Now that G.I. Joe: Battleground has reached mass release (via iOS, anyway, with Android coming soon!) I figured it was time to start gathering together some tips and tricks. The first questions that have really seemed to emerge in the short time that G.I. Joe: Battlegrounds has been launched as revolved around promoting your characters.

I took some time to write up a quick tutorial about this that will hopefully help ease some confusion.

Promoting Characters

One of the draws for accumulating multiple cards in G.I. Joe: Battleground is the fact that you can “promote” character cards into even more powerful cards. By combining cards together of the same character, you can increase the stats of that character and in some cases, evolve that character into a totally new, more powerful card.
There are some things you must keep in mind for this process.

Star Ratings

The Star Ratings on the upper left of each card will give you an indication of how powerful that card is and how powerful it can possibly be. Cards will have anywhere from 1 – 4 stars, and any number of them can be “filled in”.
Cards with 4 stars, but only 1 “filled in” star have the largest capacity for promotions, as one of those stars is filled in every time you “promote” a card. For example, if you find a Lady Jaye card with one filled in star (and three blank ones) she can be promoted more times (and thus be more powerful) than a Lady Jaye card with two filled in stars.


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Certain Rare cards (like General Hawk) only have two stars to begin with, and if both of those stars are already filled in, those cards cannot be promoted at all.


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In my opinion, you should target the 4-star, 1 filled in star cards for promotion first, as they have the largest potential to be as powerful as possible, though it will take some time and effort. I would also recommend that you not even bother to work on promoting C (Common) or UC (UnCommon) cards as they will not gain enough power to be worthwhile. That is, unless the UC card has four empty stars and can possibly be upgraded to the maximum (as is the case with the UC Barricade from the recent Cobra Battle Simulator event).


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Leveling vs. Promoting

There are many different ways to improve your cards as you play through G.I. Joe: Battleground, and it can be a little confusing. When talking about “Promoting” I will also be talking about “Levelling” and they are two different things. As you play through a mission or even in PVP, your cards will gain “Levels” and get more powerful as a result. Some cards have a max level of 40, some have a max of 70, and the most powerful cards have a max of 99. The goal before you promote is to have your secondary card be the highest “level” it can be. The once the level is maxed, you can go through promotion.


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Primary and Secondary Cards

When promoting cards, you select a “Primary” and a “Secondary” card. These cards must be of the same character (but do not necessarily have to be the same card). The Primary card must have at least one empty star in order to be promoted.

When cards are promoted, the primary card gains 5% of the stats from the secondary card, unless the secondary card is fully leveled. If the secondary card is fully leveled, the primary card gains 10% of the stats from the secondary. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that you level the secondary card up to max before using it to promote the primary.

Keep in mind, the primary card gains the stats from the secondary, so the primary card does not necessarily have to be at max level to gain 10% stat boost. Only the secondary card must be at that max level.
But if you plan on using the result of this promotion to promote yet another card, you’ll want to be sure to level this card up as well to act as the secondary. Keep in mind that your "Leader" card is an exception, and cannot be promoted or used as a secondary card in the promotion of another.

The “Perfect” Promotion

In some cases, you may end up with enough cards in order to make a “perfect promotion”, which makes a card as powerful as it can possibly be. This will likely not happen often, but during events or for certain boss cards, you can sometimes accumulate enough cards to do this.

A perfect promotion requires EIGHT of the same card. We will number these cards 1 – 8 (for obvious reasons). The Primary card in each case must only have 1 filled in star. The way it works is like this:


Card 1 + 2 = Card A
Card 3 + 4 = Card B
Card 5 + 6 = Card C
Card 7 + 8 = Card D


In order for this to be a perfect upgrade, the secondary cards at each point must be at their max level, and again, the primary card must only have one filled in star. After all of these upgrades above are done, each resulting card should have 2 stars. After you’ve combined all of these cards, and then once again leveled up the secondary, you can do the following:


Card A + B = Card 10
Card C + D = Card 20


After these upgrades are finished, you should have two cards that have three stars. That essentially means they can only be upgraded one more time. Make sure the secondary card is fully leveled again, and then do the following:


Card 10 + Card 20 = MAX LEVEL “PERFECT” PROMOTION


The flowchart below might give better visuals on how to progress through the promotion. The star icons in each box represent how many stars the card will have before and after promotion.



