Character/Toon Starter Notes For SWGOH.
Which Given Freely. Which Found. Which To Focus On.

Introduction

These are notes regarding Star Wars Galaxy Of Heroes game characters/Toon when starting to mid-way through the game.  This is a guide, but not a how-to step by step article.  It's meant to provide the most impact and most information in the least amount of reading and thus time usage. This should save you many months of time, and avoid many mistakes on building characters that are less overall useful. 

Research involved reading a large number of forum posts that ranged from outdated and/or incorrect info to useful but super long info.  Research also involved lots of video watching hours and a week of game play (3 to 6 months for some).  Tons of searching and filtering of data.

The work (including research) and creation of this article probably took 36 hours or more.  That's 2 and half weeks for a person putting 2 hours on it each day.  If you are putting 2 hours only on weekends, then that is 4 and a half months.  At some point I lost track of the hours. 

Let me know in Comments below if something should be added and details on why or for what.

 

My SWGOH Notes

Toons That Will Be Given For FREE or I Got Free.

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• Chewbacca (Given for free at start of game to everyone).
• Clone Sergeant - Phase 1 (Given for free at start of game to everyone, and also at level 48 in Fleet Commander Training).
• Jedi Consular (Given for free at start of game to everyone).
• Luke Skywalker Farmboy (Given for free once you reach level 4. Starts as 3 star).
• Royal Guard (Given for free once you reach level 7. Starts as 1 star).
• Ewok Scout  (Given for free once you reach level 6 or 7. Starts as 1 star).
• Talia (Given for free once you reach level 10. Starts as 3 star).
• Grand Moff Tarkin (freely given at level 42 as part of Battelship training. starts aa 4 star).
• Geonosian Soldier (at level 45, as part of Fleet Commander Training exercise).
• Mace Windu (a portion of shards gotten early game and remaining shards given at level 54 as part of Tier 3 Fleet Commander Training exercise; given freely to everyone; starts at 4 start character; people consider him as a Tier 3 or Tier 4 character, but my impression is that SWGOH game gives image clues that he is much more and to be use as a primary team member).
• Admiral Ackbar (freely gotten once you are level 54 and completed Tier 3 of Fleet Commander Training; starts as 4 start character).
• First Order TIE Pilot (freely given at level 56 as part of Fleet Commander Training; starts aa 1 star).
• Darth Vader (freely unlocked/given through achievements; gotten about level 57; starts as 4 star).
• Emperor Palpatine (freely unlocked/given in an event for 7 stars).
• Han Solo (freely unlocked/given through guild team raid events via time).
• General Kenobi (freely unlocked/given through guild team raid events via time).
  
  
• Home One (Light Side Capital Ship, & Rebel; Given free to everyone in middle of game, but won't be able to activate it until level 54 once you get Admiral Akbar for free too; ship starts as 1 star).
• Executrix (Dark Side Capital Ship, & Empire;  Given free to everyone in middle of game).
• Geonosian Soldier Starfighter (spaceship freely given to all at level 45, as part of Fleet Commander Training exercise).
• Clone Sergeant's ARC-170 (spaceship of Light Side & Galactic Republic, & Clone Trooper, & a Tank; freely given to all at level 52, as part of Fleet Command Training exercise) .
• Endurance (Light Side Capital Ship, & Galactic Republic, & Jedi;  Given free to everyone at level 54, as part of Fleet Command Training exercise; ship starts as 1 star) .
  
  
• Biggs Darklighter (reference #note1 below).
• Tie Fighter Pilot (reference #note1 below).
• IG-86 Sentinel Droid (reference #note1 below).
• Ahsoka Tano (reference #note1 below).

#note1: Freely given via usage of either free Bronzium Data Cards (BDC) or usage of Ally Points for Bronzium Data Cards. I don't know if this was my luck or always the case.

 

For the long run towards level 85,
Some To Focus On Getting (listed as ranked high to low, and Light Side comma Dark Side).

