You know what? I think this is it. I think I'm done.

For level 31 you need to pass 11, that is 500 gold, then 21 thats 1000 gold, then 31 itself, that is 1500 gold. So a total of 3000 gold per pilot. You cant grind the promotions, you need to pay the gold. Do you understand what ftp means? 5 pilots to 31 costs 15000 gold. There arent many ftp’s who have that laying around. And then I didnt even take in account the gold it will take to get the right skills.

How does an ftp have that kind of gold? Then need all the gold they have to obtain some premium items like good weapons, bots and modules.

1. Nah. Just don't drop more bots after first if it feels pointless. No point delaying the first bot drop to see the squads. Most feeling of accomplishment in the game can be had, when you are the single random inferior player in high level squad battle, and you do well, for example decide the battle with your beacon capping. So better play the first bot and see how the battle is going.

2. On some bots, brawling weapons are fine. Mostly this means beacon cappers, such as Strider. And prefer mid-range weapons which can be used for brawling at least a bit. Because playing only mid or long range gets booooring. Boring.

3. Depends on situation. It's a beacon, and potential 5 Au. Then again sacrificing a bot is rarely the wise thing to do.

4. Play for yourself, but secondarily play for the squad. Because the most fun moments in the game are the rare cases of random teams playing well together.

5. Focusing on damage only will unnecessarily push you up the leagues, and hurt your Au income. Balanced approach is much more profitable.

6. If you like squading, squad away. There's just no point in restricting your playing this way, if you want to squad.

7. see 1

I probably shouldn't be saying this as a forum staff member, but take a break. That's what I did. For at least a couple of months, after many, many attempts at restarting with smurf accounts. And when I went back in to see if the old flame still burned, I found out that not only did I not miss playing, I actually still hated it as much as when I decided to take a break. So I left it again for awhile, just to not rage-delete (again), and after another month of total inactivity deleted it anyway. Along with BoT and Mech Battle, which were also just annoying me for very different reasons.

I've been playing Mech Wars now pretty regularly, even though it too is suffering badly from AI-itis due to a near-nonexistent player base. Nonetheless, I still find it more enjoyable than the other three that are no longer on my iPad. But I'm not spending anywhere near the time (or $$$) that I did in my early War Robots days. 

You can take comfort in knowing that there is life beyond War Robots. 

First and foremost - I have repeatedly stated that the F2P player could get to Sergeant quickly enough (L21), not Lieutenant (L31).  Getting to Sergeant requires 500 (Corporal) and 1000 (Sergeant) which is 1500 per pilot or 7500 per hangar.  

Secondly - I have also said several times in these threads that the F2Per would want to just run with the default/randomly assigned skills.  The simple fact of the matter is that they work just fine for the main part.  All of mine are random and although I’d like to change a couple, I’m actually fairly satisfied with them and have no intentions of changing them at this time.

And lastly - yes, I do believe that the typical F2P player in this game has 8000Au in the bank if they’ve been paying even the slightest attention to what’s coming.

F2P and minnows are terms commonly used together in this game because almost everyone spends a little; there are precious few, diehard F2Pers.  Now, if you’re talking about the true blue, 100%, ain’t spending one, thin dime F2Per, then the question is whether or not they are a smart F2P player.  If so, then they will have been saving up for this and there is absolutely zero reason to believe they won’t have 8000Au banked by now from opening chests and matches, especially after the most recent event.  BUT, if they did not prepare then, as I said, they should have realistic expectations and yes, it may well take them a few weeks to get to Sergeant.  (I’ve generated 400+ Gold in one day of playing just a couple hours, so a few weeks is reasonable.). However, this is going to be a small portion of the population.  I believe there are plenty of F2P players who have enough Au stacked up to go all the way to Lieutenant.  In fact, we’ve heard from several on the forums over the course of this past week, as well as others who have said there’s been a bit of a Gold glut of late as well.  

And all THAT said —> I don’t believe there are many true blue, dyed in the wool, 100%, not-one-thin-dime F2Pers in this game.  Even here on the forums, where F2P whining is present on most threads, there are only a handful.  Most players spend a tenner here, a tenner there.  Certainly the vast majority of players in the upper leagues - Masters, Champs - are NOT spend averse.  Most upper level players have enough Gold that they absolutely can boost through the pilot ranks and even change out a few skills they don’t like.

It’s really all in how you play the game and plan for the upcoming XYZ.  I have zero sympathy for players who don’t put in the time and do not plan well.

It feels like Pix is done with this game so they tossed everyone a bag of super powers and will let chaos ensue. The super powers only work if you pay up the gold though. Last cash grab of War Robots? I'm down to playing my D1 smurf only now. My end is near as well.

There is something satisfying about sending double Nashorn rounds into someones face at 100m. The Molots are probably doing most of the damage but it makes me laugh.