From Zero to Hero: A One-Year Free-to-Play Challenge (Day 11 - LoL, my first big event on a small account)

If you missed the previous day, you can find it here: Day 7 - LoL, my first big event on a small account

Christmas is just around the corner, and I’m already swamped with all the activities my family needs me to do. On top of that, WW Memories, Besieged by White Walkers, Angler’s Fest, NK, Winter Celebration were up the past few days. With R2W also in the middle of the month I'm struggling trying to actively play several alts and feeling completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of events. Oh and there's some extra fun with the #WhereIsSanta event on top of everything else. Busy month all round.🙃🙂

Lord of Lords started a few days ago, and after Phase 1, I was a bit worried, my gathering points were way lower than I thought they’d be. Not only did the event start at reset and caught me totally by surprise but I didn't have enough troops to send out a lot of marches. I only managed to land in the 23rd spot on this phase. Little did I know… that was actually pretty good compared to what would happen in the next stages.

Being several weeks late to the kingdom and significantly behind at this stage, the past few days have been rough. I feel like I’m losing ground instead of catching up! To make things even more interesting (because, of course, I like a challenge), I was out of the city for two days with real-life holiday chores.

Coming back, another surprise hit me: LoL on the newer servers is slightly different. None of the stages take two days here. While I’d initially hoped to only be away and “lose” time during the training phase, I actually managed to miss two full stages: training and Rebel Leaders.

“No matter,” I thought to myself, while still slightly disappointed. I wasn’t really able to train a ton of troops anyway, thanks to resource shortage and limited speed-ups. My motivation recovery is also very low, so I didn’t have high hopes for Rebel Leaders either. 😔

Before LoL started, I began upgrading my Castle to level 23. The construction cost was way more expensive than I anticipated. I actually had to spend blue diamonds to buy stone, something I’d never imagined I’d have to do in this game.

Today, I sped up Castle construction and some research in the Expedition tree for Rebel Leaders. I also upgraded my VIP level to the much-needed level 9, which increases Lord experience gain by 50%.

My support alt had some good luck during the Day of Plunder, catching a 10k VIP points caravan and jumping straight to level 9, actually exceeded it by a large margin. But on my little main account, I had to spend blue diamonds to get some missing ViP points. This is becoming an unhealthy habit, but at the end of the day, that’s what blues are there for, right? To fill in the gaps. 😉

I "turn in" the photo album Death of Jon Arryn but quickly realize I’m missing an event I had specifically saved for Phase 5. It was listed under the Limited-Time Event tree, but it seems to be gone now. I frantically look for it under the other event tabs, but it's gone😫 If I recall correctly, it was related to completing the Champion set and rewarded Soren tokens and a with a few other goodies, like a 30 day Marching Skin animation. In my attempt to optimize LoL as much as possible, I probably overlooked the fact that the event expired before Phase 5 began. Great, just my luck. With my current progress, I check my current placement.

I'm a bit surprised to still be in the race. A total rank of 58 isn’t bad, considering my progress has mostly come from Phase 1: Gathering and a few upgrades in Phase 2: Building and Research. As expected, my points from Phase 3: Training and Phase 4: Rebel Leaders were close to nothing. Now it’s time to use everything I’ve been saving for the past week and explode Phase 5. Let's see how far I can go! A spot in the top 3 is clearly out of reach, but can I still manage to land in the top 10? Let’s find out!

There's a lot of gear I haven't crafted and was saving for this event, so let's start with that.

I quickly go through my Champion's Set, but my main account needs some extra Corundum, so I send out some Iron mining and continue with crafting pieces from the Rebel's End Set. My support alt doesn’t seem to have this problem. At this point, I’m starting to wonder which account should actually be my "main," as it seems my "main" is always short on items, while my alt is not. 😂

While I craft gear, others are also getting points but I still mange to climb a few spots. In no time I'm in the top 50.

This is already a win, as the top 50 spots reward 15 Sabrina Medals instead of 10. It feels like I’m climbing Mount Everest, but the journey continues!

I feed my dragon and it reaches level 40. Just 5 more levels until I can upgrade it from Adult to Elder, but I’m short on food. I also spin the Dragon Blessing wheel, or as I like to call it, the "Dreaded Dragon Wheel of Misfortune". I only have enough Blessing Stones for 10 spins. I don’t land anything amazing, but I get some extra points. At this point, I’ll take whatever I can get.

