RAID: Shadow Legends Shards are the absolute Store of Value in the game. This is the real currency of Fusion/Guaranteed Champ Events and can eventually help you unlock everything in the game.
But do you know how to obtain shards passively, and the best ways to spend them effectively yet?
Diamond Hands simply means you can hold off opening Shards until the best time for your Account.
Same thing with real life, you sell an asset when you reach the moment that gets you the best benefit. And because RAID and Real Life have so much in common, the key to obtain Shards, and to Diamond Hands them is undeniably: Income.
How to Obtain RAID: Shadow Legends Shards Passively
The one true source of “Income” in Raid is the Gem Mine.
You Gem out Masteries for your Starter first (800 Gems) then you max out Gem Mine (1500 Gems).
Take advantage of the Gem Mine’s best feature: 500 Gems a month (roughly). By your first three months, you have made back your initial 1500 Gem Investment and have transformed it into 500 Gems a month of Income.
If you play till Scyl of the Drakes (6 months) then you will have an extra 1500 Gems by then.
The Game is played out over months and should culminate for you in about a Year. Ignore all the talk of buying Ancient Shard Packs with Gems. You want Gem Mine, Market Slots, and Sparring Pit Slots (lv1 Only).
Gems can be the flexible long-term store of value for you. Cash them in for Ancient Shards to finish Summon Events and Energy Refills/XP Banners for Gear and Event Points.
How to Save & Spend Shards Effectively
Saving Shards = Progression – Luck
The main reason to pull Shards in this Game is the hope that a Champ can help us Progress our Accounts. This could mean a multitude of things depending on where you’re at in the Game.
But I am here to tell you right now that when you first start out playing Raid, there is only 1 Role that you will need some Luck early in the Game in to fill (Dec Attack).
If you follow my Team Building Guide, then you will need to fill 7 Roles in the Midgame to get some decent all-around Progression. This is where the F2P Trinity comes in which fills the First 3 Roles practically for Free.
Follow this plan and you will be set to farm Mino 15, Dragons 16-20, Ice Golem 13-16, Fire Knight/Spiders 11-13, and 2-3 Key Brutal Clan Boss.
This will set you up nicely for the Midgame where you can start saving up for Fusion Events.
The Real Value of Shards
7 Roles to Fill with 6-star Champs with Masteries
Nuker/Campaign Farmer (F2P Trinity Starter)
There is no Bad Starter and your Starter tethers you to the Game initially. The main Role of your Starter is to Farm Campaign and get 6* Champs to take on Dungeons. All the Starters deal a lot of AoE Damage and will be your first Nuker in Arena and Dungeons.
AoE Dec Def (F2P Trinity Warmaiden)
Warmaiden is the first Farmable Rare you will go for Early Game. Farm up multiple Copies to use as Books and use your Duplicate Berserkers as Faction Guardians for Rare Barbarians. Warmaiden gives 100% AoE Dec Def which will soften up Enemy Waves shortening your Run Times Early in the Game. Warmaiden also provides solid Damage with her AoE and Single Target Moves including a chance to place a Small Poison on her A1 for Boss Fights. Any replacement here must pass the Warmaiden Test: Can you get 100% Chance to Place Dec Def AoE? What do you get other than Damage?
Speed Booster (F2P Trinity High Khatun)
The first Free Speed Booster you will receive is High Khatun as a Day 30 Log-in Reward. Before you get High Khatun you can use Diabolist as a Farmable Rare for the same Role. If you get Apothecary here he is a shoe-in. High Khatun Vs Apothecary has been played out by now but here is the short version: High Khatun is great for Arena while also bringing Dec Speed and Dec Turn Meter for Dungeon Bosses. Apothecary bring Healing on top his Speed Boosting and a 3-hit A1 that can be scaled to Solo Builds with Toxic Set. There is a good chance you will need to 6* Both at some point. The only other “Speed Boosters” to consider here would be Inc Speed Auras that are higher than High Khatun’s +19%.
Dec Attack
This Role is the fastest way to access Nightmare Clan Boss. While it requires a Lucky Shard Pull, there are so many available Rares/Epics that perform this Role now it should be almost guaranteed. Dec Attack will allow you to 2 or 3 Key Brutal Clan Boss. Brutal Clan Boss Chests can Reward you highly valuable Void Shards.
