Innovate Hub The first session
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The first session, step by step
A worked example of what the opening hour looks like in a battle collection RPG on a desktop, what the tutorial is actually establishing, and the three points where a decision is being made without feeling like one.
Short answer. Expect a guided tutorial of roughly thirty to sixty minutes that teaches the combat, hands out a strong starting character and introduces the shop. Link the account and turn off automatic battle for the first few fights. The tutorial is where habits are set, so treat the first free draw and the first purchase prompt as decisions rather than as steps.
On this page
The shape of an opening hour
Openings in this genre are heavily guided, and the guidance has a purpose beyond teaching the controls. A tutorial has to demonstrate that combat is interesting, that collecting characters is rewarding, and that progress is quick — all in the window before a new player decides whether to come back tomorrow. Everything in the first hour is arranged around those three demonstrations.
Knowing that is not a reason for suspicion. It is a reason to notice that the pace of the first hour is not the pace of the game. Rewards arrive faster, restrictions are relaxed, and a strong character is usually given rather than earned. The second week is the honest sample, and a reader deciding whether a title suits them is better served by reaching it than by judging the tutorial.
Step by step, with what each stage is establishing
A scripted opening battle
The first fight is usually unlosable and exists to teach the interface: selecting a character, choosing between a basic attack and a special ability, and watching a cooldown. Play these manually. The habits formed here determine whether the combat system is ever understood.
A named character is granted
Somewhere in the first ten minutes a strong character arrives free. This establishes what a good unit feels like. It is genuinely useful and it is also a demonstration of what the acquisition system is for.
The campaign map opens
Progress is presented as a sequence of stages across locations. Early stages clear in a minute or two. This is where the sense of rapid progress comes from, and the rate does not hold.
Upgrade systems are introduced one at a time
Levelling, ranking up, equipment and skill upgrades are usually unlocked separately across the first hour so that each is explained on its own. Each consumes a different resource, and the resources are what later progress is limited by.
The first free draw
A free multi-draw on the acquisition system is standard. It teaches the mechanic and the presentation around it — the animation, the sound, the reveal. Note how it feels, because that feeling is the product being demonstrated.
The shop is opened for you
A guided visit to the store, often with a starter offer attached and a timer on it. This is the point at which the tutorial stops teaching and starts selling, and it is worth recognising the transition.
Daily tasks are shown
A list of small objectives that reset each day, with a reward for completing them. This establishes the return-tomorrow loop that the rest of the game runs on.
Three decisions disguised as steps
A tutorial presents everything as a step to be completed, including the parts that are not steps at all. Three of them are decisions, and they are easier to make deliberately if they are recognised in advance.
Recognise these when they appear
- Linking the account. Often offered once, in passing, and skippable. Take it. An unlinked account is tied to the machine and cannot be recovered. This is covered in before you install.
- The starter offer. Usually presented with a countdown and a comparison to a larger bundle. Whether it is good value cannot be judged until the shop’s per-unit pricing is worked out, which takes five minutes and is set out in working out what it costs. The offer is not the last one; these recur.
- Storing a payment method. Convenience at the moment of the first purchase, and the reason later purchases take one tap. Decide it separately from the purchase itself.
Worked example: reading a starter offer before answering it
Suppose the tutorial offers a bundle of 1,000 gems for AUD 7.99, described as a large saving.
- Open the ordinary shop and find the smallest gem bundle — say 500 gems for AUD 7.99. That is 1.6 cents per gem.
- The starter bundle gives 1,000 gems for the same AUD 7.99, so 0.8 cents per gem. The saving against the smallest ordinary bundle is real.
- Now find what a single draw costs — say 300 gems. The bundle is a little over three draws.
- The question to answer is not whether the discount is real. It is whether three draws are worth AUD 7.99 to you, before knowing what they will contain.
Prices and rates are illustrative. Use the figures in the shop in front of you, in AUD.
Automatic battle, and why to delay it
Most titles in this genre include a mode that plays battles without input, and some unlock it during the tutorial. It is a legitimate convenience for repeating content that has already been cleared, and it is the reason these games can be played in short sessions.
Using it immediately, however, means the combat system is never learned. Automatic play chooses abilities by a simple rule rather than by judgement, and a player who has only watched it will not know why a later fight is failing. Clearing the first dozen battles manually costs perhaps twenty minutes and is the difference between understanding the game and watching it. Turn it on afterwards, for content that has stopped being interesting.
What to do when the tutorial ends
The end of the guided section is the natural checkpoint, and it is the right moment to do the small amount of administration that makes the following weeks predictable.
Ten minutes, once
- Confirm the account is linked, and confirm it by signing out and back in rather than by assuming.
- Turn on two-factor authentication if the publisher offers it.
- Open the settings and find the notification controls. Daily reminders are on by default in most titles.
- Look at the daily task list and time one full round of it. That number is the input for the time budget worksheet.
- Open the shop and write down the smallest bundle price and the cost of one draw, in AUD. That is the input for the cost worksheet.
- Decide, in writing, the monthly figure the game is allowed — including zero.
What to watch out for
During and shortly after the tutorial
- Timers on starter offers. The same category of offer reappears; a countdown is a prompt to decide quickly rather than a reason to.
- Judging the game by the tutorial. Reward rates during the guided section are not the ongoing rates.
- Accepting notification permissions without looking. These drive the return-daily loop and can be adjusted later in settings.
- Skipping the account linking prompt because it interrupts the flow. It is usually offered once and easily missed.
- Sites offering codes, free currency or account services for a title you have just installed. Entering credentials anywhere other than the publisher’s own client is covered in protecting a game account.
The title advertised here
Raid: Shadow Legends is the game advertised on this site. Its publisher describes tactical player-versus-environment combat in which the composition of a team decides the outcome, alongside dungeons, Clan Boss fights and a fully-voiced campaign across twelve locations. What its own tutorial contains, how long it runs, and what it offers along the way are not stated in that description, and this site does not assert them — the game profile separates what the publisher states from what it does not.
Paid link. If you register and start the tutorial after following it, ITmatters s.r.o. is paid a fixed fee by the game’s affiliate programme. There is no cost to you and no purchase involved.
Visit the Raid: Shadow Legends websiteSources
Descriptions of tutorial structure on this page are general observations about the battle collection RPG genre and are not claims about any particular title. Statements about the advertised game come only from its publisher’s own description. Guidance on multi-factor authentication is published by the Australian Cyber Security Centre. Last reviewed 16 September 2026.