MPQ: How to Make the Most of Your Time in Marvel Puzzle Quest

For the uninitiated, Marvel Puzzle Quest is a "match 3" mobile game in the line of Bejeweled (or Candy Crush) but with two notable twists. The first is the addition of "powers" which change the gameplay or gameboard as well as providing a competitive defeat-your-opponent (rather than "the board") objective. The second is the addition of Marvel heroes and villains as placeholders of the various powers, attached to hit points that determine whether you win or lose.

This is not a review of that game (or an advertisement for it), but rather my thoughts on how to make the most of the game as quickly as possible. I like systems and procedures to streamline complicated experiences, and MPQ lends itself well to that.

1. Hero Prioritization:

1. General Notes: It will be tempting to start collecting higher-star covers (heroes) as soon as possible, but don't add heroes to your roster until you've completed your collection for the tiers two below. (As an example, don't bother adding four-star heroes until you've completed collecting the three one-stars you need and all of the two-star heroes.)
2. One-Star Heroes: Snag Spiderman, Storm, and Iron Man and level them up to 50 as soon as possible. Sell off any other one-star heroes you gain access to. When you get additional covers for the first three, use them to "upgrade" your existing heroes even when they're at max level. This will give you +10xp per upgrade. Overtime, this will be of greater value to you than the 100 iso. (Eventually, you'll go back to selling them off, but early Shield Levels, the product of that xp, are worth more iso.)
3. Two-Star Heroes: Collect all of them! When you've got them all up to level 94 and are starting to upgrade the champion levels, get a second set of Storm, Magneto, and Hawkeye. Leave one of these sets at max level at all times. With all of the other two-stars, as you hit max champion level, wait until you get a new cover for that hero (one that you "can't" use) then sell off the champion with all of his upgrades and covers and re-recruit him with the unused cover. By "cycling" the two-star heroes in this way, you'll always have what you need for specific events (like the Deadpool Daily) and you'll also have a constant source of hero coins, heroic tokens, and three-star covers. While this process may seem iso-8 intensive, the other rewards more than outweigh the costs.
4. Three-Star Heroes: Collect all of them! The three-stars are much more useful for non-specific events than the two-stars; do not cycle them in the same way as the two-stars. Earn all of the three star covers you need, get them to champion levels, max out the champion levels, and then get a second of the same hero and repeat the process. Only when you've maxed out the second hero should you sell off one of them and repeat the process. Again, this is an opportunity to earn hero coins, heroic tokens, and four-star covers.
5. Four-Star Heroes: Collect all of them! The four-stars are the bread-and-butter of the game--the heavy lifters who offer most of the unique game-play options. They will also be the (second) most expensive (iso-8-wise) to level up to champion level and the (second) hardest to get covers for. Bottom line: prioritize heroes you have covers for. When you get 13 covers for a hero you possess, start making progress toward champion level. Do whatever you can to get heroes to champion level as quickly as possible so that future covers are put to use as bonuses (rather than sitting in storage or being lost).
6. Five-Star Heroes: Everyone wants five-stars. They are the best heroes in the game and when fully upgraded a team of them can demolish almost any opponent with ease. These are the only heroes that are an understandable reason to pass up a 3- or 4-star hero. Eventually, of course, it's important to have room for all of them, but like the other groups there are a lot of them. When you get one with a few covers (that you like the gameplay style of) toss the bonus star on 'em so that you can accelerate the process of maxing 'em out.

2. Currency Management:

1. Iso-8: This is the "standard" or basic currency that can be earned for almost every activity in the game. It is used to level-up standard heroes; prioritize its use on heroes you can achieve maximum level on and upgrade to "champion" status. This may sound counter-intuitive, but prioritize lower-star rated heroes first. The cost is less up front and the champ-level rewards are worthwhile. This is the cleanest way to avoid "wasting" covers or having to sell hero covers for more iso.
2. Hero Coins: This is the good stuff, the currency you want to use on exactly the right things to avoid running out. This is definitely the currency the game wants you to use up quickly and pay more real-world money for. Use it on roster slots ONLY until you no longer have heroes left you want to recruit! This is incredibly important as the best/easiest way to get more hero coins is to level up champion-level characters with more covers--and the fastest and easiest way to do that is to have as many characters as possible. Only after you have achieved a greater than maximum roster (see above) you can use the hero coins to gamble on more covers. Do this sparingly: never pay more than 100 hero coins for a chance at another cover. Usually, the first hero coin expenditure of the day costs 100 coins for a given event. After that, the price spikes. Just be patient; you'll burn through those coins soon enough even at the rate of 100 per event per day!
3. Command Points: These were added after the game started picking up steam and they're a great way for a new player to "catch up" to existing players. The game wants you to spend your command points in blocks of 25 on "new legendary tokens." This is always a scam. Use your command points to unlock covers of your 3-star heroes until all of your 3-star heroes are at champion level. Similarly, if you're low on hero coins when you have maxed out your 3-stars (that is, you don't have a ton of 4-star heroes and you don't have hero coins to buy more roster slots) use the command points to boost your existing 4-stars toward champion level status. Once you reach maximum roster saturation, then you can use the command points (in blocks of 20) to purchase a standard legendary token which might yield you a 5-star (the ultimate goal) or which more likely will give you a random 4-star cover (which, since you have maxed your roster, won't go to waste!).
4. Red Iso: This is the newest currency and goes with the new "support" system. Supports are fun--and can be very powerful--but the bottom line is to use them however you wish. I have little advice for these because supports are not easy to come by (especially powerful ones) without spending real-world money. They don't work in any versus events, they often only work a percentage of the time, and they take a lot of red iso to level up to max level. Enjoy your supports, but don't worry about them. Make sure you put the supports you have to work on the characters you use most often.  
5. Deadpool Daily: If you do nothing else, get used to doing the six missions in the Deadpool Daily. Early on, you'll only be able to do the first mission, then the first three. Eventually, you'll be able to do all six missions (and occasionally make use of the seventh, offered every five days). With the right line-ups, this takes around fifteen minutes of time to play all six or seven missions.
• Early Team (2-star): Early on, the team of 2-star Magneto, Storm, and Hawkeye is a very effective set. Prioritize purple and blue (and then red) to use Magneto's purple to make 5-matches of blue (for Hawkeye's passive and Storm's blue ability).
• Mid-Level Team: There are a lot of ways to arrange three-stars; check out other internet guides for the heroes you enjoy playing! For the Deadpool Daily, you will want to have either 5- or 3-star Thanos leveled up as quickly as possible for missions five and six; being able to down one opponent and have Thanos's Court Death ability clean up the rest of the field is a huge time saver! As soon as you have a 3-star Deadpool, make sure that you bring him on at least one mission a day to get the "Deadpool Points." The ability to drop "all the whales" (see his purple ability for details) can help you win particularly difficult fights in a pinch, but you'll need Deadpool Points to do that.
• High Level Team: When available, take 5-star Black Bolt alongside Thanos (and maybe 3-star Deadpool) for the upper level Daily missions. His passive Channel Energy ability will help down that first opponent fast, making even quicker use of Thanos's passive black ability.