I started this account in February. I bought Cyrus first as I had a gaping hole in my mage stocks. I am still relying on Cyrus and Valerie now so it was a good investment. If you have a hole and DC spending can fill it I think its worth it as a free player as there are no guarantees you will get anything better soon. Chances to get anything better are rare at best unless you spend some money.

Next I bought Spica. I currently have her at 50CC70 at +1 skill and she is well worth it, even if you have other archers like Shao. I want to make Spica a perfect awakened unit so I will likely go for an Awakening Fairy or two next, then another Spica for that guaranteed -1CR.

Saki isn't even on my radar as I got lucky early on and pulled Hina.

A big hurdle to Awakening I'm finding is beating the EX maps that drop the orbs. As a free player that 90 charisma hit for losing stings as I can't grind out on them. Plus the archer map being on Gold/platy farm day makes me very reluctant to waste resources I should use on that.

That said I do have a Heavy Armour orb (or whatever they are called) so I can do Bernice if I ever get the silver/gold unit resources. Where Spica I almost have enough gold/silver resources but the 2 orbs are so far away as I'm nowhere near close to beating the map to get them - long story short I lack the second tank needed to do it.

A lot relies on how your army is developed, what units you were lucky enough to get and where your strengths and weaknesses like in beating the awakening orb maps. Plus you can get helped or screwed when farming silver units. So many random factors!