Summoners War New and Returning Player Guide

Read This First

Summoners War: Sky Arena is not an MMO, and the game you remember — or the game your friend described in 2019 — is not the game running today. The Summoner level cap is 100, not 50. The glory buildings are gone. The best rune dungeon is no longer B10. If you follow a five-year-old guide, you will waste weeks. This guide is written for two people: the brand-new summoner starting in November 2026, and the returning summoner coming back after years away. Both get the same road — the current one, verified against Com2uS’s own patch notes — and every place where the old game and the new game disagree is flagged in the open. This is Sky Arena, the 2014 Com2uS game, not Summoners War: Chronicles — a different game, with different systems, that this guide does not cover.

Summoners War: Sky Arena launched in Korea on April 17, 2014 and globally on June 12, 2014. It is a turn-based monster-collection RPG: you summon monsters from scrolls, evolve them to 6 stars, awaken them, rune them, and take them through dungeons, a tower, arenas, guild content, and raids. It came to PC via Steam on January 8, 2024, with cross-play to mobile. Twelve years in, it is still actively updated — the latest version is v9.3.8 (October 28, 2026), World Arena Season 39 runs October 5 to December 19, 2026, and the year has included a Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End collaboration and the SWC2026 championship in Seoul. The game is not dying. It is, however, deep enough that the first month decides the next year — this guide makes that first month count.

What Changed While You Were Gone

Returning players: this table is the fastest way to update your mental model. New players: it tells you which old guides to distrust.

The single most important row is the first one. Any guide that says the Summoner level cap is 50 is stale — it predates November 2023. The cap is 100, the Energy storage grew with it, and the old glory-building advice (buy the Sanctum of Energy, buy the Mysterious Plant) is dead: those buildings no longer exist, and their effects live in the Summoner skill tree now. If a guide tells you to spend Glory Points on a building, close it.

The Three Progressions

Summoners War has no single “level.” It has three progressions that move at different speeds, and new players fail by pushing the wrong one.

The veteran’s summary, repeated in every 2026 beginner guide: this game is about runes, not monsters. A mediocre monster with great runes beats a great monster with bad runes, every time. Your first month should be judged by one metric — can you farm Giant’s Keep consistently? — not by how many 5-star monsters you pulled. The summoning lottery is the fun; the rune farm is the game.

Summoner Level 1–100: The Road and the Energy It Unlocks

Summoner EXP comes from spending Energy — the more Energy you burn, the faster you level. Leveling up fully restores your Energy, which creates the classic loop: spend down to empty, level up, spend again.

Two honest caveats. First, the exact per-level Energy numbers between 1 and 100 were not published in the official notes beyond the endpoints (92 at Lv 1, 240 at Lv 100, 310 max) — this guide does not invent the middle of the table. Second, Energy regenerates at 1 per 5 minutes (12 per hour), so a full 240-Energy bar takes 20 hours to refill passively. That is why the game hands you Energy from everywhere — missions, events, Arena, the Temple of Wishes, level-ups — and why the energy economy gets its own guide (our Summoners War Sky Fever Season & Energy Farming Guide).

Summoner skills: from level 21, every level-up gives 5 skill points, and each skill upgrade costs 1 point. There are 400 points’ worth of upgrades in total, and at level 100 you can have all of them maxed. Spend them as you get them — they are the replacement for the old glory buildings, covering Energy storage, production, and combat buffs. There is no wrong order that cannot be fixed by leveling, because the points keep coming.

The First Week: Summoner’s Way and the Scenario

Your first week has one job: finish the Scenario and follow the Summoner’s Way questline. Do not farm dungeons yet. Do not pull scrolls hoping for a miracle. Do the questline.

