My recommendations:
- Get the Smart Minigun
- Unlock Jackbot (but if you are buying the Super Battle Pass, you can get 10 Recruitment Posters in 2 seasons and it’s cheaper to unlock him that way)
- Unlock more Premium Equipment - Emergency Shell and/or Premium Gear (recommendations)
- Buy Premium Equipment from the Merchant (this will speed up the upgrades process a little) - but don’t do this if you are saving up gems to unlock more Premium Equipment
- Unlock Premium Heroes - these are super expensive to unlock for Gems and unless you are spending a lot (either in buying Recruitment posters or buying Gems) I recommend not spending on them - you can still slowly unlock them via the Tower shop and Recruitment Posters from the SBP (currently 4 heroes are available in the Tower shop)
About the Smart Minigun
Previously, when the Looper was the best gun, I didn’t recommend it for F2P players because the free guns could be upgraded faster using the daily gun dungeons. But the SMG is so good that it comfortably outperforms the free guns even when it’s at lower rarity. So even though it will take quite a while to collect the gems as F2P, that is what I recommend you do.
About Unlocking Premium Equipment
If they implement the first of these recommendations, you could try your luck even if you don’t have enough gems for the guaranteed Epic at 50 opens. But until then I suggest not gambling until you have enough gems in hand (details on chances here) unless you are willing to buy the balance if you fail.