To be completely honest with you. Ive seen 100% F2P individuals compete fairly well. I'm a spender, not as heavy now, but there are people who haven't spent a dime who can go with some of the best in my server. You have to understand that these power items aren't exclusive to paying players. Yes, it'll take you a little while to get things but if you play it smart, you'll be just fine. Most people across both spectrums, don't wait for rebates, or spend foolishly. A perfect example of this would be a f2p dropping all their coups in lucky * because they see Kushina, who has no value pvp wise. Arena is literally the only place shes useful unless you star upgrade her. For BOTH of the player bases, when you spend on CHANCE that's when you lose your money's worth. Spend on sure things, like clothing, discounted mags, key packs...etc. You do that an youll be fine. As for characters, I will tell anybody the same thing, hit 60k or 65k and then start going for them. I say this simply because of how expensive it gets to power up at that point. "But the newer characters are stronger," sure in some instances but not impossible to beat with a Kage ninja or Jin. If you don't think this is possibl AmAScrub has a forum post of him/her hitting 70k, 100% F2P alt account, and getting the battle armor for doing so...check out that post.