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Marvel SNAP Progression
Welcome to Marvel Snap! 🫰🏾
Below is a quick overview of activities a new player - or returning player that needs a refresher - will experience after they've downloaded Marvel Snap.
First, players are given the option to make an account or play without one. It’s highly suggested you link your account so progress is saved in the event something happens to your device/PC. After you log in for the first time, you will team-up with Nick Fury to stop the nefarious Doctor Doom in a tutorial battle. The basics of the game are explained in this tutorial which should take just a couple of minutes. Once completed, you will be given access to the starter deck you used in the tutorial along with a couple of other starter cards. You are also prompted to give yourself an in-game handle. At this point, you will play against bots to familiarize yourself with Snap further. Please note: bots are still present in the live environment, just in a much lower percentage
Completing missions awards you credits which - along with the boosters collected while playing matches of Marvel Snap - are used to upgrade your unlocked cards. This is the main gameplay loop of Snap and the way you will progress up the collection track as you grow your collection (CL). [See: How to Acquire Boosters & Acquiring and Using Credits Optimally]
What is "progression" and why do we need a wiki page for it?
- For the purposes of this guide: "progression is how a player chooses to grow their account (through play & pay)." As of the writing of this guide, there are currently 104 series 3 cards (with more added every time there is a 'series drop'). Players aware of commonly found cards in archetypes that they share a profile with (see list below) will generally have an easier “progression curve” than most single meta/OP card could ever provide (of course there are exceptions to any rule).
What type of spender are you?
Spending money on Snap is as much about your choice as it is about your ability to pay. While spending does effectively speed up progression do not feel like you are falling behind by not buying the Season Pass or Bundles even. Since we collect at roughly the same speed the people you face on ladder in the early game have different collections based on contents, but not so much size.
- Free-to-Play (F2P)
- Pass ($10 per season)
- Pass+ ($10+bundles per season)
What type of player are you?
You can be a mixture of types, but generally, a player will gravitate towards one style of play more than others.
- Casual (Missions mostly, low-to-no Conquest; 0-3 hrs per week)
- Min/Max (Completes all missions, plays Conquest for all relevant rewards, participates in ‘outside events’; 1-3 hrs per day)
- Competitive (Min/Max but also cares about “playing the strongest deck always”; until the session is done)
- Less a progression profile and more a 'state-of-mind'
Additional Player-types
Mark Rosewater from Magic the Gathering created the following 3 player profiles: A Casual or Min/Max player can fall under any of these 3 psychographic models
- Timmy: This player wants to win but in a big flashy way.
- Johnny: Prefers to "win in their own way." They derive most fun from coming up with an idea and then getting it to work. A loss only means the idea was bad.
- Spike: Tournament/Power Gamer that likes to win-at-all-costs.
Marvel Snap - Player Profiles
Casual & F2P
This player logs on every few days to every day, completes missions, and is generally in the game to have a good time and vibe. Wins may come infrequently, but since you play so seldomly a loss or win streak isn’t something to be too hung up over. “You just play to play.”
Casual & Pass
You are just as casual as a F2P player it’s just you recognize good value when you see it. The Marvel Snap Season Pass has been the de facto best way to spend money on Snap since its global launch. Not only does it give you exclusive cosmetics, but also additional gold. It's a bonus to also get to play with a new card for a month before it’s added to the general rotation.
Casual & Pass+
Like your other casual brethren, you’re here to vibe. The thing is you have some disposable income that you feel the developers have earned. You buy bundles, gold from the shop, attend all the Twitch streams, and interact on Discord. You are a Snap Casual+.
Min/Max & F2P
Winning is your first priority. Why else would you play a competitive game otherwise? You care about getting everything you can, but whether it's by choice or necessity - you don't pay to play. *Consider also looking into tracking your spotlight progress: Spotlight System and Keys
Min/Max & Pass
Winning two ways! Maximizing value means sometimes paying a little bit to get access to additional rewards beyond what is typically available. You're not so loose with your money that you'll buy every bundle, but the pass (card, gold, cosmetics) is too hard to pass up - even if the card ends up being mediocre.
