Hi there, first of all, building Kael to 60 is a great first plan. After that we'll be looking to build a solid initial "Core Team"... that likely won't be Marksman or Mother Superior, to be honest.

Can you post your current roster for us to look at?

How to Get Started in Raid: Here is my recommended steps for getting started in Raid. I hope this helps. :)

Your Starter Champion to 60 is your absolute first priority
Using 1, 2 and 3 star champions farmable from campaign, 6 star your starter champion: they are your campaign farmer, and when they are60,they will be able to finish all of campaign, up to Brutal difficulty, for you. They will be farming “food” for you to level up and rank up your other champions. The best spot to farm food is Brutal  12-3, and as you level up your starter, they will be able to farm 12-3 with just the starter gear sets.

It is well worth  buying the masteries for your starter, too. This will make it easier for farming scrolls for your other champions too. This is where your first 800 gems should be spent, even before the gem mine. I often recommending buying masteries for your second main champ with gems as well.

Do not sell the free login Lifesteal set
Your starter champion needs it for the first few months: you can level up to 16 the glove, chest and boots. The remaining pieces you can leave them at 12. . An additional note, keep almost all 4 star and below pieces at no higher than level 12.

You NEED AoE Decrease Defense
If you don’t have yet a champion with the AOE 60% Decrease Defense debuff, Warmaiden is your friend. Having a champion that does AOE 60% Dec Def is huge. While many Epic champs are better, Warmaiden is a farmable rare from Campaign Stage 8, the Deadlands, that does that, and on a 3 turn cooldown. She can be booked for free, just using her duplicates as books until her A3 is fully booked.  She can be kept at level 50 and used across the game until you find one of the many excellent Epic AoE Dec Def champs that do more, and survive much better. If you have Tayrel, Seigehulk, Uugo, Dhukk, Stag Knight, Thylessia, don't build a Warmaiden.

Get a “Core Team” going
The Core Team is the engine that will power up your progress. Build a core team for general use, but primarily for clan boss use, looking for champions that:
1) 50% Decrease Attack
2) 60% Decrease Defense
3) 5% Poisons, HP Burn, or both
4) Various buffs that are helpful in clan boss and general progression: heals, increase defense, speed buff, counterattack, ally protection, etc. The Core Team will change over time, as you pull better options you may need to change some of the champions.

The power of 6 Stars
Focus on making a team of level 60 champs! Don’t make the mistake many beginners do of upgrading level 50’s aimlessly and endlessly. Instead, work on the food to make 60s for your core team, champs that will be long term use. 6 starring a champion unlocks the very important Warmaster and Giantslayer masteries, as well as the banner slot. This, combined with having your champion booked at least for their most important skills, will unlock their true potential.

Minotaur grinding for mastery scrolls
Fully master your core team: having most of your team at level 60 will make it easier to farm on Mino 15, the best place to farm for scrolls.

Enter The Dragon
Start Dragon progression. Your goal is to reach Dragon 20, where 6 star gear starts dropping. Lifesteal, Speed and Accuracy sets will help you build teams for all areas of the game, and also will help you gear up other teams for other dungeons. Leave those other dungeons for later though, as they all will require more specialized teams.
All of the above will help you progress in Clan Boss....

But why is clan boss important?
CB is a chance at having the best rewards in the game, on a daily basis, for free. Your ultimate goal should be to reach highest clan boss difficulty, UltraNightmare, within a year. Nightmare top chest by the time you've been playing 4-6 months. Each day it will give you a chance to get, daily, Sacred, Void and Ancient shards, as well as Legendary, Epic, Rare books, ascension pots, and gems. Plus you can get the exclusive gear sets: Immortal, and Cruel. Gear without energy to farm it is sneaky good for you. 

I'd also recommend Hellhades' Free 2 Play series he is currently doing for 2023. You can start that here: BEST WAY TO START RAID IN 2023 F2P CHALLENGE 

Watching the series can be a huge help in how to get an account growing and do so without spending or as low spend. :)

Here is the 2022 version he did where in a year he got into Hydra, top chest 2 key Ultra Nightmare CB and just a hugely solid account. STARTING OVER FREE TO PLAY 2022! 5 ESSENTIAL THINGS TO FOCUS ON WHEN YOU START 

For sure! I'll post it as soon as I figure out how to attach a picture in here. 😅 And, thank you so much for the guide! 🫰🏻 I've already probably done some things wrong, but that's ok. I'll learn. Let me get that screenshot for you! 

These are all the champions I own. 😁

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I don't know what all that means, but it sounds like winning to me!  😁 I know chests are generally good in fantasy games, but I will definitely be watching them! I'm a visual/hands-on learner, so that is immensely helpful! You are the best! 🫰🏻

Okay, your first priority is to get your Kael to 60. That way he can start pushing Dragon for you and better farm campaign 12-3 Brutal to farm food to rank up your next champs.

After that I'd go farm a Warmaiden as indicated in the guide.

Then check back with your new champs and we'll figure out who to upgrade after that (you'll get more champs in the interim while you do this, and many we would upgrade before our current options).

Well, I'm glad those videos will help! HH walks you through his process building strong F2P accounts. I especially like the 2022 series... there's like 50 videos in the series.

I'm watching the videos right now. ☺️ I'll start grinding out Kael then! And, I'm just killing the boss over and over to try and get Warmaiden. Unless there's a specific level that I should be focusing on. 😅 I think the only last questions are:

Which set would be better for Kael? Lifesteal or Savage. I have him in Savage right now with two pieces of Lifesteal (because those two had more attack than the Savage), But I do have 4 pieces of Lifesteal for the set bonus if that would be better for him.

What sets would be best for Warmaiden? 

How to farm gold in this game, because everything is hella expensive! 😅

Again, I can't thank you enough for help me with all this! I don't know what everything means up there, but when I come across those terms I can swing back in to refresh my memory! 

9-4 is the best one to farm for Warmaiden. It has a slightly better drop rate for her than all the other levels (I believe hard and brutal)... other than that it is always best to run the shield levels over and over again, as the shields sell for more silver than all the other gear.

As far as Kael's gear, use the Lifesteal. From the guide above: Do not sell the free login Lifesteal set
Your starter champion needs it for the first few months: you can level up to 16 the glove, chest and boots. The remaining pieces you can leave them at 12. . An additional note, keep almost all 4 star and below pieces at no higher than level 12. 

Thank you for helping me figure this out, starting new things is hard for me and I get confused and frustrated when I can't work it out on my own. So, I just hope you understand what an absolutely amazing and awesome person you are! I don't know if you are a man, but you are a God among men/women/all the persons. 😂❤️

It's really good that you asked early - you've managed to avoid the pitfall that most others make, which is to waste resources leveling bad champs because they think they need to.

Ronda will definitely end up being used, as will Kael. Shatterbones won't end up being a waste either, because he'll be quite good for faction wars. Mother Superior will almost certainly be turned into food at some point, so I wouldn't bother leveling her any further. 

In fact - other than Ronda, Kael, and Shatterbones, I wouldn't level anyone else, other than to be used as food. But for now, I also wouldn't use rare champs as food - use the market to buy uncommons, or use green gems to summon them, and use those as food. While the rares are almost certainly *eventually* going to become food, you're too early to know if some of them may have temporary value to get you through some content.

The only one of your rares that I would go out of my way to ensure I didn't use as food, though, is Paragon. He has value far above what he might seem, due to the fact that he is the only champ in the game that can make himself completely unkillable on his own.