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For a more visual look, the following flowchart (courtesy of kneroh) shows it in even better detail:

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Obviously opportunities to do this are somewhat few and far between as it can be a challenge to build up 8 of the same cards. If you have enough invite codes, you could potentially do this with Storm Shadow, and recent events have supplied high ranking members with a large number of cards like Quick Kick, Dusty, Gung Ho, and Destro.

Using this technique requires a lot of patience, but the result will be a very powerful card that should give you the upper hand in many cases. Is it worth the trouble? That’s your decision to make.

I've been leveling an EP (epic) Lady Jaye, 3 stars. I wish I had gotten an R with more stars to promote but can't see Lady Jaye not being in my squad. Second Wind is just too good an ability to have.

I haven't seen a value in upgrading using anything higher than uncommon.
I have been lucky with promotions as I have used 2 rare's, 1 that I leveled up a bunch and a fresh rare. They have gotten me max epic promotions several times.

Awesome article! I'm hoping go have my first perfect character (PD Destro) by the next event!

Tip: have the characters you want to level up in your Joe or Cobra line up and have your most powerful characters in your mixed line up. When you hit a PvP select your mixed line up to fight for you. Your win ratio will go up and you will develop other characters at the same time.

Also there is value in promoting Common and Uncommon characters, they are needed to complete the collection. I have 1 perfect Tomax. My Snake Eyes is almost perfect.

Tip: have the characters you want to level up in your Joe or Cobra line up and have your most powerful characters in your mixed line up. When you hit a PvP select your mixed line up to fight for you. Your win ratio will go up and you will develop other characters at the same time.

Also there is value in promoting Common and Uncommon characters, they are needed to complete the collection. I have 1 perfect Tomax. My Snake Eyes is almost perfect.

Holy cow! You were able to randomly snag 8 1-star tomax cards?!

Holy cow! You were able to randomly snag 8 1-star tomax cards?!

No I got a couple of rare Tomax's and promoted them. 1 of them I worked up to a level 50ish and promoted him with another rare Tomax I snagged they combined to a perfect Tomax. There are no more upgrades I can do. He is darked out on the promotion page and the upgrade page.

Anyone know how to access the battle simulator. I saw it was live but don't k ow where it is.

Anyone know how to access the battle simulator. I saw it was live but don't k ow where it is.

https://www.facebook.com/GiJoeBattleGroundFans

According to the fansite it's just a glitch announcement right now. I'm sure it will go live soon enough.


Oh and on the topic of promoting, I just found out the hard way tgat any Uncommon card (UC) can not be promoted into a Rare (R) or above.

I have a 2 star Firefly that I was going to feed into my 3 star but I decided I'd level up 2 Uncommon (Renegades) Firefly and promote them into each other to make a 2 star, then feed those to my Rare 2 star making him a 3 before combining him with the Epic, obvisously to get a 4 star. For whatever reason this can not be done though. Sucks that I leveled 2 UC's to 40... and I did the same thing with Sigma Six UC Cobra Commander that I was developing at the same time. Whoops... 3 characters to level 40 for no reason. Ugh.

But can still use those UC to Promote a Rare though right?

UC promoted/fed to another UC won't make an R but a UC promoted/fed into a R will promote that one.

Promoting can be tricky. You have to look in re promotion screen to see if the card is available.

Also every card will tell you how far you can promote that one. There are stars and empty stars. The empty stars tell you how far you can promote that card. If all the stars are filled out they won't show up on the promotion screen.

But can still use those UC to Promote a Rare though right?

UC promoted/fed to another UC won't make an R but a UC promoted/fed into a R will promote that one.

No you can not. That's what I'm saying. Here was my plan with Cobra Commander.

I have 1 Rare 2-star with 2 empty (hooded), 1 Rare 1-star with 3 empty (hooded)

If I combined those together I'd make a 3-star with 1 empty star

So I build up an UC Sigma Six Commander. 1 star with 1 empty star.

I wanted to combine that UC SS CC with my 1-star hooded to make a 2-star Rare Hooded Commander that I could then promote with my other 2 star hooded Cobra Commander to make a 3-star with 1 open star Resolute Commander.

See what I'm saying? Sorry Mamu this has nothing to do with open stars or not understanding how that system works this is just info that no matter what the combination, no matter how many open or full stars you have you can not put a Uncommon Card into a Rare or better.

