When to Lock Recruitment in Invincible: Guarding the Globe

Lock your recruitment board in Invincible: Guarding the Globe only when it contains at least two Elite heroes or a critical core carry you actively build, and only if you can realistically secure the Hero Dossiers or Gems to buy them within a few hours.

Tapping the padlock icon pauses the automatic shop timer, keeping the current five-hero lineup from rotating out. However, pausing the timer prevents free shop refreshes from cycling in. Leaving a board locked for extended periods halts your shop progression and wastes opportunities to encounter new heroes.

How the Shop Lock Mechanic Works

The standard recruitment shop displays five heroes that refresh automatically on a set countdown. Activating the lock preserves those exact five cards until you manually unlock the shop or purchase them.

Key operational rules of the lock include:

• Selective Purchasing: You can pull individual cards while the board remains locked. The remaining slots stay frozen in place.
• Timer Freezing: The countdown timer halts entirely. It will not tick down to zero or trigger an automatic lineup wipe while the lock is active.
• Opportunity Cost: While the shop is locked, you receive no passive rotations. Every missed refresh denies you new free hero rolls and slows your Recruitment Shop leveling, which requires hero purchases to improve baseline Elite drop rates over time.

When to Lock vs. When to Let the Board Rotate

Because locking halts account momentum, do not lock for single fodder units or common Elite defenders. Evaluate the board against these conditions before toggling the lock:

If you roll a single Elite that you do not urgently need for rank promotions, let the timer expire naturally. Saving one standard unit is not worth losing multiple free shop resets.

How to Clear a Locked Board Quickly

Never lock a board if your resources are empty and your campaign progress is completely stuck. Before you press the lock button, verify that you have fast, reliable methods to collect Hero Dossiers or Gems:

1. Check GDA Ops Timers: Verify if active operations, such as Downtown Destruction or faction-specific missions, are set to finish soon with Dossier or Gem payouts.
2. Review Daily and Weekly Milestones: Check quest trackers to see if completing minor tasks—such as lab nodes or arena battles—will trigger an immediate currency milestone.
3. Push Campaign or Cecil’s Nightmares: If you are one or two stages away from a milestone reward chest containing recruitment currency, clear those stages to fund the pull.

Once you purchase your target Elite, unlock the shop immediately. Do not leave the timer frozen to gather lower-tier rare or common units remaining on the board.

Locking on Limited Event Banners

Limited-time recruitment banners feature separate timers and use dedicated event currencies. Locking on an event banner is often worthwhile because promotional units are available only for a narrow window.

However, shop locks do not override event expiration dates. If an event ends while your banner is locked, the entire event interface closes, discarding the board and converting unspent event currency. Always unlock or spend down your pulls before the master event countdown reaches zero.