1. Campaign (PvE) — the Progression Milestone

The “main” progression of the game, seen right when you log in. Think of it as a “saga” map, but unlike all of the other turn-based-RPGs, when you’ve completed a level in AFK you can never replay it. This mode is not meant for farming, its meant for progression.

Core Loop Pressure: The difficulty of each level increases linearly, spiking at boss levels. This creates stoppage points that slowly push you to have a strong team of 5 heroes. This functions as both the onboarding mode and the overarching milestone marker of the game.

Pacing: You can play this mode as often as you’d like… until your team isn’t good enough to progress. This gives the game a very fast progression feeling in the beginning, which turns into a clear progression block by the mid game. Eventually you aren’t making progress in this mode and are instead pushed to play in other modes (or pay)



2. Idle (PvE) — the Appointment Mechanic

This is the automated (idle) portion of the game. At the bottom of the screen (see “2” above) your recently used team will automatically be fighting an endless mob of enemies. This functions as the “Idle” part of the game -- when you’re not playing, your heroes are still earning EXP, Coins and Weapons. This functions as your appointment mechanic - eventually your chest will become full with all this automatically collected rewards.

Core Loop Pressure: the rewards are dependant on how far you progress in the campaign, so it’s always the best idea to have your best team play as far as possible in the campaign before leaving them to grind it out while you sleep.

Pacing: This functions more as your “come back” or “appointment” mechanic -- this is what creates the compelling push notifications, reminding you to open up the game



3. Peaks Of Time (PvE) — Secondary Progression Milestone

Opened up late in progression, this takes a page right out of common in-game events from most CCRPG games. Each quest can only be completed once, so this acts just as an additional vector of progression of players besides the PvE Campaign.

Core Loop Pressure: this mode is all scripted, and does not scale with your level -- so similar to PvE Campaigns, this mode is paced to slowly increase the pressure on your top team.

Pacing: No energy -- pacing is only based on the stats of the opposing team.



4. Labyrinth — Collection Pressure

Labyrinth is similar to “Galactic War” in SW:GOH, or gauntlet mode in other CCRPGS. However in AFK, this mode is unlocked very early in progression (which is a great decision). In this mode, you are tasked to go as far into the labyrinth as you can every 48 hours. Whenever a hero of yours dies, they can no longer be used for the rest of the event.

The Labyrinth has its own shop as well -- rewards which can only be earned if you are engaged in this mode. This solidifies the value proposition of this mode to the player -- in order to access the high quality rewards, you need to engage

Core Loop Pressure: Because of the perma-death -- this pressures the player to bring in the widest collection of heroes possible. The more heroes you bring in that are levelled up, the farther you’ll go. This includes even your “garbage” heroes -- they can help out even in the beginning.

One interesting design they have here is relics -- every few stages you have an option to choose one of 3 relics that remain with you throughout the event. These typically benefit certain types of hereos -- pushing you to use more of them while the event is active.

Pacing: The event resets every 48 hours, so this is all about the time pressure to go as far as you can with your relics.



5. King’s Tower — Race to the Finish

Similar to Peaks of Time and Campaign, this mode is another permanent progression mode. Players attempt to reach the “top” of the tower to get more and more rewards.

Core Loop Pressure: Similar to Campaign and Peaks, this is about pulling together the top team you can.

Pacing: Similar to Campaign and Peaks, this mode can be played endlessly, but eventually you won’t be able to win against a tougher team.



6. Arena — PvP

Similar to Arena in SWGOH, this mode is all about working your way up a leaderboard. Players compete against offline versions of other player’s teams, attempting to work their way up the ladder before the seasonal reset (14 days)

Improving from SWGOH, they have multiple arenas running at the same time -- allowing players to choose which competition they are more likely to be competitive within, and even allowing players to spectate the “Legends Championship” as it runs -- giving players more teasing of the top teams in the game.

Core Loop Pressure: small resource rewards. No clear pressure.



Pacing: This is the only mode which is paced with a currency.



7. Bounty Board — Back Bench Utility

A longer timer system which allows you to put your collection to good use. Each bounty contains a reward (seen as 20 gems above) with a requirement for 2 heroes. These heroes can be any level, but must be apart of certain factions.

Core Loop Pressure: This is a good way to incentivize players to keep even their under levelled heroes, just so they can send heroes on these bounties and go on as many bounties in parallel as possible

Pacing: Bounties are longer timer exercises, so you’re typically only sending out heroes 1-2 times per day, in large batches in parallel. This is a major appointment mechanic, driving the player to come back each day.



So overall the modes are: 3 permanent progression modes, 1 appointment mechanic, 1 cyclic event, 1 PvP mode, and a mode for utilizing your back bench of heroes. This is strong, and the variety of progression modes gives players plenty of methods of measuring their progress. It makes for a fast feeling progression in the beginning, which eventually pushes players to spend or be limited to the paced modes: Arena, Bounty, or Labyrinth.