I am a newbie. Level 115 I think. Really enjoying the game. Just doing Kingdoms currently with a bit of PVP. In what seems to be a decent guild (so that no doubt helps progression) and haven’t hit any level/difficulty spikes as yet. As an oldie (almost 40) I have found this to be one of the most newbie friendly games I have ever played, without money spend. And these forums are terrific. And the Krudler videos have been a great help, as well as a few others out there.
Just my two pence.
I doubt you have any difficulty spikes honestly. The game is super easy. The problem is that you’re going to plateau eventually and then the game’s ease becomes a source of frustrating repetition.
And in the interest of full disclosure I was either not in a guild at all or in a nonproductive guild for pretty much all of my first 750 levels. It didn’t prevent me from hitting the proverbial end-game wall. Progression in this game is almost impossible to avoid, it’s so easy.
I am on console, and I’m a newer, low level (currently 27), entirely F2Player, and while I agree with OP, I must say that GoW can be quite rewarding, even for one that is new to the game.
Briefly, for me, I decided to endeavor in this F2P experience, sans guild and sans PVP, acquiring most of the required resources via Treasure Maps, by way of Tyri.
Been at it for roughly two weeks, and I have a decent deck and resource pool. Included are 300+ Gems, 256 Glory Keys, 45 Gem Keys, 90 Treasure Maps, various Arcane Traitstones and a few Celestials as of this post. This is after I purchased two of the desired armors from the shop.
I did have some garbage drops from chests, but I do have a few nice Epics, like Marilith and Green Seer. Plus, my Bonnie Rose(s) is fully traited and Mythic.
Oh, and I decided to drop the 675 gems for 50 Event Chests, as I really wanted a Kraken. Got five.
Basically, my favorite part of GoW, aside from the epic music and awesome troop art, is the Treasure Map mini game, and doing them has netted me all of the above witout the assistance of a Guild, or even participation in PVP or Arena.
My least favorite part of GoW is the Treasure Map music and the freaking RNG.
Said this compulsive gambler.
Sticking with the game can be rewarding is all, though I do realize that perhaps I am playing it rather unconventionally.
Did a dev seriously just say the game is supposed to be set to cheat in the human’s favor? With a straight face?
Because y’know, everytime I play on PS4 anymore, the AI seems to pretty miraculously pull 4-5 matches, skulls, and power usages that benefit IT 97% of the time like it’s nothing…whereas the only way I manage to pull them is through power usage, and even then only when it actually helps me roughly 1/3 of the time I use it…the other 2/3, it’s like “Yeah, you got 6 mana, and you left like four 4 matches for the AI. You’re boned!”
They have made this abundantly clear on more than one occasion. It is no secret the AI cheats in favor of the human.
Yes, confirmed, for the early levels.
So then it stops at some point, yes? She makes it sound like it does this all the time, which…yeah, I would call some major shennanigans on a claim like that. If anything, the AI has gotten worse at getting “lucky”, as the devs put it, constantly and consistently pulling off what I like to call “miracle” turns pretty much every round.
Guess that’s because I got up past 150!
Just thank you for saying that man, a kind word is soooo appreciated 
I feel like you’re talking about something really important especially for newcomers. I’m not going to lie, when I started I didn’t bother with the Guild. I saw the Guild button, I got triggered from all the unpleasantness I’ve dealt with from other Guilds over the years and just said “nah pass”.
In retrospect it was a horrible move that retarded the progression of my game by several hundred hours, but nowhere, nowhere is it even hinted at as to what a profound difference the game experience can be when you are part of a guild.
Perhaps I’m getting carried away, but would it be all that inappropriate to just have players part of some “default” and guild if they don’t explore beyond that ever, at least they’re not cut-out of the benefits?
Just talking. Can’t seem to stop yapping lately lmao
Yes… they’ve said this. It’s an “Alternative Fact”
Agree mate, or at least a tutorial explaining why you should join and that PvP isn’t real-time against other players. I didn’t bother with PvP or guilds for the first hundred levels because I thought it was real time and couldn’t be bothered with that
I 100% agree with you. I spent the largest portion of my first 500 levels without a guild. And now that I’m nearing level 1200 and pretty much as broke as any new player, I REALLY regret it.
I honestly think that having soul gain attached to specific troops is ass backwards. Especially as more troops are created, it will become harder to get the very few that actually gives souls. Also you might just forget about progression without them. Arena is long, and difficult as new player. And maps are not all that common when you start.
I mentioned this idea our discord of having a troop that was a “captain”, selected in the banner screen. It would specify one of your 4 troops that when their ability is cast would give you 10 souls.
ATM one match with a soul generator is 10 times as good as one without. Also, if you open The Dragon Soul you literally progress 5 times as fast as anyone else…but if you don’t…its painfully slow.
I’m not trying to be over critical, I love this game, but I would love to see this part of the game re-thought. As more troops are added more souls are needed, soul generation is going to be a big deal for 90% of the player base.
The one player weapon that gives souls can only be used once you hit what…250? that is too late imo, at the very least it should be a quest reward similar to Runic Blade.
I agree, I don’t like the way that soul gain is attached to troops.
My take on this, from months ago:
They’ve addressed this by adding a few more soul generators, which is better than it was, but still not really ideal.
For the new/early game players reading this thread, be aware that there is one difficulty spike. It hits around level 200 when you stop getting sheltered from end-gamers in PvP, so a lot more of your 3-trophy matches are going to be end-gamers with double or triple the Kingdom bonuses and full traited Mythic top 10 meta PvP defences.
If you find yourself not winning as much at this point, don’t despair. Get yourself one or more teams that are heavy on board control and looping turns to get through this period until you too have all the Kingdom bonuses and traits to power your OP high speed PvP crusher. 
There is no cheating for humans on ps4…and if there is…theres equal or more for ai.
The ai rains cascades for days and days on the ps4. I had a match the other day…i set my controller down for like 7 minutes and just watched the ai go and go
It was really bad last night. Omg i did the same thing.