1. Follow Summoner’s Way. The questline walks you through the game’s systems in order and pays out in monsters, runes, scrolls, and Energy. It is the tutorial that actually pays.
2. Clear the Scenario on Normal. 20 episodes, 7 stages each. Clearing it unlocks content and hands you rune sets that will carry your first dungeon team. You do not need good runes for the Scenario — you need to finish it.
3. Use Ameria’s Blessing hard. Your first 14 days come with double EXP and free rune removal. This is the most valuable two weeks in the game: level your dungeon team, move runes freely, and make your mistakes while they are free to fix.
4. Collect the free monsters. Bernard (Wind Griffon), Shannon (Wind Pixie), and the questline monsters are handed to you — they are your first dungeon team, not placeholders to replace. Veterans still use some of them at endgame.
5. Save your Crystals. Crystals are the premium currency. The beginner trap is spending them on scroll packs. The veteran rule is: Crystals buy Energy refills (and the occasional Premium Pack), never impulse summons. Full currency discipline is in the farming guide.

Your First Team: Farmable Monsters That Actually Work

You do not need a lucky pull to clear the early game. The core early team is farmable, and every 2026 beginner guide agrees on the names.

Devilmon discipline: Devilmons are the time-gated skill-up material, and the rule is absolute — feed them only to core natural 5-star monsters, starting with Veromos and Sigmarus. Never feed a Devilmon to a 3-star or 4-star monster. Every guide agrees on this, and every veteran regrets the one time they broke it.

Fusion: Veromos First, or Sigmarus First?

Here is the live debate in the Summoners War community, carried in full rather than settled. Both sides are right about different things.

The guide’s position: if you are a brand-new player following the Summoner’s Way questline, the game is already steering you toward Veromos — the fusion pieces are quest rewards, and the cleanse makes your first Giants team dramatically safer. Take the steering. If you are a returning player who already has Veromos, or you pulled a strong cleanser elsewhere, Sigmarus first is the faster road. Either way, fuse both eventually — they are the two most useful fusion monsters in the game, and the other fusion questline units (Verdehile for Dragons, Mellia, Balegyr) come after.

6-Starring, Evolution, and Awakening

Monsters are born at 1★ to 5★ (natural grade) and evolve upward by consuming other monsters as material. The maximum is 6★, level 40. Evolution raises the star grade and the level cap; it does not change the monster’s skills. A 6★ monster at level 40 has dramatically higher stats than the same monster at 5★ level 35 — 6-starring your core team is the single biggest stat jump in the early game.

• What to 6-star first: your farmer (the monster that clears Scenario Hell stages to level fodder), then Veromos or Sigmarus, then your Giants team core. Do not 6-star everything — each 6-star costs five 5-star fodder monsters, and fodder is leveled with Energy you could spend on runes.
• Awakening uses elemental essences (plus Magic essences) collected from the Halls of Elements. Awakening changes the monster’s appearance and name, raises stats, and can add or improve skills. Natural 5★ monsters need far more essences than natural 3★ — budget accordingly, and awaken your dungeon team before your trophy pulls.
• 2nd Awakening applies to some 2★ and 3★ monsters (including Kro) via the Dimension Hole. It is a mid-game project — Kro’s 2nd Awakening is what turns him from a quest reward into a damage dealer — not a first-week goal.
• Powering up (feeding monsters as EXP) is how monsters level between evolutions. Rainbowmon and Angelmon exist as dedicated fodder and EXP material — use them, not your useful monsters.

Runes: Your First Sets and the Rules That Govern Them

Each monster equips up to six runes. Matching two or four of the same set grants a set bonus. The sets you meet first come from Giant’s Keep; the sets you want later come from Dragon’s Lair and Necropolis.

The rune rules that save you Mana Stones:

• Slots 2, 4, and 6 take percentage primaries (Speed, HP%, Attack%, Defense%, Critical Rate, Critical Damage, Accuracy). Flat-stat primaries on those slots are bad — the only exception is flat Speed on slot 2. A flat Attack rune on slot 4 is vendor food.
• Do not power a rune to +15 unless it is 5★ or 6★ with good substats. Powering costs Mana Stones, and the cost climbs steeply. A +12 rune with the right main stat beats a +15 rune with the wrong one.
• Accuracy caps at 45% for Cairos Dungeons. More Accuracy than that wastes substats that belong in Speed or HP%. (PvP has different needs — that is a later conversation.)
• Speed is the stat. A team that moves first controls the fight. Early stat targets from the 2026 guides: your cleanser/buffer around 180+ Speed and 20,000+ HP on Swift + Energy (or broken sets) is a solid first Giants benchmark.

