So I’m just looking for some basic advice/tips for new players. I have joined a fairly active guild I think so that’s good.
What I’m wondering is what should a new/free player be focused on. Should I just be unlocking all the kingdoms I can and finishing up their quest lines or should I be doing a lot of PvP and arenas? It seems like there is a fairly decent chunk of stuff to do in game but that there isn’t much explanation on how to proceed.
Any advice would be appreciated guys, thank you!
you may find this helpful 
So it’s not a good idea to level?
Level effects who you fight in pvp, so low level means easier opponents.
If you decide your going to be a long term player and play a lot, the death knight bundle is totally worth it.
Are you in a guild yet? This will help with Mana Masteries (guild ones). Also, if you’re in a casual guild (no level, gold, trophy or seal requirements) you have the opportunity to grow and learn the game at your pace. There are tons of guilds out there. If you’re interested or have more questions, you can PM me and I’ll answer what I can.
I never purposely avoided getting levels. I just did whatever I wanted to at that moment and leveled up naturally. I always find it weird that people try to do round about things to not get levels… just play the game 
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The biggest things you should know:
Join an active guild. They will have requirements, such as a minimum seals, gold, or trophy amount. This is the only way to fill up your troop collection in a span of time less than 3,000 years.
Do not spend your gems on event keys until you have a good pool of legendary troops. Do not buy any chests until you can buy in bulk (50 chests), because it saves valuable resources. When you have a lot of legendaries, start using your gems on events that have a legendary you really want. Continue usIng gem keys until you have them all (spend event keys if the weekly kingdom has a legendary you are missing when you get close), and then you will just focus on event keys for the newly added legendaries, since that’s the easiest way.
Save up for the best armor first (Dragon armor is my favorite). This will significantly help your progression.
Know what is in the chests at which time. When a new troop is added, it will be in the weekly event, in the rewards tab for glory (or legendary will be in the event chests). That is the only time you can get that troop for 4 weeks so make sure you get at least one of each pack if you can. Spend the rest of your glory on the pack that has a traitstone you really need. As soon as the event ends those troops will be unavailable to get. In exactly 4 weeks they will be moved into chests. Don’t blow your resources without knowing what troops are in the chests to avoid disappointment when you don’t find what you’re looking for (because it could be impossible).
Don’t waste your resources on mythics. They are pretty much unobtainable for any new player (or anyone that isn’t willing to spend hundreds of dollars for it). You will hopefully get them randomly with time from a lucky RNG pull.
Focus on getting your kingdom stars to 1 gold star, then try to get Whitehelm to 3 star and set it as your home kingdom for the best tribute rewards. After that I focused on Magic kingdoms. I got Zhul’kari to 5 star early-ish because it’s the easiest magic kingdom to do it with. That bonus magic will be very helpful. The other Magic kingdoms are in that area. After I maxed those I went around 3 starring all my kingdoms. This is a long term goal and you won’t be able to do this until months and months and months of playing.
Use a Valkyrie soul farming team as soon as you can (basically any blue based team with Valkyrie in it, get her traits as soon as you can). Those souls are going to be your biggest set back to forming good teams and starring your kingdoms.
Do quest lines to unlock weapons and classes… but most importantly for explore mode. Farm this for traitstones. Each kingdom has their own traitstone pool, so make sure to check your farming in the right one!
Hope that helps
Good luck!
Wow awesome reply with tons of tips! Thank you