Summoners Era is the newest idle RPG from Fansipan Limited, a fairly new entrant to the mobile gaming industry. Despite the overabundance of loosely similar games on Android, Summoners Era has managed to accumulate well over 100 thousand downloads and maintains a largely positive average user review rating from those who tried it. Beyond that, the game has also managed to earn respectable spots in various top lists of games in several countries where it has been made available.
Summoners Era basically has everything you would look for in an idle RPG. There are tons of heroes to collect and upgrade, leaving a near-endless line of team compositions that almost guarantee that no two players will have the exact team roster. Summoners Era also offers plenty of PvE and PvP content, which can leave you to spend a lot of time on the game despite continuously earning idle rewards. There are plenty of opportunities for you to earn even more rewards with active events and in-game accomplishment features.
What separates it from most idle RPGs is the rate at which you can obtain top tier heroes from the gacha. That, in combination with the generosity of the developers to provide players a relatively easy access to earn premium currency and summoning materials, make Summoners Era a game with a healthy environment even for free players. If you are currently in the lookout for an idle RPG that you can enjoy on your own as well as with friends, then you should definitely check this game out!
There is a lot to learn in Summoners Era as there are numerous contents and features in the game that every player needs to spend time on to make good progress. For the most part, unlocking these extra features and game modes take time as most are locked behind summoner level requirements and are spread across different progression levels in the game. The initial time you spend on your first dive into its world serves as a very helpful tutorial to help you grasp the basic concepts of the game. Each new feature and game mode you unlock as well comes with a brief description on how it works.
Summoners Era is an easy idle RPG to pick up and play, even for total beginners. If you have just started playing the game or planning to do so and want to jumpstart your progress and dominate each game mode, then stay with us and read our comprehensive Summoners Era beginner’s guide. We have compiled a detailed guide with several useful tips, cheats and strategies to help you progress and rank up fast in the game.
1. Prioritize Progressing Through The Campaign
Summoners Era may not have offer much of a story in its campaign but the campaign still stands as its main game mode. If you have played idle RPGs before, then you should know that idle rewards are based on how far you have progressed through the main campaign. On top of the summoner EXP, gold, Hero EXP, and equipment that you can obtain from passive rewards, Each stage you complete also earns you these resources. Naturally, the amount of all resources you earn from passive rewards as well as the quality of gears are dependent on where you stopped at the campaign.
One convenient aspect of campaign battles, or any battle in Summoners Era for that matter, is that there are no star ratings to be worried about. This means that you only need to win regardless of how you do it, and even if only one member of your party stands at the end of the battle. You will start off at the normal difficulty with a total of 5 maps to conquer, each with chapters within each map. As you complete one difficulty level, you will proceed to a higher difficulty mode that comes with an extra map.
Considering how much more you can gain by pushing to progress through the campaign, the summoner or account EXP you earn is very valuable. A lot of the features and game modes in Summoners Era are locked behind minimum level requirements and since your main source of EXP comes from the campaign, pushing to progress in it will be your key to unlocking all other game modes fast, not to mention strengthen your summoner in the process.
2. Get To Know Characters And Factions Before Forming A Team
There are currently 132 characters in Summoners Era divided equally across 6 faction. Heroes are subject to an initial rarity grade between 1 to 5 stars but each one can be upgraded to 6 stars. Heroes also have roles to play, which becomes an essential factor to consider when forming teams. Each hero can have 1 to 4 unique skills dependent on their original rarity grade and each one can be equipped with 6 different gears as well.
You can readily access the list of heroes you have by clicking on the heroes icon at the lower right side of the screen and one good thing to have in the game is the gallery that comes with it. If you can spare some time, be sure to read through what each hero can do, regardless of whether you have them or not. For one, you will have a ton of heroes to choose from as you begin to form your team of 5 units. On top of rarity grades, factions, and classes, you should check the skills of each unit you have to understand how to utilize them best in a team. On the other hand, you may want more info on every other character, as you will definitely be going against them in battle.
It may be a little challenging to notice for total beginners but each hero’s stats and skill sets relate to the class they belong to. Assassins, rangers, and mages are more of the offensive types while priests and warriors are defensive by nature. In essence, this should be a determinant of where you should place the unit in the team formation and which formation to go with given your selection of units in the team.
The default formation is 2 heroes in front and 3 heroes at the back lane. Frontliners receive an HP boost of 25% while heroes at the back get a 30% increase in attack power. As the team roster should be primarily based on the heroes you have, your formation with regard to which ones to man the front and back lanes should depend on your team’s classes.
