"How do I raise my Power Rating?"

This is a question that I'm often asked, especially by players whose power rating (PR) is around 100-150k PR.  There's a stumbling block at this point where it becomes difficult to improve enough to be able to join stronger troops and join in the remainder of the game (being able to defeat Mortimer, play crystal raids or to do well in events).  The challenge though is that all of the methods below are likely to take some time to achieve.  Be patient, it will happen. :)

Be aware that monsters with high health tend to give you a better power rating than high attack monsters. For that reason, your power rating alone may not be a good indicator of your team's strength.

The Quick Way - Spending

Save up free gold from tapjoy or supersonic offers, or buy gold in the game with real money, to use on ultimate, lucky, or event spins.  This is an extremely risky gamble as you may only receive a special or a rare for your 50 gold.  Ultimate spins are available in the store, but can also be won as prizes in events.  Event spins will also appear in the store during an event.  Lucky spins give you three times the (very small) chance of winning an epic and these offers appear randomly during game play around the map or in the event areas (gives you a chance of winning event monsters too).  Some event monsters have higher trade value than others - Dominion is currently the highest valued, and raid events or Celestial Towers event monsters have the lowest value as these monsters don't gain an event bonus after the current event ends.

Note: Once you spend in the game, you will no longer see the free chests that you have been used to finding.  The "first time gold sale" that offers an elite spin and costume will only be available once.  If your first spend is a different/higher amount, you'll never have this chance again.  (The elite spin will guarantee you a super at worst).  Every time you spend at a higher level, the current package won't be available and the game will expect you to spend at the next highest level in order to gain those extra items.

Zodiac Matching

Once four or five monsters in your team have the same zodiac sign, their passive abilities will turn on.  These passive abilities will substantially increase one or two of the stats of your monsters.  As you can imagine, this will automatically raise your power rating significantly.

As far as which zodiac to choose: some people base this choice on their best monster (strongest or highest rarity) and trade their other monsters to match; others choose the zodiac they have the most of so they can turn the passives on as soon as possible; some people simply choose their real life zodiac.

All 5 monsters in my team are matched Sagittarius

Evolve your Monsters

When you click on a monster in your inventory, you'll see a button giving you the opportunity to evolve your monster. To do so, you'll need two identical monsters and four specials. (To evolve some rares, you'll only need to collect specific commons instead of specials).  After you've evolved your monster, you'll have a new monster to feed up from level 1.  The monster that you opened up is the one that will become evolved, and the second monster that's in your inventory will disappear in the evolution.

 Clicking on the Evolve button brings up the second screen for your evolution

Make sure that you feed all of the monsters involved in the evolution up to their maximum level.  This will create a "perfect evolution" where your evolved monster will have the highest possible state.  This may not be as important when you're evolving rares, but if you're evolving a super or above, it's considered essential.  (It's very hard to trade away a monster that isn't perfectly evolved).

If you're able to take part in crystal raids (see below), you'll be able to grow a collection of crystals used for second evolutions, creating an even stronger monster.

Supers from Salvaging Rares

When you receive rares that you don't need, from farming or defeating the daily boss in camp, take them to the salvage station in troop hall. For the price of some stone, you can choose to salvage your rares to gain "rare essence".  The amount of essence received is random and varies between 1 and 7 for unevolved rares. When you have 115 rare essences, you'll be able to craft a super egg.

Click on the Salvage Station to see the monsters you can salvage.

Clicking on a monster will bring up the left screen, press "Salvage" to salvage it

Click on the Crafting tab to see how close you are to crafting an egg 

Supers from Event Tokens

This is the way that I received my first super!  It does take time though.

Event tokens are prizes that drop during raid events at places like River Crossing and Winter Peak (where you fight a mini-boss for event tokens and an event special to donate to a raid boss).  They also drop at a significantly lower rate during Celestial Towers and Arena events.

During these three event types, you can click on the event "Trader" who will have a selection of game items that you can buy with your event tokens.  There is always an option to buy the current event super for 250 event tokens.  This super will have a bonus for the duration of the event, but isn't likely to have a bonus in future events.  Be aware that your super bought this way will start at level 1 and you'll need to feed it up for it to be useful during the event.  The active ability of monsters bought this way is usually set to one ability each event - ask around your troop or Battle Camp Global on facebook to find out what that ability is and whether you want it.  The passive ability will be random.