I don’t have any troop appearances or other album shards. To my surprise, I’m running low on actual resources for Construction and Research, not speed-ups like I expected. I’ll have to spread out my building and research progress since I won’t be able to get much done before I run out of resources. For buildings, I’m short on Stone, and for research, I need Gold. While I wait for gathering to return with the Corundum for my gear upgrades, it’s time to start the heavy lifting: Commander upgrades. If this doesn’t save me now, nothing will.

There are several Commanders I haven’t unlocked, leveled or upgraded. I’ll start with what I can do right away and then squeeze in a bit more with the Medals I can buy from the Shop. I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well. If I’m close to any important thresholds, I’ll use those as well.

The before picture, starting from overall placement 49. It's GO Time!

First sprint done, huge progress! I’m still getting points even after finishing my upgrades. The game is lagging behind my success, lol.

I land in an awesome 15th place, exactly what I was hoping for. Now I’m motivated to put in that extra effort and aim for a spot in the top 10. Leveling is kind of done. While I'm close to Lord level 50 that would allow me to get another round of Commander levels, I don't think I can get that much done.

So I start looking at my Commanders to see what Quality upgrades I can squeeze out of them. While for some I need way too many Medals or don’t even have their Medals available in the Shop, there are a few I can upgrade.

Quality upgrades give a lot of points so I try to do as much as possible.

I climb just 2 more spots. Sad, I was hoping for more. Time to pull a rabbit out of my hat.

I search for a rabbit, but it’s not there. Despite my original math being correct, missing 2 days wasn’t part of the equation, so I’m unable to unlock Seg. Unless I spend an extra 3BD, but that’s not part of the plan for these almost F2P accounts. I'll hold on to this option as a last resort. Let's explore more options.

If you remember, I purchased the Hero Decree for the Last Hearth castle skin. It was a rollercoaster of emotions a few days ago, and while that worked out just fine in the end, now I even have some Pass Coins to spend. I can get 20 Commander Medals so both Barret and O'Biehn at gray quality.

I am SO CLOSE now, my target spots are within reach. Both my accounts can feel the top 10 spots. Let’s wait for the gathering parties to return and in the meantime, I’ll continue with what Research and Building upgrades I can get done. I need to keep up the momentum, I don’t want to be overtaken when I’m so close.

A few moments later, Iron mining is done, and I have the last item required. I can continue with my gear upgrades.

I upgrade a few more gear items, but it’s still not enough. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I’m left with very few options right now. I can either spend 3BD to get Seg, or I can try to gain Lord experience and push past level 50 to unlock another wave of Commander upgrades.

But wait! I spot another opportunity in the form of the Fishing Event. Angler’s Fest offers Commander Medals, among other rewards. If I can get at least 10 medals, I can unlock another commander and break into the top 10. Since I decided to play a Bow account, the only Commander I can really make use of is Theon. He doubles as a Rebel Leader best in slot so the choice seems obvious. Alas, I don't have enough Fishing Points to get 10 Medals. Time to do all the quests for the day and see if that's enough.

A few moments later, I get more points and can unlock another Commander. With Theon I hope to get some Training Grounds progress.

With Theon I manage to get to rank 10, but there are still 5 hours of the event and I get challenged for the top 10 spots. It's becoming obvious I'll need to push Lord level to 50 so I can get that extra wave of Commander upgrades while working on Buildings and Research.

It's interesting how after being short on Stone and Gold, I now find myself lacking Iron. At least the game is well balanced and all resources are equally needed for city advancement. My Wall is the only obstacle in the way of a level 25 Castle, but I'm short 5Mil Iron, the equivalent of 14k blues.

Where there's a will, there's a way. I remember something that could be useful. After a few refreshes, I find

Success, I loot 2x 1.5Mil Iron. Now I just need to find 2 more Mil. I'm in luck since my alliance can spare some Iron and I can pull off another big Construction for Phase 5 points.

With just 3 hours to go, I’ve used up all my resources and have no more tricks left to pull out of my hat, but I made it into the top 10!

I need to get some sleep; tomorrow, I have to get up early for work. As I head to bed, I can only hope that when I check my accounts in the morning, they’ll still be in the top 10 spots. Good night and wish me luck!