If you take a rare 1 star and a rare multiple star of the same character you will get an epic. If there is an epic version. It actually does have to do with filled in stars, in reguards to if you can promote them or not.

If you take a rare 1 star and a rare multiple star of the same character you will get an epic. If there is an epic version. It actually does have to do with filled in stars, in reguards to if you can promote them or not.

I'm talking about using uncommon cards with rare or higher. Not using rare with rare or epic. I understand how the star system works.

I have use rare to promote an Epic, and I have use uncommon to promote a rare to a higher star rare. But if the stars are maxed on the card it can't be used for promotion.

So all those UC Gung-Hos that I got from the event are useless?

I don't know.... I screwed up after the first event with Quick Kick because didn't know about the 5% and 10% differences in stat carry-over.

Had 1 Rare QK and a bunch of UC QK from the event. Promoted the UC into the R and made it an Epic.

The artwork changed and QK got access to the Dragonflyby vehicle attack (which came in handy during the Takedown Eveny when the lvl 1 Epic QK would call in the Dragonfly in the same attack as Leader Flint would call in the Tomahawk).

I know the Gung-Hos are UC and got a bunch of 'em. Also got a bunch of UC Hector Ramirezs that were able to promote into a R Hector.

Dang. I've had a bunch of Hector's and he's never shown up in the promotion screen. Also which Gung Ho? There are 2 Uncommon Gung Ho, the Original and the Resolute versions.

Dang. I've had a bunch of Hector's and he's never shown up in the promotion screen. Also which Gung Ho? There are 2 Uncommon Gung Ho, the Original and the Resolute versions.

It's not the Resolute version, it's the JvC version. Got them during the event.

GUNG-HO (v8), YOJOE.COM | YoJoe.com: Dedicated to the G.I.Joe of the 80's, 90's and beyond! (http://www.yojoe.com/action/02/gungho8.shtml)


Promoting Hector is only good to use the new R as a feeder for skill leveling. It will get at least a full point in upgrade.

I will break it down as simply as possible.

I have a rare cobra commander. He has 1 filled star, and 3 empty ones. I have one uncommon sigma six commander who was 1 full star and 1 empty star.

I can not use the UC CC to promote the rare.

There are lots of star available. I don't know where the disconnect in coming from here.

I'm not talking about the stars. Couldn't even tell you what stars the following cards had. I do know I used enough UC QKs to max out the R QK (so I estimate R was 1 star).

I used a couple UC Quick Kicks into a Rare Quick Kick and got an Epic Quick Kick.

Used a couple UC Hectors into a UC Hector and got a Rare Hector.

I don't know the logic is. Because I have had that problem too, but I have also used an uncommon card to promote a Rare. But mostly it seems that commons and uncommons work together and Rare's and Epics work together. But rarely do any of the other mixes.

Maybe the UC to R only works for event cards?



Or it only works if they have similar special attacks?

I know I've seen Fireflys that have different abilities. Maybe that has a lot to do with it?

Ok guys...I am a total noob at this type of game but so far I'm enjoying it. So I apologize if these are stupid questions.
So am I understanding this correctly in that basically C and UC cards are really only of use in "feeding" R and Ep cards to level them up through the "upgrade" option? Then once they are fully maxed out...you use the "promote" option to feed these maxed out cards (of the same character" to get them to EP status? So there is no need to keep C and UC cards?
What is the purpose of the Hector Ramirez cards?
Thanks for the patience guys and if anyone wants to be an ally or trade my ID is L5dXYi...

Hector is really only good as a feeder card, used to "upgrade" into another to raise the special skills. Hector raises the skill alot more then normal UC or R cards do.


C and UC are good as feeder cards to "upgrade" and raise the special attack skills. Really, it's the only way you'll raise the skill. Upgrading for the special skill, the card type doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be same character to same character but I do believe (maybe) that there is more skill gains doing same character.

Hector is really only good as a feeder card, used to "upgrade" into another to raise the special skills. Hector raises the skill alot more then normal UC or R cards do.


C and UC are good as feeder cards to "upgrade" and raise the special attack skills. Really, it's the only way you'll raise the skill. Upgrading for the special skill, the card type doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be same character to same character but I do believe (maybe) that there is more skill gains doing same character.