The Dungeon Ladder: Giants, Then Dragons, Then Necropolis

Cairos Dungeon is where runes come from, and the order you climb it is the order the game is designed around.

The B10 vs B12 vs Abyss Hard conflict, carried honestly: the classic ladder says farm Giant’s Keep B10, then B12. Newer guides (notably the 2026 PvE guide on gameplay.tips) say skip B10 and B12 entirely and go straight to Abyss Hard (GBAH/DBAH) — the highest difficulty — because Abyss Hard rune quality is far better and a GBAH team takes only days to build with the free Veromos and questline runes. Both routes clear the same content; the Abyss route is faster if your team can handle it, the B12 route is safer if it cannot. This guide does not declare a winner: try Abyss Hard first — if your team clears it consistently, stay there; if it wipes, farm B12 until your runes catch up.

Focus is the rule: do not touch Dragon’s Lair until your Giants team clears consistently. One dungeon at a time, one team at a time. Spreading Energy across three dungeons you cannot clear is how accounts stall for months.

The Endgame Map: ToA, Arena, Guilds, and Beyond

Once Giants is farming, the game opens up. None of this is urgent in week one — but knowing the map keeps you from spending resources in the wrong place.

• Trial of Ascension (ToA): 100 floors, Normal and Hard, resetting monthly. Devilmons and scrolls are the prizes. Baretta (Fire Sylph) is the classic ToA monster — crowd control and damage-over-time carry the tower.
• Arena: PvP against other players’ defenses. Glory Points buy scrolls and Devilmon pieces (not buildings anymore — those are gone). Arena does not use Energy — it uses wings, a separate refill. Fighter rank in your first months is a fine goal.
• World Arena: live PvP, seasonal. Season 39 runs October 5 to December 19, 2026. Pick/ban, real-time, and the most skill-testing mode in the game. Not a beginner priority.
• Guild content: Guild Battles, Siege Battle (Season 14 ran December 2023–February 2024; seasons continue), Tartarus’s Labyrinth. Join an active guild early — the rewards are free progression, and guildmates answer questions faster than any guide.
• Rift of Worlds / Raid: three-player co-op boss fights. The source of grindstones and gems, which upgrade runes beyond +15 power-ups. Mid-game onward.
• Dimension Hole: 2nd Awakening and Ancient Runes, using its own separate Dimension Hole Energy (1 per battle, regenerating 1 per 2 hours). A slow-burn side project.
• World Boss: send teams for loot including scrolls. Low effort, free rewards — do it whenever it is available.

Returning Player Checklist

Coming back after a year or more? Work this list in order. It is the fastest way to convert a dusty account into a current one.

1. Claim everything. Check the event page, your inbox, and the Sky Fever / anniversary rewards. Returning accounts often have unclaimed scrolls, Energy, and rune sets sitting in the mailbox.
2. Check your Summoner level and Energy cap. If you left at level 50, you are now at 50 with 0% EXP and a much bigger Energy bar. Your old Energy numbers are wrong — the cap is 240 base now.
3. Spend your Summoner skill points. Your old glory buildings are gone. Open the Summoner skill tree and spend the points you have banked from your level.
4. Take the free 5★ if an event offers one. Sky Fever Season (most recently September 1 – October 25, 2026) gave every player a default 5★ monster at max skill, 6★, level 40, and awakened — plus a daily +15 6★ Rare rune set and 1,000,000 Mana Stones for new and returning summoners. When a season like that is live, it is the single biggest catch-up mechanic in the game. When it is not live, the next one is annual — watch for it.
5. Re-rune before you re-summon. Your old runes are probably fine for their sets but wrong for the current meta (Violent everywhere, Speed everywhere). Spend a rune-removal day fixing your core team before chasing new monsters.
6. Try Abyss Hard. If your old B12 team can clear GBAH, your rune income just doubled in quality overnight.
7. Join a guild. Guild content is where the free Devilmon pieces and scrolls live now, and a guild is the fastest way to learn what changed.