If you have good patience, try to collect 500 tokens so that you can purchase two event supers at once.  This will give you a better chance of gaining one in your zodiac and also allows you to evolve your monster in the future as these monsters aren't likely to be available again in the game.

Supers from Monster Grabs

As you play the game you will come across a lot of opportunities to win free Monster Grabs.  These come from achievements like story line quests, daily quests, event prizes, raid hall prizes (found at each map area).  Alternatively you can purchase monster grabs for 5 gold, however I wouldn't recommend spending your gold in this manner!

Monster Grabs are spins available in the troop store.  They gives you an opportunity to win commons, uncommons, rare pieces, rares, specials, super pieces and full supers.  Most spins will give you the lesser prizes.  Occasionally you'll be lucky enough to receive a super piece.  I've been playing for close to two years and have only won two full supers from Monster Grabs.  (Edited to add that in the past week I've won another two full supers, one from each of my accounts, so this is likely to be a matter of luck!)

The supers available are generally called "spin monsters" as they're the same monsters that you can win from non-event spins.  These pieces can also be gained from the three methods below.  Keep the super pieces you win and over time you may be able to complete a full monster.  

Supers from Raid Halls

Even though you have previously completed a map area's raid hall in order to move up to the next map area, each 24 hours you are allowed to complete the raid hall again.  The lower bosses give you a chance to win a monster grab (see above) and the last boss will give you a chance to will either a full super or super pieces of the same element as the raid hall, also the same element that has been focused on in that map area.  For example, if you're wanting a chance to win a water super (or pieces thereof) keep playing the raid hall in Turtle Falls.  Make sure you get a hit against the final boss in order to give yourself this chance.

Raid Hall in Turtle Falls

Supers from Troop Raids

This isn't a method that I'd currently recommend as the drop rate for supers is far smaller than that of the raid halls (see above).  Troop raids take place within the troop hall at the horned rock monster with a glowing purple mouth and is labelled "raid" (see below screenshot).  Your troop admins can start a raid here at any time. Click on the raid monster and you'll see a list of available raids. Each is based around one element, and the super (or pieces thereof) will also be of the same element.  Each raid down the list is substantially harder and requires more effort from your troop, however the prizes improve as well.  Prizes will be awarded once you have finished all five sections of each raid - failure to finish a section will mean that you have to start from the beginning again.

Troop Hall Raids 

Supers/Ultras/Epics from Troop Hall Dungeons

In between events, the troop hall dungeon will be open for you to battle.  The type of dungeon will change four hourly and will randomly take one of the elements and one of the rarities (super/ultra/epic) to make 15 different dungeons, plus there is a special dungeon in the rotation too.

The troop hall dungeon is completed individually for 5 energy at a time.  The more times your troop members complete the current dungeon, the higher your "troop rank" will become.  As your troop's ranking increases, the drop rate for the better prizes improves slightly and you may start winning more than 300 stone or element boosters.  Completing the dungeon on the highest difficulty you can manage, the higher the drop rates too.  Be aware that you may need a large inventory in order to collect all of these possible monster pieces!

Crystal Raids

Crystal raids are the easiest way to win full supers in the game.  The challenge is that with a low power rating, you're unlikely to be in a troop that is able to complete crystal raids.  To be able to battle crystal raids, you need to have defeated Mortimer in the Lost Temple map.

Reward Rares and Supers from Event Prizes

By achieving a significant number of trophies in an event, you may reach a prize tier that awards you a "reward rare" or a "reward super". These monsters have an "R" in the top left corner of their picture.  Their active ability has a "+" at the end, indicating that it's stronger than usual. e.g. Snipe+

At low power rating levels, achieving even a reward rare may be challenging.  Some players will spend to gain a higher tier.  Others may save up their energy gifts and possibly collect the free energy available each day from the daily raid boss in camp and the five energy gifts from friends. Over time these accumulations can make a difference in an event. (Battle Royale rewards high energy use, alternatively choose an event in which you have event monsters).

Individual and Troop prize tiers can be seen by clicking the event "E"
on the top left corner of your screen during an event.

