I created Chaoren as a placeholder, someone to let my league, Time's Arrow, take part in the League War IX without dragging my average league strength up enough to make winning nearly impossible.
It has been 4 weeks since I created him, I have reached level 50 and gotten 2105 wins in battle. It required a lot of play, something I will probably not do quite so much of in the future, but it also requires playing smart.
There are a few basic rules I have followed for play.
#1) Save your free cards. You are not going to be able to afford full Bux powers constantly, so having a placeholder that actually gives you some benefit is better than having nothing in the slot.
#2) Play Fight Club Daily. Start as high up the roster as you have Stamina for. You get Crystal and Morphons...and if you get any victories they are as valuable in terms of Crystal and Experience as possible. Always start from the ones you are most likely to lose to and work down to those you have the best chance of beating. This maximizes your return from the stamina you use, as the amount you win is 2 crystal and 1 XP per stamina point invested...so fighting a character LAST for a 30 stamina investment gets you 30 XP and 60 crystal if you win, while defeating the same character first would get you only 1 XP and 2 Crystal.
#3) Fight everyone at your own level. This shows who you can beat, you can go back and challenge those again.
#4) Do Patrols and Missions. Patrols give you Bux, cards, crystals, occasional gear, and Morphons, even if not usually XP. Missions give you Bux and XP, and sometimes other things. You will need the Bux to keep your powers up.
#5) Keep your career up to date. The More your income the stronger the Bux powers you can afford. At low levels, most of your powers will be Bux.
#6) Maximize your Bux and Crystal powers: You are better off with slightly fewer maximized powers than you are with more lower powers in most cases.
#7) Use Morphons wisely. Chaoren is not connected to Facebook, so I have to spend 30 MP every 10 levels to get Henchmen. That means I have very few Morphons from leveling to use. I spent a number getting some basic Morphon powers in batches of 5 for the discount...that way I would be strong enough to win my early fights and some later duels. I spent others buying 4 pieces of gear (morphons I got by completing quests and by writing articles here). Everything else Morphon I have, I got from patrols and missions. There are a number of ways to gain Morphons, ranging from fiction stories (personal or collective) to articles (like this one) to drawing/coloring pictures, to costume contests(upcoming for Halloween). Participation in building the universe of Heroes Rising is the main point, just do what you can for the game world and you will be rewarded.
#8) Do the daily missions. Early on you will need the Bux, later on you need the XP and Morphons you get more.
#9) Bank your Bux. I have to thank all of you who do not do so for contributing to my bank account, without all the boney gathered from others I would not have done as well in the LW as I did.
#10) Fight those you know you can beat: As often as you have time for, so you level up.
#11) Increase your speed (Movement Skill). When you have Skill points to spend, spend half of them on Speed. Speed lets you hit and dodge better. I have split the others between Stamina so I can complete more missions and fight everyone in Fight Clubs, and HP so I can survive attacks.
By following these rules, I have successfully beaten at least one person twice my level and a number of other characters higher level than I am.