Summoners Era also employs the “rock-paper-scissors” othrough its faction restrain mechanics. Heroes in the game are classified into 6 faction that are composed of 4 basic factions and 2 special ones. Water (blue), fire (red), nature (green), and abyss (gray) stand as the basic factions while light (yellow) and dark (purple) stand as the special factions. Factions gain a boost of 30% more damage and 15% more accuracy against one other faction and receives the same disadvantage from another. For the basic faction, fire is strong against nature, nature is strong against abyss, abyss is strong against water, and water is strong against fire. Light and dark factions are both strong and weak against one another.
With factions in play, taking into account the faction of each hero you choose becomes an important decision. There is such a thing as a companion buff in Summoners Era where having more heroes belong to the same faction can grant your entire party tremendous advantages. You can view this by tapping on the companion buff icon at the lower left side of the screen while on the pre-battle screen where you can set up your party and this feature is also visible during combat. As an example, having all 5 heroes in your team belong to the same faction earns each one of them a 25% boost to attack, HP, and armor.
Another key feature to look into is the linking feature that some characters have. On the heroes menu, you can tap on the rightmost icon within the hero roster to view heroes who have linking buffs. These buffs activate when specific heroes are deployed on the same party. Do note that some of these perks only apply to members of specific factions.
There are certainly a lot to consider in Summoners Era as you form your ultimate team. Chances are that you will make adjustments to your roster from time to time as you acquire better heroes or as you realize new strategies and combinations. In any case, do not worry as much about making the wrong decisions but just the same, know as much as you can considering every aspect there is to know before you decide on a team.
Keep in mind as well that there is no such thing as an ultimate team but rather, some are just cohesive and in sync enough to earn more wins than losses. Take special note as well that in Summoners Era, you can use any hero a number of times in the same roster so obtaining similar 5-star heroes from the gacha is not at all that bad.
3. Be Selective When Upgrading Heroes
Team-based RPGs often mean that you cannot bank or focus resources on one character alone. Even if your team consists of a specified number of units, the roster may change depending on the situation or game mode you plan on engaging. As each hero will always require tons of resources to power up, there is always a possibility of spreading your upgrades too wide and too thin in your characters will find it more difficult or even impossible to win over some battles. With Summoners Era showcasing a variety of game modes that include both PvE and PvP content, you have to be very careful and selective when it comes to upgrading each hero.
The most basic way to strengthen heroes is through levelling them up. You only need gold and hero EXP to do so and each hero initially has a level cap based on their star grade. 1-star heroes can only be leveled up to 20 while 5-star cap at level 80. Once a hero reaches the level cap, you need to evolve the hero using ancient potions and consuming heroes of the same grade. 1-star heroes at level 20 require 1 other 1-star hero to break its level cap while 5-star heroes require 5 5-star heroes as sacrifice.
Hero EXP can easily be gained from passive rewards while ancient potions can be earned in bulk through the Dragon Tower. While you will continuously earn both resources, the exponential increase in the required amount of each one as your heroes reach higher levels, make it difficult for you to continuously upgrade each one. Suppose you do come across better heroes through summoning or decide later on to change your roster, you can reset the hero to earn back the resources you spent on him or her at the cost of 10 gems.
As gems stand as the premium currency in the world of Summoners Era, it is only natural for you to want to save them up for more important purchases. As such, you need to be very careful with your choice of heroes as resetting very often will be costly for you. Another catch is that evolved heroes will not be devolved back to their original star grade so if you sacrificed some valuable 5-star heroes just to upgrade one to a 6-star, you will not be receiving those heroes back.
No RPG is complete without having the ability to dress up your heroes in various gears to raise their stats further. In Summoners Era, each hero can be equipped with 6 types of gears. The weapon, armor, helmet, and jewelry stand as the basic ones that drop from various game modes and can be earned largely from the campaign, particularly through the idle rewards. These gears can be upgraded through the blacksmith and are basically standard across all characters in the sense that all characters can use them.
The remaining two gears are special ones in the sense that they will not normally drop from the main campaign. Runes can be unlocked once the hero reaches level 40 and can be upgraded using gold and magic powder. Runes unlock random stats per upgrade level unless you lock a specific stat before an upgrade at the cost of gems.