Trading for Supers with Maxed Specials

If you keep an eye out on the trading website bcrank.us or on the facebook page "Battle Camp Global Trading", you'll come across trade requests that are offering tier 1 supers (where the passive enhances the active ability the most) or reward supers in exchange for a number of maxed specials of specific elements and ability (potent/charged/energized).  This is a relatively easy method to improve the supers that you have collected so far.

Note that in order to trade a super with maxed specials, you'll need to have a high level of trust in that player as multiple trades are required.  You'll first need to trade your maxed specials for the other players level 1 specials.  You'll then need to trade your worst super for their good super.  The risk is that the other player may take your specials and not give you your good super.  You can gain an idea of how much that player can be trusted by checking their name on bcrank.us.  Enter their player name on the main page and then click the button on their page that shows you their trades.  Under their name at the top of the page you'll be able to see how many "thanks" (thumbs up icon) they've received from being a good trader and how many "flags" they've received from being a bad trader.  I'd suggest finding someone with 10+ thanks and no flags to minimise your risk.

My BCrank page - click on "trades" and then note that I have 106 thanks in orange font in the top left of the right screenshot. If I had flags, they'd be shown in red on the left side of the same line.

Specials can be won through farming around the camp area and sometimes from troop hall dungeons too.  There are a number of ways to max your specials.  Most people feed potents up to level 24 and charged specials up to level 16.  With a feeding booster, feeding one of these specials to another of the same element will immediately max it.  Alternatively, without a feeding booster use two potents (one level 24 and one level 23), or two charged (one level 15 and one level 16), or one changed (level 31).

Zodiac Leveling

Within the Arena, you can speak to a Ranger and unlock a zodiac for yourself.  By donating specific runes (gained from Arena battles) you can gain a zodiac bonus so that all monsters of that zodiac will have their three stats raised slightly.

For more information, please see my Zodiac Leveling post.

Passive Leveling

This is a method that I wouldn't recommend for players in the power rating range that I'm targeting, as you're probably working towards winning better monsters.  When you have a stable team that you're wanting to boost slightly, you can increase the passive level of your monster.  To do so, you'll need to find another monster with the same passive that you don't want.  You can then feed this to your good monster for a chance to raise the passive level.  The percentage chance of it succeeding will depend on the rarity of the monster being fed and decreases as you reach higher levels.  I'd really recommend that players salvage their excess rare monsters instead of using them for passive leveling. (I'd maintain this stance until you're at a point in the game where you have too many supers and no longer appreciate supers gained from salvaging!)

My monster has passive level 5. In this example, feeding another monster that also has the lethal passive gives me a 24% chance of leveling the passive up to level 6.

Equipment

A post about equipment will be coming soon.  As a brief summary, jewels can be found by digging at the dig site. They can then be leveled up at the jewel station in the troop hall.  You can then forge equipment at the forge in troop hall and socket jewels to this equipment.  When your monster is wielding this equipment, it gain a percentage increase to one of its stats based on the level of the jewel socketed.

This Health Collar gives my water monster a 11.25% health boost

Monster Giveaways

Occasionally you may find monster giveaways run by generous players or troops in the Battle Camp Global facebook group.  These giveaways are usually for reward supers - meaning that you'll need to have another super to make the trade.  The requirements are usually quite simple, such as guessing a number.  (A special thank you to Claudie D. who gave me my first reward super in a giveaway a very long time ago!)

The website bcrank.us also runs a weekly giveaway that you will automatically be entered into if you log onto the website daily.

Joining a Super/Ultra Tier Troop

The last alternative that I can offer for gaining better monsters is looking through Battle Camp Global on facebook for Super or Ultra tier troops who are looking for new troopmates who meet special requirements.  These troops will be in the ultra or super tier during an event, meaning that all of their troop members will receive a reward monster of that rarity.  If they have empty places in their troop, they might invite you to join them for that event only, in exchange for a "gift" that you'll provide them.  Most often, troops will invite someone in who is willing to donate a certain level of stone to raise their troop level, or a large number of specials to their troop pet.  During Celestial Towers, troops will be looking for players ("farmers") who have collected a large number of sun or moon emblems that they can use to complete more raids.  During raid events, troops will be looking for players with a large number of event specials that they can use to complete more raids.  Expect to prove that you have these requirements with screenshots of what you have collected so far, and have enough to beat other prospective troop members.