Hello everyone, I am A Xing from the Strategy Team. Recently, I saw someone asking in the 'Chat and Water' section whether 'My Sword Cultivation Diary' is worth getting into. As someone who treats idle cultivation games like electronic pickles, I played hard for a few days and also tried a zero-spending route with a secondary account. To give the conclusion first: this game is not the traditional meditation type. The core is idle cultivation with a snowball effect and collecting monsters from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. You can play for free, but once resources are spread out, it's easy to get stuck at certain levels. Below, I will explain in the order of early game development, which can help you avoid wasting a couple of days.
Core loop in one sentence: AFK to increase cultivation, break through realms, unlock sword flying and demon spirit slots, progress through maps to get resources, and earn more from AFK. Therefore, in the early stages, all decisions revolve around breaking through to the next major realm as quickly as possible, rather than leveling up all demon spirits once.
Don't get hung up on the initial ten-pull at the start. If you have a group attack main C, use it first. AoE characters like Nine-Tails and Taotie clear mobs quickly during map progression, while single-target burst should be reserved for later bosses. On my small account, after pulling Nine-Tails, I poured all resources into it, prioritizing level, skills, and equipment. Progressing through maps with the same combat power is much faster than leveling up five characters evenly. As for support and tanks, surviving early on is enough, so don't compete with the main C for breakthrough pills.
I prioritize resource allocation as follows: cultivation and breakthrough pills first, demon spirit draw tickets second, equipment enhancement third, and appearance and home decorations last. For breakthrough pills that can be bought with spirit stones in the shop, try to buy them as much as possible in the first three days, because the realm coefficient increases faster than equipment. Here's a simple calculation: with the same eight-hour AFK session, you gain 100 cultivation points per minute in the Foundation stage and 150 per minute in the Gold Core stage. If you delay your breakthrough by one day, it's like missing out on hundreds of thousands of cultivation points, slowing your 'snowball' growth by a day.
AFK (away from keyboard) is the most comfortable aspect of this game; you can cultivate even while sleeping or napping, but offline earnings have a limit. My habit is to push the main storyline to the current bottleneck before going to bed, take acceleration pills after finishing, and then go offline. The next day, I log in to collect earnings, then break through, and continue AFK. Since earnings are linked to cultivation level, AFK after a breakthrough will yield higher earnings for the same amount of time. Don't clear your inventory as soon as you log in; break through first, and the detailed earnings can be significantly higher.
Don't just treat sword-flying as scenery. Every map in the human world, spirit world, and immortal world has events. Prioritize choosing cultivation points, spirit fragments, and card draw tickets. If you can't win a battle event, just avoid it, don't forcefully spend stamina. Try to use up your free attempts every day. For zero-spend players, buying the first stamina refill is cost-effective; for the second refill, consider your stock. Join an active sect as early as possible. Borrowing help from strong players can get past many tough points. In the sect store, prioritize exchanging for breakthrough pills and card draw tickets, don't exchange for low-level equipment.
For the early stage of a spirit team, it is recommended to have one main DPS, one healer or tank, and the rest for control and damage boost. Speed stats are more important than you might think; taking the initiative to control or quickly eliminate the opponent's support significantly increases the chance of winning in campaigns. For gear attributes, prioritize attack, critical strike, and speed, while defense and HP can be supported by level and rank. Don't fully equip every spirit; enhancement stones are scarce. One full set for the main DPS and filling in extras for support is enough.
You can get rewards from the seven-day events and the server-opening ranking, but don't spend excessively just for the rank. The zero-spend goal is to collect the key milestone rewards, such as the breakthrough pills and pull tickets on the 3rd, 5th, and 7th days. Don't try every gacha pool; save up until there's a guarantee or event bonus before pulling. When luck is bad, you really start questioning life 😂.
Also clarify the drawbacks: it's easy to get stuck at a certain level later on, idle grinding feels repetitive, card draws depend on luck, and social aspects are weak. If you like hardcore gameplay or real-time PK, this game might not suit you. But if you enjoy cultivation, collecting monsters, and a rhythm of ten minutes of daily harvesting, it's quite suitable.
To summarize, my early-game tips are: focus on cultivating the main character C, prioritize breakthroughs, do point-checking before bed, choose resources for flying, exchange pills in the sect, and save gacha for events. Following this approach, even free-to-play players can get through the early stages relatively smoothly. I'll test for a few more days, organize the checkpoint data from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, and then update the forum. 🔥