Thanks for the reply, man. So basically I should go ahead and feed all my C and UC and all I should really have in my collection are R and EP (or special UC with 4 stars), right?
So my next question is...can you "fill in" stars by gaining experience points or only through promotions? Because the chances of my putting money into this are slim lol

The other reason to keep C and UC cards is to promote them to fill the empty spots in your collection.

So my next question is...can you "fill in" stars by gaining experience points or only through promotions? Because the chances of my putting money into this are slim lol

Promotion only.

Where do you put in user IDs to get Stormshadows?

But can still use those UC to Promote a Rare though right?

UC promoted/fed to another UC won't make an R but a UC promoted/fed into a R will promote that one.

Not necessarily true... As I've said before it depends on the stars. If the Uncommon has 4 possible stars, then the last 2 are Rare. If a rare has 4 possible stars the last 2 are Epic.

eg if you have a 1 star Barricade. and you promote him twice with 1 star barricades then you get a 3 star rare barricade....

I got a 4 star rare barricade with 4 1 star UC barricades.

Take 4, 1 star rare Zartan's and you'll get a 4 star Epic Zartan.

If they have 2 stars then they usually stay within their rarity category. Unless it's like Capt Grid Iron whose 1 star is a common but his 2 star is an uncommon. 4 stars will always cross rarity categories, 2 in one 2 in the next up.

Not necessarily true... As I've said before it depends on the stars. If the Uncommon has 4 possible stars, then the last 2 are Rare. If a rare has 4 possible stars the last 2 are Epic.

eg if you have a 1 star Barricade. and you promote him twice with 1 star barricades then you get a 3 star rare barricade....

I got a 4 star rare barricade with 4 1 star UC barricades.

Take 4, 1 star rare Zartan's and you'll get a 4 star Epic Zartan.

If they have 2 stars then they usually stay within their rarity category. Unless it's like Capt Grid Iron whose 1 star is a common but his 2 star is an uncommon. 4 stars will always cross rarity categories, 2 in one 2 in the next up.

So what happens if you put a UC 2 star (both filled) Quick Kick into a R 4 star Quick kick (with one star filled)?

Also...does anyone know how to "exchange" (trade)?

So what happens if you put a UC 2 star (both filled) Quick Kick into a R 4 star Quick kick (with one star filled)?

Also...does anyone know how to "exchange" (trade)?

I think it would make a R 4 QK with 2 stars filled and 10% of the UC's stats.



Exchange isn't running yet. Assumption is that will allow you to exchange cards between people in your ally list (at least).

You can't. The 2 star filled Quick Kick won't show up in the promotion screen.

You can't trade... Yet... They may add that feature... We'll see.

Also I now know what almost all of the cards are. There are only 26 unknown to me. I have 217/275, I extrapolated or saw the rest on someone else's profile. There are a bunch that have not been revealed yet.

So it sounds like a few UC cards can be used to make R cards by promoting, but UC can never be used to promote an R card. I guess that only 4 star C or UC can be promoted/evolve to R or EP.

I wasted a lot of time leveling up a bunch of UC Fireflys to feed into some rare Firefliys. I also tried to promote a 2/4 star card with a 3/4 star card, but that would not work either. They have to have the same rank or the primary has to be higher. No daisy-chain promotions.

I hope there ends up being in-game ways to get more rare or epic cards, since you not only need a lot of rares of one character, you need 1/4 star rares, but you randomly draw rares that have 2 or 3 stars also. Maybe later in the battle simulator? I am still leveling up rares and have not progressed past level 7 of lethal.

So it sounds like a few UC cards can be used to make R cards by promoting, but UC can never be used to promote an R card. I guess that only 4 star C or UC can be promoted/evolve to R or EP.

I wasted a lot of time leveling up a bunch of UC Fireflys to feed into some rare Firefliys. I also tried to promote a 2/4 star card with a 3/4 star card, but that would not work either. They have to have the same rank or the primary has to be higher. No daisy-chain promotions.

I hope there ends up being in-game ways to get more rare or epic cards, since you not only need a lot of rares of one character, you need 1/4 star rares, but you randomly draw rares that have 2 or 3 stars also. Maybe later in the battle simulator? I am still leveling up rares and have not progressed past level 7 of lethal.

I've found that using 10 coins at a time yields better results and actually got two 1/4 rare cards from a 10 coin bronze usage...

I need 6 more Storm Shadows...can anybody help? Username ID is: L5dXYI

Like I said... If the card has 4 possible stars... The first 2 are in it's current class, and the last 2 are in the next class...

