YST’s F2P 2025 Wrap Up – Progress Breakdown!

How’s it going, everyone? YST here, and today I’ll be sharing the progress I made during my 12-week F2P 2025 journey. There were definitely a few moments where I fell off for a few days, but overall, I gave it my all to see how far I could push this challenge account. I pulled some great champions, made solid progress, and I’ll be breaking down the key highlights and achievements from the journey. And of course… Team Queen of Hearts took the victory!

Pushing to complete all the Progress Missions and claim Arbiter within the challenge timeframe was one of my main goals this year – especially since I didn’t push hard enough for it in the previous F2P series. I managed to finish it by Day 74, though I believe I could’ve done it even earlier if I’d focused more on Arena from the start, or chosen Sun Wukong as my promo code champion instead of Alure.

The missions requiring level 6–10 Great Hall affinity bonuses felt like an endless grind. I had to rely on easy wins and 1-man defence teams to farm medals, since competing with high level Gold V accounts at this stage wasn’t realistic. By Month 3, I committed to using Gems to refresh the Arena page and stay on track, and made sure I could auto farm stage 20 dungeons for the final milestones – I didn’t want to get stuck right at the end. The rotation of Potion Keeps was another time sink, especially with the Void Keep only open on Sundays, which often had me waiting to progress.

I didn’t have much time to actually use Arbiter on the F2P account before the challenge ended, but claiming her still felt like a great personal win!

The Chimera is a game mode I really wanted to focus on this year, since it wasn’t available during last year’s challenge. My original goal was to hit a 1 key on Hard, and while I didn’t quite get there, I was still able to deal triple the damage needed for the top chest on Normal – which felt like a solid milestone. In the final week, I did give Hard a shot, but only managed to reach 7.8M, which landed me around second chest rewards.

Getting a weekly drop of Relic resources – and more importantly, Clan Gold and fragments for Embrys, the Mythical champion – is a huge benefit for a new account in 2025. My progress toward Embrys and Mithrala felt almost identical in terms of fragments, and being able to work on both over time is massive. The Relics were helpful during the challenge, but the consistent Clan Gold income also let me buy way more than I normally could have without taking on the Chimera.

As always, just like last year’s Epic only F2P challenge, my ultimate goal for each series is to clear all three Doom Tower rotations on Normal within the 3 month timeframe. There were definitely some bosses I struggled with – like the Force affinity Scarab, which I eventually beat using a duo of Mad Hatter and a high resistance Tagoar. The Frost Spider was another tough one, but I got lucky pulling Coffin Smasher, who ended up being my only HP Burner – a key mechanic needed to take it down.

Outside of those, Lady Annabelle was a huge carry for Bommal, and Alure – my promo code champion – was crucial for beating the Dark Fae rotation. Nether Spider also gave me some trouble at one point, but with a few random debuff cleansers and enough damage on Alice to one shot the spiderlings, it became much more manageable.

In the first few rotations, I was so focused on clearing Normal that I didn’t have much time left for Hard, but by the final rotation, I was able to push a few Hard stages. The main thing is – another F2P series complete, and another set of three Doom Tower avatars secured!

One thing that really stood out to me this year was how much less reliant I was on farming gear from Dungeons. This was mainly thanks to the Forge, where I was crafting gear using resources from free Forge Pass milestones, Doom Tower bosses, and Faction Wars. On top of that, I picked up powerful pieces from The Cursed City, Siege, and weekly Arena chests. Outside of the milestone missions or early progression challenges, I don’t think I spent much time farming Dungeons for gear – aside from when the Event Dungeon was active for Pinpoint early on.

With that said, here are the highest stages I managed to clear on auto:

• Dragon – Stage 7 Hard
• Ice Golem – Stage 1 Hard
• Spiders Den – Stage 21 Normal
• Fire Knight – Stage 23 Normal
• Sand Devil – Stage 13
• Phantom Shogun – Stage 19
• Potion Keeps – Stage 20
• Iron Twins – Stage 11
• Minotour – Stage 15
• Event Dungeon – Stage 20

DEMON LORD

The Demon Lord has definitely been a big focus for me in past F2P series, and it’s something I believe should be a key priority for all players progressing through the game. That said, it wasn’t my core focus this year. As I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to see how far I could push in Hydra, Chimera, and the Arbiter missions, with Demon Lord progress happening naturally as I worked on those areas. I believe my highest key on Nightmare was around 32M, and on UNM I managed just under 16M – falling just short of a 4 key result.

Of course, I would’ve loved to push higher in Clan Boss, and a champion like Venomage instead of Uugo would’ve made a big difference. I also wasn’t using any Poison damage or buffs like Strengthen or Increase Defence for sustain – just relying on Nazana to tank hits with Ally Protection and Guardian gear. If only I had pulled a stronger Poisoner – or even someone like Geomancer – it could’ve taken my runs to another level.

HYDRA

In regards to Hydra, I was consistently hitting top chest on Normal and gave Hard a shot during the final week. I only managed to secure the first chest on Hard, mostly due to lacking the sustain and gear needed to survive the hits. That said, the core team was solid – Shamael in a Provoke set to control Decay and counter Torment, Mad Hatter for Weaken and Hex, Uugo for Block Buffs and Decrease Defence, along with other champions for support and damage. I think having a reliable HP Burner would’ve really elevated the team.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank both the content creators and the amazing community who took part in or supported the challenge. As always, it’s been a pleasure to get involved, see all the feedback, and watch how far players can push their F2P accounts in such a short space of time. Dedicating yourself to a grind like this for three months is no small task, and I’ve genuinely been blown away by the scores across the leaderboards!

And of course, it wouldn’t be a proper wrap up without saying one last thing — TEAM QUEEN OF HEARTS TAKES THE WIN!