Carry/Control
Carry Champ can either Revive fallen Allies or Mitigate incoming Damage with Buffs or Healing. Control Champs prevent Enemy Waves from doing their Skills with Controling Debuffs like Provoke, Stun or Block Active Skills. The Goal is to have your Team Survive the Waves and make it to the Boss Fight. A Rare like Gnarlhorn can be Scaled up to Dragons 20. Your goal early should be to Farm up Broadmaw from Tag Team Arena Bazaar to be your first Carry Champ. The Carry/Control Champ must be capable of getting your Team through Mino 15 and Dragons 16 then be able to scale up to Dragons 20. Broadmaw can Scale up to Dragons 20 without Luck. Can your Carry/Control Champ be Scaled up to Dragons 20? If the answer is no, stick with Broadmaw. If you are dying at the Waves this is the Role you will need to look at.
Dec Turn Meter
Spiders and Fire Knight is basically impossible without this Role. This begins and ends with Armiger. Yes you can pull Coldheart or Alure but you will want Armiger almost immediately to Book out with Dupes and at least keep at 50. The main drawback is the Stats for an Uncommon Champ: You want 100% Crit Rate, 200+ Accuracy, and 170+ Speed. Hard to come by early in the game but possible with some creative Campaign Farming for Crit Rate Gloves in Accuracy Set. Armiger brings Enemy Max HP Damage and Block Revive on the A2 which will come in handy in various Boss Fights in Raid.
Poison/Boss Killer
This Role is the reason why Kael is the best starter because he can triple up as Campaign Farmer, AoE Nuker, and Boss Killer. The main question to answer here is can your Boss Killer Champ be scaled up to beat Dragons 20? If you are dying at the Boss Fight this is the Role to examine.
Gear: Stat Thresholds Vs Your Ideal Stats
One of the biggest complaints new players have about the game is that they feel the Artifact (Gear) Stats needed to finish Content is somehow beyond their reach because of the Arena.
We are going to dispel that theory today with simple Stat Thresholds and Builds that anybody can achieve with some humble Campaign Gear and some Dragons 16 Farming.
The first thing you will need to do is the Boss Killer Build.
HP% Gloves/Chest and Speed Boots. Building your Champs this way at first will grant you the most Power for the Cost.
The simple combination of the Offense Mastery Warmaster and Lifesteal Set will keep your main Damage Dealers alive throughout the Early Boss Fights of Mino 15 and Dragons 16-20. If you need Speed you build Speed Sets.
If you need Accuracy you build Accuracy Set.
Perception Set gives you both Stats. High HP and decent Speed means you will have a resilient Team that can take Hits, Heal, then shrug off Debuffs by taking more Turns than Enemy Waves and Boss Fights.
Mino 15/Dragons 16 Stat Thresholds
- Speed: 171-179 (Speed Booster 200+)
- Accuracy: 150+ (Debuffers)
- HP: 30-40k
- Lifesteal Set+Speed/Accuracy/Perception (Debuffer)
- Speeds Setx3 (Speed Booster/Carry Champ)
Notice that there isn’t any Crit Rate in this list. You always build Fast and Tough at first (Speed Threshold then high HP).
This build is guaranteed to Farm Mino 15 and Dragons 16. You can Build Damage later on when your Gear gets better by Farming Dragons 16.
The easiest source of Power to Unlock from Champs is getting to lv60 and getting Full Masteries. You will need to watch your Runs here and make sure your Boss Killers of the F2P Trinity (Starter & Warmaiden) make it to the Boss. It could be as easy as just giving them a little bit more HP than the rest of your Team so they stay alive the longest which is why that HP is a sliding scale from 30k-40k.
Dragons 20 Stat Thresholds
- Accuracy 200+ (Debuffers)
- HP 40k+ (50k+ Carry Champ)
Once you’re Farming Dragons 16 you will need to scale up 2 important Stats for Dragons 20: Accuracy and HP.
The Goal is to Farm Dragons 20 at about 90+% Success Rates.
Observe your Runs to know what to fix.
Dying at the Waves means your Carry/Control Champ is not doing their Role.
For Control Champs you need to look at the Accuracy (200+) then the %Chance to land the Control Debuffs. 100% Chance to Place is almost Mandatory for a Pure Control Role so Books can help here.
The Carry Champ just needs to Survive long enough to preserve most of your Team through the Waves for the Boss Fight. If the Waves end up targeting your Carry Champ first then he just needs more HP.
If the Carry Champ Skills are on Cooldown too much then look into Books or increasing the Speed to 200+.
Road to Dungeons 20
The math on this has already been played out but to recap: Event Points per Energy is best in Stage 11, 16, 20 and 24. Stage 20 is the best for Points & Silver, while still getting some of the best Endgame Gear.
I argue going for Stage 13 if you can because you can have some Luck with Endgame Gear there for a bit less efficiency on Points and Silver.