Alternatively, you can also convert the bonus stats on a rune using gold and magic powder. Both these options can be accessed under the equip tab of the hero’s window. Artifacts are much harder to obtain than all other types of gears and are also more difficult to upgrade as it requires sacrificing other artifacts to do so.
4. Climb The Dragon Tower As High As You Can
The Dragon Tower is one of the first extra game modes you will be able to venture into as you make progress in Summoners Era. Much like other towers in some RPGs, the concept that applies to the tower is that you will challenge enemies on each floor and the higher you go up, the more challenging it becomes. This tower does not reset at the end of the day so you will continue on from where you left off but as premium summon scrolls, ancient potions, and other valuable rewards are up for grabs, you should push to climb as high as you can each moment.
Before actually jumping into battle across all game modes in Summoners Era, you will be able to see your team’s power as well as the enemy team’s power. Do not be discouraged easily even if you face more powerful enemies as team synergy and formation plays a vital role in matches.
As much as you should push forward with the main campaign ahead of everything else, your initial goal in the Dragon Tower is to obtain premium summoning scrolls and unlock more powerful heroes. Just like the campaign as well, always revisit the tower whenever your team becomes stronger. Also, try some adjustments in formation and summoner if you fail to beat the enemy on your first go.
5. Test Different Team Formations And Summoners Out
Power is naturally important in any RPG and in Summoners Era, it still serves as the main determinant of progress that cuts across all game modes. Typically, having a huge gap of power between your team and other team, in your favor, ensures victory. In some cases, however, you will come to discover that power simply is not enough.
Both the summoner and formation systems in the game play a vital role to team strategy. Oftentimes, you may see from each character’s skill set that they seem more fit for a particular lane within the team. There are some heroes who receive buffs differently based on whether they are on the front lane or the back lane. With this, it is best to tinker with the formation in one of two ways or both.
The first point of experimentation lies with which characters go up front and which ones stay at the back. On the pre-battle screen, you can choose different formation setups as well to allocate the heroes to your liking. Be sure to utilize this feature to your advantage and know that some formations work better than others in some situations.
Summoners Era also provides you with 5 different summoners you can switch around before the start of each match. Each summoner represents a class found among the heroes you collect and with it, a unique set of skills and abilities. Regardless of which class of characters you have chosen for your party, you will always have an aspect that needs more improvement.
Be sure to consider a summoner that synergizes well with your team and if that does not work, you can always check the others out at no cost. You can evolve a summoner using ancient books and some coins but ancient books are hard to come by early on. In any case, be sure to be fully decided on your favorite summoner before you evolve one.
6. Join A Guild And Add Friends
Guilds, alliances, clans, factions, or any other similarly-themed player groups have become the symbol of most online game’s social aspect in combination with having friends. With several perks to obtain by being a part of a guild, it is no longer a question of whether or not you should join one but rather, putting one up yourself or joining another. The fee for creating your very own guild is not really much, but the responsibility to ensure that your guild is performing actively is the challenging part.
If you are new to RPGs, then the best recourse is to find a guild to join. There are numerous active guilds in Summoners Era but some of them may have very high level requirements. Just the same apply to as many attractive guilds as you can as the sooner you join one, the better it will be for you. You can enjoy some guild exclusive contents as soon as you are accepted into a guild and you can also earn some rewards just by checking in once a day.
Guild Dungeons and the Daily Boss are available for each member to engage in daily. Naturally, you should not expect to defeat the enemies you see here as these are designed to be tougher than any one player can take all on his or her own. These are team effort battles so every bit of participation counts. For best results, challenge these game modes toward the end of your game day or at least when you feel that your team is at their peak for the day. Beyond the quantifiable rewards you earn from guild activities and checking in, make sure to spend some time on the guild chat if you have questions or concerns that more experienced or veteran guild members can address.
With regard to having friends, one of the most basic perks of maxing out the 30-friend limit in Summoners Era is earning friend points. These are special currencies that you can aslo use at the summon portal to earn more heroes. Do note that while the chances of nabbing a 5-star hero from the premium summon is higher, friend summons just like basic summons can also net you a 5-star hero.
Under the friend menu as well, you can scout for enemies that can grant you extra resources. Friends can help you defeat these enemies and you can also help them with theirs. BE sure to remember sending friend points to each friend. If you have the time, ensure that each friend in your list is active as well.
