There is only 1 stat that is fondamental in this game, initiative. Owning better init means that you will have more chance to win. If you want to spend your money, probably the best way is to invest in advanced refines.

About ninjas, learn to invest smartly. Some ninjas like kisame 2.0, deidara 2.0, angel konan i.e. are still meta in china, so investing in them will give you more presence in gnw than a random orochimaru akatsuki, edo nagato or similar.

Thanks for the reply!

How do you find out which ninja are worth investing in? I'm guessing it's the sort of thing you need to research rather than be told - since it would depend on main and playstyle, but as far as where - Youtube? These forums? A website?

Try searching for youtube videos that discuss about Chinese server since that's where Naruto Online started. So far to my knowledge, there are Chinese, English, and Spanish people covering that server if you need help with the translations. You may have to figure out which youtubers are the best for you in delivering the content that you are looking at since there are some aren't good, some that aren't willing to help others, and some make videos for their circle of friends. Many have looked at the China server to predict and prepare for what they should be doing on this server in advance.

I can give you a list of my Favorite youtuber more or less active in CN server.

1) This guy is probably the best. He has 2 accounts in the middle of the power chart (200k) in CN. He also uploads the best fights in his Space time. (chinese)

2) She is your P2P, with over 350k power. Definitely not the strongest, but in her matsuri / bond videos you can see what the higher-than-normal power in CN use. (chinese)

3) Not the best nor the one i like most, i think he is one of the best to begin if you have no idea about CN. (english)

4) Just mute the video. He is a low power guy but sometimes his fights are funny. (chinese, mute the video)

5) He is Memo. So a bit between all of the above. (english).

There should be also somewhere in the forum a google doc on early and basic skillbreaks and another one about upcoming ninjas translated (care that there are some errors).

Hey thanks to you both!!!

Adding onto Shryke's comment, here are the google docs there have been circulating in the forums. The second link isn't updated to include the some of the lastest ninjas in 2017 but still has ninjas that our server haven't received.

Skillbooks/Skill breakthrough translations: https://tinyurl.com/ybxy2zkj

Ninjas Translations: https://tinyurl.com/j8q2ew6

If you don't want to spend more than 10-20$ per week (so if you are a player like me), just use your ingots to buy Jonin Medal and renew it once every 5-6 months, buy every month the monthly fee and spend the remaining ingots in try your luck and in 1 more SS convoy per day (if you are able to beat most of the plunders in your server) or in 1 more plunder attempt per day.

That will give you the highest coupons ratio possible.

Remember that investing coupons in a specific feature instead of another one fully depends on your relative levels, in the sense that is not said that using 2000 coupons in a feature instead of another one gives you the same outcome, but you can come here and ask us what is better for you to do step by step.

About your question: Yes, power overcome p2w ninjas. You can consider a p2w ninja like having a 10-15% advantage in power. In the sense, if you face a guy with p2w ninjas that is 50k power, usually with common meta teams at 60k power you own him (if you own initiative). Consider also that more or less every team has a specific counter team that can beat it with 20% less power and without initiative too.

Power will only beat p2w ninjas if you have like 15-20k bp advantage otherwise paid ninjas have extremely high growth rates compared to what's in the in-game shops. I myself breeze through ST on extreme difficulty because 90% of the teams there have 60-70k bp but they don't have many rare ninjas. That said however you can still make a good rare ninja team by just being f2p. There's many cheap good paid ninjas like sailor sakura Kushina and some commons from the new gnw treasure are very good too. If you have been playing for 6-7 months and don't have a single rare then you either haven't been doing wars or they aren't giving you enough packs. for 6-7 months if you started on a new server you can collect up to 300-350 seal scrolls total as f2p if you don't focus much on power (that's a ton of rare ninjas), after that you can power up while enjoying the game too even if you have low power bonds arena and gnw are always more balanced and you will have more fun there.

there are 2 konans, the one in china is a paid ninja I think.