Raid Shadow Legends Progression Guide

If you’re looking to start Raid: Shadow Legends in 2026, the game and its progression systems can seem quite daunting.

The game has been out for quite a few years by now, with more content and the like getting introduced quite often. As such, it can be quite overwhelming for a new player, understandably!

In this guide, I’ll help smooth out your progression with various tips on what to look out for.

Use a Promo Link

Unlike a lot of other gachas, your progression in Raid Shadow Legends begins before you even create an account!

As part of the game’s marketing, Raid Shadow Legends has collaborated with hundreds of content creators over the years. For that, they’ve created promotional download links which each creator could share.

What makes this unique is that these creators were allowed to pick a set of champions as part of their promo link. For you, that means that downloading the game through one of their links will give you extra champions from the very start.

Now, with so much variety to pick from, picking the right promo link for you can be hard. So, I would recommend using the Raid Promo Link Finder website.

This is a community-run database that aggregates all of the creators’ promo links. These links and their champion selections are also rated from 1 to 5 stars, allowing you to easily see which ones are best. It also has some suggested links, as well.

Alternatively, you can also use the filtering feature to look for selections that have specific champions. If you’ve already seen a champion you like, it’s a good way to see if you can get them as a freebie.

The site also lists Promo Codes which you can use once you start the game to get even more champions. These are also rated for you to have an easier time gauging which ones to use.

That said, do keep in mind that using a promo link will force you into picking Kael as your starter Rare Champion. However, he’s generally recommended as the best choice, so this isn’t a dealbreaker by any means.

Either way, I recommend taking advantage of this to get a solid early-game boost. More champions are never bad to have!

Focus on the Campaign

As a beginner, you’ll want to focus primarily on the campaign. Thanks to the free champions you should’ve gotten from using promo links, going through the campaign itself should be fairly smooth.

While going through the campaign, try not to invest into too many champions. Focus only on those you’re actually using so as not to waste resources and spread yourself too thin.

Your ultimate goal in the campaign is to have a champion that can reliably farm level 12-3 on Brutal difficulty.

This is generally accomplished by having a champion geared up with 100% Crit Rate combined with high Critical Damage and Attack. Speed can be ignored, and Lifesteal gear is recommended.

As for which champion to make your 12-3 farmer, it depends on what you have available. The main thing to look out for is champions that only have AoE abilities, as they can clear waves with ease with Auto Battle.

Kael is actually a solid choice at worst, but these are the champions that are usually recommended:

• Bellower
• Big’Un
• Fellhound
• Ithos
• Queen Eva
• Rae
• Skullcrown

Again, though, only focus on upgrading one of these champions as a 12-3 farmer. There is no reason to upgrade multiple for this specific purpose.

In short, focus on going through the campaign first. Then, try to upgrade an AoE-only champion to be strong enough to reliably farm 12-3 on Brutal. This will help you get and grow other champions later on.

Complete Dailies

Another important thing to account for in your progression is one that’s fairly common across most gachas and live service games in general. Regardless, it’s worth mentioning, just in case!

You can find Daily Quests for you to do within your Quests menu, accessible from the main screen.

These Daily Quests, or Dailies, generally don’t take much to complete. However, they give you a lot of useful rewards. You’ll even get Shards, which you can use to acquire even more champions and gear!

As you complete your Dailies, you’ll also end up working towards your Weekly and Monthly quests. Similarly, these will give you a lot of useful resources and more Shards.

So, make sure not to ignore these timed quests! They’re one of the best ways to get resources for your progression.

Don’t Upgrade Gear More Than Necessary

Similar to what I mentioned for the campaign before, it’s not a good idea to upgrade your gear more than necessary early on. It’s essentially a waste of resources, and can roadblock you later on.

As a general rule, you don’t want to upgrade Common and Uncommon gear much, if at all. Though, ideally, you’ll barely upgrade gear as you go through the early parts of the campaign.

You also want to avoid upgrading gear that isn’t at least Rank 4. Rank is represented by the number of stars on the gear’s icon, if you didn’t know. Higher Rank means all of the gear’s stats will be higher!