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• General Kenobi, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• CT-7567 (Rex), Boba Fett.
• Chirrut imwe, Kylo Ren (Catina Battles 4-C, 6-C).
• Baze Malbus, Darth Nihilus.
• R2D2, Emperor Palpatine.
• Commander Luke Skywalker, Death Trooper.
• Han Solo, Darth Maul.
• Rey (If you want/get the Milennium Falcon ship blueprints).
• Finn (If you want/get the Milennium Falcon ship blueprints).
• K-S20 (If you want to Base team on Biggs Darklighter).

Early Toons To Level.

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• Jedi Consular (useful in early game to help protect and allow you to advance in Arena to get Arena tokens and crystals and free items and toons).
• Chewbacca (considered a top Tier 4 or 5 category; lowest tiers but initial helps you advance in early game).
• Royal Guard (considered Tier 3 or Knight category).
• Grand Moff Tarkin (Top Tier 3 or Knight; stronger hitter, and delays foe team so you get more hits or earlier hits).
• Ahsoka Tano (considered Tier 3 or Knight category).
• Biggs Darklighter (considered Tier 2 or Master category).
• Snowtrooper ( Optional. Tier 2 or Tier 3 depending on usage; same as Master or Knight categories).

Early Toons To Add Gear To.

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• Royal Guard (Very useful to protect all of your team).
• Chewbacca (helps protect team and has strong hit, but later you will replace him for the Arena battles, and continue to use him on Galactic War and other places).
• Grand Moff Tarkin (only Tier 3 or Knight category, but kicks some butt with gear and helps you get higher to get better characters later).
• Biggs Darklighter (Very useful because he has option to get double attack via another character's assistance).
• Ahsoka Tano.
  
   

Farm For These (means collect shards for)

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• Chewbacca (to level him up; also note that the game will give you 20 Chewbacca shards, as two sets of 10 shards, later in the game).
• Royal Guard (for level upgrade after you get him for free from store using data card).
• Jedi Knight Anakin (Complements Ahsoka Tano to make a pair synergy power house, and JKA is classified as a Tier 1 (top tier), or  Grand Master once leveled and geared).
• Lando Calrissian (reasons: powerful, complements well others, considered Tier 2 or Master later, and boosts both Rebel and Scoundrel abilities).
• CT-7567, Rex (Considered Tier 1 or Grand Master later, and does a great job boosting team overall performance).

 

Get-These/Upgrade-These From Catina Battles.

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• Royal Guard.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (Old Ben).
• Jedi Knight Anakin.
• Dot Shot.
• Lando Calrissian.
• Dathcha.

 

Can Get These Useful Characters From Arena Store.

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• Cassian Andor.
• Admiral Ackbar.
• Stormtrooper Han (STH).
• Darth Sidious.
• IG-88.
• HK-47.
• Princess Leia.
• Chief Nebit (essential for damage points).

 

Additonal Notes

1. The 1st Chromium Data Card for 350 crystals provides 1 complete toon (character).  Notice that I said the FIRST 350 crystal Chromium Data Card, and the focus being on the word "first".
2. Some people keep opening a new account and repeat try that 1st Chromium Data Card until they get a great top tier toon, which gives them a huge advantage from the start. 
   In my case I got a good character, which was Cassian Andor, and one I was considering to get via other free methods.  Casian Andor is a Tier 3 toon.  Of course I would have much more preferred a Tier 1 or even a Tier 1 character, but I was too heavily invested and found all this out once I was almost level 40.  For anyone reading what I have written here, you gain this hinesite and you can use repeat guest accounts until you get a great character/toon and then associate your game account with your G+/Gmail/Google account.
Since I got Casian Andor, I'll now have to get K-2SO as they work together and K-2SO becomes a monster killer due to being allowed to attack more often and ahead of the enemy.   K-2SO is a Tier 3 character/toon also.

Glossary:

• Toon = player character.
• Grand Master category = Tier 1 (top tier).
• Master = Tier 2.
• Knight = Tier 3.

 

References/Resources:

Sites and online tools: EA (Electronic Arts) forum (too many discussions and pages to list) forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com, Youtube, Bing search engine, LevelSkip, swgoh.gg, Google search engine.
Youtube channels: AhnaldT101, MobileGamer, McMole2, Warrior Presents.