Hi. So, I did my first battle today, and I had no idea what was going on. I somehow got 9th with 20 battle points. I was so confused, and I couldn't find a thread that explained it all. Appreciate any help you can provide. If there is a guide or link somewhere, feel free to just link it if the questions are all answered there.

Questions:
1. So, for a 'battle', I never met anyone. Am I playing against other people on the map? Where are they?
2. My spaces were being automatically filled. (turning blue) Is this good? What was going on there? Why was that happening?
3. I had all these mortars. Why? I never use them in the idle game. Am I supposed to use them here?
4. Artifacts. I really wasn't clear what I should use here. Do I need to use different artifacts compared to what I use in the idle game?
5. How did someone get the whole map in the time allotted? It only allowed me to take actions every four seconds, and I was clicking as fast as I could. I got maybe a quarter of the map (guessing here). What are they (winners) doing that I am not?
6. As a player that had not yet ascended (yes, a newbie), am I wasting my time with the battles at this point? It was exciting. But it would be nice to know what I was doing for those few minutes.
7. Advice on what progression to target (at least the first 3-4 steps) would be very helpful. What do you recommend (at least to get going)?
8. It said I got 20 battle points. Where did they go? What can I do with them?

Apologies if this is beyond basic. Or maybe I'm being obtuse. But the in game instructions made no sense to me. Thanks in advance for any help!!!!

Much of your questions are answered on the idle battle page. In the idle page, on the left side below the challenges button there should be one that says battles. You can also see your points and where the next reward is
1) at least 10 players must join for an idle battle. They start every 30 minutes.
2) auto conquer is forced on so you auto take land
3) in battles, mortars attack other players. On the right side there is a pop out button, it shows the other players status and you can select who you attack
4) active artifacts are powerful in battles. Super charge army camp and time warp are the best IMO
5) Players who have been playing for years will have lots of advancements and high level
artifacts and can clear some of the maps quickly
6) That’s up to you. Look at the rewards and if it is worth spending time to get the first few rewards, but you are likely far away from getting in the top 5 for the better rewards

For the other questions, take a look at an idle guide. Reward structure for battles is at the bottom of this one

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1EHCM-n_4vq_Hv7V1wo9QSTcRP2ba4qRqBh8fOh5PiKk/mobilebasic

Edited 2026-04-24 00:50:21

Thank you. Most helpful.

FYI, if you haven't super ascended, it's unlikely you'll win a battle until you're most of the way through phase 4 and have at least an epic SAC and TW. But the reward is an epic artifact, so it's absolutely worth going for. Just keep your expectations low until then.

It can be very frustrating when you see people winning within a few seconds and you don't know why. Phase 4 gives you instant drafting, major army cache bonuses, the ability to milk money out of markets automatically, and auto buy mercenaries. Impossible to compete with that if you're still in phase 2 or 3, unless you're really lucky about the 9+ other players.

To answer your question whether you are wasting your time with battles, well, Idle itself is a waste of time of course, but it's fun for those that play it, so if you have time to waste, why not?

Battles, even if you finish last, give battle points. They are tallied automatically, and when you reach certain thresholds, you get a reward. Also automatically. These rewards are useful for Idle.

As new battler, you will probably get 10, 15 or 20 battle points most of the time. That may not seem like a lot, but there are battles every half hour, so that's 48 every day. If you enter lots of them, even when you're just starting out, you can easily get a couple hundred bp per day. For entering. Never mind actually doing something in the battle. You can try, but it's not likely to have a significant effect. Later, when you have better artifacts and advancements, it will get better. Much better. And perhaps, eventually, you will become one of those that finish in seconds, and then other new players will look at you in amazement, wondering how you did that!

Good luck in the battles, and have fun with Idle.