Battle Champs is a chibi themed mobile game that plays similar to other titles such as Clash of Clans -- but with a heavier focus on PvE instead of PvP gameplay. That said, your airship will still be invaded by other players who can steal your resources. Since you only have 5 days of free shield time before players can start invading you, you'll have to make the most of it. But how?

Here's a quick tips guide that will show you how to make the most of your first 5 days of Battle Champs!

What's what?

Before we can start figuring out what we need to do, we have to know what we need to do it. That means taking a look at Bubbles and Charms. Bubbles are typically used for upgrading your units -- otherwise known as Champs. Whether it would be for training, morphing, or summoning living defenses Bubbles will be necessary. Meanwhile, Charms are necessary for building structures and upgrading defenses.

Charms can be acquired from a Charm's Nest (marked above in red) while Bubbles are collected from Bubble Pumps (marked in blue). You can build multiple Nests and Pumps or upgrade them to increase production. You will also need to upgrade storage facilities for either Bubbles or Charms over time. This will allow you to store more Charms and Bubbles which in turn can be used for pricier buildings and upgrades.

Your third resource -- Rubies -- are found in the top-right corner of the screen and essentially act as pay-to-win resources that you can also occasionally get from events and missions. Otherwise, don't worry too much about them as they aren't necessary to play the game.

But how do we get more Bubbles and Charms outside of the waiting game?

Go on Missions as much as possible!

Love it or hate it, one of the beautiful parts of RPGs is the ability to grind. While there aren't so many traditional RPG grinding aspects in Battle Champs, Story Missions give you the chance to gather Bubbles, Charms, Rubies, Morph Materials and even new Champs.

You need to spend energy to head out on missions (like most mobile games) but the rewards are worth it. A handful of Story Missions will give you Rubies (which can be used to instantly upgrade buildings) as well as Bubbles and Charms. The more Bubbles and Charms you have, the more you can build and upgrade in your base.

Story Missions have themed airships/bases that will teach you the basics of battling in the PvP modes. These in turn can give you some inspiration on how to build your own bases. However, there are some strategies you should know beforehand:

Flying units are good for taking out cannons surrounded by walls, and should be used to take out defenses instead of sending ground troops into dangerous chokepoints.

Ground units can be placed strategically to target specific objectives as they will attack whatever they encounter first.

Avatars can walk over walls, and can do significant amounts of damage. As such, you should use them similarly to flying units but on more important objectives.

Back at the Airship...

Returning to the airship and preparing your defenses, it's important to know the two main sources of protection (shields not included). The first are your turrets and buildings, and the second are your champs.

Blow 'em up with cannons!

Cannons, Cannon Towers, Missile Silos, and more are all paid for using Charms. Each one has different properties, and some are more effective in certain situations than in others.

For example: Cannon Towers are great at dispatching waves of ground enemies from afar. However, once melee units get in range they won't be able to target them. Meanwhile, regular Cannons (while cheap) aren't able to target very far away. Neither are able to attack ground units, and so Missile Silos act as anti-air. Unfortunately, Missile Silos are completely incapable of targeting ground troops.

Upgrading your defense buildings is also important as it improves their effectiveness, and saving you resources in the long run.

There are plenty of other defenses as well, such as mines, anvils, and other silly defenses. The most powerful ones include a guard dragon that is quite capable of taking out most enemies. The more powerful defenses won't be accessible right away since you'll need a higher level Core to build them. Also, they tend to be out of the price range of the starting player.

Getting Champs to defend you!

While you are able to build cannons and turrets of all sorts from the very start, Champs won't be able to defend you until you upgrade your Cauldron to level 2. That means upgrading your Core to level 2 as well. Once you do so, however, you will be able to start summoning Champs to defend your base while you are away.

To set a Champ for defense, tap on the Cauldron then press Defender. In that menu you will need to drag a champ onto the Defender slot. You can only choose one, so pick wisely. Typically the best choice is to choose one with the highest DEF. You can pick one with high ATK, but those are best saved for attacking enemy camps.

Remember: your champs are summoned one-by-one from the Cauldron during battle, and only when the enemy is in range. Try to keep your Cauldron out of harm's way!

Upgrading your Champs!

Leveling up and training Champs is crucial to successful attacks on enemy airships or defending your own. To train a champ, open up the Cauldron (or the menu on the right-hand side of the screen as seen above) and select Champs.

There are two types of training in this menu: Train and Morph. While both are performed in a similar way, they have very different effects.

Training your Champs

Training Champs is all about increasing their level and count. With each level increase, your champs will grow in power, further increasing their effectiveness in battle. Since each Champ has different abilities, you'll want to train a number of different Champs to see which combination is best for certain battlefield scenarios.

To level up a Champ, simply select the Champ you want to upgrade and drag it to the top left slot. After that you can select any champs you don't want/need and slot them into the slots on the right. Blobs are best for training Champs since their sole purpose is to level up other Champs.

If you have doubles of a Champ you can combine them as well. Each time you use an extra Champ to upgrade the same type of Champ, you'll have a chance to increase the "Count". Counts are the number of Champs you have available during battle. The higher the number, the more you can summon at once.

Training Champs also costs Bubbles. Increasing the count of a Champ costs very little, but raising their level by combining them with random champs will cost much more, especially at higher levels. Remember that while training Champs is important, you only really need to train the ones you use the most. Focus on upgrading your Defender and your attacking Unit first. Also, keep upgrading your Bubble Pump to ensure you have enough Bubbles at any given time to upgrade.

Morphing Champs

When your Champ reaches its maximum level you will be able to Morph it. Morphing allows you to maximize the potential of your Champs by resetting their level and stats. While the stats will be slightly lower than they were at max level, Morphed Champs will be able to surpass the level and stats of their predecessor.

Morphing Champs requires materials that can only be gained through the shop or through Story and other battle modes. Don't worry too much about constantly Morphing your Champs until you are a little further in the game as you probably won't need upgraded Champs until after the 5 day Shield goes down. That said, if you already have the required items - and you are waiting for your Core to upgrade - feel free to do so.

Laying out your Airship

Every time a player attacks you, your airship is at risk of losing Bubbles or Charms based on the number of storages your enemy takes. If you're like me and want your Airship to be airtight against enemy attacks, you first need to understand how to avoid losing all your resources when players start attacking your base.

Above is an example of a very early game base. While there is much room for improvement, the concept is that by splitting up your resources you will be spared the heartache of losing all your valuable resources. This is done by keeping the Bubble Pumps and Charm Nest as far apart from one another as your current level of defenses will allow.

Keeping buildings close together also ensures that the enemy won't be able to take down structures as quickly. By keeping them up against one another, enemy melee Champs will have their damage per second reduced. This also grants your canons more time to chip away at their ranks.

Having your Cauldron close by to Tower Cannons also ensures that your Defender Champs are able to stop enemy Champs from taking them out before they can do any damage.

As you progress through the game, building walls and other defensive structures will be essential. However, for the first few days your focus should be on increasing your productivity and the strength of your Champs. If you are like me and really want to improve productivity, I would suggest buying at least one Builder's Bunk with the 500 free Rubies you get at the start of the game. Since it takes one dedicated builder to upgrade or build everything in the game, the spare builder really makes a difference in the long run.

That's it folks!

That's all I've got for you in terms of beginner tips! Battle Champs is certainly a game that takes some getting used to, but once you master all these simple tips you should do just fine. Remember: keep your Champs upgraded, and upgrade your base whenever possible before upgrading your Core. As long as you keep those two things in mind you should have no problem keeping your base safe from pesky invaders!