TL;DR
- This Raid: Shadow Legends beginner guide covers the first week only – the decisions that are hard to undo (Champion pulls, Energy spending) matter far more early than anything you’ll do at Level 40.
- Claim a new-player promo code before you do anything else. It’s the fastest way to a free Champion, but the window is short and you only get one, ever.
- Not every early pull is worth keeping. A short list of best starter champions is worth building your first team around instead of whatever the Summon screen hands you.
- Energy is your real currency for the first month, not Silver or Gems – spend it on Campaign progression, not repeat farming.
- Two Clan Boss attacks a day, from the moment you’re eligible, outperform almost anything else you could do with five spare minutes.
Raid: Shadow Legends beginner guide: what the first week actually decides
Most raid tips for beginners jump straight to team-building theory, which is backwards for an account that’s a few hours old. The choices that matter first are simpler: which Champion you commit to, how you spend your starting Energy, and whether you claim the free rewards sitting in menus you haven’t opened yet.
Raid: Shadow Legends is developed by Plarium, and the official Raid: Shadow Legends page is worth a look before you install if you want to see what the endgame looks like – it’s a useful sanity check for what the early grind is actually building toward. This guide skips that pitch and focuses on the mechanical side: how to start Raid without burning resources you can’t get back.
How to start Raid: Shadow Legends without wasting your first pulls
New accounts get a burst of free Summons in the tutorial, and it’s tempting to open all of them the moment they land. Resist that. A handful of early habits protect your account far more than any single pull does:
- Don’t level a Champion past 20 before checking if you’ll actually use them. Early XP Brews are limited, and a half-built roster of six Level 15s is worse than two properly built Level 40s.
- Save Sacred and Void Shards for a x2 Summon Boost event. The headline rarity odds only double during a x2 event – a x10 boost just multiplies quantity, not quality, so opening a hoard during one wastes it.
- Read a code’s reward before you claim it, not after. New-player codes hand over a specific Champion, and that choice is permanent – there’s no support ticket that reverses it.
- Bind your account to a Plarium ID in your first session. It’s a two-minute step that protects your entire roster if you switch phones or reinstall, and it’s easy to forget once you’re a few days deep into Campaign.
None of this requires game knowledge you don’t have yet – it’s mostly about not spending things you can’t get back before you understand what they’re worth.
Claim your day-1 freebies before you spend anything
Before touching the Summon Portal, it’s worth claiming a starter promo code. These are new-player codes specifically, and two rules make them different from every other code in the game: your account can redeem exactly one of them, ever, and it has to go in within the first 24 hours of registration – so pick the Champion you actually want before you commit, because the choice locks out every other starter option for good.
The current new-player set listed on ModuleTD’s promo code page:
|
Code |
Champion |
Rewards |
|
WEHARTU |
Folan Silverheart (Legendary) |
15 Greater Spirit Potions, 15 Spirit Brews, 300k Silver |
|
WRATH |
Grand Oak Padraig (Legendary) |
15 Spirit Brews, 15 Greater Spirit Potions, 300k Silver |
|
FORTRESS |
Walking Tomb Dreng (Legendary) |
15 Spirit Brews, 15 Greater Spirit Potions, 300k Silver |
|
FIRESTORM |
Sicia Flametongue (Legendary) |
25 Force Brews, 5 Greater Spirit Potions, 300k Silver |
|
BIGDAWG |
Turvold (Legendary, Void) |
15 Void Brews, 15 Greater Void Potions, 300k Silver |
|
GOFAST |
Razelvarg (Legendary) |
15 Magic Brews, 15 Greater Magic Potions, 300k Silver |
|
YTMIDGAMEBONUS |
Esme the Dancer (Legendary) |
Silver, Full Energies, Force Brews, Multi-Battle Sets, an Epic Skill Tome, Greater Arcane Potions – released gradually through level 20 |
Codes retire without warning, and a starter code you find on an old forum post is more likely dead than live. For that reason it’s worth checking free starter bonuses against a set that’s kept current before you lock in a choice, rather than working off whatever a random search result claims is active.
Best starter champions: which pulls are worth building around
Not every Champion your account can pull is worth a place on your first team. A short, practical shortlist for the early game:
- A Legendary from a starter code is close to a free pass on your first few weeks of Campaign – pick one with a kit that does something simple and repeatable, like a speed aura or team-wide healing, rather than a niche PvP specialist.
- Void-affinity Champions are worth prioritizing if one lands early, since Void Shards are the only source of that affinity – you can’t simply farm around a gap in your Void bench the way you can with other affinities.
- Anything with an Epic Skill Tome requirement solved by a code is worth leveling early, since Skill Tomes are one of the more awkward materials to farm outside Clan Boss.
- A Rare or Uncommon with a genuinely useful passive (a debuffer, a healer, a buffer) is worth keeping over a higher-rarity Champion with a kit that does nothing outside a very specific team comp – rarity is not the same as usefulness at Level 1.
The goal in week one isn’t a finished roster. It’s one team you can actually clear Campaign stages with, built around whichever of the above you already have.
Energy: the currency that actually gates your progress
Energy, not Silver or Gems, is what limits how fast a new account moves. It regenerates at a fixed rate and stops the moment you hit your cap, so any Energy sitting idle above that ceiling is wasted rather than banked.
The practical habit worth building immediately: empty your Energy bar before long gaps away from the game – overnight, at work, during a commute – rather than letting it sit capped. A new account that manages this well progresses noticeably faster than one that logs in once a day and dumps a full bar on a single push.
Beyond passive regeneration, daily quests and the login calendar both return Energy for free, and neither requires any skill to claim – just remembering to open the tab.
Early progression checklist
A short list of raid tips for beginners worth treating as a first-week routine rather than optional extras:
- Clear daily quests every day – they cost nothing and return Energy, Silver, and Shards.
- Run both free Clan Boss attacks as soon as you’re eligible, even against a target you can barely dent – chest rewards scale with damage contribution, not kills.
- Join an active clan early. Clan Gold accumulates from Clan Quests whether or not you’re paying attention, and it feeds a permanent Champion fragment shop later.
- Check the login calendar daily. Milestone rewards there have historically included full Champions, not just materials.
- Don’t feed away Rare Champions the moment you get them – some fusion events specify exact Champions by name, and a Rare you fed last week can be the one an event asks for next month.
FAQ
- What should a brand-new account do in the first hour? Install, clear the tutorial, then claim a starter promo code before opening any other Summons – that choice is permanent, so it’s worth doing deliberately rather than on autopilot.
- Is it better to level one Champion or spread XP across several? One or two, at first. A single properly leveled Champion clears more Campaign content than four half-built ones, and early Brews are too limited to spread thin.
- Should I spend Gems as a new player? Mostly no. Early Gems are better saved for Energy refills on days you want to push Campaign, rather than spent on cosmetic or convenience purchases.
- How long does the “beginner” phase actually last? Most of these habits matter most in the first month, though Energy discipline and not feeding away named fusion Champions stay relevant well beyond that.
- Do starter codes and other free-Champion routes stack? Yes. A starter code is a one-time, account-level claim, while login rewards, Clan Boss, and fusion events keep paying out independently – using one doesn’t cost you access to the others.