Where do you put in user IDs to get Stormshadows?

On the main page if you go to "Info" and scroll down there should be a "3 Days to submit Invite ID"

Anyone remember where the uncommon Cobra commander was a boss? I remember where Intereogator, Overkill, Croc Master and Spirit are, but the others I can't remember off the top of my head.

Anyone remember where the uncommon Cobra commander was a boss? I remember where Intereogator, Overkill, Croc Master and Spirit are, but the others I can't remember off the top of my head.

I haven't made it there yet so I'd be very interested in that myself!

I've found that using 10 coins at a time yields better results and actually got two 1/4 rare cards from a 10 coin bronze usage...

I need 6 more Storm Shadows...can anybody help? Username ID is: L5dXYI

Great tip man! First time I tried it on the bronze level I got a R Zartan. Next 2 didn't help much. But I tried it on a Silver level and got a R Falcon. Then next bronze chance got me another Zartan so I could promote.

Anyone remember where the uncommon Cobra commander was a boss? I remember where Intereogator, Overkill, Croc Master and Spirit are, but the others I can't remember off the top of my head.

The Cobra Commander boss is in the "Boot Camp" where you play as all four Joe leaders against all four Cobra leaders. Most player have gotten the tutorial with Beachhead, Falcon, Chuckles, and Jinx instead.

SO I'm not sure how many of us yojoe-ers are playing this game but I got totally hooked myself. The global warfare even going on now is my first event, and I am working my butt off to try to get at least 4 of the battle armor cobra commanders. I currently got my event ranking down to about 600, so things are looking good! Thank you summer vacation (I'm a teacher).

Can we share around our codes? It would be much cooler to be "allies" with people from this site than random strangers.

Mine is: L8WJ2J

SO I'm not sure how many of us yojoe-ers are playing this game but I got totally hooked myself. The global warfare even going on now is my first event, and I am working my butt off to try to get at least 4 of the battle armor cobra commanders. I currently got my event ranking down to about 600, so things are looking good! Thank you summer vacation (I'm a teacher).

Can we share around our codes? It would be much cooler to be "allies" with people from this site than random strangers.

Mine is: L8WJ2J

you need user names to find each other. the codes only work once. I too am a teacher and have been loving this game on my Summer break... I was #3 for the first event, in the 100's for the second, and right now I'm 42 in this event.

I can't wait until we can trade cards...

check out the interview with the producer of Joe Battleground: YoJoe and GeneralsJoes talk to David Phan, producer of G.I. Joe: Battleground » Generals Joes – A blog about the importance (or unimportance) of little plastic men (http://generalsjoes.com/2013/07/29/yojoe-and-generalsjoes-talk-to-david-phan-producer-of-g-i-joe-battleground/comment-page-1/#comment-383151)

I still just wish there was something Joe about this game. It's not a G.I. Joe game, it's a G.I. Joe-skin game. But nothing about the gameplay says G.I. Joe. It's a trading card game with Joe art.

At least make the maps full of generic troopers with unique characters as bosses at the end. I HATE fighting a squad that has 2 Buzzers or 3 Stalkers.

Well they will be doing comic/story modes from what I've heard. I'm having fun playing.

That's what I'm holding out hope for. Not quite sure how with the gameplay mechanics, but I'm curious.

It's a good time waster.

Got a question, I was leveling up my one star with four possible stars venom to max, then using it as a secondary to promote another one star with four possible venom. I didn't level up the primary at all, but now I'm wondering if his stats would be higher if I had leveled up the primary also.

It doesn't matter about the primary. Only the secondary.

Also if you medal, medal the secondary only until it is fully promoted. Then you can have an 8 card 400 medal evolve.

Thanks :)
So it sounds like the primary is basically considered un leveled when promoting, in other words, only it's starting stats are added to.


It doesn't matter about the primary. Only the secondary.

Also if you medal, medal the secondary only until it is fully promoted. Then you can have an 8 card 400 medal evolve.

The secondary stats get added to the primary. So the secondary needs to be fully promoted with medals to add the most to the primary. Never add medals to the primary until it is fully promoted. That way you can get the biggest benefit. It can make a huge difference in the final stat.

Where are your events? Have a thin hope that I'll be available to visit.. :):)

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How can I find out which are primary cards and secondary cards? (https://vancedmanager.org/)