding is naturally more difficult. With health carrying over to the next battle, it is a must to always keep a healer on-board. Likewise, if you have extra heroes, you can fill up special skills, switch out, and use those skills on the more challenging levels.
6. Accomplish Daily Quests And Trophies For Extra Rewards
On top of the immediate rewards you get out of the various activities you engage and participate in as you play through Portal Quest, there are additional rewards you can obtain form completing certain quests and milestones. The Trophies serve as milestones and offer one-time rewards which may be in the form of gold, XP bottles, diamonds, or even hero shards. It’s very much possible to accomplish some of these feats before even being aware of their existence so to be sure that you claim all the rewards you have earned, as well as take note of which objectives you can accomplish relatively easily, be sure to always check the Trophies structure near the bottom right area of the map.
Quests, on the other hand are a set of easily achievable objectives you ought to squeeze in on your daily routine while playing Portal Quest. Some of these tasks follow the usual activities you engage in as you play the game. This is perhaps the best source of team XP and is the main cause of disparity between team XP and hero XP. The points you earn daily following the completion of each daily task available accumulates within the week and weekly rewards are based on the total points earned. BE sure to claim your rewards every Monday as unclaimed rewards will be converted back into points for the following week. One set of daily quest you must take advantage of is the free stamina you can claim up to 3 times a day from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. As you will never have more than enough stamina to spend on all those farming needs, make it a priority to grab every opportunity to receive free ones.
7. Remember To Claim Your Free Chests
Rewards from quests and trophies as well as daily sign-in bonuses aren’t all the extra perks you get out of playing daily. You can claim 5 free silver chests each day as well as 1 gold chest every 24 hours. As the cost to purchase these chests can be a little expensive for anyone, it’s practically a given to nab free ones whenever they are available. If you play often intermittently each day, then chances are that you won’t miss a single silver chest. What you should take note of is the gold chest as the sooner you claim it, the sooner the countdown starts for the next free one.
If you are tempted to purchase either type chest because you can afford one, control yourself and save for a 10x purchase. Not only will a 10x purchase give you better drops, it also costs a little cheaper than purchasing them individually. Relative to this, gold chests are the best option to spend all those hard-earned diamonds on. For silver chests, though, you ought to ensure that spending them on silver chests will still leave you with more than what you will need to enhance and upgrade your heroes.
8. Check The Merchant Regularly
Although you can easily farm for gears and items that your heroes need from unlocked campaign chapters, the stamina you consume for farming items can be used to farm equally or more important gears and hero shards. As such, make it a habit to regularly check on what the merchant holds for sale. It is best to steer away from items that cost diamonds though, but getting specific gears you need for a few gold coins will always be worth it. Don’t forget to check the Arena Shop, Fortress Shop, and Crusade Shop which you can access through the arrow buttons on each side of the shop. There are rare items and shards that are worth buying or saving for in each of these tabs and it will be very helpful to set your eyes on a particular purchase goal for each one.
And that is all we have for our Portal Quest beginner’s guide. We certainly hope that you were able to pick up and take note of some, if not all, of the tips and strategies we shared in this article and we hope that you enjoyed reading through it as well. With the game having so much to offer in terms of content, we won’t be surprised if there are still some strategies left to be uncovered. In any case, if you have your own tips, cheats or tricks you think should be added to our list, feel free to mention it in the comment section below!