The Daily and Weekly Loop

New-Player Traps

• Spending Crystals on scroll packs. The Premium Pack (750 Crystals for 11 Mystical Scrolls) is the only scroll purchase veterans defend — and even that is debated against Energy refills. Random shop scrolls and impulse pulls are the fastest way to stay poor.
• Feeding Devilmon to 4★ monsters. They are time-gated and irreplaceable. Nat 5s only.
• 6-starring everything. Each 6★ costs five 5★ fodder. 6-star your farmer and your dungeon core; leave the rest at 5★ until your runes justify more.
• Powering flat-stat runes on slots 2/4/6. Percentage primaries or nothing (except flat Speed on slot 2). Mana Stones spent on a flat Attack slot-6 rune are Mana Stones burned.
• Farming three dungeons at once. Giants until it is consistent, then Dragons. Focus is the whole early game.
• Trusting a pre-2023 guide. Cap 50, glory buildings, B10 as endgame — all stale. If a guide does not mention level 100 or Abyss Hard, it is out of date.
• Chasing a specific nat 5. The Mystical Scroll nat-5 rate is 0.5% — about one in 200 scrolls on average, with no hard pity. Play with what you pull; the farmable team clears the content.

Your First Farmer: Who Clears Hell Stages

Before your dungeon team exists, you need a farmer — one monster that can clear a Scenario Hell stage alone, so you can level fodder monsters (the 1★ and 2★ monsters you will sacrifice to evolve your team) without spending your own time on it.

The farmer rule: your farmer’s job is to convert Energy into leveled fodder while you are not looking. A farmer that clears a Hell stage in 60 seconds with 100% success beats a farmer that clears a harder stage in 3 minutes with 80% success — failed runs waste Energy, and slow runs waste your day. Build the farmer first, then the dungeon team, in that order.

Fodder math: evolving a monster to 6★ costs five 5★ monsters, and each 5★ costs four 4★ monsters. That is a pyramid of fodder, and the farmer is the machine that builds it. Every hour your farmer is not running is an hour your next 6★ is not getting closer.

Secret Dungeons and the Halls

Two farming systems new players meet early, and both are calendar-driven.

• Secret Dungeons: when you clear a Cairos Dungeon stage, a secret dungeon for a specific monster can open for one hour. Other players can enter yours, and you can enter theirs — the community shares them constantly. Belladeon (Light Inugami) comes from the Light secret dungeon, which opens on Saturday and Sunday; that weekend window is why new players plan their Belladeon farm for the weekend. Bring friends, bring guildmates, and do not miss the window.
• Halls of Elements: the elemental dungeons (Water, Fire, Wind, Light, Dark, Magic) rotate by day and drop the essences Awakening needs. Farm the hall of the element you need, on its day, and no other day — the rotation is the schedule.
• Rainbowmon and Angelmon: Rainbowmon are dedicated evolution fodder (level them and evolve them, do not waste them as EXP); Angelmon are dedicated EXP material. Both come from events, dungeons, and the shop. Use them for their jobs.

Trial of Ascension: Your First Tower Team

ToA is 100 floors, Normal and Hard, resetting monthly, and it pays Devilmons and scrolls — the two scarcest progression resources in the game. You do not need a perfect team to climb; you need crowd control and damage-over-time.

The ToA rule: climb as high as you can every month, even if you cannot clear floor 100. Every floor pays, and the Devilmon at the milestones is the prize — a free Devilmon a month is a free skill-up a month, and skill-ups compound. Despair runes (stun on hit) are the tower’s best friend: a stunned enemy deals no damage, and a tower full of stunned enemies is a tower you clear.

Guilds and Arena: The Free Progression You Should Not Skip

Join a guild in your first week. Not a top guild — an active one. Guild content pays in scrolls, Devilmon pieces, and Guild Points, and it pays for participation, not for winning. Tartarus’s Labyrinth, Guild Battles, and Siege Battle all reward showing up. A guild also answers questions in minutes that would take you hours of searching — and in a twelve-year-old game, the accumulated knowledge in a guild chat is worth more than any guide, including this one.

Arena, for beginners: set a defense, spend your wings, collect Glory Points. You do not need to win — you need to participate. Glory Points buy scrolls and Devilmon pieces in the Glory Shop (the buildings are gone, so there is nothing else to save for). Arena wings refill separately from Energy, so there is no conflict with your dungeon farm: spend both, every day.