The main reason to avoid upgrading early is simply that you’ll be getting better gear naturally. You’ll be better off replacing the older gear completely instead of wasting resources upgrading it.

Additionally, I also recommend paying attention to your gear’s stats when considering upgrading. Besides Speed (SPD), you generally want percentage-based increases over flat increases.

Later on, you’ll get some worthwhile sets of gear like the Fury set and Lifestealer set. Those can be worth upgrading, as the Lifestealer set in particular is a mainstay for campaign farming.

Ultimately, my advice here to smooth your progression is to only upgrade gear when necessary. Look instead to replace gear with better ones early on. Only upgrade once you hit a roadblock, but don’t over-invest into gear you won’t use in the long term.

Don’t Waste Shards

Speaking of being mindful, another key for progression is not to use your Shards the moment you get them.

Shards are a currency that you use to pull in the gacha, essentially. This can get you gear and new champions, which is always great!

However, you generally want to not use your Shards unless there’s an event of some sort going on. Events can improve your chances of getting specific champions or rarer gear, for example.

So, simply put, save your Shards for when there’s an event that favors you going on. Otherwise, it’s best to save them.

Join a Clan

As soon as you hit Level 10, you’ll be told that you can now join a Clan. I highly recommend doing that as soon as you’re able to.

The main benefit of being in a Clan is that you can take on a Clan Boss. By spending a Key which refills every 6 hours, you can fight the Clan Boss at various difficulties. The higher the difficulty, the better the rewards!

If you’re early on, don’t worry about only being able to take on the easiest Clan Boss available. It’s better than nothing and you’ll still get rewards from doing it, so it’s worth spending your Keys on.

Do note, you can also purchase extra Keys using Gems. However, this is generally advised against, as it’s just not good value. Keep that in mind.

On the note of Keys, also make sure to use any other Keys you get. Some of them will allow you to engage in Faction Wars and other events, for example. Don’t miss out on playing those modes for more rewards.

Nonetheless, make sure to fight the Clan Boss daily. It doesn’t take too long and you’ll get a lot of good rewards from it, including Shards.

Do the Arbiter Missions Early

Another thing worth considering to smooth your progression are the Arbiter Missions. These are a sort of generalized tasks that somewhat serve as tutorials and milestones for you. Find them by tapping on the Missions button in the main screen.

For example, you’ll need to clear specific stages in the Campaign or summon a set number of Champions. It’s mostly things you’ll do as you play, but make sure to not ignore them so that you can finish them all.

Doing these early on will guide you better through the game, as well as give you something to spend your Energy on. It’s a good idea to get the most Energy-consuming missions out of the way earlier, before you need the Energy for other game modes.

Completing these missions will also reward you with Arbiter, a Legendary Support Champion. Whether you want to use her in your teams or not, she’s still nice to have around!

So, make sure not to ignore these missions. They are rewarding and they can help give you some direction early in the game.

Get Passive Income and Training

As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to build a Gem Mine facility. This will automatically generate Gems over time for you, just like it says!

Since Gems are fairly scarce, especially if you’re going full F2P, it’s recommended to set this up and upgrade it as soon as possible. Also, make sure to collect the Gems often, as there’s a limit to how many it can store.

Similarly, make sure to unlock all of the Guardian Ring slots as soon as possible. You don’t really need to upgrade these however, just make sure to unlock them.

The Guardian Ring will allow you to passively train your champions. This is a slow process, however, but it’s fantastic to passively level up fodder champions. You’ll need them to upgrade your main champions!

In short, make good use of the Gem Mine and Guardian Ring. Get them as soon as possible and make sure to check on them every day.

Wrapping Up

Raid: Shadow Legends has quite a lot going on, but I hope this guide helps you with the early progression as a new player!

Take the game slow, because it’s understandably pretty complex and overwhelming by now. After all, it’s been out for like 7 years, with more and more content getting added constantly! Nonetheless, I hope this guide helps you get your bearings faster.