Fun once I found the rhythm, but the game makes you learn progression the hard way
After a full week with My Hero Academia: United Survival, I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. I eventually built a team strong enough to push through two chapters, learned when Auto Play was useful, and took manual control when bosses exposed how unreliable Auto could be.
The problem is that getting there felt far more confusing than it needed to. United Survival gives free players a surprising amount of upgrade material, but it throws too many progression systems at you at once and rarely explains which one matters next. I eventually figured it out by experimenting with Team upgrades, Trust, character levels, equipment, Collections and rank-ups. The game should have taught me that progression path instead of waiting for me to stumble into it.
- Free resources were enough to build a team capable of progressing well beyond the first wall without paying.
- The biggest problem is onboarding: the game explains individual systems but not which upgrade path should be prioritized.
- Auto Play is convenient for routine stages, but bosses may require manual movement and better power-up choices.
- Recruiting higher-rarity characters helped, but team strength improved most dramatically once I started using the progression resources I already had.
- The store can make spending feel like the obvious answer before the game has clearly taught you how to use its free progression systems.
First Impressions
My first impression of United Survival wasn't particularly strong. The opening battles required little more than moving my character around the screen while attacks happened automatically. Periodically, I was presented with several power-ups of different star levels and asked to choose one, but the game did very little to explain how those choices fit into the larger combat system.
There was dialogue explaining some of the mechanics, but the opening throws information at me quickly enough that I ended up skipping through some of it. That became a recurring problem outside combat as well. The Home screen quickly filled with buttons, notification markers, currencies, missions and menus, with very little indication of what actually deserved my attention.
The bright yellow, black and white presentation fits My Hero Academia, but it also makes an already crowded interface harder to read. After unlocking the Home, Team and Enlist screens, I found myself deliberately ignoring most of the available buttons because the game wasn't giving me a reason to interact with them.
Gameplay
Combat is built around movement, automatic attacks and regular power-up selections. Auto mode can move the character and choose those power-ups for you, so routine stages can become almost completely hands-off. The Assist ability still requires manual input, but for a while I was mostly watching the game clear stages for me.
That changed once the difficulty increased. I hit stages where Auto Play repeatedly got the team killed, and manual control made a real difference. I could avoid damage, keep the team alive longer and make better decisions during boss fights. I eventually cleared a boss manually after Auto had failed.
That gave the combat more purpose, but it also exposed the trade-off. Manual play is more effective, yet the battles are long enough that constantly moving, dodging and stopping for power-up selections can become tedious. Auto is the more convenient way to play, even when it isn't the smarter one.
Characters & Team Building
I started with a basic three-character team and initially relied on Auto Set to choose what the game considered strongest. As I progressed, Enlist gave me several higher-rarity pulls, including SR versions of Katsuki Bakugo and Tomura Shigaraki. Those pulls looked like the obvious answer to my progression problem because the game puts so much emphasis on rarity.
But simply having three SR characters did not suddenly solve the problem. One of my early all-SR teams was only around 47K strength, and Auto Set actually produced a mixed-rarity team around 58K. Later I built a three-SR team around 63K. Character rarity mattered, but it was only one part of the progression system.
Progression & The Grind
This is where my opinion changed the most. Early in the week, I was stuck far below a stage recommendation of roughly 67K. I kept using the upgrades I understood, still died, and assumed the game was pushing me toward stronger characters.
The breakthrough came when I stopped treating progression as one system. I started ranking up the characters I was actually using, spending coins and upgrade materials, improving equipment and Collections, and using Trust progression to unlock additional character upgrades. I had accumulated plenty of blue upgrade resources, but some of them were unavailable to Todoroki until I raised the relevant Trust level.
Once I started combining those systems, the numbers moved quickly. Hawks went from Level 11 toward Level 19, Todoroki gained access to additional upgrades, equipment and Collections increased, and the same general core team eventually reached more than 105K strength.
The important part is that I did not need to buy my way through that wall. The game had already given me many of the resources I needed. I just didn't understand where they belonged. That is both encouraging for free players and a criticism of the onboarding. A progression system this layered needs to tell a struggling player what to improve next instead of presenting six different upgrade paths and hoping one of them gets clicked.
Monetization
United Survival constantly keeps Enlist currencies, banners and store prompts within reach, and after clearing a major stage I was offered a limited "Surprise Sale" for 300 premium currency. That is standard territory for a gacha game, but the timing matters.
My concern is less that spending exists and more that the game makes it easy to think spending is the solution. When I was underpowered, recruiting stronger characters seemed like the obvious move because I did not yet understand how much unused progression material I already had. A player who hits the same wall could reasonably start buying or pulling for characters before realizing that Trust, rank-ups, levels, equipment and Collections may do more for the team they already own.