You want to Farm 16 or 20 as fast as possible to save Gems on the Fusion Events.
Ice Golem
You can get to Ice Golem 16 & 20 with All Free Champs No Legendaries. It’s the same Formula as your Dragons Team.
The main consideration will be Run Times and Failure Rates. For Ice Golem 16 your Dragons 20 Team will do well here if you went the Broadmaw or Carry Route.
If you went the Control Route for Dragons 20 then you will be introducing a larger Failure Rate at Ice Golem 16 so you might be stuck farming 11/13 instead for Event Points.
To be able to Farm 20 at a decent Run Time you will need to have both a Control and Carry Champ to get through the Waves healthy enough to avoid wiping at the Boss Fight.
Fire Knight
Fire Knight 16 with All Free Champs is possible right before you pull Scyl of the Drakes. Pushing Fire Knight 20 with the same Team is possible but it’s mostly for Farming 16.
For most people you will start out in Fire Knight 8 or 11 and you will only be able to scale up to 13 once you find a way to consistently break the Fire Knight Shield.
You want at least 10 Hits between your five A1’s to consistently do this on Auto. 16-20 is all about breaking that Fire Knight Shield so something like Reflect,
Ally Attack, and Counterattack will be mandatory if you don’t pull Coldheart or Alure early enough.
The second key ingredient of a Fire Knight Team is your Win Condition and you can have either Dec Healing here or Dec Turn Meter. Again Coldheart does both.
You will be building Dec Turn Meter here with Armiger being the first one and you will need multiples of this role to scale up to 20.
Spiders
Spiders is played in Three Phases. Phase One is Stage 1-13 which is just straight AoE Nukes to Control the Spiderlings.
F2P Trinity with Armiger should be enough to get you to Stage 11. You will need another AoE Nuker to comfortably Auto 13. Phase Two is Stage 14-15 which you want to beat it once to get to a Farmable Stage 16 Team.
Phase Three is where it gets hairy. Stage 16-20 you will need to have one of four Endgame Spiders Team. AoE HP Burn, Shields Based on AoE Damage, Team Counterattack, and All Enemy Max HP Damage. This is why I recommend keeping Zephyr Sniper and booking her out with Dupes because you will need a Spiderling Tank at this point.
A second Dec Turn Meter Champ would also be needed here regardless of the type of Endgame Comp you pick. This is why Coldheart is sought after.
There is a hidden mechanic that I have personally used to finish Spiders 20 Once Upon a Time: Warmaster Spam. This is actually a lot easier to pull off now with Grush and Scyl of the Drakes.
Why Saving Shards and Wait?
Knowing is half the battle. One of the main reasons people are hungry to Pull to Zero is they want Progression now but the reality is with so many amazing Free Champs in the Game there is almost no reason to rush anymore.
Raid is a Game played over Time.
Whether you payed tens of thousands of dollars or zero money, everyone pays with Time in this Game.
Use this to your advantage by saving your Shards for actual Game-changing Fusion or Guaranteed Champ Events.
This handy list will tell you exactly what you get and a great approximation of how long it will take.
- 30 Days – Speed Booster/Arena Speed Lead (High Khatun)
- 120 Days – Arena Nuker (Dark Elhain)
- 120-150 Days – Control (Normal Doom Tower Fragments for Archmage Hellmut)
- 150 Days – Team Reflect for Fire Knight 16-20 (Lordly Legionary)
- 150-200 Days – AoE HP Burn/Spiderling Tank for Spiders 20 (100 Fragments for Drexthar Bloodtwin)
- 180 Days – Carry for Stage 20 Dungeons (Scyl of the Drakes)
- 240 Days – Carry/Healer (Grush the Mangler)
- 270 Days – AoE Dec Speed (Visix the Unbowed)
- 100-300 Days – Best Arena Speed Lead (Missions for Arbiter)
- 100-300 Days – AoE Deplete Turn Meter/Dec Def Weaken (Rhazin Scarhide)
- 200-365 Days – AoE Dec Def/Weaken (Faction Wars for Lydia the Deathsiren)
Conclusion
The reality is you can be participating in Fusion Event as early as Day 60-90. I think as a completely New Player that puts in the time to learn the Game Mechanics you can be ready to take on Fusion Events by Day 120.
Once you start playing in Fusion Events, you will be pulling Shards for those Events which means there will always be room for Luck to happen playing this style.
Even if you skip Champs you don’t like, you will eventually end up with a Roster than can Finish Arbiter Missions, Complete Faction Wars, Clear Hard Doom Tower 120, and Farm 2-3 Key UNM Clan Boss.