7. Battle Your Way Through The Arena
No online RPG is complete without its share of PvP content. While you may occasionally get bored with the teams you battle with in the main campaign and the rest of the PvE content, the Arena holds more cleverly designed teams that you will definitely enjoy taking on. On top of having a bigger-than-normal amount of attempts to duke it out with other players’ teams, the maximum amount of 24 attempts you have replenishes as soon as you expend them, and is not limited per day like in conventional RPGs.
Once you click on the battle button, you can choose one from 3 posible rivals which one to take on. If you do not see anyone you want to challenge, you can also hit the refresh button at the upper left side of the window as many times as you want. The opponent’s power level may serve as a good indicator if you have a chance to beat them or not but you should also tap on their portrait to see their team’s roster.
As a tip, be very careful going against those whose power levels are almost the same as you but have some of their characters over-levelled. Also, pay attention to their summoner level as it also serves as an indicator of their summoner’s strength.
Arena coins and mastery points are earned after each match in the arena. You will naturally earn more if you win but suffering defeats also earn you some. It may happen that you are hesitant to spend time in the arena if you are a beginner but given the rewards that you can still obtain just by engaging in combat, every attempt you have should definitely be spent.
8. Expend Dungeon And Adventure Attempts
Other than the main campaign, the dragon tower, and the arena, which all will take most of your time early on, there are quick game modes in Summoners Era that you need to spend a bit of time on for more resources. Both the dungeon and the adventure only take a minute or 2 to conquer if you choose to skip the battle and each one can provide you with resources to strengthen your team further for the game’s other content.
The adventure mode is like a daily dungeon where you have 2 attempts each day to take on each of the 3 available adventures. Gold, hero EXP, magic powder, and hero fragments can be obtained easily with each run. There are level requirements that initially bar you from taking on the next level challenges and there are recommended power levels as well. If you are close to breaking the next level requirement within the day, you may want to hold off on those attempts as the higher levels naturally reap much better rewards.
The dungeon, on the other hand is a unique game mode where you choose 5 heroes to take on waves of enemies. It is essentially a survival mode since damages your hero takes on each wave remain for the next one and if your hero perishes, you will not be able to use him or her for the remainder of the season. You only get to choose 1 hero at a time but they make take on multiple enemies at higher levels. Chests with resources, potions, and buffs can be obtained after every win. For this game mode, it is best to consider self-healing heroes and priests as inability to heal will render all other heroes short on HP for every succeeding battle.
9. Visit The Blacksmith And Black Market Often
With the idle rewards in play right from the first minute of your dive into the world of Summoners Era, you will continue to have a streaming supply of gears. You can upgrade the equipped gears on your heroes if you have enough materials needed, which are duplicates of the ones they have on, or you can visit the blacksmith to have a better view of new gears that you can craft. Visiting the blacksmith makes it a little easier since there are ready indicators that tell you if a better gear can be crafted. Note as well that while having a priority hero take on all the best gears, gears have set incentives. IF you have the same grade of helmet, weapon, armor, and jewelry on a hero, all the extra stats of the gear becomes unlocked.
The black market has a name that makes it sound like a limited period shop but it is actually the basic market in the game where you can spend all sorts of currencies that you have. For most RPG beginners, it may not seem as critical to even look into what the market has in store for you but in Summoners Era, you will actually make a habit of spending some time in the black market and even spend some gold or gems on a daily basis. If you notice, you need 2,000 gems to do a 10x premium summon and it may seem fair but if you look at the black market, you can find much better offers to buy premium summon scrolls.
There is a scroll you can purchase for 125 gems but only once, and 4 scrolls for 600 gems twice. In total, you can purchase 9x premium summon scrolls for a total of 1,325 gems, a lot cheaper than its equivalent of 1,800 gems at the gacha. There are plenty of other great deals at the black market. Be sure to browse through each tab and page as there are items that you should identify as the ones you should save for and some that you may already need to purchase, provided you can afford to do so.
10. Habitually Claim Free Resources
On top of daily check-in rewards, Summoners Era hosts a wide variety of free in-game resources that you should make a habit of claiming. To start off, idle rewards that you earn from the campaign chest only accumulates for 8 hours. As such it is best to ensure that you claim it regularly and make it as your last click on the game as well before going to sleep.
There is quick battle option in campaign as well that can grant you 2 hours-worth of idle rewards in an instant. Using it once before refresh is free but the second and third uses cost gems. It is best to use this feature when your heroes are stuck on a specific level so if you can still progress before the next refresh, push to do so before using quick battle. Relative to this, a training option also becomes available for you eventually. It can level up 1-3 star heroes over time at no cost so use it to prep some low tier characters into becoming feeds to your 5-star favorites.