Min/Max & Pass+
Everything about the pass buyer above is also true here - you just also spend more than is needed because reasons. Money is freely given to things that make you happy, but even as a spender, you're not willy-nilly wasting your gains. "A spender but not a waster.”
How to progress through the Early, Mid, and End-games.
Progression in Snap is not always a straight path. To offer my own anecdote, I started out playing Collector+Dino decks - going so far as to spend my first 2400 F2P gold on 2 Super Rare variants - only to fall in love with an entirely different archetype the next month. That’s not to say that I missed out by focusing on Collector, but I know others might not see it that way. In the end, this experience helped me define what I wanted my end-game to be: New cards that fit in decks I enjoy and/or art for cards I play heavily. I found that progressing through the collection track is not as simple as earning credits, upgrading cards - open new cards. Gold, Credits (and Keys), Tokens, all work side-by-side with your Rank toward growing your account in a meaningful way.
If getting to 100% card completion is your end-game: focusing on min/max strategies should be your goal. If you are interested in also gaining higher ladder ranks then following competitive players on social media, and coming into the Discord’s advice channels and reading the wiki for more nuanced aspects of Snap is required (eg: you need to min/max not only your account but also yourself). Conversely, you can also "skip the bad cards for good art." The spotlight system can seem like a gamble but with planning and patience it can cater to players of any spending level.
With all this mentioned - Knowing the type of player you are will assist in how you will progress your account
Progression (Intro & Early game)
Collection Levels: Start to end of Series 2
Your first few seasons of Snap will be spent gaining collection levels and moving through the first series (pool) of cards and into the second. At this stage (from CL 1-200 credits will almost seem too plentiful; continue to use credits optimally (per the guide linked above) as that "newbie boost" will soon dry out. Please note: Achieving Infinite rank (100+) during the early portions of your collection level will matchmake you with "collection complete" players. While frustrating to lose to more advanced cards - any games played rank 100+ do not affect progression and so is outside the scope of this guide. The idea of progression through S1 is to learn the basics of snapping and retreating. Learning how to optimize your credits spent to move efficiently up the collection track should also be a focus.
Progression (Early to Mid-game)
Collection Levels: End of Series 2 to 1,500
By the end of Series 2, you're already on your way to being a Grandmaster of Snap - you get enough credits per day to open 1 (and sometimes 2) caches, and you see those "gold boxes" on the horizon. Congrats! You've made it past Snap's onboarding and will be soon in the end-game. Players should now have a solid understanding of game mechanics, and deck types (as well as the cadence the developers at Second Dinner like to adjust cards at). At around Collection Level 450, it's a good idea to start thinking of which series 3 card you will be picking up as you move into that pool. Please note: Players receive one free series 3 card per season. If you enter pool 3 in the last 1-2 days of the season choosing "a good card" is better progression-wise than waiting for "the perfect card.”
Progression (Mid to End-game)
Collection Levels: 1,500 to 5,000
By the time you are 1500CL, you should have roughly 2 to 3 reliable "deck shells" that you can build on. This goes for both Casual & Min/Max players, though a more focused player may be able to build 4+ (with a little luck and a lot of focus). Knowing what you like or want to play will help narrow down the player roads you'll want to travel. Please note: The meta shifts faster in Snap than in most other games. A card that was once used in "a Negative shell" may soon find itself in "a Galactus shell". Just as well a *Spike card* may soon fall out of favor with the competitive crowd because of a balance patch but conversely be picked up by *Johnny*.
Cards/Synergies to progress towards:
There is some room for deck building with the season pass and Series 1-2 cards, but that's better left for the chat channels.
S3+:
- Timmy:
- Johnny:
- F2P: Negative, Move (Phoenix Force), Beast+Falcon
- Pass/Pass+: Cerebro, Pixie, "Spotlight Card(s)"
- Spike:
Additional Resources
About this article
This article was written by several contributors from the Marvel SNAP’s Official Discord Wiki Team. The Wiki Team is a group of community members who work on and contribute articles to Marvel SNAP’s Discord Wiki. Learn more about this program.
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