New player here

[Just4Fun]

What 1-2 star heroes are good?

should I focus on the campaign or the empire part?

what should I spend my gems on?

or other general advice u can give me

[Shohoku79]

Game has evolved a lot since its inception and playing for the first time, even without spending seem to have changed a lot as to what's available initially (e.g. events and contents that are available now versus years ago).

1* and 2* heroes will tie you over initially but will become feeders to better heroes that you will eventually get.  Sharan the 1* healer and Sha Ji the 2* healer will be your primary source to keep you alive for the time being.  Layla the purple 2* and Bane the 3* yellow would likely be your primary damage output for a while, depends on how quickly you acquire heroes of higher rarity.

Focus on getting the base infrastructure (buildings and research) updated to keep the constant resources (namely food and iron) to come in, you will need these to craft battle items, upgrade heroes, etc.

Even if you manage to get a 5* hero, put him/her on the side as you will not have the resource initially to fully upgrade him/her when just starting.  Instead, focus on fielding a full 3* team (they can be fully upgraded with ascension material that can be farmed), followed by a full 4* team. 

Upgrade your troops as they are like equipped items that will keep your heroes alive.

Visit the Empire and Puzzles Webstore daily as you can get free resources with the daily gifts, some of these are summon currencies that can be used in the various summoning portals, which can provide you access to heroes that are more powerful than what you initially have available.

Join and alliance when you are able to and help contribute so you can earn additional resources from helping defeat titans and get help from alliance mates.

Gems can be spent on a variety of areas. You would need to have some on hand to spend on roster expansion as your hero count goes up.  Most importantly they could be saved up for summoning for new heroes (multi-summon helps provide some discount in total gems spent).

Don't worry if you can't get very far in the campaigns or beat certain stages initially, it takes time and resources to build up.

What's said here is very general and broad, but remember this game is not a sprint, but a marathon. 

Good luck to you.

[Dudeious Maximus]

 

This has 16 parts  Gives the basics on starting up.

Any questions unsure after watching just ask below. 

[SnowRaven]

1) My favourites were 1* Sharan and 2* Layla. I used Layla for quite some time, the best 2* in my opinion. I even gave her emblems, but at some point she couldn't keep up anymore, and I had to retire her.
2) It's important to proceed with map missions, to conquer the outposts which boost food and iron production.
3) New players won't have many gems, and it's best to spend them on roster expansion. Not worth buying gems at this point, just collect the free gems from the vision tower and daily streak rewards.
4) Go on raids as often as you can, rewards give a lot of extra food and iron. Play tournaments, they help to fill the heroes chest and give extra rewards at the end. Level up farms first, food is what's most needed throughout the game.

[Habanero]

1- I don´t see many differences between 2 star heroes. Avoid 1 star. Feed them as soon as you get 3 stars. My personal favorites for each color would be: Belith and Isshtak; Ulmer and Gunnar; Balthazar; Bane and Kailani; Jahangir and Hawkmoon. apart from Balthazar, the other purple classic heroes are pretty terrible. You will get good 3 star heroes pretty quickly.

2- Join an alliance.

3- DO NOT spend gems on summons. Use them later on to buy space. By the time you have 1000 gems it is possible that you have a legendary hero, It costs 1000 gems to max them. It's totally worth it.

4- Alternate between campaign and events. 
 

5- Be patient. This is a slow paced game. Dont be hasty about getting strong heroes. They will come by, eventually.

6- watch mystic visions and don´t forget to get dayly gifts and any freebies you can put your hands on.

7- Troops can be very helpful. Don´t neglect them

8- Priorize heroes with costumes. You can get costume chamber keys by watching nystic vision ads. No need to fight in the event stages if you are not strong enough. Rare heroes are guaranteed in costume chamber portal. 

I guess that´s it.

 

[NevarMaor]

25 minutes ago, Habanero said:

You can get costume chamber keys by watching nystic vision ads.

Good point! Some costumes turn a meh 3* into a pretty decent hero, like Renfeld and Dawa.