World Arena is not for beginners. Live pick/ban PvP against real opponents, seasonal (Season 39 runs October 5 – December 19, 2026). Watch it, learn from it, and come back when your runes are ready. Queueing early teaches you nothing except that your runes are not ready.

The First Month, Week by Week

If week 4 ends with a consistent Giants farm and one 6★ monster, your account is on the rails. Everything after that is the same loop at higher numbers: better runes, more 6★ monsters, the next dungeon, the next tower. The first month is the only month that is ever hard.

Rune Progression by Week: What “Good Enough” Looks Like

New players drown in rune advice because nobody tells them what “good enough” means at each stage. Here it is, stage by stage.

The +12 rule, restated: power a rune to +12 cheaply and stop. Only push to +15 when the rune is 5★ or 6★ with good substats. The Mana from +12 to +15 is the most expensive Mana in the game, and a +12 keeper beats a +15 placeholder every time.

Arena: Your First Defense and First Wings

Arena runs on wings, not Energy, so it never competes with your dungeon farm. Set a defense team (your best monsters, Speed-tuned, with a healer), spend your wings every day, and collect Glory Points. Your rank in the first months does not matter — Fighter is a fine goal, and the weekly rewards pay whether you win or lose most of your attacks.

• Attack the teams you can beat. Arena lists opponents by rank; pick the ones with weak-looking defenses and farm the wins. There is no honor in attacking the hardest defense on your list.
• Speed wins Arena. The team that moves first controls the fight. Bernard’s Speed boost is why he is on arena teams a decade after launch.
• Glory Points buy scrolls and Devilmon pieces. That is their job now that the buildings are gone. Do not save them — spend them, every week.

Patch State (as of November 9, 2026)

Live now: v9.3.8 (October 28, 2026). World Arena Season 39 runs October 5 – December 19, 2026. The year’s big beats: the Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End collaboration, the SWC2026 championship in Seoul, and Sky Fever Season 2026 (September 1 – October 25), the annual progression event — see the farming guide for the full Sky Fever breakdown and the energy economy it ran on. The next Sky Fever is expected annually; no 2027 dates have been announced. Steam PC play (since January 2024) means the same account, the same progression, on mobile or desktop.

What to watch: balance patches land regularly and can move a fusion monster or a rune set’s value overnight — Veromos and Sigmarus have survived every meta shift so far, which is why they are the safe fusions. New monster families arrive with Special Summon rate-ups (same 0.5% nat-5 rate, focused pool, no hard pity) — save scrolls for a family you want, not for a random Tuesday.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Every fact in this guide carries its source. The level-100 revamp comes from Com2uS’s own v8.1.4 notes; progression and dungeon advice comes from 2026 beginner guides, updated November 9, 2026; conflicts (B10 vs Abyss Hard, Veromos vs Sigmarus) are carried in the guide, not settled silently. Last checked November 9, 2026.

• Com2uS official: Summoners War v8.1.4 update (MAX Summoner Lv 50 to 100; Energy 42 to 92 at Lv 1, 140 to 240 at Lv 100, 310 max)
• Wikipedia: Summoners War — Sky Arena (release dates, scenario structure, 6-star / level 40 cap)
• Summoners War Sky Arena Info: Level 100 update summary (skill points, glory building removal, repeat battle 30)
• Aayyy: Summoners War Early Game Monster and Dungeon Progression Guide (updated Nov 9, 2026 — Giants first, 45% Accuracy, Devilmon rule)
• Beathem: Guide New Player Beginners (Ameria's Blessing, GB12 team, Sigmarus-first debate)
• Theria Games: Summoners War Beginners Guide (Summoner's Way, GB10 team, fusion priorities)
• Gameplay.tips: Summoners War Ultimate Beginners Guide to PvE (Abyss Hard skip-B10 route, GBAH team)
• RPG Site: Summoners War — Sky Arena launches on Steam in January 2024 (Lv 100, repeat battle 30, cross-play)
• Com2uS official: Sky Fever Season 2026 (Sep 1 – Oct 25, 2026)
• METAMMO: Summoners War Updates 2026 (v9.3.8 Oct 28, 2026; World Arena Season 39 Oct 5 – Dec 19, 2026)