One extremely important thing that you should do is to level up your fighters using the various stones you collect while battling. This way, your fighters will get better and your chances at winning will improve. Pay attention, however, to the rarity of your fighters: the rarer the fighter, the better it will be from the get-go. So it makes sense to focus on leveling up the better ones since you will be using them more often than the others.

There are three different categories in which you can assign skill points, each with three various options. Choosing them is pretty difficult for sure, but I think that for the long run it's better to focus on increasing the damage you deal. The increases are very small anyway and I don't think that they will really make a difference... but being able to cause a bit more tap damage always sounds good. If you want to really specialize your heroes, you can do so as well: have some that you will use mostly in the story mode - so invest in the skills related to that. As a long term strategy for free to play gamers, I don't think this is a very good strategy tough since you won't be able to unlock a ton of fighters... but it definitely is an option!

Waza Cards are extremely important because they give your fighters unique moves and special skills. I absolutely love them, to be honest, and I consider them a great way for Bandai Namco to add unique, easy to pull moves in Tekken for mobile. You get more Waza cards by collecting them from shards you get for unlocked heroes. This is why it's a good idea to try and hold onto your shards a bit longer after getting enough to unlock a hero as you might unlock them directly through a different method. In this case, you start with a huge advantage in terms of Waza options and you can create an awesome deck from that. Mastering the Waza Cards takes some practice and it is, in my opinion, the key to winning the games. You have to pay close attention to the special moves that the Waza Cards unleash as some are much better than the others, even if the damage dealt is similar.

What really makes a Waza Card extremely useful is the speed of the animation, believe it or not. Some of the special moves triggered by these cards take a while before they actually start causing damage, time that your opponent might use to hit you. That's one of the reasons why I consider the heroes with Wazas with a fast animation a lot better: this way, your hits will connect more often than not. Apart from the animation speed which is the most important, you should take into consideration the proximity element: some moves require you to be very close to the opponent, while others can cause damage from a greater distance. Again, I think that those that allow you to keep a distance are much better since there's a smaller risk of you getting hit before connecting your punch or kick. Finally, there are combos for correct Waza combinations and you will also use these through practice. The AI also helps you a bit by adding numbers over the cards in the bottom right of the screen, if you have more than one unlocked and if they can be turned into a Waza Combo aka Waza Rush. If that's the case, simply activate them in the indicated order for massive damage.

There aren't a ton of ways to unlock new fighters and the most common method will be grinding through the game modes and collecting cards to unlock them. Keep an eye on special events, as that is the most likely method of you getting some nice Fighter deals in the long run. The Dojo Vault is another place where you can earn some Shards from opening the chests that come from winning battles. This is why it's extremely useful and important to buy the third slot with 100 gems as soon as possible: this allows you to work on unlocking three chests at a time, which makes it even easier for you to get more characters. In the Dojo, your Tier is also important - the better it is, the better the rewards you will get. So make sure that you level up your heroes in order to get the best possible rewards. Finally, you can unlock more characters or get Character shards by completing the Story mode, so make sure that you fight often there as well.

Before starting your battle, if you have this option, make sure that you select a fighter than has an elemental bonus over the enemy. This will see them cause 15% more damage, which is extremely useful in any fight. No need to wait for healthy fighters, either! Although a full health bar does increase your chances of winning, you will see that it's still possible to win most fights even if your characters don't start with a full health bar. As you will get better by practicing, you will be able to go into battle with lower and lower health. Of course, if it's an important fight with a lot at stake (like even battles), it's best to play it safe and heal your players. Remember that there's a limit of how many heal packs you can hold at any moment, so instead of putting them to waste, it's better to use them.