During this review I stayed free-to-play. The free tickets and resources gave me multiple SR characters and enough upgrade material to progress through two chapters. That is a better free-player outcome than my first few days suggested.
The Daily Routine
For most of the week, my routine was simple: log in, collect whatever the game had made available, spend resources on the current team, then see how far Auto Play could take me. The free daily Continue gave me another attempt when the team was underpowered, so I used that as a natural stopping point.
By the end of the week, the routine became more deliberate. Instead of automatically chasing a new character whenever I got stuck, I checked the team itself first: character level, rank-ups, equipment, Collections and Trust. That was the rhythm the game should have established from the beginning.
Seven-Day Review Log
- Monday, August 24: Initial setup, first battles, team recruitment, equipment, Auto mode, and Home/Team/Enlist exploration.
- Tuesday, August 25: Agency and Trust unlocked, first KO and free Continue tested, Training unlocked, Midoriya trained, and another KO triggered a brief recommendation to enhance character stats.
- Wednesday, August 26: Team reached roughly 30K against a stage recommendation near 67K. Auto Play and the daily revive were not enough to overcome the gap.
- Thursday, August 27: Used more Team upgrades and reached roughly 37K. Manual movement improved survival, but long battles and repeated power-up selections made manual play more tedious.
- Friday through Sunday: Used Enlist tickets, added multiple SR characters, tested Auto Set, and learned that rarity alone did not produce the strongest team. Character and equipment progression became more important.
- Monday, August 31: Combined character levels, rank-ups, Trust unlocks, equipment and Collections, pushed the team past 100K, manually cleared a boss Auto Play could not handle, and progressed beyond two chapters.
UI and Onboarding
The game has five main navigation areas: Agency, Team, Home, Trust and Enlist. Each one adds more systems, currencies and notification markers. The game often explains what an individual feature does when it unlocks, but it does not do a good job of establishing hierarchy.
That became the central frustration of the review. I knew my team was weak, but the game gave me too many ways to make it stronger at once. I could level characters, train them, rank them up, improve Trust, equip items, upgrade equipment, improve Collections, change the team or recruit new characters. What I needed was a progression recommendation based on why I had just lost.
Instead, I learned by experimentation. That works eventually, but it makes the early game feel more complicated than it actually is. Once I understood the relationship between the systems, progression became much easier.
Updates & Events
During this review, events and banners were constantly visible around the main game, but they were not the deciding factor in whether I could progress. The more important discovery was that ordinary free progression resources were already enough to strengthen my core team substantially.
How It Compares
United Survival sits in familiar mobile gacha territory: character recruitment, layered progression, daily resources, event banners and enough automation to turn routine stages into background activity. What stands out less is the structure itself and more how quickly it introduces all of those systems.
I would rather see progression arrive in clearer stages. Teach me character leveling first, make me use it, then introduce rank-ups, equipment, Trust and Collections as the difficulty demands them. United Survival instead gives me several answers before I understand the question.
Does It Hold Up?
At the four-day mark, I was close to giving up. I was badly underpowered, Auto Play kept failing, and manually playing long stages did not feel rewarding enough to justify the extra effort. The last few days changed that.
Once I found the progression rhythm, the game became easier to understand and I moved through more content without spending money. Bosses also gave manual control a reason to exist. I still don't think the core combat is strong enough to carry the game on its own, but I ended the week in a much better place than I was halfway through it.
That does not erase the onboarding problem. If a game gives me enough free resources to succeed but makes me think I need to recruit my way out of every wall, the progression design is working against the player. United Survival became more enjoyable after I figured it out. I just wish the game had been the thing that taught me.
Pros & Cons
- Generous free resources during the opening progression
- Manual control matters when Auto Play struggles
- Multiple SR characters obtainable without spending during my test
- Layered progression gives you several ways to improve an existing team
- Strong My Hero Academia presentation
- Poor guidance on which progression system to prioritize
- Too many systems and notification markers introduced at once
- Auto Play can fail badly on bosses without explaining why
- Manual combat is more effective but can become tedious
- Store and recruitment prompts can look like the solution before free upgrades are understood
Final Verdict
My Hero Academia: United Survival finished the week stronger than it started. I went from watching Auto Play fail against a progression wall to building a 100K-plus team, manually beating bosses and clearing more than two chapters without paying.
I can recommend giving it a try if you're a My Hero Academia fan and don't mind learning a busy mobile progression system. I would not recommend spending money just because the first major wall makes your current roster look weak. Check the progression systems you already have first. In my case, the resources were there. The instructions were not.