You will also see 2 icons at the lower left side of your screen. The gold mine gives you free gold once every 8 hours. The amount of gold you can receive is based on your summoner level. Beside it is the only ad boost in Summoners Era. You can play up to 5 15 to 30-second video ads to earn 20 gems each time.Given that gems are premium currency, earning 100 of it within 150 seconds at the most is a great deal that you should not ignore. Do not forget about the free basic and premium summons as well.
11. Accomplish Quests And Achievements For Extra Rewards
On top of the instant EXP and resources you earn with practically every game mode you engage in, more can be earned from Summoners Era’s quests and achievements. There are actually a lot, which is great as every extra bit of incentive you can earn will help boost your progress in the game.
To start off, you may easily notice the quests that pop up at the lower left side of the main screen. These objectives form part of Quest Tree, which can earn you gems, premium scrolls, and other valuable resources. These are one-time rewards, though, and essentially serve as a guide for you to determine your overall progress in the game. Within this feature, you can also find the daily quests, which are essentially easier feats that relate to the usual activities you should engage in as you play the game on a daily basis. The daily quest is composed of the same 9 daily objectives each day and you should strive to complete each of them not just for the rewards for completing each one, but for the extra 100 gems you earn for completing all as well.
There is also a trophy icon at the left side of the screen that takes you to the achievements section. Achievements are divided across 5 distinct areas of the game that also serve as a determinant of your progress in each one. Achievements are like milestones that offer one time rewards but new, more challenging objectives also pop up after completing the previous ones.
Various important resources can be earned here and, truthfully enough, a lot of them are difficult to earn outside of the achievements section. So beyond checking all these out to claim rewards, use these features as a guide for you to determine which aspects of the game you may need to spend a bit more time and effort on.
12. Take Advantage Of Time-Limited Events
The standard content, features, and rewards you can have in Summoners Era are actually more than enough to hook you into it. Beyond the outright loots and added incentives from completing quests and achievements, however, more can still be earned from the time-limited events.
At the right side of the main screen, you will notice both the “server open” icon and the “mission” icon. Both of these offer time-limited objectives that you should aim to accomplish as much as you can for some rare and valuable rewards. The mission icon represents objectives that you need to meet within a certain number of days. Most of the objectives here also coincide with the usual activities you engage in but often have higher numbers to reach.
Premium summon scrolls, ancient relics, hero souls, and titan souls are typical rewards here so be sure to always check the list and the deadline to identify which ones you can actually push for. Keep in mind that time limits are different for each set of quests so remember to check each quest and the objectives listed underneath each one.
The New Server Opening event starts being active as soon as you start the game and requires you to complete various objectives spread across 7 days. You actually have more than 7 days to complete all objectives and you can also accomplish feats that were required on previous days. Each objective completed earns you zitga badges and earning enough will unlock a chest below the screen. The final reward requires that you complete all of the objectives so if you really want to earn it, you have to be ready to spend some gems.
Some of the purchases you need to make have VIP requirements as well. It may be discouraging for you if you have no intention to spend real money on the game but there is actually a workaround that also earns you an additional incentive. Along the time-limited event icons at the right side of the screen, you will also find a trial pack. When you click on it, you will be presented with an opportunity to have a experience a VIP trial for 3 days. This will earn you gems, VIP points and other rewards while it is active but if you are still certain that you do not want to subscribe to it, be sure to cancel it before the 3-day trial period expires.
13. Check Your Mail And Inventory Regularly
While rewards from the campaign and dragon tower directly go into your inventory, some rewards like those earned from the arena, the guild activities, time-limited events, and even friend bosses wind up in your mail box. There are notifications on the mail icon at the left side of your screen when you have unread mails. Be sure to make it a habit of checking it and claiming your rewards whenever you log in.
Relative to this, you should also frequently check on the contents of your inventory. Beyond the gears and various resources you amass as you make progress in your adventure, your bag contains hero or artifact shards that may be sufficient enough for you to use them. If you do, it is always best to use them sooner than later.
Summoners Era certainly holds a lot more in store for everyone but for now, this is where we end our beginner’s guide. If you have discovered additional tips during your adventure, please do not hesitate to share them with us! Moreover, if you have concerns or experiences you want to share, feel free to drop us a line!