There are 4 ways to upgrade characters:

• Character Level
  • This is done by using Meta-Agents (also called xp mats or orbs) to raise the level of the toon. The current max is level 80. There are red, blue, green, and gray meta-agents. If you use a meta-agent whose color matches the affinity color of the character (red, blue, or green), you will get 1.5 times as much xp as you would if you used the gray material. For example, a level 1 gray material gives 30xp, but a matching color material gives 45xp. Both cost 150 green essence to apply. The savings add up when you're taking a character to a high level, sometimes differing by a couple million green essence cost.
• Gear
  • Each character has 6 gears that can be upgraded to levels 1 to 11. Unlike xp materials, there are no gray materials for gear. Energy toons need green gear, Physical toons need red gear, and Mystical toons need blue gear. Each gear is upgraded by slotting in a combination of level 1, 2, and/or 3 gear materials. To find out how many of each material you will need to get to a certain gear level, you can use the Gear Materials Calculator.
• Rank
  • Rank refers to the number of stars a character has. There’s the basic 1 to 5 stars, often called Rank 1 or Rank 5 (abbreviated R1, R5 etc.), then there are Legendary levels 1 to 5 (L1 - L5), finally, there are Rebirth levels 1 to 5 (RB1 - RB5). You can increase the rank of a toon by obtaining enough character fragments to get the next rank and by having enough green essence or legendary essence to take them there. You can use the Character Fragments Calculator to see how many shards and how much essence you need to upgrade characters.
• Abilities
  • Each of the character’s abilities can be upgraded to a max of level 8 or 9 by using a combination of green, blue, red, and white or black rings (white for heroes, black for villains). Most characters have five abilities and some only have four.

When you’re just starting out, it will be tempting to level up your characters as high as they can go, but this is not the best strategy. Instead, you should focus on gear. If you bring your character levels too high without upgrading their gear, it will throw off the balance of the game’s matchmaking for you. Below, you can find a table that shows what level you will need to be to unlock each gear level. It is advised to level up characters evenly and not let one get too far ahead in power. Generally, you should try to focus on upgrading 3-4 characters of each affinity (red, blue, green) at the same time so that you’re prepared to take on teams in PVP and R.E.D. Alerts.

Generally, you should only level them up to the level that unlocks the next gear level, then pause to gather more resources, and repeat. In the early stages, this doesn’t matter as much, so if you’re just starting out, bring them up to level 10 and get them to gear 4 (Lvl10/G4). Then bring them to Lvl15/G5 and so on, following the chart below. When you get to each milestone, park them there for a bit while you take the time to gather enough resources to make the jump to the next milestone for your 3-4 toons of each affinity. This is a long process, so don’t get discouraged if you feel like you’re stuck at a gear level for too long. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Additionally, there may be times when you want to bring a character to a level in-between gear milestones, in order to unlock the next level of one of their abilities. Most of the time, this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you do this, focus on an upgrade that would get you another buff or an extra percent chance, and ignore it if it’s just for some extra damage.

Don’t worry, just start focusing on balancing your roster and start upgrading your other toons.

Stop leveling them up and start upgrading gear. Don’t level them up again until you need to in order to unlock the next gear level.

Bring them as high as you can get them. The main bottleneck here becomes Legendary Essence (the purple stuff), so the general advice is to stop at legendary 4 (L4) since L5 costs 100,000. Save L5 for toons that really benefit from it or that you plan on rebirthing.

In the beginning, you won’t have much of a choice, but that’s ok. Try to focus on the farmable characters listed at the top of this guide or any character in the S, A, or B tier on the Character Guide. Or any character that you just really like. It doesn’t take very many resources to upgrade characters at the beginning, so don’t feel like you’re wasting anything. Once you get a feel for how you like to play, it will start to come together naturally.

Legendary points are awarded when you bring up a character to a legendary level - you get one point for each level, 1-5. You can only spend the points on the character you leveled up. On the Character Guide, you will see a Legendary Order that suggests the order in which you should spend these points on each character. If you see a ] in the order, that denotes the legendary level where the toon has everything it needs to be a viable contender, after that it’s just gravy. A / in the order means those two powers can be swapped, depending on your preference.

If you plan on using the character, level up their abilities as high as you can for your level. If the character has 4 skills (2 with 9 levels and 2 with 8 levels) then they will need a total of 118 green, 108 blue, 44 red, and 12 white/black rings to fully upgrade every ability. If a character has 5 skills (2 with 9 levels and 3 with 8 levels) they will need 147 green, 135 blue, 55 red, and 15 white/black rings to fully upgrade every ability. This is very costly, so if you’re trying to conserve rings, the best advice is to level up the power if it would get you another buff or an extra percent chance, and ignore it if it’s just for some extra damage.

This is the main bottleneck for upgrading toons when you are starting out and it will feel like you will never have enough. You can get green rings from the 2 ring Upgrade Events each week, from playing the last node of each normal story chapter, from login bonuses, and from completing daily missions. DO NO BUY RINGS FROM THE SHOP. Sorry for yelling, it’s just a big waste of precious gems, which are much harder to get.

Skins do not affect any gameplay stats whatsoever. They are purely cosmetic. Currently, they can occasionally be purchased from the store or earned by placing in the top 500 during raids.