Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-173.230.168.67-20131130143520/@comment-1855344-20131207200808

Evolution math is based off of the stats from the combined cards, plus a bonus of 5% (each?) if they're maxed. Basically, if you intend to keep and use the resulting card, you want to max it out. You also want to use Arcana Succession if you can. ATK and DEF can be raised later, even on a maxed card, but evolution and amalgamation are the only points you're able to influence the increase in a card's soldier count, which is the most vital stat in the game. Leveling up affects that directly, so evolving without leveling cripples the resulting card.

It doesn't matter if you're just doing it for new cards to add to the gallery (e.g. all N/HN cards, many R cards with crap skills or starting stats, etc), so go ahead and evolve those at lvl 1 if you want.

You mentioned Slimes, so this is important: As a beginner, you do get a number of Metal Slime drops as second sacred treasure rewards, etc. Do NOT use these for speeding up evolutions. Amalgamate them with Gold Girls that drop randomly from Archwitches and then go to Medal Exchange for the resulting Medal Girls. You get 1500 Medals, or 75% of what you'd get from Medaling an SR, which isn't really an option for someone just starting out. Medals let you purchase things like Arcana Succession in the Shop, and also to level the skills of your cards, up to Lvl 10.