Your first goal is not to chase one rare unit immediately. Anime Squadron rewards players who can clear waves consistently, because Story progress unlocks more resources, more upgrade pressure, and better reasons to spend Gems, Gold, Trait Shards, and gear materials. Clear the tutorial, learn where the summon area, upgrades area, traits NPC, perks menu, and crafting NPC are, then push Story until enemies start reaching your base or a boss forces repeated losses.
Use the first Story stages to learn unit roles. A damage unit kills waves, a tank or durable front unit buys time, a support or debuff unit helps difficult enemies fall before they cross the lane, and a farm or economy unit helps you place more units during a match. If you only upgrade one flashy damage unit and ignore Yen income, you can enter a stage with good damage on paper but no money to place enough units before the wave collapses. If you only chase tanks, bosses may live too long and overrun the lane.
Spend early Gems with a role checklist instead of a wish list. After each summon session, ask what the account is missing: damage, survival, support, or economy. Keep a usable unit in each role before chasing low-rate banner targets. A new player who sells or ignores every non-top unit can get stuck with a roster that looks clean but cannot cover waves, bosses, and harder acts. Save deeper optimization for later, when you can compare traits, perks, gear, and farming routes together.
Upgrade perks before you overcommit to rerolls. Max Yen and Yen Generation are the safer early account upgrades because they affect how many units you can deploy and how quickly you can afford placements in a run. Base Health matters more when harder modes punish one leak or when you are trying Squadron-style content with teammates. Gold is limited early, and even upgrades across every perk usually leave the real blocker untouched. Pick the perk that fixes your current failure: not enough placement money, too little income speed, or base deaths.
Traits work better as a later power spike after the unit is worth keeping. Trait Shards are the reroll resource, and the trait NPC can reroll both trait and sub-trait results. The mistake is spending shards on a temporary unit, then replacing that unit after the next banner pull. Roll traits when a unit is part of your team plan, not because the button is available. If an early carry hits a role-matching trait, stop and use it to push more stages before gambling again.
Gear comes after you know who deserves investment. Crafting asks for materials and Gold, and gear sets are tied to stage farming routes. Before farming a specific material, check which unit will wear the gear and whether that role is actually blocking progress. A damage set on a unit you barely place is worse than saving materials for the unit that carries boss waves. When you reach later acts, farm the act range that drops the material you need instead of replaying the easiest stage out of habit.
Use active codes as a starting boost, but avoid building the whole route around codes. Codes can give Gems or other resources when they are active, but they expire and belong in a codes page, not a beginner plan. If a code gives you summons, use them to fill team roles. If it gives reroll resources, hold them until you have a keeper unit. If it gives Gold, put it into the account upgrade that fixes the stage where you are currently failing.
When you lose a stage, read the loss before spending. If enemies leak early, you need placement timing, Yen, or a cheaper early unit. If normal waves die but the boss survives, you need more sustained damage or a better damage trait. If one leak kills the base, base health or a tank slot matters. If you cannot place your good units fast enough, economy beats another expensive damage upgrade. This keeps early progress from turning into random spending.