Leveling Up "Meta" for Operators ?
bit of background: very new to AK Endfield, about 47 hours, in the past 3.5 weeks. most of my life ive been against gacha games, but also very uneducated on them. It boils down to perceiving micro-transactions as super annoying and slippery slope to spending too much without realizing. i got the "Gacha bug" right at the end of Typhoeus banner period, where i was like "actually i need this cute horned archer girl" and spent many free hours just collecting Oberyl from my low level (Chapter I missions) to be able to convert to pulls.
Anyway, I'm familiar with the following RPGs, E33, Pokemon, Elden Ring, Octopath Traveller. I'm slightly at a "philosophical" fork in the road. is it truly normal to just level up the Operators with items Elementary/Intermediate/Advanced Combat Records quickly rather than through passive combat experience ?
I've mostly been using them to catch up newly acquired operators to the average level ~20. reserving a few for the daily Level Up Operator achievement. I'm getting a feeling i should be using them more to max out as i am running into harder enemy territories ( Exploration 3 )now, but most of my operators are low 20s, apart from the Endmin who is 40. it sure seems like id be fast-forwarding a lot of the grind of course, but also some events challenges start have recommended level of 40 or 60, so i wouldnt get there for a long while.
if more experienced players could provide some pointers and opinions that would be greatly appreciated. thank you.