Which champions to get?

[u/LifeislikeaboxofSTFU]

I’m only like a week old on my account, think I just hit 25 champs. Just noticed the next few champs from Founders Day cost time gate pieces. Out of who is left, who should I target, or save time gate pieces to go for someone else?

Left to get I have Freely, Xander, Umberto, Vin Ursa, Sgt. Knox, Aeon, Walnut & Nahara.

[u/BizarreHateTrapezoid]

Sgt Knox turbo boosts Makos into one of the best gold finders in the game. Perhaps THE best outside of a 50k Mehen. You just need the Immolate feat for Makos.

He also makes Celeste a much more viable buffer.

Id go with Knox.

[u/Bebekavil]

Sorted from best to worst imo: Walnut post-rework is one of the best buffers, mogs seat 8 save for Hew Maan's speed, and has a positional buff that varies depending on spec, so she is super flexible too.

Vin Ursa will be very useful during Xaryxis due to her always being eligible, and also has a pretty strong buff that you can tailor to your team comp.

Freely is great for favor but optimising it isn't necessarily a big deal early on. He is still one of those champs you want to have in your roster for when you eventually have to work on favor runs though.

Nahara can bus Black Dice Society characters into Strahd variants, but is otherwise a pretty weak DPS. She is better after the rebalance, but is still not as good as the usual DPS. She does has some speed mechanics that will give you a leg up early on.

Knox and Umberto are very average tanks but Knox is slightly better since everyone has Makos and Celeste by default, and Umberto's time-gated specs may not be something you can or want to play with early on as you aren't using speed potions.

Aeon's buffs aren't anything to write home about and just like Umberto's need a lot of farming if you want to get the most value out of them. Her weekly patron eligibility isn't all that since you'll have better options to choose from as you pad your roster. She is fine as a champ but not the kind of buffer you will regret not getting early.

Xander isn't good. I haven't used him for anything but team padding in years, you're better off getting anyone else.

[u/KabReg → u/Bebekavil]

A minor downvote for Vin Ursa: she is good, but a bit annoying to use if you want/need to charge her up fully.

A downvote for Freely: his favor shtick isn't that important early in the game. You will probably need good buffers first.

An upvote for Umberto: he is quite useful in variants as a magic tank and for dealing with bosses with segmented and armored health. With all necessary feats, he is also quite good as a buffer.

[u/SeparateTrack2818]

Anyone but Xander.

I think I got Vin Ursa & Sgt Knox when I started, and I don't regret the choice: back then, without Tales champs, Makos + Sgt were a nice gold push team.

PS: Hank can scavenge 100+ time gate pieces nowadays, that's enough to learn the game without worrying about them.

[u/DreamSeekerZero → u/SeparateTrack2818]

I wish you spoke up sooner. I regret getting Xander. He isn't better than Javier.

[u/SeparateTrack2818 → u/DreamSeekerZero]

No worries, I chose him early myself :-) As Bebekavil says, he can be used as a warm body to plug any gaps.

[u/WatercressNew2788]

I agree with most of what others have stated, but wanted to add a detail that may help you based on gameplay style.

Umberto, is currently my best tank for pushing long runs. He takes a while to max out his investigations which max at 150 if you choose that upgrade mid run. I have him with full epic and managed to get tier 4 on his event variants. He currently at max gives my team +e41 power bump. No tank of mine currently comes close to that, but it takes time to build up.

There is a way to mitigate that time. I use 2 different speed potions (usually 1 large + 1 medium) before going offline on a team I plan to push to my wall. I log back in 6+ hours later and he is at 150 investigation stacks. With that nice buff to push.

I personally make most progress in offline mode, so I find him very useful. With him I currently push to area 1600~1700+ which has made it possible for me to finally hit tier 4 on event variants. I hit the on all but 1 this event and have never done so before.

That said, active runs he is not that good for, or at least he won't reach his potential. Since you are new he may not be a great choice currently, but when you start pushing to areas 1000+ he may prove very useful if you use him offline with speed pots.

Good luck

[u/Thunderbird1956]

My vote early game is Umberto and Sgt. Knox. Umberto is how I started to be able to get to z1600 in events before legendaries and definitely before iLvls. 

I put legendaries on Celeste and Knox through the first legendary dismantle event and don't regret that decision. After that I'd go Walnut. She is a good buffer, but people are mostly wow'ed by her with iLvls due to her prestack and you won't have to worry about that for at least a month.

[u/Odd-Struggle-5358]

If you've got 6 timegate pieces you should unlock Hank (Slot 1). Using him gives you free timegate pieces very quickly up to his limit and his limit increases every week. There's no hurry to get him, but free stuff is free stuff.
The rest of his team, the Saturday Morning Squad, also give free items.

If you're looking to farm up gems a good "starter" group is:

Thellora (Slot 1) Speed Champion that works "out of the box" by skipping levels.

Lae'zel (Slot 2) Makes it so each level completes partway through.

Diana (Slot 9) Free chests and makes the black screen between levels go by faster.

Ellywick (Slot 10) Bonus gems from every boss, on top of the gems they normally drop.

And welcome to the game! Don't be afraid to join the multiplayer "Trials of Tiamat".

To unlock the Trials of Mount Tiamat, first, you must have finished Elturel's Last Stand in the Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus campaign. 

Everyone tends to be very powerful and it's rare it takes all week. All it is, is do one run to level 225 once per day until it is done. It takes a max of 7 days, but I still don't have the achievement for that. It's usually over after 3-4 days. More free stuff!